The Adventures of Quasar IV: SailBlogs

To the land of the Dutch Guilder

Graham — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:53:00 -0600

Our decision to leave Antigua at a days notice payed off. The forecast projected a northwesterly wind, 2 metre waves, ideal conditions to travel the 110 Nm up to Sint Maarten in the Dutch Antilles, our furthest point north in the Leeward Islands. So, a busy morning yesterday, collecting a propane gas refill for the cooker, the laundry from Sam and Dave's Laundry Shop, clearing out with Customs and Immigration, and by 11am, we were away out of the anchorage. Within 15 minutes, the engine was shut down, the kettle was on, and we were enjoying a peaceful and sunny day as we set sail for Sint Maarten. It was a great sail. The wind remained fairly consistent for the entire trip, and the clear sky gave us a good view of the stars overnight. This was great as there was no moon visible until daylight (not too handy) so it was very dark from 7pm until 6am the following morning. We passed the islands of Nevis, St Kitts, St Eustatia, and St Barts, finally arriving at Sint Maarten at 8am this morning. We dropped anchor in Simpson Bay for about 45 minutes while we waited for the bridge to open into the lagoon at its scheduled time, and by 10am, we were anchored in just over 2 metres deep of water in a dead flat calm lagoon with about 500 other boats! During the 110 Nm, the engine was running 28 minutes and we used one litre of diesel - now that's good, cheap, sailing! The Simpson Bay Lagoon is totally protected from the ocean so there is no swell here at all. This is great as I have some work up the mast to do, plus a number of other repair jobs inside the boat that will certainly benefit from a flat sea. The surrounding area is very 'European' and the walk along the main highway here reminded us of walking along 'The Strip' in Paphos, Cyprus. Numerous bars and restaurants, live music, and cheap food and drink. Meals here appear to be half the price compared to the rest of the Caribbean islands so we may stretch to the odd one or two out during our stay, which will be about 2 weeks. Initial impressions are good, more to follow! (View Post...)

QUASAR IV Emergency Departures - Part 3!

Graham — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:30:00 -0600

'...beep..beep..beep...'. It was still dark and I had no time to look at the clock. Hatches open, on deck, and we were alongside a 45 foot catamaran, about one metre away. It was a miracle we had not collided. A leap to the engine controls, engine on, and instantly motoring away to relative safety. Looking behind me I saw the cliff wall about 20 metres away and gratefully getting further away. The swell was now from the northwest and boats appeared everywhere in the shadows. I could hear shouting in the distance from another few boats also in unlucky positions, with problems unknown. Tracey pulled up the anchor and within less than a minute we were on our way out to sea for safety. Our anchor chain had fouled itself in the night by us swinging around in circles and had pulled itself out of the seabed. Prior to starting the engine, we had moved a further 55 metres from our anchor point! Glad to be in the safety of the sea again, we headed straight for Antigua. And..oh yes..it was absolutely tipping down with torrential rain from the moment we were on deck, in the dark, for a good hour longer. Once we had sorted ourselves out, packed anchoring gear away, and settled down for the long trip, into wind, into the swell, we checked on the time; 7-10 am! We estimate that we had left at about 5-30 am. The trip to Antigua was uneventful for the rest of the day but was an awful sail. With the bow into waves and wind all day, we had no option but to motorsail again (rare for us). At one point in the day, we were only making 1.5 knots headway and depression was clearly setting in. With the only escape options, given that the overnight anchorage was no longer tenable, being to return due south to The Saintes (40Nm), or west to Montserrat (the volcano here keeps exploding!), we had to press on, so we did. The sea state was quite bad with several waves reaching 20 feet high and not what we expected on this trip at all, the wind also hovering frequently above 25 knots. Tracey and I were both dressed from head to toe in our Musto foul weather gear, lifejackets, and clipped on to the boat, and were totally drenched when we finally reached the very welcoming safety of Falmouth Harbour, Antigua, last night at about 9pm where we are now drying out! A good curry, good night's sleep, and a smooth check in with Customs this morning, all great. On reaching the dockside in English Harbour this morning for coffee, there were several small, high tech looking, rowing boats. They had left La Gomera in the Canary Islands on the 9th December, last year, and had just arrived... I think we had a cushy trip yesterday compared to some people's experiences over the past 3 months! (View Post...)

The West Coast of Guadeloupe

Graham — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:00:00 -0600

Time had come to leave The Saintes, so an earlyish departure at 7-30 am saw us heading northwest towards the southwest corner of Guadeloupe before enroute north towards Deshaies via the Cousteau Marine National Park, a place I was particularly keen to visit being a keen SCUBA diver. After a few hours sailing, the wind dropped to less than 5 knots, so we were motorsailing (sailing but with the engine on to assist). This came as no big surprise after looking at the wind direction picture, shown above, that we use for sailing. The sea started picking up and before long, there was a large following swell coming in from the southwest, quite unusual for this area. As we approached Pigeon Island where we had planned to stop for lunch and do some snorkeling, the swell was between 1.5 and 2 metres, not much for ocean sailing, but for snorkeling....? I don't think so! The anchorage was empty of dive boats as we continued on past, taking in the scenery around Jacques Cousteau's famous marine park, and heading on north towards Deshaies where we planned on stopping the night before the 50 Nm trip to Antigua. This was beginning to become a concern as the anchorage at Deshaies is open to the west, and hence the southwest, where the swell was coming from. As we arrived at about 4 pm, life did not look too rosey; the anchorage was packed, boats were at all angles and swinging very close to one another, and there was s swell coming into the bay. The wind was blowing the boats onto the shore, not good, and known as a 'lee shore' in sailing terminology and to be avoided at all costs when anchoring. You do not generally anchor near a lee shore for safety reasons. But, we either anchored here with the other 50 boats, or carried on another 50 Nm to Antigua in the dark. We stopped and let down the anchor, came to a stop, put the kettle on, and had dinner. All appeared well so far. I set the anchor alarm on the GPS receiver to ON. This tells us if we move more than a certain distance in the night and starts beeping to wake you up, telling you politely "...it may be a good idea to check your anchor...". So off to sleep until tomorrow... (View Post...)