We started the day with 170 miles to go. But, this was not the idyllic, easy
going, fast, last full day at sea that we had hoped for. Quite the opposite.
It started with a squall coinciding with our 0600 watch chain. Not extreme, not even that bad as squalls go, but truly annoying. The wind still reached the upper twenties. The rain was short lived but absolutely torrential. It was then followed by a massive wind shift, and the wind disappearing. The next phase is equally annoying as we wallow around in the waves, sails banging, seeking to follow the wind back round again and get back on course. Very difficult in virtually no wind. Then it fills in again and off we go. This time the wind only got back up to twelve knots, or thereabouts, but that gave us a nice gentle sail in much calmer seas. To add to the mix we were experiencing a cross current knocking us 15 degrees off course. We were 65 nm south east of Barbados.
The next squall arrived at 1120 and we went through the same routine. This time we feared the wind was not going to come back afterwards. For two hours we had less than ten knots of breeze and it swung between 126 degrees and 55 in direction. Going was very very slow. We no longer had to worry about arriving off Grenada early the next morning, in the dark, which would not match the requirement of getting the ballooner down before we round the south of the island. We were determined not to spoil our record and switch on the engine, but the banging sails did worry us as to whether the wallowing around would cause any boat damage, particularly to the rig as it was repeatedly snatched.
As we finished lunch we were back in 14 knots of wind, from the right direction, and progress was okay. But we had black cloud squalls all around us, and the sea was no longer bright blue under them. We were pre-occupied with watching conditions and waiting for a squall to hit us. That happened at 1600, and it was a Big One, lasting thirty minutes or so.
After that the air cleared a little and we sailed along nicely for the rest of the day and into the night. Slow though, in light winds. Put the radar on to pick up squall activity in the dark.
After dark the wind picked up and it turned into a very pleasant night sail in quite calm seas. Up until midnight was a little lighter due to the moon, but it was pitch black after that. The boat was going nicely and it turned out to be an enjoyable last nights sail without squalls. But those had “cost us” - our days run was down to 137 nm, 134 closer to Grenada. But the average speed surprised us at 5.7 knots. Quite good for us, so maybe there had not been as much wallowing as we thought….
At 0450 David was able to make out the glow of lights over Grenada, some 30 miles ahead. He could pick out individual lights with the binoculars. Tomorrow will still be Arrival Day.