Ep 148 True Offshore Sailing | 420nm Adventure | BVI's to Grenada

This episode covers our big (420nm) passage from Nanny Cay, Tortola, BVI’s to Port Louis Marina in Grenada. The point of doing so was twofold. The driving factor was that we’d never visited any of the Caribbean islands south of Saint Lucia, and it was time for that to change. Of secondary importance, once you’ve sailed west from Antigua and Sint Maarten, getting back to those locations entails an epic upwind slog. Most sailors simply motor the entire 40nm route legs between each. And it’s a pounding trip. No fun at all.
So having experienced those before, we opted instead to enjoy a better sailing angle, and cut directly south to Grenada with no stops in between. But to start things off, we had a few small segments that needed to be included.
The episode kicks off with footage of a visit by Luis Oliviera, one of our two crew members for our 2019 ARC Atlantic crossing from Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands. That trip was nearly 3,000nm, and we got to know Luis well. As I state in the segment, I’ve met and sailed with a lot of captains, and Luis is probably the best (definitely in the top two) that I’ve ever been close to. Should viewers need his services as either a delivery captain or for mid-to-large yacht coaching, Luis the guy for the job. Luis can be contacted on WhatsApp [phone] or email at [e-mail]
Beyond that, my brother Brendan and his wife Dara came to visit to do a little monohull sailing with us, during which I retrieved a tree trunk with our anchor. That was fun. It really was.
Finally, our dear friend Scott came out to help with the Grenada passage. And that’s the meat of the episode. A wonderful sleigh ride from the BVIs down to Grenada. What a great trip!
sailing yacht talisman, sailing, sailing youtube, boating, top sailing, oyster yachts, oyster sailboats, oyster 485, offshore, bluewater, blue water, sailing vlog, sailing vblog, sailing channels, sailing videos, cruising, monohull, BVI, BVI’s, reality

[@mrjbbarker1947]

Great to see you again. Sailing. May the wind at your back be your own.

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks Gerald!

[@steenkigerrider5340]

Nothing is nicer than being on a yacht with some size and weight when blue water sailing.

[@SailingTalisman]

Very true.

[@dthelmcken420]

Nice to see you again. Fair winds and smooth sailing __/))

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks so much.

[@nickjames1892]

That was a fantastic sail, Kevin, felt I was with you! Well done. Great to see Talisman stretching her legs.

[@jayschafer5385]

Nice episode! Kevin, when did you make this passage? Currently or earlier this year? Thanks. Jay

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks Nick. And that's the idea ... to let people get as close to the actual experience as possible. Folks complain about the wind and wave noise, but that's what it sounds like when you're out there.

[@peebeedee6757]

Passage making -- It's what owning a boat is all about and this episode a great fix for those of us who are now landlocked. Thanks for taking us on the trip and I think, shows in your enjoyment, that you made a good choice in going for Talisman after all that early searching.

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, this is what Talisman was made for, and she does it with grace and aplomb. There are faster boats out there, but for her size I'm happy with 7.5-8 knots. Much fast than that and things start getting scary.

[@bbrcummins1984]

Living the dream with a beautiful woman by your side , doesn't get any better than that ✌️

[@SailingTalisman]

Yes, I've got it good, no denying that. I should add that apart from being beautiful, she's also an excellent sailor!

[@robertlaird6746]

I think it would be supper cool if some of these little islands would put a small train along the coast for people to go from one bar to the next and then back to the dinghy dock.

[@SailingTalisman]

You know what? St Kitts actually has one. It's not a pub-tour train exactly, but they do have a narrow gauge sugar plantation tour train that runs all the way around the island. It's a vestige of their efforts to stay competitive during a period of consolidation in the sugar industry. In the end, it was all four naught as sugar beet production displaced natural cane sugar worldwide. But the train remains and I hope to go take the tour one of these days.

[@robertlaird6746]

@@SailingTalisman That's supper cool. When I finish building my boat, I'll for sure stop there and ride that train. Thanks for sharing. I had no idea that someone had done that. I'm just watching a video about it now. My favorite train that I've been on was the one at the Santa Barbara Zoo in CA. Train Mountain Railroad in OR also has some really cool trains.

[@bobthesnobscotland2821]

Cheers guys

[@SailingTalisman]

Cheers Bob. Great hearing from you.

[@firstlast1047]

You are the first content provider I have seen doubling the dock lines back to the boat to facilitate undocking. I have often wonder, Why not?

[@SailingTalisman]

I think a lot of people get used to having marina dockhands to help with lines. We like controlling the lines ourselves, even when dockhands are present. I can't tell you the number of times that I was springing off a dock line under power, and suddenly some guy on the dock uncleated me. The one piece of advice I always give skippers moving up the proficiency ladder is never to listen to dockhands yelling at you to do this or that. Tune them out. In the end, it's the skipper who has to make these decisions, and to the one these guys have never, and will never, dock a larger boat. They have literally no experience with what you're doing, and they think the same process you'd use with the marina dinghy will apply to a sailboat.

[@firstlast1047]

@@SailingTalisman 😄😳 Well said!!

[@gregvee2930]

Hi guys, the footage of the Dolphins was spectacular! Thank you for sharing the sail. You sure got it together. Good job Captain!

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks Greg. It was a fun trip. And the dolphins were great. They're just so playful.

[@markmichell6552]

Hello guys. Just discovered your channel and enjoying a lazy Sunday binge watching all your adventures over the years. I have boat envy big time. Can you let me the make and model. Many thanks. Happy and safe sailing. Mark from UK

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Mark. Glad to hear you're enjoying our channel. As for your question, Talisman is a proper UK built Oyster 485. A true bluewater boat. She's almost 30 years old now (late 1994), but if you buy a new Oyster you'll largely get the same floor plan and kit. We love her and have done our best to bring her into the 21st century with all new electronics and other upgraded components.

[@charlessmyth1339]

30:41 Hi Kevin and Wendy, looked like a great sail, glad to see you on KZbin after two months.

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Charles. We've been so busy that editing just didn't happen. But we have a large amount of unedited video still waiting for some spare time, so I'll see what I can do about getting some new episodes up.

[@dansraspberrypisoftwarecla1690]

So you are going to spend summer in Grenada? We will miss you up in the Chesapeake. We elected to go the other way left St Thomas May 10 and sailed 14 days landing in Beaufort NC (1497nm) due to storm around the cape. Hung out for a few days then went ICW up to bay. Back in our slip on the 30th. If you get the hunger got plenty room on Riparian to play around the bay.

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Dan. Thanks for the invite. We're back in Colorado having left Talisman on the hard in Antigua. Sounds like you had a nice trip up, although Talisman is way too deep a draft for the ICW these days. We're also not 100% sure of our air draft, which it turns out isn't that easy to check.

[@dansraspberrypisoftwarecla1690]

@@SailingTalisman I am lucky with my small boat (tip to tail 42'), we only draw 5' and air 48+' and ICW is good for 6' and 65'. Calculating air is just a trig problem not to hard to get real close. I figured when I saw you went south you were going to keep her down there. Hope the season takes good care of her, the water temps we were seeing in the VI's and St Martin suggested a tough season for storms so we bugged out. Was a great ride up but in order to make time around 31 we skirted a storm to get the wind 35+ and 12' but it bought us speed and got us in before the storm made it to GS.

[@allanmoore7790]

@@SailingTalisman - Leaving the boat in Antigua on the hard, like last year, is a good choice. Sailing back and forth to the Chesapeake is way too much work.

[@svsalserenity4375]

What a great sail. I could just do that , back and forth . Did you catch any fish ?

[@SailingTalisman]

We caught 3 barracuda and 1 jack. The biggest of the three barracudas got attacked by another fish on the way in and was bleeding like crazy. By the time we got him unhooked and released, the transom of our boat looked like a murder scene. When we arrived in Grenada, the dockhands were laughing and pointing. I ended up unsure what they were thinking.

[@svsalserenity4375]

@@SailingTalisman Damn Baracuda , shark probably took a bite . Thanks for the great video of your passage ,

[@robertlaird6746]

Have you thought about building a hard dodger. If so, what do you think of the pro's and con's of doing so?

[@SailingTalisman]

No. Oysters don't have them and we want to keep the boat as stock as possible. Also, I should note that we really like the ability to drop our spray hood completely. Other designs have zippered, roll-up window glass, but even there you get reduced wind flow through the cockpit. You almost can't overstate the importance of fresh air flowing past you in the right conditions.

[@robertlaird6746]

@@SailingTalisman I guess the resale value would go down on your Oyster if you did that. I guess it depends on where you sail and what type of boat you have.

[@abagailbrett2499]

Promo*SM

[@SailingTalisman]

Not paid. That's the distinction KZbin makes.