6kts under bare poles
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Sat 19 Dec 2009 12:26
|
11:56.901N 066:40.912W
Anchored at 1120 UTC 19/12
An exciting nights sail. The day sail was superb,
fluffy white Trade wind clouds, blue skies and a nice 15kt apparent breeze. Come
the late evening the wind had got up and we needed to slow down to arrive in Los
Rocques in daylight. Reduce sail, 7kts over the ground. Take sail in, 6 kts over
the ground!!! Roll out a pocket-handkerchief for steerage way and widen
out the track a bit, managed to slow down to 5kts, so had to stooge around a bit
(45mins) to wait for daylight.
First impressions of Los Rocques? Well, a rolly
anchorage off the town where we have to complete formalities, so not too
favourable. Pretty, but I've seen pretty islands before and as a crew we don't
think worth a US$100 park fee, if that's what it turns out to be, for just a
couple of days stay. If were going to be here a week it might be different..
After breakfast and a kip I'll go and see the CoastGuard and if we can stay for
a couple of days for free fine, otherwise it'll be off to Bonaire a day or
so earlier than planned. We'll have to use a buoy there which will cost US$10
per night, but we'll have a mobile network, wifi and a boat that I know (Aurora
B, an OCC boat) is en-route now and will be there tomorrow.Plus the odd bar or
three.
|