Sailing Again

Finally we are back in the "land" of sailing. We realized it has been 8 weeks since we last sailed, except for Griff's short trip with Graham on Artemo, which is how long ago it was when we landed in Grenada with Randy and Aleitha. It has been 11 weeks since we have sailed with just the two of us on the boat. Now we have embarked on the next part of our journey with a 84 mile overnight sail from Grenada to Tobago.

I must admit I (Cheryl) (me - Griff) faced the overnight part of the trip with some trepidation thinking about our last overnight to Sint Maarten. We were better prepared this time. We know more about what to look for in the weather reports we read; we have more sailing experience; and we had decided to look for others who are planning on sailing to Tobago at the same time.

We kept a watch on the weather as there was a system building off the coast of Africa that looked like it might build into a storm or hurricane and head towards the area we were sailing to or at least affect the weather in that area. On July 3rd we again looked at the reports and the system had progressed into Topical Storm Bertha, however, it had changed direction and was now headed into the middle of the Atlantic so it would miss all the islands. We decided maybe it was time to head out.

We had been talking with a couple that was heading out with a couple of other boats, but we could not get a committment from them as to when they would be leaving. Finally, on the morning of July 4, we heard on the Coconut Net that Sojourn was leaving that afternoon headed for Tobago. We stopped at the boat on our way into shore and told them we would be interested in joining them and would let them know for sure on our way back to the boat. We discussed things over lunch and decided to clear Customs and Immigration and head out. We stopped and let Tom and June know we would be joining them and they said that Jimmie and Donna on Blue Water Cat would also be going. Plan was to head out between 4 and 4:30 PM.

Now comes the more sailing experience part. I wonder if that really helps. First we forgot how long it takes to get the ship organized and stuff stowed away before heading out to sea. Then when we went to get fuel, the dock was empty but another boat came in just as we were weighing anchor and got to the fuel dock before us. They seemed to take forever to get fuel. By the time we got to the dock it was 4:30 and they should have been closed but the attendent agreed to wait and give us fuel and water. We finally left at 4:45PM. Sojourn had left about 4:15PM. When we got out to the entrance to the bay we could see them and Blue Water Cat in the distance. We got our sails up and were having problems with the foresail rigging, the fairleads, so I was going to head onto the deck to fix them. At that point we realized not only did we not have our lifejackets and tethers in the cockpit we didn't have our jacklines (lifelines) out on the deck. So much for more sailing experience. We got that all done and got the sails up. Not much wind, around 8 knots, so we put up all three sails and continued motoring. We contacted Sojourn by radio and the three of us were on our way.

After about 4-5 hours we passed Blue Water Cat so we were now in the middle. It was a comforting feeling to be able to see their lights and to be in radio contact with them through out the night. We passed Sojourn about midnight. It's not that we were going that much faster than the others. It was more that they were smaller boats with smaller engines and having more trouble going into the wind and current than we did. Again, Mystic Journey did well with the seas and wind we asked her to deal with. The wind was on the beam, but light most of the night - it never got over 12 knots and was usually less than 10 knots. The seas were relatively calm - 0-1/2 metre, but there was a 1-2 knot current coming towards us. This slowed our speed by 1-2 knots. It was very enjoyable sailing - healed over slightly and no waves breaking over the bow and rushing down the decks.

Some memorable times from the trip:

1. Seeing Grenada in the distance behind us. The lights reflecting off the night sky were visible well after dark until 9/10PM.
2. The large number stars including the Milky Way - very similar to the numbers we can see on the acreage. There were so many distant galaxies visible that it looked like a layer of material behind the stars that were more prominent.
3. Having to turn the deck navigation light off because the stern light was reflecting off the dinghy which in turn reflected off the windshield into the cockpit.
4. Seeing large ships going across our path and being able to discuss with the others what they were and which direction they were going.
5. Sleeping on deck, or at least resting our eyes when not at the helm.
6. Seeing lights reflecting on the horizon to port and realizing that they must be from the PetroCanada oil platform that is north of Tobago. I think it would have been neat to see it up close just to see what one looks like.
7. Seeing the sun rise. It was not colourful, but seeing the sun behind the clouds was spectacular.
   We arrived in Store Bay, Togago at 8:45AM about 1 hour before the others. We had enough time to get the boat anchored, organized and have a swim and shower before everyone was ready to head into Scarborough and check in with Customs and Immigration. From what we have seen of Tobago so far it is much more like a Caribbean island, not as cosmopolitan as Grenada was.