Oriole's Web Diary - Wow!! De wind is back.

Wow!! De wind is back.

Oriole

Sun 6 Jan 2013 21:20

Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. 17:01.04N 61:46.37W

We are back in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua and Andrew should arrive hot from his charter tomorrow. But it has been quite a struggle getting here.

From Rodney Bay, St Lucia we has a light wind sail to St Anne, Martinique to round off 2012. Quadrille joined us later in the afternoon and Adrian came aboard Oriole to celebrate the New Year. Sadly Christine (Quadrille) was ailing, so did not join us for our supper and toasting at 2000 local time (midnight UK time). By midnight local time we were soundly asleep and did not even hear the fireworks ashore!

Best wishes for 2013.

By Wednesday we had realised that we were in for some much stronger winds and that if we did not get moving we were going to be stuck in Martinique for some days and would miss meeting Andrew in Antigua before he goes off with his owner. So we checked out and poised ourselves in Trois Islets for the crossing to Dominica. We were underway at 0600 on Thursday morning and the weather was squally but out of the squalls there was not excessive wind and at the north end of Martinique conditions were quite mild. Halfway across the 25 mile open ocean passage a squall approached slowly but inexorably from the East. The normal pattern is for the wind to pick up strength before it starts raining and then it rains and blows for ten minutes or so and then you are out in the clear. But this one was different. The wind did not change from 20 knots as we saw a wall of rain and flattened sea with miriad white streaks down the surface of the waves approaching. The rain and wind arrived simultaneously and instead of a 5-10 knot increase we had a blast to 35-37 knots where it stayed for the next hour. Sail was quickly reduced and we made rapid if very uncomfortable progress on a beam reach with the ocean trying hard to gain access down the main hatch. We had already overtaken the only yacht we saw out that day which then tailed into the distance. We had welcome respite in the lee of Dominica and a great sail up to Prince Rupert Bay where we dropped anchor at 1700 - exhausted.

The forcasts then gave us a brief two day window before it was going to blow harder (the squall of yesterday we deemed an anomaly) so the anchor was up by 0900 for some 25 knot brisk reaching past the Saintes to Guadeloupe. We anchored at the north end of Guadeloupe in time for a tea in Deshaies which is renowned for its wind tunnel effect when there are squalls. Around 1900 the first squall arrived and we had solid 35 knots for the next two hours with Oriole swinging around on here anchor and we expected to be in for a relatively sleepless night. However the wind dropped back to more manageable proportions and at 0600 we poked our noses back out to sea and had a more welcome 20 knots for the 40 miles to Antigua. However the sea was big and confused and it was like being in a washing machine but we averaged 7 knots on a close reach and then hard on the wind for the last 10 miles. We went ashore for supper and could hardly stand up. We had not been ashore for only three days but the ground would not stay still, and that was before we had had a drink. It was better after a strong rum punch.

Today was the start of the Oyster Round the World Rally outside English Harbour. The conditions were very brisk and although most of the 25 or more fleet made the start line most of them immediately returned to harbour to await more clement conditions!