November 17th, 2009 - Passage from Trinidad to Grenada

Current location 11 43.804N 061 38.443W

We are now 20nm off Grenada, coffee is brewing, 15 knts of wind, sun is up and life is good. After 3 months in Trinidad it is good to be moving again. although preparing to leave took much longer than we wanted it to. Left in the dark around 8:00 pm

We had a good overnight passage, AIS took some of the stress out of the moderately heavy shipping traffic around Trinidad.

Test Post from Airmail

This is a test post from S.V Bristol Rose

Almost Done

The 2009 Hurricane season officially finishes at the end of November however, our insurance company provides coverage within the hurricane box after November 1st.

Bristol Rose will splash on Friday 30th of October. New Sail Covers will be fitted on Saturday and we will take delivery of a cruising spinnaker on Monday.

A shake down cruise to Chacachacare and we will be ready to head north to pick up Owen and Elliot in Grenada on the 19th November.

Power Boats

Bristol Rose is currently in slip C9 at Power Boats yard Chaguaramas.
She will haul on Monday 26th October and our plan is to head back to Grenada early November.

So what have we done this hurricane season

• New Batteries
• New Anchor Chain
• New B-B-Q
• New Cruising spinnaker
• replace main and mizzen sail covers
• Re done the Bright work
• New Cockpit table
• Bottom Paint
• New Cockpit shade covers
• Re Build macerator pumps
• move the TV and reclaimed a cupboard
• Replaced the Microwave with a cupboard
• Replaced 4 man life raft with a 6 person raft
• Upgrade safety equipment

Tuesday 18th August, 2009 - Grenada to Trinidad

UPDATE: Arrived in Charuaramas. Trinidad around 9:00am after leaving CCB at 6:00pm. Great sail for the first half of the passage, beam reach, travelling 7-8 kts. Second half the winds died and had to motor to Trinidad. Picked up the trash line at 10 miles out. Real shame to see so much trash at sea.

Winds forecast for 10knts, seas 5 ft with 8 second interval. clear skys should make for a good nights sail to trinidad approx 80 nm or 16 hrs.

Plan to leave Tuesday afternoon and arrive Wednesday morning.

We will stay in Trinidad and get our maintenance work complete and ready for Pacific Crossing.

Storm Watch

Update: Invest 90 is now known as TS Bill. Looks like it will pass north of us and will become a Hurricane on Monday. We now have 3 more storm systems in the Atlantic, total of 5 active systems. getting busy! We plan to move onto Trinidad on Monday night.

Invest 99, became TD 2 and this morning NOAA named it Tropical Storm ANA. Ana is forecast to pass to our north. Invest 90 is still of concern and could well become another named strom.

UPDATE: Invest 90 now has a high probability(>50%) of becoming a tropical huricane in the next 48 hrs.

Update: getting busy out here. TD2 looks like it wont amount to much and will pass north of us. Invest 90 is now being tracked. Early days but will monitor situation. We are past due for a named storm in the atlantic.

Maybe, just maybe Invest 99 will amount to a named storm. The good news for all is that if it does develop it will keep out of harms way.

Storm Watch

Update: Nothing developed.

We are still to see our first named storm for the season. Could this be it? Click Here and here

Plan:
Montor situation every 4 hrs
Prepare boat for departure