Our Weekend Sail to Union Island &Tobago Cays

About a month ago, Scott & I had an opportunity to go on a weekend sailing trip with our good friends Barbara & Dave on their sailboat, Aloisious. It was a holiday weekend here in Grenada, so we planned to leave early Friday morning (Oct. 23) and return Monday night, the 26th. This was to be the first overnight trip for them on Aloisious, so we planned to travel with 2 other sailboats.

We made arrangements for a friend to feed our parrots for the weekend. Then ended up heading down to the lagoon (near the yacht club) and slept on the boat Thursday night. Aloisius has 2 cabins... one in the front, and one in back. There's a bathroom (head) on board, with shower... but we planned to shower ashore when we got to Union Island. We brought bagels for breakfast, lunch meat, PB&J for sandwiches, and BBQ chicken for meals, and planned to eat a few meals ashore as well.

On Friday morning, we waved to our friends as their boat "Seaduction" headed out (around 4 am). We were in preparation to pull up the anchor, but didn't actually get going till around 5:00. We were barely out of the harbor when Barbara (from below deck) called up and said "there's water all over the floor down here! Sure enough... when I looked down, there was water sloshing around on the floor! Now, Scott & I really know NOTHING about sailing, so unless they gave us specific instructions... our function on this trip was primarily "moral support"! So I go below deck to offer some of my moral support! (I also intended to gauge the level of panic on her face, so I could decide if this was a "jump ship now" moment... while we're still within sight of shore!) The bilge was full of water, and the pump seemed to be working to pump it out... but not nearly fast enough. We were able to determine that the water was coming from the fresh water tank (and not the sea!), but it seemed to be gushing from the side of the boat. The problem was solved by turning off the pump to the tank (which stopped the water leak), then cleaning out the filter on the bilge pump (which increased the suction on pumping out the water below the floor. Of course, by this time we had no idea how much fresh water was left in the tank!

The rest of the morning's sail was pretty uneventful... we just enjoyed the view of Grenada's coastline as we sailed north toward Union Island. Along the way we kept an eye out for our friends on Seaduction, but they were at least an hour ahead of us. We expected the trip to take about 8 hours, and we planned to get

into the harbor and anchored before dark. Just after we reached the northernmost part of Grenada we noticed some buoys in the water directly ahead. Assuming this was probably someone's fishing net, we quickly turned the boat so we could sail around it... but the buoys seemed to go on forever! Instead of going north toward our destination, we were sailing east for nearly a half hour... looking for the end of this line! Finally we made it around and were once again on our way!

While under full sail, we pretty much had to stay wherever we were seated... the up & down motion of the sea was a bit like riding a horse! Barbara had to strap herself to the counter below while trying to make our sandwiches for lunch! (Note: Next time we'll make the sandwiches before we leave!) During the afternoon, we all seemed to get in a groove of riding the waves and enjoying the ride. Then one of us noticed a dolphin jumping out of the water nearby... then 2... then 5... then more! There must have been a pod of about 20 dolphins swimming with us for about 15 minutes! They swam along side us and underneath! They jumped out of the water in pairs and sometimes as many as 4 or 5 would jump together. They really seemed to be showing off for us! It was such a wonderful bonus! (Of course, because the water was splashing up while we were sailing, I kept my good camera below deck and only had my point-n-shoot on me at the time. I kept trying to aim at the dolphins to get the photos, but I couldn't see my screen because of the bright sunshine! So I had no idea if they were in my view or not!)

When we got to Union Island, we put down the anchor & then took the dinghy to shore to check in with Customs & Immigration. Seaduction was already there, and I believe the 3rd boat in our group had arrived as well. We decided to get showers at the yacht club, then hook up with our friends and have dinner ashore.

But for now I'll leave you... to continue this long story on another day!