Najad 511 'Song of the Ocean'
Passage from the Caribbean to Sweden
The best laid plans of mice an' men……
Our return to Trinidad to recommission Song of the Ocean was deferred until late January 2009 to attend to business in Colorado. However, this also enabled us to take in some skiing; as the saying goes ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ !
Following ten days recommissioning in Chaguaramus , we set sail through the Bocas for an overnight passage for St David’s Bay, Granada to avoid Venezuelan pirates. As the F4/5 wind remained in the NE this led next morning, to our continuing up the east coast of Granada for Union Island followed by Mustique for relaxation and Bequia for scuba diving. After this we made for the leeward Islands for English Harbour, Antigua where we were to meet with my daughter Lorna and her friend Clare from the IOM. As they only had ten days holiday, we lost no time in slipping our lines for Barbuda with its beautiful beaches which we knew would be the perfect antidote for the girls!
On our return to Antigua, we came across an alarming experience in so far as, with our flying the deck sweeping genoa and my being engaged on the chart table for five minutes, we almost collided with an undetected American yacht which emerged across our bow from under our lee! Although it was remiss of me, the American skipper with his two female crew with a string of fenders already attached along their weather port side, were clearly intent on making an imbecilic point with derisory shouts and gesticulations! However, I should have liked to have brought to their attention that when an obvious undersight had clearly occurred, it is the requirement of the observant yacht to realise we were blind sided and take avoiding action to avert a collision. We both had an empty sea at our disposal and any experienced skipper would have abandoned his perceived Rules of the Road that might lead to a dangerous encounter and left his unforgivable ‘road rage’ in the car park!!
Other than that, we had a great week circum-navigating Antigua and called into all the renown anchorages before rounding-off with a celebration at Harmony Hall before seeing the girls off by taxi for the airport and their flight home. Jan and I, on the other hand wasted no time in returning to Barbuda to then make for St Martins, Anguilla, St Kitts, Nevis and down to Deshaies, Guadeloupe before sailing back to Falmouth Harbour, Granada to lay the yacht up, for our return to NZ for six weeks.
Contrary to the original plans of keeping Song of the Ocean in the Caribbean for winter sailing followed by summer in Scandinavia on Song of the Sea, we now found some five years later our needing to return to Sweden. The decision had been brought about by a number of factors. Firstly, we had experienced deterioration in the deck sealant leading to its leeching black stain with anything with which it came into contact. The suppliers initially agreed to fly out to Antigua to replace the filling under warranty but then reneged on the arrangement after we had sailed to Falmouth to meet them, insisting that the job would now have to be expedited in Sweden!
However, we were also faced with a problem with our mast. The in-mast furling slot between the gooseneck and boom vang had widened sufficiently to require us to replace the mast. With George Malony and David Prior already in flight to Antigua to complete our crew for the Atlantic crossing, there was not a moment to spare. Arrangements were made with Selden, America to deliver the replacement mast to Falmouth Harbour which was only just installed before David would have run out of available time and been obliged to fly back to the UK.
It has to be added that the ever deteriorating security for yachtsmen in the Caribbean and the inability of the island governments to address this serious problem had reduced the anchorages that we were prepared to use to such an extent that we no longer felt secure in spending the winter in the West Indies. During our seven seasons in the Caribbean, we had gone from sailing to most of the islands to now only feeling safe anchoring off the French islands or docking in security protected marinas.
Having bade farewell to the Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda, we slipped our lines on the 20th May 2009 to the sound of Rod Stuart's recording of ‘we are sailing’ as we passed the two remaining yachts in Falmouth Harbour with their wishes of 'fair winds and following seas'. Typically, the wind was NE 4/5 which required us to sail hard to weather for two hundred miles before picking up the NW winds down from Newfoundland, to bear away for the Azores.
We settled into two hours on-watch followed by six hours off during the daytime and then with Jan undertaking all the cooking, George, David and myself handled the night watches with three hours on and six off. Frustratingly, we still experienced problems with our instruments with both the auto pilot and GPS dropping out at random which was exasperating after being assured by the ‘experts’ that the problem had been resolved. As my father-in-law used to say ‘an expert is a has-been drip’! On a more positive note, the weather enabled us to connect with the rum line route for the Azores far sooner than expected.
Following our transversing the calm of an accumulated 'sea of plastic waste’ trapped in current-less sea of some 25 square miles, we were relieved to enter the north Atlantic weather systems with eased sheets, providing days of fair winds followed by calm which necessitated the use of the engine for periods of time and then line squalls with cloud bursts before returning once more to fine weather. We were a happy crew and easily fell into that zone where one becomes detached from the outside world and its governance by time and protocol. When not asleep, one became consumed by cloud formations, sun aluminated surf, rolling seas and occasional bird or aquatic animal life. Shipping was few and far between, at times we would be contacted by an interested on-watch officer from the bridge but normally they would pass in ghostly silence.
The ships clock would be changed on passing through the time zones following my mid-day sunsights. I have a German WW2 sextant from a U-boat submarine that was left to me by an Uncle which I like to maintain for as much in his memory, as maintaining my skills; it even came with its official Nazi government verification and corrections. I normally find the instability of a sailing yacht’s deck too challenging for star sights and in preference settle for sun sights backed up by the moon when available, which provides more than sufficient data for transversing thousands of ocean miles.
After 2248M sailing on a comfortable reach or downwind run under Simbo Rig, we started to pick up head winds over the last 200M to the Azores. We also came across an occasional yacht on the horizon seemingly making for Horta. It is amazing how homely ones yacht becomes after so many miles alone on a vast ocean, by comparison with coastal sailing where ones thoughts are focussed on achieving the arrival. In fact, it's almost unsettling to suddenly be faced with a coast line and have to concern oneself with navigation and attendance to lighthouses, buoys and depth of water, not to mention other sailing yachts!
We tied up at the check-in dock at 1400 GMT on the 8th June to a not unexpected crammed Horta harbour. For the aforementioned reasons, none of us were anxious to step ashore in preference to going about our duties in making-good the yacht by way of stowage, cleaning and general tidying up. In fact, it wasn’t until evening that we made our way to Cafe Sports to enjoy Jose's hospitality. On our previous visit in c2004 it had been his father, Peter who had made us so welcome.
The following day David took a flight home to leave George, Jan and myself to prepare SotO for our onward passage to Dublin. Firstly though, having settled back into life ashore we went about a touch of sight seeing on Pico and hired a car to drive around Faial. Also stocked up with provisions and refuel the yacht in preparation for our departure on the 13th June.
We slipped our lines at 1130 GMT on a fine reach past Pico to round St. George and onwards into the Atlantic in a NE4 with moderate seas. The three of us reverted to a 3hrs on followed by 6hrs off watchkeeping. On passing Terceira at 2200 we were obliged to motor under a star filled night. Without pollution from city lights or industrial waste, this was a magical experience and gave one the feeling of being an intricate part of outer-space. By midnight, we were able to strike the engine on a fine reach under full sail. A couple of yachts could be identified to port and starboard seemingly making the same course. During the ‘early hours’, we were confronted by a a large fleet of fishing boats requesting us to steer around them, followed by another such fleet at dawn. A further feature were the whales and the abundance of dolphins which gathered under our bow until magically pealing off in unison into oblivion.
Some 400M south of Ireland, we were accosted by the Royal Navy who dispatched their helicopter to check us out and request an outline of our sailing plans which no doubt, were forwarded to the Irish authorities. We were later to become engaged with another fishing fleet plus a gas rig on approaching Ireland. It was heart warming to sail up the coastline for theTusker which was such a 'deja vu' for Jan and myself, in respect of sailing our HR 39, Surf Song either on passage from Scotland for Brittany or circumnavigating Ireland whilst taking in HR owners’ rallies on the SW coast. Fortunately we had the advantage of a north flowing tide to sail past Arklow and Wicklow before entering Dun Laoghaire on the 22nd August after 1,338M over a 9 days passage.
With no time to spare, we set about leaving SotO 'ship shape & Bristol fashion', before Jan and I, flew back to the IOM and George to Gatwick. I was required for a Board meeting with my old Company to finalise the paper work and finances, before stepping down from my position on the 6th September. This only took out a week of our voyage which enabled Jan and I, to return to Dun Lunlaoghaire to slip our lines at dawn on the 1st July for the Isle of Ghia in the Sound of Jura. The forecast was excellent, E4 blue skies and good visibility to enable SotO to reach up the Irish Sea under full main and headsail, keeping close to the Irish coastline to avoid the worst of a southerly tide before picking up the northerly ebb off Strangford Lough and speedily making for the Mull of Kintyre and on to West Tarbert Bay, Gigha to anchor by nightfall on completion of the 127M passage.
This enabled us to sail next day over the 33M for Croabh Haven marina in the north of the Sound of Jura. The continuing glorious Summer weather displayed the Highlands in all its magnificence and it felt good to be back. We took the opportunity to arrange for Owen Sails to collect our mainsail for servicing which gave time for us to visit Kilmelford Boatyard where we had previously based s/y Surf Song for 13 years. On mentioning that we had sailed across the Atlantic to see them and refresh our memories with the good ‘old times', the proprietor's only response was to enquire whether we had a good sail up the Sound of Jura. Everybody moves on, I guess!
We slipped our lines to make through the Cuan Sound to retrieve our mainsail from Owen Sails in Connel and continue up the Sound of Mull to anchor off Tobermory for the night. Following morning we made for Ardnamurchan, mainland GB's most westerly peninsular which then enabled us to bear away NE up the Sound of Sleet for Loch Nevis where there is a good restaurant with moorings for those who dined with them.
Next day we slipped our mooring, to continue north for Kyle Rhea to transit through Loch Alsh and exit under the Isle of Skye road bridge into the Inner Sound for Plocton, Loch Carron. The village is renowned for its absent holiday-home owners, otherwise known as the ‘Hampstead highlanders’! Be that as it may, it was here of all places that our dinghy was ‘borrowed’ without permission. Whilst overseas, we always lifted our dinghy at night but never thought about such matters in the UK. However, on awakening next morning, we were shocked to find our dinghy had been taken. Being a week day, there were no sailors to hail to enable us to investigate and report to the police. In this situation you can imagine the relief when another yacht entered the anchorage and kindly took us ashore, whereupon we came across our dinghy tied up to the landing stage. On further investigation it became apparent that in order for a moored yachtsman to achieve his objective, he had 'borrowed' our dinghy in the dead of night to enable him to stow his onboard. Frankly, I would have expected him to have asked whether we could have run him ashore in the early hours or failing that, return his dinghy to his yacht after his departure. A classic case of “I’m in the boat Jack, push off”!
Somewhat later than planned, we lifted our anchor for another favourite anchorage at Badachro, L. Gairloch where we caught up with an old friend, Sheila King who with her since departed husband Fred, used to manage the Badachro Inn. Fred was a sailor and to fulfil his life long dream, I once sailed him out to St Kilda on s/y Surf Song. It was a regular haunt of mine to which I had taken a fleet of HROA yachts from around the UK on a rally to Loch Hiort Bay in c1999.
Be that as it may, we continued to sail N. for Kinlochbervie, Loch Inchard to refuel before rounding Cape Wrath to anchor in the captivating bay of Talmine on the north coast. At the crack of daylight, we weighed anchor for Eynhallow Sound to make for Vasa Sound and down to Kirkwall marina, Orkney. We had added another 180M since departing Wester Ross but still had a way to go, bearing in mind that the Scandinavian summer is well gone by September. We next slipped our lines to sail the 50M to North Harbour, Fair Isles and onwards to Lerwick in the Shetland Isles where we were delighted to meet Simon Currin. The initial objective had been to meet up with our long standing HR friends Don & Helen Liddle from Wales who reside in Shetland during the summer, however the addition of also coming across Simon Currin who is a globally renowned member of the OCC, made our visit a memorable occasion .
On the back of a summer gale, we slipped our lines for Bergen, Norway on the 2nd August in the remains of a high sea.To our surprise not 10M into our passage, we were once again checked-out by a helicopter but this time from HMCG. The SE4/5 veered during the day and by midnight had backed to NW2/3 necessitating motoring sailing through the night. By daybreak the wind built from the east which brought about our abandoning Bergen to bear away for Cape Lindesnes on the SW coast of Norway and make for Grimstad. This delightful town is well known to us from previous Summer cruises on our N460, Song of the Sea. Of all the countries we have sailed in Europe, Norway together with Portugal are our our favourite. Their people are delightfully engaging and hospitable.
Our plan was to call upon our good friends Bertil & Dawn Philipson who divide their year between Lindo on the south coast of Norway and Melbourne, Australia. However, on setting sail in a brisk N 5 on our NE course along the coast of Norway, we were shocked to discover that our new Selden mast slot had also gapped below the boom! As a result, we felt compelled to abandon Lindo and make directly for Henen, Orust to get to the bottom of this unacceptable issue. Something was clearly awry with the rig which needed resolving by Selden. Since leaving Antigua we had come across no conditions to merit the problem and felt exceedingly exasperated to be back in this position through no fault of ourselves.
On making fast in Najad’s marina in Henan, I immediately contacted their management to discover that Selden were aware of the issue concerning the N511 mast and would not only replace it but reimburse the cost of the replacement mast we acquired in Antigua. In fact following this, Selden made it compulsory for all N511s to sail with the inner forestay permanently rigged regardless of weather conditions. On the other matter, Najad agreed to replace our deck on the basis that it was the most economical solution to resolving the leeching deck sealant.
All of which culminated in a satisfactory outcome and just reward for our endeavours in sailing back to Sweden on completion of our 5,268M voyage from Trinidad.