Kaimusailing

Day three was further preparations, clearing customs and immigration, provisioning and acquiring a few last minute items, a courtesy flag for Antigua, reinstalling a barbecue grill that had been missing from the boat. A plan to top up the fuel tanks was shelved because the tanks were almost full, no need to have more anyway, as it would be just a 30 hour jaunt up to Antigua, Jolly Harbour, and plenty of food and fuel there, probably at better prices.
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I was eager to get out to sea on this boat, interact with crew, strangers, get to know them and then they would leave, sail along on some in some of the nicest sailing conditions, barring hurricanes. Further whetting my appetite for sea duty a fellow named Ben stopped by and talked about his recent transatlantic, 30 foot seas, 19 knots while surfing the huge waves.
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We looked at the forecast weather conditions, 10 to 15 to 20 along the route. We were left in the cockpit eating potato chips and drinking bottled water after Ben left. The sun had set. We could feel the wind blowing right into the cockpit from astern, the sailboat tied up backwards in the dock so water hoses and shore power cables could reach the cockpit where the twist-lock connectors were.
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To get underway we would switch to ship’s power and sever our ties to the dock. The engine would be warming up, air conditioning off, then casting off lines, bow first, thrust the bow away from the dock, ease her forward, and turn right, beam starboard beam to the wind, proceed North a bit to the main channel, turn left to the West to escape to the sea. When we turn we might first turn right to the East, into the wind, to raise the main, then bear off, and motorsail out the channel.
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I find myself awake at 3 AM and it feels like it should be dawn. The owner’s dad came into the cabin and asked what I was doing there, and I asked him what was he doing there, and he said he was getting up to put his seasickness medication patch. I went back to sleep in the bunk. Just a couple hours later I was up again, eager.
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I decided to make coffee and got the coffee maker out, the packet of island coffee that was very good, and poured water into the coffee maker. The coffee filters must be around here somewhere. I searched every cabinet, even the trash to see if someone threw them away by accident. I ended up sitting at the nav station. There was nothing to do without coffee.
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The skipper then woke and came into the cabin and I asked where the coffee filters were. He promptly put a paper towel in the coffee maker and started the brew. When he went into the cabinet where the coffee mugs were, he found the coffee filters there.
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I didn’t cook any breakfast because the bacon would take a while to fry and if I wanted to make an omelet with onions, it takes a while to caramelize them. We were getting underway right away.
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We didn’t motorsail out the channel, just motored, then spun around and raised the main to the first reef. We headed down to the turning mark at the sea buoy heading 335 to a waypoint a long way up the island chain. There we would head up to make Jolly Harbour.
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We rolled out the genoa part way. We were looking for about 15 degrees of heel. At that we were going 8-9 knots. Perfect. Although I had taken a course heading from this computer, the same heading on the chartplotter in the cockpit had to be altered after we ran along a while. The actual course over ground was greatly affected by currents that swirl around the islands. We adjust course until the GPS course over ground matches the course to the mark.
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I like better how the OpenCPN displays waypoints and our progress toward them than the chartplotter in the cockpit. I’m sure the newer chartplotters have more bells and whistles than what is on the boat. These things usually get replaced every few years, so maybe it’s time for this one.
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I made tuna sandwiches for lunch as we approached the lee coast of Martinique, sailing parallel to it. The owner and his dad were feeling the effects of not having their sea legs yet, so maybe they will be hungry dinner time.
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The tradewind sea is somewhat rough, big swells in the gaps between the islands, nice breeze 15-25, dropping to 10-20 in the lee of the islands. The motion of the boat was not excessive, but rough enough to incapacitate some of the crew. Jokes about various oily or smelly foods were not well received. Some chumming of the seas happened and we weren’t even fishing.
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When I mentioned how many eggs we had and maybe I could cook them for dinner, and when I mentioned boiled eggs, you know for deviled eggs or egg salad or eaten directly with salt and pepper, one of our seasick chums had that look in his eye, like he was going to vomit. I talked about hot dogs, someone threw them in the cart at the store but didn’t get any mustard or catchup, plus we had no oil, cooking oil, olive oil, butter, but maybe we could fry up some bacon and that would give us some bacon fat to cook in. The chum was about to...I said, “Boiled Eggs” and he retched over the side. (not really, he had his own bucket, a “barf bucket").
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They were miserable. We felt sorry for them. No one can go to sea and not get seasick at all. Skipper had some pills from England, but I doubt they did any good. He gave some to one of the chums and it didn’t help, but maybe they never got down the digestive track to take effect. I mentioned, “Most people lose weight when sailing, maybe 15-20 pounds”.
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The photo is the first I took of the passage, the island of Martinique, we are about 5-10 miles off shore of it.