A Rapid Push South

I'm not sure what the odds are of snapping a picture like this, but I'm thinking it's pretty rare.  Not only do we have one double-ended rainbow, but two.  This is the sight we were greeted with during our morning coffee on this fine day as a little sprinkle passed through.  Not too shabby.

Today marks the day when we have to leave this place and point our bow South.  One Facebook follower noted that we seem to be moving every couple days and posed the legitimate question, "Is sailing really that relaxing, or are the islands that boring?"  I had to laugh, because neither of these things are true.  Day sailing when the conditions are right?  That is relaxing.  Sailing as a lifestyle?  Not always.  But this is the life we chose and sometimes you've got to take the good with the bad.  So far, the good outweighs the bad and for this I am grateful.  But if it seems like we are rushing, we are.

The fact of the matter is that Scott has a job and he reports to work on July 19.  This here is a double edged sword; while we love having a reliable income every three months, his gainful employment has more than once stuck the proverbial stick in our spokes; stopping us in our tracks for a month at a time or, like now, forced us to rush when we otherwise would not.  Yin and yang, yang and yin.  C'est la vie.  I'm not complaining - just telling it like it is.  We like the arrangement and, for now, it's working well for everyone involved.  Anyway, we'd like to get settled in Grenada for a few days before he takes control of the good ship Diamant, which leaves us about two weeks to get there.  In addition, there's a weather system that is supposed to push through around the 8th which, allegedly is going to bring with it some nasty wind and surly squalls, so we want to be in the Grenadines by then, a place that Scott now knows like the back of  his hand after doing something like twenty trips down there.   All of these things point us SOUTH, and fast.  So we're dropping our mooring here today and we plan to cover about 150 miles over the next few days, doing nothing more than flying the "Q" flag and dropping the hook for a good night's sleep in Dominica, Martinique and St. Lucia.  Not ideal, but we plan to hang around these parts for another season or two so we'll catch them on the way back north.

What really sucks about this is the fact that we're leaving our friends who have turned into some of the best cruising buddies we could have ever asked for.  Honestly, what are the odds of finding near-perfect companionship such as this?  Finding them was like winning the lottery and after a month of hanging out together daily, we still have nightly battles of who loves who more over dinner and wine.  We're going to miss them terribly, but - understandably - they don't want or have to travel as fast as we do, so they're going to slow their roll for a bit.  The good news is that we'll see them in Grenada and we all plan to hang and cruise together for, oh - I don't know - the next twenty five years or so.  Not to mention the fact that Stormer and Isla are going to be getting married in the future, so there's no such thing as "goodbye" with friends like these.

Not sure how often I'll be able to blog over the next week, but keep an eye on our Facebook Page for updates as I am much more frequent and interactive there.

Arguable the cutest couple in the world.

The crews of s/v Asante and s/v YOLO.  There is a whole lotta love here!! We're like one big, happy family.