Friday, February 15, 2008
After working on our freshwater system a few days and finding additional leaks and pressure problems, we decided we had done all we could without returning to base, so we contacted TMM to let them know we’d be heading back to St. Vincent today for their assistance.
After working on our freshwater system a few days and finding additional leaks and pressure problems, we decided we had done all we could without returning to base, so we contacted TMM to let them know we’d be heading back to St. Vincent today for their assistance.
Island dog sleeping at my feet at Bequia cafe
After breakfast we dinghied ashore one last time, this time to the dinghy dock nearer the commercial area in town, and picked up a few dry groceries at Knights and some additional fresh vegetables and fruits from the market ladies near the bank. Our privacy panels for the cockpit were also ready this morning, so next we dinghied over to the north shore and picked up the royal blue panels (to match blue accents on our boat) from Bequia Canvas. There are bigger grocery stores in St. Vincent, but they are all in Kingstown and require either a taxi or minibus to reach. But here in Bequia, we can walk to all the local stores from the dinghy dock. We do a lot of walking here, and it’s interesting how your perspective toward an island is somewhat limited when the only parts of land you see are the ones you can reach by foot or water. Bequia is seven square miles and we’ve probably only seen about two square miles, so if time and budget allows before we leave SVG, we’d like to rent a car and see the rest of it.
Once our errands in town were complete, we returned to SJ and prepared to get underway toward TMM. I believe I covered what was involved in preparing to get underway in an earlier blog so I want repeat that here (see Feb 9 posting), except to again compare it to what you might do if you were suddenly going to pick up a couple of small rooms in your house and move them - along with everything in them – and knowing that somewhere during the trip the room might be tipped over “on its ear” as sailors say. The combined time of our errands in town and underway preparations had taken just under 2 hours, so by just after 11am we were motoring forward to picked up the hook and head north again across the Bequia Channel to St. Vincent.
Ferry dock in Bequia
As we headed out we scanned the sky as always to check the weather ahead, and from the look of things it appeared the crossing today would be a bit messy. We noticed a pretty nasty line squall (which bring rain and wind) heading our way, and another one already in the Bequia channel. We refer to line squalls as those groups of very large grey clouds heavy with rain and usually lots of wind that tend to move across the sky during unsettled weather in the Caribbean in sets, often one after another. When you see them coming you can see the rain pouring down in sheets and it often gives the appearance of being in a straight line, hence the term “line squall.” As we motored north to round the point at Devil’s Table on the north shore of Admiralty Bay, we studied the weather ahead a bit to determine the safest and most efficient amount of sail to pull out. We could see through the line squall in places as St. Vincent was still in view somewhat so the first squall didn’t seem too large, but there appeared to be several others right behind it, but none of them appeared too massive or ugly – just typical squalls. I had also been monitoring the overall weather forecast and they weren’t calling for anything especially nasty. So given that weather information, we decided to go ahead and make the crossing anyway, but we set our sails with a double-reefed main and a storm jib.
My recent US Coast Guard auxiliary training has of course drilled safety into my head, so I pulled out the life jackets, and Tim grabbed our foulies (foul weather rain jackets) from the wet locket below and kept them within grab reach for when we’d need them later. Of course safety precautions are always important on the water, because things can change very quickly and when people aren’t prepared for that change things can become dangerous out there pretty fast. But it doesn’t have to be that way if we remember to think about contingencies and to look ahead and plan for what’s coming. Tim and I tend to stay on the conservative side for that reason, especially when we’re sailing shorthanded (just 2 of us), because that doesn’t leave extra people to deal with things that might come up – so we try to minimize those things by planning ahead. So with reefed sails, safety gear and rain jackets handy, and everything securely stowed we set our course at 35-40 degrees toward St. Vincent and headed into the first squall.
As we headed out we scanned the sky as always to check the weather ahead, and from the look of things it appeared the crossing today would be a bit messy. We noticed a pretty nasty line squall (which bring rain and wind) heading our way, and another one already in the Bequia channel. We refer to line squalls as those groups of very large grey clouds heavy with rain and usually lots of wind that tend to move across the sky during unsettled weather in the Caribbean in sets, often one after another. When you see them coming you can see the rain pouring down in sheets and it often gives the appearance of being in a straight line, hence the term “line squall.” As we motored north to round the point at Devil’s Table on the north shore of Admiralty Bay, we studied the weather ahead a bit to determine the safest and most efficient amount of sail to pull out. We could see through the line squall in places as St. Vincent was still in view somewhat so the first squall didn’t seem too large, but there appeared to be several others right behind it, but none of them appeared too massive or ugly – just typical squalls. I had also been monitoring the overall weather forecast and they weren’t calling for anything especially nasty. So given that weather information, we decided to go ahead and make the crossing anyway, but we set our sails with a double-reefed main and a storm jib.
My recent US Coast Guard auxiliary training has of course drilled safety into my head, so I pulled out the life jackets, and Tim grabbed our foulies (foul weather rain jackets) from the wet locket below and kept them within grab reach for when we’d need them later. Of course safety precautions are always important on the water, because things can change very quickly and when people aren’t prepared for that change things can become dangerous out there pretty fast. But it doesn’t have to be that way if we remember to think about contingencies and to look ahead and plan for what’s coming. Tim and I tend to stay on the conservative side for that reason, especially when we’re sailing shorthanded (just 2 of us), because that doesn’t leave extra people to deal with things that might come up – so we try to minimize those things by planning ahead. So with reefed sails, safety gear and rain jackets handy, and everything securely stowed we set our course at 35-40 degrees toward St. Vincent and headed into the first squall.
Dinghy dock (right) and boat dock at TMM base in St. Vincent
Depending on whether the wind is coming from the North-Northeast or due East, sailing north toward St. Vincent across the Bequia Channel is typically either somewhat of a beat (into the wind) or a beam reach (wind coming across the starboard beam). Today it seemed to be closer to a beam reach, and the crossing was pretty much as expected – there were pretty big seas (8-12 feet), and winds alternating between 20-25 knots with occasional 30-35-knot gusts. I’ve sailed across this channel 10 or 15 times now and to me those conditions are pretty typical for the Bequia Channel, even without line squalls. The channel is well known for big rollers (ones that are higher than your bimini), even on a clear and sunny day. The water is deep here (our depth gauge goes off the charts after about 150 feet or so), and there is a strong current (about 2 knots) setting you to west, which is why we set our course for a bit East of the desired destination to account for the push of the current. Given the unsettled conditions, we decided to motorsail to get through the sloppy weather as quickly as possible, and also to maximize our time with TMM mechanics before they leave for the day.
The trip is about 9 nautical miles, and after we had sailed about halfway across, we noticed some smoke coming from our engine and I smelled a “greasy” smell. It’s not unusual for diesel engines to smoke a bit, but this amount of smoke was atypical for our boat, so we pulled back on the throttle and sailed with engine at idle for a while as Tim went below to pull out the companionway steps and check the engine compartment. This left me on deck solo with the gusty winds and rolling seas, but fortunately I’ve been there before so I was cool with it, although I did ask him to be prepared to come up quickly if I needed him to adjust sails in the event of an especially strong blow. Our boat is not setup for single-handing, and just now our autopilot is not working either so you really need a second person to work the sails. Nothing seemed amiss in the engine compartment and there were no warning lights on, so we decided to keep an eye on it and continue to motorsail across. Once back from below Tim took the wheel and I sat back just to enjoy the ride across the rollers to the Blue Lagoon Harbor.
Once back at TMM we navigated among the boats in the harbor and looked for a TMM mooring. We found one close to the docks and I was at the helm to motor SJ slowly forward into the wind and as we neared the ball I pulled the throttle back into neutral – hopefully having timed it well so that our forward momentum stopped just as we reached the ball. Tim was up on the bow with the boat hook, and he deftly reached across the bow rail and scooped up the line from the mooring ball with the hook, ran it through our chocks and tied it securely to the cleat on our bow.
We were set for the afternoon and evening, and we had one additional full day for Tim to work with the TMM crew before work required him to leave the islands to return home. I would remain another few weeks until he could return, so we both wanted to resolve as much of the mechanical issues as we could before he left.####
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