By: Geoff On: 18/01/2013 21:45:17 In: Uncategorised
The Oyster World Rally Official Start – 6th January 2013 at Midday
The morning of the start!
We were up early. We still had to take down the newly fitted sun awnings and pack them away. The pasarelle had to be taken in and stowed, the dinghy put up on the davits and of course the lines slipped and the anchor weighed.
After stowing the sun awnings, we decided breakfast ashore was the best course as this would save time with the washing-up and clearing away of having it on-board. The Hot-Hot-Hot Cafe was already crowded with no tables available so we plumbed for the Copper and Lumber hotel – immediately rejected by Laura as being far too expensive!
The breakfast was excellent and turned out to be cheaper than the Hot-Hot-Hot Cafe. Feeling somewhat rejuvenated, we returned to the boat to complete our tasks. The dinghy was hoisted to the davits and an order of departure organised with the other boats around us taking into account the wind conditions and order of arrival, as some anchors would have been dropped across others. This meant that we would be last to leave the dock, as those next to us had arrived after us.
Of course when it came to our turn, the newly arrived ‘Espirit’ on our port side had dropped their anchor over ours! We again had to rely on the divers to untangle the mess on the harbour floor! While they were efficiently about their warm work, our anchor windlass stopped on its thermal cut out! Two of the divers got onto the foredeck and helped Jaap pull it in by hand – a very dirty and arduous task! We were finally released from English Harbour and the divers rib on the cash payment of $60 US and were able to head out towards the start between Catherine’s Point and the marker buoy.
Oyster’s Eddie Scougall was already on the final countdown on channel 72 as we approached the line hurriedly unfurling the sails as we went. We were assuming that we were in the right place, as we were following the mass of boats all heading over the line towards the first mark – we didn’t actually see the start line buoy and had been too busy to record the transmitted position of the first mark! The wind was around F7/8 with a swell of around 3m all of which added to our confusion across the line.
Non-the-less, we were over the line at 12:05 – and not last! We soon spotted the first mark and were able to veer away and run downwind on to the west. The greater majority of the fleet carried on past the mark, heading South with plans to work their way down through the islands before turning west towards Panama.
We had decided to head up to the British Virgin Island after a relaxing night at anchor on the West of Antigua at Deep Bay. It was the right decision with the wind continuing for the rest of the day and very heavy squalls passing through during the night. We were pleased to be in relative shelter and grateful that we had not gone to Green Island on the East as a few of the others had.
We were all relieved to be out of English Harbour where the competitive round of cleaning and maintenance had almost reached fever pitch with skippers and crew winding each other up about ‘have you checked this?’ and ‘have you checked that?’ If we had been there any longer, we would have found another twenty jobs to do just because someone else had done them! It was time to go, ready or not, we needed to get out.
The anchorage was beautiful. The water was almost incredible turquoise blue, the holding was good clean sand. We had many turtles swimming around the boat and pelicans flying all around us. Apart from the squalls it was just what we needed. With a still wet cockpit, we ate a hearty meal below in the saloon before all retiring for an early night ready for the passage on to the BVI.
I woke refreshed around 06:30 and, as usual, took a coffee in the cockpit. I was not surprised to see Jaap already sitting on the bow having come out of the forward cabin hatch. He seemed to be in a contemplative mood and I left him alone with his thoughts looking out around the bay. Finishing my first coffee, I went below to make another and to check on Susan as we were to make an early decision on whether to stay the day at anchor or move off to the BVI – it was to be a joint decision not only based on if we all felt refreshed but also dependant on the weather forecast, as the high winds and squall appeared to be settling in for a couple of days.
I made tea for Susan and reminded her that the radio-net was taking place at 08:00 and she should think about getting up as she had already had a good eleven hours sleep. She duly came up to the cockpit and we all had breakfast together.
Following breakfast, we recovered the anchor, with the windless failing again, cutting out on the thermal sensor. We motored around to Jolly Harbour where, by mutual agreement, Jaap and Laura left the boat.
We had fuelled up before mooring and spending a couple of days in Jolly Harbour which began to grow on us. Tivoli was moored on the adjacent hammerhead and it was good to catch up with Trevor, Karen and John. Eddie and Debbie from the Oyster team came over to look at the windlass problems – we resolved to short out the thermal sensor as we believed it to have been pushed too far into the motor and was operating long before it should do – while ordering a new motor to be delivered, together with a new circuit-board for our AIS, to our next destination of The British Virgin Islands.
During our short stay in Jolly Harbour, OWR boats Legend and Valentine arrived. Tivoli went to Nevis for the night returning the following day.
On Thursday we decided to have a few hours off the boat so rented a car and returned to English Harbour. In the Catamaran Club in Falmouth, Stephen and Debbie were both busy in their Marigolds cleaning the mast and rigging now removed from Amelie and waiting on spreader repairs. Stephan and Roberta had been hauled-out and were in a hotel while Luna’s main furling was attended to. Fario had returned after his flagstaff on the masthead had detached itself into the forestay furling mechanism – Antigua rigging were on stand-by until Michael had a chance to attempt the necessary repair himself.
Back in Nelson’s Dockyard, Dreams Come True was waiting for skipper Paul to return from work in the UK on 18th and Babe were nowhere to be found. We phoned Paul and Trish who were in Jolly Harbour looking for us! We returned to meet them in the Crow’s Nest for lunch and were surprised to find the whole family there! The kids flights had been cancelled and Virgin had put them up for the night at Jolly Beach Resort. A second tearful farewell would follow later in the afternoon when they would be recalled to the airport for the rescheduled flight.
Friday we set about fitting the Ikea wooden sprung under mattress slats. Having measured up we cut the 32 struts to size, stapled new webbing straps to them and fitted under the forward cabin mattress.
Our last night in Antigua was spent having a drink and meal with old mucker Trevor. A great friend, with whom we promised to keep in touch.
Statistics:
English Harbour to Deep Bay: 26 miles
Deep Bay to Jolly Harbour: 6 miles