Follow The Belle of Virginia in the Caribbean 2005-2006
February 14, 2006
We've had some really great sailing days since leaving St. Lucia. We spent four days in Rodney Bay marina getting the boat ready, provisioning and doing a little shopping, then pulled out of the marina last Wednesday, February 8th. It felt good to get away from the crowd and out on to the open ocean again.
The 24 NM sail from Rodney Bay to Ste. Anne, Martinique was a close reach in 20-25 kts. Single reefed main and reefed genoa. It was a bit rollicking with a 4'-6', occasionally 9', NE swell with 4'-6' easterly wind waves crossing them. We left Ste. Anne Thursday on a dead downwind run in 20-22 kts with full main alone. It was almost two hours, sailing past the famous Rochere du Diamante, where we turned north around Cap Saloman along the western coast. We usually end up motor sailing due to the mountains blocking the wind on the lee side of the islands, but that day we had a glorious beam reach in 18-22 kts all the way up to St. Pierre. We were doing 7.5 kts (hull speed for our boat) for a good part of the 31 NM trip.
On Friday morning at dawn, we motor sailed north out of St. Pierre, in Mt. Pelee's lee. As we cleared the north end of Martinique, the breeze slowly filled in from the ESE. We had a lovely, gentle sail across the Dominica Channel, 25 NM with 15 kts on the beam in gentle swells, with full main, staysail and genoa. Perfect! As we reached the southern tip of Dominica, we were overtaken by a heavy rain squall. Visibility was so bad I had to turn on the radar, as there were several other boats about. Reefed down again, we were zipping along on a broad reach at 7-8 kts in the heavy rain for about an half hour, when the sun reappeared. Dominica is so tall, it usually blocks the wind, but sometimes channels it, so we had decent motor sail up it's 30 NM length to Prince Rupert Bay, occasionally getting enough wind to cut the engine. We spent two nights there, catching up with our friend, Martin Carriere, who was our guide for four days of island exploring last year, along with Julie and Rick Palm of "Altair". He's a terrific young man, about our son's age, with a lovely wife and two daughters, working hard to make a good life for his family. It was fun to lay in bed in the boat listening to the throbbing island music from on shore.
From Prince Rupert Bay, it's a 20 NM sail to Les Isles des Saintes, a quaint little group of islands belonging to Guadeloupe. It was another beam reach, with 20-25 kts of wind and quartering seas. It really got interesting as we neared the islands, where the swells set up more steeply and began breaking as the water became more shallow. Lynne chose to retire to a settee down below. A quick jibe and we coasted in to the little harbor. The Saintes are among the prettiest places we've visited. The water is as much sapphire as turquoise in color. Most of the buildings onshore have orange terra cotta roofs--very picturesque. Some say the Saintes remind them of Britanny, where the early settlers came from.
Yesterday we left the Saintes on a broad reach in 20 knots, full main and reefed genoa, headed for the southern tip of Guadeloupe, 8 NM away. The wind stayed with us for another hour, past Basseterre, and then slowly died off. Back to motor sailing. A sea breeze filled in from the NW around noon, so we were doing 7 kts close hauled for a while. As we neared Dashiaes, near the northern end of Guadeloupe, the wind became confused, so we motored in to the small harbor.
Today (Tuesday, Feb 14th) we'll do a little sightseeing. Lynne wants to see the nearby botanical gardens. Then tomorrow we'll set out for Montserratt, weather permitting. If it's marginal harbor is tenable, we'll stay a couple of days there. We'd like to see it's active volcano, which destroyed half the island a few years ago. The forecast is for strong winds and high seas toward the end of the week, so we'll have to keep an eye on that situation.
Best to all,
Hudson Hoen
s/v The Belle of Virginia
currently in Deshaies, Guadeloupe
February 7, 2006
Hello from St. Lucia.
We arrived on Saturday, about 45 minutes late due to weather in Charlotte. Not a bad trip--we upgraded to first class. The good news is that Lynne found the seats in first class to be very comfortable and easy on her back. The bad news is that first class is now what coach class used to be when I was flying out to California 15 years ago. Nothing special.
The Belle was waiting for us in a slip at Rodney Bay marina, with the dockside water turned on, as I had asked them to do. Since we were late and arrived after the marina office closed, they put a note on their door telling us which slip she was in. They had even washed off the boatyard dust for us. They do a good job here.
The folks in the slip next to us are ranchers from Wyoming, now retired and living on their 53' Amel ketch. We went over for drinks Sunday night and had a good time. Lynne said, that is a boat you could live on. I said, sell the house and we could do it. We skipped the noisy Super Bowl party at the local marina bar. I figured that would be cruel and unusual punishment for Lynne. Our friends from last year, fellow Island Packet owners Bill and Carol, are in a slip on our dock. We all went out to dinner at a really good Indian restaurant last night and caught up on each other. They're planning to head north, too, and are waiting for the wind and swells to subside. Apparently it's been blowing pretty hard down here. a couple of weeks ago, a storm came through with 40 knots and caused some of the boats anchored in the small lagoon where the marina is to drag their anchors. Some crashed into other boats and at least one was blown up against the bulkhead on the other side of the lagoon.
We got all our provisioning done yesterday, and even hit the duty-free shops at Pointe Seraphine in Castries (Lynne insisted). No major damage to the bank account, this time, but I still have to run the gauntlet of duty-free St. Maarten and St. Thomas. The warm weather has begun to work on Lynne's back. She's noticing the pain level decline. We'll take the dinghy out to Rodney Bay, where the water is clean and clear, so she can have a nice swim today. We plan to leave the marina tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, top off the diesel tank and sail up to Le Marin, Martinique,
about 30 miles north, in search of baguettes.
Best to all,
Lynne and Hudson
p.s. we'll send out updates when we can, depending on sunspots, nearby mountains and other factors that can interfere with shortwave transmission. We'll try not to bore you too much. Send us a note from time to time so we can keep in touch with you all.
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Petit Tobac |
December 28, 2005
We're home, and it's cold. Well, cold to us. We know that 45 degrees must seem balmy to everyone on the Northern Neck after the really frigid weather you've had, but it's cold to us. No matter, we'll have a chance to see friends and family and catch up on goings on before heading back south again in February.
We had a wonderfully relaxing stay in the Grenadines before sailing back to St. Lucia to have The Belle hauled out for our trip home. The "Christmas Winds" subsided a bit as we spent a few days in Clifton Harbour on Union Island. It was fun seeing some of the local folks that we had befriended last year. We had drinks with the couple from Annapolis, Lee and Cary on Fram, a Valiant 42. They're headed for Carnival in Trinidad and then Isla Margarita in Venezuela.
We found a couple of new (for us) anchorages. Petit St. Vincent is only about five miles from Union Island. It's one of the three private islands in the Grenadines, along with Mustique and Palm Island. It has an exclusive hotel on it, but you wouldn't know it from the water, since most everything is hidden by trees. It's a pretty little island with a long, sandy beach ringed with palms. The owners don't mind yachties beaching their dinghies and walking the beach, so we did. Petit St. Vincent and nearby Petit Martinique, which is part of Grenada, are surrounded by an extensive reef system, so the anchorage was pretty flat, with a white sand bottom and turquoise waters. That's enough to put it in the top ten on Lynne's list. Very uncrowded, too.
From Petit St. Vincent we sailed over to Union Island again, but this time rounded its southern end,heading for Chatham Bay. It's a half-moon bay, with a nice sandy beach and lots of palm trees. The steep hills surrounding the bay are completely undeveloped—no roads, no buildings, just an un-occupied fisherman's shack on the beach. We anchored in 20 feet over sand, and enjoyed a couple of the most peaceful days and nights so far. Beach-walking, snorkeling, reading and some boat projects filled the two days. Oh, and a sundowner or two in the evening.
Back in Clifton Harbour, we watched a young family in a salty ketch from Maine sail into the anchorage, circumnavigating the inner reef, threading through the moored and anchored boats with tack after snappy tack, as they worked their way upwind to the outer reef. Once there, they dropped the hanked-on genoa as the anchor went down, backing down on their chain with the main still up. Nice work!
We finished our our three weeks in the Grenadines with some more time in the Tobago Cays, particularly enjoying the super snorkeling there. The Friendship Rose, the hand built Caribbean schooner that we sailed from Bequia to Mustique on last year, sailed in with some guests on board. I went over to see Alan Whittaker, the owner. He reported that they had survived their first year of operation, and showed me some of the improvements they had made in the engine room over the summer. A week before, I had sent an account and some photos of our trip on her to the Caribbean Compass, a regional newspaper, and it was accepted for publication in a future issue. I hope it will help bring in some business for them. They deserve every success.
Then it was back to Bequia for a couple of days. At 6 am on December 23rd, we dropped our mooring and set out for St. Lucia. Once clear of Northwest Point, we had an absolutely great beam reach in 20-25 knots across to St. Vincent, about 11 miles. We motor-sailed, and sailed motorless at times, up the leeward side, braving some 30-35 knot "williwaws" every now and then as we crossed in front of the mouth of a deep valley. Sail changes were frequent. The current was with us on this leg, and we saw 7 to 8 knots over ground for long stretches. As we cleared the northern tip of St. Vincent, we we faced with steep seas, current, and winds intensified by the tall mountains of the island. It was a "bash to windward" in every sense of the word. As we clawed our way across the 25 NM wide St. Vincent Channel, it was interesting how conditions would change from time to time. The wind would ease a bit and back, heading us, but the current would come around and give us a little boost. Then the waves would ease up, but the current would turn against us. The permutations of the three factors, wind, seas, and current, were constantly changing. The best I could hope for was to have two of the three in our favor.
It was a 69 NM passage from Admiralty Bay, Bequia, to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, lasting ten and a half hours. The next day was full of activity, what with going into the marina, and getting the boat ready to be hauled. She was hauled on Christmas Eve morning, and we took a cab to a nearby inn. The flight home on Christmas Day was uneventful, but long. We made it home to Tabbs Creek at about 1 am on the 26th. We'll enjoy the New Year and the month of January here before flying back to St. Lucia on February 4th.
Happy Holidays, All!
December 8, 2005
Lynne arrived on schedule in St. Lucia last Saturday evening. I had done all the provisioning, so we left early Sunday morning for Souffrierre. Lynne brought the wind with her--we had a great sail in 10 to 25 knots, depending on the height of the hills and mountains between us and the northeast wind. Souffrierre is a beautiful anchorage, with crystal clear water, coral and fish right under the boat, and always the view of the two magnificent Pitons to the south. But since our plan was to spend as much time as possible in the Grenadines, we left at 6:30 am Monday morning, bound for Bequia.
I decided to sail down the windward (eastern) coast of St. Vincent, hoping to avoid the motor-sailing that's inevitable on the leeward (western) side of the islands. And did we have wind! We were sailing at 7.5 to 8.5 knots for a good part of the 56 nm trip, although we passed through a band of rain showers that knocked the wind down to 10 knots or so. Heading west through the Bequia Channel, south of St. Vincent, we were overtaken by several rain squalls with gusty winds and rain heavy enough to totally obscure Bequia. This is a busy channel, with a lot of commercial traffic, so the radar came in handy.
We cleared in through Customs and Immigration the next morning, checked email at an Internet cafe, and then went to our favorite produce stand. All the folks we got to know last winter were still there: Joan, Sistah, Jimmy, and "Princess" Margaret. There were big smiles and lots of hugs all around, some catching up on how everyone was doing, and then we went to work buying fresh fruits and vegetables, making sure to buy as equally as possible from each of them. The Rastas at the other end of the market didn't "swarm" us this time for some reason. They're usually pretty aggressive salesmen, but harmless. Lunch at Mac's Pizza (better than any in the States), and an afternoon of swimming, reading, and relaxing on the boat finished off Tuesday.
Wednesday, we headed south for Union Island. The wind began to build steadily to 20 to 30 knots as had been forecasted, so our sails were reefed down pretty well. We were beam reaching at 7-8 knots as the first squall appeared to the northeast. I could see the wind coming by the white froth of the waves it was kicking up. The cold downdraft from the clouds hit us, the boat heeled and shook, and the noise level of the wind in the rigging doubled. The amount of sail was fine, though, and I turned downwind a bit to ease the heeling. The winds were 40-45 knots (46-52 mph) for 10 to 15 minutes, and then settled back to the 30-35 knot range. The weather forecast that I had downloaded called for winds in the 20 to 30 knot range with squalls likely over the next three days. I decided that swinging on our own anchor in the Tobago Cays would be preferable to trusting a mooring of questionable heritage in Clifton Harbour. Those of you who have been there know what I mean. We turned east at Mayreau Island and rolled up the genoa, motor-sailing. The wind decided to test us again, building to a steady 35+ knots in sunshine. Whitecaps were frothing. I now know that I can roll in the mainsail in 35+ knots. Never tried that before!
We threaded through the narrow channel between two of the Cays, and dropped anchor behind a Valiant 42 from Annapolis. We're the only two US boats here. The rest seem to be French with a few British. There are only 18 boats in the anchorage, many less than were here last year. The squalls continued to come all day, with heavy rain. All the salt was washed off the boat, so I opened the fresh water tank deck fill and we collected 40 gallons in about an hour.
Today (Thursday, Dec 8th) is still very windy, but it's been mostly sunny. The water is as turquoise as we remembered it. We expect these "Christmas Winds" to blow through Friday, so maybe Saturday we'll head over to Clifton Harbour on Union Island.
Best to all,
Lynne and Hudson
Tobago Cays, The Grenadines
December 1, 2005
The Belle is off to the Caribbean again, sailing once more with the Caribbean 1500. But this year we’re not planning to stay for the entire winter. Our plan is for me take the boat down to Tortola with the help of three crew members, and then sail it to St. Lucia solo, where Lynne will fly in to join me on December 3rd. We’ll enjoy sailing the Grenadines for three weeks, fly home, and then fly back down for another three weeks in February. I’ll go back in mid-April to bring the boat to St. Thomas, where crew will join me for the passage home to the Chesapeake in May.
I motor-sailed The Belle down to join the Caribbean 1500 fleet at the Bluewater Yachting Center in Hampton on Tuesday, November 1st, a light wind on the nose. Lynne and Suki, the ship’s cat, drove down to meet me. We spent the time there doing final provisioning and boat chores, doing safety inspections, attending seminars, and socializing with the other sailors. Lynne participated in the daily women sailors’ roundtable, doing a presentation on provisioning in the Caribbean. Hal Sutphen is a senior staff member with the Cruising Rally Association, and served as race director. There were 51 boats participating this year.
On Saturday, Mitch Wiest and Michael Lees joined us; then on Sunday, Bob Dickey appeared and Lynne and Suki departed for White Stone. My crew has significant offshore sailing experience. Bob, Mitch and I sailed in the 2001 Caribbean 1500 on Bob’s boat. Mitch and Bob have both done a transatlantic passage from Miami to England on one of the BT Challenge boats, and Bob has done several Bermuda and New England trips. Both are active racers. Michael is a physician and licensed captain. He sailed with Bob in an Annapolis to Newport race, and has done a Bermuda passage.
On Monday, November 7th, we left the marina at about 1030, headed for the Rally starting line southeast of Thimble Shoals. We were warned that we could expect "significant" naval warship traffic, and we got it—a couple of missile frigates, a small aircraft carrier and an attack submarine, all escorted by small, fast boats sporting machine guns and several helicopters that regularly buzzed the fleet. One of the warships was actively using its sonar—we could hear its pinging resonating loudly in our boat down below.
The Rally start was at noon EST. We were not a part of the racing fleet this year, sailing in the cruising class. My insurance company doubles the deductible and doesn’t cover rigging or sail damage if we’re "racing". The crew was disappointed. After the start, we sailed for a while watching the 15 knot wind slowly die. We tried the spinnaker for a bit, then reluctantly turned on the engine. At least the weather was nice—shorts and tee shirts in November. We were out of the Bay and heading down the coast in time to watch the sun set behind Virginia Beach. We fell into our watch schedule of a single watch, two hours on at night and four hours on during daylight. This resulted in eight hours and ten hours off-watch periods. Luxurious!
The crew settled in nicely—there was a good, complementary set of skills and personalities. Lynne’s support in provisioning and vacuum-freezing our dinners made life in the galley a lot easier on a bouncing boat. Only one of the crew had sailed on an Island Packet before. They were liked the comfort, sea-worthiness, and fit and finish of the boat.
Tuesday dawned as another beautiful, sunny, warm day—with no wind! We’d been motoring for most of the past 24 hours. The morning weather forecast on the Rally shortwave radio chat suggested we’d see some stronger winds beginning Wednesday afternoon. A pod of dolphins joined us for a while. We’d had a lure out since dawn, but no fish yet.
We passed close to Diamond Shoals Light (off Cape Hatteras) at 1115, still motor-sailing, headed for a waypoint marking our Gulf Stream entry point. Our strategy was to hug the coast to Hatteras, and then sail the rhumbline as closely as possible, taking into consideration the setting current of the Gulf Stream, and a cold eddy which would be in our path once across the Stream. Mitch, our navigator, estimated that the Stream would be about 60 NM wide at that point and would set us maybe 30 nautical miles to the northeast during the 10-12 hours we’d be in it. We hoped to exit the Stream at a point well positioned to take advantage of the cold eddy spinning southeast of Cape Hatteras. Cold eddies always rotate counter-clockwise. If we could catch the southern perimeter, we’d get a speed boost from it’s current. Transiting on it’s northern quadrant would guarantee a current against us. Eddies can generate currents up to 4 kts, but we would be happy to get a knot or two in our favor. Since our speed through the water is only 5-6 kts, even a knot is significant.
We could tell exactly when we entered the Gulf Stream—at 1315, the water temperature rose abruptly to 79 degrees, its color changed from dark green to a deep blue, and orange Sargasso weed began appearing. The Stream was relatively calm as we motor-sailed across in a light southeasterly breeze. Nine hours later we were across the Stream. On Wednesday morning, we began to see a speed boost from the eddy, building to as much as two knots. Overnight the fair current seemed to die away, but early on Thursday it came back with a real kick, and the wind filled in as well, finally allowing us to kill the motor and sail! Our speed over ground stayed above seven knots for over six hours, giving us a 164 mile day, noon to noon.
Early Friday, the wind clocked around to the NNW and built to 20 knots. The much anticipated front had finally arrived. By Saturday, it was out of the NNE, still blowing about 20. Boats to the north of us had seen the wind build earlier, and to higher speeds, but had been beset by a foul current on the northern quadrant of the eddy. By Sunday, a high had moved offshore to our north and was really pumping up the tradewinds. We were ripping along at hull speed, sails reefed way down in 25-30 knot winds. The seas had built to 15-18 feet, and were coming at us from our port beam and our port quarter, with miscellaneous chop from ahead. This made steering, especially in the dark, fairly interesting. Some of the waves on our beam began breaking, and would board us if the helmsman was not quick on the wheel, pounding the boat and throwing huge jets of spray into the air, then running up the deck and cabin roof. Michael, who had been queasy since passing Cape Henry, now became truly seasick, in spite of the multiple remedies he’d brought with him. To his credit, he kept his watches for the rest of the voyage, although we excused him from all galley duties.
Monday was our toughest day. We had our "spitfire" rig set—triple-reefed main, staysail, and the genoa rolled out only enough to just overlap the staysail. Jerry Latell had install foam luff pads in the genoa for me after our squally Bermuda trip, and they kept the sail flat as a board and drawing well. The rig was perfectly balanced to the wind, and gave us the power to punch through the boxy cross swells. The challenge for the helmsman was the quartering swell, which would attack our rudder and full keel, trying to round us up. The steering was so physically draining that we changed our watch schedule. Bob and Michael paired up to trade one hour watches for four hours, followed by Mitch and me for four. It was so rough, we skipped dinner that evening, a first on The Belle. Fortunately, the dodger, full bimini, and vinyl side curtains made life a lot more comfortable than would an open cockpit—we stayed dry.
Tuesday at dawn, the staysail outhaul parted. I went forward and put a couple of sail ties around the flogging sail. The staysail had done yeoman’s duty, and deserved a rest. Of course, I was soaking wet by the time I got back into the cockpit. On we went, with reefed main and 1/3 of the gennie rolled out, through the occasional rain squall. Sometime before dawn on Wednesday, the lights of the Virgin Islands loomed before us, St. Thomas outshining the rest. At daybreak, the winds had moderated to the 15-18 knot range, and we were 26 miles from the finish line. We rolled out some more sail.
We crossed the finish line at the eastern tip of Great Camanoe Island at 1034, completing the passage in 8 days, 21 hours and 34 minutes. Not too bad for a boat with a 32’ waterline! For reference, last year we finished in 9 days and 20 hours, and in 2001 on Bob Dickey’s boat in 11 and a half days. Our distance traveled was 1307 nautical miles, making our average speed over ground 6.2 knots. The Great Circle distance for the Caribbean 1500 is 1,220 nautical miles. We came pretty close to achieving our goal of sailing the rhumbline—only 87 extra miles!
In the marina on Tortola, we heard some of the details of problems other boats had experienced. Three boats lost their rudders (yes, they actually fell off!), several boats had their autopilots burn out due to the stresses of steering in the powerful waves, at least one lost all electronics, one boat was dismasted, and many suffered other miscellaneous damage. One boat diverted to Bermuda, two or three to Puerto Rico, and one was thought to have bailed out to the Dominican Republic. Our only casualties on The Belle were the parted staysail outhaul line (easily fixed), and a plugged toilet. We were forced to use a bucket in the cockpit for six days—NOT a pretty picture! I’m glad Lynne wasn’t aboard!. On the plus side, we caught two mahi mahi, making for a couple of delicious dinners. All in all, a grand trip.
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