Thursday, April 29, 2010

Gauntlet to Grenada . . .

Whenever one talks to folks cruising between Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago and Grenada, the topic of piracy inevitably comes up. There have been a few confirmed cases over the years, and a few near misses.... But not very many. Its a bit like the probability of shark attacks while swimming or plane crashes while flying. In reality, more people are killed in car crashes, but the hype and fear of that fact does not carry the same impact.

Thats not to say that one should ignore the threat.... that would be like crossing the road without looking left or right! The last confirmed case was in December last year, where a German yacht was boarded, and the crew robbed and traumatised, 37miles off Trinidad, by Venezualan fishermen ( More likely, drug runners).The Coastal Marine authorities in Trinidad and Grenada, assisted by pressure from the private yachting services groups,Ysatt and Mayag, are making efforts to advise sailors of best stategies and time to sail, offering contact numbers , email addresses, and offering advice and updates in the sailing publications.

As no attacks have ever taken place at night, we decided to make a night passage. We hid our second passports, our handheld VHF, most of our cash, a GPS, and decided on what our appropriate level of resistance should be in the event we were attacked. We wanted to sail across in stronger winds, and boistrous seas, believing that there would be less liklihood of the bad guys wanting to be out there in open power boats, and, reasoning that if they were, they would find it impossible to board a yacht carving through those seas at 7knots.... and if they did try, it would most likely be one guy at a time..... giving me a chance to fire a couple of parachute flares into their boat to distract them, while Mary threw the helm over .We would have been filling the emergency waves, VHF ( DSC), and SSB all the time, giving positions, descriptions and situation updates.... and simply hoping for the best!

We checked out in the morning, and then holed up un Scotland Bay until 17.00, where we were going to be joined by another yacht, heading down to Colombia . The heavens opened at 17.30, and we had a serious squall, which delayed our departure, making us rethink our 1 reef strategy. A 2nd reef was taken, and we headed out through the Boca, into the sunset, to find a lumpy sea, and no wind! We motored on for half an hour , feeling sure that the weather forecast was wrong, and wondering when to shake out the reefs. Suddenly, 20knots from the east and we were away! It stayed between 18 and 25 knots all the way to Grenada. Our planned route was a 27mile beat taking us to the east of the Hibiscus and Pointsetia oil rigs, about 30 miles out, after which we could bear away by 40degrees, and hopefully enjoy an easy broad reach down to Grenada. We knew there would be a fair current from the east, but underestimated how strong it could be when combined with the outgoing tide at springs. Instead of clearing the Hibiscus rig by 10 miles as planned, we passed it with 3 miles to spare, having given away 7 miles leeway in 27 miles of beating hard on the wind. Well, that took care of 25 degrees of my planned dogleg route,so we eased off just 5 degrees, leaving about 10 in the bank, and thundered along in freshening winds, and a short choppy 2 to 3 metre swell. Its in conditions like this that one appreciates once again, that a Shearwater is a fantastic sailing boat! With 2 reefs in the main, my tiny staysail, and about a number 3 sized headsail, there was no stopping her. She ploughed through the swells, hardly wincing when we hit a big one, and we maintained a steady 7knots . I seriously doubt if any a pirogue pirate would have been able to get close!! Mary said the crashing down below was alarming, but then she has never sailed in a Farr 40 in rough seas!!

We also really enjoyed all our new equipment, which perfomed well, after being asked some serious questions. We really liked having the Radar side by side with the chartplotter, and AIS as we piloted our way between the oil rigs. We were followed out by a big Danish Galleon, and were able to watch as her echo and nav lights fell further and further behind us, and we then caught up an echo that turned out to be Hunter 46, when we anchored in Prickly Bay. We were picking out yachts in poor conditions up to four miles away, and this was of some comfort too, as we kept our eyes on the look out for the bad guys!

And so , as we sit back savouring our traditional anchoring beer, feeling very pleased with ourselves and our boat, for having "run the gauntlet", we are also forced to admit, that about 6 yachts per day do exactly the same trip, so whats the BIG Deal????

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