Transatlantic Passage

Nowornot Web Diary
Robert (Bob) Parry and Ann Parry
Fri 29 Apr 2011 00:50
The saga of our salt water pump ended with mixed blessings. The new pump
was in a container that had been seized by customs because it held “items
of interest” to them. There was no sign that it would be released in the
foreseeable future so we decided to leave without it. The good part was
that we had our money refunded. We also had the spare parts that had been
sent to rebuild the old pump. Problem was that the parts were for the
wrong pump that had been sent originally. Bob spent a frustrating couple
of hours down in the engine room, alternately cursing and grinding the new
elbow for the pump into submission. As is usual on a boat, the space into
which the pump fitted was just the right size but the new elbow was
slightly longer than the old one. He eventually emerged and declared that
we should try it out. So far, it has performed but has a slight leak. The
thread on the pump was damaged when the old elbow was removed, hence the
leak.

On Saturday 19th March, we left Las Palmas. The wind was light the first
few days with not much over 10 knots. In some ways, this was good as it
gave us a chance to settle into a routine in calm conditions. However, it
meant that progress was slow with daily runs of about 95-115 nm. With such
a distance ahead of us, we were reluctant to motor for too long in order
to conserve fuel. Most Amels are set up to carry twin headsails on the
forestay with poles on both sides to prevent them from losing wind in the
swells. This means that it is possible to run directly downwind with a
large sail area without the problems that can occur with a spinnaker. Our
boat has not been set up this way so we were depending on our usual
headsail. We furled our main as we were tired of having the boom bang back
and forth in the swell.

We have a large drifter that we had made in Tunisia in 2005. We used it a
few times in the Med but conditions are so changeable there that it spent
most of the time in the locker. It has an area of 140 m2 so it is fairly
large. By the afternoon of the third day, we contemplated hoisting it and
eventually decided that we would use it the next day. We were not keen to
have it up at night when the wind tends to pick up and only one of us
would be on watch. The wind picked up during the night and stayed closer
to 15-20 knots so “big blue” stayed in the locker. Of course, as the wind
increased, so did the swell and with that, the motion of the boat became
increasingly more uncomfortable. As an added bonus, anything that could
squeak, rattle or bang did so. Food and drink preparation became a
challenge and we covered the galley benches with non-skid matting. Even
so, we had a few spills.

Over the next couple of weeks, winds stayed more consistently at 15-20
knots with some periods of lighter winds and also times when it was 25-30
knots. During the last week, we tended to experience more of the squalls
with wind and rain, especially at night. On our last night, we had one
squall with winds of 30 knots and driving rain. It showed up on the radar
to be about 12 nm across. Between squalls, the wind dropped to about 5-10
knots. We ended up motoring most of the last day.

On the afternoon of Sunday 10th April, we noticed three boats up ahead,
apparently just sitting in the water. At first, we thought that they
looked like patrol boats but as we came closer, I commented to Bob that
they looked a bit like the fishing boats that bring refugees to Australia.
One was off to port, one straight ahead and the third was also ahead but
off our starboard bow. As we came closer, the boat to port started to move
across on a collision course. We were sailing at that point but we decided
to start our engine and speed up. We moved ahead and it fell in behind off
our port quarter. The boat on our starboard bow also started to move
towards us. These two boats looked as though they had been at sea for
months with rust streaks and large amounts of marine growth on the hulls,
especially where a bow wave would be. The uncanny part was that we could
not see anybody on either of them but their actions were quite
intimidating. We thought that it was a good idea to let somebody know what
was happening in case we were never heard of again so Bob rang the
Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) on the satellite phone. They
took details of our position and what was happening and later rang back to
check on us and tell us that they had contacted the French authorities on
Martinique and that they would be calling us as well. The French rang each
night to check our position and condition for the rest of the trip and
asked us to report in when we had reached St Lucia.

We do not know whether those boats were fishing boats (they had lots of
floats on their aft deck) or refugee boats but we were quite concerned for
our safety at the time. The third boat never moved and we got out of there
as quickly as we could. We kept an eye on the radar for quite a few hours
until we were sure that they were not coming our way. Hope that we do not
have any more of these encounters.

We arrived in the marina at Rodney Bay, St Lucia, early in the afternoon
of Wednesday 13th April. The passage was slower than we had hoped as we
had light winds at the beginning and end of the trip and we had to gybe
north and south of our preferred course to keep wind in the sails, thus
travelling further than the direct route.