Day 1, Ascension Island to Grenada

1300Z 23MAY22, Day 1, Ascension Island to Grenada. After a nice stop in Ascension, we planned to leave midday on Sunday. The weather forecast suggested there would not be much wind for the first couple of days, but even so, moving along at 3-4kts still gets you across the ocean sooner than sitting at anchor - at least hopefully.

Current Position: 07 30S / 005 49W
24 hour progress: 92nm, 3.8kts avg SOG, approximately 2982nm to Grenada. Less than 1 hour on the engine before we were sailing, however we ran the engine in idle to help recharge and make water for another 3 hours before securing it.

The forecast called for light winds but we had a nice strong breeze through the anchorage and felt like it was as good a time as any to get going. We weighed anchor and made a drive-thru of the anchorage to say our "see you laters" to Skylark, Atraxia & Dallandra. Then we unsuccessfully trolled a fishing line past the cargo ship hoping to coax a large tuna out for dinner.

By 1300 we were heading out and shortly thereafter raised the main to the 4th reef. We expect to be largely sailing deep downwind again which we don't need the main for, but without the main at least to the 4th reef it is hard for us to raise the main without turning on the engine and turning into the wind. Having a small bit of main up gives us more options later should we need to sail on a reach.

We got organized and dragged out the asymmetric sail. By 1340 the chute was flying in 15+kts of wind and we were moving along nicely. We relaxed and watched Ascension shrink away in the distance. We reflected on our visit and were very glad to have stopped. But we were also excited to be moving again with pleasant downwind sailing. The weather was partly cloudy and the breeze was well received. It felt far cooler than we had been that morning at anchor; it has been quite hot.

The winds gradually lightened and fell to less than 10kts by early this morning, driving our average speeds way down. Additionally there was cloud cover and a few good rain shower rinses before clearing up to a sunny day. We are moving in the right direction and have gybed to a port tack. We plan to head west for now as we await the winds filling back in and the ITCZ moving back to a more normal position.

The crew is well. We are all happy to be back on passage, though the last ice cubes have already been consumed. The last of our delicious wahoo filet will be eaten by the end of today. We are a bit sad that we don't have our citizen science project to keep us busy, but there is other school work to tackle. The seas have been calm and nobody - not even Poseidon - has been sea sick. Everything felt like a normal day and the boys were straight back to their watch standing shifts.