To quote Chris: ‘Well, it was an adventure’. These are Warrell Words – rose-tinted restraint, laced with courage capsules. The cocktail? Take a 3 metre cross swell; add a sprinkle of rain squalls; mix in 25 knots on a tight reach; throw in a water-maker hiccup, and then stir with a coolant leak in the port donk.
Of course, it is never quite that grim. We sorted the engine in a few minutes after finding a loose coolant drain-plug in the bilge. We reversed the bushes on the water maker input pump and made the thing work, though with slightly salty water – salty enough to turn it off, but we had plenty in the tank. Meanwhile cabin-boy Chris regaled wide-eyed Wayne and the incredulous captain with stories of how he survived in the outback on three teaspoons of water per day. Or something.
Other memories? Glorious full-moon lit sailing, with rainstorms silhouetted in the night sky; boy-racer Wayne eking out another knot in the small hours of the morning; the cabin boy prancing around the foredeck water-divining (ok, you had to be there); King Neptune’s visit (yep, you had to be there, or, you could look at the video…); some fast sailing; a truly magnificent landfall at dawn.
Finally, flat water, a gorgeous harbour and super yachts everywhere. Welcome to Grenada! And there were the girls, doing some dock-dancing…
Here’s the video. Don’t forget to turn up the music first!
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