Karl & Kara Go Sailing

Friday 31 st July, Port Louis Marina, St. George's, Grenada. Well now just because we haven't been crossing oceans in the last few weeks doesn't mean there hasn't been any excitement. Talk about ups and downs, it's enough to make you want to flee back to sea where life is simple. Facing the awful PCR swabs. So the first spanner in the works was...now what shall we call it...a “technical issue” with Karl's PCR test meaning we might be stuck in quarantine for an indefinite period and I was in danger of missing my flight back to Australia. We decided this was worth going into battle over and after a brief but concentrated campaign Karl was allowed to repeat the test. Meanwhile we enjoyed the lovely quarantine anchorage, caught up on sleep and tried (with only moderate success) to let the fact sink in that we we'd made it all the way to the Caribbean.  Anchored between St. George's and Grand Anse Then, just when there seemed to be a light at the end of the...

Wednesday 3 rd June, in the middle of the South Atlantic, one week out of St. Helena. Disaster! One week into the transatlantic trip and we lost a sail this morning. We've been in light winds most of the time so have had our beautiful colourful MPS (like a spinnaker), Gayboy, flying and pulling us along at fabulous speeds (I've seen the instruments claim we're doing 7 knots in 6 knots apparent of wind) for the conditions. This morning there were lots of squalls around but the overall forecast was for winds up to 15 knots so we (foolishly) decided to leave the sail up. Then in a squall Rover's steering wasn't quite up to it, the boat heeled and the clew of the MPS dragged in the water ripping the bottom strip most of the way along the foot. Panic stations!!! Not fun. Not fun at all. Thankfully we retrieved the sail without further damage to it, the boat or ourselves. So now we're back to the old fashioned poled-out genoa. Lesson learned (won't f...