Bequia to Trinidad

Log #8 2006

June 7th-30th

All the way down from Canada we had very little go wrong on the boat. We had a few scratches on the bow from wind and current up in New Smyrna beach in Florida and again some more scratches at St. Barts when an anchor broke loose from its roller but all in all nothing serious or threatening. That was about to change. The weather gurus were calling for a tropical wave in two days and we had a bit of a window to get down to Tyrell Bay from Bequia before it rolled through so we decided to leave at dawn on June 7th. Tyrell Bay has a mangrove which has a reputation as a hurricane hole so if any of these early season tropical waves turned into a low or something even more ominous then we at least stood a chance. After weighing anchor Deb was raising the mizzen sail when the goose neck on the boom snapped. No big deal we would just go with the main and jib, so we took down the sail and boom and packed them down below. We had a great sail down and arrived at Union Island just in time for a squall which has happened to us here before.
Clifton harbour being basically a hole in a coral reef is tricky enough to enter in good conditions, never mind with squalls, so we stood off and after ten minutes it blew over and calmed down. It took three attempts to get the anchor to hold and then it was a long wet ride to the dinghy dock. At the airport we checked out for Grenada and the officer to my amazement charged me 43 dollars to check out, I think because it was lunch time, not quite sure, in any case I didn’t argue. After this I had had enough, so we blew out of there over to Hillsboro where we were greeted by the same characters at the pier from five years before hustling us for money. We then got checked in by the same officer who had hassled us about our charters dinghy motor five years ago. Finished up and lifted the hook for the fifth time that day and then moved over to Tyrell Bay for the night.
The weather seemed to give us a few more hours in the morning before the effects of the tropical wave so we decided to go first thing in the morning, it was either that or spend five days in Tyrell. While there we got to meet Windborne III from our dock in Toronto who left the year before we bought Seacycle. They were on their way out so it was a brief meeting. We introduced ourselves as fellow D dock refugees.

Well we left in the morning and were about four miles out when Deb went below to get the single sideband radio for the weather. She came up right away and reported that we had water coming through the floor boards. I put her on the wheel and went down to see what was happening. Now a lot of things are running through your mind when things like this are in motion, it’s a kind of information overload as you try to fathom things out. The bilge pump did not seem to be pumping at its usual rate and at first I couldn’t locate the leak. I checked the front head thru holes first, but they were dry. I then went up and helped Deb turn the boat around and head back for shore calling Ticketoo and informing them what was happening. Again I looked over the back to check the bilge which was just dribbling instead of pumping. Back below, I ripped the sink counter up and tried to see behind the motor where I finally could see water poring in on the starboard side. Water was still rising so I started the engine, unhooked the water inlet hose and shoved it into the bilge. It started to at least pump the water out of the boat. Leaning over the engine I finally spotted the problem, the scupper hose from the deck which attaches to the cockpit drain had worked itself off its fitting. I shut the through hole which stopped the water from coming in the bottom but still had to contend with the water from the decks. I asked Deb to keep the boat as flat as possible which was hard because we were taking quartering waves which were washing the decks. Also a squall decided to make its appearance so things were kind of busy. I still could not see why the bilge pump wasn’t pumping at full strength so I turned it off and looked back into the bilge. Finally I could see the oil soak sheet floating up in the murk in the bilge. It must have washed into the bilge from off the motor pan. The bilge pump must of being doing its job but had pulled the soak rag onto itself. When I turned the bilge off it released the rag. Now the water was pumping out and the amount coming in was somewhat under control as I cleaned the hose which was totally slimed up from the sink which has a fitting opposite the deck scupper and over time had lubed up the hose. The fitting had no barb and no more than a quarter inch of grab. By the time I had everything back together I wasn’t feeling too good after hanging over a running engine with all the heat and argy-bargy so I got outside and took over the wheel to get some fresh air. We got on the radio and told everyone we were getting back on track as we turned the boat around to head for Grenada. Caroline on Windborne back in Tyrell had been following the situation and had notified the Tyrell yard that we might need a quick haul so we thanked her. We were coming up to the small island called Kick’em Jenny which we were hugging, to stay out of the exclusion zone for the underwater volcano that goes by the same name. But now we had another squall to deal with. Just as Deb and I were congratulating ourselves we had a gust nail us which we were told later was recorded at 34 knots. Of course Seacycle decided to celebrate surviving all this by letting out a breath of relief and blowing out the mainsail, luff to leach. I think I was actually relieved, thinking man, that’s three things, we aren’t due anymore. I climbed forward and pulled the sail down, left the jib up with the engine running and tried to beat another squall to the northern end of Grenada, no luck but the rain was refreshing and cooled us off after all the excitement. I just looked at Deb as we were both getting drenched and asked her if we were having fun yet.

Usually the leeward coast of Grenada is windless and you have to motor it but today it was very windy and the wind was gusting down the valleys just like back at Dominica. We limped into St. Georges at noon, wind honking, took one look at all the boats crowded in the anchorage (in fact one was dragging as we entered) and left right away for Prickly Bay on the south coast. It took about an hour to reach Pt. Saline and when we rounded it and motored through the swell over to Prickly bay where we limped in shaken not stirred.


We spent the next day fixing things, getting groceries and then when we couldn’t take anymore of the rolling we moved around to Mount Hartman bay threading the tricky entrance and anchoring in 24 feet where we stayed put for the next seventeen days using that as our base. The loudest noise came from some cows mooing in the fields to the north and the only bother was a few flies. Mount Hartman bay is next to Hog Island which has an interesting cruising community some of whom survived hurricane Ivan. They have a great beach barbeque on Sundays, Mount Hartman has a great barbeque on Friday nights, Prickly bay has a great barbeque on Saturdays, well you get the picture, Deb says its’ too hot to cook anyways. We had finally reconnected with Equinox after not seeing them since Florida, so along with Ticketoo
all of us were going on the local buses to St. Georges and touring up island. In fact we drove right around the entire island doing the chocolate and spice factories.
Our tour guides called Protector were Ali and Tony who turned out to be the brother of our guide from years ago whose name is Martin otherwise known as CatsEye. This led to an interesting confrontation when the two met with Martin accusing Tony of stealing his clients but I straighten it out on the road and a few days later met Martin again promising him business next trip. Its slow season with no cruise ships so everyone is scrambling for the dollar. Walking through the markets can be a real hassle with all the vendors zeroing in on you since there isn’t much business. The market in St. Georges is very colourful as is the town built around the harbour which I think is one of the nicest in the Caribbean. There is a lot of rebuilding going on which is being exasperated by a shortage of cement, leading to job losses in the private sector. This is due to the construction of a new cricket stadium that is being rushed for the 2007 world championships. The stadium is being built by the Chinese with their contractors with very little local employment. The papers are full of conflicting opinions and debate about the situation. This is not the first time we have noticed Chinese involvement as the same thing is going on in Dominica with their new stadium. Wonder what the catch is?

The whole time we were keeping one eye cocked on the weather listening to Eric from Trinidad and Chris Parker on the short wave from Florida. Every morning starting at 6:30 am and going till 9:00 most days are spent looking for a decent window so we can cross to Trinidad. From Grenada everyone is either going to Trinidad or Venezuela or just staying in Grenada if their insurance will allow it which few will. All the way down I have listened to people say they will just run down to below the hurricane belt as if it was some kind of Sunday drive when the truth is you can easily sit for longer than a week just waiting for the right wave and wind combination so you don’t get hammered on the crossing. This crossing also has the extra twist of throwing in strong off setting currents which can set you far to the west if you are not careful. Our insurance is pretty well useless stating that we must be south of 12 degrees by June 1st. It turned out when we were anchored in Prickly Bay we were about 100 feet south of the line. In Mount Hartman we were 100 feet to the north. Crazy, with marinas with haul out facilities a few hundred feet to the north of the line but the companies really got burned by Ivan and don’t want you here. The truth is I really wouldn’t want to be here or anywhere one could strike. Even Trinidad isn’t guaranteed but at least we are covered by insurance.

Finally looked like a window was coming for Monday (June26)so we spent the weekend getting the boat ready and spent time scrapping down the hull as this might be the last time for awhile since the water in Chaguaramas Bay our destination has a reputation for being dirty. There seemed to be a small fleet of about 15 boats getting ready for the jump. First thing in the morning I walked over the hill to customs at Prickly Bay to checkout. The view out over the ocean was not promising with lots of white caps and what looked like large waves. The reports said this was as good as it would get for the week but still it looked stronger than forecast. Again we were at the bottom of an island so you get all the funneling and veering action from the trades and the currents which always will make the first few miles rough. Here the conditions are also affected for the first five miles by the depth which is only 80 feet before dropping off to over 2000 feet. I was apprehensive about going out and was hoping by the afternoon things would settle. Fat chance and about one o’clock the radio started buzzing with a discussion of the conditions. Two or three boats dropped out and I was leaning in that direction. At three o’clock I talked to Ticketoo, Chez Freddie and Equinox and we agreed we would go out and try things for an hour. If we didn’t like the conditions we could come back in with enough light to see the reefs. Deb and I changed from two to three reefs in the main sail and out we went with rough, confused conditions for the first couple of miles and then things fell into a groove in about six foot waves. Our engine was hiccupping but we were bouncing along at over six knots in idle so we shut her down. The other boats called and it was decided to push on which was fine with us since we were not looking forward to going back through the reefs with a dicey engine. We figured we had 18 hours to fix that problem before we reached the Bocas in Trinidad. When we reached the six mile mark the depth fell away to over 2000 feet and the waves finally found some sort of rhythm even though the odd rogue would stop the boat dead or worse find its way into the cockpit. Lee cloths are one of the off season projects with the Albergs low freeboard we are hoping this will make for a drier vessel. The passage across was very busy with lots of freighters and fishing boat traffic. About twenty five miles out from Trinidad there is an oil rig lit up like Chinese new years with other smaller platforms around it, which was very confusing in the dark. When we left we were the first four vessels out but by the time we reached the rig we numbered eleven though the rest all followed. The skies were clear through out the night but lightning kept flashing off towards the South American coast lighting up the horizon. Deb figured it was heat lightning. In any case enough to add to the apprehension. Around dawn we could make out the Bocas which are a set of islands to the west of the main island. The coast of Venezuela was much closer than I ever imagined not more than a few miles from the last Bocas. All the way across we heard the other boats talking about getting knocked by the current encountering up to three knots at times. We sailed till dawn, managing to hang high of the rhumb line and were slowed down a few times but feel we were lucky with the worst of it slowing us down to 2 knots for about an hour and half with not much loss to leeway. Eight miles out we lost sight of the islands when they were closed in by squalls. I figured now we are in for it, so we rolled up the jib to hanky size crossed our fingers and fired the engine up which ran with no sign of the previous hiccups. We think it was so rough coming out that sediment in the filter bowl got stirred up, at least that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. One other boat a 45 foot Bristol blew out his mainsail clew and then lost his engine due to filter problems getting it fixed half an hour out of the Bocas. The squalls blanketed us and came in waves of downpours for about an hour. The Bocas which are not wide, have a reputation for current as the entire Orinoco basin is draining through them to the Caribbean. We were deciding whether to stand off or not when it finally cleared up although it stayed overcast. All four boats that left together arrived and passed through the Bocas Mono together. The passage through the channel reminded us of going down the Hudson. We finally pulled into Chaguaramas Bay with Seacycle tying up at the small customs dock and getting cleared in. We moved the boat around and anchored in the Carenage to wait for our Friday booking at Coral Cove marina. The entire fore peak was soaked again so we crashed on the salon settees and slept the sleep of the dead till morning. Wednesday we spent cleaning the boat and drying the front out and by nightfall we were in pretty good shape settling in early with our stereo and books. With over night passages it always takes a day or two to recover, I call it boatlag. Some people like to get off their boats in all the excitement to see the new place but we like to clean up and get rested. Thursday we walked over to the marina and checked out the approach to our slip and got the general lay of the land. Finally Friday morning we pulled into our slip turned of the engine ending ten months and 4000 nautical miles over the ground. We figured we could have got here in five hours on the plane.
To be continued……