We are in bustling Admiralty Bay on Bequia, a Mecca for cruisers, recently written up in the NY Times as one of the ten best unknown spots in the Caribbean. Lene has described the highlights of our recent adventures, but only alluded to the passages. This posting discusses the four passages we made in the five days we took to get here. I, Roger, love sailing. But if you are among those of our fans who do not love the actual sailing part of sailing, please just skip this post which also consists mostly of words, with only four pictures, to avoid frustrating yourself.
November 25 – St George’s Grenada to Sandy Island off Carriacou. 8 am to 4 pm; distance 35 miles. We motored north the first hour in the lee, west side, of Grenada, in fluky winds –sails (main and small jib) were up but not doing much for us. Then coming to the northern end of that big island the winds came up, varying all day between 9 and 13.5 knots apparent and we made speeds of 3.2 to 7.2 over the surface. But the winds were from the ENE so we changed our plan, which had been to follow the reciprocals of the courses which were still marked on the chart from the trip south, about which we blogged last spring, because we would have had to sail directly into the wind. The prior course would have taken us east of the “Jump Up Jenny” volcano exclusion zone (to protect us from an active volcano, 450 feet below the ocean surface). Instead, we sailed north, to the west of Jenny, steering about 035 to 050 degrees magnetic, as the wind allowed, and then tacked to the SE at about 135 degrees M to draw near to the west side of Carriacou. But I misjudged the tack -- made it too early, as is my bad habit, so another pair of tacks was in order and about half an hour from our destination, an Amel from Texas passed us, motoring, not as fast as us but directly toward the mooring field; after 7.5 hours, Lene, seeing that boat head directly for Sandy Island, had had enough. We motored the rest of the way. Our track was almost 50 miles but only 35 made good toward home. All of our four passages were in good weather with moderate wind and Lene said she wished all were as easy as this one to Carriacou.
November 27 – Sandy Island to Clifton Harbor, Union Island. 1 to 2:15 pm; distance 7 miles. Following the example of our friend, Captain Mike, of “Serenity”, we raised the main and sailed off the mooring, around the southern end of Sandy Island and then had seven miles, a straight sail, with the destination visible all the way, to the entrance to Clifton. Lene had the helm 100 percent from the time from when we picked up the anchor until we laid her back down, except for brief periods when the auto pilot took over. She endured advice from me, but she sailed the boat. And what a sail it was! The wind was at 16 to 20 knots apparent, between 60 and 90 degrees off the starboard bow. With reefed main and small jib we averaged 7 knots over the bottom, peaking for a few minutes at 8 knots before motoring into the harbor and anchoring in 26 feet of water with 80 feet of snubbed chain out. Each of these passage days requires raising the dinghy in the morning and lowering it back into the sea at the end of the day. Here are some birds sitting on the boom of a big boat anchored next to us.
November 28—Clifton to Tobago Cays. 11 am to 1 pm; distance about 5 miles made good. The course we took was the safest, around the west and north sides of Mayreau Island, recommended by the cruising guides. This is like a mirror image of a “7”, with the top of the seven, about two miles, heading east, not toward home. We were on a starboard reach the whole way; with full sails, but not much speed at least at first, when the wind was far behind us. On the west side of Mayreau, the relative wind became a beam reach and when we rounded its top and headed east we were close hauled. There is a shorter more direct route, the hypotenuse of the backwards “7”, passing east of Mayreau, through a bunch of reefs, that with our chart plotter we could have made. But we like to take the safest routes. Upon arrival we saw moorings but thinking they were owned by charter boats, we anchored. It turns out they are owned by the park service, and available to the first to arrive. The entrance fee is $10EC per person (and, of course, the only way to come to the Cays is by boat and there are no hotels...you just live on your boat) and an additional $25EC if you use a mooring. The park is the sea area bounded by two small islands to the west , Petite Rameau to the north and Petite Bateau (where we ate our lobsters), with a small gap between them through which most boats enter and leave, and a third island, Baradal, to the east. A big reef around all of this, except to the west, breaks up the waves but the wind can whistle past and the current flows through the park, so the water is very clear and fresh.
November 29 Tobago Cays to Bequia. 9:45 am to 2:30 pm; distance made good about 22 miles. We left the park through the gap between the two western islands and proceeded west for about two miles until we rounded Baleen Rocks, and then the course was about 035 M for the 21 miles to the SW tip of Bequia, which, once rounded, is then about three miles of easting to the anchorage. But this day the wind was uncharacteristically from the SSW, behind us, as we then headed north. The apparent wind was at 3 to 6 knots (in addition to our boat speed) and boat speed was about five knots, most of the way. There were small ocean rollers but it was so peaceful that I was able to do an interior cleaning while Lene maintained watch, underway. Here is a photo of Alphie in her box; most times they lay down in them with the lid cracked open by a line, though in very rough seas, water gets on the deck and into the windward box, causing a quick exit.
We had a race with what turned out to be a French flagged catamaran. They started a bit forward of our beam on our port side. The wind was so far behind us that I chose to steer a bit to the right, with our bow closer to the east end of Bequia than her western end, in order to bring the apparent wind forward enough to gain speed. I frequently adjusted course to stay as close to the run as would still give us speed, and when the time came for the gybe, all we had to do was gybe the main and run wing on wing, for about 25 minutes to get enough west to put both sails out to port again. We rounded the point, very close to the cat and it became a beam reach and close reach as we sprinted past the catamaran. We anchored far from the bustling ferry dock and mooring ball area with lots of room between boats, near “Serenity”
for about three or four lay days here in Bequia, about 69 miles closer to home than when we started in St. George’s Grenada.
There is a Yiddish word (my Yiddish speaking friends will tell me if I'm wrong) to describe a beloved pest: "vance", literally bedbug! Last night, upon returning from a shared dinner aboard Serenity, we found a burglary had taken place, but not one to concern the insurance company. The door to the port side cabin locker that contains the cats' food, toys and treats open; a bag of their favorite treats, dessicated chicken (which is commonly referred to as "crack for cats"), was ripped open on the floor; its contents mostly devoured. Alphie is so smart: she knew which of the lockers had her treats and watched us put our fingers into the hole, reach down, grab the latch and -- voila. Here is a photo of the reenactment of the crime by Lene.
But for now, in the battle of wits between humans and felines, I believe we have regained the upper hand by inserting an empty leather eyeglass case between door and jamb, thus requiring more strength to pull the door open than Alphie has.
No comments:
Post a Comment