Najad 460 passage from the Caribbean to Sweden
Return to Old Blighty
Our return to Trinidad was postponed until the 10th January 2004 to permit us to celebrate the festive season with family. However, from all accounts we hadn’t missed much as the weather had been most unseasonable with strong easterly winds over the Christmas holidays. On arrival at Peakes Boatyard, it was bizarre to see our AC unit still purring away after a 10 months absence and a pleasure to find Song of the Sea as dry as a bone. The recommissioning took two weeks hard work but fortunately Chaguaramas has all the skills and facilities to hand and at half their UK costs which spared us from a third week.
Jan and I set our genoa and mainsail on making through the Bocas for our overnight passage to Grenada. With the benefit of hindsight, a working jib would have been more practical as the wind backed into the NE with fierce rain squalls. On completion of the 100 hundred miles sail we were relieved to check into Prickly Bay feeling somewhat bone-rattled but cobweb free! The south coast of Grenada is a veritable mecca for yachts with its abundance of sheltered bays and anchorages. Our favourite is St David’s in the southeast with its burgeoning boatyard and recently developed hotel perched on the loch side overlooking yachts at anchor.
Our season was to be full-on from the outset as we had accepted two sets of friends from the UK to join us for a fortnight's holiday each.The first couple were meeting up in Bequia on the 10th February which enabled us to enjoy a couple of weeks in Grenada before setting sail for Carriacou, with a blast though Kick’em Jenny in a NE 4/5 under full main and genoa. On arrival, we decided not to trouble their officials in preference for weighing anchor at first light on a close-haul to pass Union Island and onwards to Admiralty Bay, Bequia.
Helen and Don arrived on time at the Gingerbread Hotel following a harrowing journey out of the depths of a winter-gripped Wales. The Grenadines presented them with the perfect antidote, free from officialdom to enjoy short day-sails between a myriad of tropical islands with their inviting silver sandy beaches. Some of which such as Mustique, Canouan, Palm Island and Petit St Vincent, even offer a touch of evening culture. In addition to this there are the hideways of Saltwhistle Bay, Chatham Bay and of course, the jewel in the crown, the Tobago Cays. The weather continued unusually unsettled and our visitors were astounded by the velocity of the wind which at F6/7 provided invigorating conditions.
After their departure, we had just a month before the arrival of the next couple. We set sail for Wallilabou Bay, St Vincent but later felt obliged to depart as a result of the threats from the boat-boys! We weighed anchor in the late afternoon for a more northerly anchorage where together with two other yachts, were made to feel equally uncomfortable which further led to a decision to sail through the night for Rodney Bay, St Lucia.
In our opinion St Lucia rates above St Vincent from a security aspect but not high enough to be overlooked, therefore next morning we continued to sail north for the French island of Martinique. There we caught up with an old friend and sailing mate Mike Field and his daughter Emma plus family friends who had chartered a Dehlar yacht for a week. We jointly participated in the Gallic experience before departing for Dominica in an easterly 6/7 with heavy seas rolling in from the Atlantic. Song of the Sea relishes these conditions and sped across the 60M to Prince Rupert Bay. Unlike some Caribbean anchorages, the boat-boys here are courteous and hospitable. Not only do they care for the safety of you and your yacht through night and day but help with provisioning and arrange tours into the hinterland of this magical island which is a veritable Garden of Eden.
Our next port of call was Illes de Saintes of Admiral Rodney fame. Many liken it to Brittany and although slightly quirky, it has charm and affords excellent French cuisine. The best time to go ashore is after the ferries have returned to Guadeloupe. Song of the Sea was snubbing the anchor from a prolonged period of strong Atlantic easterlies and although the holding was good it caused us some anxiety on going to town.
Having bade farewell to Mike and Emma, we weighed anchor following morning in a continuing E6/7 for the SW headland of Guadaloupe before continuing up the coast for Deshaies which affords a sheltered anchorage but subject to severe katabatic winds bowling down the mountains. The bonus to this lays in it being a non-tourist town, geared up for the yachties with good provisions and restaurants. Like Bequia, it is a cruising crossroads and as a result, we were not overly surprised but nevertheless delighted to come across our Manx friends, Mike & Tricia Whipp OCC members, with their yacht Wild Rover which is an interesting 70 feet aero-carbon rigged sloop.
With our month of solace seeming to run out faster than a March hare, we weighed anchor over the 45M for Jolly Harbour Antigua in an easterly 6 gusting 7. We had taken to leaving our genoa fully furled in preference for setting the hard-wind jib off the mobile inner forestay in tandem with a reefed mainsail. This was a substantially better option than a severely reefed genoa which looses shape and buries the bow to create excessive leeway.
Harold & Vivviene met us on the marina pontoon full of Irish good cheer to take our lines. Despite Harold blocking the toilet, dropping the mobile VHF overboard, flooding the forecastle by leaving the skylight ajar and falling overboard, we had a wonderful fortnight together with exhilarating sailing in strong weather followed by dining ashore in the evenings with the best wines, food and companionship. Where did we come across this? In English Harbour, Deshaies and Illes de Sainte, of course.
All too soon they were gone and we had laid-up Song of the Sea ashore in Jolly Harbour for our return to the Isle of Man to attend to business. The six weeks quickly passed without incident to find ourselves back in Antigua on the 10th May, to relaunch the yacht, replace the generator and also some rigging in preparation for our passage to the Azores. The weather remained extraordinarily unseasonable with Antigua suffering its wettest May on record. Low pressure had become stationary in the eastern Caribbean and it became apparent that we would have to sail away from it or find ourselves in the hurricane season!
Following two days of gales and high seas over which we sailed at maximum hull speed with severely reduced canvas, the weather settled down. We had taken aboard our friends Andy & Willie from the UK to help with the watch keeping; us boys doing 4 hours watches during the day with Jan attending to the cooking followed by our all taking 3 hour watches at night.
The low pressure systems were tracking across the Atlantic at low latitudes which enabled us to sail a shallow great circle course and cross the 30th parallel at 50 degrees W which reduced our passage to Horta to 2250M. It was all downwind sailing and our Simbo Rig with twin jibs and mainsail once again, proved to be the perfect ocean rig. The passage took 13 days and 13 hours and following our arrival in Horta the boys made their departure with a flight home. In the meantime Jan and I, explored Faial and Pico in the rain, as relentless depressions piled into the Azores with increasing numbers of yachts seeking shelter in Horta from their Atlantic voyages.
In the meantime, Jane flew out from the UK for a fortnight to complete our crew of three for the onward passage to Falmouth, Cornwall. However, after a week we were still in Horta waiting for a break in the weather. After countless visits to the internet-cafe for a reasonable weather forecast, we finally slipped our lines with eight days to make Falmouth or Jane would be looking for another job! It wasn’t exactly the best start when our autopilot failed and unfortunately obliged us to return to Horta whereupon we enjoyed a wonderful evening aboard the-then Commodore of the ICC’s Island Packet yacht. Fortunately, we carried a spare autopilot which we fitted next morning to outwit ‘Murphy’ on this particular occasion!
We had an excellent passage to Cornwall and achieved our objective in 7 days and 7 hours during which we were overhauled by a 55 Kts AWS squall from astern under full mainsail and twin jibs. Song of the Sea flew like an arrow dead downwind without any tendency to round-up or deviate off course which sent two plumes of bow wave cascading into the air down either side of the hull. The GPS recorded 15.5 Kts. SOG. Totally spectacular if not alarming! However, after a few minutes which seemed like an eternity, the AWS dropped to 40 Kts. which appeared so placid by comparison that I returned the control of Song of the Sea to the autopilot with the wind continuing to subside to the 25-30 Kts. that we were previously experiencing.
The fact of the matter was that unbeknown to me at the time, the twin jibs took-over control of the yacht from myself which was how a potential disaster was probably averted. Another thought was that had I not taken over the helm from the autopilot when the apparent wind increased to 40 Kts. it might also have produced a different outcome!
Falmouth is a great town from which Jane bade her farewells in good time and we took a couple of days off before sailing to the Mayfair marina in Plymouth. Fortunately, it was the one marina that still had available accommodation for Song of the Sea whilst we made a visit home and more importantly to my Company. On our return, we made a good decision to backtrack on ourselves and enjoy five glorious sun-baked days in the Isles of Scilly. A very special place with a lifetime of happy memories for us.
Following this, the English Summer disappointingly gave way to a continuous succession of deep Atlantic depressions piling into the UK as we limped from port to port along the English Channel and around to Harwich where another sailing friend of Jan’s, Elaine made up a crew of three. In early September we thought we had a weather window for our passage across the North Sea to Sweden but alas, after weaving through the gas rigs and 150M out from Harwich, we were warned of a deep Atlantic depression unexpectedly dropping into the North Sea. We decided on discretion being the better part of valour and diverted for Den Helder, Netherlands where we sat out a severe gale for two days. Typically this then gave way to blue skies and no wind which left us to motor-sail up the North Sea to round the coast of Denmark and across the Skagerrak for Henan, Orust on completion of our 5K miles voyage from Trinidad.
