Fai Tira Blog 16.00 UTC  Friday  22nd January

Fai Tira in Bonaire    12:09.18N 68:16.74W

Wednesday was the day our journey continued and also took a change in direction. Union Island was to be our last stop in the group known as The Windward Islands. For the most part our reason for being there was purely functional, as Pete had already mentioned, and mainly down to clearing out through customs and transferring Jeremys’ booze that had shared my bed since Antigua, over to his boat.

I found that the place had little to commend it. A series of water side restaurants and bars that were attractive enough. Friendly people, a fresh fruit market, where as a prospective customer you were almost immediately commandeered and plied for business, a small town centre that was barely definable and a disproportionate number of supermarkets, but then again this is the main area servicing the Tobago Cays National Park, so I suppose it should be expected.

Our stay here was very short, just one full day, so the opportunity for exploration very restricted. However we couldn’t leave without t least a cursory glance, could we now?.

It’s so easy in the Carabbean to find at least something of interest, even when it doesn’t seem to exist!!. After all whole of life here seems to be a theatrical event being acted out on a glorious stage. And sure enough, having walked just few paces we were confronted with a brilliantly colourful road sign that wouldn’t have looked out of place in any art gallery. A few paces further on, stood a fantastically decorated gate just screaming out for attention and stimulating the sort of interest that ensured you obeyed  its’ blatant command to venture over its’ inviting threshold

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Immediately, in front, a skinny stone path wound its’ way into the distance, drawing you into a narrow jungle like garden full of exotic vegetation. The path was lined with hugely colourful small  and intimate stalls interspersed with aviaries and cages housing a menagerie of birds and animals. There were galleries, craft clothes and food stalls that displayed and sold all manner of local produce. We continued on. The garden remained narrow and the path twisted on for ages. It was so fanciful that round each bend you half expected to see the running figure of a white rabbit holding an alarm clock whilst, at the same time, mumbling to itself something about lateness as it went scurrying by

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Eventually we came across a sign pointing to a bar and restaurant. An enquiry revealed that the venue was situated just ahead on a hill overlooking the harbour, it sounded great. However time was pressing and with the beer signs in our eyes already approaching full, from a more recent indulgence, we gave the last part a miss and retraced our steps.

A transmission over the hand held VHF, on the way back, provoked waves of concern. The message was that Roundabout, sailed by David and Jo with two young children on board, had struck a reef and was unable to extricate itself. At this stage we were unaware of the location, so there was lots of concern.

It soon became clear that the reef was within the Union Island harbour and the biggest part of David’s problem was to sort out the hoards of boat boys scrambling all over his deck, with outrageous financial demands to pull him off and totally ignoring his protestations.

David is a clear thinking strong character and soon resolved the situation whilst acknowledging at the same time, that it was good to be in the company of so many BWR yachts at a time of potential crisis.

A point of irony here, the coral bank is named Roundabout Reef.

Just a thought here David(although I can’t believe for one minute it’s true) are you sure that there wasn’t, just a little, something in the back of your mind, when reading the chart, that might have had you jumping to the conclusion................        exclusive parking bay??????

Our start, the next morning was early. We had about 400 miles to travel and had estimated the arrival in our destination, of about three and a half days later. So after hauling up the anchor and carefully picking our way between the myriad of resting yachts, we left the harbour, turned our backs on the Caribbean, pointed the nose at a distant magnificently clear rainbow and headed west to the ABC’s and Bonaire.

Initially our passage took us past a range of neighbouring small islands with Grenada being the last in the line. The weather was doing its’ best to make our departure as dramatic as possible. Dark foreboding clouds cloaked the distant landscapes with the mountain tops looking altogether disconnected by a mass of dark blue and grey. And even at a distance the torrential rain was obvious as it swept inland.

I now find myself at the start of a second week without having even looked at a razor blade. I was kind of hoping that my black and white stubble (that’s a euphemism for grey) just might, when combined with my new tan, have the effect of giving me a rugged if not dashing look. However,  I’ve once more glanced in the mirror and the face looking back just seems to belong to a scruffy old bloke (and that’s a euphemism for git), so it’ll probably have to go tomorrow.

 Actually there was another ulterior motive for the growth, other than just being lazy. The reason is, that it has also had the effect of distracting attention away from my recent terrible hair cut. The mutilation happened in Soufriere.

As I entered the barbers’ things didn’t feel quite right. It was empty, and this was the middle of the day. It was immaculately clean almost like the last customer had been quite some time ago, local knowledge can be useful. Then when I was installed in his chair and unable to escape, I discovered that the barber had only one functioning hand. The joke was that he asked me how I’d like it cut, knowing full well that any response was always going to be irrelevant, after all with an electric shearer grasped firmly in his left hand and the other unable to do much of anything, the result was always going to be the same........Bad!!  His limitation also extended to scissors, where his repertoire was restricted to hacking off any offending hair to a fringe, which he did with surly enthusiasm, and I found myself looking in dismay as great chunks of hair hit the floor, unable to prevent myself from smiling and chuckling to myself at the absurdity of it all.

The first days sail was pretty uneventful and, for some of the time, almost non-existent.

The 8 knot apparent following wind, that was pushing our gull winged rigged boat along at about 41/2 – 5 knots, died in the afternoon. So with the sails flogging as we rolled along and the speed dropping below 3 knots, we fired up the engine and started to get a move on.

We had both noticed the proliferation of flying fish, a great source of entertainment as shoals seemed to re-locate themselves with fantastic aerial displays. Then much to my surprise one, looking as though it was trying to make an isolated impression, flew straight over the cockpit, missing everything in the way, and landed in the sea the other side. I suppose it was something like the marine equivalent of dogs jumping through hoops at the circus, except they’re not moving at 5 knots (hoops not the dogs that is)

The serious sailing took place from early Wednesday morning. The moderate wind, that had allowed us to keep up a good average throughout the night before, gradually strengthened and before long the instruments were indicating12-15 knots of apparent wind and we were flying along making 7 knots over the ground.

Pete was “feeling knackered” so we decided to change the watch pattern, with me taking the evening through until 1am. I remembered him saying as he disappeared below “ bet it’s another lonely night”............Wrong!!!

The wind continued to increase and was soon at 15-20 knots apparent, the night sky was illuminated by a crescent moon and the skies clear, the boat speed was now consistently in excess of 8 knots occasionally touching 9 and we were under full sail. With the lager gusts, Denise, our wind vane, would protest give up the task of guiding us down the rhumb line, and we’d end up shooting off in some unpredictable and unexpected direction.

About this time the AIS started to pick up other boats and then from over the horizon a cruise liner emerged displaying all the light pollution of a small city.

A cargo ship passed us about 3 miles astern and 2 others appeared on the starboard bow.

Then another activated the collision alarm and a physical check revealed lights ahead bearing down on us about 3 miles away. With the sea now very lumpy, the winds gusting, the boat flying along and going on the occasional walkabout and the surroundings all looking a bit like the M25 at night, I felt just a smidgen of concern so decided to make contact on the VHF.

The ship was Oriental. The name escapes me now, but something like SS Fu Man Chu would  be about right. I wanted to be sure that he’d seen us and also to inform him of our intention to hold course.    Now I was under the impression that radio operators on large vessels in international waters, should at least have a working understanding of English. Well not this one, the response was indecipherable and would probably have been no different if I’d ordered,,,,,, flied lice and clackers.

Happily we passed with about a mile to spare whilst, at the same time, also managing to negotiate the rest of the shipping lane without any further dramas.

Steering remained skittish and first light saw us reefing down the main. The speed difference was minimal, with a subsequent instrument check also revealing that we’d just bettered our best previous 24 hour sail by one mile. The record now stands at 166.

Not bad Eh!!!

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An accident report, has just been filed on the web. It concerns the boat Miss Tippy and her skipper Brian, for a time, it sounded horrendous, Thankfully, it now, seems  not so bad, but it sounds as though Sheila and the children must have had a really hard and scary time, but one that saw them copping like experts.

Both of us on Fai Tira are thinking of you, hope that you’re all ok and that Brian’s recovery is quick and complete.

We all want to see you safely back as soon as possible   

Bye for now.

Pete and John