First Island Change!

Location: Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou

You'd think that 11 years of sailing would give you at least some immunity to seasickness. 

I survived my first sea crossing, but just barely. We went up the east coast of Grenada, thinking that after we turned northwards we'd have a beautiful crosswind which would allow us to sail up to Carriacou. Instead, we motored up against a headwind, current, and 2-meter-high swells. I tried to nap off the feeling that my stomach was turning inside-out, but it only got worse so I spent five hours sitting on the top deck. I burnt my legs and lost my hat, but at least the seasickness went away. We were able to get the genoa (headsail) up for an hour or so towards the end, which was quite nice. Then it started to rain, and we did the whole mooring process (pulling various lines through an unwieldy mooring ball and getting a few fingers pinched) in a rainstorm. So that was fun. 

On the bright side, we had some excellent cold pizza, and Jem lent me one of his hats. Also, we're surrounded by hills, water so clear that you can see the bottom, and boats of all shapes and sizes, including a strange little schooner whose front mast is square-rigged.

Before I forget, here's a fun fact for my sailing friends. Because of their width, catamarans don't actually need keels. Some have retractable daggerboards.

Today we drove the dinghy to get a SIM card for the next few islands, as cushy wifi-filled marinas will mostly be a thing of the past. I bought my SIM card in a corner store that was essentially wooden box slightly smaller than a shipping crate. It took half an hour, three people, and a phone call to get it to work, plus the hour that it took to load. The card plus 1GB of data cost me $7.50 CAD, my sunscreen (lost due to sweat), my good mood, and 50% of my will to live. The other 50% was lost when we walked for way too long along a muddy, sidewalk-less road to get to the COVID testing clinic (needed for our passage to the next islands) only to find out that they only did tests on Mondays and Wednesdays at 1pm. I luckily regained my energy and overall happiness upon eating pancakes.

I washed my hair last night by dumping a mixing bowl's worth of rainwater on my head. It went great and my hair is clean, but the amount of rust on the bowl was slightly disconcerting once I put my glasses back on. Today's afternoon plan is to go grocery shopping (the list includes steel wool to take off the rust), grill some freshly-caught snapper sold to us by a dinghy guy called Simon, and listen to some live music at the local bar. Not sure if all that will happen; things here have the tendency of being delayed. I now leave you with a nice boat picture.