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.