ALL HANDS Winter 88/89
East of Samana, Dominican Republic, bound West from PR BDA to VI ... a hard trip ... Made landfall in Jost Van Dyke on Christmas Day, in many difficulties but with an engine ... Over to Tortola for repairs ... Found a good rigger who fixed my bad stay, sold me a roller jib gizmo ... I ate and slept for two weeks, drank beer enough to float Apogee ... Joined there by my sister who sailed with me to P.R. Rather short but pleasant sail. Barely made her plane to N.Y.5/11/89Missed my date to turn the Pig on 3 Kings Day. OK, I've survived worse. Spent the winter in my shack. Few new PR friends, one new enemy (we are quarreling over his illegal building.) Much cleanup done on the boat but few important changes. Visitors from the continent Phillipe Theodore. My Sister & Emanuel with his new lady.
Many are offered, few choose to accept the opportunity to join me in Apogee on a sea trip. Stan did it once, when we was battered, is doing it again this time. We left from Guaypao about 2 pm after a massive goodby lunch from my house sitters. Easy run west along the sol~th coast to Boqueron, a harbor on the west end of PR, to lay overnight.Thurs am 5/11Customs clearance in Mayaguez--#3 city of PR, just north of Boqueron. Stamps, phone, clearance --from the rubber dinghy. Extra water and OFF. Adverse wind, light, ridiculous to leave now. So we waited till am. Still adverse and light, ridiculous to wait forever. Has to change and bound to change fair, so go. Power for an hour or so, all sail for several hours. Desecheo Is. and wind died, so we laid a-hull and slept in. Easy night. Woke to find we'd been carried several miles south in Mona Passage by a strong adverse current which was with us most of the day as we battled our way north in light winds and surprisingly large seas. Mona is famous for violent weather. It wasn't violent, just awkward and time consuming. Wind died in mid pm and we powered for several hours trying to regain the miles lost to current. No point to make, just GET SOMEWHERE.
Considered carefully Iying a-hull and in fact were becalmed and had little choice. Underway with power. Wind soon 10kn and variable but all fair. Good motion. Confusion about landfalls straightened out by midday as we crossed Bahia de Samana. Gorgeous day. Gradually increasing fair wind so that we were really bounding along through the bright day. Perfect blue sea, fresh breeze, Is anything EVER better?17 May West Caicos.Around the corner of Dom Rep a tiny sheltered beach and cove offered the last chance for a good quiet sleep "in." A couple of hundred miles to the next one, we took it. Squalls pushed us in at breakneck pace. Black seas as we joined the shadow of the cliff walls and early dark because of them even though the sky was still day. Beautiful cliffs, natural caves. One 50' arch freestanding on the beach! Stan sketched it. Mile or a bit less of beach. Three persons, 4 or 5 dugout canoes, coco palms by the many million. Soft and hard vegetation everywhere, even on sheer cliff faces. Smoke--this seems to be the season for burning cane trash. Even in the very fresh squally winds that drove us in we were conscious of a pervasive veggy smoke, not oppressive though.
Anchor in the shelter of the cliff near shore. 22' mud. Fatho showed a very even bottom shelving up from 100 to 20' over a fat mile. This is a picture book piece of Paradise. We swam, both of us too skinny to stay in the water. Felt cold as we got out for whole minutes! Water 71 degrees (the fancy fatho says) refreshing & CLEAN. Us too. I feel like I got two eggs in my beer.
Up with the late daylight to go under power. Sail up but not doing much to help the diesel till about 11 when we shut it down and reached very smoothly across Bahia Escocesa towards the point where we will take Finally to sea. Another picture book day. Quiet sea, gentle steady breeze, bright sun and blue sky. I am blessed by a beneficent god.
Day and one night from last entry (5/12) we discovered land again. West Caicos. MUCH confusion. Much doubt about our ability to predict speed or direction In Spite of a Navy gunboat inspection (by radio) and free fix. Sat nav not working of course. Peaceful anchorage at west end of West Caicos. NO habitation on it! Expected to enter legally there. Nope, nobody. SO, charge across Flats to Providenciales (a flats bound community--said to have HAMBURGERS -RESTAURANTS--maybe even movies! Flats not interesting but challenging! Steady depth readings gradually shoaling to 7'. Getting a bit scary but what else to do... Must Go Go Go. Very poor chart was some contribution to confusion. Chart Kit for Bahamas--little detail for Caicos which is technically another political country, being a British Crown Colony. So nowhere to nowhere. Stan's nav was good thru the rocks, then he went to sleep. Let me set up sail and swoop across a dozen miles of 10 to 16' banks, to drop the hook in the anchorage at Providentiales. By myself, too, doing my THING. Sails to bed. Spoke authorities ashore on radio. Instructions for ENTERING. No problem. Blow up dink. Stan up by now. Ashore about 1700 to Enter and cold beer. Many yty types. One cheerful grreeting from a small yt who complimented me on Boat and handling. I love him! Turns out he's the bane of this trip--will steal Stan away! Human condition seems to stay with me! Nothing quite sure yet.Under way again Sat 5/20So far, no great new sights or dangers. A bit of strong wind but no big storms. Two rainy and o'cast days. But no troubles that we didn't make for ourselves by underesti mating, overestimating, and even those after a hard fix from the US Navy! More confidence coming up with the Next Course. Probably over confidence too! At this moment--noonish--Stan is off with Stan Louden talking computers and dreaming of sugar plums. Looks as if I'd stay for Stan's departure by air on Thurs or Sat. Hot.
and Stan has left me. Fell in with another computer buff here in Caicos and hatched up great plans. We stood by to reinforce. Floating hotel too. Now under way again as of midday and heading for Little Inagua to spy out the ground a bit in case I can sell Betty Levin a charter. Slightly odd wind--fair for me but unusual. Caused by a Low in PR and a High in southern N. Atlantic. So I'm riding it out before it changes. Self-steering jib and jigger to keep it slow-- it's only 30 mi from West Caicos. I'm in deep water after ten or a dozen rather spooky miles over the "bank" which is very shallow, but remarkably even on the bottom. Mostly 10 to 14 feet deep with a few spots that read 5 and 7'. I draw almost 6', but the instrument that reads depth is a couple of feet below surface--a safety factor!22 May, 6am.Still, its pretty spooky to be flying along over a sandy bottom that I can SEE all the time--touchable almost! Color of water changes with depth so its guessable, at least by experts. I don't feel expert, but I haven't hit anything yet. When do I qualify? Do I have to hit before I do? How many times?
No matter. Biggest job of today and most aggravating was getting official clearance to go. Mr. Customs made a deal yesterday to meet me at 9:00am. I got ashore with 2 minutes to spare and waited 3 hours for him to show! I'd have gone without after an hour--discussed it with Stan. But I'd bought duty-free beer and rum. Paid for it too, couldn't take it aboard till I was cleared. Nearly dark now and we are going very smoothly, maybe 4kn, with little sail. I mustn't go fast or I'll get there in the dark. A low island with no lights or people. I want to see it before I feel it. Expect I'll have to heave to after a while so as not to get there in darkness. Have fixes from both Sat Nav and Loran -disagree by 10 mi! No matter in mid ocean, but we only got 30 mi to go!
Rather restless night Iying a-hull a few miles (guess) off Little Inagua. Regular sea, not particularly vicious but making a lot of boat motion. O'cast, no sunrise. Small bit of rain seems to move passed. sat nav has not been doing its work all night, reprogram at lOm antenna ht seems to be the answer, it's working on a fix now. That will eliminate a lot of queasiness. Yup, 3 arrows. I'm waiting for the fix to set a course. Chart shows ROX off SE coast where I hope to make landfall. NOPE--Unable to Fix. OK, off on 260 degrees, using my guess for drift of last night.
Whoops, picked up another satellite-three arrows in four minutes. Wait Wait Wait. Now four. Fatho doing a strange thing too, it's showing 3,4,6,10, then 000 for a few moments then single # depths. BIG fish under me? OK, 5th arrow. Can't miss, but wait.
My good bread (we traded a bottle of rum for two leaves of heavy bread baked by Stan Louden-- my Stan's computer buff) I toasted a very thick slice this am for my rolly bfst. Mistake, it needs to be cut thin.
Unable to Fix in spite of 5 arrows. Reset shows Locked. New satellite? Yup, one arrow and at the last arrow position. NFG. So something is eating its heart out. Unhappy love affair I guess. Two arrows at 0630... NO Fix.
Did get one later at 1146 so I guess all is well. Around Little Inagua southeast side is mostly reef. SW has what looks like good landings. Maybe even natural wharves. Protected from the ** trade wind seas too. All sides have magnificent beaches. The island is flat. One lumpy little hill and the rest is flat as Florida. All green except the beach and a few dunes but it may be low scrubby growth. All sticky up trees or bushes--no palms. At least I didn't see any. I didn't get close in either--1/2 mi or more mostly. Sun and bright as I circumnavigate the island. Now rain as I leave it. Heavy pelting great drops--catching some off the boom in a bucket, may do a wash. Few FAX: Inagua is nearly 50 miles long and 10 to 15 wide, shaped like a summer squash. Little Inagua is a buggered up trapezoid wlth bobbles and shoals off its points. the SW side is quiet and wide beach interrupted by great grey tables of what looks like granite but is probably pressed coral. Flat Flat Flat. 10 miles longest side, 5-1/2 mi wide.
1507 Rain seems done. Sun out and HOT, but it's very misty. Nowhere near Maine fog, but a sort of haze that hides the distance without dimming the sun and sky.
I'm now on my way North. Have to pass Mayaguana Cay and Plana Cay. Then I'm in the open ocean, bound, I guess, for Jacksonville. Started looking at charts for Jacksonville--not there! Turns out the Waterway charts don't call it Jacksonville but somebody's inlet. Still haven't figured it out. But it's some 600 miles away and I don't need it right now. I'm still 'inside' the Bahamas. They are all around me in every direction. and I have to pass between Mayaguana and the Plana Cays sometime after midnight tonight. Nice by noon but I worry about the mist. It hasn't been really clear all day and two rain storms.
Easy night under J&J passing Mayaguana and now Plana Cays. All out of sight, with good SatNav readings. Much up and down of both boat in the ocean and me in bed. Trifle hairy passing coral reefs in the dark. Have a waning moon which helps a lot even in the mist of yesterday's wet and o'cast and rain. Not all evil--l got a shirt and skivvy washed in fresh H2O. Good Bkfst--eggs, bacon, Stan Louden's bread, leisurely too. I'm hearing my Stan's 'wait, wait, wait,' and its washing against the cliffs of my 'hurry, hurry, hurry, you're wasting wind!' I'm not clear of islands yet. Should be by midday but I'm feeling the larger (and right now gentler) waves of the real Atlantic. Sargasso weed too. There's more of it here than inshore. Much more than there is in the Caribbean proper. OK, time to get whole sail pulling. Sailing naked now. Can't expose all day, but get a bit of sun onto my t'other end so it won't burn later when my pants wear out.5/221000 Only one fix so far this am at 0520. Couple of LOCKED, all UNABLE TO FIX. Now at 1000 I'm sweating out a 3-star synch with room for another. Reefed and set main a while ago, and we are rushing right along, 5 degrees above the necessary course to avoid Samana Cay. I hope to see it to check out SatNav and expect it to show in an hour or so. Samana Cay in sight to NW at 1030. At 1117 Semana is well astern and gradually disappearing. Good, I'm at SEA! A day of northing to stand clear of the rest of Bahamas, then 600 miles +/- to Jacksonville.
Being at sea feels good, partly because it's a bright clear day. Mostly because I'm all done with what I was doing! A new world to conquer. Deep water instead of shallow, an arc of the world instead of a tricky course between Rox. And maybe best is no more cow-towing to Customs and Immigration Kings. None treated me badly, but the threat is always there. The badge and uniform lending immense power to an individual who may well use it wisely and equally well may not. No control, no protection, no recourse.5/23Bright day. Wind died very early. Laid a-hull for several hours. Good sleep in a regular roll. Now a breath of air enough to hold sails out, not quite enough to keep course. Making a couple of knots. SatNav is not fixing. Last fix was at 1244-noon yesterday. Reprogramming doesn't seem to help. It tells me to wait for a rising Sat, shows some arrows, once even 4 arrows. No fixes. Worrisome, but Loran gets better from here on, and is right, more or less, now.5/24After much shutting off and waiting, the floor !eak shows to be in salt water line--toilet or thru hul!. Not serious but hard to get at sea.
A long time ago (two days?), I left Stan and the Is. of Caicos with everything working, confident that I could now go anywhere in the world where there was two fathoms of water. I crossed the Caicos Bank--said to be difficult to navigate--without touching my keel, but had to keep swallowing my heart. Took off across the deep water to Inagua, circumnavigated it, found my way through Mayaguana Pass, and Plana Cay. Easy enough with a fair breeze. Now I'm in the great Atlantic and getting nowhere. There's a leak in my head (marine head--the toilet), my SatNav won't talk to me, my Loran tells lies (only little ones), my jib sheets are fraying, I can't find the chart of No. Florida, and the Navy just went by with a Corvette Cruiser and didn't think I was important enough to investigate. Death, where is thy Sting?
I'm still working on the SatNav. No fixes now since noon yesterday (12:42 actually). Trying to find a program error. The only other thing I can guess would be a bad splice. Stan Louden said they should be greased with vaseline--said it after I climbed down! A thing that was wrong before was a loose joint. So they should be checked out. Not in open ocean, thank you all the same. Bedtime.
Midnight/Early AM Up and charging batteries and refrig--all well but still very slow. Maybe 2 kn. SeH-steering down-wind. Very steady if rather light. Good rest.5/24 0830Another day of little or no wind has started. Sheets hang vertical until slat starts, then yank both ways, banging at either extreme, and giving a little tug each time so that we have steerage way--so that there is a visible ripple of bow wave and the wave action tipping us back and forth is actually fanning the air and moving us forward at a 1/2 kn or so. BUT SatNav has started working again! Life is good! 6 am fix shows 72 miles on course from San Salvador (last land fix) (0230 on 5/23) 2.7 kn! And that includes a half-knot of fair current. Almost swimming speed. Pilot chart says there can be 2 days of calm this month. I've had both already! In fact so far it's the slowest on record. In 100 hours I've done a couple less than 300 miles. No allowance for the detour around Little Inagua which was quite fast, but the mileage is not applicable to the direction of travel and effort. But no disasters (yet). Easy going--too damn easy! Good eats and rest. Haven't worn anything but a big hat for days!5/25 0650Sun up at six and almost beat me up. No great sunrise though. Moisture in the air, distant mist cuts all the excitement out of it. Not but what I welcome daylight. But the bright ecstacy of a new day arriving is a very special quiet joy to start the day with. Quiet is the key word for this cruise too. So quiet that I haven't touched the rig since jibing it over at dark last night. Only motion is a very gentle swell. We move slowly. A knot or so, more or less. On course (who cares at this speed?) Getting a little push from a half knot of sea current. Thirty miles since midnight says my SatNav, which is working very well but seems erratic. How come a 5 hour silence in an otherwise electronically noisy day. (and then UNABLE to fix after getting one early?)5/25Traffic is rather light on this road, in the last hundred miles, nobody has passed me, four vessels have been on the road within sight, all heading generally in the opposite direction. Only one near enough to identify-a cruise boat, big from my point of view, lit up like Times Square, crossed my bow from port at 3 or 5 miles ahead. Watched but no danger.
Answer to the SatNav Q asked above may be that there seem to be several satellites in a bunch confusing each other's signals. I'm getting a group of partial "Locked" and single arrows now. The last couple of days have produced lots of fixes, more than enough for me at top speed. If I were a 25 kn Navy boat I'd want more. I guess they have more too! Noon SLOW SLOW SLOW and so slow that it hardly seems worth correcting the course! But I've found (one of) the leak(s) that's been annoying for a long time--a leaky joint in the salt water supply system. There's another-in that system that leaks into the bowl of the head. I don't want to take that apart at sea. Tug and barge across my stern, 3-5 miles away. No speak. Land should show soon--Great Abaco, 20 miles to NW. I changed my course a little to find it before dark. BAD--I turned right into a black squall. Mizen was already reefed, for balancing reasons. I got the steerer down right off and secured to life lines. Ran aft to roll in the jib. Blowing very hard--pull very hard--it rolls in but needs all the pull I've got. Eases as there's less exposed, but it's so tight around its roller that I don't have enough turns on the control line to get it all in. Ok, it's only 4 or 5 feet hanging out. Nobody to see it either. Then dump the main and I've done it so often that there aren't any more mistakes to make! Left the mizzen up with single reef. Not too bad, and very quick. But the clothes I hurried into are SOAKED. Down below to change, pick up the mess which is not too bad. There's always something to fall. Out of my wet stuff and into my oldest uniform. Cuppa tea and a jam on Stan Louden's bread. Ready to sail again but NOW, NO wind at all. Too DAMN Much Peace! This brief encounter with extreme was proof to me that I'm ready to sail again. It could have been a lot worse of course. I felt I handled it straightforwardly and efficiently. Kind of pleased with myself. I'd have had conniption fits trying to do it a month ago. Ok, 4:45, get the tub going for tonight.5/26And today was no different--really still this morning. I got up around 400 and did a bfst and cleanup. Powered off to clear Abaco. Power power power. There isn't any wind! Flat sea too. Many 3 story sport fisherman out. Didn't see any fish caught, but lots o big fast boats with sporty looking towers and long poles. They make wakes--various kinds. I wonder if they know I can judge the efficiency of their hull design by the wake they leave. No matter to them I guess. Good looking boats well kept up. Probably capable of 20 kn. But they fish at 6 or 8. Good example--l put a line over with Stan's bait--a yellow lure. I caught Sargasso weed. Plenty too. So the wind came up, 5 or 6 kn of it. Enough for steering way. All sail at 9:30 or so and racking up 2 kn ever since. Don't knock it, 50 miles a day. That's all the x-country skiers can do. And they don't carry their own beds or kitchens! Damn Chart Kits don't cover Jacksonville. I have worked it out, can guide myself in to St. John's River, which leads into Jacksonville but the Chart Kits DO NOT give the same kind of coverage as the regular charts--names and connections are left out. Never again for me, at least NOT in new country. I've even made a chart for keeping a DR track. Actually quite easy to do. So slow is us. Will I ever get used to it? I'm not reasonably in a hurry. I am a little bored but things are getting done that have needed doing for a bng time.5/27No SatNav fixes since noon! How bad is that? I won't need it finding USA, but it would be handy to have working when I try to identify entrance inlets. Some are dangerous, many are not buoyed. Ok, I can deal with that. How about a cross rich batch [??]. Ok, bedtime NOW. No shore tomorrow, but there might.
Weather forecast--l got one from Florida. Not particularly for this area. I'm more than 50 miles offshore still. But it sounds like the same thing I've been getting and there's no change looked for. Yuk. Once I get to the Gulf Stream I'm sure things will get poppin'! It's got a reputation to live up to! 8 o'clock. Bedtime.
And it's 5:30 am. Sunrise coming, could be a great one. Little moisture in the air, horizon laden with stick-up cumulus. Land there too, barely shows. The bitter end of the Abaco chain of Cays. Pink and yellow in the sky now. As the light increases more moisture shows in the air at ocean level. It's a blue grey band that hugs the horizon very closely, thinning out gradually to be the first pink of promise then the yellow of new day and the pale blue of "not yet" sky. Come on baby, we're waitin' and rootin' for you! Some very high stratus, very far off, is glowing behind and mostly hidden by the dense almost colorless cumulus nearby. And all constantly lightening, but but but--no big spectacle today. It WILL rise. But no farlfare that I was hoping for. Greys are fading into the pale blue of upper sky, and a band of pinkish sky behind is keeping up the promise, but it's a work-a-day thing. No glory, no ecstacy. It may pink up a bit more though, patience. Bfst too! Yea--fry egg and potato with the end of brewed coffee. Second prediction of sunset about right--non-spectacular. One handsome cumulus cloud delayed all for a while and was itself pretty spectacularly hilighted with bright gold. Then the old girl came up with little color. Ok, it's what I've been waiting for! Now for wind.5/28 0847Midnight Nope--no wind all day. Powered a while in the pm. 6 hrs, 25 mi. Spoke a sail crossing my bow at dusk. Sloop, 40 or 50' overall from Spokane. Came thru the Panama Canal during election troubles. His crew was jailed! On way to BDA. Good luck and good night.
All well. Batteries up, fridge charged. Alarm for oil working. Even have light on both outside compasses. Wind is propelling us slowly, maybe 2 kn or a bit more, and keeping our course rather poorly since the strength of the wind is variable and while the sails balance pretty well, the contribution of the tiller and rudder is constant, so has a varying effect on course. Maybe it's siliy of me to write all that out, but I need to rehearse it for myself now and again to keep from trying to do it all with the tiller! Why not? Because the tiller is taking effect at the cost of impulse energy and power, while the sail balance is creating that energy and power. Ok, wind is better today. Seems to be gradually shifting a little to SW. I'm determined to have a go at sailing Down Current in the Gulf Stream. It's said to be rough and unpleasant. What I've been doing the last three days is quiet and unpleasant. SO I'll give it a try. Staying in the Stream may be difficult if the SatNav isn't a little more productive. There are Back Eddys and No Buoys.I think I've discovered the cause of my lousy performance with Sextant--too great an Index Error. Shots are good and almost constantly disagree by two degrees from the Book. Same disagreement indicates to me that I'm carrying my mistake with me. Ok, read the book which is what I do worst.