The Windward Passage!
Arion's West Indian Adventure
Hermione & Douglas Pattison
Thu 26 May 2016 23:49
What an adventure!!
Having not been sea sick for 600 miles with Uncle Michael onboard, I thought I had cured myself. Au contraire!!!! Just outside Port Antonio, a local wind effect meant that the Wind was behind us, and the large standing waves were coming straight for us. I think this unusual motion messed up my feng shui and I went rapidly green. Douglas buoyed me throughout, telling me that it would pass after 36 hours, but for 3 days and 2 nights I felt rotten….!!!
This aside, we had fantastic breeze (on the nose of course!!) between 15-25 knots. At times the seas were pretty big. When crossing from Jamaica towards Santiago de Cuba it was big swell which we pounded into for 24 hours or so. Once we tucked ourselves under the cliffs of Cuba and Guantanamo Bay ( we waved to the inmates!!) we short tacked up this coast for another 24 hours in much flatter water so our average speed increased until we crossed form the cuban shore towards Great Inagua.
The night watches were very exciting and very wet. There were lightning storms surrounding us without fail at all times. Luckily someone above was looking after us, as we managed to avoid being struck. The most unbearable thing was the heat, as all the hatches had to be shut tight to stop the spray and waves coming in. At bedtime, we put the children in the main salon as it was the coolest place onboard. Their cabin was like an oven, plus we wanted it for the person off watch as it is nearby. Probably in an attempt to get some air in, I had opened the mid hatch on deck and not closed it properly. Alice, bless her, woke up and asked for water. When I gave it to her I realised she was so wet- like she had been swimming……….. water had been pouring in with each wave onto her and she had not complained!!! Everything which had not got wet from normal Arion ‘windward leak', was now wet due to ‘silly Mummy!! This was the first night!! ………..
The sailing itself was absolutely brilliant. Arion handled everything beautifully and sailed to windward like a dinghy. We both enjoyed this side of things immensely. Our main problems were fatigue and comfort (!!!); Comfort- well that is glaringly obvious- wet and pounding into waves at 45 degrees for 3 days and 2 nights….. I now know why gentleman do not beat. The fatigue is what took us a very long time to recover from. Not only is the motion and steering incredibly physical (we had to hand steer due to power consumption and the strain on the auto helm), we both struggled to sleep off watch during the first night (I think this is quite normal). During the days, we would each grab a sleep when we could, but the opportunities were small as Arthur and Alice needed looking after and entertaining. As ever the Children were INCREDIBLE and surpassed our expectations in what they can handle. They were totally unphased by it all!
There were (as you can imagine) not many other boats out there with us, and we were very glad to finally reach dry land. I almost hugged the shore as I finally stopped feeling sick!! We arrived in Matthew town, Great Inaugua to the most friendly and wonderful people you can imagine, of which I will enlighten you in the next entry…….