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THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS
January 6 – 24, 2010
I’m starting out this journey on a new boat. Breit is a 1977 Najad 34 that has been loving restored and maintained. She is a strong cruiser with a very dry cockpit due to the full bimini that protects you from the elements. Wind vanes are heavy and some are uncomfortable for you to be in the cockpit but Breit’s hydro vane is a fine addition. There is virtually no noise, you steer by pulling on a cord when the wind changes and most importantly does not use any electricity so you run the engine to charge the batteries less often. For being a foot shorter than Gaia there is an incredible amount of storage. Duco has a washing machine, bread machine, a vacuum food packer (a must for a long voyage without any freezer compartment), 3 different air compressors, a folding bicycle, full size vacuum cleaner, fishing rods, 2 laptops and a copier.
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Duco Pelle is a Dutch national that calls home Australia. He is on the Rally till Australia where he plans to ship the boat to Marseille, France and sail, for the second time, through the canals of France to sites unknown (he started this cruise in Sweden). I will be crew till we get to Panama where he has another person whom will be traveling the rest of the way to Fiji where, once again, he has another crew arriving for the rest of the trip to Brisbane, Australia.
My private stern room is the most space I have had to date. I like the teakwood trimmings, the private berth area that doesn’t get cluttered up with stuff.
I like to be able to stand up and be looking into the cockpit. You always know what the situation is going to be when you are in the cockpit. Is it raining? Is it a squall? Is it a beautiful bay with the rugged hills covered in rainforest greens? Anyone walking on the white coral beach?
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ANTIGUA
It took me 23 hours to get from San Francisco to Antigua and I just have never learned to sleep in an airport or plane which would have served me well in my career but that is past tense. I took a taxi to the Jolly Harbour Marina but I could not find Breit docked anywhere and had to go to the main office and call on the VHF. No answer from Captain Duco but I found a boat boy who knew that Breit was moored out and he escorted me in his boat to the boat. Then he took me to the Customs House and Duco and I checked out of the country.
Coming back from a 3 week holiday I learned that one of the boats in the rally had dismasted (in slow motion like they always say) and another was dashed up onto a reef which caused the rescuing boat to lose an anchor on the coral...I guess it is the bell curve of recklessness. Don’t fret! Blue Magic and Jackame with their dive equipment found the anchor hopelessly snagged in the coral. They were successful in retrieving the anchor and everyone was happy. On a high note Susan on Enchantress was sporting a diamond ring that she wasn’t wearing before I left – a last minute Christmas Eve Wedding!
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The downside of this rally is that I did not spend any time discovering the beauty of Antigua before having to shove off for other islands in the quest to be in Panama in due course. With no fanfare 3 hours after arriving I was casting off and on our way to catch up with several other BWR boats that were rooting for us to not be left behind. It was a quick, steady winds overnighter and we arrived at Dominica the next afternoon just in time to join the Rum Punch Extravaganza…I lost my flip-flops when I went overboard trying to act like the boat boys and dance my way onto the dinghy from Lucy Alice.
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DOMINICIA
January 10 – 12, 2010
A very rich green forest of rugged mountains and volcano domes greeted us in the first light of the morning. It took us till 4 pm to reach the Portsmouth harbour so we were going to miss checking into customs (Island time which means a late start in the morning but come 3:30pm and there is a mad dash for the door). So we must fly the yellow quarantine flag and not leave the boat for any reason. As we were pulling into the harbour I was amazed at how deep the bay was and how little shelf we had to anchor onto. Breit only has 40m of chain so we need to get into 10m or less of water to drop anchor. Space in the bay was a little tight but we managed to get anchored. Duco expects me to sail so during this passage I had no time to prepare or organize my berth until we reach our destination.
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The next morning I went for the Indian River Tour with Enchantress. There are 365 rivers in Dominica and this one was typical of the larger rivers. It had very shallow and very deep sections and the rainforest was crowding around the edges. Actually, when we ducked under a foliage canopy to escape a squall you could see how the river undercut the edges creating a floating earth embankment for the crabs to dive into at the first sign of movement. We saw crabs, mullets, ducks and a white heron. The rainy season has just ended and the flowers are just beginning to bloom so we only saw 2 species of hummingbirds. Soon we came around a bend and the earth was all churned up and smoothed over.
This was the spot where they had filmed the witch at her house in Pirates of the Caribbean II. Johnny Depp is a local hero and the two movies supported 260 Dominicans.
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On the ride back to our boats Albert, our guide, talked about the ‘Big One’. Hurricane Uma had wreaked havoc on the island and sent many an unsuspecting ship to its demise.
Blue Magic had quite the story about escorting the crew of Scott Free to the shore and returning for a much needed swim in the heat. He looked over the horizon and there was Scott Free sailing off by herself downwind. He jumped in the dinghy and went over to rescue the boat. Because the crew had gone to shore the boat was locked up tight so he couldn’t get the engine started. The wind was on the nose so he couldn’t roll out the jib and sail back to the anchorage so he had to tow it with his dingy back to the bay and manually reset the anchor. Obviously the anchor had not been set properly the first time and, because the floor shelf was so narrow, the anchor dragged till it was hanging free and off it was sailing into the wind...
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MARTINIQUE
January 12 - 15, 2010
It was a short sail with fair winds just behind the beam and a glorious day. This island has more sheer cliffs, the same carpet of green and very colourful homes filling the crevasses that ran from the high mountains to the sea. When we pulled into Fort du France we chose the bay with the huge dingy dock that was closer to downtown than the more commercial bay that had less roll in the wind (although the roll from the ferryboats would overpower someone anchored too close to the pathway). It was less protected from the wind but we found good holding
in the shadow of the Fort. I immediately accepted an offer from Enchantress to dinghy to shore with Lucy Alice. We walked around the downtown area and because it was already 3 pm on a Saturday most of the shops were closed till Monday. I did manage to find a small market for some fresh fruit and
David was on a quest for ice cream which he found at the final minutes before they closed for the weekend.
Duco had his own quest and was diving overboard to cut away the lobster trap we picked up on our voyage from Dominica. He managed to get most of it but had to radio Blue Magic and Jackame to come to the rescue.
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They brought over their diving gear and cut away the rest of the nylon ropes except for a piece that was lodged under the seal of the propeller shaft. The water was murky and they couldn’t tell if the seat was rotating with the propeller shaft. A phone call to the mechanic said that we should not start the engine without fixing the seal. We are going to have to haul out and fix the problem which will require cutting away a portion of the shaft housing. Luckily it is not a custom part so we will hopefully not be out of the water too long. I was mildly surprised at several boats asking me if I was going to desert Breit and continue on the voyage on a new boat. I have made the commitment to Breit for the voyage to Panama and am sticking with my fate. Unless Breit drops out of the Rally, thereby forfeiting his commitment, I am there for him. We set up the haul-out for the next day and as everyone was leaving for the next island we received messages for a speedy recovery. I told them to watch their backs because we would be right behind them.
Once we were hauled out you could see the remainder of the nylon rope and, upon digging it out of the shaft. Duco decided it was not rotating with the shaft (could have fooled me but ...Hey...) we didn’t need to replace the seal. Even though the boat was repainted in May I polished the hull (good upper body workout) and
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Duco sanded the bottom and was covered with the copper antifouling stuff. We worked so hard that it was a relief to walk to the downtown for dinner and took a cab back. I didn’t get to see much of the island but Duco was in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the group so we set off for an overnighter passage as soon as we were back in the water.
Empress Josephine grew up in Martinique on a 200 acre, 150 slave estate. In 1804 Napoleon may have been conquering all of Europe but the British were holding on to his esteemed love’s native land.
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Diamond Rock
Because of all the fighting in Europe war ships were at a premium and someone suggested they christen HMS Diamond Rock as a ship to protect the harbour and most of the Caribbean. The ‘crew’ climbed up this steep, barren, snake-infested pinnacle and equipped it with cannons and enough supplies and water for an 18 month soirée. They happily sunk any French ships that ventured too close. Napoleon was incensed and sent Admiral Villeneuve to free the rock and destroy Admiral Horatio Nelson and his stronghold on the Caribbean. Because of some screw-ups Villeneuve did capture the island but not Admiral Nelson. Napoleon was still incensed and wanted to dishonour Villeneuve. Of course Villeneuve would rather die than be dishonoured so he turned back to find Nelson and so we have the Battle of Trafalgar. Ironically, Villeneuve, who wished to die, lived and Nelson died.
We headed for the island chain called the Grenadines bypassing several islands including the wonderful St Lucia and the rugged St. Vincent. This will be an overnighter to the Grenadines and is the most interesting passage to date.
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We started out by motoring 3 miles till we went around a point and the wind picked up to 22 knts on the beam. We were perfectly balanced doing 7 knts of boat speed but Duco wanted to slow down or we would get to Port Elizabeth too early. (This is very bad as doing figure 8’s for two hours waiting until day light so you can see your way into the harbour without hitting anything can be exasperating.) It is only 10 pm and we have a long night ahead of us. I thought it over “Let’s wait and see what happens the rest of the night… we can always slow down in 6 hours.” Duco flew through his shift so when I came on watch at 2am he was set on course. One hour into my shift the 7 knts speed cut drastically to 2.9 knts. Undaunted, when Duco asked me if I was ready to turn on the engine I said this is the slow down you wanted earlier...let Mother Nature help us on our journey. It wasn’t too much later before it started to rain. I barely had time to put down the sides of the bimini and close my hatch before the squall sent torrents of rain and high winds hurdling at us. No sooner did we exit out of the squall then there was a second one lashing us with more wind and rain. This one woke Duco up and in a downpour he lowered and lashed the main while I tried to keep the boat into the wind in 12’ seas. From that point we motored until the end of my watch (6am) and then, with the changing of the watch, I went to sleep off a great night of excitement.
After a three hour nap we were sailing along the coast of Bequia with its concrete and stucco houses painted in colourfully bright hues. We arrived at Port Elizabeth and were anchored by 4pm. We hoisted the yellow quarantine flag and waited till the next day to leave the boat and check into customs.
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THE GRENDINES - BEQUA
January 16 - 18, 2010
Pulling into the harbour at Port Elizabeth you could not help to notice that the hills have drastically changed from the other islands.
The hills were covered in deciduous forests and winter had turned the hills into a fantasy of texture resembling baby’s breath. In just a 9 mile passage we have changed from the rainforest to the hardwoods.
I LOVE this place. It is very low key and no cruise ships come here. The natives are fisherman, whalers, and craftsman. For centuries they have honed some of the finest sailing vessels out of hand tools and local knowledge. They know yachting and love us being there to join them…not for our tourist dollar but for the storytelling of adventures on the high seas.
Model boats are a specialty and they will custom build your boat to scale including any additions you have added to the structure. Just like the natives of the Pacific NW they are allowed to
kill 4 whales a year using just their whiles and hand thrown spears. Every year less humpback whale are taken as there are fewer natives willing to risk their lives to kill an animal that is 4 times the size of the small fishing skiffs. Some traditional customs should be given up because of the danger to the population and the triviality of the catch.
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They also build boats of every genre from fishing to powerboat racing so you can figure that they are experts at fixing sailboats that have dismasted. David from Enchantress said that ‘No Compromise’ should have compromised.
For two years I enjoyed the fun of a 9’ inflatable dinghy with a hard bottom and an 8hp Yamaha outboard motor. Breit has a 6’ inflatable with a 4hp engine. I never would have thought there would be so much difference in controlling the craft but I learned a lesson in balance, inertia, and drift. If I increased the speed I would drift to the left losing my forward track. Maneuvering such a small craft I have learned to sit as far forward as I can, stretch my arm straight out to the throttle, lean into the center of the boat, and pull the nose up with the painter. This will take some getting use to.
All this to get soaking wet anyways.
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The locals were so happy Breit was in town that the school got together and the marching band played for us down the main street.
Some of the boats are beginning to get discouraged about the number of problems that always plagues an ocean crossing of 3 weeks or more. Duco asked Blue Magic if their boat gave them as many problems as the older boats. Mark said “Hell Yes!!” And then he went off on a tirade about the electrical switch on the head being more problems than just having a pump like everyone else.
Duco, forever the electrical wizard that he is, has been rescuing many of the rally yatchies. Many others with specialized skills are pitching in too. Who would guess that another BWRer would have not one, but two!! diodes that fit the bill perfectly. That is just the type of comraderier that you find with the Rally. Sure helps when you are in a bay with no bus service. On most of these friendly islands all you need to do is talk to a local and they will know who in town may have what you need….for a price you know.
Note to self: Always check the expiration date on anything from cheese to motor oil as this may cause you undue grief.
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Checking in and out of customs was just what you expect in the Caribbean. It was a short hike from the dinghy dock and
you passed all these colourful buildings
Duco is anxious to start on the 4 day passage to Bonaire – a Dutch colony off the coast of Venezuela. Uh Oh!! More pirates! This makes him nervous and so Enchantress has decided to sail with us and we will keep each other informed of our progress. The wind is very cooperative and we have a great several days. On the third day the skies began to consolidate the fluffy columbiums clouds and several rain squalls raged around us.
We caught the tail end of several squalls but had a nice surprise.
The wind vane is proving to be very valuable on these long passages. Duco keeps beaming about how his expensive antifouling paint is helping the boat go faster. I have to admit we had great, strong, and steady wind and we clipped along between 5 – 7 knts. During times of Equatorial Current we would yawl helplessly but it only lasted 6 hours.
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BONAIRE
January 21 - 24, 2010
Part of the Dutch Achilles Archipelagos (which includes Caracas and Aruba) Bonaire is a coral island so it doesn’t get the violent upheavals of the other islands. Their island mascot is the flamingo and it is plastered on every sign, wall, and souvenir. Most of the island is not much higher than 800’. This means that we did not even see the island until we were within 3 miles of the coast. We briskly sailed down the eastern (windward) flank and the land slowly sank into the sea. As we approached the southern tip it appeared that two spires (or abbreviated lighthouses) were just floating on the horizon. Rounding the southern tip we were blasted with 30 knts of gust in a steady 25 knts of wind on the beam. We quickly took down the sails and motored most of the way up the western coast till entering the port at 4 pm. Putting out the finders and dock lines was a wet experience but welcomed in the heat of the afternoon. Customs and the marina were closed so we spent the night on the fuel dock where the lights were blazing and a welcome committee of the smallest pesky mosquitoes greeted us. They were brilliant at finding any small patch of skin you missed with the bug spray.
The next day was full of cleaning up the boat (it is amazing how trashed the boat gets when food is flying and picking up litter is a life threatening undertaking). In the afternoon I did manage to grab my snorkel, fins and mask and hiked over two resorts to their beach. There a dive shop said it was too late to go on a snorkel trip so I decided to just go snorkeling off the beach and see what this island heralds as the dive capitol of the Caribbean. I have had this camera since Singapore and have never used it underwater. The practice will be good for the snorkel trip I reserved later in the week.
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You can see the water is a foot deep and then the coral drops off to 18’ in one step. The coral shelf is eroded back and the fish find this an ideal place to live and hide from predators.
This is going to be our last chance to provision till Panama so Lucy Alice and I were trying to decide how to best get lots of food from the stores to the boats. Renting scooters was the answer! After we prioritized and finished our chores it was time to take off and explore the island. There are two distinct areas; the north is more rugged and covered in cacti and the southern area which is where the only crop the island can produce is exported.
Looking at the map I immediately thought about getting off the main highway and exploring the lesser roads of the island. Ian was the navigator and he just wanted to do the circular route following the map on the heavy red lines, Kool! Works for me!
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Most of the heavy red lines on the map were merely single lane asphalt roads perfect for the scooters. The lesser roads on the map were two track sand trails much too dusty for us to travel.
Cacti covered the dry, barren hills and pink flamingos dotted the wetted flats that were around every bend.
We ended our first day tour at the Loc Bay where the sea turtles come to dine in style on the high grade grasses of this bay (the darker area you see that is roped off from the windsurfers). It also happens to be enclosed by a reef. The reef stops the surging seas from entering the bay without abating the winds. We were treated to the show of some very fine windsurfers that were taking advantage of the exceptionally high winds (minus the waves). There were several surfers that could climb the wind; twist in the air, and land facing the next direction and off they went building up speed as they sped over the water.
So much to do in so little time. Lucy Alice and I had signed up for a snorkel trip and when we showed up it was cancelled due to engine problems. Undaunted, we took a water taxi to Klein Bonaire and did some snorkeling.
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Here the reef was alive but I didn’t see as many larger fish. I was not coming out of the water till I saw a sea turtle but gave up after awhile due to the rough seas that made snorkeling uncomfortable.
Born to be wild and off on the scooters to the south side of the island. This land is flat, scrub brush, and screaming winds. Did you guess their cash crop?
Salt production has been going on for years. Notice the water is pink. This is the last stage before it dries into sea salt. On both the north and southern trips I never saw a backyard garden and the Rally was surprised that there was no Friday/Saturday farmers market. The soil is not conducive to any crops and all fresh produce, meat, and can goods are imported.
There were signs that talked about monuments but never a date. These are the slave quarters for the Indians (the black slaves lived in a single huge dormitory type house). There was not any deterioration of the roof or buildings and being right on the ocean shore they could not have been that old.
We had seen these obelisks from the boat and thought they must be some kind of marker. On our scooter trip we saw a single concrete obelisk that had a sign saying it was restored by the Bonaire Historical Society. I thought it must have some significance or they would not have restored it but we couldn’t guess what it would be until…At this red marker the sign told us the obelisk were used by the ships to know where to set anchor for the grade of salt they wanted to buy.
We returned early enough to the harbour so I could take Lucy Alice to this unique attraction I had discovered on my walk while the laundry was being processed.
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You could not get anywhere near a wild flamingo but this lady nurses sick ones back to health. They enjoy it so much that she has two that have been with her for 11 years. Our first iguana sighting is sunning on the top of the wall.
We turned the scooters in at first light and left the fuel dock with mixed weather reports. We have had everything from high winds and seas to 25 knts winds. I’ll; take the 25 knts wind clip and put some miles between the islands of Venezuela and the 700 mile voyage to San Blas. Venezuela is known for its pirates so we’ll brave the heavy seas and stay well clear of the mainland.
We had been forewarned that the trip from Aruba to the San Blas Islands would be rough. Dinghies in davits were a sure bet to be destroyed. Bali Blue had read that this strip of passage was the 5th worst in the world. We cannot avoid or go around the passage so we battened down, put everything securely away, and planned rough weather meals. We were ready for the worst Mother Nature could throw at us. The seas and weather have been benign and the whole island experience has been an easy downwind sail…we never even raised the mainsail for the whole trip. And that is exactly how the trip started out for the first 3 days. Then we rounded the tip of Columbia and with 300 miles to go I commented on how the sunset was the most unusual I have ever seen. It was like looking through a heavily frosted glass. There was no orange ball settling on the horizon just a band of orange dissipating to blue. There was not a single wisp of a cloud in the sky. What does this mean? I now have a new worst sailing experience ever!
We were 80 miles off the Colombian coast when Duco woke me an hour early for my shift to help him raise the storm jib. Oh, oh this can’t be good news. The seas were confused – swells of 2 meters, 30 knts winds…not too bad. The waves were approaching off our port stern and started giving us a yawl and rolling at the same time. You could not stand up without being tossed about. Soon we were getting gust up to 50 knts. Some swells turned into rogue waves that were racing at a 90 degree angle to the main wave direction. They would smack us right on the beam (the boat was sideways to the waves). This created a loud bang followed by a surge of water climbing up the hull and crashing onto the deck. Several times we commented on how the bimini was a life saver because it was enclosed on all sides. 3 times I felt the onslaught of waves in the cockpit would have filled it to the very top sending water into the salon through the louvers in the companionway hatch boards. I have had 3 hours sleep in 46 hours. When I finally had to nap I found my bunk wet. Don’t care; need to sleep. We were pounded by two waves on the port side and it was raining in my cabin. One of the poops sent water through the hatch like there wasn’t any seal. I couldn’t sleep in the cabin and spent my nap soaking wet curled under the table in the salon. . We got pooped 3 times. This means that a monster wave struck from the very back sending water over and under the bimini and pouring into the cockpit.
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Well when it rains it pours and so of course the cabinet in the salon had to fall off the wall. Removing all the books and the two food lockers covered the sole with stuff up to your knees. It didn’t look like it could hold all that much stuff. It took some creative measures to get it back up on the wall.
After the second day the winds abated and I found I could leave the leeside of the bimini open. This is a relief because the enclosed bimini would steam up with heat, humidity and smell musty. Waves continued to pound the port side with such ferocity that water would burst into the cockpit via the zippers and the bottom edge. I was staring at the full moon painting the surface of the seas with a liquid silvery glow when I took 20 gallons full in the face. My first thought was how warm the water felt on my soaked skin. This happened two more times and I didn’t care. The open window was preferable to the closed in feeling of heat and humidity. By this time I didn’t even try to rinse off the salt and stayed in wet clothes for another 24 hours. I got a salt rash on my butt and had to stand for the final night’s watch. We arrived at 1 am and had to do a circle pattern until first light to motor between the reefs and enter the harbour at Porvenier, San Blas.
We did not have it as bad as some of the other boats that did not have a full bimini. Bali Blue’s skipper went flying up the companionway after a large wave attacked them. There was his Scottish wife sitting in the cockpit in waist deep in water asking for a rubber ducky and some bubble bath. Jackamy’s crew was so busy doing damage control they didn’t notice that sides slam had moved the slide lock into the locked position. No way into the salon till hours later they took another side hit and the lock slid open. Chamomile’s cockpit filled up to the top and poured down the hatch into their salon through the louvers. Most of the yatchies are hoping this is the worst that will happen on the trip and I am reassuring them that the passages from Raratonga to Tonga and the passage to Crete were not as bad as this one. (See gaiaworldtour.net for the challenging passages mentioned above)
We have traveled 1,356 nm since I came aboard Breit in Antigua. It’s not very often that I have ever thought about the windward islands of the Caribbean. It is too far to travel from the States for a two week vacation. I have enjoyed the geography and the people. These islands are much less commercialized and westernized then the northern Caribbean.
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