After leaving La Gomera in the Canaries at 09:45 we finally
arrived in Port St Charles Barbados at 19:55 a total journey time of 17 days,
10 hours and 10 minutes, the whole crew were relieved and happy to have arrived
safely having experienced only a few problems.
When we set of from La Gomera the forecast indicated
insufficient wind to sail for the first five hours, on leaving the marina we
had enough wind to set the sails, however no sooner had we done this the wind
died to nothing and so we had to lower them. After two hours though the wind
picked up and we managed to sail using both the head sail and the main, we
sailed with this configuration for the first two days, both sails were reefed.
From day three we sailed with only the head sail out using
the “pole out” on the port side to keep the wind in the sail, with this set up
we averaged 7.5 knots each day, on the 10th as the wind started to
die we hoisted the stay sail on the starboard side, keeping the head sail to
port side still using the pole out, this configuration enabled us to sail
directly down wind.
On day twenty five we took the stay sail down, by day twenty
six the wind had died down and so we lowered the pole out and took in the head
sail, as we did so the mast fixing bracket for the pole out broke and so we had
to store the pole onto the guard rails as opposed to the mast. We then hoisted
the Asymmetric Sail which always seems to take an age to put up, however once
up we picked up speed which took us back up to our average speed of 7.5 knots. Unfortunately
around 1500hrs the halyard for the Asymmetric sail snapped and the sail ended
up in the water down the port side, while I took the helm Ian, Trina and Kevin
managed to get the sail back on board and in its sock, it was then hung over
the boom to dry out, and so we were back to using the head sail only.
The following morning Kevin and I went out onto the foredeck
to put the stay sail away, I have to say it’s not a place I like to be in quite
a big swell, once that was done we then folded the stay sail and put that away too
as we were unlikely to use it again. Back in the cockpit we hoisted the main
sail and what’s called “goose necked “ until the evening when we reverted back
to conventional sailing, we continued using this configuration until we arrived
in Port St Charles, Barbados.
The sea state for the passage varied little, the first few
days we experienced waves between 4 to 6 meters, when the wind died the second week
the sea state dropped to around 2 to 4 meters, however on the last two days as
the wind picked up we were once again back to big swell. When we were sailing downwind
we often caught a wave that we were able to serf down which on one occasion gave
us a speed of 15.6 knots the highest recorded for the passage.
One of the problems with the swell however was that the boat
would role from side to side making it uncomfortable at times, both when trying
to get some sleep or preparing a meal, holding items like cups and bowls to
stop them from tipping over even with non-slip mats, became a work of art. On one
occasion on Ian’s watch the boat rolled over to starboard and was then hit
broadside on by a wave making it role even further, I was in bed just having
finished my watch, I really thought the boat was going to roll completely over.
On the last day a wave hit the starboard side and into the cockpit as the boat
then rolled back to starboard all the water cascaded through the windows into
the starboard cabin soaking me and the bed with sea water.
A couple of other problems we encountered along the way
included the wind instrument no longer providing us with a reading for true
wind and so had to use apparent wind, and the bracket securing the auto-pilot
to the rudder breaking which meant we had to hand steer on the last day, with
both Kevin and Ian taking it in hourly turns to man the helm.
The watch system we used was three hourly, 15:00hrs to
18:00hrs, 1800hrs to 2100hrs, 2100hrs to 2400hrs, 2400hrs to 0300hrs, 0300hrs
to 0600hrs, 0600hrs to 0900hrs and 0900hrs to 1200hrs, between 1200hrs and
1500hrs there was no official person on watch as we were all usually on deck
around this time, this also meant that the watches rotated round each day. There
was only one person on official watch at any one time, Kevin had considered
other watch systems but this seemed to work well for us. It was also during the
unofficial watch time that we would change the clocks back, this also meant nobody
ever had to do more than three hours.
For our weather forecasts and communications we used our
Iridium GO, each day we uploaded the forecast along with route planner and from
this Kevin would determine which course we steered to get the best from the
wind, which ranged from 26 knots to 10 knots, with gusts in the squalls
reaching over 30 knots. For the majority of the journey we had quite a lot of
cloud accompanied by some rain, we had been told that after five days at sea we
would only need to wear tee shirts and shorts, this was not the case and the
wet weather gear was out each night until the last few nights, along with the
life jackets and life lines.
On alternate days Kevin would send out an email to friends
and family with an update on our position and what was going on on-board, which
wasn’t much. Our entertainment consisted of a pod of around twenty dolphins
providing aerial displays for about an hour and a half on day two , the
sighting of our one and only Whale, another sail boat on day sixteen, which was
manned by a lone American sailor heading for the Caribbean before going on to Maine
in America from the Canaries, he had no AIS or the ability to access up to date
weather forecasts. After a brief conversation we wished him well as we overtook
him, he stayed in eyesight for about another four hours. We sighted another sail
boat on the AIS on day twenty one however it was too far away to make contact,
we did manage to see its navigation lights at night for a short time. With very
little to do and see these three sightings brought great excitement to the
crew.
Ian decided we should play Eye Spy but it had to be off the
boat, this game was soon exhausted and so we reverted to the books for the
remainder of the journey. On day nine we passed the half way mark and
celebrated with a bottle of bubbly.
Finally on 28th January 2018, after sailing 2,804
nautical miles we arrived in Port St Charles Barbados, as it was night time immigration
and Customs were closed, so we dropped anchor, chilled out with a well-earned
glass of wine before going to bed. There was some swell coming into the bay and
so we still rolled from side to side, ah well at least we were at anchor.
The following day Kevin went ashore to register us all in,
the rest of the crew couldn’t go ashore until this was done. Once completed we
all piled in the dingy and headed for the Yacht Club where we treated ourselves
to our first Rum Cocktail, and sighted some very different looking birds.
Two other sailors arrived whilst we were there, they had
rowed across the Atlantic in forty eight days in a canoe, breaking two records:
11. The youngest to ever have done this,
22. Breaking the record for the fasted time
I must say I take my hat off to
them, I thought I had done well but these guys made my achievement pale into
significance.
Whilst in Port St Charles we
would often walk into Speightstown for some provisions, we didn’t need much as we
still had quite a bit left, on the 2nd of February it was my
birthday so we celebrated at the Yacht Club with a lovely meal and some
dancing, it was a great day.
The following day we sailed down
to Bridgetown, not so much swell in the bay but we were kept awake most of the
night by the all-night party boat playing load music as it passed by several
times during the night.
As we were not impressed by
Bridgetown itself we decided to head to St Lucia the following day. In the
morning Kevin headed to Immigration and Customs to sign out and pay our 100
Barbadean Dollars exit tax.
The passage to St Lucia took
nearly sixteen hours, once again we were in big seas, with cloud, rain and
several squalls. For this passage we doubled up on the watches in case we had
to make changes to our sail configuration, as it was we sailed mainly on the
main sail.
It was with great relief when we
entered Rodney Bay, put the anchor down and dropped into bed for some well-earned
sleep.
