Category: 2013 Cape Town to Trinidad Voyage

Suriname to Guyana (Georgetown)…..

July 22nd, 2013 Time: -3 on GMT

Yesterday, when we decided to pass on Suriname, the weather was bleak, the water muddy. As soon as we got a bit further offshore, the wind gave us a few hours sail, the skies cleared, life was good. Perhaps it was an omen?…:-)

Despite the lovely weather, especially for the ITCZ, the winds again went light and we were back to motoring. The good news was that just before dark, the wind came up and allowed us to sail all night. It was a particularly spectacular evening, as the squalls gave no indication of being around, the breeze was warm and gentle, the seas calm and the boat moving right on course at 6-7 knots. Hey, if it were like this all the time, you\’d all want to be doing this….:-)

We\’re now about 20 miles outside of the Demerara River where Georgetown, the capitol is located. We expect to be in by noon and try and check in/out and see the town.
Another option would be to go 40 miles \”up river\” to Bartica, but these rivers are full of mud and debris and it might be more of an adventure than we want right now.

We\’re also anxious to get to Tobago and back into clear warm tropical waters, emphasis on the clear warm and tropical!

Watching the weather up north, but have no expectations that those \”whirly things\” will give us any grief at all.
I\’ll post an anchored report once we are nicely tucked in up the river.

KIT,
Scott and Stargazer Nik

Paramaribo is a pass……

July 21st, 2013 Time: -3 on GMT

We motored yesterday till midnight and the wind gave us a chance to sail. It wasn\’t very long, only about 30 miles, but nice to turn off the iron genoa\’s and give them a rest. We timed our arrival this morning at the outer sea buoy at Paramaribo for the beginning of the flood tide. However, there was constant rain, squalls, VERY SHALLOW water and muddy like the Mississippi! It was also going to be at least a 20 mile round trip up and back and it just didn\’t seem to be that appealing.

Hence, we\’re now en route to Georgetown, Guyana (former British Guyana). We\’ll be there by mid day tomorrow and we\’re sailing now with the pole to starboard (genoa) and a full main. The sun is coming out too! Speed around 6.5-7 knots. This is the most wind (12-16 knots) we\’ve seen in 8 sailing days!

It seems the strategy of being on the coast versus sailing the long haul straight line from Ascension Island is a mixed bag. We get great current, chances to stop, rest, see and experience but actually have had a much longer no wind area than the seaward route had. This is exactly the opposite of what all the \”sages\” said and as such, lots more motoring. Welcome to Mother Earth and her various moods. I\’m still glad we did it this way and would do it the same again.

We\’re 180 miles from Georgetown and only 425 miles from the top of Tobago. As such, we should be up there by sometime next week.

I also noted this morning on the weather files that another Hurricane is expected to form West of the Cape Verde Islands beginning on Thursday. This one will not come further south (if it tracks as expected) than about 14 degrees north. Not a concern for us, but it may recurve toward the mid/northern Caribbean Islands. Batten down the hatches!

The water being particularly \”murky\” is the dominant feature other than the generally fair weather cumulus clouds. The seas are calm and we feel like we\’re getting toward the end of the ITCZ.

Position Report is up, more tomorrow.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Space…the final frontier!…..

July 20th, 2013 Time: -3 on GMT

Happy 44th anniversary of the first walk on the moon! It was 44 years ago today that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took that first step.

We were indeed able to get in to the Space Center tour yesterday. Despite the long waiting list, only three of us showed up for it, so we got in.
The limitation is due to the fact that they use two large busses. So, the number of seats is the limiting factor. The entire tour is in French, but for the most part I got the details. Our other \”wait lister\” spoke enough English to help out.

The facility is quite large and we were shown the buildings where the satellites are prepared to be installed on the rockets. There are three active programs here.
The Ariene 5 is strictly speaking a French affair and is the largest. Next down in size is the Russian technology (licensed by the Space Center) for the Soyuz launcher. Smallest is the Italian Vega. The Vega is mostly used for military launches if I heard correctly. Earth watching stuff with high resolution cameras.

The Soyuz is the most cost effective for commercial satellite industry and as such, the Ariene SIX is being developed. It will be smaller, very powerful and more fuel efficient. We also got to visit \”Mission Control\” in two different buildings. We could watch software being uploaded and checked. All in all quite interesting.

The next launch will be Thursday, July 25th in the late afternoon here. It can be watched LIVE on the internet. If interested, Google Korou Space Center and you\’ll find the link.

The Museum was also quite nice and fortunately the signage was also in English! There is a nice display on the history of the first lunar landing and the early space race between the Soviet Union and the USA.

We left the Korou river at low tide this morning and saw water less than 5 feet under the hulls. Glad we\’ve a catamaran with daggerboards. That way, Miss Piggy can hike up her skirts a bit to get through the shallow stuff….:-)

We again passed the Illes Salut (Salvation Islands) where the infamous Devil\’s Island is. Unfortunately, the refurbishments are just underway and there needs to be guides, not just \”self guided\” tours. I suspect in French, the tourists may get more of that? There does seem to be a small hotel/hostel on Ille Royal. We saw some peacocks; one male in full display. I\’ll post the photos when I get internet, most likely in Trinidad.

It\’s an over nighter to Paramaribo, Suriname, we should be there around mid day tomorrow.
KIT!
Scott and Nikki

Cayenne to Ille de Salut (Devil\’s Island)…..

July 19th, 2013 – Time: -3 on GMT

We were able to rent a car in Cayenne and a very nice young guy who spoke fluent English (originally from Guiana ex: Brit Colony) gave us a bit of tour of the town.
Andre brought us to the Tourist Office and we quickly discovered that despite this being very low tourist season, the Korou Space Center tour was booked for two weeks!

We are wait listed for Friday, but it doesn\’t look good. They have a Space Museum there which can be visited for a small fee anytime. The tour, when available takes a maximum of 15 people, twice a day and is free.

We got fuel, went to Carrefours (a well known French Food Market chain). We also met a nice Scottish Couple, Ian and Meg who were anchored next to us at the marina. Marina is an odd word to use for Cayenne, it\’s more like an old rest home for very old boats. Most of these boats don\’t seem that they ever may leave the dock again. All the locals said that they were so badly maintained that they all stopped paying slip rental as a group. No one said anything and it will be interesting to see how the local politics play out. Fortunately, we\’ll be long gone by then!…:-)

The town itself is a bit old French Colonial and things don\’t look like they change very often – lots of cafe\’s and bistros. We went to \”Palmistes\” Pizza and Cafe where we had good internet briefly and an okay pizza.

We left yesterday morning for the 40 mile jaunt up to where we are at Ille de Salut. These three islands made up the infamous French Penal Colony known as \”Devil\’s Island\”. All three are quite small and within 100-200 meters of each other (250 yds). We are anchored at Ille Royal which is the main area and Ille St. Joseph is within a shout. Ille Diable (Devil\’s Island) is on the other side of Ille Royal. We\’re experiencing heavy rain at the moment and as I write we\’re waiting it out to go ashore in the dinghy. Not sure if we\’ll go to Korou to try the Space Center Tour or not. They are open tomorrow, but closed Sat/Sun/Wed and Thursday mornings. Welcome to France!…:-)

We think we can see the Space Center facilities from where we are anchored and we understand that when they launch, these islands must be cleared of all people!
We\’re due East of the facility and it\’s the direction they sling shot their Ariene spacecraft toward to maximize fuel efficiency during a launch.

I\’m not sure, but we may be able to see from here, either a real Ariene Rocket or perhaps a model at the museum which is full scale?

That\’s it for now. We\’re getting near the end of the ITCZ. The NE Trade Winds should be as close as 50-150 miles north of us.

KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Cayenne to Ille de Salut (Devil\’s Island)…..

July 19th, 2013 – Time: -3 on GMT

We were able to rent a car in Cayenne and a very nice young guy who spoke fluent English (originally from Guiana ex: Brit Colony) gave us a bit of tour of the town.
Andre brought us to the Tourist Office and we quickly discovered that despite this being very low tourist season, the Korou Space Center tour was booked for two weeks!

We are wait listed for Friday, but it doesn\’t look good. They have a Space Museum there which can be visited for a small fee anytime. The tour, when available takes a maximum of 15 people, twice a day and is free.

We got fuel, went to Carrefours (a well known French Food Market chain). We also met a nice Scottish Couple, Ian and Meg who were anchored next to us at the marina. Marina is an odd word to use for Cayenne, it\’s more like an old rest home for very old boats. Most of these boats don\’t seem that they ever may leave the dock again. All the locals said that they were so badly maintained that they all stopped paying slip rental as a group. No one said anything and it will be interesting to see how the local politics play out. Fortunately, we\’ll be long gone by then!…:-)

The town itself is a bit old French Colonial and things don\’t look like they change very often – lots of cafe\’s and bistros. We went to \”Palmistes\” Pizza and Cafe where we had good internet briefly and an okay pizza.

We left yesterday morning for the 40 mile jaunt up to where we are at Ille de Salut. These three islands made up the infamous French Penal Colony known as \”Devil\’s Island\”. All three are quite small and within 100-200 meters of each other (250 yds). We are anchored at Ille Royal which is the main area and Ille St. Joseph is within a shout. Ille Diable (Devil\’s Island) is on the other side of Ille Royal. We\’re experiencing heavy rain at the moment and as I write we\’re waiting it out to go ashore in the dinghy. Not sure if we\’ll go to Korou to try the Space Center Tour or not. They are open tomorrow, but closed Sat/Sun/Wed and Thursday mornings. Welcome to France!…:-)

We think we can see the Space Center facilities from where we are anchored and we understand that when they launch, these islands must be cleared of all people!
We\’re due East of the facility and it\’s the direction they sling shot their Ariene spacecraft toward to maximize fuel efficiency during a launch.

I\’m not sure, but we may be able to see from here, either a real Ariene Rocket or perhaps a model at the museum which is full scale?

That\’s it for now. We\’re getting near the end of the ITCZ. The NE Trade Winds should be as close as 50-150 miles north of us.

KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Ariival at Cayenne, French Guyana…..

July 14th 2013 – Time: -3 on GMT

We motored yet again most of yesterday, teasing our record previous motor sail at 72 hours. Fortunately, with a few sailing attempts including yesterday afternoons few hour spinnaker run, we didn\’t break it! Late yesterday, we again tried to use the spinnaker and it was brilliant…for about an hour and twenty minutes! Then poof went the winds and back to the iron genoa\’s.

The water had notably turned \”Amazon Green\” yesterday and remained that way as we entered the shallow waters off the coast. Interestingly and most likely due to the centuries of the outflow of the Amazon and the Orinoco, this coast is very shallow a long way off shore. In some areas, a few hundred miles out, it\’s less than 250 feet deep.

Timing is always an issue on a sailboat with arrivals as to try and enter ports during the day and not on weekends. We flopped on both counts and arrived on Sunday morning at 0330 a.m.! The French are sticklers when it comes to proper navigational aids and lights and fortunately here they are no different. The lights were all where they were supposed to be and the narrow, shallow, long (8 mile!) channel was properly buoyed. The average depth of the outer channel was only 15 feet (3.8 meters); no worries for shallow draft \”Miss Piggy\”. I kept one daggerboard down at 2 meters as if we\’re going to go bump in the night, that\’s what I want to touch bottom with first. Alas, no \”wukken furries\” as the Aussie\’s say and we hooked up near a docking area with lots of small boats.

It IS hot and humid here and I cannot imagine being in this \”jungle\” without some modern conveniences like air conditioning to rely on in their homes and offices. Ah, those pioneers of yester-year. The Cayenne river is a dark muddy color and jungle mangroves come right down to the river banks edge. This is a sparsely populated and with a population about 90,000 in the entire country – Cayenne is it\’s largest \”city\”.

We\’ll do a shore recky later and find out about check in\’s/fuel/marketing/taxi\’s and most likely make our attempt tomorrow morning. It\’s Sunday and the offices are all likely to be closed. If they give us the \”you have to pay 500 USD for an agent\” story, we\’ll food/fuel up and do a day sail up to Korou (where the space center is) and try our luck there. Korou is directly adjacent to the famous \”Devil\’s Island\” in the three island, Ile de Salut group only about 8 miles off the coast. We\’d like to see if we can do a tour there as well.

I spoke with the \”boys\” this morning on \”TSU\”, \”OZ\” and \”Jongilanga\”. All is well, passed on the weather to them and we\’ll try and catch their evening schedule (when I\’m usually asleep).

The trip here was 5 days, 18 hours (misprint in the position report) – 895 miles.

So from HOT CAYENNE, KIT. Only 860 miles to Trinidad and Tobago.
Scott and Nikki

Forteleza, Brazil to Cayenne, French Guyana…..Day 5

July 13th, 2013 – Time -3 on GMT

We got the current back yesterday and it really showed in the days run of 190 miles. All but 2 1/2 motoring!
We did put the spinnaker up for a few hours, but the heading was really bad and the speed just okay. Hence, back to the iron genoa\’s.

Despite the short break yesterday, this is effectively the longest motor ride ever for Beach House. I\’m not afraid to motor when the sailing conditions are not happening, so off we\’ve been. It\’s been very comfortable and after all. WE ARE IN THE ITCZ. The two boats behind us, \”This Side Up\” and \”OZ\” are going to hit this area with much better winds and most likely be able to sail it most of the way through. Ah, the luck of the draw.

The magic latitude seems to be between 6 – 8 degrees North. Once there, the North East Trade Winds will be re-established and we\’ll be off sailing the rest of the way to Tobago. That will happen essentially as we leave French Guyana.

Last night we passed the local fishing fleet. I thought we were back in Indonesia. Really junkie looking, improperly lit 70-80 footers. We could pick them up on radar, so no worries on dodging them which indeed Nikki had to do on her watch.

This morning, we\’ve seen two Super Tankers and that\’s it. It\’s squall-ier now, but still little rain and less wind. We have seen some interesting lightening shows the last two nights. Fortunately, none close!

Short one for today as there isn\’t much to report. 130 miles to go, Cayenne is French and the navigational aids therefore will be superb. A very well lit big ship channel is there and I think we\’ll be able to go in after dark. Next blog and position report will hopefully be \”at anchor\”.
KIT,
Scott and Stargazer Nik

Forteleza to Cayenne, French Guyana…..Day 4

July 12th, 2013 Time: -3 on GMT

Yesterday we just motored. The water has not turned Amazon green, but I suspect the south side of the \”fan\” was negating the nice current push we were getting.
Today, we\’re on the north side of the \”fan\” that is the Amazon\’s outflow and we\’re getting a great push. With very low RPM on the engines, we\’re maintaining 8++ knots.
We are also again on the underwater escarpment of South American continental shelf. The water goes from 10,000 feet (3000 meters) to only 600 feet (>200 meters) in a very short distance. Hence, the water stacks up against the underwater shelf and gives us this great push northward.

Last night we had very little rain, but did see lightening in the distance. I heard distant thunder only once.

Every 24 hours (which will be shortly), we change over our auto pilot hydraulic pumps and turn the engines off (usually one at a time) to do the engine checks.
I check the oil, coolant, transmission fluid, hoses, belts and fuel filters. This gives great piece of mind and yesterday all was well. Our new digital engine temperature and oil pressure gauges are a nice \”quick check\” which we can read out on any of the seven displays around the boat. I keep the idiot buzzers/lights ON with the engines as they would be a first alert if we lost oil pressure or had high coolant temperatures. Once every few weeks I also operate the seacocks that provide salt water to the heat exchanged cooling system to make sure they are operationa. As we\’re doing the motoring tango, I just thought I mention this for cruiser crowd who often ask me what my protocols are.

Yesterday was exercise day and we\’re getting fit again, yeah!

We\’ve 300 miles to go to Cayenne and hopefully we\’ll get some sailing in. In any event, we expect to be there on Sunday before mid day.

At least the conditions are nice and the ocean, it\’s moods, sunrises and sunsets – beautiful.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Forteleza to Cayenne…..Day 3

July 11th, 2013 (Northern & Western Hemisphere) Time: -3 on GMT

The Amazon Between our hulls?
We\’ve been motoring for the last 27 hours. NO WIND. The prediction says that in about 5-7 hours it is supposed to come up to 8-14 off our stern.
If so, we may be able to sail. The key feature however is the current. We seem to have lost it for the moment. I suspect that despite being 250 miles from the mouth of the Amazon River Delta, it is effecting us. First, the water isn\’t as clear as it was yesterday and the natural fanning movement of the water as it comes out of the delta would seemingly \”check\” the positive current. There\’s nothing to do about it and I\’ll get a clue if my guestimation is correct once we\’re on the north side of the delta. So will all apologies to the singer/songwriter, Paula Cole. I paraphrase her line. \”I feel like the Amazon is flowing between our hulls!\”
If you want to google the song. Beware, it\’s very racy – \”Feelin\’ Love\” by Paula Cole.

Yesterday on a technical note. We usually use what is called the Navigate Function on our auto pilot when motoring. It keeps us on an absolutely straight line.
We noticed yesterday that using this feature, we were overall staying in a straight line, but rhythmically making large \”S\” turns. We\’d turn 20 deg to port, then 20 deg to starboard of our intended course, weaving back and forth. At first, I thought this might be the mighty Amazon at work. It IS the largest river by volume in the world and produces just under 10% of the worlds fresh water. Therefore it\’s effect IS going to be felt far offshore. However, that wasn\’t it. I re-calibrated our electronic compass and voila, the \”S\” turns stopped. It\’s just another mystery of Marine Electronics. Nothing new!

I\’ll shut down each motor in the next few hours to do the full checks or oil, coolant, transmission fluid and the ubiquitous fuel filters. Despite having had the fuel polished in Richards Bay, the port tank has algae in it. It\’s all dead as we \”biocided\” it, but it will have to work through the systems filters to get rid of it. I\’ll most likely polish it again in Trinidad; just to be safe. \”Polishing\” for those of you who don\’t know is cleaning the fuel via multiple pass filtration. This is usually done by a company that has specialized equipment for the job.

It\’s exercise day and other than that, we\’re very glad for the air conditioned stateroom so we can sleep in cool dry comfort!

NOTE: I sent the position report out this morning and it came back with an error from Winlink. Hence, those of you on the list may have gotten it (per their note), but the website was most likely NOT updated? If someone could let me know, I\’d appreciate a short note to my sailmail address.

Day 3, 162 motoring miles. 468 miles to Cayenne.
Thanks,
KIT,
Scott and Stargazer Nik

Forteleza to Cayenne….Day 2

July 10th, 2013 (CROSSED THE EQUATOR LAST NIGHT) Time: -3 on GMT

This is the first time \”Beach House\” has been in the Northern Hemisphere since June of 2009 when Cindy and I went from Cocos Island, Costa Rica to the Galapagos.

Yesterday with did it with smoke and mirrors! The winds were at 10 knots in the early morning and we managed to sail for 20 hours in nothing!
The flat sea and beam winds allowed the big spinnaker to keep us moving with the aid of the current, we did a respectable 167 nm yesterday. We\’ve been motoring since
0400 this morning in absolutely flat seas. Welcome to the ITCZ and it\’s usual partner…no wind. Interestingly, we\’ve had almost no squalls in the last 24 hours.
The current was working well for us, but a wind shift took us too far away from the continental shelf and we lost it; hence motoring. Once we headed back on course with the engines, we\’ve picked the current up again, but alas, less wind.

Though my fifth crossing, the highlight of yesterday was Nikki\’s first crossing of the equator. She went from \”Polywog\” to \”Shellback\”. Duly all ceremonies were performed including the offering to King Neptune. This is an ancient sailor\’s rite of passage and for more details, \”google it\”. Look up something like \”Crossing the equator by sea rituals\”…:-) AND, let me know what it says!

We finally saw one tanker this morning which surprises me as I would think we\’d see lots of coastal traffic. There has been only the one ship.
Of note, we are essentially due east of the entrance to the Amazon River delta. We were told if we get too close, the water turns opaque and green.
No sign of that yet, but we are still 380 miles away. Our closest point of approach will be about 170 miles away in a day or so.

Yesterday did not seem particularly hot despite the 88 deg F temperatures and 70% humidity. It\’s already hotter today. After all, we ARE on the Equator.

More tomorrow,
KIT,
Captain Scott and \”Shell Back\” Nikki