In which we finish our cruise along the Leeward Islands and head for the Bahamas.
We started March in
Rendezvous Bay, St Johns. We had intended to sail across to St Croix
on the Friday but, with the stresses of the previous day, decided we
needed a rest and just relaxed and swam. There was none of the
wildlife that we had seen previously – conch, rays, barracuda,
remora. Whether this was just chance or a permanent change we don’t
know. On Saturday, we had an earlyish start and had a great reach
down to Christiansted on St Croix. The entrance to the harbour is
convoluted but we worked our way in to an area, protected by hidden
reefs, that gave us easy access to the town. We wanted to visit Buck
Island, which is a National park and theoretically requires prior
permission so we had a hasty lunch and took the dinghy to a nice
public dock and scurried to the fort, which acts as the park control.
Here we were informed that, after the hurricanes of 2017, things
were still not back to normal and that no permit was required. We
continued for a walk past the inner harbour and a look at the shops.
On Sunday, we went ashore again for a walk round the old part of the
town then motored the 4 miles into wind to the designated anchorage
at Buck Island. The downside of no permission being required was
apparent, with many motor boats taking up the best spots but we found
a comfortable enough berth. There is a renowned reef inside a long
lagoon with moorings for small craft. Our charts suggested that Ruby
would not be able to navigate in the lagoon so we waited until 1600,
when we thought that the rush would be over, and took the dinghy.
Any rush there might have been was definitely over and we had the
reef to ourselves. The reef was OK but had lost some of its glory
with the hurricanes. It was Elsie’s first time swimming with only
the dinghy and she was, understandably, a little nervous but managed
to board with little fuss. Had our windlass not been playing up, we
would have moved Ruby further in for the night, but decided to stay
put. Monday morning, we rowed ashore and, briefly, had the island to
ourselves before the stream of day trippers arrived. We managed to
find an entrance to the trails and had a pleasant, though strenuous,
walk across the island.
 |
| government House, Christiansted. |
There is a long
fringing reef protecting the eastern end of the north side of St
Croix, with what looks like a sheltered bay, with a yacht club near
the tip. This seemed like a good opportunity to explore so we picked
up and headed across. Unfortunately, the swell somehow managed to
work its way in and, after a rolly lunch, we back-tracked a mile or
so to the west and found a more comfortable spot for the night. We
were not sure about beach access here, and believed that there was a
reasonable bus service so, rather than pushing our luck, we picked up
in the morning and headed out to sail round the island. Once outside
the reef, we had a five mile beat to the tip and then a fantastic
broad reach westwards, beam reaching the final few miles to anchor
just north of Fredricksted pier. We were a little surprised to find
about 8 yachts already (including Baloo, which we hadn’t seen for
18 months) already there, but there was plenty of room. The windlass
made even more noise than usual and, when we tried to heave in, it
failed altogether confirming our decision that a new one was needed.
I was pretty confident that we could heave up manually but it would
be a slow process and it was good that we were in an uncrowded
anchorage. On Wednesday morning, we dinghied in with the intention
of just having a walk round the town but were hailed by a fellow
cruiser who had the luxury of a borrowed car. He was off shopping at
a big supermarket and could offer a lift. It was too good an
opportunity to miss so we accepted and stocked up on provisions.
Back on board, I took the windlass apart, not with any hope of fixing
it but just to make sure that I wouldn’t have any hold-ups when it
came to replacing it. Having not moved since Ruby was built, it was
a little stuck but a little gentle persuasion got it moving.
 |
| Sampling mollases at the distillery. |
Elsie had found some
walks on the island and on Thursday we tried to get to the North West
tip. Further investigation had shown that buses only ran between the
two main towns, so we tried hitching. This was only partially
successful and we had to walk most of the way and we missed the route
to the official walk. As Elsie managed to trip over an obstruction
and badly grazed her knee, we decided to call it a day in case we had
to walk the whole way back and returned. We did manage to hitch most
of the way but we had had sufficient exercise. On Friday, we decided
to do the tour of the local distillery, Cruzan, which is located
within a mile of the centreline bus route. We got to the bus stop
well before 10 and checked with a couple of locals that we were in
the right place – yes, and the 09:30 bus should be along soon. At
10:00 one of them phoned the bus company – yes bus was on it’s
way but running a few minutes late. At 10:20, we gave up and took a
‘taxi bus’, $2.50 instead of $1.00, only to see the service bus
arrive. The tour was a little disappointing, showing us fermentation
vats and ageing storage but not the stills or bottling (which is
actually done in the States) and lasting only 20 minutes. The
tasting afterwards was, however, was well worth it with a couple of
shots of flavoured, low proof, rum and a couple of cocktails. If we
were not already full to the gunwales with rum, I suspect that we
might have come away with a few more bottles. We did manage to break
away with only a couple of T shirts and weaved our way back to the
highway. Only a 10 minute wait for a ‘taxi bus’ this time and
back on board for a late lunch and a much needed afternoon nap. We
were anchored just north of the Fredricksted pier, which was reputed
to have good snorkelling so, on Saturday morning, we took the dinghy
across and swum along it. Plenty of fish, a couple of turtles, but
none of the sea horses that were supposed to be there. The afternoon
was spent mostly lazing. On Sunday, we were more energetic and
walked the 3 miles down to the south western tip of the island. The
first mile was on roads but they ran out and we continued along a
beach, which is seasonally closed in the summer as it is a prime
breeding spot for turtles. This was heavier going as it was soft
sand so we were a little surprised to see an occupied beach umbrella
at the far end. As we approached, these multiplied and we discovered
car loads of families, who knew that there was road access from the
other side.
 |
| Me on the beach, for a change. |
 |
| Turtle sanctuary. |
Back to Ruby for
lunch then, no rest for the wicked, it was time to play with anchors.
With the windlass out of action, we were going to have to lay and
pick up anchor by hand. Our main anchor weighs about 20 Kg and 10
metres of chain a similar amount. This is quite enough to handle
manually and, with a wind blowing and putting horizontal load on
would be unmanageable. Fortunately we had light winds and were
expecting similar for the next few days but we needed to be sure that
we could anchor and pick up easily. I assembled our lightweight
Fortress anchor and attached it to our kedging rode, which has about
12 metres of smaller gauge chain and a similar length of rope. We
then rigged up a long rope from the bow to a cockpit winch and
transferred our snubber to the starboard bow cleat with just a foot
of rope between that and the chain hook. The system was: Elsie
attached the long rope to the chain with a rolling hitch then
indicated which way the cable was leading; I gave a kick with the
engine and, as the weight came off, winched 5 metres up. Elsie
hooked on with the snubber; I slacked back while she stowed the chain
in the locker; repeat. It all went much more smoothly than
expected, the only snag being that once the anchor broke ground we
started to drift. To be properly safe in a crowded anchorage, we
would have needed a third person: one to winch, one on the bow and
one to manoeuvre Ruby. Fortunately we had plenty of space, but it
confirmed our decision to use the lighter anchor. We drifted for a
while as I removed our main anchor from its cable (this needed to be
done as the chain threads through the windlass), stowed all safely,
assembled the new anchor and cable on the foredeck then manoeuvred to
a clear area for practice. Once in position, I stopped and dashed to
the bow and lowered the Fortress, with Elsie ready to manoeuvre as
required. In only 5 metres of water and light winds, we just put out
20 metres or so and gave a tug to bed it in – perfect. Picking it
up on Monday morning we found, as hoped, that I could haul in by hand
at the cockpit winch, bringing in 10 metres of rope at a time with
Elsie using a long and a short rope and rolling hitches at the bow.
This made it a lot quicker and easier.
Anchor up, we headed
north to Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas. Arriving at 14:00. We found
a nice big space, anchored and went ashore for a walk and a little
shopping. Once back on board we got the news that our new windlass
was in Puerto Rico so it was time to head west. It was only 40 miles
downwind to Fajardo. We hoped to do this on a broad reach but, with
the wind not quite as forecast and the island of Culebra in the way,
the first 25 miles were done on a dead run under cruising chute and
main. Once past Culebra, the wind backed just enough for a broad
reach to take us to Isleta Marina which provided a nice quiet
anchorage for the night. There were still a few uncharted wrecks
around from the 2017 hurricanes so it is definitely a daylight
navigation area. We needed to clear in and thought that we were
going to have to dinghy in and walk a mile to the customs office but
a phone call on Wednesday morning revealed that there was now an
office at Sunray marina and that we could take Ruby to the fuel dock
while we did the necessary. This proved a blessing as it was a hot,
still, day and just walking the length of the marina had us melting.
Paperwork done, we headed back out and down the 4 miles to Puerto del
Rey. We parked, booked in for 2 days and went to find our new
windlass. I had been quoted $3000 in parts and materials, by a
shipyard in the States to install it but, with only a modicum of
sweat and hardly any bad language, I had the job done and cleaned up
within 3 hours. A quick test showed that the electrical terminals
were wrongly labelled but that was soon sorted. Elsie had meanwhile
done the laundry and booked a hair appointment for the following
morning so all was going well.
We had been watching
the weather for the passage to the Bahamas for weeks. No problem –
the trade winds were working well and you could pick any time, any
day and get a nice F3-4 to give a comfortable broad reach. Until
now. There were a succession of cold fronts emerging from Florida
giving cyclonic winds, then calms, as far as the forecast could see.
It looked as though we might be retrieving part of our original plan
and spending a week or so in Puerto Rico but we then spotted a window
for leaving on Friday. Not a great window, but we would be getting a
reasonable wind for most of the way and a slow drift for the
remainder.
 |
| Stores! |
Food and other
consumer goods being so expensive in the Bahamas, we wanted to do a
good provisioning here. I thought of hiring a car but, as everything
was fairly local, decided to just use Uber instead. Elsie’s hair
was at 10:30 on Thursday, so I rolled along at 11:15 to collect her.
The hairdresser was doing a lovely job but after the cut spent a
further 30 minutes drying and straightening it. This meant that we
arrived at the gas depot, where we needed to refill our cylinder,
just in time to see the operator disappear for his lunch. With no
car, we had no option but to wait an hour before getting our next
cab, doping a mega shop, a third cab back, golf buggy back to our
dock and stow all away. Another check on the weather and prepare for
departure. We were going downwind, so had preventers rigged on each
side and I fitted the inner forestay in case the forecast was wrong
and we needed to beat into wind.
We let go at 08:50
on the 15th and found a light easterly so full sails up
for a reach to Cockroach Passage then a broad reach on track under
main and cruising chute, changing to genoa as the wind built to a F4.
By nightfall, it was gusting to F5, so we put a reef in the main but
we were making 7 knots, better than predicted, on track. Some gusts
in the small hours had Elsie wake me to put in the second reef and
the Genoa was going in and out with wind changes. With our new
furling gear, this is now so simple. At mid-day, the wind started to
drop and, in late afternoon, we had to motor sail for a couple of
hours as the sails were flogging with the swell. We managed to sail
through the night, though at much lower speed than the first night,
then had to motor again for a couple of hours on Sunday morning.
Knowing that boats heading east on ‘The Thorny Path’ shelter in
the afternoons to avoid easterly winds, we decided to close the coast
and gybed round. This proved to be a good move and by mid afternoon
we gain had a F4-5 and made excellent progress along the coast. A
bonus was that we could get a phone signal so were able to update our
weather forecast (and listen to some radio). This, unfortunately,
confirmed that we were likely to run out of wind the following day.
At 14:00 on Monday, we started the engine and used it all the rest of
the way at an economical 1800 revs, 5 knots, as we were certain of a
night-time arrival anyway. We did arrive at mid-night and dropped
anchor opposite Matthew Town. As soon as we stopped our engine, we
noticed the generators running on shore but, with a beer and some ear
plugs had a good sleep anyway.
On our previous
visit, a year ago, we had been the only visitors and even had locals
coming to see us as a novelty. Word had obviously spread as, on
rising, we could see 5 masts inside and there were a further 4 yachts
at anchor. While we were debating whether to go in and have a look
anyway, 3 catamarans emerged so we quickly picked up, proceeded in
and found a nice empty dock and someone ready to take our lines. The
docks are American style wooden pilings, high and with only one
ladder per 80 ft finger, so it took a bit of fiddling to get us
properly moored, fendered and with adequate access but it was nice to
be back. Breakfast done, it was time to clear in. Customs have an
office ½ mile north of the port but, in the heat, it was nice that
locals stopped and gave us lifts both ways. The officials here are
very friendly and we were soon done with them so our next stop was
Bahamas Telecom to get a local sim card. I have a great deal with
Vodafone, which allows me to roam almost anywhere except the Bahamas
(an accidental turning on of data the previous evening had racked up
a bill of £12 in 20 seconds). BTC does a data only sim which gives
15 Gb for $30 so is affordable, but their office was closed and
seemed to be so for the duration. Back to Ruby. With the heat
building and no wind we dug out the silvered tarpaulin, last used in
Greece 2 ½ years earlier and rigged an awning. It was then a trudge
into town to the new telecoms provider, Aliv, to try their service.
Their system was down so no joy and I stopped off at the library to
check mail, etc.
We had timed our
arrival well as the mail boat was in and we could see fresh
provisions being loaded onto the supermarket truck. After lunch, we
walked back to the town and had a good shop, before returning and
doing not very much in the heat. Wednesday was, likewise, a not very
much day. We did manage to get an a bit more food and an Aliv sim
but otherwise just socialised with John and Julie from Myla and
Blondie from Alabama, a beautiful 1980s American yacht, spending the
evening aboard the latter, together with the dock master, George.
Somewhere along the way, we decided to head off to Hogsty Reef the
following morning, but failed to plan properly. We should have left
at first light but instead waited for George to arrive, so that we
could top up on water. This meant that we didn’t leave until
10:00. With 45 miles to go and light winds, it was clear that we
wouldn’t arrive until after dark so had to ‘motor assist’ most
of the way. Indecision again got the better of us here. Hogsty reef
is an almost completely submerged atoll, reputed to have some of the
best snorkelling and diving in the Bahamas, but is only tenable in
calm conditions. We were tucked into the North West corner, near the
only entrance and it was pretty lumpy overnight. On the chart, it
looked as though there might be a better spot in the North East
corner but that was 3 miles away over unknown shallow water. If it
didn’t work, that would probably be 2 hours, there and back. By
the time we had decided to go it was 09:00 and, with a light
northerly, it was soon apparent that we needed to motor again to
arrive at our next stop, Castle rock, at the bottom of Aklins, in
daylight. I lost count of the number of times we looked at each
other that day and said ‘this isn’t us, is it’. On arrival, we
found that ‘Myla’ and ‘Bow Tied’, who had both been at
Hogsty, were already there and we were given a lift over to the
latter for sun-downers and some great seafood.
 |
| George, the harbourmaster at Mathews Town. |
Again, we debated
whether to stay or go but, this time, managed to be away by 07:30 the
next morning to sail up to Landrail Point on Crooked Island. It was
going to be close hauled all the way, so we hoisted the staysail and,
with reefed main and genoa, headed off. Today, the wind was just
backed 10 – 20 degrees from forecast and it was hard going. It
took us over 10 hours to achieve the 45 miles, though we did manage
to make it all the way without motoring. The plan had been to
continue up to Rum Cay the following day but, when Elsie suggested
that we take a break and wait for the next weather system, I didn’t
take much persuading. We used the time for
maintenance. Having done so much motoring over the past week, it was
time for an oil change on the main engine. There was an initial
panic when I forgot where I had stowed the spare oil, but it
otherwise went smoothly. Other little jobs took care of Sunday,
which was wet and blustery, so we wouldn’t have enjoyed the sail
anyway. Both Myla and Bow Tied elected to go the 40 miles to
Clarence Town on Long Island and both managed to have emergencies on
arrival: one with jammed steering and one with engine failure. We
were glad not to make it a third. Monday was a nicer day and we
ventured ashore, taking the dinghy into the little harbour carved out
of sold rock.
Landrail point is a
typical ‘Family Island’ community. A scattering of houses, a
general store, a BTC store, a clinic, a restaurant, and plenty of
evidence of hurricanes past. We wandered around, bought a BTC sim,
looked in the store for bread, to be told to ask at the clinic for
Lisa, who sometimes bakes, found Lisa, who looked puzzled, offered
bread by Marsha, who owns the restaurant and would be baking that
afternoon and agreed to return the next day. On Tuesday, we did
return and received 2 beautiful wholemeal loaves and bought a few
things from the store. Back to Ruby to play with sails.
On arrival here, I
had been disturbed to find a large bolt on the foredeck. After not
very much investigation, I discovered that it was one of two holding
the base our new furler to the forestay. I then discovered that the 4
set screws joining the head foil to the furler were also loose. More
checking was called for and, although it was a bit rolly, that meant
going up the mast. While at it, I decided to some other, delayed
jobs. The upper diagonal stays had never been tightened since new
ones fitted in Rhu and the down wind one sagged when sailing, so I
gave them a turn; one of the shackles for the top of the lazy jacks
was rusty, so got replaced with a stainless steel one and the genoa
was sitting lower on the new furling arrangement, so I wanted to see
how much headroom I had to raise it. If I was disturbed to find the
bolt at the bottom, I was appalled to find that the split pin
securing the plain bolt holing the top of the forestay to the mast
was not opened and pointing upwards, the whole arrangement being held
in place by friction. I then rode the forestay, being hauled up
again by Elsie, and found that of the screws joining the sections of
head foil together, several were loose and two missing altogether.
Obviously, I should have checked all this back in Oriental but, as I
had paid $672 for the Furling gear to be installed and a further $532
for the mast to be stepped, I feel I had the right to assume the job
had been done properly.
Jobs done, we did a
quick weather check and found that the following day was forecast to
be calm and Thursday to have a north westerly wind. Instant decision
to move. We sailed, under cruising chute and genoa, firstly
goose-winged, then broad reaching, down to the bottom of Fortune
Island then motored a mile or so up to anchor off a beautiful beach
for the night. Wednesday brought, not calm but a moderate north
easterly, so we upped and motored back round the corner and, from
here, dinghied back to the beach for a nice long walk. My afternoon
was spent scrubbing the bottom in crystal clear water. That evening,
we were treated to a spectacular lightening display from storms well
to the north of us. It was not such a treat to be woken at 03:00 by
the storms coming south and hitting us. No lightening this time but
torrential rain and strong winds onto the shore. I was very pleased
to have ‘dived the anchor’ on arrival and found it to be well
buried. At first light, we moved back to our previous spot and had a
quiet day. The plan was, on Friday we would sail, into wind, back to
Landrail and then, On Saturday to Rum Cay. Up at 7, and decided that
this sounded like too much effort then, as the wind built and we
became increasingly uncomfortable, reverted to plan. By the time we
were ready, it was 10:30 so we were a couple of hours behind
schedule. Away we went, anyway, and had a ‘bracing’ sail up the
coast with 1 reef in the main, inner jib and variable genoa, directly
into a F4. Judicious tacking brought us into the lee of Crooked
Island for the last 8 miles. The flat water not only made it a lot
more comfortable but increased our speed by 50%, allowing us to
anchor by 17:00. Unfortunately, the swell crept round what we had
hoped would be a sheltering reef, leading to an uncomfortable night.
We rose to light winds and headed off in light winds, hoping that the
forecast of a building ENE’ly were correct. After 90 minutes of
slow motoring, with just the main hoisted for stability, the wind
obliged. With a F3 on the beam, we hoisted the jib and put out full
genoa. 2 hours later we had one reef in both ‘plain’ sails, then
down with the jib, followed by further reefing as the wind built to a
F5. With 2 reefs in the main and genoa we we still made 8 knots and
would have thoroughly enjoyed it if it were not for the large area of
rain that blew in. The rain stopped before we arrived at Rum Cay and
we motored into the bay, to find ourselves alone, anchoring in 3
metres at 17:35 for a very welcome cup of tea and a hot shower.
We slept well, to
make up for the restless night before and had a relaxing day.
Ashore, we were a little sad to find that there seemed to be no
progress on the marina and little on the government dock. We did,
however manage to stock up on provisions at Kay’s, so had enough
fresh food to take us on our next leg. Back to Ruby and more
relaxing with occasional little maintenance jobs: Elsie mending
cushion covers and me continuing with bottom cleaning. Elsie also
baked some more oatmeal biscuits, using our Bajan syrup for extra
flavour. A couple of other yachts arrived late in the day, but chose
to anchor well away from us, which didn’t upset us at all.
Monthly stats:
Log 787
Over ground 886
(Log under reading this month - don't know why)
