Category Archives: LosLocos

‘The Saints’ couldn’t hold us very long. We spent another day at the beach and had a really nice dinner in the little town. Next day we already prepared to leave again. Oh. And I forgot: The windlass was already prepared before breakfast. Guenther wakes up early and instead of idling around, he found the broken cable and replaced it quickly.

We actually do a lot of repairs these days. An electric cable of one of the solar panels was corroded and got replaced, and while I’m writing this, Guenther and Bruno try to glue our outboard engine together. It was broken at the mounting piece and we’ve got a special metal epoxy to fix it.

The Saints are really worth a visit. Nice, small islands with beautiful beaches, lots of goats, chickens and iguanas. But we’d like to visit Barbuda and stop vor a visit in Antigua, the birthplace of sailing in the Caribbean.

The ride towards Antigua wasn’t any special. In the lee of Guadeloupe we didn’t have any wind and had to run under engine but the rest of the trip was quite fast with the wind coming from the east. At four o’clock in the morning we dropped the anchor in English Harbour and ate the remaining cookies, Julia and Oliver made for us. (Thanks ! But next time, we need more. Let Guenther pay for the extra baggage !)

Now we’ll try the dinghy engine to clear in and visit the harbour to take a few pics of the mega yachts that are at anchor here. Maybe we’ll meet Taru and Alex, they should be around here somewhere…

It was difficult to leave St. Lucia but at sunset we put to sea and sailed up north. Again a day of saiing hard on the wind but this time the angle is not that bad as last time, it’s gonna be a bit faster…

Our friend Guenther is steering the Rancho Relaxo and makes her race through the waves. Soon we’re past St. Lucia and pass Martinique by night. Next day we also pass Dominica.  We would have loved to visit those islands as well but there’s not enough time… Our goal are the Isles Les Saintes just south of Guadeloupe.

In the night we enter the archipelago and thanks to the moonlight and our GPS we manage the passage between the little islands. Soon after we find ourselves in the large bay of Terre de Haut. But the water is quite deep (17-20m) and all the other ships use mooring buoys. We can’t find a free one and decide to drop the anchor.

And that’s where our difficulties start: The water is about 10m and we should put about 40m of anchor chain. But the anchor drags and we’ve got to get it up again. But the windlass suddenly doesn’t work and the captain has to pull up 24kg anchor and 40m of 10mm chain by hand. And it takes another THREE tries until the anchor finally takes hold. We still don’t trust it too much and despite being completely wrecked, I am awake for quite some time to listen for any sound. But everything’s find.

Not so much for our neighbours: During the night, Guenther awaks and sees the neighbour-yacht going adrift. He tries to wake them by using a large light he flashs into their cabin but no one awakes. The ship slowly drifts into the bay…

Next day we take a picture of the SY Twizzle, go to discover the island, eat croissants for breakfast, rent bicycles to to go to a near beach. And that’s what we’re gonna do right NOW.

We made a little mistake. I don’t know how it really happend but we intended to go to Marigot bay and somehow ended up here. But as Soufrière would have been the next stop it was great to save the time we would have spent going in and out of Marigot bay.

So here we are. We are moored to a buoy about 200 meters from the famous Piton. Yesterday we were in the little village that’s 10 minutes away with the dinghy. We cleared in and out again and the officer of the immigration showed us the way to a nice bar where he had a beer and where we also met the officer of the customs. Ha !

In the bar we had lunch and met Jamalai, a local musican who wrote a song dedicated to the LosLocos. We got a few groceries and speeded back to our ship where we met Michel. He wanted to sell us something but as he didn’t have anything at hand that we wanted, he promised to organize a hike for the next morning to the top of Piton. More on that later !

To sum up – we had an amazing first day on St. Lucia. And there will be two more before we leave for the next beautiful island in the Caribbean.

The Blue Lagoon Marina in St. Vincent was a good place to repair our ship but we didn’t want to spend too much time here. So we filled up the tank and put to sea. (Last time we took Diesel was in Mindelo, approx. 3000 nautical miles ago.)

In the early afternoon we started our trip to Bequia with nice wind from behind and a current that was pushing us in the right direction. Yeah, that’s definately the right direction to sail to. A pity we’re going north tomorrow…

Having arrived in the Admiralty Bay we took a buoy and rode toards the Frangipani-Bar in our dinghy. But we didn’t want to go there and walked towards the ‘town’ instead.  We had to get money and buy a few things for the next days. Afterwards we enjoyed the sunset in a Bar at the beach.

Back at our dinghy we met the crew of the SY Ninita. We last saw each other in Mindelo, Cabo Verde. So we invited our friends on bord and had a few cold drinks and a lot to talk about.

(For the non-sailor: 1nm = 1 nautical mile = 1.852km)

What wouldn’t we do for our friends ? First we put Guenther on board our friends ship the SY Tamora because we couldn’t make it to Martinique in time and Guenther had to take a plane to St. Vincent. It also was very hard to leave our friends in Carriacou. And then there was the weather – or rather the wind. It came from NNE and that was exactly the direction we would have to sail !

We departed from Carriacou at sunset and already knew that this trip wouldn’t be exactly a nice one. Despite being very short – only 45nm it would take long – that was sure.

And it was exactly as we expected it: it took us 26 hours to do the 45 miles distance (sailed distance: 99 miles !!) And we had to fight for every single mile against a wind with 6 Beaufort and a nasty sea. And to make it not too easy, the current also was against us.

Sometime during the night a wave tore the Genoa and we had a nice hole at the foot. No wonder as we sailed with a heel of 35 to 40 degrees. Ouch !

But we’ve made it and it was worth it. Because now we’ve got Guenther on board. And he’s a really old friend of mine and the one who introduced me to sailing about 13 years ago !

Of course he came with bags full of presents including cookies from great-grandma and grandma, letters, spare parts for the ship. Everybody got something. Right now the capitana together with Viola will go to the immigration in Kingstown and Guenther, Bruno and me will replace the broken Genoa. Yay.

Right as we (Tim, me, Viola and Bruno) come back from clearing out, Claus and Gui arrive from their fishing trip. They got picked up by local fishermen in the morning and took the harpoons to catch two fish, mussels and 9 (in words: NINE) Lobsters !! Those we’ll have tonight for dinner.

This means we’ll soon leave the beach bar to sail towards Saline Island. From there we’ll take the dinghy to White Island where we’ll sleep at the beach and prepare our catch at a bonfire at night.

Tomorrow we’ll sail to the north to pick up Guenther in the Blue Lagoon on St. Vincent. So you’ll probably not hear from us until the 28th of jan…

This must have been the slowest passage EVER ! We left St. Davids bay at 15h UTC and arrived 07h next day. That’s a 16 hours trip in which we sailed about 45 miles giving an average speed of a whopping 2.8knots !

The start was good, running before the wind along the south coast of Grenada. Rounding the SW-tip of the island we hoisted the main sail and had little wind. But that freshened up only half an hour later increasing to a stable 5 Beaufort. We made a leg out to NW and tacked back towards the coast 2 hours later. Just to find ourselves in front of the harbour of St. Georges. We’ve made three miles in nearly two hours !!

The current runs strong along the coast of Grenada and the next idea was to run under engine, just a few hundered meters off the coast. Here the current was slightly less and we made slow progress towards north. It was a little frustrating to run under engine the whole night but as the wind was coming from NNE and that was exactly our direction – we had no better option. We arrived in the dark, around 03h local time. While entering the harbour we nearly hit a large towing vessel that sat in the entrance of the bay without light. Funny – nearly all the amateur sailboats had their anchor light on but NONE of the four professionally operated vessels. Heh.

So we dropped the anchor in five meters of clear water and fell into the bunks minutes later. It’s always exciting to wake up and then have a first look at the island you just landed on. – And it looks nice ! The island is green, a few houses here and there, a sand beach, palm trees. Everything you’d expect of an island in the Caribbean.

We’ve found the internet in a cafe at the beach called ‘Lazy turtle’, have a cold pineapple juice while the kids explore the beach. Afterwards we’ll walk over to the other side of the island and then wait for our friends, the SY Kira to arrive !

We didn’t see too much yet – the laziest crew of the world likes to sleep long… and the excellent internet connection at the anchorage is not exactly helping. But around noon we managed to leave the ship.

But first the anchorage: it’s amazing !!! We lie quiet and well protected, there is a dinghy-pontoon, a free (and warm !) shower and even a washing machine ! A ship yard with everything you would need for repairs is here but the best is the beach bar under palm trees.

So we started walking up the street to catch one of the passing minivans when Gui stopped a taxi. As he had already delivered his passenger and was on the way back to Georgetown he took us in and we rapidly were taken to the small city 10 miles ahead. It’s not exactly a city as we know it because everything is still green and trees are everywhere between the houses. We made a little tour but didn’t find much besides a new skirt for Viola and a salamander made from fabric for Bruno. So we had a little beer and headed back to the St. Davids bay.

Although friends already told us, we were surprised that you could fit 22 (TWENTY-TWO) people in a minivan the size of a VW-bus. And the way the driver took us through the mountainous roads was fascinating. The turns he took with screeching tires and the hills he used to take over other cars completely ignoring the opposing traffic. But everybody including us took it with a smile and only a few minutes later we landed seemingly safe in our bay.

The sun was already setting and while walking the last mile towards the anchorage we listened the sounds of the jungle and were taken in by the silhouette of the palm trees under a crystal clear night sky. Just underneath of which we found the beach bar ! We had an evening drink with friends we met in Barbados and the Dinghy took us back to the Rancho Relaxo. Tomorrow we’ll have a guided tour through the jungle. Yay !