Land Ho!

After 1696 nautical miles and 236 hours (but who’s counting?!?), we made it to Grenada from Fortaleza! Our speed was unexpectedly boosted the last 1-2 days by Tropical Storm Kirk to our northeast, and we made it in earlier than expected.

The start of the trip was rough again, with a couple of sleepless nights due to rough seas and wind – as the girls and I snuggled to try to fall asleep, we joked that Brazil / South America was reaching out her arms to try to pull us back in! But the seas smoothed out, we got the expected wind and waves from behind, and we settled into a new normal.

The girls and I were excited yesterday to wake up to the news that we would be in Grenada by early morning rather than afternoon. Ted and I were curious if what people had told us was true, if we would notice the smell of land even before seeing much of it, and sure enough there was a definitive point at which the briny, fresh sea smell changed to an earthier smell. Our first view of Grenada thrilled us all, and as we drew closer we were greeted by the bright Caribbean colors unique to this part of the world.

The girls got to use our yellow quarantine flag for the first time (raised when you enter a new country, before clearing through customs), and we pulled out our Grenadine flag that we raised once Ohana was ‘officially’ here. We were surprisingly happy to be connected to the outside world again. Still haven’t made it through all of the emails, though!

And what 4-week journey over 3300 miles and 21 days at sea wouldn’t be complete with a champagne toast? The girls got the champagne glasses but with sparkling soda inside, much to their chagrin. We are so thankful for Pikin’s help in getting Ohana safely all of the way from Buenos Aires to Grenada in stages. He is a master captain, and the wild and unpredictable South American east coast would have been an entirely different experience without all of his expertise and help! And as I mentioned before, his and Ted’s gift of taking all watches gave me the amazing ability to give the girls what they needed during this first long-distance experience. Most wonderful of all? Within about an hour, we had already met 2 other ‘kid boats’ as well as the cruisers on either side of us at the marina. If you could hear me while writing this, you would hear a huge exhalation of relief and happiness.

PS – for those of you paying close attention, why was this our first time using the quarantine flag? For reasons we don’t understand, we were told repeatedly that “it’s not done” in South America…