2006 Cruising

We started on New Years Day from near the Anchorage Hotel in Roseau, the capital of Dominica.

View of the Evergreen Hotel and Restaurant where we had spent a delightful New Years Eve

 Our mooring provider and boat boy Pancho was doing a bit of fishing with his dog Siboo .....

Our friendly boat-boy Pancho is doing a bit of fishing with his dog Siboo

Pancho had come out some way to meet us on our approach to Roseau and then guided us to one of his moorings (at a reasonable price of US$10 pernight) He also has a 4WD car and does guided hikes. I can recommend his services and when in Roseau again I shall see if I can moor there again. Unlike many places in the Caribbean anchoring is a bit difficult for yachts in the Roseau area and so his offer of a mooring was gratefully received and taken up.

We moved on to an anchorage about half way up the coast of Dominica just North of the Layou river and off a beach resort called Castaways. This low key resort had previously run a sports diving operation and had a dock/jetty which had been damaged. We landed there and had a good walk to the Shillingford Estate.   

The Castaways resort had a lovely Beach Bar area

Their Dive Boat was looking in a sorry state of disuse

We walked as far as the Shillingford estate

 - unfortunately we couldn't buy any of their rum since it was New Years Day AND a Sunday!

Next day we moved on to Portsmouth in the North of the island. Like its namesake in England it has a good natural harbour - but as with many such places in the Eastern Caribbean it is entirely open to the West (from which the only very rarely blows - but when it does so in the hurricane season it can do so with a remarkable violence). We had arranged to meet the boat-boy Martin (partly to fend off the offers from other boat-boys and floating vendors). We did a boat trip and mini-hike with him up the Indian river nearby. As the pictures show it is a remarkable place.

Wrecked ships litter the shore right in front of the town of Portsmouth

Trees lining the Indian river have grown remarkable root systems

One house in Portsmouth has a ship's bridge built on as a top floor

Tues 14thFeb 2006
Arrived yesterday here in Chaguramas, Trinidad. It is a tropical boatyard/shipyard heaven/hell (depending on your viewpoint!) and a great contrast to the Eastern Caribbean islands North of here. Perhaps it could also be described as a Caribbean Cruisers maintenance Mecca. Nearly 4 weeks ago when sailing single-handed for the first time in over 2 months the self-steering gear rudder (Wallace's rudder) broke off and was lost. This meant that since then I have been sailing without any self-steering gear and Ramprasad is a rather different boat to handle without that gear. I have enquired in a couple of places to get a new one made out of stainless steel (as suggested by the designer/builder Peter the Windpilot) and the welders/fabricators thus questioned have expressed every capability of doing the job but indicated that there would be some delay in getting the materials necessary. In contrast here there are a number of fabricators who clearly are quite busy and have good access to materials locally and I suspect that the problem will be not one of materials but one of "When can you fit the job in?" However with Ramprasad in need of a haul-out and an intensive maintenance session and Chaguramas being the best place in the region to do it, a delay here will be less frustrating than elsewhere. When Eve (from Vermont in the USA - she had sailed with me a few times on Marabu and other boats some 20 years ago) said she could sail with me from late January for a fortnight, I thought that at least I would have crew to help sail the boat South. However she had left behind some concerns of a personal nature and admitted that she had made a mistake in coming. We sailed from Antigua to Guadaloupe and then on to Portsmouth in Dominica where she left and I have continued single-handed with a few stops since there. Well I am glad that I am doing this sort of thing in the warm waters of the Caribbean with fairly predictable winds and sea conditions. It really is a pleasure to be here!

A view of the port of Chaguramas in Trinidad showing superyachts, commercial shipping and cruising yachts. The middle structure in the distance is not a fairground ride but actually a large cable-laying or pipe-laying ship with a heli-pad over its bridge on the left. The large shed on the right was built by the Americans in the 2nd World War and is now the covered part of the Crews Inn boatyard

Fri 21st April 2006
My intensive maintenance session in Trinidad in February and March proved well worth while. On the subject of the remaking of a self-streering gear rudder I took advice from an American yachtie who ran a weekly radio net covering boat maintenance matters and made serious approaches to two out of the four stainless fabricators working in Chaguramas. Of these two I chose the one who had convinced me better that he understood the job and in the event the rudder was made in the week before what was expected to be a very long week-end with a major recovery period thereafter. So I was very pleased to get it done before Carnival during which I could get on with those little jobs which are not dependent on outside help. The new Wallace rudder is slightly bigger, a lot heavier and must be stronger than its predecessor.

Wallace's new rudder on delivery ... and after mounting with its first coat of epoxy and fairing filler

 On Carnival Sunday I was getting ready to lift it on to the transom brackets using one of my cockpit winches but realised that a little help would be in order to guide it into position. Fortunately I spotted a couple of likely looking yachties, Bob and Cameron. They came over to help and we got the rudder in place swiftly - I was able to return the favour to Cameron by lending him some special paint thinners which enabled him to get on with a painting job. I went into town for J'ouvert morning and Carnival Tuesday. Trinidad has been getting a reputation for violent crime in recent years and I heard a senior police officer say that he considered J'ouvert to be the major policing challenge of this period - so for this occasion when most of the youth celebrate the real start to Carnival celebrations in the hours leading up to daybreak I took the precaution of staying on the major streets in the city and not going down any dark alleys. The sights to be seen at daybreak in Independence Square and the surrounding streets were as usual quite amazing. On Tuesday I went into town with a digital camera for the first time and caught many images of those who were "playing mas"!

Click here to see a new page showing some pictures of Trinidad Carnival 2006

 Representative as these pictures are they somehow do not quite do justice to the general atmosphere of the event which if anything is greatly enhanced by the heat and noise on the streets. Well Ash Wednesday came and Trinidad returned to what passes as normal on this most individual of islands and I returned to my labours on Ramprasad. Coats of topsides paint were applied as well as the sort of antifouling that seems to work for me. Eventually (or so it seemed) I got relaunched at Power Boats on Friday 10th March. I had had good dry weather for all the painting since Carnival and on that day there was delay firstly because they had to fix the travel-hoist machine then secondly for a rain break. But what a relief to get back afloat and be out of the heat and dust of the boatyard. Well after a bit I settle back into life afloat and leave Trinidad after making good use of their duty free shop. I sail North making one stop in Tyrrell Bay, Cariacou to Admiralty Bay in Bequia. The self-steering gear seems to work OK but it is there that I get the sad news that my mother had died. She was 84 and had been living in a nursing home for nearly two years with Alzheimers disease steadily getting worse. My 2 sisters and her dog had been with her at the time of her passing and I clearly needed to fly back home for her funeral. I sailed to Le Marin in Martinique, booked an airline ticket and moored the boat in the marina there. I flew home and even though I was expecting it I did suffer from a temperature shock when I walked out of the airport building in London. However once home I did manage to find some warmer clothes, get the fire going and warm up. With the funeral over on the Thursday before Easter, I flew back to Martinique on Saturday and had Easter Sunday as a flight recovery day. Yesterday I did what is perhaps a classic Caribbean passage from Guadaloupe to Antigua. The wind had been very uncertain light and variable in the early morning but as I left Guadaloupe behind it steadied into a light NEley against which I could sail North at about 5 knots in the flat sea. I entered English Harbour under sail and in quite confined waters got my sails down before bumping into anything. There's something about this harbour (and perhaps the historical connection which Nelson has with it) that makes one want to sail in if possible and now I am anchored in what seems to be a delightful spot at the top end of Freeman's Bay. It is now the start of the Antigua Classics regatta and so I shall hope to be able to admire some of the beautiful yachts that have gathered here.
 

Yachts do a crowded start on the first full day of Antigua Classics

A restored six-metre gets under way in Falmouth harbour

The newly-built super-J "Ranger" moored in Falmouth Yacht Club marina

The crew of the Dominican Carib canoe "Gli-Gli" gather for some song and dance in the garden of the Admiral's Inn in English harbour

Sun 28th May 2006
I am now making what I hope to be my final approach to the Azores after what will be a 23 day passage from St Martin in the Caribbean. The first half went rather slowly - I sailed well North of the rhumb line due to the ENE winds and it took me a full 2 weeks to cross the half-way mark. I am glad to say that the second half has been a lot quicker and that as usual I have been quite conservative in my use of the engine. Up until last night (the start of day 23) I had used the engine for a total of 6.5 hours since leaving St Martin. Even with charging from wind-generator, solar panels and occasioally a petrol generator the batteries must have been quite discharged and after starting the engine, the alternator was working quite hard and within an hour it had worn through its drive belt (aka fan belt). I fiited a new one (at 2am) got motoring again and at breakfast ( ~ 8 am) the new one had worn through and parted too! Since then I have had a sailing breeze (albeit sailing on the wind) so I haven't had to start wearing out the 2nd new belt! When back in England I may well enquire into the availability of a new crankshaft pulley which I believe is responsible for most of the belt wear. As before Herb has been a saint in providing weather information and routing advice (starting around 1950GMT on 12359kHz) and has guided me safely across the ocean. There has been quite a bit of radio talk over this period - I have been part of an informal radio net with other boats doing the same sort of thing. Due to the arrival in the Azores of the principal net-controller boats 2-3 days ago I have taken on the task of being Net Controller for the past couple of days and have passed the job on to others behind me for when I arrive.
 

Tues 30th May
Arrived y'day morning at about 7am after waking up at 4am in quite calm conditions a couple of miles off the S coast of Faial - motor-sailed then motored the 10 miles to Horta and went alongside the reception/fuel dock (rafted 4 out). I understand that the marina had filled up quite impressively over the last few days and since there was no room I had to anchor out. When I saw the cramped conditions of yachts rafted on the marina wall I wasn't too sad that I hadn't arrived a few days earlier when there was room. Had a meal out last night with the crew of "Morangi" - one of the Net boats. It was great to put faces to the voices on the radio. They had started a competition for the best idea to improve comfort on a cruising boat. My entry was "A self-steering gear which always works and never breaks, consumes no electric power or beer, makes no noise and never complains: furthermore even though it will never break under normal or extraordinary conditions it must prove that if it does break it will repair itself instantaneously and infallibly!". Naturally my entry won the competition and the prize is a large glass of Glen Morangi whisky which I shall share out between all present. I had misplaced my USB Flash Drive (with which I carry this message ashore to the Internet cafe) but I am glad to say that this morning I found it so I expect to send this later on today.

Mon 26th June 2006
Arrived in Porth Cressa, St Mary's in the Scilly Islands last Friday after a 13 day passage from Horta in the Azores. This is somewhat faster than the last time that I did this passage with Simeon in 1999 when we had quite a bit of calm and had to beat against a strong NE ley a few days before arrival. This passage started off uncomfortably in a light NWley but a heavy Nley swell, and slowly since I spent a couple of days trying unsuccessfully to beat against light Northerleys until Herb advised me in no uncertain terms to use the engine to motor across a ridge of High Pressure. This done I had light Westerleys for most of the rest of the trip but sailing off the wind I made decent daily progress. The wind only strengthened enough to cause me to put the Mainsail's 2nd reef in on day 11. The use of the AIS radar (aka ship detector) and the LED masthead light gave me great peace of mind. I set the alarm on the AIS to alert me when a ship came within 4 miles and then if there was any danger of collision I would call the ship by name on the radio and check that the watch officer had seen me. I was also in daily radio contact with a small network of other yachts doing similar passages with whom I would exchange position reports, and weather information. It was extremely useful to get forecast information from sources other than Herb, especially when talking to Herb became hard or impossible towards the end of the trip and before I was in range of the normal european broadcast forecasts.
Arrival in the Scillies after so long on the wide ocean was of course a great contrast. I had to motor overnight for the last 60 miles and in the calm weather prevailing chose to anchor on the quiet side of town in St Mary's. The main harbour is a little exposed to the North-West and our experience there 7 years ago was not altogether positive so I was please that conditions were (and remain) appropriate to stay here in Porth Cressa. The silence when I turned off Eric the Perky was amazing. The clear water gave an excellent view of the anchor digging into the sandy bottom and there I was close to low tide almost surrounded by the rocks for which the Scillies are famous.

A view of the Bishop Rock lighthouse, Britain's Westernmost point as seen on my approach to the Scillies

Some views of Porth Cressa from my anchorage

 ... and the "Scillonian" the islands' daily ferry from Penzance

I assembled the folding dinghy (which is better to row and is lighter to carry or drag up the beach) and rowed ashore to visit some of the places remembered from previous visits. My landing point turned out to be very convenient to the "Bishop and Wolf" (named after the two rocks either side of Scillies well-marked by tall lighthouses) and the Porth Cressa pub whose terrace has a lovely view over the anchorage. Tomorrow Julia will join me for the rest of the week and we hope to cruise the islands a bit and perhaps spot some puffins and seals.

and a view of King Harry's Walls (an unfinished 16th Century fortification) with St Mary's Pool and Hughtown on St Mary's in the background

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