Ahoy!

I recently returned from a week of sailing in the Grenadines and Grenada. It wasn't as sunny as we expected and there were rain showers almost every day, but I actually think I liked that. Many of us on the boat were working on our Advanced Coastal Cruising Certification and having to sail in strong, gusty winds and rain was good practice. Also, it can get uncomfortably hot in the Caribbean and we didn't have too much of that. I'm happy to say that everyone on the boat passed the exam and earned their ACC!

Here's the rundown from my sailing log. Our vessel was a 50 foot Beneteau named "Myrtle". She treated us well and got us to our destinations safely:

• Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent to Prickly Bay, Grenada. 85 NM (Nautical Miles) This was an overnight sail for us to earn the ACC. There was no moonlight and very little view of the horizon, so everyone felt sick. Some launched their dinners over the lifelines. We were 5 miles offshore for most of the sail and very little light pollution so the view of the stars was absolutely incredible.


• Prickly Bay, Grenada to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou. 48 NM.


• Tyrell Bay, Carriacou to Clifton, Union Island. 10 NM.


• Clifton, Union Island to Tobago Cays. This is only 4 NM but we took the long was around and spent a lot of time practicing anchoring with two anchors. The rest of the Manhattan Sailing Club was in Tobago Cays so we spent the night partying with them, then stayed up until 2am taking the ACC written exam


• Tobago Cays to Admiralty Bay, Bequia. 26 NM. Bequia was one of the more developed islands we visted in the Grenadines. Multiple hotels, lots of good restaurants and shops. If you have a chance to visit and are craving something that reminds you of NYC, try the lobster pizza at Mac's Pizza. Delish.


• Admiralty Bay, Bequia to Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent. 8 NM. It felt good to take a shower on land.

Feel free to check out the trip photos. There are also several overlays from our GPS on Google Earth if you want to see the sailing routes we took.