A Caribbean Lesson Heather Squires, Telltale Editor and Reciprocal Moorage Chair

I recently took an offshore sailing course in the Caribbean, which was wonderful, of course! But I have been asked many times “What did you learn?” Maybe this summary will help to answer that question!

11/13/00 (Just barely)
It’s midnight, but I’m finally here. A 2 1/2 hour delay in Dallas, a missed flight in Puerto Rico, and a terrifying taxi ride from the airport (they drive on the other side of the road here, but that wasn’t completely obvious as we sped right down the middle). I’m glad to finally be on the boat, sweltering, fending off mosquitoes, and listening to a really loud generator out there somewhere. Wow, am I exhausted!

11/13/00
This morning we got up early, got oriented, ate breakfast, and listened to the weather report on an AM radio station at 8:05 am. A tropical wave is heading our way so we are going straight to St Martin, 90 nm south of east, to get there before it does. The forecast is 15-25 knots, ESE. This boat is really big, a Moorings 505, with 5 heads! There are 8 of us on board, everyone seems very nice!

Lesson #1– We have excellent weather station availability in the Pacific NW. Without orientation, I probably wouldn’t have found that AM weather report.

11/13/00 2130
Well, it was bound to happen, my first tropical squall! We left Tortola at 1300 heading for St. Martin, a day early because of that tropical wave. We have a headwind coming directly from St Martin (this sounds familiar!) The knotmeter wasn’t working either so we pulled it to scrape off some of the coral growing on it. That only somewhat helped, it still isn’t accurate. We sailed until 1700, then we took down the jib, double-reefed the main, and began motor-sailing. The instructors are very determined to do a night approach to Maricot Bay. Ken, Kathy and I had the first watch from 1800-2100. We had fish for dinner, the sun went down very fast, and we have only seen one boat. The moonrise was incredible, and 1/2 an hour before we turned the boat over to Bob, Mike, and Kim, a huge squall appeared on the horizon and the Virgin Islands were just slipping out of sight. Just as I laid down, the squall arrived, wow do they hit fast! The rigging is screaming, there is torrential rain, the waves are building and outside everything is white from the spray. Boy am I glad I’m not on deck! This boat sure does pound hard, and I’ve got a forward berth! It sounds like we’ve entered a second squall, my next watch is from midnight until 0300. I sure hope I can get some sleep with all this motion and racket.

11/14/00 0300

Underway from St Martin's to St Bartholemy's on Perserverence.

Phew! Well, no sleep was to be had. The seas built up an we pounded and pounded, it sounded like the boat was going to split at the seams! By the time I got a wakeup knock, I was feeling pretty queasy, probably had something to do with being bounced around like a superball with a full stomach. Once out of my berth, the queasiness went away. Bob got off watch, went below to plot our position, got halfway done and then spent 15 minutes hurling in the sink. It smells really good down there now! Kathy took the wheel after Ken, who then promptly began unloading his dinner off the back of the boat. Our crew is kind a hurtin’! The seas were bigger, and a squall tried to catch us just as I took the wheel. I somehow managed to steer around it and all we felt were icy cold downdrafts. There was lightning everywhere! Those storms look every bit as ominous as the books show. Our watch is over and we are at St Martin, but we are motoring off shore waiting for another squall to pass before going in. The sector light is out, and I can’t wait to sleep, I am completely drenched and crusted over in salt!

Lesson #2-No one in there right mind does an open ocean passage to windward if they can avoid it.
Lesson #3– A regular log entry and DR is very important out of sight of land, and so is the ability to estimate boat speed when instruments don’t work.
Lesson #4-Reefing at night in the tropics is a good idea.
Lesson #5-A forward berth is a really bad idea.

11/15/00
After a nice stay in St Martin, letting the weather blow through, we are off to St Bartholemy, about 25 nm away. I am glad we had the day off yesterday, as the heat, exhaustion, and dehydration were catching up to me.

Lesson #6– Do not allow yourself to get dehydrated!

Today was a glorious sail, the type everyone dreams of. 20 knots, warm air, and lots of sunshine! A gunboat swung by to check us out, and then we were buzzed by a very large aircraft, that was kind of strange. We learned a new crew overboard technique today, wow was it easy! I’ll have to try it at home. We did a Med tie in the harbor and plan on spending tomorrow exploring the island, it sure is beautiful here!

Lesson #7-There are no warm showers in St Barts.
Lesson #8– Clearing customs requires a passport, except they don’t stamp them, kind of different.

11/18/00 0200

Gustavius Harbor on St Bartholemy's.

St Barth’s was great! Excellent rum, narrow roads and beautiful beaches. Although the beaches had some less than beautiful people wearing less than (read no) adequate clothing. Greenpeace was trying to rescue one of the bodies. We left early this morning for our return trip to the BVI’s. The weather was beautiful and sunny, winds from the east, 15-20 knots. We had a broad reach all the way. We even caught a Mahi Mahi on the hand line that Bob had brought. Except it slipped off the hook at the swim step. The only squall that caught us came at 2300 just as we arrived at Round Rock Passage. We took the Drake Passage to Norman Is. because the large waves outside were making steering tiresome. It was a beautiful night with tons of shooting stars and for some strange reason, only the bottom half of the moon. It was the oddest thing I had ever seen. We grabbed a mooring ball in the Bight, which has two bars and not much else. It is still quite noisy. Tomorrow will be a short sail back to the Moorings base on Tortola. What an incredible trip this has been, and what a great bunch of people to have sailed with. I must admit, I was somewhat worried about crew compatibility when I signed up!

Lesson #9-Downwind sailing is about 1000 times more pleasant on a long passage (this one was 110 nm.)
Lesson #10– Somewhere in the world the winds really do blow a near constant speed and direction!

Perhaps the biggest lesson of all was not about the conditions or the technicalities of sailing or the MOB drills. It was about how much I could handle. How exhausted could I get and still function? Will I lose it when the weather gets rough? Will I get seasick? Can I navigate well enough to get to a place I cannot see? These lessons about me are the most important ones I learned, and the hardest to describe.

 

Need a Burgee?


You do if you want to use reciprocal moorage!
Cost is $20
Contact Heather Squires
Get one today!

 

Cover page     Officers/Chiefs     Caribbean Lesson   12 Best    Calendar    Tattle Tale