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| Free Spirit sailing along with us from Bequia to the Tobago Cays |
This morning finds us behind a natural breakwater at Frigate
Rock, Union Island, enjoying relatively flat water. We awoke at first light, got up and warmed
the coffee, and took it to the foredeck to drink while we watched John and Alex
of Free Spirit arrange their boat for travel and pull up the anchor. After waving goodbye to them (major goodbyes
were said in our cockpit with them and Terry and Kristin of Silk Pajamas last
night), I (Laurie) went inside and made a little batch of banana pancakes. We finished the pancakes just as Denis'
Weather Net came on the radio, so we got to hear how Free Spirit was faring
just as they were on the horizon off Cariacou.
We have a number of bananas coming ripe today, a number that
are over-ripe and just got peeled and put in the fridge, and a fine piece of
banana bread that Judy left us; so we'll get all the potassium we'll ever need
if we keep up. Ron and Judy also brought
us a can of lobster which we're saving for a special pizza some night.
We arrived here from the Tobago Cays with both Free Spirit
and Silk Pajamas, and have had a great visit with all involved. Although the wind is strong and constant, our
new windshield cuts back a lot of it, and makes us feel a lot less stressed by
wind than last year.
Judy and Ron left our boat exactly a week ago, with me
running them into the Bequia dock and watching them get on to the ferry for the
trip to St. Vincent. They missed the
giant manta ray that rolled upside down under my dinghy just as they got out of
voice range. We had a great trip with
them, with them bringing a tremendous amount of luck with them. We had mild to medium winds throughout their
trip - that switched from northeast to southeast such that we had a beautiful
broad reach to the Tobago Cays and another broad reach back to Bequia days
later. We also had great fishing, with
exciting strikes and two lovely black-fin tuna brought aboard.
We got to see Al and Michele of Easy Listening (Lunenburg)
in the Cays, and showed them the reef with the tame fish (Al said: "This is the best snorkelling
EVER!"); before saying goodbye to them.
They're heading down to Grenada for a March haulout. Interestingly, just as we said goodbye to Ron
and Judy, we also met up with Al and Michele of Tarantella (Halifax) (Michele
is Brenda Cummings' younger sister).
Although we owe them a supper, it was not to be, as they also are on the
fast-track for a haulout, and our friends on Free Spirit arrived after a rush
down the islands from the Virgins. Busy
social life here. We did get another
hike up to Peggy's Rock; this time with the Haligonian Michele as well as Terry
and Kristin. Kristin was suffering from
FOMO (fear of missing out), and absolutely had to do the hike after hearing
about it.
We "buddy-boated" with Free Spirit back down to
the Cays on Sunday, enjoying the perfect winds and playing with different sail
configurations alongside them. We got to
the Cays by mid-afternoon and joined Terry and Kristin who arrived the day
before. The Cays were as rough as any of
us had ever seen them, with both northerly swells and wind-driven waves coming
over the horseshoe reefs and causing tremendous surface turbulence. Cat Tales rattled, and the monohullers all
said they did even worse. We got
together for a fantastic meal in our cockpit on Monday night, and really caught
up with each other. It was only 10:30
when the cockpit cleared, but all were in high spirits. That's late for us down
here, since we refer to 9:00 as being the 'cruiser's midnight'!
A bit of drama occurred at 2 a.m., when a charter boat
drifted down sideways and caught their beam bang on to the bow of Silk
Pajamas. I had heard the commotion and
was in the cockpit to see and hear the impact.
The bow of the boat continued the attack down their port side, as the
boat drifted by sideways to the wind, and then drifted off into the night. Kristin, who also heard the commotion, was able to mitigate only half of the attack
along the side with a fender, but could do nothing about the bow impact. We and other boats watched as we saw that
their drift was checked and their boat straightened out and bobbed like the
other monohulls in the washboard seas, just feet ahead of the shallows of Jamesby
Island, downwind of all of us. None of
us wished to venture out in the wild, dark seas to check on them, and they
would not answer the radio on any channel.
We all went to bed, and in the morning, could still see them just short
of the island.
Terry and Kristin dinghied down to talk to the German couple
who were chartering the boat around 9 a.m., after the couple didn't make the
appropriate and expected visit to Silk Pajamas.
The couple were apparently rather shy about the event, but suggested
they had simply dragged down, and their propeller was fouled by their dinghy
line. It was all BS, as their anchor was
on the bow during the accident, and they were drifting fast, beam to the wind. More likely, at 2 a.m., they had enough of
the motion of the anchorage, and lifted anchor to look for another, quieter
spot; and forgot to shorten their dinghy line.
Given that: charterers are seldom
allowed to move their boats at night, it is unlikely that sailing vacationers
remain totally sober, charterers are less acclimatized to motion, the anchor
was on the bow, the boat was moving fast totally sideways; this makes more sense. As it was, in the rather unstable seas, our
own evening's fun may have been a little irresponsible.
I am most angered by
the couple's unwillingness to turn their radio on to alert us that they were
ok, and likely to survive the night; and would like to fill their ears with my
opinion with significant decibels. We
all called often and for some time after the incident, and worried that we were
not doing more. It is, however, the norm
for most boaters down here to only turn on the radio when it suits them; and
the concept of "I'll be here for you if you'll be here for me" falls
on deaf ears, even among our closer friends.
One captain friend even admitted to sleeping with earplugs to get a
better sleep!
After the incident, we all decided to leave the sloppy water
of the Cays and come to Frigate Rock.
We've hiked to Clifton where John checked out and I got an extension to
stay, and also had a great lunch at the Anchorage Yacht Club. There has also been time to read, skin dive,
and carry out minor boat chores.
Kristin and Terry have been in touch with the charter
company and their own experts regarding the damage. They have a significant bruise a little to
the side of the forestay chainplate as a result of the impact, and are choosing
the lighter winds tomorrow to return to Bequia to have it inspected. The concern is that the glass into which the
bolts are bedded may have been softened or compromised. They expect to be back in the area on
Tuesday. Until that, Dawn and I will
just take it easy here, unless of course an extemporaneous social event takes
place - an almost expected occurrence.
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| Smile for the camera!! |
