Wow,
it's been a fair while you guys... well, I can give you all the
excuses in the world and they will be always true but I really should
just drop a few more phrases here and there for the blog followers...
I guess the convenience of Facebook and the easy webalbum updates I
have been giving makes me a bit lazy to write on the blog when I have
the rare opportunity like this afternoon.
I
will start by describing our present situation from Bonaire where the
top speed was 17 knots. Moonwalker was loving it, and Russ had a
lovely grin on his face. Brisa and I took the chance to read a book
and catch up on sleep. We are good at that when we sail! At this very
moment Bri is sleeping after falling asleep on the dinghy ride back
from a local marina where we went to get water, and Russ is in the
hospital with the son of the said marina as he had a bad accident
with a piece of glass I am told. I not even noticed Russ was gone as
Brisa was running around the courtyard after three very friendly
dogs. Therefore I have the boat for myself for a wee while I hope.
Can't not even remember the last time I had such peace even if the
circumstances are odd!
So
where did we last leave you all? Tobago! Yes, lovely Tobago. We had a
blast there. Spent a month as we had two weeks by ourselves and
another 2 with my uncle Tadeu and his family. It was a very nice
place to cruise around. The anchorages are fairly good but some can
be rolly with the northerly swell which we had when we arrived in
Charloteville. We pretty much seen the entire island and were
astounded to discover so few people visited it. Eventually we came to
understand why: weather. We were at very end of season to visit it
really. As when the infamous “ Christmas Winds” arrive from the
Northeast predominately most of the anchorages become unattainable I
believe.
To
tell you all the truth Russ and I hadn't really done our homework and
had no idea these winds were so severe. We discovered when we got to
Trinidad to drop my uncle off and ended up being stuck in Trini for
over a week – which is probably as much time as you need to be
there if you got nothing to do on your boat. It was like, when the
weather Gods hear a Christmas Bell they just turn on the fan into
maximum! It was 20 to 30 knots daily from North to Northeast.
We
managed to score a lighter easterly to just north of east winds on
the 27th December which allowed us to go to Grenada
without too much trouble (just a bit of pain in our pockets as we had
to pay extra in order to check out of Trinidad on boxing day– super
expensive if you ask me at almost US150 for a bit over a month
there!) but still with a very unpleasant swell. The plan was to by
pass Grenada and anchor in Carriacou and head to the Tobago Cays in
the Grenadines as soon as possible but as we approached St Davis
Harbour in Grenada the days was coming to an end and the wind was
getting stronger and more northerly (in other words right on our
nose!). So into St Davis Harbour we went. There we realized there was
no way we were going north anytime soon. The weather forecast was
very strong winds all the way to the 4th of January so we
headed back down the island to more populated anchorages of Clarks
Court and Hog Island. Eventually we settled to spend New Years in
Prickly Bay and were very pleasantly surprised to meet many good
friends, some from South African times.
Eventually
we got a lighter wind forecasted – 15 to 20 – and thought we
should give it a try. We decided to take the lee of the island even
though it added 10 miles to the trip. The sail up the lee side was
good, we had the company of another 10 boats which added to our
confidence that we had made a good decision until we got to the end
and had a glimpse of the channel to Carriacou... it was white foamy
caps of 25 to 30 knots gusts Russ was fumming. He yelled at the
winds and to whomever wanted to hear that he had thousands of miles
to go so why the f?!@k should he sail up
wind so come stupid Caribbean island? Oh well... I told him, as a
good girl that I am, that I didn't mind we could just turn back to
Grenada and carry on West, no harm done. However Russ kept checking
all the other boats coming and everyone was doing it, even Filipe's
Trimaram (a nice Italian sailor we had met in Prickly) was there
bashing up wind... so Russ bit the bullet and off we went. Every time
a wave crashed, the boat bashed or got slapped under Russ would
growl... it wasn't a pretty sight. But we did it and anchored for
the night in Carriacou. We watched as most of boats entered the same
anchorage after us all weather beaten and salty. Russ with a cold
beer in his hand exchanged pleasantries with them all from the salty
deck.
Next
day we moved up the chain into Union Island, still a bashing upwind
but Russ seemed a bit more resigned into it and actually had some fun
laying out plans wind angles and anchorages we could see while
utilizing the wind to our advantage. Well, reality is we hadn't until
then, to deal with contrary winds! Quite astounding I know. So I was
a whole different game. We anchored on the lee side of Union, for the
night and next morning we checked into the Grenadines by going into
the crowded and tight harbour there. Winds were still hauling at 20
to 25 constantly. We moved after checking in, as Russ didn't want to
stay there, to Petite Martinique, which was actually back tracking a
bit but a good wind angle and not so bad with the high running swell.
Next day the angle was good to sail into Tobago Cays.
The
Cays is very pretty with picture perfect anchorages, beaches and
turquoise waters but crowded. The wind was relentless and everyone
was bashing in the main anchorage area of Horseshoe Reef so we
decided to check our luck in between the two islands right behind it
and managed to tuck ourselves off the main channel up against the
shallow waters of the beach. It was paradise. Lovely beach just next
door, off the strong wind and still. It was great. But the weather
made snorkeling a pain with its constant chop and going out on the
reef was pretty hard. So after 3 days we packed our stuff and moved
on. Probably the coolest thing we saw was the biggest cruising
catamaran in the world called Hemisphere. It is 120ft and looked
enormous, but that is all it was, a very big cat. Not quite the
statement we expected when we hear about a boat with that title.
Russ made me visualize a down scaled hemisphere, and asked if I
thought it was a nice boat. I had to agree with him it wasn't such an
interesting boat after all. But man, it was big and flash...
We
eventually returned to Grenada via the windward side in order to
visit the Salina Islands off Carriacou. There we had an incredible
time, with the anchorage just to ourselves, beautiful beach and water
loaded with turtles. It was quite amazing to think that just a few
miles north we had to share anchorages with dozens of boats. It was a
great tip from an Irish sailor we met in Brazil.
In
Grenada we did a good stock up bought a couple of guides for
Venezuela and ABC islands – say whatever you want to say about
cruisers net, but the Grenada net on VHF is absolute priceless and
incredibly helpful in all matters so good on them (channel 68 at 730
am local time) – and off we went against everyones advice to the
Venezuelan Off – Shore Islands!
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