12.23.2021-12.26.2021 Our First Passage (Grenada to USVI)

Prior to departure on our first passage, we had to checkout of customs and immigration in Grenada. We thought we could do so at Prickly Bay, but due to COVID, the only checkout port is Port Louis. We ended up motoring back to Port Louis on 12.22.2021 and moored for the night.

In preparation for our passage, Mike also equipped our boat with jacklines that we could attach our lifelines to. Jacklines are lines that run along the boat as a safety precaution. While on passage, it's customary to wear a harness with a lifeline attached (line that keeps you connected to the boat in the event of a man-overboard). As you move about the boat while underway, you always keep your lifeline attacked to a jackline.

We then dinghied back to Port Louis to clear customs and immigration. We also sent our float plan to my parents and our friend Eric. A float plan is another safety measure that includes all the pertinent information about you and your boat to someone on land. A float plan is most indicated for passages (not day-sails) to let those on land know where you expect to be and when you expect to arrive at your destination. It includes information such as-

• written description of boat

• photos of boat

• photos of crew (us & Ollie!)

• Safety equipment

  • US Coast Guard registration information

  • VHF radio call sign

  • MMSI number (maritime mobile service identity) and AIS number (automatic identification system)

• Expected route, including-

  • port of departure

  • time of departure

  • port of arrival

  • estimated time of arrival

  • destination waypoint coordinates (if applicable)

• Communication/check-in plan

Lastly, we setup our IridiumGo satellite phone. This is our primary method of communication (besides VHF radio) while underway. As part of our float plan, we checked in with our people daily at 2:00pm EST. In the event our land people didn't hear from us, they had all the information in the float plan to contact the U.S. Coast Guard or other appropriate agency to initiate search and rescue.

We departed around 10:00am EST to leave Grenada. Our passage route was for 434NM and estimated it would take 2 days 22 hours if we averaged 6 knots of speed. If we couldn't maintain at least 6 knots with the sails, we would use the engines to motor-sail and maintain our course.

Day 1: 12.23-12.24

Our first day was pretty perfect conditions. We had wind speeds averaging 12-20 knots and our average boat speed was 6-9 knots. Based on the wind direction, our plan was to stay on the point of sail of a beam reach.

We had about 8 hours of daylight prior to sunset and our first night watch. From our research in the cruisers forums, the most common night watch schedule is in 3-hour intervals, so that's what we planned to do (6pm-9pm, 9pm-12am, 12am-3am, 3am-6am). I took the first watch which was a little nerve-wracking, but not nearly as it was during our night sail drill with Captain Andy. It was different this time because we were already out in open ocean and we already had the sails up. We are fortunate to have radar as part of electronic setup, which eases anxiety of not seeing something in time.

It was absolutely stunning to watch the stars come out and moonrise!!

We were able to mostly stick to our night watch schedule, and the first night was very uneventful - we saw no other boats, the wind direction and point of sail maintained, and we were able to maintain our speed at 6-8 knots.

Day 2: 12.24-12.25

During the day, we both stayed up at the helm. It was another ideal day for sailing with wind speeds averaging 12-18 knots and no bad weather. We didn't need to use the engines as we were still able to average 6-8 knots with the sails!

In the morning, we saw our first other boat, a 955-foot tanker. They were within 8-10NM of us so we decides to radio them to wish them happy holidays - which they responded with and wished us the same! We also had an abundance of legitimate flying fish jumping and flying all around our bow - we had 4 casualties who landed on the trampolines.

At the 24-hour mark of our passage, we'd sailed 191NM with 233NM to go :)

Our day watch was otherwise uneventful :)

Today, Mike took the first night watch, and he saw a 550-foot container ship on radar.

Day 3: 12.25-12.26

At sunrise, we realized that because we'd been averaging faster boat speed, our new estimated time of arrival in St. Thomas would be 1-3am EST (about 8 hours ahead of our route estimate). This isn't ideal because we'd be arriving in the dark which makes it much more challenging to anchor on arrival. We decided to modify our course - instead of sailing along the east coast of St. Croix, we detoured to sail around the west coast. The added about 25NM to our passage and 5-6 hours of time so that we could arrive in daylight. Due to this change, we updated our land people during our daily check-in :)

We continued to have great weather and wind conditions! Around midday, Mike put out a fishing line to see if we could catch anything, but had no luck :(

In preparation for our arrival in St. Thomas, we had to take down our courtesy Grenada flag and put up our quarantine flag. A quarantine flag is a plain, yellow flag that designates the international signal that the ship hasn't been cleared by customs and immigration. Due to calm seas and stable wind, Mike was able to do this while underway.

At the 48-hour mark of our passage, we'd sailed 348NM with 97NM to go :)

Around sunset, we were able to get our first visual of St. Croix on the horizon! I took the first night watch shift. On Mike's first shift, he was able to adjust the sails to bear way to the west coast of St. Croix. As I came on my second shift, we decided to take down the sails and motor the remainder of the distance because we were still at a faster boat speed than we estimated.

By sunrise, we were approaching St. Thomas!

Due to COVID, there is only one port for customs and immigration check-in, so we anchored at Charlotte Amalie. We then took the dinghy over with all our papers (checkout paperwork from Grenada, passports, COVID vaccine records, COVID tests, USVI traveler screening approval) to the office. The check-in process took about 30 minutes and was very easy!

Once we were cleared, we were able to replace our quarantine flag with our USVI courtesy flag! We then took much needed hot showers, did dishes, did a load of laundry, went ashore for groceries (and hit the gluten-free jackpot!), and tidied up around the boat.

360-view of Charlotte Amalie Bay

Being back in US waters means more reliable internet, so we took full advantage - Mike did some pre-work of planning a sailing itinerary for this week (going to different anchorages between St. Thomas and St. John) and I got to update our blog :)

Our total passage route ended up being 428NM over 2 days and 20 hours! We did a debrief together about the experience and both agreed this was the perfect first passage :) We ensured we had a good weather window with ideal wind and weather conditions, had all our safety precautions in place, and were able to work together for the night watches. After doing this passage, we're (mostly me) feeling more confident in our passage planning to get back to Florida, which will be sometime mid-April to early-May.