Reflections on “The Crossing”, and The Spice Island.

Slipping out of Mindelo, in the Cabo Verde, had been farewell to the safety of being close to land. There would be no port of refuge. Now the wind was behind us. The nearest land was below, 5 miles below. There would be no anchoring, no “stopping for the night”, no “nipping out for a beer”. We would be on our own. On our own for the next two thousand two hundred miles.

The crew was a good one. John Shaw, RNLI Helmsman from the Portsmouth Lifeboat, boat builder from Southsea Marina, and friend, had flown out to Ilha da Sal to find we had sailed on to Sao Vincente and had left him a ticket for a connecting flight – which he missed! Still, it gave him a chance to see the Island and have a swim.

On board the routine was the same each day, three hours on, six hours off. Six hours for sleep, and your daily round of duties; cleaning the boat, checking for signs of wear or gear failures, then making repairs, making lunch, afternoon tea (with biscuits of course), and preparing then cooking the evening meal, before, of course, the washing up….. if you had time you could read a book.

Sailing relies on the weather. The Trades were late this year, but we had been watching and waiting. The forecast was promising. Puffy white clouds were drifting west. The weather was settling down. The Trade Winds were starting to blow.

The SSB radio was fantastic. Each day I was able to download synoptic charts from around the world: Northwood UK, Lunenburg Nova Scotia, and New Orleans. I could even request Grib files for ‘my’ area of the North Atlantic, and have them delivered at 0600hrs daily. Then there was Herb.

Herb was fantastic. The routine is the same every day. At 1930hrs UT, I would switch on the SSB, tune to 12359.0 USB, and log in: “Southbound 2 Southbound 2 Avocette Avocette standing by”.

2000 miles away, in Ottawa, Herb Hilgenberg runs a daily Net for yachtsmen in the North Atlantic. As you log in Herb, sitting at his radio with computers at his side, records all the vessels. Then, starting in the Gulf of Mexico, he tunes his antenna to each individual boat in turn. He talks to you about your position and your actual weather, then gives you a forecast for the next 24hrs,and advises you where to go for the most favourable conditions. Like so many yachtsmen, I am indebted to him for his help, and friendly guidance. I shall certainly be logging in again on the return trip.

Listening in to Herb also enabled us to track our friends on Solstice, Free Spirit, Transcendence, and Allua, and note their positions – had we got passed them?!!!
Sitting here, at anchor in Prickly Bay, Grenada, we are all back together. We have tales to tell, the bar is open, and a New Year to celebrate.

Grenada

Only a hundred miles north of Trinidad and Tobago, and the continent of South America, lies Grenada, the Spice Island.

Our tour, with friendly local, Joseph, took us into the countryside. We stopped, picked, and ate, strange fruit. We watched farmers, machete in hand, working the land, crops of many types of bananas, sugar cane, tamarind, sorrel, and spices being grown. We stopped at a café for lunch, enjoyed local food, Roti’s, plantain, breadfruit, and local fish chicken or lambie, some we had never seen before. Then it was up into the rain forest to the waterfalls, on to the Nutmeg Processing factory , the River Rum distillery, and the Chocolate factory………….Mmmmm.

Grenada seems different to other islands in the Caribbean. It’s very friendly, with little crime, but boy does it know how to rain! Torrential downpours soak everything. Then the sun dries it up. The rainy season should be over. It should have given way to the dry season, but even here things aren’t as predictable as they used to be.

Dress Code: Shorts, plus t-shirt at night.

There was just a hint of orange in the grey sky, a soft grey that crept slowly out of the east. First it was the Milkyway, then the more distant, paler, stars that disappeared. Puffy balls of cotton-wool, so typical of tradewind clouds slowly turned, with the dawn, from black to white. It had been one of those magical nights that only the open ocean can bring. A toe-nail of a moon had sunk into the west early on leaving the heavens ablaze. The freshening breeze from the east-north-east had pushed us towards our goal, and now day was breaking. The sun silently creeping out to reveal the nights casualties, Flying fish, some as big as 7 inches, others barely an inch long littered the deck, one, two, three,…twelve this morning.

These waters seem to teem with life. Still no big whales. Common, Spotted, and Long-nosed Spinner dolphins, had come to guide us on our way. Pilot whales have escorted us too. In the air Great Shearwaters, Storm Petrels, and some like black faced gannets have inquisitively followed the boat, each defining their mastery of the air before leaving us to enjoy our sailing.

Africa is now 2320 miles astern, the Cabo Verde 1900 miles. Grenada lies ahead just 250 miles away.

It's blowing 25-30kts with 5m seas - fabulous to watch. Each blue roller lifts Avocette's stern to its foaming white crest, then we surf down its face, spray flying, and the water turns turquoise. The reefed headsail all we need; speeds from 6-9kts as we ride the waves send us ever closer to that beer…………..

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It's NOT the Pond1

It's the North Atlantic Ocean, and big, very big, and we are in the middle of it.

We are 1086 miles from the Cabo Verde, with 1090 miles to go. The Trades are NE 16-25kts, giving us 6-7.5 kts with reefed main and staysail, and seas of 3 - 3.5m. We are heading due west for Grenada.

The night skies are awesome - wall-to-wall stars. The days are classic tradewind conditions, blue skies with cotton-wool clouds,blue, blue sea.

Long-nose spinner dolphins entertain us, flying fish abound. Fishing is good, Mahi-Mahi for tea tonight.

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Supper in the Sun

Out here I choose when it gets dark, so we sit in the cockpit and have supper as the sun sets! Then it's time to tune in to Herb on the SSB radio. "Southbound 2" is a wonderful weather-routing service provided by Herb in Ottawa, and he customises it for each boat. It also means that we can keep track of our friends on other boats.

We had lots of Long-nosed Spinner Dolphins today, loads of flying fish, plus some Great shearwaters and storm petrels.

Fishing is great, big Mahi-Mahi.

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Happy New Year

We are 340M out from the Cabo Verde, with 1858M to go. Winds are light ENE 10-15kts. Fishing is good - 3 Mahi-mahi so far. Dolphins on N Yr Eve. Have a great new year.

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