1st days and New Year in Barbados

We were too lazy to go ashore on arrival - getting all the dinghy bits out of their stowage places and pumping it up and getting it in the water takes a couple of hours. Instead we had a late breakfast and then slept our first day away until it was time for dinner of Mahi-Mahi cooked by Mick and it was very tasty.

On Saturday 30/12, we went ashore and checked in with Customs and Immigration which was a relatively painless process - all the officials were in the same office which had a very pleasant view...

Then we walked into Speightstown - about a 20 minute walk... stopped for a couple of beers....

looked around, watched the sun go down...

did a little shopping and returned to the boat.

On New Year's Eve we walked up the coast a little way and found a pleasant trendy Restaurant - The Fish Pot had a couple of expensive beers - everything is - and booked a table for the evening.

Our first meal ashore for a few weeks - lovely but of course expensive!

Later we went on board a Norwegian boat with a crew of youngsters and had a few drinks. The two girls had booked in at a club in Speightstown to see in the new year but their outboard engine was out of action and so Mick took them into town in our dinghy. Later we towed the two lads into town. They seemed to have the job of finding the girls and getting them back to the boat!

We then returned to Bonny and had a great view of the Speightstown fireworks st midniy whilst nursing the last of the Jack Daniels donated by Howard in La Gomara.

Pretty soon afterwards I was asleep!!

Arrival Port Saint Charles and a loose end retrieved.

After a few hours of delightful Carribean sailing up the west coast of Barbados, at 1115 local time we dropped anchor under sail to the astonishment of the natives and other yachties (well they might have been) and quickly got the boat sorted out enough to break out the G&Ts!

Thanks to all the motoring we had done over the last couple of days we had enough power to make ice and freeze the Mahi-Mahi. We'll have some of that for dinner tonight!

After a couple of G&Ts it was time for lunch of more fresh homemade bread thanks to Mick with salami and cucumber - the only green thing to have lasted the passage. Then we hit the sack for a few hours. Check in can wait until tomorrow!

The sun found a way to wake me hot and sticky at about 1700, so I got up and went for a swim. I untangled the rope round the prop whilst I was at it.

Shortly after getting out the sun set for the day and on our passage to Barbados.

Tomorrow we check in and explore our new surroundings.

Day 20 28/12/23 Part 2 - A slow dramatic dance and we slowly close in on Port Saint Charles!

You'll remember I've two slightly different/contradictory things about not having a useable engine. The first being one doesn't pwant to approach a strange port in such circumstances and the second being not to worry because we'll only be anchoring off Port Saint Charles. Well now I have a third statement on the topic - one really doesn't want to be becalmed OUTSIDE a major busy port without an engine.

Well you can guess what's coming can't you?! That's right in the dark in the early hours of this morning, the breeze deserted us and we started drifting slowly back the way we had come a couple of miles of Barbados's major commercial port - Bridgetown. Now fair enough, Bridgetown ain't Dover but it is pretty busy, and two ships had already crossed our bows on their way in as we drew abeam of the port. To the west, a couple of miles away, there was a 'que' of about 4 other ships lining up to make their approach. I wasn't too concerned to begin with because they were all more or less stationary and I assumed, waiting for daylight and in any case we had got past Bridgetown - hadn't we! But what I hadn't realised at the time was that we had drifted back on our track and were, (which I only discovered later) slap bang on a transit between them and the port's pilot pick up area.

I kept an eye on all the AIS signals from the ships and after an hour of drifting aimlessly, I noticed that the cruise ship Britannia one was now on the move at a slow 3.5 knots. Hmm! I thought I'd better let her know we were here so called her up on the VHF to explain we couldn't use our engine, were drifting and unable to 'make way'. A phrase which came to me out of nowhere but which I thought might make it appear that I was in control of the situation. A very British and reassuring voice told me he knew we were here and could see us drifting slowly south and that they were preparing to close the port to pick up a pilot. Oh, that's news (the drifting south bit) to me I thought, I'd better check, but kept that to myself and thanked the nice British man.

Half an hour later, we had the faintest of breezes and I managed to turn Bonny round and head north, very very slowly indeed. "Sailing vessel Bonny, sailing vessel Bonny, sailing vessel Bonny, Britannia, Britannia." Oh heck I thought now what? I dashed down to the chart table and took in that Britannia had upped her game and was now travelling at 6.5 knots directly for us. I answered the call and was asked to go to Channel 6 which I did. The same very pleasant voice said he had noticed we were moving north and had we managed to get our engine going? "No, I'm afraid we have a rope around our propeller and won't be able to tackle that until daylight. We are now sailing very slowly north but could start drifting again at any minute." Understood came the reply. We are now heading into to pick up our pilot and you are directly in our path so I would be most grateful if you could do your best to continue on your present course as quickly as possible. "I certainly will do my very best" I assured him.

There's nothing like a few thousand tons of cruise ship bearing down on one to sharpen the senses! In the event I think we probably made 500 metres over the next 20 minutes, at which point he passed our stern about 500 metres off!

After that the wind died once again and we came to another halt. Over the next few hours a feint breeze blew in fits and starts and we made a few more hundred metres until around 0700 the NE Breeze filled in properly and we started sailing at a decent speed close hauled up the coast on a beautiful morning...

- not too hot - towards Port Saint Charles, which as of 0800 local time is 7 miles off. We'll have to put in a tack to lay it and so may end up doubling that distance but it does now look pretty certain we'll be in later today without the need for me to go over the side out on the ocean!

Day 20 29/12/23 - Wind, Barbados; a lose end and a dramatic end?

The view on our Starboard Beam at 0130 this morning - the south eastern coast of the island of Barbados. Nearly there, but there's a twist in the tail or rather, the absence of a twist in a line! Remember I said earlier that the last place one wanted to be without an engine was a strange port? Well......

Around 1900 yesterday evening just as I was about to go off Watch, the wind arrived from the north east. Nothing much but enough to get us sailing. 

A few hours before that at about 1700, with Barbados showing as only a dim loom of light on the horizon of a dusk sky, just after Mick had retired for his afternoon snooze, I saw ominous dark clouds in the same area and thought we might be in for a deluge.

So I went up to the foredeck to make the cruising chute and all its many bits of string secure by lashing the chute to the guard rails and by coiling and making fast the bits of string. The last thing we wanted to happen was for a lose line to fall overboard and foul the prop and prevent us from using the engine. Earlier I'd rejected Micks suggestion to remove all the lines because we may have needed to use the chute again. Once done, I checked it at all carefully and satisfied all was well, went back to the cockpit having warned Mick to be prepared for heavy rain.

Well, the rain never arrived, but of course the wind did. I therefore decided to hoist the mainsail first and then the genoa. I went up to the mast whilst Mick handled the cockpit end of things. With the mainsail nearly up I was struggling to untie knots in the reefing penants that someone had tied to prevent them pulling through, when Mick called, "the engine's just stopped and I bet I know why". "Why?" "Because there's a rope round the prop". Did I imagine a certain smugness in his reply? 

I sorted out the pendants, finished hoisting the main and we started sailing. Then the genoa and soon we were going along nicely at 4 knots. Then I went back up to the foredeck and eventually found the errant line bar taut over the bow. One of the pole guys. Clearly I had not checked thoroughly enough!

So here we are now at just after 0200 sailing up the leeward coast to our destination port about 6 miles away without a useable engine. It rather looks like I shall have to go over the side in daylight to free the wretched guy line. We may be able to free it by putting the engine into reverse and puling the rope at the same time but for now I just hope we don't lose the wind!

Actually, it's not really that bad a prospect. Our 'port' is actually an anchorage outside the swanky Marina village of Port Saint Charles. I can't afford their marina rates. Anchoring under sail should be perfectly doable🤞!

It's a very pleasant night as we sail at 4-5 knots up the western coast over a flat sea. We're currently heading north west on a close reach but when we bring Bridgetown abeam in about an hour and a half, we'll turn north and have to start beating to windward to make Port Saint Charles. However, that should be no hardship in these very pleasant conditions.

Day 19 28/12/23 - Part 2 - The one that didn't get Away

With a photo like that it's a bit difficult to keep the punch line until last!

But a little scene setting is probably appropriate. We've never had much luck fishing apart from landing Mackeral a few times in home waters when we've gone through shoals of the daft things and they've launched themselves at bare hooks. 

The first problem is we're both a bit too squeamish to deal with the consequences of landing anything bigger than a mackeral. The second is that as a consequence we've never seriously tried.

However, whilst in Plymouth in July I decided we should equip ourselves with some modest gear so that we could at least try. I therefore bought a hand line with four hooks/feathers and a weight. It stayed firmly in a locker until a couple of days ago when our tinned meat diet of the last week finally became a little tedious.

The line therefore went out. For two days we got not so much as a nibble. The line went out again this morning but we were really just going through the motions and pretty quickly we forgot all about it. Then eatlier this afternoon, just as were about to tuck into lunch with more of Mick's lovely home made bread when....

.... Mick spotted what looked like wreckage floating in the sea a few hundred metres away. Were those people clinging on for dear life? Thankfully not. As we got nearer we could see the 'wreckage' consisted of polystyrene fishing floats with a few birds perched on them. 

These were not the first we'd seen in the day but they were the biggest. 

We turned away with a mixture of relief but also disappointment! Imagine being at the centre of a 'mid' ocean rescue! 

As we left the scene Mick who was looking back at it, said - "did you see that fish jump?" A few seconds later I did. Hang on I said "I think we may have caught a fish"! I picked up the line holder and yes there was clearly something on it. It took a lot of hand over hand turning of the line holder but fairly soon it was clear that the jumping fish was on our line!

After another few minutes I had a beautiful (😔) Mahi-Mahi of about 1 metre alongside the boat...

"It looks like he's given up said Mick. "Hmm, I'm not so sure, I think all hell may let lose when I try and lift him out of the water" (we haven't got a landing net). Sure enough he went berserk as I lifted him into the cockpit. Just as I got him in, the line parted and he fell onto the cockpit sole. A second earlier and he would have been free albeit with a hook in his jaw!

We were both rather stunned as the beautiful blue and yellow creature thrashed about. Suddenly the plan to knock him out with a hammer seemed an unlikely one. Alcohol in the gills - I suddenly remembered being told by Alexi in Sal. I rushed to the drinks cabinet. Shame to waste the last of Howard's Jack Daniels! Ah, perfect a small bottle of White Rum. Charles's favourite but not mine. I quickly poured a generous measure into one of his gills which quietened him down considerably. Then I turned him over and did the other. There was still slight movement so I pierced the poor thing's head with a knife. Loads of blood. Dam got his gills not his brain. Another go. That did it.

By now, with the rear of the cockpit swimming in blood, Mick was looking decidely green! I put him in our largest bucket ..

... and we resumed lunch. Tuna Mayonnaise with Mick's lovely bread rolls!

I've never gutted a fish before. Mick appeared to understand the technique but clearly had no appetite for doing the deed, so with him directing operations from a safe distance I set to work. I fully expected to find it all to much to bare, but to my surprise I just got on with it and soon we had enough fish flesh for what turned out to be 11 generous fillets.

Enough to keep us in fish for days. As luck would have it, with the engine now producing enough Amps to meet all our needs we had recommisioned the small fridge/freezer to make ice in preparation for celebratory G&Ts on arrival. The fillets therefore joined the 'to be' ice cubes. With the massacre of the poor creature still fresh in our minds, neither of us thought we fancied fish for dinner tonight. 

Tomorrow we can pretend we bought it from Sainsbury's!

In other news, at 1745 GMT we had 75 miles still to go and the engine was still running! We are hopeful of a breeze finding us later this evening, but for now we are motoring through a truly glassy sea. I don't think I have ever seen it so clear 'mid' ocean.

You'll note cloud in the distant horizon to the North West however. We know there is 'weather' in that direction (an area of low pressure) and that cloud is probably related to it. There is also a significant low undulating swell coming in from the same direction..

Day 19 - 28/12/23 - Part 1 - The Rules of the Game

Up at 0030 to start my Watch and guess what? No wind, still motoring towards Barbados with about 125 miles to go to our destination, Port Saint Charles, on the north west coast. 

If our estimate of fuel consumption (2 litres per hour) at our current speed of 4 knots is correct, then this time tomorrow (0215 local time) we'll have 25 miles left to run, but the main fuel tank will be out of useable diesel! If we've under estimated our fuel consumption, the engine will conk out before then! 

Currently, the different weather models vary quite a bit in the detail of how the wind will behave over the next 48 hours between our current location and our destination. Broadly they range from none to speak of anywhere en route, to useable wind kicking in, from around the southern tip of the island and northwards, in the early hours of Friday morning (GMT).

We have 15 litres of fuel in reserve in jerry cans. In theory that gives us just over 7 hours of motoring - enough to cover 28 miles! The thing is though, the last place one wants to be when the engine dies is entering a strange port! Hopefully therefore, the more optimistic forecasts prove to be the most accurate!

Of course we could just drift and wait for sufficient wind to get us moving again. However, I have done what every sailor knows they should never do, but which most of us inevitably do, do, on occasion and that's impose a time constraint. In this case, Sharon's arrival on the afternoon of the 2nd of January! There's also the small matter of New Year's Eve to factor in! I don't think either Mick or I will be looking forward to a 'Rave', but it would be nice to be in a bar somewhere!

Day 18 - 27/12/23 - The Poker game continues and a spectacular end to the day!

I took over the Watch at 0100 and was greeted by the same scene as when I went to bed - a near calm ocean with a long undulating swell and Bonny under power at around 4 knots.

At 0315 the mischievous wind played her 1st bluff of the game. A light shower of rain brought with it a fair north easterly breeze. I unrolled the genoa and waited 10 minutes for things to settle down before calling Mick so that I could hoist the main. By the time he was up the wind had died once again! 

We continued under power with the genoa providing a little help in the feint breeze left behind. Within a further 10 minutes event that feint breeze had viven up and so I rolled up the genoa again.

All that activity disturbed our Christmas Fairy who was still with us resting on some rigging in the bows of the boat! 

Unfortunately, most of the accounts I have read by other sailors who have had similar visitors on the ocean, report the ultimate demise of their winged companions!

Our Fairy went foraging just after dawn, then came back for a further rest and then departed for good around 0630.

We got the chute up at 0830 on two poles which is we think something of an innovation. The engine went off and we sailed serenley onwards for Barbados with only the slightest drop in speed to 3-4 knots.

The wind has died somewhat now - 1130 and we've slowed to 2 knots. However, it should increase slightly in a few hours.

God it's bloody hot. Sweating doing nothing. Any activity and it pours off me. Sponging down with cold water every 5 minutes. Cold drinks essential. We may have just enough to get is to Barbados! 

The wind didn't pick up! Latest forecast now = no wind for 24+ hours. So motoring once again.

Consolation prize, gorgeous sunset..

 followed by spectacular moonrise....

Time for bed said Zeberdy!