June 01, 2008
Hello Everyone,
Tobago turns out to be a pretty cool place. We've been so busy enjoying it that we haven't had time to write home ;] Our check in to the country at Scarborough was effortless and cost 50 TT (less than $10 U.S.). We really "tied one on" our first night in town, then spent the next week recuperating along with the Spanish Stroll. We were the only boat in the anchorage. We had to clean the boat bottom, which was covered with three and four inch long barnacles and grass after the extended trip across the Atlantic in the warm waters. What a huge job that turned out to be. After replenishing our fuel, water and provisions we were ready to set off to explore. The officials said "no way!". Seems that their regulations are pretty restrictive and you can't just hop from one anchorage to the next like we've gotten used to in most other countries. We were able to sail to the end of the island to Store Bay, but no further. So we did.
We met up with a few other boats at Store Bay. The swimming was great with a protected reef to snorkel that runs practically all along the coast and is broken up by a few white sandy beaches. Not too much on shore even though it is a resort area. They cater mostly to divers and ,unfortunately, jet skiers, too! They loved to buzz back and forth around the boats at anchor and perhaps misinterpreting our one-fingered waves, they always smiled and waved as they went by. We were within a few miles of a propane refill place and it took only three trips (interpret as longs walks in the hot sun lugging heavy tanks) before we successfully filled our three bottles and could cook without worrying again. Thankfully, we never experienced a morning without coffee. Our second week there, boats started piling in and "Tobago Sail Week" commenced. A week of sailing stuff, like races, with booths and parties on shore every night. Dick and Jo on S/V Remedy managed to get us all arm bands so we could crash their happy hours and other events. Great fun!
After all the sailboats left, except for the cruisers, we took the bus into town to register another move. We had lot's of fun with the locals, learning the ropes as we enjoyed the modern, air conditioned bus ride into town. The officials, however, were not as much fun. They would not let us stop between Store Bay on the southwest tip of Tobago and Charlottesville on the northeast tip even though it was all to weather and impossible to sail in one day. We almost decided to just leave for Trinidad and forget the rest of Tobago but changed our minds. We didn't want to let their unreasonable regulations spoil our visit. However, after a day of hard work, tacking back and forth into the wind, we said "forget this" and made a stop at Castara Bay. We didn't go to shore, just had a swim, dinner, a good nights sleep then left early next morning for Charlottesville.
Boy are we glad we did! Scarborough, on the west end is rather dry and desolate on land. In town the streets are crammed with cars, trucks and busy people. Charlottesville, however, is a sleepy little fishing village, nestled in a huge bay of white sandy beaches, beautifully clear reefs and lush, green mountains rising from the shores. Quite a contrast! There's a couple of little stores with basic provisions, a fish market daily and a truck comes weekly with fresh vegetables. The national dish in T&T is crab and dumpling. Along with two other couples we had this meal fixed for us at Lyda's one night. We all had delicious curry sauce running down our arms and off our elbows. She's got to be one of the best cooks in Tobago! Just down the street, Java, with his dreadlocks tucked neatly up into a sanitary hair net makes excellent rotis when he's in the mood and always serves the coldest beers! Suku drives in almost daily from another town and serves small rotis called doubles out of the back of his station wagon. We always find something needs doing on shore and time our arrival for around 11:30 when Suku gets there. Trying to stay ahead of all this good food we swim practically every day and have snorkeled several of the reefs in the bay. On shore, there's always a nice trek that takes us uphill, through the garden like environment.
Because of the unobstructed view of the sunset, and perhaps the trade wind haze, we have seen the green flash as the sun sets several times during our stay here in Charlottesville. Awesome! The grass is starting to grow on the boat bottom again so it must be time for a move. Trinidad is just a short 80 miles away and outside the hurricane belt. June is here and we should get on down there. We're watching the weather and planning our trip as we speak.
Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,
Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll
Tobagoa
May 03, 2008
Hello Everyone,
The Spanish Stroll is safely anchored just off the town of Scarborough in Tobago! Yay!! Once we reached about 3 degrees north we started picking up the northeast trades and began sailing along at a pretty good clip. Arrived about 12:00 noon on Friday.
The Atlantic fishing has really been good. We caught another wahoo about a week ago and as we brought him to the boat he was followed by a mahi mahi. We released the wahoo and threw the line back in and caught a 20 pound mahi mahi instead. We like the variety. A few days later we caught a bill fish about eight feet long. Brought him to the boat for a photo session and he got himself off and left the lure behind. Very considerate. Not positive, but we think he was a mini whale, about one million pounds. On Friday morning as we approached Tobago we caught another mahi mahi, 25 pounds. It's always nice to arrive with a nice stash in the freezer.
All in all this was an excellent crossing. The weather's been almost perfect and after 5,400 miles we're still best friends! It's exciting to be back in the warm tropics and Tobago sounds like a good way to start. With a large Indian population we know the food is going to be delicious and our guidebook promises the best of swimming, snorkeling and hiking.... can't wait to begin our next adventure.
Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,
Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll
At Sea
Date: April 20, 2008 // Time: 19:30 UTC // Latitude: 01 40 S // Longitude: 41 50 W
April 20, 2008
Hello Everyone,
5400 miles is a long passage if you're making 100 miles a day (our usual)...an eternity when you're only making 60, 50 or less! That's about what we've been logging, even with the Guyana Current which is giving us a boost of about 1 or 2 knots of "speed". Our boat bottom, which was not spotless when we left Cape Town, has continued to support a growing and thriving barnacle colony. That's helping to knock the little wind we have out of us! For a couple of days we lost ground, backwards 19 nm, when we ran into some absolute calms and had wandered outside the limits of the favorable current. You must be the very best of friends and perhaps a little crazy to make this long passage on a 31 foot boat. The crazy part probably comes even if you don't start off that way.
Cruising in the area of the equator we're constantly being overtaken by squalls. Squalls actually form in lines so you have one dark menacing cloud after another hitting you as you make your way through the line. As they approach they suck all the wind from the area and then next thing you know, it's back at two or three times the strength. From dead calm to 20 or 30 knots in seconds and it's anyone's guess which direction those strong winds will blow from. Along with the squalls comes the rain. Continually having to close up the boat. Hot, muggy, you get the idea. The one plus is that the rains are often torrential and we're able to fill our water tank in just minutes giving our water maker a break. A huge negative is our spinnaker. The second time we flew it on this passage, a squall came up out of nowhere and blew it to shreds! There goes our best tool for making headway in the calms. We did the same thing on our way to Thailand when we crossed the equator and had to have a new one made in Phuket. DUH.... can't teach old dogs new tricks.
It's still beautiful out here with warm days, balmy nights, calm seas, and a full moon but we are really ready for some steel drums and rum.
The fishing has at last improved. Just in the nick of time...it was getting harder and harder to come up with creative ways to serve canned meatballs and hotdogs! First we starting hooking up with big ones that peeled the line off our reel at alarming rates then got off the hook. Finally one afternoon we hooked one good. Fought him for a few hours. It was dark when we got him to the boat. A HUGE tuna! We estimated his weight to be at least 200 pounds! We took a few pictures and then he took off, with a new, and fairly expensive lure that we just picked up in South Africa. Several days and several hook ups later this fish seemed to be a bit more reasonable and turned out to be the biggest wahoo that Jimmy's ever caught! Easily 70 pounds! Lots and lots of fresh meat! For the past couple of days a school of 25 lb yellofin tuna have been swimming along with us playing around and jumping in the air. They seem to know our freezer is full and we wont be fishing for some time.
Still no winds today, to speak of, but the weather reports we received for the next couple of days look very hopeful. With about 1250 miles to go we are starting to think we'll actually make it!...this year!
Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,
Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll
At Sea
Date: April 5, 2008 // Time: 03:50 UTC // Latitude: 05 51 S // Longitude: 26 04 W
April 5, 2008
Hello Everyone,
The boat continues to rock back and forth on this long downwind leg of our journey. Guess we are getting used to it, but still have the odd mishap to keep us on our toes. The temperature is about 87 degrees during the day, dropping to cool 84 degrees at night. We had our portlights open until a couple of days ago when we shipped water on the decks and it poured right in soaking the settee on one side and Jimmy on the other. Batten down the hatches and turn on the fans!
It's funny how many birds are flying around out here. They come out of nowhere and swoop around when we have a fish on. Where do they come from? We had a sad incident a couple of nights ago. A bird apparently flew into our wind generator; was mortally wounded and fell to our deck. We didn't hear it, but his companions kept circling and squawking and trying to land on the boat. In the process of trying to shoo them away (bird shit, you know) we discovered the body. Poor thing, he didn't see that coming!
Just keep sailing, just keep sailing. Now we remember why we named our wind steering vane Dory! Day after day, mile after mile, she just keeps steering and we just keep sailing. We left Cape Town on February 28th. Minus the four days we spent at St. Helena, that's 33 days of sailing! The winds continue to be very mild and our progress is slower than we had hoped for. We're only making about 80 - 90 miles a day. At that rate we still have about 27 days to go before we reach Tabago. It's a total of 5,500 nm. What a long passage!
Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,
Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll