2004 Cruising

1st Jan 2004 - Saw in the New Year at Spinnakers last night with Adam. The Royal St Lucian hotel had started their fireworks a little early as we were walking along the road - it was a pretty impressive display but nothing to match previous displays in Spain and Portugal I fear to say - some red parachute flares from the anchorage near Pidgeon Island and parallel displays from the Sandals resort nearby and another place to the South. But not many boats at all in the main Rodney bay anchorage due to the unseasonal Northerley swell and strong North-Easterley wind. Amanda and Julia had opted out of the walk to Spinnakers and went for a complimentary champagne and Pinocolada in the nearby Marina bar/restaurant (now renamed Scuttlebuts).  After fireworks had a couple of beers danced a bit in Spinnakers before wending our way homewards in the early hours.   

Floating Fruit and Veg Man in Rodney Bay Lagoon and J-Class yacht "Endeavour" at anchor close to the 18th Century fortifications of Pidgeon Island, St Lucia

3rd Jan - Moderating swell forecast - With some relief checked out of Rodney Bay marina and left soon after buying one brown coconut from the floating fruit and veg man (and disentangling ourselves from his rig) - got dinghy back aboard and went out of the lagoon into the cleaner water of the bay - spotted J-class yacht "Endeavour" anchored over by Pidgeon Island and so motored over there for a look. Then hoisted sail and sailed inside the rock called "Barrel of Beef" and got on course for Vigie Point - then past the Hess Oil terminal - had a shower off Marigot Bay then past the village of Anse La Raye, saw a few charter cats at Anse Cochon, then went past Canaries, got into some calm and fluky airs close in the lee of high ground so got sail down and restarted Eric the Perky - met Soufriere boat boy Joy (on his motored pirogue "Vitamin Sea") and agreed that he should take our stern-line when we anchor off the beach at the Hummingbird (a pleasant anchorage and a short walk from the town of Soufriere). This journey from Rodney Bay was completed in about the same time and with a far greater degree of comfort than the same one on New Years Eve done in the mini-bus route taxis. The roads on St Lucia have been improved in recent times but the standard route from Castries to Soufriere is still tortuously windy as the road climbs up and down hill. One does however get somewhat entertained by the drivers choice of music and the antics of one's fellow travellers! 

Rainbow after a shower at the Hummingbird anchorage at Soufriere, St Lucia

We dinghied over to the bar/restaurant called "Bhang" owned by Lord Glenconner and situated in between the Pitons - had a couple of rum punches with a good view of the sunset and couldn't resist their menu for dinner - expensive but a really special evening!

Sam and Julia at Lord Glenconner's "Bhang" restaurant between the Pitons in St Lucia

 Back at the Hummingbird anchorage things were getting a bit busy with neighbours coming and going and not always getting it right - after doing a bit of shopping we got our anchor up ( - from its considerable depth!) and moved over to a mooring at Malgre Tout (Soufriere side of Petit Piton). An afternoon walk ashore there brought us to the geothermal spring baths and we finished the afternoon off with a rum punch at the Harmony Beach bar from where we were given a free lift back to the boat!

6th Jan -  Slipped our stern line dropped the mooring and sailed off towards St Vincent. Early in the afternoon and getting into the lee of La Soufriere volcano (Vincy's big mountain) we are greeted by a school of a dozen or so bottlenose dolphins. Here there are frequently known as porpoises to distinguish them from the dorado fish which is also known as a dolphin! The wind gets fluky so we start the engine, get sail down and approaching Wallilabou, our chosen port of entry, we are met by a boat boy called Leslie who agrees to take our stern line ashore. The place looks a bit different from my previous visit some 3 years previously and it turns out that it has been transformed into a film set for the Disney film "Pirates of the Caribbean". Many of the locals had worked on the film and Steve (still sporting a pirate bandana and the co-owner of the Anchorage bar and restaurant) had opted that the film company should leave the set as decorated rather than reinstate the area to its previous condition. Only 6 months after the end of shooting many decorated parts were starting to lose their stone-cladding stuck on plastic tiles. As with any temporary work such as this it looks impressively original until you start looking more closely. In the months to come I imagine that the deterioration will accelerate and that maintenance will not be sufficiently kept up. But I do look forward to the chance to see the film and do a bit of scene spotting!

Wallillabou in St Vincent had been transformed into a film set for Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean"

Next morning Streets rejoined us and we met Vonnie, a friend who had lived in London previously and then moved back to her roots to bring up her son in more rural surroundings. She is a banana grower and explained some of the problems that she and other growers had in adapting to the changing market conditions. We then went for a walk to the nearby small town of Barrouillie. When we got back a friend of Paul's family called Dennis had come to visit us. He is the anglican vicar of the parish of Barrouillie which covers the North-Western quarter of St Vincent. He took us for a drive through his parish as far as Chateaubelair where we had lunch. It was clear that the road engineers had had quite a time in designing and building the road as it wound up and down hill in this very mountainous part of the island. It was fascinating to hear his perspective on this part of the island which he knew so well. On the way back we stopped at the Wallilabou falls, a cascade pool where we washed under the powerful flow - not really big or deep enough to swim but a lovely natural open bath.

A vigorous shower can be had at Wallillabou Falls - a cascade waterfall a little way up the valley from the anchorage

 On our way down the road we stopped at  Berthold's craft shop  - we observed some of the fine craft-work but were particularily impressed by his raised-bed veg garden and we bought quite a bit of freshly-picked garden greens. Back on the boat  we up-anchored and motored round to Petit Byahaut - a small and very mountainous bay in which a small resort is situated. We anchored next to a large Italian yacht, our intrepid shore party then put a long shoreline to a rock and then we put a 2nd line to a mooring close inshore before the skipper and our neighbours were happy. Next morning we landed another intrepid shore party at the Kingstown fish market pier for a volcano climbing and fruit scrumping expedition - both aims being remarkably successful when Streets and Adam rejoined us near Young Island on the South Coast.        

The crater and rim of St Vincent's Soufriere volcano look amazing! Thanks to Streets and Adam for the pictures

See new page on our 2nd visit to Cuba 13th April to 11th May 2004   -  Cuba - 2nd

Whatever Happened to "Ramprasad"?

Well after my last missive, which I sent from Trinidad in March I believe, Julia and I have had some great cruising going through the Venezuelan islands to Bonaire and then across the Caribbean to the South coast of Cuba where we checked in at Santiago and cruised downwind stopping at many islands and mainland ports until we got to the Isle of Youth. From there we rounded the Western end of Cuba (Cabo de San Antonio) and had a fairly uncomfortable beat to the Dry Tortugas. These 2 or 3 islands and associated shoals form the South-Western limit of the US state of Florida and are 65 miles West of Key West whose claim is that it is the Southernmost town and point of the continental USA. Key West is in fact an island but is connected by an impressive succession of road bridges over mostly shallow but fairly long gaps all the way to the rest of the USA. We stopped at Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas mostly because we needed the boat to stop moving about in the jerky fashion which we couldn't really get used to after having been sailing downwind for so long. All right we needed a rest and we needed to put a few stitches into the sails. Now Amanda had been waiting for us to arrive in Key West and we were in no mood to set off for 65 more miles into the wind so she made a very impressive arrival by seaplane next day! Now in the days of the 19th century the politicians of the USA decided that the Dry Tortugas were an important place in military/naval strategy terms and so they ordered the construction of a very large fort to house the largest guns then available to defend US access to the Gulf of Mexico. So they built what became known as Fort Jefferson (named after one of the early US presidents). Now perhaps it is a sign of its success as a deterrent that the fort never fired a shot in anger, but the same could also be said of the many forts built around British shores at about the same time. There were some built to defend British naval bases such as Portsmouth from attack from inland and Fort Jefferson did remind me somewhat of those inland forts which became known as Palmerston's Follies ( - after the British politician who inspired their construction). In the case of Fort Jefferson it could indeed defend the anchorage which it dominates very well, but any enemy ships could very easily sail past out of range of its guns.

Four views of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas - an enormous 19th Century fortress built to defend US access to the Gulf of Mexico - it was well armed but never fired a shot in anger.

Thursday 17th June 2004

Bermuda - as seen in my sail-by on 16th June - the fishing boat's hull has dipped in the swell

Sailed past Bermuda yesterday. Some of you may think it strange that after almost 2 weeks at sea and 1300 miles I should forego the opportunity to stop and go on land in what you expect to be a civilised and welcoming place. Well I couldn't think of any reason to stop there. I had been there before (5 years ago with Simeon and Patrick on Ramprasad) so knew what to expect and decided that since I had enough water and a fairly full fuel tank and that many things on Bermuda are rather expensive (and annoyingly more expensive than you are led to expect) that I would save myself the effort, expense and delay that a short stop there would entail. I was rewarded in the early afternoon with an encounter with a sperm whale. My first sight of a sperm whale and my first sight of a whale this trip. You may ask "How did I know that it was a sperm whale?" Well they have a distinctively stubby dorsal fin and their blow goes forward at an angle rather than straight up. I was sailing slowly, looked out and on my port bow only 50-100 yards away there was a thing awash - quickly identified as a sperm whale! By the time I got the camera out we had moved apart (being on reciprocal courses) and so the results are disappointing. There was quite a bit of residual swell so timing with the camera was important - it's a Nikon digital with optical zoom and automatic focus so there's quite a bit that the camera and the operator don't always get right! The whale remained breathing and swimming on the surface during this time but did not take a dive which is when you see rather more of their back and tail.

Sperm whale seen on 16th June near Bermuda

The sperm whale (or Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest toothed whale (at about 11-18metres long) and it is remarkable for the great depths to which it dives to feed on its favorite food the giant squid. Some large males have been shown to get down to 3000 metres, depths which humans can explore only in very specialist research submarines. Indeed so little is known about the giant squid that what we do know comes courtesy of the sperm whale! I hope to learn more about sperm whales in the Azores where I know that quite a bit of whale research is currently going on.

I left Palm Beach in Florida 2 weeks ago on 3rd June and I am single-handing again. Having sailed single-handed from Southern Portugal to the Canaries in October and November last year I felt sufficiently confident to handle a longer ocean passage alone. Indeed it will be my first ocean crossing alone on this Ramprasad and probably longer in distance than those that I did some 25 years ago on the previous Ramprasad. Julia had done the ARC with me some 3 years ago and she then realised than ocean sailing is not really her thing and so she never intended to sail back across the pond with me. I have been speaking to Herb every day on the SSB radio (12359kHzUSB 2000 GMT) and as before he has been giving me excellent weather forecasts and routing advice. He accesses weather data from the Internet and makes his own interpretations from the raw data rather than repeating what other forecasters have predicted. Anyone who has listened to him quickly realises what a valuable asset to the North Atlantic cruising community he is. He is a dedicated amateur ( - in the true sense of the word) in that he will give daily advice and forecasts to anyone in the area for no charge. He also advises on one's position with respect to the many ocean currents that do sometimes greatly effect one's progress on a yacht. Most of us have heard of the Gulf Stream which is the ocean current which starts in the Gulf of Mexico, proceeds around South-East Florida and half-way up the US East coast and then across the Atlantic to keep many parts of North-Western Europe fairly mild and wet. Now there are many eddies or side currents which peel off from the Gulf Stream extending right across the Atlantic and they constantly are changing position and strength. Herb gives the position and strength of these eddies so that you can navigate seeking best advantage from current and wind. When motoring or sailing there is a big difference to one's daily progress between say 4 knots with a 1 knot current and 4 knots against a 1 knot current. So being able to compare one's speed through the water with GPS speed (or speed over the ocean bed) is quite important.

Friday 2nd July 2004 Gradually approaching the Westernmost of the Azores called Flores, the Isle of Flowers. Had a little breeze today and was able to turn the engine off and sail for a few hours - What bliss! Have been having a few days of very calm weather I have been motoring a lot when I realised that I probably had just enough fuel to reach Flores. Yesterday put my 2 jerry-cans of spare fuel into the tank. It seems to be for good reason that the Azores are most famous for their meteorological High! 

Ramprasad communications have been much improved with the Skymate satellite email system (aka bminiweb?) but its use is not entirely without its frustrations. They don't for example tell you how much the performance may be degraded in marginal areas. Currently I have a satellite availability of 15% and have had 3 messages waiting to be delivered to a satellite all day! Yestereday morning I received 4 copies of an email which I had had the previous evening! In non-marginal areas however with good satellite availability it has worked very well and is a great improvement on the performance I was getting with radio email using a Pactor-1 modem.

Tuesday 6th July 2004

Last Saturday midday arrived in Lajes in Flores completing my longest single-handed passage (and Ramprasad's) of 3284 miles in 30 days from Palm Beach in Florida. Had a wonderful short stay in what is probably the most beautiful of the Azores, certainly with its nearby neighbour Corvo the most isolated island community in Europe (being 130 miles from the next nearest neighbour Faial). See the new page on Flores to get some idea of what a wonderful place it is!

With other yachties experienced wonderful hospitality - elderley Jose drove us around in his Mercedes touring the island seeing no less than 6 volcanic crater lakes (all dormant) and the fantastic scenery of the West coast. We then visited his small farm where he rears pheasants and has a workshop where he makes accoustic guitars, mandolins, Portuguese violas & Portugese guitars.We then visited a social festival in Santa Cruz (the main town) ate a variety of local dishes and went to a dance. Next day Sunday a moderate N-Easterley breeze was bringing a uncomfortable swell straight into the port of Lajes and I helped remoor a Farr 42 yacht to the quay with the sort of engine problems that meant we had to do it the old-fashioned way. Then Jose picked us up again and took us to another village where we had a very good fish soup in honour of St Peter and St John in the church hall. After one or drinks in the bar next door and a social call we went back to Jose's farm again and then on to another village where we went to church and took St Peter and St John for a walk (with percussion and brass band) out of the village and back. As you may be able to imagine these couple of days were a rather wonderful contrast to my time spent getting there! I am now on my way (and about half- way) to the port of Horta on Faial where I expect to meet Julia this evening. I am glad that I spent the time and effort yesterday to get enough fuel in the tank to get there in case the Azores High is so dominant that I need to motor all the way. Having met yachties on 3 boats without working engines all bound for Horta, it seemed wise to leave before they asked me to tow them!

View of Faial on my approach from the West - The volcanic crater peak is often hidden by cloud

1610GMT Tuesday 3rd August 2004  -  About 16M West of Bishop Rock, the Westernmost point of England - Looking forward to seeing England again for the first time in more than a year. I left Angra do Heroismo on the island of Terceira 2 weeks ago after a very pleasant cruise around the Azores visiting 5 of those islands. The trip has been fairly mixed with some fairly lively weather in the first couple of days in which I incurred some sail damage to my large Genoa and Mainsail. These 2 tears, being of a size impractical for me to do on-board single-handed repairs, have resulted in a slightly slower passage than I would have completed otherwise. I hope to arrive in Falmouth tomorrow and look for a sailmaker.

Bishop Rock, Sunset and the Western Rocks from the East - on my way to the Lizard

Friday 6th August  -  Arrived on Wednesday 4th with a little excercise in manual steering around the Lizard Point since the Windpilot wind-vane steering rudder had broken. Took sails to sailmaker yesterday and removed Windpilot to investigate method of repair. Also went to National Maritime museum here - very impressive - really need to spend more than 2 hours there. Being in England again after more than a year is interesting and even depressing in a way. But it is also a good place to be!

Falmouth - drinkers outside the Quayside Inn - and view of the anchorage and moorings from the Maritime Museum tower

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