You’ve heard the expression “Boater’s Midnight” to describe
9 pm, the witching hour that cruisers go to bed. Well as we sat around the
dinner table this evening, after our long and exciting passage from St Vincent
to St Lucia, none of us could imagine staying awake until 9pm. Gloria piped up
“Passage-Maker’s Midnight” and there you have it – a complete justification for
going to bed at 8 pm!
It’s fantastic having friends and family come to stay with
us, and it has been awesome having Simon around. However, it also adds a little
stress because our guests typically have a time and a place when they plan to
depart. In Simon’s case, he needs to be back at St Lucia airport for Thursday
15th Feb. We planned a two week excursion to St Vincent and the
Grenadines and were fortunate to have mild sailing conditions for the longest
passage south. Unfortunately, after one week, as we cruised around Tobago Keys
it became obvious that getting back may not be so simple. In particular the
forecast for the week starting tomorrow Saturday 10th February was
appalling. Chris Parker, the sailing weather guru that we subscribe to,
described the overall forecast as a “rough week” and the seas state as being
“miserable”, so we started to make our way back north earlier than we planned.
The most difficult aspect was the passage from St Vincent to St Lucia, which is
about 40 nautical miles from Wallilabou to Soufriere and a little east of
north. Today (Friday) was predicted to have the mildest weather for the
foreseeable future with ENE winds at 16-20 knots and 8-foot seas. From tomorrow
onwards winds will strengthen to 23-28 knots gusting 30+ knots and seas will
build to 14 feet.
We left Kearton Bay, just south of Wallilabou, at 8.30 am
and motor sailed northwards with a single reefed main and stay sail in light
breezes and mild swells, protected by the mountainous St Vincent. As we
approached the northern tip of the island winds rapidly increased to 25 knots
gusting 31 knots and the seas were the biggest we have ever experienced.
Cotinga seemed to handle the conditions just fine, but we had to hold on pretty
tight. It’s typical on the ends of the islands, particularly on the northern
tips, for winds to be 30% stronger than the average gradient as they get
funneled around the point. After about 5 miles things settled down to a steady
and more manageable 22-25 knots and when we were half way they dipped further
to under 20 knots. You would expect that “close hauled” with winds slightly
north of east that you should be able to make the target bearing. However, that
doesn’t take into account the strong westerly current that flows through the
passage at 1-2 knots. At times our course over the ground was 20 degrees adrift
of our heading, and consequently we opted to continue motor sailing because it
allowed us to “sail” closer to the wind. That is we motor sailed until the
engine died and I had to go below and change the fuel filter! Anyway we arrived
in Soufriere shortly after 2pm and picked up a mooring right off the beach
underneath Petit Piton.
There followed a sequence of jobs … stowing/covering sails,
launching the dinghy, cleaning and fileting dinner … oh, I forgot to mention we caught a
barracuda during the passage on a trolled wooden plug! Then we raced to town in
the dinghy to clear in with customs and immigration, followed by a very welcome
cold beer. It would be a shame not to tell you a little about dinner … we
sautéed goujons of barracuda, lightly dusted with flour, in butter and ate
these with rice and a an outstanding cabbage, grapefruit and ginger coleslaw
that Gloria created from ingredients we had available. So maybe you get the
idea that by the time dinner was over we were all full, sleepy and satisfied
with what we accomplished today. It’s a little after “Passage-Makers Midnight”
so now we are off to bed and expect to sleep soundly knowing we can get Simon
to the airport later in the week without leaving the protected coastal waters.
Mike
Simon with the Barracuda he caught
Barracuda eye
Star Clippers - full sail, backlit in the evening light
Sailing into the sunset
The beautiful period replica "Nero" at dusk
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