Culmination Of The Grand (De)-Tour

Back in the 1970s, a group of scientists realized that they were living in an extraordinary time: If they could only get their act together, and quickly, they had the opportunity to see all the outer planets but Pluto in one go. All they had to do was build a pair of deep-space probes that were more advanced than anything yet done. An extremely rare alignment of the bodies in the outer solar system made possible a sling-shot method, using a gravity assist from the sun, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. But, if they missed their narrow window of opportunity, it would be left to their great, great grandchildren to take another stab at it.

They called the endeavor "The Grand Tour," but most of us know it as the Voyager missions.

What Symbiosis has been doing for the past several months is something I have dubbed "The Grand De-Tour" in homage to the Voyagers. (Because, yes, I am a very big geek). 

And, it is over. Forgive my shifting metaphors, but now we are back on the main highway.

When we first left Morehead, N.C., in November, we expected a two-week passage east and south to the British Virgin Islands -- specifically, to Tortola. As of yesterday, we cleared into this U.K. territory for the first time, anchoring in the very harbour (Soper's Hole) that we had aimed for way back then. Instead, our grand detour has taken us down all the winding (and one-way) local roads and even a few narrow alleys. But we are thankful for seeing some interesting things that we would have otherwise bypassed -- namely, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Soper's Hole.

We are still traveling in company with our good friends Diane and Frank aboard their beautiful Caliber 39, Utopia. It's been good to bounce around weather-routing thoughts and anchorage ideas with them and arrive at a collective plan. But, that will soon end. Utopia will haul out in Antigua for hurricane season at a marina there that is recognized as among the safest places "in the box" (inside the hurricane-prone part of the Caribbean). We on the other hand are heading to Grenada or Trinidad for hurricane season.

A "pain-killer" ... to assuage the slings and arrows of the "Thorny Path.'

But with the season only a few weeks away, we are trying to get there as soon as we can. We won't make it by June 1, but we are banking on the fact that hurricanes are fairly rare in the Caribbean until the latter half of the season. 

It looks like next Wednesday/Thursday will be a good time to cross over to St. Martin and possibly Antigua. Arriving in Antigua will put the rest of the Leeward and Windward islands chains more along a north-south axis, allowing us a lot more flexibility for moving southward, as the easterly trades will be more or less on our beam, a good place for the wind to be on a sailboat!

Putting up the BVIs courtesy flag.