PASSAGE FROM TRINIDAD A SUCESS



 

MARCH 9, 2014

LEAVING TRINIDAD BEHIND

We are back in the Mt Hartman Bay, Grenada and it's great!  Our passage from Trinidad went quite well even though the weather was nothing like the forecast.  After a long night of taking turns standing watch with the wind at 25 to 30k we were exhausted.  With the main reefed and only part of the jib out a gust of wind over 30k laid It's Perfect over on the side.  We had 6 inches of water coming over the rail.  Maybe we had out a bit too much sail.  Rod pulled in the jib and the decision was made to leave up the main sail, start the engine and try to stay on course against a 2k current pushing us west.

Rod was sleeping while I took the helm about 2am., the wind still 20 to 25k's.  We had quite a bit of commercial traffic that showed up on AIS and radar.  When I took over there was nothing showing for 24 miles out.  Very shortly a freighter appeared on the radar at just over 15 miles out.  At 13 miles out he came up on the AIS.  He was going to cross our bow less than 1/2 mile in front of us and he was moving at 17.5k.  Now Rod is very particular when it comes to how close we let these huge ships pass us.  Thinking I could increase the CPA (closest point of approach)  I turned It's Perfect toward the vessel expecting to slow down with the change in wind.  Well that did not work the wind hit the sail and our speed increased by 1k.  As he was getting much closer to crossing our path I finally decided I had to slow the engine in order to increase the distance.  As soon as the engine noise changed Rod was up wanting to know what was going on.  We watched the CPA increase slowly and soon he crossed our bow about 2 miles out and I increased the RPM on the engine and got back on course.  Not bad, Rod went back to lie down. 

It was a great feeling when the sun came up and in the distance we could see Grenada on the horizon. Our new Ray Marine ACU200 autopilot worked perfectly.  After 18 hours on the water we entered Mt Hartman Bay and dropped the anchor in our favorite spot in the bay.  Nice to be back in beautiful, clean, calm water.  After the boat was secure we had a hot shower and congratulated ourselves on a nearly painless passage.  It was soon time for a long needed nap before we went to Prickly Bay to clear in with Customs and Immigration.