Escape from Trinidad
Oriole
Mon 13 Jan 2014 00:53
Admiralty Bay,
Bequia.
13:00.54N 61:14.31W
Since returning to Trinidad from our trip to the Southern Ocean we have had the most amazing hospitality from our Trinidadian friends over Christmas, meanwhile trying to get everything ready on Oriole. So on Thursday January 2nd we returned the little yellow car to its generous owner, checked out with Immigration and Customs, collected our duty free alcohol, paid our bill with Crews Inn Marina and crept out of our berth in the dark at 0500 on Friday.
We normally set off with everything working, but undiscovered delights awaited us. The autopilot refused to work and the port side electric sheet winch was also on the blink. Neither of these is life threatning but a little inconvenient and I failed to correct them while underway. We had a very fast spring tide under us which pushing against a brisk ENE wind gave us a very confused sea but we did over 8 knots over the ground most of the way to Grenada and anchored in Prickly Bay well before dark, which feat we do not often achieve. Prickly Bay was rolling and us with it, so after clearing we negotiated the reefs into Mt Hartman Bay. The entrance is now well marked with buoys and consequently the anchorage was much more crowded than usual.
Since returning to Trinidad from our trip to the Southern Ocean we have had the most amazing hospitality from our Trinidadian friends over Christmas, meanwhile trying to get everything ready on Oriole. So on Thursday January 2nd we returned the little yellow car to its generous owner, checked out with Immigration and Customs, collected our duty free alcohol, paid our bill with Crews Inn Marina and crept out of our berth in the dark at 0500 on Friday.
We normally set off with everything working, but undiscovered delights awaited us. The autopilot refused to work and the port side electric sheet winch was also on the blink. Neither of these is life threatning but a little inconvenient and I failed to correct them while underway. We had a very fast spring tide under us which pushing against a brisk ENE wind gave us a very confused sea but we did over 8 knots over the ground most of the way to Grenada and anchored in Prickly Bay well before dark, which feat we do not often achieve. Prickly Bay was rolling and us with it, so after clearing we negotiated the reefs into Mt Hartman Bay. The entrance is now well marked with buoys and consequently the anchorage was much more crowded than usual.
Benign conditions approaching Kick'em
Jenny.
The winds for the last six weeks have been pretty strong, but although there have been a lot of complaints of unusual weather, we have certainly had periods like this before. Nevertheless we had a rest day on Sunday and spied a milder weather window and midst a whiteout set off for Carriacou. The window opened and we had a glorious sail in classic Caribbean weather and notched up a first as we sailed right into Tyrrel Bay in one tack. This is normally a stiff beat with a lively time off Kick'em Jenny, but the combination of wind and tide worked in our favour for once. On the way another gear failure manifested itself in the main bilge pump failing to prime. Now this could be life threatening! However the jobs list with three new entries saw the autopilot and the bilge pump ticked off in Tyrrel Bay, and the cause of the winch failure diagnosd as needing a new winch motor. This will be the fourth for this winch in nine years!! Good British Lewmar proving much more reliable for us than the Danish Andersen, but so far we have to admit we have not had to pay for any of the replacements. Hopefully we can get a new one sent to Antigua.
Frigatas Magnificans. This guy had been nicking fish
from the Brown Boobies.
The winds roared through Tyrrel Bay where we enjoyed
ourselves for three days with drinks and a meal ashore with friends.
Progress beckoned us in spite of brisk forcast conditions and off the SW corner
of Union Island we experienced a squall which suddenly without warning doubled
the wind speed to 40 knots and laid us on our beam ends with more water in the
cockpit than we have ever had before - another first! Clear of the
north end of the island we could see solid low cloud and approaching rain and
the promise of more squalls so we turned tail for Chatham Bay for a little R and
R and had a day of continuous rain and strong wind. - good
decision!
Saturday dawned a beautiful day with a few puffy trade wind clouds but still a pretty brisk wind which always accelerates through that anchorage, but knowing this we ignored the blasts and were rewarded with a good brisk sail up to Bequia.
Saturday dawned a beautiful day with a few puffy trade wind clouds but still a pretty brisk wind which always accelerates through that anchorage, but knowing this we ignored the blasts and were rewarded with a good brisk sail up to Bequia.
From Jack's Bar, Princess Margaret's Beach where we had
Sunday lunch today
To begin with we could lay the course easily but the wind
headed us and the tide pushed us to the west so we struggled for the last few
hours to make the SW corner of Bequia. Phat Shag (really his name) was
keeping a mooring for us in a choice position and as we picked it up the heavens
opened and all the salt from the days hard work was rapidly removed from the
deck and us.