|
|
|
|
A Celebration of Five Years of Sailing Adventures(or “What Might NOT Have Been”)By Jeanne Socrates on S/Y Nereida (Najad 361)
Woww - Woww!" George's delighted
exclamations drifted down below - to where I was writing up the log. He was wet
and cold. Darkness was falling and "NEREIDA" had been beating
fruitlessly against a strong southerly wind in shallow, choppy seas for almost a
day, trying to round Frying Pan Shoal. We were making for Charleston and had
decided to go offshore from Beaufort, North Carolina for this leg of our journey
from the Chesapeake Bay, thinking a sea passage on our way south would make a
nice change from the shallows of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), even though it
meant going offshore a long way, before we could turn south towards Charleston. So what was George so excited about?
Dolphins, of course!! They had suddenly appeared out of the gathering gloom to
cheer us up with their antics and company - leaping off the crest of the waves
in threes and fours, somersaulting and twisting in unison. They continued to
delight us with their team acrobatics for quite a time and they, at least, were
clearly enjoying the rough seas. Absolutely marvelous to see and the effect on
us was magical! So many times, dolphins have appeared on the scene during our
travels, often in bad weather. They seem to delight in our company. When the opportunity had come for both of us
simultaneously to take early retirement in 1997, albeit on a very reduced
income, we reveled in the thought of spending our remaining years sailing and
"NEREIDA" was bought as a result. Her maiden cruise took us from
Sweden, up to Norway as far as the Lysefjord, back to the Hamble via Denmark,
the Kiel Canal and the “fixed-mast route” through the Netherlands to
Vlissingen. No, we weren't from a sailing background but, yes, we had happily
worked hard to make up for a lack of sailing experience. We had taken up
windsurfing in 1990, followed by dinghy sailing in 1991. But it was not until
June1994 that we had the chance to take a 'Competent Crew' course on a Sigma 33
in the Solent - we were both 'hooked' and enthusiastically tried to improve both
on the practical and theoretical sides, eventually using our Atlantic crossing
in late 1999 to improve our expertise with the sextant and put our “Ocean
Yachtmaster” evening class theory into practice. In June 1998, "NEREIDA" left the
UK for Biscay. Her travels took her successively down to Spain, Portugal and
Morocco, including the Gibraltar Regatta of 1999, preceded by the Ceuta-Gib
race. Never having raced a yacht before, our main aim was 'not to come last'! The ARC99 was followed by voyages down to
Trinidad; 'up-island' to St Martin; and on to New York via Bermuda. Then from
Long Island to Massachusetts, Maine to Nova Scotia as far as Baddeck, then back
south to Cape Cod, the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, ICW to Miami and on to the
Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti. People have often asked us what we have
enjoyed most over the last few years. Whether being on a long passage or just
being on board, often at anchor in isolated places, meeting up with so many
marvelous likeminded people from all different backgrounds and countries has
been a joy in itself. We often commented how it restored our faith in humanity -
so many times, if we had a problem, there was invariably a boater (friend or
stranger) who helped us - either with advice, tools, a missing item or perhaps
muscle-power! It never failed to impress us how someone would spend several
hours searching for a possibly helpful part buried deep in a locker - "I
know it's there somewhere!" And the other highlights of our
journeying? Well, being hit by lightning in the Bay of
Biscay just 30 miles off La Coruňa in NW Spain was definitely one of the
less enjoyable ones! And yet even that episode had its amusing side. We used
basic (deduced reckoning) navigation from a plotted point 15 minutes before the
strike. All instruments went down. We drifted for some time while we checked the
boat out and rigged our emergency VHF aerial. Several hours later, we tried to
confirm our position by hailing any boat that came into sight. The last thing we
wanted, in the rain and darkness, was to miss the entrance to La Coruňa and
find ourselves heading towards Cape Finisterre. Typically, low cloud was
obscuring the lighthouses high up on the cliffs. Eventually, a Spanish fishing
boat with flared topsides responded to our flashlight and foghorn signals, and
came close enough for one of the crew with minimal English to jump on board to
see what the problem was. Have you ever tried explaining to a
foreigner that you weren't totally sure where you were because of a lightning
strike? Our Spanish at that time consisted of 'si' and 'maana' and we quickly
learned a new word - 'donde'! In fact, it turned out that our position was
almost exactly as we had calculated which was a great morale booster. I suppose
that was probably when we first realized how you can get by with lots of
friendly smiles, arm-waving, sign language and funny noises! The experience has
also meant that we would NEVER just rely on electronic charts/logs! We had a fabulous welcome in Viano do
Castelo from the HLR (Honorary Local Representative of the Ocean Cruising Club) David Lumby - he deserves a medal for the hospitality and
help he gives Cruising Association members. Then we slowly journeyed on down the
foggy Portuguese coast, eventually reaching Cape St Vincent - what a spectacular
sight! As we rounded the Cape, cold grayness suddenly gave way to the welcoming,
sunny warmth of the Algarve. At last! Wasn't this why we had sailed south? A year later, having enjoyed the people,
places and 'ferias' of southern Spain, we left Gibraltar where "NEREIDA"
had been made ready for her first Atlantic crossing and made for Porto Santo and
Madeira. Luckily, we avoided the “tunny” nets off the Moroccan coast - but
only just! The next highlight? This has to be at Isla Graciosa, north of Lanzarote. We arrived after midnight with a full moon at what we thought was a safe anchorage. After all, the pilot book did show an anchor symbol in the bay, didn't it? A lovely and peaceful place. Three days later, we raised the anchor - oops, well, actually, we started nose-diving!! A passing fisherman grinned from ear to ear – maybe he had seen it before - had he? Fortunately, we had trained as BSAC Sport
Divers and had dive gear on board - the anchor wasn't dug in at all, but caught
under a ledge of rock at a depth of 14 meters. (We have several times needed our
dive gear - once to retrieve a 'bit' from a backstay connector which bounced
into the murky waters of Lagos when we were installing the SSB insulators,
another time was in Cuba when we dragged our anchor over eel grass when strong
winds got up and we ended up just yards from shore with fishing gear caught
round the prop.) The 25-day Atlantic crossing was always
going to be a memorable event and with just the two of us on board, with 'Lenny'
denying us an easy “tradewind” crossing, it was certainly hard work. The
outstanding memory was of us both crouching for what seemed like an age in the
bow trying to deal with a jammed genoa while "NEREIDA" rushed along at
7 knots into the pitch black darkness. I clearly remember thinking "Good
thing we're not in the Solent or we'd have been frozen solid long ago!" The
water in early December was warm! The Caribbean was, in some ways,
disappointing - too many hassling 'boat boys'; quite a few unexpectedly
unfriendly locals; not cheap; and, a lot more rain than we expected. But we
found some lovely anchorages and fabulous snorkeling and diving sites. The remainder of our time 'on the other side
of the pond' has been memorable for the friendly, welcoming people both in the
US (especially from New York northwards) and in Nova Scotia that we were
particularly pleased to have sailed to. It is so beautiful and has lots of
anchorages where we were completely alone for days. The mussels we collected
were also particularly tasty! We preferred it to Maine, which has similar
scenery, because it has none of the thousands of lobster pots getting in your
way (navigation channels and anchorages included) and is less crowded with
people. We were told that if we enjoyed Nova Scotia, we would love Newfoundland!
(But the sailing season is only two months long in both places.) The other places that stand out as having
been well worth getting to are Cuba, where the people were welcoming and the
music great; and le Vache, in Haiti, where all the locals use dugout canoes or
traditional sailboats for fishing. It was a weird experience trying to get to
sleep at anchor near a village in total darkness (no electricity) and hearing
the voodoo drums beating - we really would have liked to have seen what was
going on!! Diagnosed with prostate cancer after
suffering major back pain, whilst in Grenada in September 2001, aged 64, George
did manage to return there from the UK last year, and we sailed away in May to
Tobago and Trinidad. We got to Venezuela in August and stayed until December,
mainly around Isla Margarita and later Puerto La Cruz, also going inland. (A
great pity that they have such major problems because the country has such
beautiful scenery: tropical islands, rainforest, waterfalls, the Orinoco, the
Andes, as well as a wide range of minerals and a thriving agriculture.) We left
for Los Roques (with a brilliant meteorite display en route) and Las Aves -
these are amazing reef complexes with many safe anchorages – and arrived in
Bonaire just before Christmas to fly back to London. Although things became
increasingly difficult for George from mid-October, his love of the sea and
sailing meant that he was happiest when he was on board "NEREIDA". George slipped away unexpectedly quickly on
17th March 2003. It was typical of him that, in the few days he was an
in-patient, he managed to endear himself to all the staff who knew him. On
reflection I think “Thank goodness we took that chance to get away, just over
five years earlier!” Footnote: If any cruisers would like
further info/advice on any of the places we visited, they are very welcome to
contact Jeanne by email at: synereida@hotmail.com Cruising • SUMMER 2003 • Internet: www.cruising-association.com |
|
