Continued Travels of the Passagemaker
By Peter Quentrall-Thomas Published: 15/01/2010
Well I finally started on my epic Caribbean circumnavigation by leaving a day early, something unheard of in yachtie circles! The overnight passage to Grenada was pretty smooth, no need for the "flopper stoppers" and no sign of any Somalian pirates from neighboring Venezuela. It also gave us a chance to see if reducing the rpm of the engine made a big difference to fuel consumption. Normally I would burn 2 galls an hour at 1700 rpm making between 5 and 6 knots. By slowing the speed down to between 4 and 5 knots the engine rpm was able to drop to 1200 rpm and amazingly the fuel consumption per hour was almost halved!
I was also fortunate to have as my crew Louise, a 33 year old Biology scientist who is sailing round the world with her fiance. Why a crew when I'm used to sailing on my own you may ask? With traditional PQT luck I had to have some serious surgery on my prostate (not cancer) just 5 days before I left, so Louise volunteered to come with me for the first few weeks when I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting etc. So my surgery ended up with me having the company of a crazy scientist who keeps wanting to run ashore searching for lizards!
Today we pick up two friends who will sail the next week with us in the Grenadines, one of the most spectacular sailing destinations on the face of the earth with turquoise waters and tiny palm tree, white sand islands. Straight out of the tourist brochure but only accessible by yachts.
Got to go now to clear immigration.
Happy Sailing...Peter & The Passagemaker
