If it weren’t for those waves…
If you were invited to your in-laws’ house for dinner and ended up being served a selection of foods that you were not a fan of, one strategy you could adopt, other than going hungry, is to fill your plate up with the food that you found the least distasteful. This is much like what we do when presented with a weather forecast which has no apparent good days in sight. Other than staying put (going hungry), we can opt to travel on the least “bad” day of the forecast. Yesterday was just such a day.
No one would suggest that the predicted weather would be comfortable for traveling but compared to the days previous or those in the foreseeable future, it was the most settled of the bunch. And so we debated, travel or stay put. Ultimately we decided that since we had no real requirement to get anywhere in particular, we would stay in Martinique even though we, like many other cruisers out there right now, were itching to get moving. Our friends on s/v Arctic Tern were in a different situation though… they had a schedule to meet and thus had to set sail.
An hour or two after Arctic Tern left they radioed back to their other friends in our anchorage to give a weather report. When we listened in (nothing said on the VHF radio is private — it’s smart to remember that) we both thought that the conditions didn’t sound so bad. Because we had done all our passage prep work before hand, Rebecca and I said, why not, let’s go. It took us exactly 1 hour from the time that decision was made until we were anchor up and that included heading to shore to clear out of customs, returning to our boat, removing the outboard engine and securing the tender and everything else on board. I doubt there are many folks who could do it any quicker.
While Arctic Tern, and Banyan who also left, were heading to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, Rebecca and I were hoping to straight through to Grenada. As they say though, plans change upon contact.
Some people may think that it’s the wind that causes problems on the water. While that may be the source, the real problem is the waves. Sailors can shorten sail, carrying only enough canvas to move the boat along at a safe speed. There is no adjustment for waves though, other than steering to take them at a comfortable angle, if there is such a thing. In this case, that comfortable angle would have put us way off course. So, with winds between 20-30 and seas large enough to be scary at times, we made our way south. Unfortunately, the waves were of a size and direction to that our autopilot was unable to cope with them and so we were forced to hand steer. After a few hours of that, we decided just off the coast of St. Lucia that it would not be prudent, or fun, to continue on with our original plan of an overnighter to Grenada. The smart thing to do was to duck in to Rodney Bay and wait for the next lull (I say next as if was actually a lull — it was not).
And so here we are, safe and sound in Rodney Bay. Some of our cruising friends are anchored and docked nearby while others, debatably the smarter ones, are still in Le Marin. The latest forecast shows a bit of weather moderation mid to late next week. Until that time, I guess we’ll be enjoying St. Lucian hospitality.
Below is a tiny bit of footage shot during last season’s passage between Martinique and St. Lucia. This trip was MUCH worse!!!
Sorry to hear about the waves. Hand steering is only fun when it’s by choice. I’m sure you will appreciate the autopilot on the L46.
Eric
I agree. I’m not sure if I would have wanted to use the auto yesterday even if it could have handled it. The conditions were a bit too wild and unpredictable.
There’s no pleasing some people 😉
You want the wind so you don’t have to use the noisy, smelly, expensive, engines needing fuel and maintenance.
Just nice free, friendly wind and sails.
Then you don’t want the waves that come with the wind!
Tut tut tut.
🙂
Mike
Wind without waves, that’s not too much to ask, is it?
I think you want the BVI : )
Doesn’t everyone?
Did you get hit by squalls or was it just big wind / big waves?
We had to heave to between Anegada and Marina Cay once due to a squall but the waves were not an issue. If there had been waves we may have been forced to press on under minimal canvas. Have you ever hove to?
We avoided all the squalls but our friends were not so fortunate. We hove to before but not lately, at least not intentionally. 🙂
Mike, can you quantify the wave action? I would have loved to see a video of it! Thanks for your comments, always insightful.
Video NEVER does it justice. I wish it could.
The forecast was for 7-8’/8secE with a wind-chop component of 6-7′. It seemed larger than that to us! Additionally, once you begin to near an island the seas get very confused making it difficult to manage.
We hit our all time high of 28.5 knots surfing down a wave on that very same passage! Glad you made it safe. Jump Up tonight in Gros Islet? or you can always put some clothes in a dry bag and snorkle over to Sandles and enjoy the day!
28.5? What kind of boat do you have?
We’ve done the Gros Ilet jump up a few times. I think we’ll give it a pass.
I notice on the Navionics chart that there are tide rips just north of Rodney Bay. How these can be when there is negligible tidal range I don’t know. However it may explain your comment on confused seas as you approach the Island.
Mike
No, I think what I am referring to is caused by the wind curving around the island. It occurs even 5 miles offshore.
What?! No video from this passage? Slacker. 😉
That’s a good clue as to how sketchy it was out there… we didn’t even consider taking pics or video!
You’ve talked about St. Lucia safety before. I made this post on CF and didn’t get much response. Suppose you gotta keep your head up wherever you are. We’ll keep traveling for the adventure and are back in St. Lucia for another charter in January. Good luck on your next leg South!
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f122/tourist-shot-in-st-lucia-97848.html
This is not the only place where things like that happen. Fortunately attacks on tourists are few and far between.