GryphonSolo2: Leg 8 begins - Final Leg of the Globe40!

GryphonSolo2 © Martin Gunter / Instituto Fueguino De Tourismo

I am writing to declare that Team GS2 has launched on Leg 8, the final leg, of the Globe 40 from the Caribbean island of Grenada back to where we began in Lorient, France, 9 months ago. What a journey. I think we are all weary. But it has been a good stopover in Grenada.

I hauled GS2 at the Clarks Court Boatyard to check the condition of the bottom and also to do a bit of maintenance to the winches and mast cars and all is well with the boat... except that the B G chart plotter that we use for its GPS and basic navigation has decided to not work so we are wholly reliant on our computer-based navigation system using the Adrena software for weather, routing and now basic navigation. So we have lost our redundancy in navigation systems which kinda sucks. In the event of total meltdown we have a hand-held GPS and paper charts, but really hoping it doesn't come to that.

Anyhow, this stopover was great because my family and friends joined me and we did party like it was 1999. We rented a swanky Airbnb pad and lived it up for a few days. The crew are there for another couple of days and I'm sure will continue to rock.

Now GS2 is pounding upwind and North in familiar Caribbean waters past St. Lucia and St. Vincent, as I and many of us have chartered sailboats for vacations or racing down here many times. It is the same NNE 15-20k wind as always which is a beat into a pretty good swell.

It is about 3500 miles to Lorient, sailing back into the cold of the North Atlantic- yuk. 18 days my machine tells me. Hope all is well with everyone as we exit winter and February and turn towards Spring and March. Longer days, the proliferation of flora and fauna.... ???