GOING ....GOING .....GONE .......

Looking at the date of the last blog entry, I can't quite compute that since then we've crossed an ocean and entered into a completely different lifestyle.  A better one?  Maybe.  But there have been times when I would have gladly swapped life on this particular roller coaster for something a little more sedate and predictable .....  Writing with 20/20 hindsight makes it difficult to put over the events objectively but this is supposed to be a reflection of real time events.  I have got some 'live' comments as you will see, but you may just discern a little bit of a jaundiced view coming through.  C'est la vie!

NOVEMBER 3RD  
I'm writing this the day after leaving Las Palmas for the Cape Verdes.  Every new day brings a different perspective on the previous one and today is positively lovely.  10 knots of wind on the beam and a steady 4/5 knots albeit with a little help from the engine.  Sun and blue sky - lovely cruising weather and we're actually going in the right direction.

Yesterday and last night told a different story.

We had booked a spot in the marina in order to top up water and fuel, clean the dinghy and engine - basically do some boat work.  Everyone was on board and everyone was doing something.  Then a bombshell!  Philip decided he didn't want to come with us.  There was a story behind his decision but this is not the place to talk about it.  One of the English guys had also decided earlier that the trip wasn't for him so we were now down to 3 crew - Tony, Lisa and Ish.  We felt let down, of course but better now then in the middle ....

Did I rashly write something earlier in a rather superior manner about bow thrusters??  ( To the uninitiated, a bow thruster is NOT a piece of erotic leather ware, but an extra propeller in the front and/or rear of the boat .  It gives greater manoeuvrability in tight spots and difficult winds, but sounds like a car scraping itself against a wall. )  Forget my scathing attitude.  I WANT ONE!

There wasn't much room to get the boat into the berth and the wind was blowing us all over the place.  Now Brian drives big lorries so isn't intimidated but we were having problems.  After frightening the neighbours and giving them an object lesson in the fruitier side of the English language, we finally came to rest thankfully without an accident.  On looking more closely at one of the boats next door, I saw that it was an 'Oyster'  RATHER EXPENSIVE YACHT ....  Getting out the next day should have been easier ....  need I say more ...  For the boaty amongst you who have a bow thruster - I beg forgiveness.

So, on our way, Vladimir waving frantically.  We will see him again as we will Emily Morgan, Spirit of Penmar, Kulfi and many others.  Bon Voyage. Fair winds.

Fair winds .. but not the night we left.  First, lots of black smoke from the exhaust to deal with. before we got the sails up.  Then clouds, winds of up to 30 knots and the crew's baptism of fire on open water commenced.  Suffice to say, 'cos crisis' become a bit tedious and if you sail you'll know the routine ... We had a night of it.  Brian was, as always equal to it all, and I have thanked God for him many times but why he should be put through the mill time and time is beyond comprehension.  Anyone want to buy a boat?  Today (3rd) is all sweetness and light and as a reward for Lisa and Ish, porpoises have come to play.  

WHILST SITTING IN THE COCKPIT, VALIANT CREW MEMBER TONY SAVAGED BY WILD FISH ...

Well - slightly annoyed ones anyway.  This particular 'Kraken' was a 2in flying fish that bounced into the boat, hit Tony in the back and bounced out again. He continued this unholy alliance with fish for the remainder of the voyage.  When I saw that they were retailing for about 4GBP per 450g in Grenada, I reckoned we could have shared a fortune ....

A WEEK LATER ... NOV 9TH
The sail to the Verdes was not so good.  Lots of wind and rolly seas.  I was sick for the first 3 days and gradually the difficulties we expected with new crew began to assert themselves.  As a shakedown, we were all shaken, by the winds, seas and tiredness.  Though I must say that the cuisine had been superb, and not too many complaints about the lentils ...  Given that all I have written previously about cooking came to pass  If anyone had demurred, I would have fed them to the flying fish!

First sighting of Sal.

 The Verdes are volcanic, which in this case didn't make for exciting scenery. But after 7 days - it's land!

We anchored in Palmeira.  A rather unprepossessing spot but friendly, and it had a lovely bar that the sailors frequented. However, whereas at one time civilisation was a copy of the Daily Mail, a working WiFi is highly sought after though I'm convinced it gets turned off just to keep you drinking.

A view of the anchorage

The island wasn't up to much - in fact, for us the whole chain of islands weren't up to much. Tooo much wind for comfy anchoring and not much to see.  We had been warned about the wind, but you always think it'll be different.  Also, remember the holes opening up in the crew relationships on the way down.  That went one stage further with Lisa and Ish wanting out.  The boat had turned into a pressure cooker and the cracks became wider.  It all ended rather unhappily and after an exhausting trip we felt it keenly.  We were rather dispirited for a long time after, although Tony came through for us and his help was invaluable.

Anyone for lentils ....?

The overall plan was to get to Mindelo after the ARC boats had left so we had given ourselves some island-hopping time.  We tried to put an itinerary together that combined quiet anchorages with the occasional 'blowout' at a town.  It was not to be, I'm afraid.  It took us a week, and not four weeks to cover the northern islands ...  The Boavista anchorage turned out to be miles from the town.  St Luzia was a huge bay which came recommended by the Don Street Guide.  We were alone with huge gusts of wind tunnelling down the ravines.  We ended up on anchor watch which tired us out.  Mindelo was our last call and we were hoping to stay in the marina.  It was a vain hope.  The marina looked like the atoll from the film 'Waterworld' but it rocked and rolled.  No alcohol required to look drunk as you weaved your way along the floating pontoons.  We overheard some guys talking about using GPS to determine the distance that their boats moved whilst tied up!  And that bloomin' wind ...  We declined that particular experience and stayed anchored in the bay.  Everyone had problems securing their anchors and usually had a couple of goes before beetling off to wide open spaces.  The ARC boats that had stopped off here for a few days left on the 20th and we followed them a couple of days later, along with quite a few others.  I think everyone thought that if they were going to have so much wind, it should be productive and contribute to sailing.

I haven't said much about Mindelo.  It was quite a nice spot with a quantity of Portuguese architecture, but we weren't really in the mood for it.  Tony enjoyed talking to people, but we were tired from the trip down and the unpleasant outcome so a few bits of volcanic rock surrounded by tooo much bloomin' wind didn't do much for us.  We had food, gas, water,fuel to sort out and in between we just slept.  Below is the picture ....

Here we go ........


SOMEWHERE IN THE ATLANTIC. DECEMBER 2ND. 21.00 HOURS
Here we are and there is NO BLOOMIN' WIND! And there hasn't been for days!  The last lot was a series of squalls, including a white out with gusts of up to  40 knots, no visibility, white sea and BIG waves.  Thank goodness it was only for a few minutes.
In the sailors Bible according to Jimmy Cornell, it seems that calms can be followed by squalls which herald NE winds ( ideal, thank you very much)  We've had lots of calms, lots of squalls, the sea is in the right direction, BUT NO BLOOMIN' WIND!

So we're motoring the Atlantic.  Now I'm sure it's better than gales and bare poles, but I'm not sure now if I have enough lentils to last the voyage!

Tony is coping magnificently; helming through squalls, organising and faffing with a spinnaker we picked out of the skip in Plymouth and more to the point, being in charge of the washing up.

So - dreams of NE trades with a following sea remain just that - dreams.

Meanwhile, the boat will keep on throwing up problems.  We had a situation whereby we were in danger of not having enough battery power to start the engine.  It was like a film scenario - one chance to press the button using Brian's connection method ....  Obviously it worked or we would still be out there thanks to the wind gen which redeemed itself and put in just enough to get things going.  Brian is my hero.

DECEMBER 4TH
Atlantic correspondent signing in.  The good news is that we seem to have connected with the Trade winds and we're going in roughly the right direction at a good pace.  The bad news is that we have a rigging problem which means we will have to nurse ourselves along.  This comes on top of the torn sail, one day out of Mindelo.  It wasn't a huge tear and Brian patched it with tape and a piece of canvas.  Not exactly pretty, but effective.  See what I mean about him being a hero.  However, if you ever need to have a think about the existence of your God, these times fit the bill.  I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Richard, Liz and Jane for their continued prayer support. 

Message to Dave Drabble .....  I think you got it right when you declined to EVER set foot on our yacht.  

Another blah is that my 12v battery charger is kaput, so no pictures.  But do you really want to see 3 body tans, constant blue skies and sun, plus Tony' smalls hanging out to dry?  I think not.  Certainly not, if you haven't seen sun for a while ....

Brian and I are taking it all on our collective chins, but we have been losing the will (and most likely the money) It may be that we will revise our travel plans, or at least the mode of travel.  Watch this space.

Just to counter that, we had a good last week at sea.  The winds were constant and because we were now expert cloud readers, we were better prepared.  I had a most lovely 3 hour watch one night, with an unwavering warm wind, clear skies, full moon and seamless sailing.

DECEMBER 12TH

y

My birthday!  I wore my new earrings and we shared chocolate that Tony had generously saved and Panettone.  Note that we were still wearing jackets at night.

The words 'should arrive tomorrow lunchtime' didn't raise as much enthusiasm and cheer as I would have thought after 3 weeks at sea.  We were just living a different sort of life now - the watches, squalls, disturbed sleep, constant noise, as well as Shirl's delicious lentils ....  Why stop now? I remember listening to Ray Mears  (survival expert and all round nice guy) say that after a few weeks in the bush/jungle/hills/woods, he would be tempted just to keep on walking.  It felt a bit, just a very little bit like that.  In fact a bit scary as we hadn't talked to anyone else for 3 weeks.  We were still talking to each other, but I hadn't spoken to another woman for a long while and wondered whether I could still remember the language.

Stepping onto land was just not good.  Wibbly is the word - all the way to Customs and Immigration in Prickly Bay, Grenada.  Imagine them being your first contact .....  they didn't want to see us so we dropped the hook and began our recuperation project in the bar with a cold beer ( just like the film 'Ice cold in Alex' )

And what of Grenada?

A lovely spot. The cruising community is spread over a huge area keeps in contact via the daily 'Net' which draws together cruisers, business, services, events, as well as a place to buy, swap and give 'stuff'.  A windy and rolly spot as well!  There were numerous activities through Christmas and as a team of 2 we won a bottle of rum punch and a free pizza at the Christmas Trivia Quiz.  I suppose that just about says how switched on our brains are at present.  I was stretched when I fell in with a guy making his way back to his dinghy.  He greeted me in English, apologised and swapped to French.  I replied in French and we began chatting.  I told him ( in French ) that I was, in fact English.  He confessed ( in French ) to being Italian and we carried on in a real old mix.  A lovely memory for me.

Tony flew back to the UK and the wind and rain.  We're so grateful that he took up the challenge of the crossing to say nothing of the challenge of living in a confined space with us.  He did sterling work.

Tony - at the outside washing up station! We gave everyone a 'Ramones' T Shirt as a memento.

We spent 2 weeks in Prickly Bay, but it was time to move on.  We planned to go a little way to Tyrell Bay and then Bequia, just to get us in the mood.  However, the weather gods deemed it necessary to change that plan ....  The wind, and sea plus some current made it impossible to get to Tyrell in the light.  I'm not sure who came up with the idea of an overnighter to St Lucia ( only 100 miles) .... you can see what's coming .....  2 nights later and we were still going up and down the coast, past St Lucia and on as far as Martinique ( again we got there at the wrong time) trying to move in closer.  2 fuel filters later, we eventually arrived in Rodney Bay, St Lucia.  Another lovely, breezy spot, but thankfully no swell.  We were ready for a bit of pampering so we organised a marina berth on a recommendation from a couple we swapped books with in Prickly.  Lovely, lovely staff especially Emerson the Dock Master.

 We spent some time on the mega yacht dock ( all of an hour- ooooooh )before moving to a humbler location, where we have been very comfortable.  I can now walk on land like most normal people and the boat is relatively tidy again.  We'll be upping sticks later this week and heading for Martinique.  Everyone is so friendly here and we've had cars stopping to let us cross the road.  Old fashioned manners abound, which relaxes you instantly and that along with the all the other advantages of a Caribbean island ( I daren't mention the weather, although we have had rain and St Lucia has been flooded over Christmas.) makes for a good stopover.  Our thanks to Gary and Marie on Mai Tai in Prickly Bay.

That's nearly 3 months of life gone .....  what have you all been doing?