Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean: Transatlantic Crossing Guide (Street's Cruising Guide) (v. 1)

ponald M. Street, Jr.

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

Books by Donald M. Street, Jr.

A Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles A Yachting Guide to the Grenadines The Ocean Sailing Yacht, Volume I The Ocean Sailing Yacht, Volume 11 Seawise Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean in six volumes A Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide Iolaire's westward transatlantic passage is covered by a two-hour video, "Transatlantic with Street." Iolaire's swan song as a roundthe-buoy racer is narrated on "Antigua Week '85," largely shot aboard Iolaire. Both videos are available in the States from the Dolphin Book Club, 485 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017. The Transatlantic video is available in Europe from Marine Marketing, 54 Bollingbroke Road, London SW2 GHR, England.

Street:s- Transatlantic Crossing Guide THE ESSENTIAL COMPANION TO THE AUTHOR'S GUIDES TO THE EASTERN CARIBBEAl{, VOLUMES 11, Ill, AND IV

Donald M. Street, Jr. Imray-Iolaire harbor charts courtesy of Imray, Lauric, Norie and Wilson, Ltd.

W. W. NORTON & COMPANY NEW YORK

LONDON

Copyright © 1989 by Donald M. Street, Jr. All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Ltd., 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario L3R IB4. Printed in the United States of America. This hook is composed in Caledonia. Composition by Vail-Ballou. Manufacturing by Arcata Graphics. First Edition Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Street, Donald M. [Transatlantic croSSing gUide] Street's transatlantic crossing guide / Donald M. Street, Jr. lst ed. p. cm. "Imray-Iolaire harbor charts courtesy of Imray, Laurie, Norie, and Wilson, Ltd." Includes index.

ISBN 0-393-03329-5 1. Yachts and yachting-Islands of the Atlantic. 2. Nautical charts-Islands of the Atlantic. 3. Harbors-Islands of the

Atlantic. 4. Introduction to the Eastern Caribbean. n. Title: Transatlantic crossing guide. GV817.1747S74 1988 797.1'0997-dc19

1. Title.

88-23487 CIP

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. lOllO W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 37 Great Russell Street, London WCIB 3NU 1 234 5 6 7 890

Dedication The idea for this crUlsmg guide was originally conceived in 1963, and it was only through the hard work, perseverance, courage, and self-sacrifice of my late wife, Marilyn, that the original book got off the ground. Fortunately for myself and my daughter, Dory, I met Patricia Boucher, now my wife, on the beach in Tyrell Bay. She has presented me with three active sons, yet has had time to help in business, sailing loiaire, and exploring. Although she had hardly sailed before our marriage, she has taken to sailing like a duck to water. Her love of sailing was largely instrumental in my decision to keep lolaire when I was thinking of selling her to reduce expenses. It is only because of Trich's hard work keeping our various business enterprises going in my absence that I have been able to keep the third love of my life, lolaire. lolaire has been my mistress for thirty years; at age eighty-two she is still the type of boat Michael Dufour would appreciate: she is "fast, beautiful, and responsive." She first arrived in the Islands in 1947, remained for a few years, and cruised back to Europe in 1949, from Jamaica to England direct. In 1950, under the ownership of R. H. Somerset, she won her division's RORC Season's Points Championship at the age of forty-five, returned to the Islands in 1951, cruised there during the winter of 1951-1952, sailed in the Bermuda Race in 1952, then cruised back to Europe and the Mediterranean. In 1954, she returned to the Islands, where I purchased her in 1957. In 1975, we celebrated lolaire's seventieth birthday by cruising to Europe via Bermuda, New London, New York, Boston, Halifax, and then

having a fifteen-day passage to Ireland. We cruised on to Cowes, took part in the fiftieth anniversary of the first Fastnet Race, and then raced to La Rochelle, La Trinite, Benodet, and back to the Solent-four races, totaling 1,300 miles, in twentyone days. After Calais, we went up the Thames to St. Katherine's Dock in the Pool of London under Tower Bridge, then back down the Thames and up the Colne River in Essex, where we lay alongside the dock in Rowhedge, where lolaire had been built seventy years before. Then to Plymouth, Glandore in Ireland, Madeira, the Canaries, and back across the Atlantic in eighteen and one-half days to Antigua. We arrived in Antigua seven months and seven days after our departure, having sailed 13,000 miles and raced 1,300 miles, all without an engine, visiting all the places people had said we'd never make except under power. We decided that lolaire should celebrate her eightieth birthday in 1985 by retiring from roundthe-buoy racing. Her swan song in Antigua Week of 1985 was wonderful-third in the cruising division (seventeen boats), first in the boats twenty years old or older. Then we took lolaire on a 12,000-mile, double transatlantic jaunt. In seven months we visited Bermuda, five of the Azores islands, Ireland, Vigo in Spain, the Salvage Islands and the Madeiran Archipelago, five of the Canary Islands, and three of the Cape Verde Islands; then we rolled on home in fourteen days and four hours from the Cape Verdes to Antigua-not a record but a good fast passage for a heavy-displacement cruising boat. v

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Dedication

Iolaire has nine transatlantic passages under her belt, and I have sailed her a minimum of 120,000 miles. Who knows how many miles she has sailed altogether? There is little of the Caribbean whose waters have not been furrowed by her hull, and, as some

of my good friends will point out, few rocks that have not been dented by her keel! To my three loves-Marilyn, Trich, and IolaireI dedicate this book. D.M.S.

Contents Publisher's Note Preface Foreword Acknowledgments C harts List of Harbor Charts List of Illustrations 1 The Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands-A General Description 2 Preparations 3C~~

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4 Getting There 5 The Atlantic Islands-Bermuda, the Azores, The Madeiran Archipelago, and the Salvage, Canary, and Cape Verde Islands 6 Wind, Weather, and Tides 7 Sailing Directions 8 Entry and Communications 9 Provisions and Services 10 Chartering 11 Yacht Clubs and Racing 12 Leaving Bibliography Appendix A Principal Visual Navigation Aids: Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands Appendix B Principal Radio Navigation Aids: Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands Appendix C Principal Radiotelephone Communications Aids: Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands Appendix D Principal Commercial Radio Stations: Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands Appendix E Holidays Index vii

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90 204 235 240 256 295 304 313 328 331 340 344 346 351 355

Publisher's Note D. M. Street, Jr., a veteran Caribbean sailor, is also known as an author and the compiler of ImrayIolaire charts of that area, and as a worldwide yacht insurance broker who places policies with Lloyd's of London. Mr. Street also serves as a design consultant on new construction, most notably recently on Lone Star, a 54-foot wooden ketch, built by Mashford Brothers of Plymouth, England. He also serves as design consultant on rerigging existing yachts and finding good cruising boats for people who want a proper yacht. His latest project is to do a sailing and seamanship video serics with SEA TV. Street is mainly known as a cruising skipper, but he had raced with success on Iolaire and other boats. lolaire has retired from round-the-buoy racing at age eighty, but the skipper has not and can be found at the various Caribbean regattas skippering, or sailing as tactician with local knowledge, on other boats. His contributions to sailing in the Eastern Caribbean consist of his cruising guides and the ImrayIolaire charts. Forty-sevel) Imray-Iolaire charts have replaced roughly 200 French, U. S., British, Dutch, and a few Spanish charts and are all that are needed to cruise the Eastern Caribbean. As an author, he is prolific. His original Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles was published in 1966, A Yachting Guide to the Grenadines in 1970, and an updated and expanded Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean in 1974, with continued expansions and updates in the 1980s. The title of the last is now Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean, a six-volume work that covers an arc of islands 1,000 miles long. He has also written The Ocean Sailing Yacht,

Volume 1 (1973) and Volume 11 (1978). Seawise, a collection of articles, came out in 1976. He has completed rewriting Volume I of Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean in light of the information obtained on his seven transatlantic passages and hundreds of interviews. The new book will be titled Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide, Guide to the Atlantic Islands, and Introduction to the Eastern Caribbean. He is also working on a series of books, Street on Sails, Street on Seanulnship and Storms, and Street on Small-Boat Handling, and lolaire and I, the story of Iolaire's eighty-two years and Street's lifetime of adventures and misadventures in the yachting world. He regularly writes for Sail, Cruising World, Sailing, Wooden Boat, Tell-Tale Compass, Yachting, Yachting World, and Yachting Monthly, and for publications in Sweden, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. For well over twenty years, Street owned land and houses in Grenada, but unfortunately the houses are no more. They were taken over by the People's Revolutionary Army (PRA) in May 1979 as part of its military base. The houses did not survive the U. S. liberation in 1983, when helicopter gunships destroyed both of them. He hopes someday to rebuild on the old site. During the winter he crisscrosses the Caribbean. In the spring, he heads south to lay up lolaire in Grenada, south of the hurricane belt. In July and August, he can usually be found in Clandore, Ireland, on the family Dragon, Gypsy, either skippering her or trimming sheets for his sons. In 1985 lolaire again did a double transatlantic passage, visiting Bermuda, Spain, the Madeiran Archipelago, Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands

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Publisher's Note

before returning to the Caribbean. As a result of these explorations Street has revised Volume I of this series. The title is now Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide, to be published in 1989. He continues to explore the Eastern Caribbean to update and expand both his Imray-Iolaire charts and his guides. In both 1987 and 1988 lolaire did five weeks in Venezuelan water re-exploring and checking. lolaire was retired from round-the-buoy racing at age eighty at the end of the 1985 Antigua sailing week. This series was a good swan song. She

placed third in the cruising class, and first of the boats twenty years or older. D. M. Street, Jr., still races, but as an elder stateman, usually as "rock pilot." It is said he knows all the rocks, as he has hit most of them while exploring the Caribbean. In 1989 lolaire is again doing a double transatlantic crossing, from Antigua to the Azores and then direct to Ireland. She is returning via Spain, the Madeiras, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verdes, and is exploring the islands she has not yet visited.

Preface When I first bought Iolaire in 1957, I found on board what was then the only straight cruising guide to the Lesser Antilles. This was a mimeographed publication produced by the Coast Guard Auxiliary and edited by a Lieutenant Commander Buzby, Carleton Mitchell's Islands to Windward, published in 1948, was generally regarded as a good cruising yarn rather than as a cruising guide, but it did have some basic cruising information in the back of the book. Unfortunately, by the time I started sailing outside the Virgin Islands in 1959, Islands to Windward was out of print. In 1960, The Virgin Islands by George Teeple Eggleston was published, the result of a one-month cruise aboard Eunice Boardman's 55-foot ketch Renegade. In 1961, Perey Chubb Ill, after a eruise through the Lesser Antilles, produced a small, privately printed Guide to the Windward and Leeward Islands of the Eastern Caribbean. In 1964, Linton Rigg authored The Alluring Antilles, a combination guide and cruising adventure of a half-year sail from Puerto Rico to Trinidad aboard the 45-foot ketch Island Belle. These seemed to suffice for the small amount of Caribbean cruising done in those days, but starting in the early sixties the charter-boat business suddenly began to expand, and many new boats arrived. It was Frank Burke of Island Yachts who inspired my entry into cruising-guide writing. Figuring that too many of the charter parties were missing the best spots in the Virgins because their skippers had not been in the Islands long enough to get to know them intimately, he asked me to write a cruisiJ,lg guide to the Virgin Islands. This was done, and he had it privately printed. I received

the magnificent sum of $lOO-which to me happened to be a veritable fortune in those days. This small volume later formed the basis of the Virgin Islands section of my Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles, published in 1966, after I showed it to Phelps Platt of Dodd, Mead, who encouraged me to expand it to cover the whole island chain. This was followed two years later by Tom Kelly and Jack van Ost's Yachtman's Guide to the Virgin Islands, and then by Al Forbes's excellent Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands, notable in that, unliked many guide authors, he had sailed the area for many years before he wrote his. In 1970, following eight years of cruising the Grenadines, I produced A Yachting Guide to the Grenadines, after which, in 1973, came Julius M. Wilensky's Yachtsman's Guide to the Windward Islands, which covered largely the same territory as mine. Also in 1973, Gordon C. Ayer produced an interesting small guide covering an island group which had never been detailed before-namely, the Passage Islands. New Guides to the Virgin Islands are becoming too numerous to list. In the southern end of the Islands Chris Doyle has produced his Sailor's Guide to the Windward Islands. He is presently at work covering the area I covered eight years ago--the Venezuelan coast. The guides have been translated-into French, German, and Spanish. The Guides have been expanded to cover the Atlantic islands-Bermuda, Azores, Madeiran Archipelago, Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands. This was done because yachts going to and from the Caribbean sail through these islands but have had great difficulty in obtaining information and harbor charts for the islands. There has been a

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dearth of information on transatlantic passage-making despite the number of boats crisscrossing the Atlantic. The Bermuda Islands are covered by Yachtsman's Guide to the Bennuda Islands by Michael Voegeli, the Azores by Bob Silverman's Yachtsman's Guide to the Azores, and the Canaries by Jack Hooper's privately mimeographed Guide to the Canaries. The difficulty with all these guides is that they can be found only after you have arrived in the islands they cover; hence the inclusion of the basic information on the Atlantic islands in this volume. In the five volumes of the Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean, I have tried to include all the information I have gleaned in more than three decades of cruising these islands. I have drawn not only from my own experiences, but also from the experiences of old friends who are, in addition, good sailors. Thus I feel I have described probably every cove in the Eastern Caribbean where one could possibly think of anchoring. If you find one I may have missed, please let me know. In my 1966 guide I claimed that the book would never become dated because rocks don't move. Little did I realize how eagerly island governments would actually start moving them, creating new islands, making islands into peninsulas, and building low bridges, as the development of

the Eastern Caribbean boomed. Further, any guide is destined to go out of date simply because the idyllic uninhabited spot of one year becomes a thriving hotel and cabana settlement the next. Indeed, one of my readers lately took me to task because he was using my original guide and expected to anchor off an island described therein as uninhabited. As he rounded between Pinese and Mopion, he was greeted by a brand-new hotel ablaze with celebration, and counted no fewer than forty-five boats moored in the lee of Petit St. Vincent! At various times, Venezuelan yachtsmen have extolled the virtues of Venezuela and the offshore islands. I originally went to Venezuela to give a slide lecture to a yacht club and to take part in a race. I then took Iolaire to eastern Venezuela for six weeks and later visited western Venezuela on Boomerang. There followed a month's cruise in 1978, a two-week cruise in 1979, and a six-week cruise on my publisher's boat, Toscana, a Swan 47, which enabled me to complete the guide to Venezuela, Aruba, Bonaire, and Cura<;:ao. Admittedly, this section was not as well covered as the sections in the Eastern Caribbean. However, in 1987 we spent five weeks in Venezuela on Iolaire, which enabled us to update and expand the Venezuelan volume. Further, in 1988 we spent another six weeks in Venezuela.

Foreword

making it impossible to see any reefs until it is too late. Rule number 3: Do not enter a strange harbor at night if at all possible. Rule number 4: No chart can be absolutely accurate. In the Caribbean, learning how to read the water is as important as knowing how to read a chart. Eyeball navigation is the key to safe and satisfying sailing in the Islands. Whether Puerto Rico to the north or Trinidad and Tobago to the south should be considered part of the Lesser Antilles is a question for the gazetteers to squabble over. For the purposes of this book, we welcome all three into the fellowship of proximity. Taken as such, the Antilles conveniently break up into a number of areas suitable for two- or three-week cruises. The start and end point of a cruise will be governed by your own tastes and the availability of air transporation. The air services into San Juan and Trinidad are excellent, for example; hut neither of these places is a particularly good spot to begin a cruise. San Juan is dead to leeward of the rest of the chain-and who wants to start out with a hard slog into the wind against a strong current? Trinidad is not much better, unless you're going to Venezuela. But air transporation throughout the area has been improving over the years. Direct international flights now also arrive at Antigua, St. Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Barbados, Grenada, and Maiquetfa, the airport for Caracas. Favorite starting points for cruises are St. Thomas, Tortola, Grenada, and Barcelona/Puerto la Cruz in the El Morro area of Venezuela. To get to most of these places, you must often rely on secondary, local airlines with shuttle ser-

The Lesser Antilles stretch southward from St. Thomas to Grenada in a great crescent 500 miles long, offering the yachtsman a cruising ground of unequaled variety. Some of the islands are flat, dry, and windswept, their shores girded by coral reefs and their land barely arable. Others are reefless, jagged peaks jutting up abruptly from the sea, where they block the ever-present trades and gather rain clouds the year round; water cascades in gullies down their sides and their slopes are well cultivated. The character of their peoples likewise varies-from the charming and unspoiled although desperately poor Dominican, to the comparatively well-to-do and worldly wise French of Martinique. Unless you have a whole season at your disposal, it is foolhardy to attempt all the islands in a single cruise. Not only will you not make it, but you will fail to enjoy the slow, natural, and relaxed pace of life in these tropical islands. The first measure of a successful cruise is how soon your carefully worked out timetable is thrown away. Rule number 1 in the Antilles is: Don't make any plan more than a day in advance since you will frequently-in fact constantly-alter your intentions to suit the pace and attractions of the locale. Rule number 2: Each night before turning in, read the sailing directions covering your passage to the next area, and study the detailed description of your intended anchorage. In some cases this will seriously affect the next day's plans-particularly the hour of departure. Remember, for instance, that when you're on the east coast of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Antigua, and Grenada, you must be in the anchorage by 1400 hours. Otherwise the sun is in the west, directly in your line of vision,

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vices. These vary from being fairly good from San Juan to St. Thomas and Tortola and the Venezuelan airlines, to downright disastrous with LIAT. LIAT's aircraft, pilots, and maintenance personnel are first class, but the office staff has developed the art of losing baggage and double-booking reservations to an exact science. There are various takeofI~ as to what LIAT actually means-some people claim that LIAT is an abbreviation for "Leave Islands Any Time," while others insist that LIAT really stands for "Luggage In Another Terminal." Still, it's all part of the adventure of a Caribbean cruise. Which starting point you choose will say something of your tastes in cruising. If you prefer gunkholing and short jaunts between many little islands only a few miles apart, if you like snorkeling and little in the way of civilization, then it is the Virgins or the Grenadines for you. But you'd best hurry down because real-estate developers and other sailors are fast filling them up. For those of you who want to give boat and crew a good tuning up for offshore racing, set out from St. Thomas up through the Virgins, then work your way across the Anegada Passage to St. Martin or Anguilla, and finish with a final leg up to Antigua. In doing so, you will gain a fair sampling of island diversity and of French, Dutch, and English colonial temperaments. The Anegada Passage is a nice, hard drive to windward, which should uncover any weak points in rig or crew. Those interested exclusively in the pursuits of diving, treasure hunting, or snorkeling should steer for the low-lying islands of Anguilla, Barbuda, Anegada, Los Roques, and Las Aves. The reefs in these areas are vast and inexhaustible. Fortune hunters still flock to these islands, where innumerable off-lying wrecks date back hundreds of years, some presumably undiscovered. Consult the source books-but remember, these islands are low, flat, encircled by reefs, and hard to spot. The charts are based on surveys done mainly in the middle of the last century. Coral grows, and hurricanes have moved through the area a number of times; earthquakes have shaken the islands, and sand bars have moved. In short, you must be extremely careful. Do not let your boat become the next curiosity for inquisitive divers! Saba and Statia (Sint Eustatius) are two attractive islands that are too seldom visited. Their anchorages are exceptionally bad, but when the conditions are right, they certainly are worth a go. Their close neighbors, St. Kitts and Nevis, are of historical interest, figuring as they do in the lives

of Alexander Hamilton, Admirals Nelson and Rodney, and Generals Shirley and Frazer. St. Kitts is well worth a visit to see the beautiful restoration of the old fortress of Brimstone Hill. A number of the old plantation great houses have been restored and opened up as hotels and restaurants. Renting a car to tour St. Kitts is a good scheme. If you like longer sails, the bright lights of civilization, and a variety of languages and customs, the middle islands from Antigua to St. Lucia should keep you happy. The French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique afford the finest cuisine in the Antilles. The local merchants offer an excellent selection of cheeses and meats from Europe and the best wines available outside France. The tourist shops are a woman's delight, and the perfumes are at about half the stateside price. Martinique offers a fabulous collection of bikinis, but the prices have gone up so much in France that the savings for an American are no longer substantial. Rough rule of thumb: The smaller the bikini, the more expensive it is. The string arrived: its size-minuscule; its priceastronomical. One solution frequently used by the always economical French women was to buy only half the string at half the price. Others felt that even that was too expensive and sailed au naturei-not really showing off, just economizing! The universal pastime of watching members of the opposite sex is alive and well in Martinique, and the visiting seafarer soon gets into the spirit of things. This pastime can be enjoyed in many ways, but the two most popular methods are either strolling around the streets of Fort-de-France or rowing around in Anse Mitan (which today is likely to have forty or fifty boats in it) and pretending to admire the boats while admiring the crews. An added bonus here is that at Anse Mitan, going topless seems to be de rigueur. The women in Fort-de-France may not be the prettiest in the Caribbean, but they are far and away the most stylish. And the men, sitting at the sidewalk cafes sipping their coffee or punch vieux, cut figures worthy of the boulevardiers of Paris. But newcomers, take note: The punch will make a strong man weak-kneed and the coffee tastes not unlike battery acid. The French and their chicory-laced coffee have distressed visiting foreigners for many decades. A story is told of Count von Bismarck touring France after the Franco-Prussian War. He was ending a fine meal in a country inn and called for the maitre d'h6tel and offered to buy all his chicory at IO percent over the market price. The maitre d' agreed

Foreword and sold him what he claimed to be all he had. Again the count offered to buy any remaining chicory, this time at 50 percent over the market price; the maitre d' produced a second quantity of the plant. For a third time the count offered to buy any that remained-at twice the market price--and the maitre d' surrendered a small amount, assuring him that this was indeed all that remained. Satisfied at last, the count concluded, "Very well, now you may prepare me a cup of coffee!" HMS Diamond Rock, off the south coast of Martinique, is the basis for many stories in folklore, most of them inaccurate. The true story of Diamond Rock is contained in Her Majesty's Sloop of War Diamond Rock, by Stuart and Eggleston. Dominica is for the adventurous. A ride into the mountains by Jeep and horseback will take you to the last settlement of the Carib peoples. Here the natives fashion the distinctive Carib canoes that are also seen in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and st. Lucia. With nothing but a flour sack for a sail and a paddle as a rudder, the islanders set out in these boats against the wind to fish in the open Atlantic. Not an easy way to earn a living. Because of various unpleasant incidents in the early eighties, Portsmouth in Dominica came to be avoided by many yachtsmen; but I hope that Mrs. Charles, head of the country's new government, will straighten out the difficulties and make Portsmouth once again a high-point of Caribbean cruising. S1. Lucia provides some superb anchorages at Pigeon Island, Marigot, and Vieux Fort, and the truly unbelievable one beneath the Pitons at Soufriere. The volcano and sulfur baths are an impressive spectacle, and it is well worth the expense to explore the island by car or Jeep, an adventure vividly recounted by Ceorge Eggleston in Orchids in a Calabash Tree. St. Vincent, just north of the Grenadines, is a high, lush island richly and diversely cultivated. The island has an intriguing history, highlighted by the almost continual warfare among French, English, and Caribs that lasted from 1762 until 1796, when the Caribs were expelled to Central America. Bequia is the home of the fisherman and whaler, an island where any sailor can explore, relax, and "gam" for days on end. The harbor is beautiful; life is relaxed. After crusing the entire Caribbean and getting to know all the islands intimately, many experienced yachtsmen declare Grenada to be the "loveliest of islands." The highlands produce enough rain to allow the farmers to grow a large quantity

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of fresh fruit and vegetables, but the south coast is dry enough to allow the yachtsman to live and work on his boat. The island also has a dozen different harbors, providing at least sixty separate anchorages. Most of these harbors are only short, one- or two-hour sails from each other. Grenada, with its excellent harbor at S1. Ceorge's, was once the yachting capital of the Southern Caribbean. It suffered badly at the hands of its politicians for many years, and is only now beginning to recover, since the US liberation of 1983 gave capitalism another chance there. m sure the "Spice Island" will soon be able to provide the necessary yachting facilities to match its beautiful natural offerings. Barbados is relatively remote and seldom visited by yachts except those that are coming downwind from Europe. If your plane stops there en route to another island, arrange for a layover of a day or two. It is undoubtedly the best-run island in the entire Caribbean. Everything is clean and neat (by West Indian standards); the people are charming and speak in the most wonderful accent. They are solicitous and helpful to visitors. The old carenage in Bridgetown should not be missed, nor should the screw-lift dock. It is a shame that Tobago is seldom visited by yachtsmen. It is dead to windward of Trinidad, and from Grenada it is 90 miles hard on the port tack. Even if you manage to lay the rhumb line from Grenada, it will be a long slog, hard on the wind. Current and sea will drive you off to the west. It is fairly inaccessible except from Barbados, from which it is an easy reach southwestward. The American and British Virgin Islands have been laboriously described in the various tourist guides, but whatever the evaluation of shoreside life, a sailor can pass a very pleasant month cruising this area. Throughout the Caribbean, the character of the various island peoples is apt to vary broadly within a relatively small area. Even among formerly British islands, each has its own peculiar flavor, its own outlook and accent. (In fact, natives are known to complain that they can't understand the English spoken on neighboring islands.) For the most part, the people are quiet and law-abiding. The racially inspired violence that periodically has troubled st. Croix and St. Thomas has been far less a problem in the islands farther south. As the years go by, the Eastern Caribbean becomes more crowded; hence, yachtsmen are beginning to head west to Venezuela. In the fifties and sixties, cruising in Venezuela was looked on as

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Foreword

a dangerous occupation-not because of unfriendliness to yachtsmen, but because Castro was smuggling guerrillas ashore in small fishing boats. The Guardia Nacional and the navy were frequently guilty of shooting first and asking questions later, with the result that a number of boats were ventilated by Venezuelan government agencies. All this is now a thing of the past; although you may have to fill out a lot of forms and papers, everyone is extremely friendly and, to the best of my knowledge, there have been no nasty incidents involving yachts in Venezuela for many years. Venezuela is, of course, totally different from the rest of the Eastern Caribbean. The people and language are Spanish. The off-lying islands provide some of the finest diving in the Eastern Caribbean, have not been fished out, and are generally uninhabited. Yachting is only just beginning to make itselffelt in Venezuela, and if you put your mind to it, with the exception of the large marinas in the areas of El Morro, Caracas, Tucacas, and Carenero, you can cruise about to your heart's content and see no other yachts except during weekends. One cruising technique used by some yachts is to arrive at the marina on Friday night as the Venezuelans are all departing and berths are available, stay for the weekend, sightseeing, etc., on Saturday, spend a night out on the town Saturday night, sleep late Sunday morning, and depart Sunday afternoon prior to the arrival of the returning Venezuelan yachts. Unfortunately, the great welcome that the Venezuelan private clubs used to give visiting yachtsmen has cooled. As more and more sailors go to Venezuela to escape the hurricane season, the behavior of some has been such that the door has heen slammed shut against the rest of us in most private Venezuelan clubs. If you know a Venezuelan yachtsman, write to him ahead of time and he can probably get the door opened specifically for you. Los Roques, an area of 355 square miles, is almost as large as the American and British Virgin Islands with at least 50 percent of it unsurveyed. This does not mean that it is an area you cannot sail. Venezuelan and a few American yachtsmen (like Cordon Stout) have crisscrossed and spent as long as a week cruising this wonderful place. This is an area that a bare boat organization should expand into. The boats could be based at Los Roques. Air communication to Maiquetfa (Caracas's airport) is excellent from all over the world. It is only a thirty-minute shuttle flight from Los

Roques, thus putting the charterer on board his boat in a very short time. Supplies could be shuttled back and forth from La Guaira via the everpresent small diesel-powered Venezuelan fishing boats. The bare boats would probably have to be specially designed with a very shallow draft. The Herreshoff Meadow Lark draws only 18 inches with the lee boards up; coupled with a Freedom 40 rig, it would be ideal. It will be interesting to see what develops here in years to come. Venezuela is an area of contrasts. The easternmost tip of the Peninsula of Pari a rises 5,000 feet in the air with vertical slopes spilling into the Caribbean on one side and into the Culf of Paria on the other. From the Gulf of Pari a one can visit the mouth of the Orinoco River and Angel Falls, take trips into the jungle, and see unbelievable wildlife directly from the boat. The north coast of Venezuela, as one progresses westward, begins with heavy jungle which tapers out to brush and ends up finally in Laguna de Obispos. In the Gulf ofCariaco one finds a fantastic harbor-the scenery ashore is like a lunar landscape. It gives the impression that it cannot have rained there in the past twenty years! As one continues westward, the mountains of Venezuela are always close to the coastline and always barren. The cities are exploding rather than simply growing. Side by side are sophisticated new marinas and small fishing villages. Offshore are low, deserted reefs and uninhabited islands. After Puerto Cabello, most cruisers jump out to Bonaire, Aruba, and Curac,;ao. Bonaire is low, flat, and sparsely populated. Its shores rise so steeply from the sea bottom that it is practically impossible to anchor in its lee. The anchorage problem has been solved by the new marina, which has slips and a WO-ton syncro-lift dock; adequate supplies-fresh, frozen, and canned-are available. The people are very friendly. Bonaire has some of the best diving in the world, with excellent support facilities right at hand. If you want to connect up with the outside world, go to Curac:;ao, with its excellent air communications and first-class hotels. Curac,;ao, too, has all kinds of supplies and excellent harbors. Boats going westward usually skip Aruba, but it is a popular place for boats fighting their way eastward from Panama and the San BIas islands. This trip is a long slog to windward, and in years gone by yachts frequently stopped at Cartagena, Santa Marta, or anchored behind Cabo de la Vela. However, because of drug trafficking, no yacht

Foreword these days should even think of approaching the Colombian coast, much less anchoring offshore. Thus, even Aruba, basically a low, flat island covered with oil refineries, looks like heaven after a week or so of slamming into the heavy trade winds and westerly current. When flying to the Eastern Caribbean to charter a boat or join your own boat, you will traverse island groups that are largely ignored by the yachtsman yet provide excellent cruising. The Bermuda Islands are regarded strictly as way-stops for heading to the Caribbean from the East Coast of the States or leaving the Caribbean for the States or Europe, while in actuality, a week, ten days, some people say even two weeks, can happily be spent poking around the various harbors and coves of those enchantingly beautiful and well-run islands. To most transatlantic yachtsmen, the Azores are merely a way-stop. Horta, with its great sea wall covered with sign painting by the various yachts that have stopped there and at Peter Alvere's Cafe Sport, is known to yachtsmen worldwide. However, what yachtsmen may forget is that the Azores are an excellent cruising ground. The harbors may not be too secure; the weather variable, as North Atlantic gales occasionally find their way down into the Azores; the water on the chilly side, for swimming; but the scenery, the friendliness of the people (including Port Captains and Customs and Immigration officials), and the low cost of food supplies and eating out all mean that when a good sailor dies and goes to the sailor's Valhalla he will find himself on the island of Flares, the westernmost of the Azorean islands. Similarly, for all too many yachtsmen the Madeiran Archipelago is merely a stop at Funchal, then onto the Canaries and across the Atlantic. Actually the Madeiran Archipelago offers the yachtsman a minimum of two weeks cruising and, if the weather is good, four weeks. Similarly, the Canaries have been regarded merely as a stop en route to the Eastern Caribbean-usually a stop in the oil-fouled Canary Island harbors of Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria or Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife. The Spanish government has built numerous new yacht harbors, and there are many improved commercial harbors, small fishing harbors, and specially built yacht harhors that are clean and attractive to the yachtsmen. There are eight major Canary islands. I remember the reply of Malcolm Horsley, skipper of the famous ocean racer Stormvogel, when in 1975 I

xvii

asked him which of the Canary Islands I should visit and which I should miss. He told me to visit all of them. He was right. A yachtsman could easily spend a month to six weeks in the Canaries. Jack Hooper, who wrote a small, privately printed Canary Island guide, spent a year there. South from the Canaries lie the Cape Verdes, a largely unknown cruising area. When we went there in 1985 with lolaire we were able to obtain very little information despite intensive searching through SSCA bulletins, Royal Cruising Club journals, and the CCA Cruising Information Library at the Peabody Museum. Most of the information we were able to obtain was inaccurate. There are many disadvantages to cruising the Cape Verde Islands, but any place where you can buy lobster for $1 per pound can't be all bad! For the transatlantic yachtsman, it is well worth visiting the Cape Verdes as it reduces the open passage across the Atlantic to fourteen to fifteen days for a 40- to 45-foot boat. A fast boat will do it in eleven or less, and even a slow boat will do it in seventeen to eighteen days. Again, in the Cape Verde Islands, the only information available was about the island of Sao Vicente, where the main commercial port of Mindelo is. However, a yachtsman could cruise the Cape Verde Islands for two or three months quite happily prior to taking off across the Atlantic. Our Icelandic friend, Toby, has been there for eighteen months and plans to stay. We hope that with the aid of these books you will enjoy the Caribbean islands, the Venezuelan coast, and the Atlantic islands as much as I have for more than three decades. Anyone contemplating a cruise aboard a charter boat is well advised to read the supplementary chapters, which provide background information and a host of important tips and facts not included in the average tourist or charter-boat broker's brochure. It should be noted that much basic information for the Eastern Caribbean is found in Volume Iof Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean. That book serves as a companion volume to whatever other volume you are using. Volume I also gives you an overall picture of the Islands and allows you to better choose what area you plan to sail; it also has a ·very important chapter on wind, weather, and tides. One caution in particular: in May, June, and July, the Caribbean is usually 12 to 18 inches lower than it is in the winter. Thus, at the time of a lowwater spring tide in those months, the water is a

xviii

Foreword

full 3 feet lower than it is at high-water spring tide in the winter. Although the Imray-Iolaire charts' soundings are based on the lowest-level datum, not all charts or local knowledge take the difference into account. If you have any doubt about your situation, take soundings before you venture into questionable waters. To repeat, "Sailing Directions" is probably the most important chapter, one that should be read and studied: It should be consulted regularly before making the day's plans. While the navigational features and anchorages of individual islands are described in the chapter on each island, the routes between the islands are described in the sailing directions-so be sure to consult them each day. As an addendum to this, some advice to readers who operate bare-boat charter Reets: Study the

book carefully, make your judgments, and mark on the sketch charts of each boat's copy the anchorages you want your charters to avoid. Finally, be cautious. Practically every place in the Eastern Caribbean and the Atlantic islands where a yacht can anchor has been described or at least mentioned, but not all are easy to enter. Many of these anchorages can be used only in good weather and perfect visibility. Some boats are handier than others, and some sailors are better than others. Thus you must evaluate each anchorage for yourself before entering. The time of day, the weather, your abilities, the weatherliness of your boat-all inRuence the final decision. Fair sailing to all. D.M.S.

Acknowledgments Yachtsmen who cruise the Caribbean should be thankful to Phelps Platt of Dodd, Mead, who saw my original draft of what was then going to be a privately printed guide to the Virgin Islands and liked it enough to encourge me to write a complete guide to the other islands. Yachtsmen should also thank Bernard Goldhirsch of United Marine Publishers, founder of Sail magazine, who did the 1974 updated and expanded cruising guide. Thanks are now due to Eric Swenson of W. W. Norton and Company, who not only agreed to publish a completely updated guide, but also agreed that it should be expanded to include Venezuela, its off-lying islands, and Aruba, Bonaire, and Cura~ao, plus tremendously enlarged sections on "Getting There" and "Leaving." The guide is now so big that we have produced it in five volumes. I must also thank the many yachtsmen who have helped me with valuable information. Augie Holland (the only person I know who cruises in a genuine Block Island Cow Horn), Ross Norgrove of White Squall II, and Carl Powell of Terciel all deserve a special vote of thanks for helping me update the Virgin Islands section. Jon Repke of Power Products, a refrigeration expert, electrician, mechanic, sailor, and pilot, solved many of the mysteries of St. Martin / St. Barthelemy / Anguilla by spending the better part of a day flying me through this area. Carl Kaushold supplied an excellent chart and information on Salt River. Ray Smith of Grenada was most helpful in his suggestions on tides and weather patterns in the Caribbean, and in compiling the list of radio stations and radio beacons. His brother, Ron, solved the mystery of the whereabouts of Tara Island, on the south coast of Grenada, which is improperly marked

on the chart. Carl Amour of the Anchorage Hotel solved the great mystery of the rocks off Scotts Head, Dominica. Dr. Jack Sheppard of Arieto, the late Dick Doran of Laughing Sally, and Carlos Lavendero of several boats made possible the inclusion of the Puerto Rican and Passage Islands information. Gordon Stout of Shango and Peter Lee of Virginia Reel made possible the inclusion of Tobago. Jerry Bergoff of Solar Barque and Sylver Brin of St. Barthelemy were most helpful in clearing up some of the mysteries of the eastern end of St. Barthelemy. Pieter van Storn, formerly ofIsland Waterword, and Malcolm Maidwell and Peter Spronk, of Caribbean Catamaran Centre, were most helpful in the St. Martin area. Hans Hoff, from the 90-foot Ketch Fandango, is one of the few people who has won a bet from me on anchorages. The standing bet is I will buy a drink for anyone who can find a good, safe anchorage with 6 feet of water in it that has not been mentioned in the crusing guide. I expect to be nabbed once in a while by a small boat, but not by the skipper of a 9O-foot ketch! Hans found an anchorage inside the reef on the north coast of Anguilla. Where the chart showed nothing but solid reef, Hans managed to find himself inside the reef with 40 feet of water! John Clegg, formerly of Flica Il, Dave Price, formerly of Lincoln, and Gordon Stout of Shango have continually popped up with wonderful odd bits of information that they have gleaned on their cruises from one end of the Lesser Antilles to the other. Numerous other skippers have, over the years, given me a tremendous amount of help. They include, in the Antigua area, Desmond Nicholson, xix

xx

Acknowledgments

of V. E. B. Nicholson and Sons, English Harbour, and Jol Byerley, skipper of Morning Tide (and former charter skipper on Ron of Argyll, Mirage, Etoile de Mer, and Lord Jim), to name but two. For finer points on the exploration of the east coast of Antigua, I am deeply indebted to David Simmonds of the little crusing / racing sloop Bacco; David is also head of Antigua Slipways and the senior marine surveyor in the Eastern Caribbean. Thanks should also go to Simon Cooper and David Corrigan, both of whom unfortunately have left the Islands; Morris Nicholson of Eluthera; Simon Bridger of Circe and other boats; Peter Haycraft and George Foster of Tortola, both of them harbor pilots and yachtsmen; Martin Mathias of the sportsfisherman Bihari; Bert Kilbride, diver extraordinaire of Saba Rock, Virgin Islands; and the Trinidadians Doug and the late Hugh ("Daddy") Myer of Rosemary V and Huey H. I want also to thank Arthur Spence of Dwyka, Marcy Crowe of Xantippe, Andy Copeland of various boats, Mike Smith of Phryna, Ken McKenzie of Ti, Dave Ferninding of Whisper, and Chris Bowman of Water Pearl of Bequia. Jim Young of Dive Tobago provided reams of information on Bucco Reef at the southwest corner of Tobago, on Tyrell Bay at the northeast corner, and on many coves in between. The Tobago sketch charts in this book could not have been done without his help. Molly Watson, her son Eddie, and all the members of the Trinidad Yachting Association have done a great deal to help get out the word on Trinidad. I have been helped by Venezuelan yachtsmen Rolly Edmonds, Dr. Camejo of Caribaiia, Pedro Gluecksman of Bayola, and OUo Castillo, port captain of Sinclair Oil, and yachtsmen from the Eastern Caribbean, including Paul "Pog" Squire, Gordon Stout of Shango, Hank Strauss of Doki, Richard and Barbara Weinman of Narania, Augie Holland of Taurus, Mike Jarrold of Lily Maid, and Billy Wray of Indalo. Peter York and Daniel Shaw, yachtsmen and marina constructors, have been most helpful in digging up harbor plans for the numerous new harbors and marinas that have been built in Venezuela. Thanks also to Rear Admiral Justo Pastor Fernandez Marquez, retired Venezuelan navy; Capitan Eddy G. Mendez Perez of the Venezuelan navy and director of the Hydrographic Department; and the numerous yachtsmen we met in our 1987 cruise to Venezuela who supplied us with various bits and pieces of infor-

mation for the update and expansion of the Venezuelan section of the Guide. Also thanks to Peter Plaut of Varadero Caribe, Cumana, who supplied a vast amount of information on the Cumana area. The Atlantic Island section of Volume I could not have been completed without help from a number of people. For the Bermuda chapter we received great help from Warren Brown of War Baby, Hal White of Nightwind, and Jerry Trimmingham of Quest of Paget. In the Azores, Boh Silverman, who has written a Guide to the Azores, and Senor Joao Carlos Fraga have given me invaluable help. In the Madeiran Archipelago, Colonel Cecil Garton was most helpful. In thc Canaries, Jack Hooper, who has writtcn a small, mimeographed Guide to the Canaries, and Anthony Browne, who spent many months cruising the Canary Islands, supplied a considerahle section of material including some excellent harhor sketch charts that have enabled us to do a number of sketch charts for Volume I (these are strictly sketch charts; no proper marine charts exist of these harbors). Ron Boot of Mogan read the Canary Island section of the guide and added updated information and corrected the inevitable errors that crop up in any guide. In the Cape Verde Islands, Mr. Tom Ball, US AID officer, Mr. Gerry Dam, and Mr. Vernon D. Penner, the US Ambassador to the Cape Verdes and also a yachtsman, read and checked the Cape Verdian section and made suggestions and updates. Tony Castro the well-known IOR yacht designer, happens to be Portuguese. He was extremely helpful not only in obtaining difficult to find Portuguese charts, but also Portuguese sailing directions. He tells me it would not have been possible except for the help of his mother, Condessa das Antas. Yachtsmen who use this book owe them both a thanks. Special thanks go to Morgan B. MacDonald Ill, my nephrew, who did the sketch-chart drawings for the 1974 edition of the Guide; I'm pleased that many of them are still in this edition. Jim Mitchell did a superb job on the topographical views of the Islands. Thanks must go especially to the late Tom wilson of lmray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson, who immediately embraced the idea of Imray-Iolaire charts when I presented it to him, and pushed hard to get the series out as fast as possible. His son "Willie" Wilson is carrying on Tom's work.

Acknowledgments And the Wilson family graciously allowed me to use sections of the Imray-Iolaire charts as harbor charts in these volumes. Alan Wilkenson, Imray's draftsman, has done a splendid job of drawing up the charts. Admiral Sir David Haslam, retired head of the British Hydrographic Office, and his successor, Rear Admiral R. O. Morris, have been most helpful in supplying information and giving permission for material from the British Admiralty charts to be incorporated in this book. These appropriations have been made with the approval of the controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office and the Hydrographer of the Navy. I want to thank Patricia Street, my sister Elizabeth Vanderbilt, her husband, Peter, and their son Jay for their help in rechecking many facts. Finally, a special round of thanks: Maria McCarthy of Union Hall, County Cork, Ireland, labored long and hard during the summer of 1978, typing up corrections and inserts on the previous edition of this volume. Audrey Semple spent the winter of 1978-1979 doing a magnificent job of cutting, gluing, correcting, typing, and fitting it all back together again. Geraldine Hickey, my secretary during the winter of 1979-1980, did similar work under trying circums tances. Aileen Calnan of Glandore, County Cork, not only worked with me in Ireland but also came aboard Iolaire in the winter of 1983, and still is with us as typist-secretary-crew, sometime babysitter, and sometime cook. Special thanks should go to Harvey Loomis, who

xxi

for eight years has labored hard as editor of these guides. He not only is a good literary editor but is also an excellent sailor. As such he has been a tremendous help in rewriting the sailing and piloting directions to make them clear to the reader. Both I, the author, and you, the reader, owe Harvey Loomis a vote of thanks. The help of these devoted friends of the Street family and of Iolaire has been invaluable to the production of this book. During the summer of 1985, Iolaire visited and explored the Azores, the Madeiran Archipelago, the Canaries, and the Cape Verde Islands. The information gained has been included in this book. Now I feel my exploring days are over-the "old Tiger" has retired-and it is time that one of the young "Tigers" (daughter Dory or one of her three brothers, Donald, Richard, or Mark) take over Iolaire and explore new fields. It is impossible for anyone yachtsman to cover absolutely every cove, find every rock, and ascertain everything to be known about the currents for such a vast area as is covered by these five volumes. Needless to say, any help in the form of information that yachtsmen can give to this author is greatly appreciated. If any yachtsman has any suggestions, corrections, additions, or material he feels should be deleted, it would be greatly appreciated if the information could be sent to me via D. M. Street, Jr., % Mr. David Payne, Cayzer Steel Bowater, 32/38 Dukes Place, London EC3 7LX, England. (Needless to say, this address will also reach me for anyone requiring marine insurance.)

Charts I formerly carried on board lolaire about 200 US, British, French, Dutch, and a few Spanish charts-all of which were out of date; that is, although they were new charts, the various government offices had not accurately corrected and updated them. The British Admiralty will correct charts of a foreign area only if the government concerned officially notifies the BA. Much worse, US charts are corrected only when the whole plate is corrected; if you buy a new chart of Puerto Rico and it is a twelve-year-old edition, no corrections have been made on that chart since the date of the edition twelve years before! Furthermore, BA and US charts are often on the wrong scale for inshore navigation by a yacht. The charts covering Grenada, the Grenadines, and St. Vincent are 1:72,000, while the famous old Virgin Islands chart is 1:100,000, which is even worse; one needs a magnifying glass to find small anchorages and coves. In addition, it cuts Virgin Gorda in half. Several of the US and British charts break up the St. Vincent and Grenadines area in odd splits not conducive to use by the average yachtsman. The US chart of the Grenadines has an excellent blow-up insert for the Tobago Cays, but it does not have tidal reference points. The British chart does have this valuable information. Furthermore, the US and Admiralty charts are based on surveys made in the 1890s. The latest NOAA and Admiralty charts have new deepwater information but retain the old, inshore errors. As a result of all these difficulties, I signed a contract with Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson, usually known simply as Imray, which traces its ancestry back to 1670, to do updated and accurate charts specifically tailored to the needs of the

yachtsman. Our information has been gathered from US NOS and DMA charts, British Admiralty charts, French and Dutch charts, plus unpublished US and British Admiralty surveys, topographical maps, and aerial photography, backed up by the information I have gathered in nearly thirty years of exploring the Eastern Caribbean. Information also has been supplied to me by other experienced yachtsmen. Alhtough it may be that I know the Eastern Caribbean as a whole better than any other yachtsman, there are individuals who know individual islands and areas much better than I do. These yachtsmen have been tremendously helpful in supplying me with their information. Our charts come in one standard size, 25" X 35V2", and three colors: blue denotes deep water, white denotes water 5 fathoms or less; and yellow 1 fathom or less. Detailed harbor charts are inserted in the margins of the general charts. Useful ranges (transits) are shown to guide the mariner clear of dangers. Various overlapping coverages and often contradictory information found in the various French, US, Dutch, and British Admiralty charts have been eliminated. Imray-Iolaire charts are kept up-to-date through careful attention to British Notice to Mariners, my own observations, and those sent by readers of these guides and users of the charts. Important corrections are done by hand at Imray prior to shipment; all corrections are logged in on the master sheet so that even minor corrections are included in new editions. Seldom do we go more than six months between printings of a chart. (The most popular Imray-Iolaire charts-those of the US and British Virgin Islands, and Anguilla, St.

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xxiv

Charts

Barthelemy, St. Martin, and Antigua-are available on waterproof paper.) As of this writing, forty-seven Imray-Iolaire charts cover the entire Eastern Caribbean, except for Tobago which will be along in due course. The Imray-Iolaire charts have become the accepted standard; the us Coast Guard, as well as the St. Vincent and Grenadian Coast Guards, use Imray-Iolaire charts rather than government charts. Very few chart agents in the Eastern Caribbean continue to stock the government charts. In short, I strongly recommend that yachtsmen use the Imray-Iolaire charts instead of British Admiralty or US government charts. The Atlantic islands are well covered by Spanish and Portuguese charts, with the exception that when new harbors are built they are seldom included on the charts. For the average yachtsman, there is also the disadvantage of finding the Spanish and Portuguese charts, which are extremely difficult to obtain. Therefore, the Imray-Iolaire charts eventually will be expanded to cover the Atlantic islands. In the meantime, virtually all harbors in the Atlantic islands either appear as harbor charts or in some areas (where we are working from minimal information) as sketch charts. Sketch charts must be used with EXTREME caution.

Most of the harbor charts in this volume have been taken from the relevant Imray-Iolaire charts. However, the few sketch charts included here are just that, sketches. They are as accurate as I can make them, but they are not official publications, and should be used only in conjunction with reliable navigational charts, with common sense, and with eyeball observations. The sea level is roughly 12 to 18 inches lower in May, June, and July than it is the rest of the year. Imray-lolaire chart soundings are based on this low, low datum. Other charts may not be. No chart can be absolutely accurate, but I feel that the Imray-Iolaire charts are the most accurate charts available. They can be kept that way only if experienced yachtsmen continue to feed information and corrections to us to correct the small errors that may still exist or to update charts where the topography has been changed by hurricanes, earthquakes, or dredging. Please send information regarding chart corrections to: D. M. Street, Jr., % Mr. David Payne, Cayzer Steel Bowater, 32/38 Dukes Place, London EC3 7LX, England. D.M.S.

Harbor Charts VENEZUELA Monjes del Sur

85

BERMUDA Outline (sketch chart) St. George's Harbour (sketch chart)

91 92

A20 A21

Al A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 AB A9 AI0 All A12 A13

A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 A19

95 99 100 102

M6

130 131

SIl SI2

SALVAGE ISLANDS Selvagem Grande (sketch chart) Selvagem Pequena (sketch chart)

132 133

M2 M3 M4 M5

103

104 105 106 107 108 108 109 109 110 111 111 112 113 113 114 115 116 117 117 118 118 120 120

Cl C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9

ClO

xxv

121 122

MADEIRAN ARCHIPELAGO Index of Harbor and Sketch Charts Outline Porto Santo Bahia de Porto Santo Outline Madeira Funchal (sketch chart) Camara de Lobos Machico Ensenada da Abra Outline Islas Deserta Grande, Bugio, Chao Anchorage, Deserta Grande

Ml AZORES Index of Harbor and Sketch Charts Outline Flores and Corvo Vila das Lajes Santa Cruz Porto de Santa Cruz Whale Factory Anchorage Vila Nova Outline Faial Horta Outline Pico Madalena Cais do Pico (sketch chart) Santa Cruz das Ribeiras (sketch chart) Outline Sao Jorge Velas Outline Graciosa Vila da Praia Santa Cruz Folga Outline Ilha Terceira Angra do Heroismo Praia da Vitoria Outline Sao Miguel Ponta Delgada Vila Franca da Campo Porto de Capelas Outline Ilha de Santa Maria Vila do Porto

Baia de Sao Lourenco I1heus das Formigas

CANARIES Index of Harbor and Sketch Charts Outline Graciosa and Lanzarote Orzola (sketch chart) Arrecife / Naos South Coast of Lanzarote / Playa Blanca Outline Fuerteventura Isla de Lobos and Corralejo Puerto del Rosario Castillo (sketch chart) Gran Tarajal Outline Gran Canaria Puerto de la Luz / Las Palmas Porto Deportivo Taliarte (sketch chart) Ensa de Salinetas

123 124 125 126 128 128 129 129

135 142 143 145 146 147 148 148 149 149 150 152 153 154

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Cll C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30

C31 C32 C33

C34

H arbor Charts

Bahia de Gando Arinaga Southwest Coast of Gran Canaria: Punta de Maspalomas to Mogan Pasitos Blancos Arguineguin Puerto Rico Mogan (sketch chart) Rada de la Aldea Las Nieves Rada de Sardina Outline Tenerife Ensa de Antequera Santa Cruz de Tenerife Radazul (sketch chart) Candelaria (sketch chart) Abona Raja / Medano Los Cristianos West Coast of Tenerife: La Caleta to Pta Teno (sketch chart) Pto Deportivo North Coast of Tenerife: Garachico to San Marcos Outline Gomera San Sebastian Santiago (sketch chart) Valle Gran Rey / Puerto de Refugio Vueltas (sketch chart) Outline La Palma Santa Cruz de la Palma (sketch chart)

154 155 156 157 157 158 159 160 160 161 162 163 164 165 165 166 166 168 169 170

171 172 173 174 174 175 176

C35 Tazacorte (sketch chart) Outline Hierro C36 Puerto de la Estaca C37 La Restinga (sketch chart)

CV1 CV2 CV3 CV4 CV5

CV6 CV7 CV8 CV9 CVlO CVll CV12 CV13 CV14 CV15 CV16 CV17 CV18 CV19

CAPE VERDES Index of Harbor and Sketch Charts Outline Ilha do Sal and Ilha da Boa Vista Palmeiria Bahia da Mordeira Santa Maria Pedra de Lume Sal-Rei Outline Maio, Santiago, Foga, and Brava Porto Inglez Porta da Praia Ribeira da Barca Porto do Tarrafal Santiago Sao Filipe Vale de Cavaleiros Porto da Faja Porto da Furna Outline northern Cape Verde Islands Preguica Porto Grande / Mindelo Porta Nova Ponta do Sol/ Maria Pia Tarrafal

177 178 179 180

181 185 186 186 187 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 195 196 196 197 198

199 200 201 202

Illustrations Twin staysails versus genoas. Downwind tradewind rig. Bahamian Moor Bow and Stern Mooring (Bow-To) Bow and Stern Mooring (Stern-To) US Charts of Madeira, and the Salvage and Canary Islands British Admiralty (BA) Charts of Madeira, and the Salvage and Canary Islands Spanish Charts of the Canary Islands Portuguese Charts of Madeira and the Salvage Islands US, BA, and Portuguese Charts of the Cape Verde Islands US Charts of the Eastern Caribbean British Admiralty (BA) Charts of the Eastern Caribbean French Charts of Martinique and Guadeloupe Imray-Iolaire (11) Charts of the Eastern Caribbean US Charts of the Azores

20 20 24

British Admiralty (BA) Charts of the Azores Portuguese Charts of the Azores Westward Across the Atlantic Weather Chart: Azores high and Sahara low produce trade winds. West from the Canaries and Cape Verdes East Coast Routes to St. Thomas The Western Caribbean The Eastern Caribbean Index of Harbor Charts to the Azores Index of Harbor Charts to Madeira Index of Harbor Charts to the Canaries and the Salvage Islands Index of Harbor Charts to the Cape Verde Islands North Atlantic Pilot Charts Tidal Chart, Lesser Antilles Current Chart, Lesser Antilles TidaVCurrent Chart, Virgin Islands Eastern Caribbean Passages Routes from the Islands and Transatlantic Routes

25 25

47 48 49 50

51 52 53 54

55 57

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58 59 62 66 68 72 88 89 95 123 135 181 209 227 228 229 236 320

I

The Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic IslandsA General Description Caribbean to Grenada; he lay over there during the hurricane season and then cruised back to the States via the Islands and the Bahamas. Immediately after World War 11 Carlton Mitchell wrote a superb cruising book, Islands to Windward, the story of his cruise north through the Lesser Antilles from Trinidad to St. Thomas, and then on through the Bahamas to Miami. In the back of the book he gave some basic cruising information. This opened the eyes of post-World War 11 yachtsmen to sailing in the Lesser Antilles, and a trickle of them started sailing there in the late forties and early fifties. This trickle became a stream in the early sixties and a flood in the late sixties, seventies, and eighties. What does the yachtsman find when he arrives in the Eastern Caribbean? He finds the almost ever-present trade winds, which blow with an amazing regularity for nine or ten months of the year. Even during those periods which the Caribbean yachtsman refers to as the "flat-calm days," the wind blows about as hard as it normally does in the light -air sailing areas of western Long Island Sound, Southern California, and the Great Lakes. Even in northern Europe one can get becalmed for days on end. But seldom is there so little wind in the Caribbean that a boat that sails well cannot make progress with the aid of a big genoa or

The Eastern Caribbean is undoubtedly one of the great sailing areas of the world. By the term "Eastern Caribbean" I am referring to Puerto Rico (one of the Greater Antilles), the Lesser Antilles (namely, the islands stretching south and east from St. Thomas to Trinidad), to the Venezuelan coast and its off-lying islands, plus the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Cura<;ao. In contrast to some of the world's great cruising grounds such as French Oceania and other Pacific areas, it takes a relatively short trip to get to the Eastern Caribbean from North America, and even from Europe. And for the yachtsman who wishes to charter a boat in the area, modern jet traffic and package tours make the venture within reach, geographically and financially, of a tremendous number of people. Package tours even make it possible for the California yachtsman to afford a cruising holiday in the Caribbean. And it's only eight hours away. The area was first brought to the attention of yachtsmen at the turn of the century by Fritz Fenger in two wonderful books. The first, Alone on the Caribbean, is the story of his cruise in 1911 from Grenada to Saba in the Yakaboo, a batwinged, decked, rudderless, 17-foot canoe. The C mise of the Diablesse tells of his cruise from the States down through the Bahamas, through the 1

2

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spinnaker-witness the fact that my yawl Iolaire has spent the last sixteen of her thirty-three years in the Islands with no engine. Fog is unknown, and visibility, in normal conditions, is usually excellent-you can expect to pick out islands 20 miles away or more. (Occasionally St. Croix, which is 38 miles from St. Thomas, will look not more than 10 miles away.) This is not always true, however. During a long drought in the Sahara Desert in the early 1980s, dust sometimes blew all the way across to the Caribbean, knocking visibility down to 6 or 7 miles. In 1983 a really bad sandstorm blew across the Atlantic and reduced visibility to less than a mile in some parts of the Caribbean-anchored in Anse Mitan in Martinique, we were unable to see Fort-de-France, 3 miles away. Worldwide pollution has also affected visibility in general. Pilots who are experienced sailors have told me that above 5,000 feet the air is crystal clear but that below that height the haze builds up. If you read stories of Columbus and other early navigators, you may wonder how they navigated the Eastern Caribbean so well with no charts and only rudimentary instrum~nts. The answer seems to be the amazing visibility they enjoyed: by studying their logs you realize that they were regularly seeing islands 50 and 60 miles away-which certainly simplifies navigation. Tidal conditions are nearly ideal, with an average rise and fall of about 18 inches; the tidal current seldom runs more than 11/2 knots, and most of the time it's less than that. Sometimes the currents have to be reckoned with, but the tidal bores, overfalls, and racing currents found in European and North American waters are practically unknown in the Eastern Caribbean. The water is wonderful for swimming, with temperatures ranging from a cold of 70° F along the Venezuelan coast to a high of 80° F in some isolated harbors that are warmed by the sun. Water pollution is practically nonexistent, and if you encounter some you have only to pick up the anchor and sail a few miles away to find crystalclear water. Throughout most of the area spearfishing and snorkeling are the pastimes of the average yachtsman. In some areas spearfishing is forbidden, but you can still have a wonderful day swimming around and looking at the fish-which seem to realize that they're protected and are so tame you can practically feed them from your hand. For those who like to fish from the surface there are all types of sport available. In Grenada, Bahari,

skippered hy Martin Mathais, caught a number of world-record sailfish on light tackle. Off the Virgin Islands on Baracuda Bank, many world-record marlin and sailfish have been caught. Sports-fishing boats and good sport fishing are found along the coasts of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Grenada, and northern Venezuela, especially in the Caracas area. For the yachtsman who is not a sports fisherman hut merely wants to trail a line over the stern of the boat to see what he'll catch, well, good luck. You may feed yourselffor a month or you may get zero. Chance and skill at picking the right gear play an important part in this type of fishing. For the light-tackle rod-and-reel fisherman there are numerous areas in among the mangroves where you'll have a field day. And of course there are various areas in the Caribbean where the shelling is superb. The Atlantic island groups-Bermuda, the Azores, the Madeiran Archipelago, the Canaries, and the Cape Verdes-are generally written off as mere stopping places on the way across the Atlantic. Yet they offer excellent cruising possibilities themselves and a chief goal of this new edition is to encourage cruising yachtsmen to take some time to explore those possibilities. Chapter 5, "The Atlantic Islands," describes each island group in detail, and I recommend that you read that chapter carefully before planning a transatlantic voyage. If your bent is cruising pleasure, rather than simply getting the boat from one place to another, I think you'll be tempted to linger in one or more of these inviting and unspoiled cruising grounds. Bermuda-a bit more than 600 miles off the east coast of United States just south of the Gulf Stream-has unique charm and a kind of fairy-tale, pastel beauty. Though thickly settled, it is incredibly clean and efficient (in contrast to the Eastern Caribbean islands); its people are welcoming and its Customs and Immigration officials are friendly and helpful. It has been in the tourist business since the 1870s, and that is its main industry, so nothing is cheap. But you'll have a good time spending your money. The cruising potential here is less than in the other Atlantic islands but if you are waiting for crew or supplies to arrive, or for the weather to change, you can certainly make a pleasant week of poking around the main island and its nearby islets. The Azores-some 800 miles off the Portuguese coast-are a group of nine main islands, some of great beauty and most worth visiting. The Azoreans are wonderfully friendly, yet sturdily inde-

The Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands-A General Description pendent and completely uncorrupted by tourism. Their language is Portuguese, hut many Azoreans have strong connections with the States, so English is widely spoken. There are some difficulties, because yachting facilities are minimal. Many harbors are too open for comfort, and anchoring along the precipitous coast can be a problem. But there are several well-protected harbors, new breakwaters are being built, and at least one new marina has opened. The future for the cruising sailor is bright. Madeira and its smaller sister island, Porta Santa, have a lot to offer. They are about 450 miles west of Morocco, and belong to Portugal. Yachts sailing from Europe to the Caribbean usually leave before the equinoxial gales, which will get them to Madeira too early to continue on to the Caribbean. That's a perfect chance to explore Madeira. Like Bermuda, Madeira has been in the tourist business a long time, and Funchal, on the big island, is a very civilized city; it also has a good marina. A rented car or bus trips are highly recommended. But there are also several other anchorages where you can be all by yourself. And the adventurous can sail off to Isla Deserta, or, weather permitting, to the Salvage Islands, which remind me of the unspoiled Grenadines, except that the water is cold. The Canary Islands, a cluster of Spanish islands that lie roughly 825 miles southwest of Spain and less than 75 miles off the African coast, are so varied and have so many harbors that you could spend many months happily cruising there. Some say that the Canaries have been ruined by tourism, and indeed, they certainly are a popular winter retreat for thousands of European sun seekersthe place positively reeks of suntan oil. But the tourist sardines are packed in concrete clusters that take up relatively little space. In between, the cruiser will find the Canary Islands and their people as they were forty years ago--warm and welcoming and interesting. The Cape Verde Islands, about 400 miles west of Dakar have been virtually ignored by cruising yachtsman. When Iolaire was there in 1985 we could find practically no information about the islands. We discovered that they were not dry bits of desert inhabited by starving people, as we had heard them described. Some are flat and arid, some are mountainous; all offer good cruising. Mindelo on Sao Vicente is a serious commercial port, and other places offer different delights, such as lobster at $1 a pound, beautiful pine forests, good food, and friendly people. Brava, with its

3

5,OOO-foot-high peak, has been compared to the Caribbean's Saba, which makes it very attractive indeed. In general, I think these Atlantic groups are ripe for discovery by serious cruising yachtsmen. One experienced Belgian sailor who has been to the Caribbean many times told me; "To heck with it. I am tired of fighting with Customs and Immigralions in the Caribbean, and I'd rather spend my time cruising the friendly Atlantic islands." I prediet many more will follow his lead.

History The history of the Eastern Caribbean is interesting and can be investigated in greater depth by consulting the books listed in the Bibliography at the back of this volume. Columbus visited this area in his early trips. He established a colony in Puerto Rico, and saw and named some of the Lesser Antilles, but neither he nor subsequent early explorers landed much on them. This was because the small islands had no mineral wealth and were populated by Caribs, a fierce, warlike tribe who had emerged out of the jungles of South America and fought their way up through the Lesser Antilles. At the time of the white man's arrival, the Caribs had taken over all the Lesser Antilles up to Puerto Rico. They were busy raiding, killing, and putting in the pot the peaceful Arawak Indians who populated the Islands. The Caribs were fierce fighters, besides being cannihals, and they not only conquered the Arawaks, but were willing to take on anyone else. It took the Europeans and their firearms a long time to subdue the Caribs. Their few pure descendants now live in a protected enclave on the island of Dominica, but their bloodlines can be seen on many Caribbean islands. The Venezuelan coast, especially around the island of Margarita, was settled because of the extremely profitable pearl fisheries there. The first gifts Columbus took back to his sovereigns was little gold, hut much in the way of pearls. Then came development of huge salt pans. Prior to the advent of refrigeration, salt was an extremely valuable commodity, and the value of the salt pans in this area caused all sorts of commotion. The Dutch arrived on the scene in 1540, because salt was essential to support their vast North Sea fishing industry. They established salt pans at Araya, El Morro de Barcelona, the flat area east of BarceIona, and on Aruba, Bonaire, Cura<;ao, and St. Martin. Needless to say the Spanish didn't like

4

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

these incursions into the area and fought them tooth and nail. They finally threw the Dutch out of El Morro de Barcelona and Araya, and built a magnificent fort at Araya, which can still be seen today, to defend the salt pans. They were unable to put the Dutch out of Aruba, Bonaire, and Cura~ao. The last became an important base, not only because of the salt, but also as a port from which smugglers, privateers, and pirates could prey on Spanish commerce. Among the goods smuggled were Dutch gin (in, to the Spaniards) and tobacco (out, to Europe). That trade established Holland as the premier cigar maker of Europe. In the early years of the seventeenth century it dawned on the European nations that the Spanish were making money in the West Indies not only in gold but also by growing sugar. Sugar was extremely valuable, sold by the ounce, and brought in by the tons per acre! Thus in the early years of the seventeenth century the British and French (and to a lesser extent the Danes) colonized the Lesser Antilles, as the remainder of the Caribbean was already claimed by the Spanish and Dutch. The Danes got into the act by buying St. Croix from the French crown, which had originally granted it to the Knights of Malta. They then obtained st. Thomas and St. John's, using St. Thomas mainly as a commercial island, which, with its large, incomparably good and easily protected harbor, became a major transfer port for goods in the northern Antilles. Denmark managed to remain neutral in most of the wars in the eighteenth century, so St. Thomas became an excellent neutral harbor to bring in captured vessels and cargoes for auctioning off by admiralty courts of other warring nations. St. Croix became a fabulously wealthy sugar island, while St. John's enjoyed a brief spell of prosperity that was ruined by a slave revolt from which the island's economy never recovered. The remainder of the Eastern Caribbean was fought over by the British and French. So valuable were the islands as sugar producers that at one point during peace negotiations between England and France, the British negotiators were instructed to be willing to give all of Canada in exchange for St. Kitts! At the close of the Napoleonic wars, with the Peace of Vienna, the Antilles were divided up mainly between the French and the British, and during the era of Pax Britannia their importance began to wane. This was brought about by a number of factors. First came the introduction of sugar

beets into Europe in the early nineteenth century; European nations protected their infant sugar beet industries by erecting strong protective tariffs against West Indian sugar. Then the slaves were freed and the plantation economy suffered drastically. As a result the islands lost their economic importance. In fact Grenada was the only island that stayed productive, with an economy based on coffee, cocoa, and nutmeg. According to the British West Indian Year Book, Grenada showed a favorable balance of trade straight through from 1820 to 1955, with only a few exceptions. In 1955 it was knocked flat by Hurricane Janet and has never really gotten back on its feet. By the closing years of the nineteenth century the Islands had becomc a backwater. Military bases were closed down, the British troops returned to the homeland, the Islands slumbered and were a continual drain on the British and French exchequers. In the period from 1850 to 1920 St. Thomas and St. Lucia did become relatively important as coaling stations. During World War 11 St. Thomas and Trinidad were fairly important US naval bases. St. Lucia and Antigua received air bases, while the other islands got small emergency landing strips, usually placed on the wrong side of the island, which hindered later commercial development. Since World War 11 the Islands have struggled along economically-bananas and tourists have helped stave off disaster. Trinidad did well for a while with its oil, but overall, the Islands are in pretty marginal economic condition.

Topography The topography of the Eastern Caribbean is extremely varied. Along the Venezuelan coast the mountains rise from the sea, bare and arid, except on the eastern tip of the Peninsula of Pari a where they are heavily forested. As the sun goes down the cold air drops off the mountains, making the entire coastline extremely cool at night and completely changing the trade-wind weather pattern. Rain squalls are practically unknown. At the northern end of the Eastern Caribbean is Puerto Rico, a large island of varying climate. Some areas are dry and arid, while El Yunke, "The Rainmaker," on the northeastern corner of the island, brings absolute torrents from the sky to produce magnificent rain forests. The Virgin Islands are small and fairly arid, with peaks ranging from a few hundred to 1,500 feet.

The Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic lslands-A General Description In between lie the Lesser Antilles, curving in a crescent down the eastern rim of the Caribbean Sea. Some of these islands are relatively low and dry, like Anguilla and Antigua; others, like Dominica, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, are high islands, with mountains, rain, and heavy vegetation. The bigger islands, like Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Grenada, offer both high / wet and low / dry terrains. Here are brief descriptions of the individual islands, starting up north. The American Virgin Islands-St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John-although politically one unit, are quite different. St. Thomas has always been a commercial island because of its large and easily defended harbor. Little sugar was grown, as evidenced by the small number of old windmill towers on the island. At various times it has been a transshipment port, a coaling port, a naval basebut all that is in the past. Today it's one huge tourist trap, which sometimes hosts as many as seven cruise ships in one day. It has a fantastic array of duty-free shops, and a tremendous concentration of yachts in Long Bay. Christiansted, St. Croix, was capital of the Danish Virgin Islands until the dosing years of the nineteenth century. St. Croix was a fabulously wealthy sugar island in the period from 1720 to 1840. The northwest corner of the island rises vertically out of the sea and then the terrain falls off to rolling hills and a flat coastal plain to the shore in the south. The coastal plain is roughly 20 miles long and five miles broad. It gave the Danes a fantastic area for growing sugar. Farther to the east, the rolling hills provide an excellent area for raising and breeding cattle. As late as the 1950s cattle was the first important cash crop, sugar second, and tourism a very poor third. In the sixties sugar collapsed, tourism increased, and industry arrived in the form of the Hess oil refinery and the Harvey aluminum factory. Now St. Croix is largely industrial, with tourism and cattle being lesser factors. The harbor of Christiansted is magnificent, and in my opinion the town is without a doubt the prettiest in the Eastern Caribbean. The lower section of the town is a collection of old Danish buildings, archways, and shaded sidewalks. It has been declared a national park and thus the exterior facade of buildings cannot be changed without the Park Department's permission. It's well worth making the glorious reach over from St. Thomas to spend a day or so wandering through the streets of St. Croix. A drive around the countryside to see

5

the old estate houses and windmills (especially Estate Whim, with its restored great houses and adjoining operating windmill) is not to be missed either. St. John is a beautiful island, mostly bush and few tourists. Most of the island is a national park, so no real development can take place. The British Virgin Islands is a group of small, scattered islands with a minimal population. Their economy collapsed with the fall in sugar prices at the end of the Napoleonic wars and the freeing of the slaves in the 18305. Into the 19605 it was still a backwater with little in the way of roads, electricity, or modern development. Since the late sixties and early seventies activity in the BVI has been expanding, largely as a result of the boom in the bare-boat charter business. To the east of the Virgins lies Anguilla, low and flat, populated by fishermen and schooner captains. The island has historically made its living from fishing and by supplying skippers, crews, and mates to thc schooncr tradc through thc Islands. They were the last ones to give up sail, and I well remember in the late fifties seeing an Anguillan commercial schooner coasting into St. Thomas harbor in light airs by first light, sporting a fisherman's staysail and a topsail. St. Martin is southeast of Anguilla and is half Dutch and half French. Don't try to make a phone call from the French to the Dutch side, as the routing goes from St. Martin to Paris to Rotterdam and back to the Dutch half of St. Martin. This is extremely expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating; you'd do better to get in a car and drive to the Dutch half. For many years the French side developed more slowly than the Dutch half, but in the last few years that has changed as Frenchmen from metropolitan France have invaded the island en masse. The sleepy little town of Marigot has changed so greatly that you will think you have been transported via space vehicle to Saint-Tropez in France; you will definitely not feel you are in the West Indies. The Dutch half is beginning to look like the Miami Beach of the Eastern Caribbean. (I wonder if the St. Martin developers haven't studied the development in St. Thomas and decided to compound all the errors made there.) Southeast of St. Martin lies the wonderful little island of St. Barts, populated by rugged individualists. Being part of the French West Indies, it is a departement of France, which means that any person who is a citizen of an EEC country can settle in St. Barts-so there's a flood of people

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Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

rapidly engulfing the island, endangering its sleepy individualistic charge. The locals do not necessarily appreciate their Continental cousins, as illustrated by the fact that the famous Lu-Lu Magraz sells a T-shirt with a row of frogs on it and the caption "I HATE FROGS." I said, "But you are one," and he replied, "No, I am from St. Barts, not France." Southeast again is sparsely inhabited Barbuda, flat as a pancake, with mile after mile of fantastic beaches, unbelievable spearfishing and snorkeling, while south of it lies Antigua, the tourist island. Antigua also has fantastic beaches, unbelievably numerous coves, many splashy hotels, and the incomparable anchorage of English Harbour, site of Nelson's old dockyard, which is presently pretty much the capital of yachting in the lower Caribbean. Originally a sugar island, Antigua now largely runs on tourism and yachting. (The name of this island, incidentally, is pronounced an-tee-ga; the ancient capital of Guatemala is correctly called antee-gwa, but here the word has been anglicized.) South from Antigua are Guadeloupe and Martinique, the two French islands that are completely different in language, culture, and diet from the English islands. They're also departements of France and you'll think that you've been transported to France except that the climate is better. The girls are beautiful and well dressed. The abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables is a wonder to behold, and the ports of Fort-de-France and Pointe-a-Pitre are true cities. In between them lies English-speaking Dominica, which rises vertically from the sea and rains water out of the sky at an incredible rate: In the wet season it rains all the time and in the dry season it rains most of the time. It also rises so high that it is extremely difficult to sail through its lee. St. Lucia, south of Martinique, is steeped in history, full of forts, having been fought over by the British and French for all of the eighteenth century. Although it has officially been a British island since 1815, the French influence is still strong. A large portion of the population speaks a French patois that is incomprehensible to a Frenchman, much less to an Englishman. It's a fertile island with a number of extremely scenic, although difficult, anchorages. To be anchored bowon to the palm trees with a stern anchor in 100 feet of water, and the Pitons towering above you, the moon rising in the valley between them, is one of the most f~mtastic experiences of an Eastern Caribbean cruise.

South of St. Lucia comes St. Vincent, a farmer's delight but a sailor's nightmare, because the anchorages are few, far between and crowded. Better sail on to Bequia (part of St. Vincent), the home of the old whalers. The Grenadines, low small islands between Bequia and Grenada, provide wonderful sailing, cruising, and swimming. Grenada has, with good reason, been described for centuries by Englishmen as "our most beautiful island in the Eastern Caribbean." A farmer's and a sailor's delight, the island has three basic climate areas: Point Saline and the southern coast are dry and almost arid, the town of St. George's receives a moderate amount of rainfall, and the mountains get heavy rainfall. Most of the island has enough rainfall to make growing and farming a very profitable occupation; the mountains are heavily forested. Unlike many of the other high islands it has anchorages too numerous to mention. You can start at St. George's and spend two weeks of wonderful cruising without leaving the island. Out to windward is Barbados, low, flat, heavily populated, intensely cultivated, extremely well run-"Little England," it is often called. For years it was the chief landfall for yachts crossing the Atlantic, but then harsh entry fees and the lack of a proper harbor cut down its desirability. Now the Barbados government, realizing that yachts bring money to the island, have reduced fees to a reasonable level and are building a new fishing harbor and converting the old carenage into a yacht marina. Plus, it is now the finish for the ARC Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, which brought over 200 boats to Barbados in 1987 and 1988. Unfortunately, it is so far out to windward of the rest of the Islands that most yachts cruising up or down the Lesser Antilles never get there. Tobago also lies to windward of the island chain. It's seldom visited, not only because of the long beat, but also because of the South Equatorial Current, which forces boats off to leeward. However, yachtsmen sailing across the Atlantic are well advised to sail from Barbados down to Tobago to see a wonderful old-fashioned Eastern Caribbean island that has changed little over the last thirty years. Trinidad has Port-of-Spain, a dirty commercial port, and the home of carnival. It's an exciting city with its polyglot population (and beautiful women); large States-type supermarkets; department stores; high-priced, chic nightclubs; low-priced, exciting (but dangerous) dives-an interesting place, particularly for the brave and adventurous. It's the home of the Trinidad Yachting Association, which

The Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic lslands-A General Description has long been a spearhead of yacht racing in the southern Caribbean. Trinidad did well for many years with the skyrocketing price of oil; however, when the oil bust came, it was particularly hard hit. Its dream of building an industrial economy has not been fulfilled. To the west of Trinidad is the fast-developing and attractive cruising area of Venezuela. Its coastline offers tremendous variety, from villages that exist totally on smuggling to the exploding new industrial cities, including the city of Caracas, which is only a 45-minutc drive from the yacht anchorage. There are many anchorages, populated by fishermen, but few yachts. The Gulf of Cariaco has completely deserted anchorages and fantastic sailing in an enclosed body of water 35 miles long and 10 miles wide. There are also wonderful new marinas in El Morro de Barcelona and Caracas areas. You can go to the offshore islands such as Islas Los Roques or Los Testigos and find crystal-clear water, deserted anchorage, and lobsters sitting there just waiting to be picked up. To the west are the ABC Islands, Aruba, Bonaire, and Cura<;ao, part of the Dutch Netherlands. Bonaire is extremely quiet, with very nice people and everything within walking distance. Curac;ao, of course, is a great shipping and oil-refining center, and its city of Willemstadt is an excellent free port, with fantastic shopping areas. The yacht clubs are in Spanish Water, ten miles down the coast, southeast of town. Cura<;ao is a worthwhile stop for boats heading west. Aruba is low, flat, oil-refining area, an island that does not particularly appeal to yachtsmen except those who have fought their way east to windward from Panama against the very boisterous trades. To them, exhausted and covered with salt spray, Aruba looks like heaven. An appealing aspect of cruising the Eastern Caribbean is that the vast majority of passages in the Virgins, the Grenadines, and Los Roques will be only a morning or an afternoon sail, while the interisland runs are only full-day passages. Slogging across Anegada Passage, admittedly, is a full twenty-four hours, and not much fun for most boats, but you can island-hop right down the remainder of the chain with day sails only. You might make a long passage direct from St. Thomas to Grenada (420 miles) or the reverse. With luck, in either direction it will be a beam reach or close reach, and gloriOUS sailing. Another long jump that

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yachts frequently take is the one from St. Thomas to Margarita off the Venezuelan coast (440 miles) or the reverse. In this case you should be guaranteed a superb beam reach. The Eastern Caribbean has had such an explosive development in recent years that many people think there are no more uncrowded anchorages, but this is not true. Yachtsmen worldwide tend to exhibit a lemming instinct, a desire to cluster together in certain known protected anchorages. With the aid of the other volumes in this Guide and some common sense, though, you can still usually find a deserted beach or a nearly deserted anchorage. Just go to the places other yachts do not frequent, particularly in the Virgin Islands where the bare-boat clusters seldom get off the beaten track. The Atlantic islands vary greatly from Bermuda, which is low and flat. Like many of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean it has water problems, but unlike the Eastern Caribbean, Bermuda has largely solved them because it is extremely well run; everyone is required to keep his roof in good shape and collect all the rain water. The Azores are volcanic peaks rising out of the sea. They are heavily forested and have been intensely cultivated. Their pleasant climate never gets really cold, but if you've come from the Eastern Caribbean they will seem chilly. Carry a sweater or jacket ashore when you go for dinner. Madeira rises so high that it has three climates: alpine, temperate, and tropical. It occasionally snows in the upper reaches of the island, which has instant air conditioning-it's hot during the day but come sundown it can get so cold that many Madeiran houses have fireplaces. Porto San to, on the other hand, is low, flat, and arid. Isla Deserta and the Salvage Islands are dry and windswept, with absolutely no fresh water-very much like the Grenadines or the British Virgins. Among the Canaries, the eastern islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are low, dry, windswept-almost desertlike. The western islandsGran Canaria, Tenerife, Gomera, Palma, and Hierro--rise so high that their peaks are shrouded by clouds and clothed with pine forests. In the Canaries they have been chopping down trees for five hundred years, yet the reforestation program is so good that they still build boats, doors, porches, and such with locally grown pine. The Cape Verdes are in the Sahara dry belt, but are not quite so dry as one is often led to believe. The eastern islands-Maio, Boa Vista, and Ilha do Sal-are indeed desertlike, but the fishing is superb.

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Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

Sao Vicente (with the group's main port of Mindelo) , Santa Luzia, and Sao Nicolau rise about 1,500 feet, which gives them some moisture, though not much. But the high, forested islands of Santo Antao, Santiago, FO!l;o, and Brava have a totally different climate and make for good exploring.

Politics There's not much point in discussing island politics at length in a cruising guide, partly because local politics don't affect the cruising yachtsman a great deal and partly because they change so fast that anything said today will not be applicable tomorrow. But there are a few generalizations and specific comments that might help you decide where to go, and help you stay out of trouble when you get there. Despite the bewildering uncertainties of politics in the Eastern Caribbean, the situation in general can be called stable, as far as the yachtsman goes. Grenada had its revolution, the French islands had their riots and general strikes, but in no case has the political turmoil really affected the visiting sailor. Venezuela in the fifties and early sixties had all sorts of trouble with Cuba trying to smuggle guerrillas ashore. As a result the Guardia Nacional frequently shot first and asked questions later. This has all changed, however. The students who rioted in the sixties are now too busy making money as businessmen to riot. Venezuela has just recently had her fifth peaceful presidential election, and thus the government can be said to be stable. There are problems, but no massive revolutionary political problems. No one seems to have a chip on his shoulder, and the visiting yachtsman is liked, appreciated, and helped by every man in the street and the ever-present fishermen. As explained in Chapter 8, "Entry and Communications," the paperwork in Venezuela can be aweinspiring, but everyone is friendly. Puerto Rico's commonwealth status is challenged by a small, radical, and violent independence party which periodically causes trouble by firing off bombs in odd places. As yet I haven't heard of any yachtsman's becoming involved in these political squabbles. However, it should be said that although the average Puerto Rican seems to like yachtsmen, the crime rate in general is extremely high and guns are in abundance; so

make friends with Puerto Rican yachtsmen as soon as you arrive and follow their advice. The American Virgin Islands, a possession of the United States, also has a crime rate that, althou!l;h not so bad as it was, is still extremely high. In the late sixties and early seventies, at the height of the Black Power push, it was worth your life to go ashore in St. Thomas and St. Croix, especially the latter island. Eventually the government made a massive appeal to the people, pointing out that tourism is their main business and tourists will come to the islands only if they are friendly. There has been a considerable change in attitude hy the man in the street in St. Thomas. But the police department in the US Virgins long had a reputation of being less than honest and heing antiwhite, and while this may he changed, white visitors should remember, when ashore and on the verge of an argument, that the black man is always right. Few people realize how much money yachtsmen hring into the Virgin Island economy. In the last gubernatorial election one of the candidates wanted to ban "boat people" from voting, despite their being US citizens and island residents, on the grounds that they did nothing for the economy. But in the spring of 1986 a report showed that the charter-boat business produced fourteen cents of every tax dollar raised in the US Virgin Islands. (If that figure had included general yachting as well, the result would have been considerably higher.) Yachts do contribute to the econumy, and not only in the Virgins, hut throughout the Caribbean-a fact that all too many local politicians forget. The British Virgin Islands is still a colony of England, and tourism rests rather lightly on them as most of the tourism is provided by the bare-boat charter business. The yachtsman arrives, says hello to the crew who have cleaned up his boat, leaves his mooring, and departs; thus there is no large group of British Virgin Islanders doing nothing but waiting tables, making beds, and doing laundry. They don't feel that they're a nation of busboys and waiters. The islands are so small that it seems unlikely that they'll ever be anything other than a British colony. The British Virgin Islander is an independent, honest, law-abiding individual. The courts intend that they will remain that waythieves are given long sentences and murderers promptly "hung by the neck until dead." In this day and age it's a pleasure to visit an island where people leave cars unlocked and the keys under the front seat.

The Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic lslands-A General Description In the BVI, the major sources of outside income are the yachting and diving businesses; yet there are still some civil servants who only grudgingly tolerate yachtsmen. When will they learn? Anguilla, St. Kitts, and Nevis, formerly British colonies, became a single, semi-independent nation governed by the late, notorious Robert Bradshaw, whose political machine gave nothing away to the iniquities of Boss Tweed's organization of earlier New York days. Anguilla revolted from Bradshaw's rule and is now administered directly from London. Nevis, too, makes noises about breaking from st. Kitts. What the next political developments will be in these islands is anybody's guess. A hilarious account of Anguilla's revolt and its subsequent invasion by the Royal Marines, thinly disguised as fiction, is found in The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberly, and more factually in Under an English Heaven by Donald E. Westlake. Both books make must reading for Islandbound sailors. St. Bart's, Guadeloupe, and Martinique are all departements of France, with their own representatives in the French Chamber of Deputies-they are basically parts of metropolitan France. At times there has been an independence movement in Martinique and Guadeloupe, and there have been general strikes and riots. (The last one in GuadeIou pe in the late sixties was brutally put down by the French army with a considerable loss of life. Seeing the number of French soldiers and gendarmes on the islands today, I feel that any other independence movement in the near future will be stifled or nipped in the bud.) However, I should point out that in all the riots in Guadeloupe and Martinique since World War II the yachtsman has never been bothered at all: the American or the Englishman has been able to walk through the street in the middle of a riot, and his only worry has been to avoid being dragged into too many bars while the French West Indians explain to him how nasty the French government is and how justified the strikes are. Actually, when things get too hot in Martinique and Guadeloupe all foreigners are usually sent off the islands-all yachts are told to clear out. Then the gendarmes and the army move in and knock heads. Antigua and Barbuda form an independent political unit. But Antigua's political past is checkered. The politicians have fought back and forth through many bitter elections, but they have all been basically free and relatively honest elections. However, feelings ran high in the election of 1979

9

and the new government hauled the previous government up before the courts for misappropriation of funds. For the first time in Eastern Caribbean history one government legally convicted the previous one of misappropriation of funds. It even placed its predecessors in jail! In the old days the new party taking over would let bygones be bygones; now maybe light-fingered politicians will think twice. Let me cite English Harbour as one more example of the amount of money yachting contributes to local economies. When I first arrived there in about 1960, Antigua's business was sugar, with a little tourism. English Harbour and Falmouth, not in sugar country, were among the poorest towns on the islands. There was practically nothing there, and almost no way to get anywhere else. Now, with the huge expansion of yachting, the pla<.'e is booming, with regular transportation, shops, and dozens of restaurants and small hotels. It is undoubtedly the richest area on Antigua, and it undoubtedly owes its prosperity to yachting. Dominica has been in a lot of political turmoil in recent years, but at latest count the island-if anything-was very pro-American. Dominica was knocked flat by Hurricane David, but within hours of the hurricane's passing a British destroyer arrived and did a magnificent job of getting power plant, hospital, and telephone systems working, of flying relief missions in the helicopter, and in general doing a fantastic job. And for once Uncle Sam reacted rapidly and flew in large quantities of emergency material so that when the Cubans arrived to help out they were greeted by hundreds of American flags and a very pro-American populace. A few years back, things in Dominica were in a very poor state for foreigners. In the height of the Black Power days a religious sect called the Dreads was running rife throughout the Islands. It is known that a number of people were murdered by the Dreads, and with a few exceptions all victims were white. So, many yachtsmen avoided the island in the late sixties and early seventies. In the last few years, however, the Dreads have either disbanded or changed their tune. Almost everyone I've met who has visited and toured the island has spoken very highly of the friendliness of the people, especially high in the hills. The Dominican government is headed by Mrs. Mary Eugenia Charles, who is a leading light among the West Indian politicians and who was one of the main instigators for organizing the rescue of Grenada by the United States after the

10

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

People's Revolutionary Army massacre at the fort. St. Lucia has gained independence from Britain, the political parties are fighting back and forth, unions are flexing their muscles, and everyone is trying to line up and vote-all of which make things rather unstable for business. But from the yachtsman's standpoint there appears to be no particular problem. St. Vincent has always been a hotbed of political intrigue, and for years the two parties were split so evenly that the government never had a real majority. This meant that at various times politicians would merely walk across the aisle and sell their votes. In fact, James "Son" Mitchell, the Beguia district representative, stated that he would give his vote to whichever side would make him premier, with the result that for a couple of years the man who represented one of the smallest electoral districts in St. Vincent held the premiership. But in 1984, Son Mitchell and his party won a landslide victory. He has labored hard since then to get St. Vincent on its feet-a tough battle. I wish him luck; he comes from a long line of seamen and is attuned to the needs of the yachtsmen. Grenada has had a very stormy political scene for the last thirty years. Grenada is particularly attractive to the sailor because of its numerous harbors and friendly people. One of the reasons some people feel that the people of Grenada are so friendly is that the island has had the largest proportion of small farmers in the entire Eastern Caribbean. Even in the days of the so-called plantocracy, the white planters held only approximately 30 or 40 percent of the island, while the remaining 60 or 70 percent was in holdings of six acres or less. This was made possible because the agricultural economy was largely dependent on nutmeg and cocoa, crops which can be grown on a small holding. They didn't make anyone wealthy, but they enabled a man to support himself. But things began to go sour for Grenada in the early fifties when E. M. Gairy returned to the island from Aruba, where he had been mixed up in the labor union movement. He became a superb politician, and proceeded to set up a political machine that ran the island for the next twentyfive years or so. Three times he was removed from power by the British government for blatantly squandering and stealing money. Each time he returned to power. Opposition leaders were beaten and jailed, elections were rigged, and the populace was terrorized by an all-powerful police force. In the mid-1970s Gairy achieved independence from

Britain for Grenada despite an overwhelming sentiment against the idea. Under Gairy's dictatorship the island suffered severe economic depression. Finally in 1979 the opposition staged an extremely popular and almost bloodless revolution while Gairy was in New York attending a United Nations meeting. The new government asked for assistance from the US government, which dithered so long that the Cubans had time to establish control. American diplomacy was not brilliant in dealing with the Grenadian situation. Many of us welcomed the People's Revolutionary Army as a change from the Gairy Mongoose Gang, but we discovered, eventually, that it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. Things went from bad to worse until the infamous massacre at the fort, which led to the American liberation. The island is trying to get back on its feet economically but faces a long uphill struggle. One of the major problems that most of the small islands face is that for all the years they were ruled by Britain their separateness was emphasized by the colonial power-the islanders learned to think of themselves as Grenadians, St. Vincentians, and so forth, and each island had its own governor, legislature, Customs laws, etc. So when Britain tried to unload the colonies and form a West Indies Federation, few of the islands were willing to work together-not only did the rich ones fear the economic drain of the poor ones, but the politicians of even the small islands wanted to run their own shows. So the Federation didn't survive, and now each island or each small group is trying to make it alone--either as an independent nation or as an associated state (with Britain)-and support the stifling weight and expense of the bureaucracy of government, armies, diplomatic missions, and so on. To cite just one example, it costs millions to staff the obligatory missions to the UN in Washington, Toronto, and London. This also imposes a serious brain drain on the all-too-few educated islanders who are desperately needed to run the local governments. Thus, I'm convinced that as long as the Islands insist on staying individually independent, they are going to remain economic basket cases. No wonder the Cubans, with their offers of aid and support, are making inroads in places whose people basically have no interest in Communism. In contrast to the distressing political situation that has developed in the fragmented former British islands, the Dutch have succeeded in giving

The Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic lslands-A General Description political stability to their former colonies. Aruba, Bonaire, Cura9ao, St. Martin, Saba, and Sint Eustatius (Statia) were gathered together as the Netherlands Antilles with a single elected legislature comprising delegates from each island. They are virtually an independent, self-governing nation whose foreign affairs and defense are handled by Holland. Thus the Dutch islands, unlike the ex-British islands, are not overloaded with a huge bureaucracy, nor can one rabble-rousing politician get his party an overwhelming majority and run roughshod over the opposition. Bermuda does not have the problems of the Eastern Caribbean because it is a rich, self-governing British colony with few defense or foreignservice expenses. The Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal and are well-supported by the mother country. The Canaries, although part of Spain, are apparently becoming semi-independent; but Spain still takes care of foreign service and defense. With tourism expanding, the Canaries appear to be really prospering. The Cape Verdes are a republic, having gained independence from Portugal in 1975. They seem to be suffering from the same economic problems as the newly emerging nations in the Caribbean.

How to See the Islands So much for politics. Here's a quick rundown of the various ways to take advantage of these beautiful, exciting, and convenient cruising grounds. For the Caribbean, the easiest and most usual course is to contact a charter broker or a charter yacht direct (see Chapter 10, "Chartering"), hop on an airplane to the Islands, and go sailing, either with a crew or on a bare boat. The choice is governed by your desires, sailing ability, and bank account. You should remember that if your plans are made well in advance, and prebooked plane tickets are purchased, the travel expense is not all that great. Other yachtsmen will want to visit the area in their own boats. This, of course, involves not only money, but time. There are various solutions to this. Many yachtsmen have succeeded in visiting the area by organizing several groups of friends: they sail the boat out with one crew and then have other crews join the boat at various times for cruising and bringing the boat back. This can be accomplished in a surprisingly short

11

time. It's easy enough from the East Coast of the States to sail your boat down in the fall, or arrange to have it sailed down by a delivery crew, with no more than three weeks spent on the total delivery. This can be broken up into stages, so that you'll miss only a week or ten days of work at a time if you do it yourself. Once the boat is in the Islands, air service being what it is, you can go down two or three times during the winter to use the boat, and leave it at one of the various caretaker services (see Chapter 9, "Provisions and Services") between visits. In the spring you can have the boat delivered home by a delivery service or friends, or you can sail it hack yourself. Again, three weeks is ample time and the trip can be broken up into seven- to ten-day segments depending on the size of the boat. While in the Islands, the complete spectrum of yachting is available. You can tie up in a marina, enjoying the sun and cheap liquor, or you can be a proper cruising yachtsman, hauling up the anchor and cruising the Islands or the Venezuelan coast, or you can be a racing yachtsman and fly down to do the various regattas (see Chapter 11, "Yacht Clubs and Racing"). Or do a combination of all three. When you first look at the project it sounds expensive-and so it is. But if you look at your normal expenses of hauling the boat, removing the rig, storing the boat and gear for the winter, and then recommissioning, spending a winter in the Islands may not be as expensive as it first appears. A number of European yachtsmen have made what some refer to as the "Caribbean round. " They leave northern Europe late in the fall (see Chapter 4, "Getting There"), sail to Madeira, the Salvage Islands, the Canaries, and the Cape Verdes and cruise these areas for three or four weeks, then cross the Atlantic in November to the Lesser Antilles. They spend the winter cruising and racing in the Eastern Caribbean. They take part in CORT, the Caribbean Ocean Racing Triangle: the Rolex Regatta in St. Thomas the first weekend in April, the BVI Regatta the next weekend in April, the Tortola-St. Barts race the following weekend, the Guadeloupe-Antigua race the last Thursday in April, and finally the wonderful spectacle of Antigua Race Week-a total of thirteen races in less than a month! After all this they can cruise or race to Bermuda, and thence either to the Boston area and across the Atlantic by the northern route, or direct to the Azores and on to Europe, arriving there in midJuly. This leads to either a summer's cruising in

12

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

Europe or to Cowes Week, the Fastnet, and the latter half of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) racing circuit. Admittedly, to do this round you must arrange for a year's absence from your business, or be at the crossroads of life when you have decided to quit one job and look for another. Many people at

this point in life have taken a year off to make a cruise such as described above, and have returned rejuvenated, relaxed, and ready to take on the business world again. They did it! The following chapters will tell you a great deal of what you need to know to turn the dream of a transatlantic and Caribbean cruise into reality.

2 Preparations Cruising the Caribbean will be a lot more pleasant and safer if you equip and perhaps alter your boat for tropical climes. First and foremost though, if you're sending her south on her own bottom, make sure she's truly rigged to withstand a gale at sea. It can get rough on the trip down, either from the United States or from Europe, and the boat and equipment that stand up fine in Long Island Sound or the Mediterranean may not be rugged enough to take the rough stuff offshore. The chances are very high that on the way from Europe to the Canaries or from the northeastern United States to the Caribbean you'll encounter at least one hard gale. Following are tips and recommendations in various categories for making your cruise to and through the Islands a success.

before you plan to go to the Caribbean; every time you possibly can, when the weather report shows force 6 (25-31 knots), 7 (32-38), or even up to 8 (39-46) or 9 (47-54 knots), hop in your boat with as many crew as possible who will be sailing transatlantic with you, and go out and "put the bricks" to the skipper, the crew, and the boat. Put your head down and beat to windward, ease sheets to a close reach, go off on a broad reach, then dead downwind with the headsail wung out on a pole in gale conditions; check out yourself, your crew, and your boat both above and belowdecks. Experienced seamen feel this is essential, as your chances of sailing from the east coast of North America or from Europe to the Caribbean without going through at least one major gale are absolutely minimal-the first time you encounter a gale at sea is rather scary, the second time less so, and by the time you have been through three or four gales you say, "So what, I have been through this before." Your first gale at sea should not be enroute to the Caribbean but BEFORE you have gone to the Caribbean so that any deficiencies in the skipper, crew (those who get seasick should find out what seasick pills work for them, as each person could be different), and boat above and belowdecks can be remedied before heading south. Regarding celestial navigation, don't worry. If you can do coastal piloting, you certainly can do celestial navigation. Prior to about 1950 celestial navigation was considered black magic. Few people understood it, and everyone else was overawed to the extent that the navigator was assigned the hest bunk, and was woken up for morning and evening stars with the hot beverage of his choice; he took the helm only

Captain Ideally, the captain should be a man who has sailed all his life, has owned the boat he is planning on taking to the Caribbean for at least ten years, has weathered force 10 storms, can repair absolutely anything on board, and can cook up a wonderful meal in a gale when everyone else is seasick. This is the ideal, but all too often the skipper has only done coastal cruising in what is sometimes referred to as a "two-string boat"-the modern sloop whose sails are controlled by a mainsheet and a jib sheet. The skipper has carefully watched the weather reports and at the first sign of heavy weather has, with great prudence, ducked into port. But if you are in the latter category, the essential thing to do is to watch your weather the summer 13

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide when he felt like it. He never cranked winches or trimmed sheets. Ahsolute horror of horrors-he never went near the galley except to put in a special request for a snack or meal. Celestial navigation was black magic and the celestial navigator was God. But, Mary Blewitt Pera then blew it, as she wrote that wonderful little book Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen. All sorts of yachtsmen learned how to do celestial navigation. So many yachtsmen learned how to do celestial navigation that the navigator was no longer God-now he was expected to stand watches, help in the galley, crank winches, trim sheets, and do all the rest of the dirty work that is necessary for the sailing and operation of an offshore sail boat. Buy C elestial Navigation for Yachtsmen and sit down and study it. Forget about stars, planets, and moon, concentrate on the sun-by the time you reach your landfall you will have learned to take sun sights well enough to make your landfall. Once you have sun sights down pat, according to your interests, skills, and time available you can expand to moon, planets, and stars. There have been many books written on celestial navigation but I learned mine through Mary Blewitt. I have taught dozens of others how to do celestial navigation (many of my students are now much better than their teacher) with the aid of Mary Blewitt's book. Unfortunately, Mary Blewitt Pera (she married the late Commander Pera of the Italian Navy) gets a little bit upset when I and some of the other old fogies tell her that her original, tiny, soft-backed book is better and more concise than her present hardback. She replies with great frustration, "And what have I heen doing for the last twenty-five years in my rewrites of the book?" I still prefer the original but the present Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen is the standard by which many of us measure all other simplined navigation books. If a skipper can sail coastwise, can stick his nose out a couple of times in a gale and survive with no major problems, he can sail across the Atlantic.

Crew Ideally, your crew consists of twenty-one-year-old tigers who have grips like a vice, who can go up the mast hand over hand like a monkey, and have cast-iron stomachs; they can reef, steer, cook, and being young and of the modern generation, will obviously understand engines, electrics, and elec-

tronics. Armed with his age and experience, the skipper can sit back and point out what he wants done and the crew will immediately take care of it. In fact, the skipper will undoubtly have to settle for less than the ideal crew: when selecting your crew the main thing to look for will be adaptability and enthusiasm. Adaptability is the ability to get along with other members of the crew and willingness to work, even under adverse conditionsespecially when seasick. I always say you haven't really been seasick until you see your toenails come up. It has probably been thirty years since the last time I was seasick but I well remember in my youth, when serving in the early fifties on a US navy diesel electric Guppy Snorkel submarine, running on the surface, rolling 45° either side of vertical through a 90° arc, standing helm and radar watches with a big tomato juice can with the top cut off, lanyard inserted through two holes I punched near the top, standing watch with my miniature bucket tied around my neck, so when my Irish friend "O'Rourke" came to visit me I did not have to run to find someplace to deliver "0' Rourke"-I have seen my toenails come up but I was still able to stand my watches. If they are adaptable, enthusiastic, and willing to learn how to do it YOUR WAY (different ships, different long splices) then they can make a good crew. Experienced yachtsmen know that a good, willing, adaptable, enthusiastic female crew is a jewel: if she is good, she is fantastic because what she lacks in brawn she more than makes up for in enthusiasm and skill. Some of the finest helmspersons I have ever sailed with have been women. Some women accuse me of being the world's worst MCP because of my dogmatic attitude about where women belong on a boat when sail handling. With few exceptions women are just not strong enough to do really heavy work; thus, they belong on the tiller, tailing up, calling sails-they don't belong on the foredeck trying to heave spinnaker poles around. The smart captain will try to recruit a varied crew: someone who is good with sails and rigging, another good mechanically, another who is a woodworker (even boats built of fiberglass-"frozen snot"-have a lot of belowdecks woodwork), another an electrician, and another handy with electronics. It is no use having five mechanics and no riggers as crew! The thing that all skippers must remember is that in port all too many crew that are great at sea

Preparations fall apart, both individually and collectively. This is not a new problem-Lord Nelson stated, "ships and men rot in port." If the crew does not turn to and help out in port, all of the normal routine maintenance, repairs, alterations, cleaning up, shopping, cooking, can fall in the skipper's lap and he won't be able to enjoy the in-port time. It should be made clear to everyone that every day in port (there will, of course, be exceptions) from 0700 to 1300 belong to the boat, either working on the boat, cleaning up, or running ship's errands and the like. After 1300, crew should be free (except in emergencies) to go off on their own. After a late night out, the 0700 morning coffee may seem very early but the skipper can point out to his crew that if they have had a late night out, they should still get up, get going, get the work done. Then at 1300 begin to act like a Spaniard and take two-to three-hour afternoon siestas, after which they can be ready for the night's battle ashore. The crew should also realize that during the working day, weather permitting, from 0800 to 1600, while on watch and when not busy steering, trimming or setting sails, or navigating-rather than sitting and reading a book or listening to a Walkman, the crew on watch should be taking care of the numerous little repair jobs that inevitably crop up on a long passage.

Insurance Many cruising yachtsmen, confident of their abilities, feel that insurance is not necessary. They figure they will spend their money on extra ground tackle and new gear instead of insurance premiums. But no matter how good your seamanship, you can end up with major damage through no fault of your own, which you will have to pay for out of your own pocket. If you are rammed by another uninsured boat, you have little chance of collecting without the services of an admiralty lawyer who will demand his money up front. During Hurricane Klaus, a cruise ship came into St. Thomas Harbor, knocking loose a number of yachts, which ricocheted off other boats. Many well-maintained, properly moored boats ended up on the beach as a result. Those who were insurcd had their damage repaired and their insurance companies, backed by heavyweight lawyers, went after the cruise-ship company and collected. Most of those who were uninsured collected nothing, as they could not afford the cost of an admiralty

15

lawyer. Another cruise ship in Martinique turned on its bow thrusters and then backed down so hard that it did serious damage to thirty-two boats moored in the yacht basin west of the dry dock; no one who was uninsured collected anything. Still another ship in Grenada pumped its oil-filled bilges in the harbor, dumping thick tar-like fuel that ruined the paint jobs on a number of yachts and all the dinghies that were in the harbor. The captain denied liability and no yachtsman collected anything! In preparing your own boat for a trip to the Lesser Antilles, it's easy to forget to check your insurance coverage. DON'T. Most policies, even on boats hailing from the East Coast of the United States, do not cover sailing in the Lesser Antilles. Underwriters usually require an additional premium for the trip down and back, as well they should in light of the number of boats that have been lost and the damage that has been sustained in making this passage. European boats are usually covered only as far south as Gibraltar, beyond which they need additional coverage. Many local European insurance companies refuse to cover European boats beyond Gibraltar; some will extend coverage as far as the Canaries but no farther. However, there are Lloyd's underwriters who will cover yachts virtually worldwide-basically anywhere that a reasonable yachtsman would wish to go. (Beating to windward around Cape Horn does not impress me as a reasonable cruise or an insurable risk!) Amazingly, many companies who will cover boats in the Eastern Caribbean refuse to cover boats south of Grenada, i.e., the Venezuelan coast. In actuality, the experienced yachtsman justifibly feels that the underwriters should give a reduction in rate if boats promised to stay in Venezuela, i.e., south of the hurricane belt, during the hurricane season. Insurance rates in the Islands are approximately the same as they are for twelve months' navigation in the Mediterranean, but considerably higher than the twelve months' navigation in California. Rates in California are set on the basis that most of the boats are moored to the dock twelve months of the year and don't go sailing, and those that do go sailing go only for weekends or a fortnight. In general the APs (Applied Premiums) for the trip to the Islands run roughly 0.5 percent from the East Coast of the States to the Islands and .35 percent to 0.5 percent for a transatlantic passage in either direction. On offshore passages, L1oyd's underwriters usu-

16

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

ally require a four-person crew on a 40-foot boat, three On a smaller boat. Even with self-steering, they feel three in crew is necessary (for insurance purposes) because loss records show that with only two on board, watch-keeping standards are extremely lax. In addition, a considerable number of boats have been stolen or lost to a dragging anchor when both crew members have gone ashore. Single-handers can forget about insurance. A charter boat will pay a higher rate than a private pleasure yacht because first of all, it will be sailing more weeks in each year, and secondly, every time it goes out on charter there is a potential liability suit. The rate will vary according to the type of chartering you are doing. I will not say multihulls are uninsurable but the underwriters I deal with hate them with a passion and will not touch them with a ten-foot barge pole. They can be insured at Lloyd's through brokers specializing in multihulls. Incidentally, one of the reasons for the recent increase in insurance rates is the drop in interest rates. When interest rates were sky-high, in the late seventies, the underwriter could run a book loss-lose a dollar and a cent for every dollar he had insured-and still make money on his invested income. This is no longer true; hence the increase in rates. All too many American companies refuse to insure any boat over ten years old, particularly wooden boats. Needless to say, it is aggravating to skippers who have paid insurance for ten years, with clean records, then to be told in the eleventh year that the insurance company won't insure the boat anymore. Furthermore, American companies are not too adventurous in areas outside usual cruising grounds, i. e., the Venezuelan coast. These are all reasons to look to a competent, independent broker who places his insurance at Lloyd's. Lloyd's prefers to deal with large deductibles (excesses), as the paperwork on small claims is expensive in proportion to the income derived. They are prepared to cover your dinghy under a separate deductible, providing the name of the vessel is on the dinghy, in the hopes that it would be recognized and repossessed if the name were permanently on it. Outboards must be secured with an "antitheft device" of some kind, and unless an extra premium is paid, dinghies are not covered while being towed in open passages. Similarly, Lloyd's has been deluged with paperwork on small claims of several hundred dollars caused by boats that have moored improperly and have dragged or swung into surrounding boats, causing damage.

Consequently, it has now placed a deductible on the third-party "Protection and Indemnity" section of its policies. Many yacht owners have little idea of what should be done after a serious accident that results in an insurance claim. First and foremost, there is the unwritten insurance law backed up by history and innumerable court cases: in case of an accident, act as if you were uninsured-protect your own and the underwriter's interests to the best of your ability in light of the circumstances. Second, you should immediately contact by phone or cable both the underwriter and the broker concerned. Third, find a reputable and competent marine surveyor to ascertain the damage. He will then make recommendations to the brokers and underwriter on repair and salvage. Given a good boat that will pass a rigid out-of-the-water survey, a good crew, and a reasonable itinerary, we can arrange insurance coverage at a competitive rate. Now, here comes the commercial: I have been a broker who places insurance at Lloyd's for more than twenty years, and I am happy to offer my services. I have been dealing with the same Lloyd's broker and the same leading underwriter for over twenty years. Mutual trust exists between us and that is what marine insurance is all about. I can be reached at all times c / 0 David Payne, Cayzer Steel Bowater, 32/38 Dukes Place, London, EC3 7LX, England. A package of mail is forwarded to me weekly wherever I am in the world. Remember that there is good insurance and cheap insurance but no good cheap insurance. Another axiom is that you never know how good your insurance is until you make a claim. I'm glad to say that I am still drinking partners with all my clients who have suffered a loss. For a list of surveyors in the Eastern Caribbean see Chapter 9, "Provisions and Services."

Navigation Some yachtsmen think you need all the latest electronic equipment for a transatlantic passage. Actually, all you need is a sextant, a Nautical Almanac, H0249, a small multiband radio that will pull in BBC time ticks, a basic direction finder, and a lead line. All for a few hundred dollars-a far cry from the cost of a fancy electronics package. If your navigation skills are rusty, you should also invest in Mary Blewitt's little book Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen. With that, and a knowledge of basic arithmetic, anyone can navigate. Of

Preparations course, the navigation programs for hand-held calculators are also very handy, but they cost more. When choosing a sextant, get one that matches your capabilities. No sense having an $800 instrument for a $100 navigator. Plastic sextants give very satisfactory results as long as you remember to check the index error after each individual sight. If you take a string of eight sights (especially in hot weather in the tropics) the index error in the plastic sextant can change rather drastically over a fifteen-minute period. I also recommend Commander Bauer's excellent book, Sextant Simplified. He explains how to adjust your sextant at sea if it gets out of adjustment and other fine points. Secondhand sextants are a good buy. Thomas Foulkes and Company, 4A Sansom Road, Leytonstone, London Ell 3HB, England; telephone: 01539-5627/5084, have built up an excellent reputation for selling good secondhand sextants at a reasonable price. For plotting buy a book of US DMA Universal Plotting sheets, so called as they may be made up for any latitude. They may be purchased at any major chart supply house in America and Europe. There are numerous pilots / sailing directions for European waters. They should be available from the local chart agent. The Admiralty pilots for Azores, Madeira, Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands are not particularly useful as they are out of date and written for the large commercial vessel and not the yachtsman. At present [May 1988] the only yachting guide for Madeira or the Cape Verde Islands is this book. The Canaries were moderately well covered by Jack Hooper's privately printed, mimeographed guide, but I don't know if it is still available. The Azores are well covered by Bob Silverman's Yachting Guide to the Azores, available from Bob Silverman, Apartado No. 65, 9900 Horta, Faial, Azores, Portugal. All these places are also covered in this book, which contains harbor charts for virtually all the anchorages the average yachtsman would use in the Azores, Madeiran Archipelago, Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands, By the autumn of 1988, I hope all these island groups will be covered by Imray-Iolaire charts but in the meantime, use whatever charts you can get. The Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verdes are best covered by Portuguese charts; the Canaries by Spanish charts; and Bermuda by either US or British charts. Once in the Eastern Caribbean you can get away with practically no navigation equipment if YOIl are careful. I always remember the story of Marv Berning, who subsequently owned the 36-foot yawl

17

Impunity, on which he twice crossed the Atlantic and crossed the Mediterranean. Marv and his buddy Bill Bailey purchased a 20-foot Bequia doubleended fishing boat in 1958. They put a deck on it and sailed from Bequia all the way up through the Islands to St. Thomas on a three-month cruise. Their navigation equipment consisted of a dry Boy Scout compass placed on a block of wood that floated in a calabash half full of water and an Esso road map. They got through the Islands without any serious difficulty, but looking back, they don't recommend this to others. It's amazing what you can do when you are young and adventurous. The major problem is that although the air may look absolutely clear, it often is not, and visibility can get as low as 3 miles due to a semi transparent haze. Occasionally you can sail right by an island without seeing it on an apparently clear day. This is a very good reason for carrying a really good hand-bearing compass, so you can get continual and accurate bearings in times of haze. This is especially true when you're sailing passages between the islands from Antigua south, because when you leave an island on a compass course you're never absolutely sure whether you're being set to leeward or windward. If you can't see the island ahead, it's a hit like a game of blindman's bluff Suddenly you discover when the island appears that you've sagged well to leeward of the rhumbline course. Thus the end of the trip, instead of being a nice reach, is a dead slog to windward against wind and current. This unfortunate circumstance can be avoided if you regularly take back bearings on the island you're leaving and make sure you stay well to windward of the rhumb-line course. By the time you lose the island astern, the next island will appear right where it should be. I think the best thing for this important navigational practice is one of the good "hockey puck" hand-bearing compasses; keep it handy in the cockpit and use it continually. It is not only wonderful as a navigational item but a wonderful toy for all apprentice navigators on board the boat. Its constant use will improve your piloting immensely. As I said earlier, fancy electronic equipment isn't really needed in the Caribbean. I continually see yachts with lots of fancy electronic navigational equipment that is seldom used and when the time comes to use it, it often doesn't work because the dampness and salt air have penetrated it. For electronic navigation in the Islands, all you need is a good direction finder that picks up the standard AM broadcast stations. (See Appendix B for the

18

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

frequencies, hours of transmission, and locations of all the major AM stations in the Eastern Caribbean.) You can take a bearing on a radio station, which is often receivable at a very long range, much longer than the very small and short-range marine beacons in the Eastern Caribbean. If you do plan to use the marine RDF beacons, note that their frequency varies from 290 kc to 410 kc. Make sure your direction finder has a band wide enough to cover this spread. Celestial navigation is seldom required in the Eastern Caribbean, but on long hauls it's extremely useful. I for one will not sail any distance in the Caribbean without my sextant and necessary navigational books and tables. This is especially true when heading from the Virgins or Puerto Rico direct to Venezuela (or the reverse) as without celestial navigation (or Satnav) it is virtually impossible to ascertain how strong the current is running. It is important to know that Loran barely reaches down into the Islands. You are at its extreme range, so it is not all that accurate. Curiously, the reverse is true of Satnav: it's too accurate. The problem is that few of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean are accurately placed on the charts-most of their positions are a mile to a mile and a half off. This means that your Satnav is more accurate than your charts, which can put you in serious trouble when close inshore. In Antigua there have been three Satnav-controlled groundings that cost the underwriter half a million US dollars. When you get close to the Islands, switch from Satnav to visual or radar bearings and depth soundings. Needless to say, if you do rely on electronic navigation, you darn well better have some oldfashioned back-up gear aboard for when the electronics fail. Twice during the 1986-87 season boats frantically called Antigua to get someone to talk them in; they had crossed an ocean, their electronics had failed, and now they didn't even know which islands they were looking at. For charts to the Eastern Caribbean I recommend Imray-Iolaire charts. They have completely replaced the government charts to the area, as is illustrated by the US Coast Guard's purchase of their charts direct from Imray. The charts are available through all major chart agents in North America and Europe. As to sailing guides to the Eastern Caribbean, I happen to be partial to the other volumes of this Guide: Volume 11, Part I-Puerto Rico, Passage and Virgin Islands; Volume 11, Part II-Anguilla

to Dominica; Volume III-Martinique to Trinidad; and Volume IV-Venezuela. (Pirated editions of this Guide are also available in German, French (two different authors), and Spanish!

Self-S teering Many self-steering units that work fine in coastal waters do not effectively self-steer in a 20 to 25 knot trade blowing up the tail with a big sea swinging the stern around. Before going offshore check your self-steering gear while running broad off and dead downwind with your trade-wind rig set; you might then decide to take an extra crew to back up the self-steering gear. In any case, make sure you have a good stock of spare parts for the unit; by the time you cross the Atlantic your gear will have taken a tremendous beating. One problem with self-steering gear is that too many boats rely on the gear too much and so fail to keep a good lookout. The watch-keeping standards of merchantmen have become so bad that I warn my crews to regard every merchant vessel as though it were being run by a homicidal maniac whose only purpose is to do us in. Keeping a good lookout is vital. The late R. H. "Bobby" Somerset, winner of the CCA Blue Water Medal for rescuing the crew of the schooner Anadane in the 1933 Bermuda Race, noted, "I've never seen a self-steering rig yet that will shorten down for a squall or alter course to avoid a steamer-we stand watches!"

Sails When choosing your sail inventory for Island cruising, remember that the winds usually blow 12 to 18 knots; anything less than 12 knots is considered light airs. To have it start blowing 30 and keep blowing 30 for four or five days is not at all uncommon, so rig accordingly. You won't need your big, light-air sails most of the time. Under the lee of high islands, however, the wind goes light, and a high-cut reaching genoa sheeted to the end of the main boom will more than earn its keep. Otherwise a no. 2 or no. 3 genoa, with the clews cut high enough so that they don't scoop up water, is the most useful sail. A no. 4 will sometimes be used, but except for getting to and from the Islands the storm jib is seldom necessary. On a double-headed rigged boat, a light reaching genoa staysail will be a most useful sail; with a

Preparations big high-cut Yankee or no. I jib top, you'll have the same sail area as with the no. I genoa. The rig is much easier, though, as each sail itself is of a size that can be easily handled. Any single-headsail boat venturing offshore and headed for cruising in the Caribbean, whether it has a roller-reefing headsail or not, should have a removable staysail stay set up to a release lever. Then when it really blows up one can set up the staysail stay, hank on a small working staysail, and douse or roll up the forward sail completely. With douhle-reefed main and small hanked-on staysail, the average cruising boat should be well balanced with all sails centered and she should be able to take 40 knots of wind in comfort. For light airs, off the wind, use a multipurpose spinnaker with a snuffer or a spinnaker with a snuffer; going dead to windward in light airs, if you really like to sail, have a multipurpose genoa with a snuffer. Roller reefing on the headsail seems to be here to stay. Twenty-five years ago I installed rollerfurling headsails on lolaire-roller furling, not roller reefing; the sails furled on their own luff wire. We used this system for twenty-two years with great success. I did not like and would not install rollerreefing gear hecause I had seen discarded units stacked up in rigging lofts in the States and the Caribbean like cordwood with the gears jammed up, foils bent, and many other problems. But eventually Olaf Harken persuaded me to put Harken roller-reefing gear on Iolaire. I must report that I am extremely pleased. We have "put the bricks" to the roller-reefing gear, done everything to it, and it has given us hasically no problems. There may be other units on the market as good as Harken but from my experience, Harken has been superh. You must remember, though, that no rollerreefing deadsail gear can be all things to all men. You can take your light no. 1 and reef it down to a no. 2, and perhaps, but doubtfully, to a no. 3; you can take a heavy no. 2 and roll it down to a no. 3 and to a working jib but it will not do as a storm headsail because the center of effort is just too far forward. That's why I feel a removable staysail stay and a hanked-on heavy-weather staysail are vital for heavy weather conditions. Yawls and ketches should carry a big mizzen staysail. It's easy to set and douse. It increases sail area more easily than changing headsails. It will more than earn its keep with the wind on the quarter. Mainsails should be well built, heavily rein-

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forced, and rigged for easy reefing. The idea that benign trades blow with constant velocity is a figment of the charter brokers' and tour directors' imaginations. Squalls are all too common and wind force will he drastically affected by the islands. You must he able to tuck in a good, deep single reef easily; if it pipes up more, you'll want to be able to tuck in a second reef or hoist an easily set (via separate track) storm trysail the same size or slightly smaller than a douhle-reefed main. A double-reefed main can always give way at the seams; with a vertical-cut storm trysail set, you can let the winds blow, sit back, and relax with a beer in hand, knowing that the rig will come down before the sail splits. A trysail of this size should have a set of reef points to enable it to be reefed down in the ultimate storm. There are all sorts of new ways to shorten sailinternal roller reefing in the mast, inside the hoom, zipper furling, and so on-and all of them supposedly work pretty well. But I say supposedly because I have visited the sail-repair people in Bermuda and the Azores and have heard the problems they've encountered with these systems. When first installed, apparently, they're fine, but as the sails get tired and the gear worn, troubles crop up. Time, no doubt, will tell. During the winter of 1986-87 we tested both the Dutchman and the Doyle Stackpack systems. There is no room for a detailed analysis here but the conclusions are: if you have a good mainsail with a number of years left in it, install the Dutchman system; if you are purchasing a new mainsail, or buying a new boat from the builders, install the Stackpack. I highly recommend a downwind rig. It will have to accommodate winds ranging from 10 to 40 knots, which sounds like an extreme variation. But it happens. Folks talk about the steady 25-knot trades, but all too often they blow 15 or less. A boat rigged for 25 to 40 knot winds and running before a 15 trade is going to have a very slow passage. Fortunately, the old days of high-cut twin headsails is pretty much gone. Electronic or vane selfsteering systems work better, and the high clews induced dangerous and uncomfortable rolling. In fact, you're much better off winging out two genoas. The center of effort is much lower, rolling is reduced, and the pole won't dip. My favorite rig is what I refer to as "poor man's twins"; no special sails, no expensive gear to be bought; just the normal sails are used with a few extra bits and pieces. If you have hanked-on head-

20

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

TWIN STAYSAILS WITH &OOMS

SMALL Gf!/IIO" TO SPINA.KgJl POLL.

Twin staysails versus genoas.

sPlnnaKe.r guy 9" y throuqh J~WS of porIL Downwind tradewind ri?;: Rigging a spinnaker pole with its own fore?;uy and afterguy.

Preparations sails you should replace the spinnaker halyard block aloft with a becket block; attach one end of a wire to the becket (size of wire will of course depend on the size of the hoat), and lash the other end to the stem fitting or to the end of the bowsprit and set it up as a light jackstay. Now you can hoist your high-cut reaching genoa on the headstay on the lee side, and sheet it out to the end of the main boom and back to a cockpit winch. Hold the hoom forward with a wire preventer (see sketch). To the new stay, hank on the no. 2 genoa (the no. 1 is too long on the foot and produces too much of a curve, which causes rolling). Lead that sheet to the end of the spinnaker pole and then aft. The spinnaker pole should be rigged semipermanently in place. (If you are lucky you will be on starboard tack all the way over, westbound.) The pole should be rigged with its own foreguy, its own afterguy, and topping lift; the headsail sheet just runs through the jaws of the pole. Thus if the wind pipes up and you have to take down the headsail or reset a smaller onc it is just a matter of slacking the sheet, dousing the headsail and shifting the sheet to the new one. The pole is guyed out there and does not need any attention. And it is not charging around the foredeck trying to knock someone overboard. An excellent rig fex boats with roller-reefing headsail systems where the headsail system has a twin groove is to feed two genoas up the foil at the same time. If they are different luff lengths, just add a tack or head pennant on the smaller sail so the luff lengths are equalized. Sheet the no. 1 genoa or high-cut reaching headsail to the end of the boom and the no. 2 out on the pole as already described. The advantage of this rig is that if you must shorten down, you can reef the sails togetherroll them up one on top of the other. (This idea with two sails sewn on a single luff wire was developed years ago by Wright Britton, who called the rig "roller twins.") If the wind is on the quarter when the weather headsail is rigged to the pole, it will dump air across the reaching jib even with the main set. If you're keeling and rolling, you may dip the boom and break the preventer, the boom vang, or the boom~r all three. The way to avoid this is to install what I refer to as a roll reef, i. e., an extra reef cringle midway between the first reef and the clew. Tuck in this diagonal roll reef and it tops up the boom 2 to 3 feet; then take up on the boom vang to minimize twist. Now the chances of dipping the boom are, if not eliminated, then certainly minimized.

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Incidentally, if you arrange your first and second reef cringles on the mainsail so the reef is deeper at the clew than at the tack, then the boom is topped up whenever the sail is reefed. The poor man's twin rig can be used not only on the tradewind passage from Europe to the Islands but also from the Eastern Caribbean on to the Bahamas or westward across the Caribbean. With luck it can also be used on the northern route to Europe. In 1975 we set this rig off Cape Race, Newfoundland, and carried it to Crookhaven, Ireland. And I have heard of boats that picked up the westerlies two days out of Bermuda and carried them all the way to the Azores. Chafe is a continual problem and must be checked regularly to prevent sheets and halyards from wearing through. But if you are careful it is amazing how little chafe occurs-most of lolaire's running rigging has done four transatlantics. It is impossible to have too many snatch blocks aboard. With the aid of a snatch block and a length of line there is almost no foul lead that can't be readjusted so that chafe is minimized or eliminated. The headsail sheet should be covered with leather where it goes through the pole, and the jaw of the pole should be carefully filed to make it as smooth as possible. Before YOll head offshore check the halyard blocks, sheaves, and turning blocks to reduce the chances of chafing. For instance, where some chafe is inevitable on sheets and halyards, changing the nip an inch or two will give the lines much longer life. Or you can spiral one-inch-wide lengths of canvas around the sheets and secure them with marline. In an emergency it is amazing how well masking tape, electrical tape, or duct tape prevent chafe to sheets and guys. I used to recommend leaving the spinnaker behind as it's not often used in the Lesser Antilles. However, I've revised my views in light of modern developments and some personal experience. If you cruise without an engine or don't like to use one except where absolutely necessary, you should definitely carry a spinnaker. Without it, in light airs broad off or dead downwind, the boat will plod along at 2 or 3 knots; setting a spinnaker will boost the speed up to a respectable 5 knots, only slightly less than you'd be doing with an engine. For handling spinnakers on a cruising boat, I would recommend using a snuffer, even though I don't think they've been perfected yet. The ads suggest that a mom-and-pop crew can snuff a chute when the wind comes up by simply easing the

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

22

sheet and pulling down on the snuffer. Wrong. If it's blowing hard you'll have to ease the pole forward and bring the sail in behind the mainand even then it will take a gorilla to heave down on the snuffer line. Snuffers also have a mind of their own. No matter now carefully we stow ours, we still often get tangled when hoisting and snuffing. In fact, I'd say we are in the same state with snuffers today as we were with spinnaker handling in the early fifties. If the young tiger spinnaker handlers of today ever heard old geezers like myself describe how we handled spinnakers back then, they would think we were idiotic incompetents who should not have been allowed out of the cockpit. Sail handling, and especially spinnaker handling, has developed drastically over the last thirty years. So will snuffers. It's a great idea, but so far has its limitations. If you're going to be in the Islands for any amount of time, bring your sail covers; the sun raises hell with Dacron sails. Apropos of which, have your sails checked before coming down. Tired sails have a habit of blowing out en route. Even if you do not have sails completely resewn, take them to the sailmaker and have the leeches restitched three feet in, as this will save many problems. At the same time check the design of the clew patch; the clew patch reinforcements should lock into the first reef clew patch and the first clew reef patch should lock into the double reef clew patch. It is also worthwhile to extend a back reinforcement 12, 18, or 24 inches wide, depending on the size of the sail, from the upper clew reef patch down to the clew reinforcement patch-mainsails always split from the leech in! Sails can now be repaired on virtually every major island in the Eastern Caribbean, in Bermuda, the Azores, and in the Canaries. Madeira and the Cape Vcrdcs arc the only places where you will be completely on your own. See Chapter 9, "Provisions and Services," for location of sailmakers.

Rigging Needless to say, if you're sailing your boat to the Islands, give the rigging a complete going-over. If you have swaged terminals, some preventive maintenance is in order. Go over all your terminals, polishing them and examining them with a magnifying glass. Certainly any swaged fitting four years old or older should be die-checked before you head south.

There are few boats with much time in the Isldnds that have not had cracked swaged terminals on the lower ends of their shrouds. Evidently, salt water lying in the top of the terminal causes corrosion, which expands and produces hairline cracks in the terminal. Some skippers have prevented this condition by cleaning out the top of the terminal with derustifier, heating the terminal with a blowtorch, and then sealing it with sealing wax, beeswax, or other preparations-nothing guaranteed, but it seems to work. Bring enough wire, with a terminal on one end, to replace your longest stay, as stocks of stainless-steel wire in the Islands are erratic. The same holds true for end fittings, turnbuckles, and toggles: bring a few spares as they're very difficult to obtain in the area. Riggers will argue the merits of Norseman versus Sta-Lok fittings; my experience has been that although their reliability is probably equal, for the amateur a Sta-Lok fitting is much easier to install, but they don't last forever: if they are six or seven years old, die-check them. For smaller rigging sizes- 1/4-inch, 1 X 19, and smaller-it's hard to beat the old-fashioned Nicropress system, where you compress a copper alloy sleeve around the wire to make an eye in the end (Talurit, to our English cousins). If you're short of stowage space, the Sand F Tool Company (PO Box 1546, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 USA) makes a small wrench-operated tool to substitute for the bulky, long-handled press. Either way, use two sleeves and a slightly oversized thimble to ease the bend of the wire; you'll have a cheap, easily installed fitting that will last almost forever. If you don't have a gallows frame, have one installed. (Check my book, The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vo!. 1, pp. 262-64, for a discussion and photograph of fittings available from Merriman Bros.) Trying to stabilize a boom swinging; on a topping lift or trying to hook one of those ridiculous wire pendants from the mizzenmast or backstay to the main boom at sea with a big swell rolling is a fine way to have an accident. My own experience with those affairs has been one splitopen skull. Besides its benefits in safety and ease of handling, the gallows frame provides a good brace for the navigator and a great place to secure a small awning.

Anchors and Anchoring Anchoring in the Caribbean is usually easy, although like everywhere else it also has its exasperating; and even humiliating aspects. If you know what

Preparations you're about, you understand that different conditions demand different methods of anchoring and that there is no one maxim that will let you rest easy every night in every anchorage. Sometimes a Danforth will hold where a plow won't, sometimes vice versa, and sometimes neither will do the trick. An old-fashioned Herreshoff will usually work but it's heavier and harder to handle. I use a SO-pound Herreshoff as my primary anchor. To avoid wrestling with it on the foredeck, I sling it from my bowsprit, where it can be catted without taking it aboard. I can do the same with a 4S-pound CQR plow slung from the other side of the bowsprit. As spare forward we carry a 4Spound Bruce and now aft we carry a IS-kg FOB CT. We also carry a 3S-pound Danforth, various 12-foot lengths of chain, and 600 feet of %-inch nylon in two coils plus various shorter lengths. We also carry a ISO-pound three-piece Herreshoff anchor in the bilge as an insurance policy. Big Herreshoffs or copies thereof can still be obtained from Paul Luke, East Boothbay, ME, or from A&B Industries, Inc., 41S Tamal Plaza, 200 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 9492S. They not only make the galvanized iron version but also a fancy one of manganese bronze. When calculating the size of the anchor they need, most people start at the wrong side of the scale: they ask, "What's the smallest anchor that will hold my boat?" They should ask, "What's the largest anchor I can handle considering the gear on board my boat and my physical capacities?" A 35-foot sloop moored with a 45-pound CQR is going to stay put, whereas if she has the minimumsize anchor, her owner will always have trouble getting it to hold and will frequently be awake at two or three in the morning chewing his nails when the squalls come through. For a number of years now we have been experimenting with a Bruce anchor, with varying degrees of success. On bottoms with loose coral it won't dig in at all nor does it like grass. But on other bottoms-sand, mud, or clay-it usually drags 20 to 30 feet and then digs in really solidly. The nicest thing about a Bruce is that once you have it well buried, you can shorten your scope considerably and the anchor will still hold. Sometimes when sailing the anchor out wc have come up on short stay, with the anchor line straight up and down, and sat there for S to 10 minutes before getting it to break out. We've also experimented with Marlow plaited anchor line, which is excellent in that it's Virtually nankin king and thus cannot develop a hackle. Further, it can be spliced directly into anchor chain,

23

thus eliminating the problem of lifting a shackle and thimble over the bow roll~r. However, no matter how carefully it's coiled, it will not run out without fouling-it must be carefully faked down in 2S- to 30-foot lengths or stowed or fed directly from a reel. In contrast, the three-strand nylon gets hard as it ages, and takes the shapes of its normal coil-it practically coils itself-and can be veered directly from the coil on the foredeck. For some fifteen years I've used 5fs-inch threestrand nylon secured directly to the Herreshoff anchor. This seems to work, although I'm careful not to anchor where I can see any coral as it could cut a nylon rode. If I can't avoid a coral anchorage, I use chain; it can be backbreaking to lift in the morning, but I can sleep soundly all night in preparation for the exercise. I should emphasize also that we always use a 12-foot length of chain with the Danforth, CQR, and Bruce anchors to ensure that the pull on the anchor is near horizontal. Those of us who prefer rope to chain rodes realize that in Island cruising it's common to anchor two or three times a day. Not being masochists, we choose to play with line rather than struggle with much heavier chain. Besides, line is easier to row out in a dinghy if you're setting a second anchor or carrying one ashore. Always carry plenty of line. Some anchorages are surprisingly deep and several hundred feet will be required. If you should have to cut away 30 or 40 feet from a fouled anchor, you won't want to interrupt your trip to procure a replacement. Two lengths of at least 200 feet apiece and three anchors are the minimum to carry on board, four if you're sailing transatlantic. Replacement anchors are almost impossible to find in the Azores, Madeira, or Cape Verdes. You also want to have handy a tripping line to tie to the crown of your anchor in case it gets fouled on something down there. You can use a buoy to float it, but buoys often cause problems. First, some fool bareboater may come in and pick it up thinking it's a mooring. Second, the buoy always seems to foul the anchor line. Finally, if you're in deep water and your tripping line doesn't reach all the way to the surface, remember that a one-gallon Clorox bottle exerts 8 pounds of lift on the back of the anchor! I think it's often better to use polypropylene line that floats up from the anchor to within a few feet of the surface, with no buoy on the end. Then if you need to trip the anchor you can swim down and tie on another piece.

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

24

One of the nagging problems of weighing anchor is getting the shackle that joins the rode to the chain up over the bow roller. A 45-pound anchor with 12 feet of chain weighs 60 pounds and that can mean a pain in the back for the bowman if the shackle won't bump over the roller. I recommend splicing the rode directly to the chain, or finding a chain shackle with an oval-shaped pin secured by a wooden peg (see p. 256 of The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vo!. 2). Either of those rigs should pass over the bow roller without trouble. When anchoring in Madeira, the Canaries, the Azores, and Cape Verde Islands remember that all these islands are volcanic. Even if you dive down and see sand and think your anchor is well secured, you will discover that the sand is only a thin layer on top of hard rock. It will not really dig in and may well drag. Anchoring in these island groups is always difficult and you should use extreme care. In the Eastern Caribbean it's common to have a strong current running counter to the direction of the wind. Setting the mizzen while at anchor may keep you lying head to wind, but not all the time. The Bahamian sloops have devised a means of coping with this problem which is of special value in crowded anchorages. I call it the "Bahamian flying moor." Done right, it can be effective and spectacular; done wrong, a shambles. Here's how to do it. Have two anchors made up and ready with plenty of line faked out on deck ready to run. Slow down and drop your first anchor, then sail on beyond it in the axis of the tide. Pay out the rode fast and coast uptide until you come to a stop or until you run out of anchor line on your first anchor. Drop the second anchor. Luff up, or drop your sails completely, and let the tide set you back on this second anchor. Let out the

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normal amount of scope after setting the second anchor. Then take up the slack on the first anchor and set it. Give the proper scope and secure both rodes at the bow. You should now be lying evenly between the two anchors and swinging by the bow in a circle whose radius is determined by the length of the boat. Sometimes it's easier to put out one anchor, get settled, and then row out a second anchor in the direction from which you determine the tide will come when it changes. You can also set the second anchor by letting out double the scope on your first anchor as you drift downtide, dropping the second off the stern, leading it to the bow, and pulling yourself back up to normal scope on your first anchor. For the old-style boat with the rudder secured to the keel there is no problem with this kind of double rig. However, a boat with a short keel and separate rudder will sometimes develop a wrap around one or the other or both. A solution to this problem is to secure a small weight to each rode about 20 or 25 feet down the rode from the bow. A Bahamian moor is also useful along the Venezuelan coast, because in the afternoon it is usually blowing IS to 20 knots (or more) from the east or northeast. After sunset the wind dies out and then begins to come in light from the west, swinging you in the opposite direction. As to anchoring bow and stern, in general I like to avoid it, as the boat cannot weathercock into the wind. If the wind comes in hard on the beam, it puts considerable strain on the anchors, frequently causing the boat to drag; at that point you have a real mess on your hands. In certain circumstances, however, I definitely recommend bow-and-stern anchoring. In an area where there's a swell rolling around the islands and not much wind, as in BasseTerre, St. Kitts, for example, you should anchor bow and stern with either bow or stern facing the swell (which way depends on the shape of the individual boat). This way the boat will merely hobbyhorse, which is a fairly comfortable motion, instead of rolling, which is hard on the gear and can rapidly drive the crew nuts. When mooring directly to shore, most boats moor bow-on, rather than stern-on, so as not to damage the rudder. It can be a great help in all these anchoring maneuvers to have your second anchor permanently stowed on the stern pulpit. In IoLaire the problem was that a Danforth big enough to hold her had too long a stock-it stuck up over the pulpit and tended to foul the rigging. Then we

Preparations

Dinghies

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were given a 35-pound FOB HP anchor. It has large flukes but the stock stands only 26 inches high and so stows snugly under the stern pulpit rail. (We did have to make removable wooden caps for the flukes, though, after three crew members gouged themselves on the sharp points.) Once again, the most important thing to remember about anchors is that they must be of sufficient weight. I see people trying to moor boats with 14pound Danforths, I5-pound Bruces, 15-pound CQRs-a waste of time. Even for a fairly small boat the minimum weight of an anchor is 25 pounds. As stated above, the question should not be: "What is the smallest size anchor that will hold?" but "What is the largest size anchor I can physically handle and stow on board my boat?" Finally, any time you anchor, it's wise practice to send someone over the side with a face mask to verify that the anchor has properly set.

The only places in the entire Lesser Antilles where you'll find a launch service will be in St. Thomas (an excellent commercial launch service available via VHF and the St. Thomas Yacht Club) and at the Trinidad Yachting Association. Other than that you are on your own: you will have to use your own dinghy. But what kind of dinghy? It's a definite problem. The average yacht dinghy or pram is apt to be inadequate for the constant use to which it will be put in the Islands. Aside from getting ashore and lugging stores, there will be explorations and diving expeditions where you'll frequently have to make passages of a mile or more in moderately rough water loaded down with three or four people, anchor, outboard, diving gear, etc. Often there will be anchorages where a sailing dinghy will provide a pleasant diversion. So you want the biggest dinghy that you can possibly carry aboard. Weight is not so much a problem as space; even a comparatively heavy dinghy is easily handled if it's hoisted on a sling from the main halyard (see The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vols. 1 and 2). If it is at all possible, you should carry two dinghies onboard. Inevitably part of the crew is ashore trying to get back and cannot raise the boat, or else part of the crew is left on the boat and cannot get ashore. Ollr solution to this problem has been to stow one dinghy inside the other. For many years we used an 8-foot stemhead dinghy, "Mark's Ark," an instant dinghy built in one day! (See the November 1985 issue of Cruising World.) This stowed nicely inside our ll-foot dinghy. Now that our son Mark has outgrown his ark, we are going to replace it with a 7-foot pram, which will give us two dinghies in the space of one, with the second one capable of carrying three people ashore in calm conditions. If you're looking for small prams, two companies in England sell something called "Boat in a Box." The Barrow Boat Company and the Merryman Boat Company, both of Wivenhoe, Essex, C07 9BC, England, offer both 6-foot and 8-foot prams that come with all parts and are put together with epoxy rather than rivets. Supposedly they can be built in a day by folks with only moderate woodworking skills. In The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vol. 2, I discussed the concept of jOinted dinghies that would fold up and allow even a small boat to carry a proper 8- or 9-foot rigid dinghy. Now do-it-yourself plans are available for just such dinghies that can be built

26

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

quickly and cheaply. There are a number of offthe-shelf jointed dinghies on the market that stow in 4 to 5 feet yet expand to 10 to 12 feet! As for rubber dinghies, which are used by the hundreds in the Islands, a few points should be remembered. They are excellent for diving expeditions, are extremely stable, very seldom capsize, have tremendous load-carrying capacity, and are easy to get in and out of when loaded down with scuba tanks, weight belts, etc. They also make good emergency life rafts. But they have their problems. If you're in a trade-wind anchorage exposed to the west and the outboard quits, there's little or no chance of your rowing back against the trade winds. Rather, you'll be blown offshorenext stop, Panama. Few people can sUIvive the 9OO-mile trip downwind in a rubber dinghy. The inflatable dinghies are big and bulky, and it's a pain to deflate them every time you move, so people tend to tow them. They tow moderately well, but in heavy weather the wind tends to get underneath them, lift them up in the air, and flip them upside-down. Most of the larger rubber dinghies with the wooden floors have been equipped to take outboards, and the wooden transom acts as a superb sea anchor that stops the boat and usually tears the towing eye out of the inflatable. Off they go. In fact, the painter is all too likely to pull out of the dinghy, even if it hasn't capsized. I recommend that the dinghy always be towed on two separate lines attached to two separate towing eyes. I was pleased to discover at the 1978 London Boat Show that if you write to the manufacturers of rubber dinghies, they will secure extra towing eyes on the dinghy for a reasonable extra charge. This does not guarantee the safety of towing a rubber dinghy, but it certainly rolls the dice in your favor. Incidentally, when trying to row a rubber dinghy, don't use the ridiculously small oars that come with them. I use my 9-foot oars on a rubber dinghy when I'm forced to use one, and although it doesn't make rowing a rubber dinghy a pleasure, it at least gives me a pretty good chance of getting where I want to go even with the wind against me. In fact, almost all dinghies have oars that are too short. Oars should be twice the boat's beam plus 6 inches. If your dinghy has high freeboard, that will be about perfect; with low freeboard you may have to take a saw and whack off two inches at a time till they're just right. (You can always shorten an oar: you can't lengthen it.) Proper length oars,

light and well balanced, will make any dinghy, rubber or rigid, easier to row. (But take a tip from the French: if you have two or more people in a rubber dinghy, use canoe paddles. They're much better than one man rowing.) I definitely feel that you should be able to stow your dinghy on deck and that you should do so for any long-distance trip. On the passages between the Islands, I for one don't like to be towing a dinghy. Admittedly, many boats do tow their dinghies (in many cases, Boston whalers with selfbailers) up and down the Islands in all weather. But they're lost with amazing regularity. My view is that the dinghy is too expensive a piece of gear to be towed behind in rough weather. Moreover, insurance companies tend to agree when it comes to paying off on lost or damaged dinghies. Lloyd's of London, for instance, does not cover dinghies under tow in open passages without a special rider being written. L1oyd's also insists that dinghies be marked with the name of the parent vessel and that outboards be locked in place. This is no idle problem, as the theft of dinghies and outboards in the Islands has become rampant over the last few years. If you have an expensive dinghy with a powerful outboard, my advice is to secure it to your boat, or to a dock, with a good padlock. And even then, make sure your insurance is in force. Experience shows that inflatable dinghies are much more likely to be stolen than hard dinghies. The reason is if your dinghy is stolen at night, the thief is probably a fellow "yachtsman" who rows the dinghy back to his own boat, deflates it, and stows it (plus the outboard) in his fo'c'sle; he then sails to the next island and sells the works. This is not as farfetched as it sounds: one French "yachtsman" was caught stealing a dinghy. When the police arrived to arrest him, they inspected his yacht and discovered six dinghies stowed belowdecks. A rigid dinghy is a little harder to conceal. Also, be aware that a rubber dinghy is not a nomaintenance operation. They do require maintenance. Luckily they can now be professionally repaired in Martinique, Tortola, and st. Thomas (see Chapter 9, "Provisions and Services"). Even so, the life expectancy of an inflatable dinghy in the Caribbean on a charter boat or one that is continually cruised is approximately two years; with great care they will last three, but that is the end of them. In contrast, a good wooden dinghy, although it will require sanding, painting and var-

Preparations nishing, and occasional repairs, will last almost indefinitely.

Stoves Alcohol stoves leave much to be desired. Drinking alcohol is cheap, but alcohol for stoves is incredibly expensive-if you can find it. The alcohol flame is less hot than gas or kerosene, and some people find the smell offensive. Primus (kerosene) stoves are the old standby, but there's trouble with them too. The kerosene (paraffin in Britain) found in the Eastern Caribbean is of poor grade; much of it, I'm told, is jet fuel, and great difficulty is experienced with clogged burners. As a result people frequently burn mineral spirits. This burns clean and does not clog the burners. It also burns with a hotter flame! Over a period of time it will cause the side of the burner to bum through and explode with disastrous results. On all stoves, but especially alcohol and primus stoves, it is essential to have a remote shut-off between the fuel tank and the stove that can be reached when the stove is on fire! Today bottled propane is probably the most common stove fuel on yachts. Properly mounted with the gas bottles on deck, with a manual or automatic shut-off, and a sniffer in the bilge, they are pretty safe; the fuel is relatively inexpensive and is available virtually worldwide. At first glance, the European and American gas fittings look the same, but they are not. The British female fitting will not fit in the American bottle, while the American fitting will fit the British bottle, though the fitting will leak slightly. When heading for the States, Europeans should bring along some spare European fittings plus some high-pressure gas hoses. Then when they arrive in the Caribbean or the States they can purchase American fittings and make up a pigtail that will enable them to fill their bottles at the filling plants. Americans should do the same, except bring the American fittings to Europe; upon arrival, purchase the European fittings and make up the pigtail. You should have both the male and female fittings, as with a bucket of fittings of various types, plus hose and hose clamps, and you should be able to fill your bottles anywhere. Since bottles vary in size, once you have crossed the ocean in either direction you will invariably discover that you will not be able to exchange

27

bottles. If you're in a hurry, it can be most inconvenient to have to wait a couple of days for your bottle to be sent to the plant and refilled. A method around this difficulty is to pick up a gas bottle, pay the deposit, take it back to the boat, cross-connect it with your bottle, secure the bottle to be emptied upside-down above the bottle to be filled. In cold climates, merely pour boiling water over the bottle to be emptied, open the valves, and the gas will blast on through. In warm climates, first cool the bottle to be filled by leaving it in the water for an hour, then cool it with ice, connect the bottles as described, and proceed with the boiling water. Don't smoke when you are doing this. On the West Coast of the United States, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is becoming popular for the cruisi'1g yachtsman-but anywhere else, you should forget about it, as the gas is just not used worldwide and you will be unable to fill your tanks. Calor gas is obtainable throughout Europe, Madeira, and the Canaries. But you won't find that in the Caribbean, either. Furthermore, Calor gas tanks should never be filled with propane, as the Calor gas bottle has no release valve. It is illegal to put propane in a tank without a release valve; you might be able to get away with it in the Caribbean, where things are a bit lackadaisical, but you might also kill yourself in the process. So if you have a Calor gas installation, change it to propane-the stove will run equally well on either one. Likewise, camp gas-small gas bottles still popular with European yachts-isn't suitable for the Caribbean. You might find camp gas in Martinique and Guadeloupe, but that is all. It is essential to carry spare parts for all stoves, and pressure-pump parts for alcohol and primus stoves. For propane stoves, spare nozzles are desirable too because eventually the nozzle holes get too large, which results in smoky pots and irate dishwashers. No yacht should go offshore without a gimbaled stove. Otherwise, life for the cook is just plain miserable. I even hate to go to sea without a gimbaled table; I consider it an uncivilized torture to sail any distance without one. At the very least, you should consider a gimbaled sideboard in the galley. It gives the cook a place to move pots onto from the stove, and also a place to make sandwiches and prepare his/her meals. The late Percy Chubb had one installed on Antilles, which was superb. (See The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vo!. 2 for further discussion of gimbaled tables and how to

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide make them work on light-displacement hoats with quick motion.)

Guns My advice about having guns aboard after more than thirty years in the Caribbean is Simple: don't. They're more trouble than they're worth. The gun laws are different on practically every island in the Caribbean and those laws are enforced in the most whimsical ways that can get you in a lot of trouble. In Puerto Rico, for instance, Customs and Immigration don't ask you to declare your guns, but they fail to tell you ahout Puerto Rico's stringent gun law. If you fail to register your guns and then the police find you have one aboard, you are likely to spend six months in jail with a fat fine. Venezuela lets you keep your guns aboard, but that gives the Guardia Nacional an excuse to come aboard and ransack the boat looking for them. Many stories tell of jewelry, cameras, money, etc., being "lost" during these searches. A famous incident in St. Thomas involved a yachtsman who waved his gun at a would-be dinghy thief. The latter ran ashore and told the police about the gun, which turned out to be unlicensed. Nothing happened to the culprit, but it took the guy who waved the gun a six-month legal fight to get off with a suspended sentence. (See Chapter 8 for information about gun laws in the Caribbean.) If you feel you need something to defend yourself with-and it's true there have been some had incidents over the years, though their proportional frequency is probahly far less than in "civilized" cities of the United States or the United Kingdom-then I suggest you think of your Very pistol as a defensive weapon. Of all the Islands, only in Tobago do they take away your Very pistol; everywhere else it is considered safety equipment and can be left on board. And what burglar, I ask you, would stare down the barrel of a Very pistol for very long? (Granted, a Very pistol is a one-shot aflair, but there's no reason not to have two on board.) One way to increase the pistol's potency is to stand a white flare on end, wrap masking tape around the top, and pour in some birdshot and hot wax. Or if you have a metal-harreled Very pistol, you can use B-gauge shotgun shells-hard to come by, but they turn the pistol into a fiercely effective short-range weapon. Or you can use standard 25mm saluting cannon shells enhanced with shot and

wax, but eheck your pistol with a gunsmith before doing that number. Even without doctoring the flares (and I know some people will think that a bit extreme), a Very pistol can he pretty intimidating. A large Schermuly 38-mm pistol will fire bird-scaring cartridges, explosive shells that go out 300 feet and explode like artillery shells. I can't imagine anyone hanging about in the face of such a weapon. A few years ago, to celebrate lolaire's eightieth hirthday I saved all her expired flares after replacing them with new ones. Then on New Year's Eve (Old Year's Night to Grenadians), I fired them off during the general and raucous celebration in Union Island. Of fifty-two flares, forty-eight went off, and many of them I fired horizontally. They looked just like bazooka rockets. Believe me, even a full-time pirate would have been scared off. When headed offshore you should have distress signals aboard. I prefer the hand-held rockets to Very pistol flares, since the flares go up 300 feet while a standard rocket goes 1,000 feet. Obviously, the rocket is more visible. Nevertheless, I will always have at least one Very pistol aboard with a supply of flares. It used to he hard to find flares, rockets, or Very pistols in the Caribbean; now you can get the pistols and flares, hut usually only the 25-mm size, and usually no parachute flares. Rockets are still very hard to find. Incidentally, you should be aware that standard US Very pistols are 25- or 37-mm; standard British sizes are 26.5- and 38-mm. You can't tell the difference by eye, but I can assure you from distressing personal experience that the British flares will not fit in the US pistols. When all is said and done regarding guns, flare pistols, rockets, spear guns, winch handles, baseball bats, and the like, for personal defense in outof-the-way places, the best method for making sure no intruder comes on board is to have a dug. Size doesn't matter-as long as the dog barks, the intruder will leave and look for easier pickings. Any thief will figure that if the dog barks, the crew will wake up and God only knows what he will be greeted with-gun, flare pistol, spear gun? I am very partial to Schipperkes, the little black Belgian barge dog. They are highly intelligent, take up little or no space, will happily live on scraps from the table, swim like fishes, and will bark if anyone comes near the boat. But be forewarned, they are so highly intelligent that if you are not good at training dogs, they will train you!

Preparations

Life Rafts and Emergency Gear Have them checked yearly. In years gone by it was almost impossible to find this service in the Caribbean, but now there are at least four places to have it done: two in St. Thomas, one in Tortola, and one in Martinique. Incidentally, you can rent a life raft in St. Thomas for a cruise, then return it or airfreight it back when you're through. (See Chapter 8 for details about airfreight.) But one must remember that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed are kings. One wonders how expert the experts are. It is said "ex" is the unknown quantity; the "spert" is a drip under pressure. I say this as Paul Adamswaithe, owner of Stormy Weather, with whom we sailed the Channel Race, Cowes Week, and the Fastnet, reported that his life raft, which had been re packed and recertified a year before, was condemned in the United Kingdom when it was inspected and repacked for these races. Not only was the life raft condemned but the water cans were marked 1979, although the raft had been repacked and recertified a number of times since 1979. My advice is make sure the life raft is inflated and remains inflated for at least 72 hours; inspect it yourself; personally verify the contents of the raft when it is repacked; and personally check the weight of the CO 2 bottle! If you can't get to one of these professional services, you can check a life raft yourself-but don't follow my advice given in previous writings. According to the Switlick Company, which has been in the life raft business for years, you should never test a life raft by pulling the inHation cord, because the CO 2 blasts out at a very low temperature and damages the material of the raft. Instead, you should examine the cylinder and its mechanism to verify that it is not corroded, then disconnect it. Pump up the raft with a foot pump or air bottle and leave it inHated for 24 to 48 hours to check for leaks. Then deflate it by using a vacuum cleaner to get all the air out, and try to repack it, which is easier said than done. Speaking of safety equipment: don't go to sea without an EPIRB unit. Now that their emergency signals are bounced off satellites rather than to aircraft that might be passing overhead, your chances of being located with an EPIRB are greatly increased. EPIRB stands for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon; they are also called ELTs-Emergency Locator Transmitters. These units transmit on the commercial aircraft and military emergency frequencies of 121.5 MHz and 243

MHz, and now the newest ones also transmit on 406 MHz. All units are received by the rescue satellite, eliminating the blind spots that formerly existed when one was sailing in areas where there were no aircraft. The rescue satellite is one area where there has been excellent East-West cooperation. The new units that transmit on 406 MHz not only transmit the distress signal, but they can also be programmed to transmit the navy registration number and plenty of other information.

Paint and Varnish Here's a suggestion to transatlantic voyagers: give the portside waterline and the area aft under both quarters up near to deck level a coat of cheap, soft bottom paint hefore your departure. On the way across, every boat picks up pin barnacles above the waterline. Remember, the best adhesive known to man, better than epoxy glue, is the glue that a barnacle uses to attach itself to the bottom or sides of your boat. By the time you've removed the pin barnacles, you'll have taken a few layers of paint and possibly gel coat with them. The rough spots will have to he reglazed, sanded, and painted. But if you slap on a coat of cheap, soft bottom paint (without sanding the boot top and topsides first), a few hours' work with wet sandpaper on arrival will get you down to the original finish. It might need another coat of paint, but it would have needed that anyway. Another suggestion for transatlantic passages that will save mu~h work is for yachts with varnished rail caps: the day before you leave, slap on a coat of cheap, flat-white housepaint without sanding the varnish. A sanding on arrival will flake off the white paint and with a quick coat of varnish, your boat will look fresh from the boat yard. Otherwise, you'll probably have to go to the wood to make the rail cap look decent again. (Perform this operation only if your hrightwork is in top-notch shape beforehand. ) As to the bottom of the boat, the specter of the teredo is grossly exaggerated. With good bottom paint and a periodic haul there's nothing to worry ahout. A major problem with bottom paints is that one will work in one area but will not work elsewhere. In fact, the Petitt paint company once offered three grades of bottom paint: temperate zone, semitropical, and tropical. The tropical worked best in the Caribbean. Another point is that most of the modern selfcleaning bottom paints will only work if the boat

30

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

does 6 knots or better. At various times when we have sat for a few weeks in a patch of light airs, the fuzz has built up on the bottom; then when the wind came in again and lolaire began to move, she'd clean her own bottom in no time. I remember once when we were using International's Micron with good success on lolaire our good friend Roz Griffiths was using the same stuff on her little Squib with disastrous results-it looked as if she had put fertilizer on the bottom of the boat. I pointed out to Roz that during the summer in Grenada lolaire would have a thick moss on her bottom but that once we went sailing and got up to 6 or 7 knots, it would all come off; by the time we arrived in St. Thomas the bottom was polished clean. I advised her to find a boyfriend with a highspeed runabout and get him to tow her Squib around at 7 knots once a month. Then the bottom would stay clean. When I first came to the Caribbean thirty years ago, if you wanted a clean bottom and could afford it, you hauled three times a year; otherwise you spent a lot of time scrubbing the bottom every week and probably suffered worm damage. As years went by bottom paint got better and better (and more and more expensive) to the point that now you should be able to figure on hauling once a year. If you use a liberal application of modern copolymer bottom paint and put on three coats when you haul, you should be able to go eighteen months before hauling again. Three last tips: to ensure good bottom coverage on each coat and also so that you can check for how much bottom paint you have left, I strongly advise you to alternate colors on each coat. lolaire's bottom has blue, then red, then blue. As I write this we are down to red; when the blue begins to show I'll know the time has come to start thinking about hauling again. If you have a wooden boat and your rudder post is not coppered, it's well worth removing the rudder and coppering the post. No matter how hard you try, it's impossible to do a really good job of painting between the rudder stock and post. Finally, if you have a taste for shoal-water exploration and a wooden boat, have the deadwood aft of the ballast keel coppered so that if you run aground you won't have the bare wood inviting the worms to dinner.

Wind and Water Generators In the Eastern Caribbean the wind blows 85 percent of the time, from November through July.

Lying at anchor in an idyllic tropical anchorage one hates to disturb the peace by running an engine or generator to produce electricity. The quick solution for an average-size boat unencumbered with a showroom load of electrical equipment is a wind generator mounted on the mizzen masthead on yawls and ketches, or on minimum 12-foot stub masts secured to the stern pulpit on sloops and cutters. Wind generators had a bad name because too many of them produced milliamps instead of ampsonly enough to keep the batteries from going flat if the boat is sitting untended and unused. However, the Ampair wind generators which we've had on lolaire's mizzen masthead for the past twelve years and through four transatlantic passages, produce on an average 18 ampere-hours a day lying at anchor and ± 28 ampere-hours a day underway as long as the wind is forward of abeam. In periods of heavy weather beating to windward, it will put out upward of 72 ampere-hours a day. Its one weakness is when you're running downwind, because the faster you sail the less apparent wind comes across the deck and the lower the generator's output. Within the Lesser Antilles this is not too much of a problem since the islands lie approximately on a north-south axis. With the wind in the easterly quadrant, there are few periods when you will spend a couple of days sailing dead downwind. However, the problem arises when you're sailing either way across the Atlantic. The solution to the downwind problem is to tow a water-powered generator-the Aqua-Amp, which is a specially designed, 12-inch, low-drag, two-bladed propeller, attached to 60 or 70 feet of :%-braided line attached to the generator. Result: 16 pounds of drag at 6 knots, producing 3 amps per hour, 72 a day, the same as running a diesel engine for a couple of hours, and you don't have to listen to the noise or smell the diesel fumes blown the length of the boat by the following breeze. If your boat has a three-way masthead light and, below decks, fluorescent lights (which produce twelve times the light per amp of an incandescent light and produce no heat), you can illuminate them and keep your batteries charged with little or no engine use. You preserve peace and quiet, save wear and tear on the engine, and considerable fuel. Further, if the engine or generator gives out, the batteries can be charged by merely going sailing-a wonderful excuse to get the anchor up and get going. These wind- and water-powered generators are

Preparations designed, built, and marketed by Hugh Meriwether (Ampair-Lumic, 55 Tarrant Street, Arundel, West Sussex BN18 9DJ, England). They've been given a hard test on lolaire over the last twelve years. We know they work, as we have no engine and rely solely on wind and water generators (backed up by a cheap Sears & Roebuck trickle charger when tied up to the dock in windless anchorages). We've had flat batteries no more than about once a year. Meriwether's original Ampair in 1974 was probably the first really workable wind generator for sailboats. There are now dozens of other brands; some of them are fine, others seem downright dangerous. Once the blade diameter gets to 5 or 6 feet, they can take an arm off or kill you. So the generators must be permanently mounted high enough so that the tallest member of the crew cannot touch the blades. And the unit must be securely mounted up there, since the load on it when you're slamming into a head sea can be enormous. Some boats have another wrinkle: an alternator that is belted off the propellor shaft, which is allowed to freewheel when sailing. On the average 45- to 50-foot cruising boat, this rig will produce 30 or more amperes per hour at 6 knots. (For further information on this subject, read The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vo!. 2, pp. 100,405-6, and 409.)

Iceboxes and Reefers The insulation for iceboxes or refrigerators is another area where boats built for northern climates are frequently deficient. I've been aboard too many modern yachts, recently built at tremendous expense, whose icebox insulation is cork or glass wool or foam-but even if it is foam, the foam is not thick enough. In any case, if the box has been in place for any amount of time the insulation is probably soaking wet. The insulating properties of wet cork are about the same as those of old coconut husks. Not only that, but using cork is a great way to cause rot. The case of my own boat is noteworthy. When I bought lolaire she had no icebox, so I built one of 200-pound capacity, insulating it with 2 inches of plank styrofoam. This setup kept ice for about a week-not particularly efficient. So I put an insulated bulkhead down the center of the box and split the top, in effect getting two totally separate lOO-pound boxes. When the ice had melted halfway down in both sides, it was thrown together

31 on one side, so that after no less than five days I started anew with one full lOO-pound box. Then I had a number of extra days in which to take on more ice at my convenience. In addition, since each box was only half the size of the original, the whole of each smaller box, rather then just the bottom of the old box, stayed cold. This worked very well, but finally I became concerned about what might be happening behind the icebox, so I tore it out as a precautionary measure. Sure enough, despite the 2 inches of Styrofoam, condensation was gathering and rot had started eating away at the ceiling of the hull. Luckily, it had not worked its way through to the framing or planking. I rebuilt the whole thing, this time using poured polyurethane foam. The result was well worth the trouble. Polyurethane foam is expensive, but its insulating properties at 2 pounds per cubic foot are superb, as the polyurethane bubbles are not filled with air but with inert freon. The expense of rebuilding my icebox was more than justified, due to the saving in the time and effort of procuring ice and the further saving in the actual cost of ice. If the boxes were cold and topped off to their full capacity of 100 pounds each, I could stretch the ice supply to as long as seventeen days in the first few years after the box was refoamed. As time goes by, however, the foam breaks down and becomes less efficient, to the point that now we are hard put to make 200 pounds of ice last ten days. It's time to remove the icebox again (after twenty years) and reinsulate. Despite what salesmen say to the contrary, it's absolutely essential to insulate the top of the box and to have the top fit with a really tight seal. Bruce Bingham rebuilt the icebox on his little 22-foot Flicka and changed it from an ice swallower to a box that will keep 40 pounds of ice for three weeks. That must be something of a record. (For more on iceboxes and refrigeration systems, see The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vo!. 1, pp. 487 -506 and vo!. 2, pp. 464-85.) Even if you have mechanical or electrical refrigeration, it still pays to reinsulate your box if you plan to visit the tropics. This will keep it from sweating and causing rot. Having the box really well insulated will appreciably reduce the time you have to run the engine. The great difficulty with mechanical refrigeration is that it's very difficult to get it repaired in the Islands. Some boats have kerosene fridges, others have gas; but all in all, with the time, effort, and expense involved, the simple but well-insulated icebox is hard to

32

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

beat. It's bound to work: just buy ice, put it in the box, and everything has to get cold. Remember that what gets you by up north will not necessarily do so in the tropics. To test the iceholding properties of your system while in northern waters, top off your icebox on a summer Sunday, say, just before leaving the boat. Come back the next Saturday and have a look; if the loss has been more than 5 pounds per day, you'd better get the box reinsulated before coming down south. For mechanical refrigeration and / or deep freezers, load the box with food and cool it down to the desired temperature. If from 2000 one night to 0700 the next morning it has gained more than 5° F, it's time to reinsulate, install new holding plates, or what have you. Finding ice in the Islands, incidentally, is no longer the challenge it used to be. Ice used to be cheap but hard to find. Now it's easy to come hy, but expensive. (Available, that is, except when the ice plant breaks down.) So nowadays the best bet is a small icebox with superb insulation, since you'll seldom be more than a week away from the next load of ice. (For the availability of ice in Bermuda, the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands see Chapter 9, "Provisions and Services.") The subject of marine refrigeration is a daunting one and there is neither time nor space to do it justice here. But a word or two is indicated. Many boats use compressors belted directly off the engines, others use llO-volt units run from a big power generator, while by hu the most common unit in medium and small boats is a 12-volt system that runs on thc battery. These 12-volt systems work OK, but all the manufacturers seem to have a very optimistic idea of the cubic capacity that a 12-volt unit will effectively cool. On lolaire we have two small off-theshelf 12-volt units (off-the-shelf, but adapted to Iolaire as you will see) that I feel are effective. Our two iceboxes total 4 cubic feet. Mounted in a 2cubic-foot box, each unit needs to he run four hours a day to keep everything cold. (If we had one larger box, we'd have to run the reefer longer.) The units draw approximately 5 amps, so each box uses 20 amps per day-an amount of electricity either our wind or water generator will easily produce at sea. Each icebox and its reefer unit is a separate operation; thus if one of the units quits running we'll still have one completely cold icebox. I have found pretty general agreement that a yacht's refrigeration system should have two completely separate units, because inevitably any

refrigeration system will break down. If you have a single unit and it is not repaired within twentyfour to thirty-eight hours, you will lose your food. It is not a case of if your refrigeration system stops, but when, as they inevitably do break down. If you have two separate systems, at least you'll be covered. A constant argument boils as to whether the reefer units should be air cooled or water cooled. On Iolaire we have proved that air cooling will work, but only if the unit is installed in a wellventilated place. All too often an air-cooled unit is shoved into some tiny locker or stuck in an overheated engine room so that the unit works but poorly. Small 12-volt water-cooled units will work extremely well, hut it is vital that the tiny water pump be installed according to the directions. Another most important installation point that many manuals do not stipulate is that there should be a water scoop facing forward to force water into the water intake. Once you get over 4 knots, a slight vacuum is created along the hull, and the pump is so small that without a scoop it cannot overcome the vacuum. No water, no refrigeration! I strongly advise installing only 12-volt units that have a small holdover plate. Basically, the units are too small to really make any ice unless you run them continually, which will suck your batteries flat in short order. In addition, the aluminum refrigeration evaporator plate is very susceptible to electrolysis-you get a leak and there goes your refrigeration. We went through three aluminum evaporators before we finally switched to stainless holdover eutectic plates and since then, we have had few problems. Our technique is to put 30 pounds of ice into each box and then run the holdover plates four hours a day. The ice will last practically forever. Finally, as mentioned before, it is possible to run the electric refrigeration without using the engine. Iolaire's Ampair unit mounted atop the mizzcnmast and her taffrail generator trailed over the stern when sheets are eased provide all the power needed. lolaire did a double transatlantic voyage in 1985 to celebrate her eightieth birthday, and the refrigeration system worked most of the time. We carted ice and had cold beer and fresh meat the entire trip.

Ventilation Of prime importance is physical comfort. Even in steady trade winds, providing for effective ventilation is a must when water and air are both warm.

Preparations The former holds at about 78° F, and the latter hits 85° F every day. But despite what many people say to the contrary, air conditioning is totally unnecessary. With adequate awnings, ventilators, and wind scoops, cabins and cockpits need never get uncomfortably hot. A tremendous number of new boats are coming to the Islands each year, including many that have been specifically designed for bare boat chartering in the Caribbean. Some have hatches opening forward, which, of course, must be closed for all rain squalls and under sail when the spray is flying, which in the Islands is most of the time. Other boats have aft-opening hatches. At sea the aftopening hatch will possibly collect eriough air to make belowdecks bearable, especially if it has a good dodger so that it can be left fully open under sail. In port, though, you'd die of the heat since not enough air is pushed through the boat by aftopening hatches. Therefore, I consider a double-opening hatch that can face either fore or aft a necessity. However, to reverse the standard double-opening hatch requires your going on deck to change the pins-a real pain at 0200 in a driving rain squall. The answer is an extremely good hatch by Goiot, a French marine hardware firm, which can be opened facing either forward or aft without having to go on deck to check the pins. This is by far the best hatch on the market hut it necds one addition: a pad eye and stainless-steel lanyard secured to the hatch to prevent it from blowing overboard. Best of all is to have your hatches hinged four ways, as sometimes you'll be moored to a dock beam to the wind or on a beam reach where you might want to open the hatch facing to leeward. Jay Paris, designer of the transatlantic record holder Lone Star (see pg. 67-68), designed a four-way opening hatch that can be switched to any of the four positions without going on deck. For information about this unique design contact Lone Star's owner, J. O. Huggins, 2121 Edwards Street, PO Box 7692, Houston, TX 77007, USA. Going to windward and reaching in a fresh trade wind with a big sea produces large quantities of spray, and the Caribbean's rain squalls, while perhaps welcomed at first, can become unpleasant in a hurry. A folding dodger that protects the whole forward end of the cockpit will he a real godsendand in a midships-cockpit boat, absolutely essential. Otherwise you'll feel as if someone is aiming a fire hose at you or throwing a bucket of water at your face every two minutes. With a proper dodger, only the helmsman gets wet, while the rest of the crew relaxes under the dodger, drinking beer; the

33

main companionway hatch can be left open too, a big help in ventilating the cabin. It's also essential that all hatches be equipped with good watertight dodgers so that when you're beating to windward the hatches can be left partly open facing aft, with the dodger over them to keep out the spray, A buttoned-up boat in the tropics soon becomes a sweatbox. A large number of bare boats in the Caribbean fit this category exactly, and are impossible belowdeck under way because of the heat. This is especially bad for people coming from the north who need to get below out of the sun, but can't because of the sweltering conditions down there. One sorry development in ventilation has been those low-profile cowls designed to reduce windage while racing. They mayor may not minimize windage, but they certainly do minimize ventilation; for that job they're all but useless. (See The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vol. 1, pp. 276-82 regarding the amount of air passed below by ventilators of various sizes.) When you're at anchor, a couple of "galley staysails," i. e., wind scoops aimed down the hatches, are worth their weight in gold. Keep the air moving and you'll stay cool. Awnings will keep the sun from frying your brain-as long as they're not made of Dacron or nylon. The sun shines right through these materials; you can get sunburned while sitting in their supposed shade. Perhaps worse, they're noisy. We have all experienced the distraction of a fluttering leech; a nylon or Dacron awning's fluttering will drive you right out of your mind. The best awning material is Vivatex, a mildewproofed canvas sold by various canvas suppliers in large cities. It blocks out the sun completely and stands up well to tropical elements. If you have a large awning made up, covering from the mainmast aft, be sure to have its edges roped: it will last longer and won't tend to stretch. An awning rigged good and tight so that the wind doesn't blow it around will make life aboard a good deal more enjoyable. Although it's not essential, a second, smaller awning that can cover the cockpit when sailing is a useful extra. Another way for boats with ports opening on the cabin trunk to increase the amount of ventilation below is to install "bunny ears" while at anchor. This device, described and sketched in The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vol. 2, p. 331, is now commercially available from Fawcetts, 110 Compromise Street, Annapolis, MD 21404. Two of the biggest problems you'll encounter when crossing the "pond" are sunburn and heat.

34

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

To minimize damage from the former, buy some big straw hats in Madeira or the Canaries; then tie strings to them and to the shirt you're wearing, so that if the hats blow off they won't go overboard. And don't worry-no matter how much you cover up, by the time you reach the Lesser Antilles you'll be tanned. When in doubt, cover up. Take plenty of total sunblock for use on your face, the backs of your hands, and the top of your feet. Sailing across in the trade-wind route, the sun comes up dead astern; by 1000 it's shining down on the deck with an awful lot of heat and it stays up overhead until late in the afternoon when it disappears behind the headsails. Thus, for four to six hours a day you should rig a small cockpit awning so that the helmsman and anyone relaxing on deck can do so in the shade. Even the best-ventilated boats get hot when they're running dead downwind. On Iolaire we open the forecastle hatch and rig our large galley staysail into the forecastle and leave it there continually. As rain squalls come by, we tie a sail stop around it and flip the hatch closed, opening the hatch immediately after the squall passes. This produces a good air flow through the entire boat, cooling it off drastically at night and making it cool during the day: the thermometer hanging from the overhead in the main cabin never rose above 79° F from the Canaries to the Lesser Antilles. Surging along at hull speed in the low-free board Iolaire there was always a lot of water on deck aft but the foredeck was usually dry, and seldom did any water come down the forecastle hatch. A hot new item on the market for ventilating boats is the solar-powered exhaust vent-a small electric fan powered by its own solar panel. It is an integral unit that fits into either a 3- or 4-inch deck plate, and it moves an amazing amount of air. They are very useful on any boat, but I think they're essential for a wooden boat in the tropics. Mount one forward to exhaust the dead air out of the forepeak, and two aft to ventilate the transom. They certainly will do a tremendous amount to eliminate the dampness and rot in the ends of the wooden boat. We have experimented with NicroFico solar-powered vents, and they have been amaZingly effective and robust. There are probably other good brands, too.

Keeping Warm While sailing to and from the Islands, it's essential not only to keep dry but to keep warm. In cold

weather, cotton dungarees, sweatshirts, and socks are useless, as they have absolutely zero warmth when wet. As a result of intensive ocean racing in the round-thc-world races, a number of companies have come out with clothing to be worn under foul-weather gear that allegedly is warm even when wet and is also quick-drying. It is excellent gear but very expensive. The old standby wool works really well and is cheaper than the new fancy synthetics, especially since you can usually pick up wool long johns, pants, socks, watch caps, etc., very inexpensively at fishing supply and military surplus stores. Once in the Caribbean you will still need something to keep you warm when sailing at night; I still like a wool watch cap and sweater underneath my knee-length foul-weather coat. Round-the-world racing has proved that diesel heaters will heat up a boat very efficiently but they will not dry the air. There is only one way to dry out the interior of a boat and that is with a solidfuel stove burning wood, charcoal, peat, or anthracite (steamer coal). But the solid-fuel stove will work only if you have a really good smoke head that will create a draft in all weather conditions and under all sail trims. We have experimented with six different smoke heads and have come to the conclusion that the Jolie Brise-type smoke head (see The Ocean Sailing Yacht, vol. 2, pp. 338-39) is the only smoke head that fills the bill. The type of smoke head we have on Iolaire is now made by N icro- Fico. Probably the ideal method of keeping a boat warm is to have a diesel heater ducted throughout the boat, backed up by a solid-fuel heater to dry the air in the main cabin.

Keeping Dry There are numerous superb and expensive foulweather suits available, but I still contend that if fabric is breathable so that air can get through, so can water. Needless to say if you are sailing to the Islands, crossing the Atlantic, or leaving the Islands for points north, it is essential that the entire crew have really good foul-weather gear. A wet, cold crew member is an inefficient, dangerous crew member. Most people in the Caribbean itself feel that seaboots and foul-weather trousers are not necessary. But many of us get sick and tired of living with a bottom that's always wet because the stan-

Preparations dard foul-weather jacket is too short. For that reason I persuaded my Irish friend Alfie Burns of Brymac, 35 Upper John Street, Cork, Ireland, to make us up knee-length foul-weather coats. They have been extremely effective, liked by every member of Iolaire's crew, and admired by other yachtsmen. Unfortunately, we had little success selling them to marine hardware stores-it was definitely not one of my more successful business ventures.

Pumps Another sensible precaution before starting south or west is to overhaul your pumps. Many a boat heading for the Islands has run into serious difficulty because its pumping system couldn't cope with more than a small leak. I feel it is essential to have at hand big diaphragm-type bilge pumps. In my opinion the old-fashioned navy pump is next to useless. It is operated with an up-and-down motion: within half an hour your arm is coming out of its socket and no water is coming out of the boat. These pumps are also hard to disassemble and easily damaged. A good big diaphragm pump should be mounted so that it's easily accessible; make sure that the intake and discharge lines have as few bends in them as possible, and for ease of pumping, install a handle two or three times larger than that provided. If your boat has only one pump, discretion dictates that you acquire a second. A simple solution is to bolt down a big diaphragm pump on a piece of %-inch plywood and attach to it two hoses long enough to reach overside from the bilge. Then stow it in the lazarette and hope to hell you never have to dig it out. Many diaphragm pumps are on the market and almost all of them are good. The only trouble is that many modern yacht builders install the minimum size. Whale Gusher 10, for instance, is an excellent pump, but is too small for many boats; the Gusher 25, or larger, would be better. Finally, I must say that I have worked with various pumps over the last twenty-five years and have come to the conclusion that the best largecapacity pump is the dear old Edson: it's reliable and extremely easy to disassemble. My hat goes off to the designers, builders, and suppliers of the Edson pump, who have literally saved my life a number of times. (You might also remember, as I think Ray Mullender wrote after a passage through

35

the Roaring Forties, that the world's most efficient bilge pump is a terrified man with a bucket.)

Engines, Fuel, and Fire Extinguishers Check your gasket kit and make sure everything is there that should be. I once opened my gasket kit after I'd taken the engine out of the boat only to discover that the essential oil seal, which cost about fourteen cents, was missing. What with telephone calls, cables, and lost mail, the missing oil seal cost me about $20 and two lost weeks. The same holds true of carburetor parts. It once took me two years to replace standard carburetor parts for an engine that is still being manufactured. Diesels are admittedly much more reliable than gasoline engines. However, when things do go wrong, you'll discover that the diesel-parts situation in the Islands can be excruciatingly poor. For a diesel, I'd strongly recommend bringing a complete set of gaskets, a couple of extra valves, some spare injectors, an injector pipe, and a spare starter motor. Other brands of alternators and generators can usually be adapted, but for a starter motor only the correct one will fit. The greatest problem with both gasoline and diesel fuel is dirt and water; be sure to have a large-capacity filter and plenty of extra filter elements, as they're very scarce in this area. Marine suppliers do have some, but never the type you need. If your engine needs overhauling, overhaul it. And in any regard, be sure to carry the most complete repair manual that the manufacturer prints-the real mechanic's repair manual, not just the owner's manual. These days there really isn't any reason to have a gasoline engine. With so many small diesels on the market, why deal with a potentially explosive bomb? Especially when so many insurance underwriters won't touch gasoline-powered boats with a ten-foot barge pole. Although diesel fuel will not explode, it certainly will burn, and a leaking injector spraying fuel on a hot exhaust manifold will cause a massive fire. For that reason I strongly advise installing an automatic Halon system in the engine room, with a remote pull in case the automatic part doesn't work. The size of the engine room must be carefully considered; I have seen more than one engine room that is much too big for the capacity of its automatic Halon system. An added incentive for installing an automatic fire extinguishing system is that the Lloyd's under-

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide writers whom I deal with, and many other underwriters, give a 5 percent reduction on hull premium for the installation of a built-in fire extinguishing system. The system will pay for itself in reduced insurance premiums in about three years.

Radios This is not the place for a full-bore discussion of marine radio equipment. It seems fair to say, though, that the single side band radios, formerly so expensive that they were only for fancy racing boats, are now reasonable enough that anyone making a long passage should think seriously about getting one. The new SSBs are all-band sets that will transmit and receive on the commercial frequencies as well as the ham bands. Given a really good ground, a properly tuned antenna, and a well-trained operator, an SSB will give you virtually transoceanic coverage. You can also call in to commercial radio systems and patch into the international telephone system. VHF radio, of course, provides only line-of-sight reception and transmission. It is very useful close inshore, and is particularly good in the northern Lesser Antilles because VI Radio, St. Thomas, has an antenna 1,900 feet up on Crown mountain and Saba Radio has one at 4,000 feet. The latter range reaches almost to Antigua. Both systems can connect you to the phone system so you can call worldwide if you can afford it. South of Antigua, the VHF is strictly short-range because there are no commercial systems with high antennas to patch you into the phone system. But VHF lets you talk to other yachts, marinas, and port captains' offices. Ham operators can work their magic with very small sets to talk worldwide. If you are so inclined (I go to sea to avoid telephones and radios, myself), you'll of course need a ham licence. It certainly can be useful for getting weather information. The Eastern Caribbean's maritime mobile net comes on at 0700 local time on 7.30 MHz. The UK maritime net comes on at 0700 and 1200 GMT on 14.303 MHz. A worldwide maritime net on 14.313 MHz is up virtually twenty-four hours a day. Weatherfax machines are becoming more and more common, less and less expensive. They can prOVide you with a lot of information but it won't do you much good if you can't interpret it. I have seen too many boats with stacks of weather and

temperature charts, and no one onboard who knows what to do with the information. For Maxi ocean racers or really large cruising yachts that can do 10 or 12 knots, the weatherfax is a great help, as it frequently allows them to get out of the way of bad frontal systems and lows, or to get on the correct side of an unfavorable wind. On the average 6-knot cruising boat, though, all the weatherfax tells you is that you are going to get your tail kicked in a day or so and that there is nothing much you can do about it.

Time Signals The old standby, of course, is WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado, which gives the time every minute and from the hour to 15 minutes after the hour gives the location, speed, and direction of all the lows (and hurricanes) worldwide. They broadcast on 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 MHz. But in the Caribbean and east of 25° west longitude, WWV is hard to receive. For that reason many navigators (this one included) tune into BBC shortwave. GMT

2000-0800 2300-0300 1800-0800 1800-0800 1800-2000

49 41 31 25 19

meter meter meter meter meter

band band band band band

6.195 mc 7.13 9.51 11.75 15.07

These signals can usually be picked up on any good transistor multiband portable.

Personal Gear No matter how little you bring with you, it will most likely be too much, whether you've come down on your own boat or flown in for a two-week charter. Suitcases, of course, are a particular nuisance on board. Admittedly, a few of the larger charter boats have stowage areas in the engine room, but these are the exception. Carry your gear in duffel bags and, if necessary, zippered hang-up bags for suits and dresses. You'll need very little clothing. Women should take a couple of fancy dresses, which they may not use but which they'll be relieved to have on hand should the occasion present itself. They should also take a couple of blouses, bathing suits, and slacks. Bell-bottom slacks are the most convenient, as they can be rolled up and kept dry when you step out of a dinghy into ankle-deep water. Simple,

Preparations cool dresses should be carried, and wrap-around skirts, since on many of the islands shorts and bikinis are not considered proper attire. A pareu or two-I V2 yards of brightly colored cotton clothwill be extremely useful, to be worn as a nightgown by night, a dress by day or night, and a skirt on the beach-with or without a bikini top as local custom and personal inclination dictate. I've known women visiting for two weeks of sailing in the Caribbean to arrive with the clothes they are wearing, a foul-weather jacket, and a handbag containing three pareus, four bikinis, a couple of shirts, spare bra and panties, and makeup kit. They had no problem with lost baggage or stowing their gear. Men should take a tie and jacket for the one or two places they'll need them. Otherwise, shorts and T-shirts are the staple items. Better still are old, slightly threadbare, long-sleeved cotton shirts. They're cool and provide the best protection from the sun. Pareus, once you get used to them, are just as useful for men as for women. (I wear one regularly, but sometimes think of Dr. Samuel Johnson's definition of a kilt: "A strange wraparound woolen garment worn by Scotsmen-an incomparable garment for defecation and fornication. ") It's a good idea to pack a pair of worn-out sneakers to wear in the shallows so that you don't have to worry about sea urchins. Light foul-weather gear and l' sweater for the evening will come in handy, as will an old pair of socks to protect the tops of your feet (and of your tiller hand) from sunburn. Seaboots and all that sort of heavy foulweather gear are not needed; rather, find a light, knee-length foul-weather coat with a hood. That way you'll have a dry tail when you sit down, yet not have to wear foul-weather trousers. Finally, if you're traveling to the Islands by air, be sure to carry a pair of shorts, bathing suit, shirt, and a change of socks and underwear in a small separate bag, hand-carried on board the plane. Then when your luggage is lost in transit (note that I say when, not ifl), you won't spend your first few days wandering about the tropics in a tweed suit. Electric shavers are of uncertain value in the area. In the Eastern Caribbean, for example, the 220-volt current that services most of the larger islands will burn out most plug-in shavers in a second or two. Battery-operated cordless shavers are probably the most convenient on board, until it comes time to recharge them. My only slightly biased advice is to grow a beard!

37

Most everyone will want to bring a camera. But film can be hard to come by, so it's a good idea to bring with you as much as you plan to use. Keep it dry, and if possible, cold; at any rate, keep it out of the sun. An underwater camera will be particularly valuable; be sure to use a red filter to counteract the bluish cast that's noticeable in so many underwater photographs. When you're transporting photographic equipment in a dinghy, keep it all in a watertight plastic bag. A waterproof camera should be well secured to your wrist or to a thwart. I once capsized a dinghy in breaking seas on the outer reef of the Tobago Cays. We lost a fine underwater camera and meter which would be ours today had I tied them down. Sunglasses, if you use them at all, are absolutely essential in the area. Bring extras, as they have a way of getting away from you when you need them most. Before you leave the States, drill two small holes in the bows of the glasses. Later a piece of sail thread can be knotted through the holes and passed around the back of your head to keep them from being knocked off your nose into the drink. You can also secure thin marline or waxed twine with a couple of tight rolling hitches around the earpieces. Finally, let me stress again the importance of protecting yourselffrom the sun. I've said it many times in these volumes, but it's worth repeating. Sun is the real bugaboo of Caribbean cruises. For anyone who spends a lot of time at sea, especially in the tropics, skin cancer is a definite problem. More so for blonds, but also for darker complected people. My advice is to load up with the highestnumber sun-block lotion available. If you're going to be snorkeling or windsurfing, Bulldog brand is advertised as being completely waterproof. In addition, I recommend cotton trousers and long-sleeved shirts for the sun-strong hours of your first week. Pajamas work fine and you can also wear them in the water. If not pajamas, at least wear a T-shirt when swimming-an hour or so of snorkeling makes even a well-tanned back look like boiled lobster. After experimenting with all types of headgear over the years, I've decided the best is the good old Tilley hat-as modeled on the cover of all Street's Guides to the Eastern Caribbean.

Fishing Equipment There is without doubt in various areas of the Caribbean fantastic big-time sport fishing, but that's

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide a book in itself and not really part of the Caribbean cruising scene. Trailing a line over the stern in the hope of catching yourself dinner, however, definitely is part of the Caribbean scene. Fishing practice from a sailboat varies from using some old frayed nylon line wrapped around a hook and tied onto heavy monofilament pitched off the stern of the boat to the fancy rods, reels, and fishing chairs sometimes found on the stern decks of the Stephens Yachts Gulfstar 50s. Believe it or not, on the former rig about twenty years ago in Current Hole, us Virgin Islands, lolaire caught a 7-foot, 63V2-pound sailfish. Not a very sporting proposition I'm sorry to say: we hitched the line around a winch and cranked it on in. Not having a gaff we tied a running bowline around its tail, put a snatch block in the backstay, and hoisted it up in the air, then killed it with a winch handle. We now usually fish by using heavy monofilament line tied to a wire leader, with various types of lures. The monofilament line is taken about 15 turns around the windward cockpit winch counterclockwise and then secured. This is done so that if a fish strikes, he gets 6 or 8 feet of line before it becomes taut and it also instantly tells you that you have a strike, since the ratchet starts clicking. As for what lure to use, the only thing to do is to talk to local fishermen in the area you're sailing, consult your horoscope, and roll a few dice-then pick a lure and pitch it over the stern. A gaff will help in boating the fish, but if you don't have a gaff, swing the fish clear of the water and over the lifeline in one smooth motion. Gloves are pretty much essential, as monofilament is tough on the hands and the wire leader will cut through the toughest calluses. Years ago myoid friend Marv Berning, who helped me salvage and rebuild lolaire in 1958, reported that from the Azores to Gibraltar and Gibraltar back to Barbados, he had averaged a fish every other day. Needless to say, I asked him the secret of his success. He very kindly supplied the following information, which will undoubtedly be of interest to those who like to fish: "Don't ask why, but the fish in the Caribbean seem to bite differently from the fish in the open Atlantic and Mediterranean. "Having no luck at all on the way to the Azores, I met there some French naval officers from Brittany serving on a visiting naval vessel who gave me a tip that was to change my luck completely. "Much to my surprise, their rig had no stainlesssteel or wire leader at all. It had a double barbless

hook, 21/2-3 inches long, with a few pieces of red leather seized to its upper end and attached to 30 or 40 feet of 40-pound test monofilament which ended in a swivel. Behind feathers was a 4-inch, pale-pink plastic squid. It should be noted that the hook trailed mostly clear from the pink plastic squid, the latter overlapping the hook only about 3/4 _ to I-inch (2-3 cm). The 30 to 40 feet of monofilament before the swivel is important to give undisturbed water ahead of the lure. From the swivel to the boat I use about an 80-pound test monofilament (80 to 120 feet), using the shorter length for the slow speeds and the longer length for higher speed, on the theory that there should be just enough flexibility to prevent its breaking when a fish bites but not have it too flexible so that the hook isn't set properly. No weights were used. "The best time of the day for fishing was the first few hours after sunrise. "This rig kept us amply supplied with big-eyed tunas, bonito, and dolphin for the rest of the trip to Gibraltar. "We've found that using a silver spoon (about three inches long) behind the pink squid worked very well too. "It was only as we neared Barbados on our return trip that we began losing our rigs-the fish were biting through the monofilament. "I believe that as you approach the Caribbean it is necessary to go back to the usual stainless-steel wire leader to prevent losing all your lures. "A silver spoon skipping along the surface seems to be very good for dolphin around the Barbados area, where flying fish are abundant. "Incidentally, our line is simply belayed to a cleat and the fish are pulled in by hand and heaved aboard into the cockpit." If you are towing a taffrail log or generator, forget about it; the only thing you will catch is the log or generator. A quote from another successful fisherman: "If you want to use a heavy fishing pole, it should be set in a rod holder in the stern pulpit, secured by a safety line with 300 or more yards of 6O-pound or more test line on the reel, a swivel secured to 5-8 feet of steel line with line and treble hook. A gaff is necessary if you don't want to lose a lot of fish. The drag is set just tight enough so that the line does not run out. The minute the fish bites, the drag is thrown off to allow the fish to actually swallow the bait, then the drag is reset and the fish is winched in. (You are going for food, not sport!) "Once the hook is set it is best that the boat be

Preparations left luffed and slowed down-this is sometimes a project when running downwind in a heavy trade with a big sea under the stern and two headsails swung out forward. A slow luff will back the weather headsail and stop the boat, but bearing off again may be difficult. Sometimes you have to kick the engine on to swing back downwind; each boat will be different. " Gill Frei of the famous 72-foot yawl Escapade insists that with the aid of a yellow feather he has caught dolphin (dorado in Spanish), good big ones at least every other day on all of his transatlantic passages. He trails two lines at once: one from a rod, the other a straight handline secured to a winch as we do on Iolaire. Unlike us, though, Gill catches plenty of fish and he swears by his yellow feather. You should keep your fishing gear handy, because if you become becalmed or are sailing slowly, a large dolphin may be attracted by the shade under the boat. This happened to us when we were becalmed, but by the time we got out the fishing gear, stowed in the bottom of the lazarette, we made so much noise banging around that the dorado was scared off. Warning: when fishing in the Caribbean north of Guadeloupe, consult the locals regarding fish poisoning; it is a problem, but only north of Guadeloupe.

Insects One great problem in any tropical area is cockroaches. If your boat remains in the Islands for any amount of time, sooner or later cockroaches will come on board and begin to breed and multiply. Cockroaches on board are not a sign of a filthy boat. The place I always find them in Iolaire, for instance, is in the winch-handle boxes-they love the grease on winch handles. It's possible to have a boat fumigated in the Islands, but it's an expensive and time-consuming procedure. A better bet is to buy a bottle of Diazon and an old-fashioned spray gun, follow the directions (the Diazun is mixed with water), spray all the dark and unventilated corners of the boat, especially the bilge, and you'll be rid of cockroaches-for a while. If you have a leaky boat you can simply pour some undiluted Diazon in the bilge water and let it slosh around. (This information was given to me by the former head of the Food and Drug Laboratory in Puerto Rico. He stated that most of the commercially sold sprays in

39

the Islands are more dangerous to the sprayer than to the bug.) The incubation of cockroach eggs is two weeks; even if you bomb the daylights out of your roaches, you'll have to do it again in two weeks to get the eggs that are then hatching out. If you use commercial sprays, switch brands occasionally. We have had good luck with so-called "roach hotels." At least they save YOll from the sprays. But you need a lot of them-for a 45-foot boat you should put out at least a dozen. Buy a bunch if you see them in a store and replace them every six to eight weeks. Another new weapon and apparently the best in the roach war is Combat, available direct from American Cyanamid 6, Consumer Products Group, Wayne, NJ 07470, USA; it's similar to a roach hotel but smaller. We regularly win many battles against roaches, but the war always goes on. Flying, biting insects are not too much of a problem except in the Bahamas, but always keep a can of insecticide aboard, as well as mosquito coils, which smolder like punk and are effective in keeping the mossies out of the cabin. Occasionally---due to poor garbage facilities at marinas-a rat comes aboard. Then you have a real problem. West Indian rats are usually too smart to fall for a trap or poison-and if one does eat poison it might die in an inaccessible place and the smell would drive you off the boat anyway. One possible solution is to place a Honda (or similar) portable generator below decks, and run the generator for four to five hours; pray thc exhaust fumes will kill it or at least make belowdecks so unattractive that it will abandon ship.

Medical Before taking off on any long-distance passage you should contact a sailing doctor and have him make up a really good medical kit, well stocked with antibiotics. Be sure to have him note what antibiotics should be used for what sickness. It is also essential that you have enough strong pain-killers aboard. Someone with a broken arm in the middle of the Atlantic, even if the arm's splinted and immobilized, should be kept full of pain-killers until a ship can be stopped and the patient transferred to better medical facilities. Normally, cruising yachtsmen in the Caribbean run into minor medical problems. Bad water, possibly fruit, possibly too many rum punches may bring "Montezuma's revenge" or "the Grenada

40

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

grunch." Lomotil is a great stopper-upper, without doubt the world's best, and no boat should be without it, though Lomotil doesn't cure the problem; the prescription drug Imodium is even better. Staph infection is rife, so any cut must be carefully cleaned and kept dry. Salt water is not a good healing medium for any cuts. For healing normal cuts it is hard to beat BNT ointment, Cicatrin powder, and pHisoHex-once staph infection starts it is very important to wash the area three and four times a day with fresh water and the pHisoHex. Hospitals in the Caribbean vary drastically. Some are excellent, others are so bad that the most dangerous thing you could do is to spend a night in one. Betsy Hist Holman's book Sitting Duck tells a horror story of a public hospital on St. Vincent. The situation was a disaster until she discovered there was an excellent private hospital on the island. Most of the islands have a private hospital, and generally they're better than the public ones. Most of the doctors in the Islands are very well trained, but some, admittedly, have forgotten much of what they learned in medical school. The best method of finding a good doctor is to call one of the hotels, talk to the manager, explain the situation, and ask him to recommend or contact a doctor for you. If you're in an out-of-the-way anchorage with a medical problem, get on the radio and start calling. Usually among the charter-boat parties you'll find a doctor who will be able to give you advice in person or over the radio. Make sure your medical kit has a good dental kit so that if anyone has a bad toothache you have the material to pack the tooth and minimize the pain. Before making a long passage it is well worthwhile to make sure every member of the crew has a careful dental check-up before departure. One final word: there are all sorts of native West Indian medicinal herbs and remedies; telling of them would make a book in itself. One such remedy, however, which should be seriously kept in mind, is aloe, a sap squeezed from the Oat cactus plant locally called "pingwing." It is without a doubt one of the finest burn remedies in the world. Liberal application of aloe saved my wife from being badly scarred as a result of an oven explosion (ashore, not on the boat). The same balm works wonders in taking the burn out of sunburn. Aloe plants grow wild all over the Islands; ask a native to get some for you. Slice off the outside; the jelly

that pours out should be applied directly to the skin.

Water Safety Much has been written in travel brochures and adventure stories of the dangers of swimming in tropical waters. Perhaps because the sharks, barracudas, and eels have not read the same literature they're not aware of how dangerous they are. Fact is, by observing a few simple procedures you are probably safer swimming in the Lesser Antilles than you are crossing Forty-second Street in New York City. Here are the fundamentals:

1. Don't swim at night; the greatest number of shark attacks take place after sundown. 2. Don't swim from the boat way offshore. Sharks near inshore reefs are well fed and not particularly hungry. The ones a few miles off may be hungry and dangerous. 3. Don't swim wearing bright-calored clothes. Leave necklaces, rings, watches, and bracelets on board the boat. 4. When speamshing, keep a dinghy nearby. As soon as you spear a fish, put it in the dinghy. A bleeding or Outtering fish will attract a shark in a hurry. Should this happen, leave the fish to the shark as an appetizer. He'll eat it up and usually go away. (The same applies to barracuda, which are always curious, seldom aggressive.) Most of the firsthand accounts of shark attacks are told by experienced spear fishermen. If you question them closely, nine times out of ten they'll admit to having taken chances in an area they knew to be dangerous, say, continuing to swim long after injured fish left in the water began making their distinctive distress cry (a sort of clicking noise). The moray eel is a nasty, mean-spirited customer who hides out in coral caves and holes. Unless sharply provoked, he will seldom attack. But don't go sticking a hand or foot into dark holes in a reef without taking a damn good look first. If you see a lobster and an eel in the same opening, you are advised to leave the lobster alone, for the eel may take offense at the intrusion. There are four other swimming dangers that present a more common threat than shark, barracuda, or eel. These are: (1) severe sunburn on the

Preparations shoulders, back, or legs; (2) sea urchins (they do go right through the sole of a swim fin); (3) being swept away by the current; and (4) getting run down by an outboard. The last becomes a greater problem every year as more and more yachts come into the area tendered by absurdly high-speed launches. There must be something of the fly-boy mentality in these launch operators who, even when their yachts are moored only a few hundred yards offshore, feel impelled to make the trip at nothing less than full speed, and woe betide the poor swimmer in between. I know of one person who was killed in this way, and m sure there have been others. Don't add to the statistics. If there are people joy-riding with high-speed outboards, stay close to your own boat or row ashore and swim off the beach. No matter where you are, check the current before diving over the side. There are times when there's no way to swim against it. If you're going

r

on a snorkeling expedition, determine the set of the tide. Don't go when it's running to leeward, and in a strong tide don't swim downstream of the dinghy. In the Grenadines especially, the tides can run very swiftly, and even a strong swimmer with fins will not be able to make way against them. And last, as tempting as they may look, do not eat the crab apples on the beach. They are manchineel and deadly poisonous. Windsurfing keeps getting more and more popular everywhere. In the Eastern Caribbean, remember, the wind is almost always from the east; many anchorages are open to the west, and many's the skipper who has looked up to discover one of his crew members three miles downwind on a windsurfer, completely exhausted and unable to beat to windward back to the boat. More than one person has gone to sailors' Valhalla this way. My best advice is to always stay to windward of your boat.

3

Charts The harbor charts that illustrate this Guide by and large have been directly reproduced from ImrayIolaire charts or from US, BA, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and German charts. (The latter are the best of the Cape Verde Islands, based on pre- World War I surveys. Were they made for German raiders, perhaps?) If you find a difference between a government chart and the Harbor Chart in this book, I feel sure the Harbor Chart will be more accurate. But you should be very careful because there's a lot of harbor bUilding and renovating going on, particularly in the Atlantic island groups-breakwaters, marinas, dredging, new lights, beacons, and buoys are being added at a great rate everywhere. Keep your eyes peeled. Where we don't have re/iable charts to work from for harbor illustrations we have provided Sketch Charts, which are so marked. They are based on the best information we can obtain, sometimes from a topographical map, sometimes a road map, sometimes just by pacing off a breakwater and guessing at its length. In any case, they are not precise, and are to be used with extreme caution. Finally, and most important, DO NOT ENTER STRANGE HARBORS AT NIGHT OR UNDER BAD CONDITIONS. Throughout the Islands lights are notorious for their unreliability, and many buoys have been moved or lighted differently or have gone adrift and not been replaced. Be careful. Charts are always a problem for the cruising yachtsman. In one sense they are as vital as any piece of equipment on board, yet they can never be relied on absolutely. So you must always use careful judgment, balancing common sense and

alert observation against the printed word. In my thirty-three years in the Caribbean I have used and studied most of the two hundred-odd charts~American (NOAA, DMA), British Admiralty (BA), French, Dutch, Venezuelan-that cover the area. While most of the US and BA charts are 98 percent accurate, I found many problems. Often the scale is too large to be much help to yachtsmen. Many charts are based on ancient surveys. The size of the charts vary and some are awkwardly large for a yacht's navigation space. Often an area is split up the wrong way-one US chart cuts Virgin Gorda in half, for instance, and several US and BA charts break up St. Vincent and the Grenadines area in odd splits that make them difficult for cruising use. Finally, and most frustrating of all, the correction services for most government charts vary from inefficient to nonexistent. Throughout the Caribbean and the Atlantic island groups harbor facilities and navigation aids are constantly being changed~ither by development projects or through natural forces such as hurricanes and wave action. Island administrations fail to report changes to chart makers; or if they do, the charts are not updated for years. The chart correction service for US charts is extremely poor. Notices to Mariners are published, but are not placed on the chart until it is republished. For many areas frequented by yachtsmen the charts are only occasionally reprinted. Be sure you look at the lower-left-hand corner of the chart for its edition and original issue date. Remember that no corrections have been logged on that chart since that date unless you have done it yourself. 42

Charts The BA correction service is much better. Not only is a notice to mariners published, but British chart agents, like Kelvin Hughes, log in the corrections on existing charts right up to the date the chart is sold. The trouble is, though, that the BA can't correct charts of foreign waters until they have been officially informed of changes by the hydrographic office of the country concerned. (Normally, unofficial reports from yachtsmen don't count. It took me ten years to convince the BA that I was a reliable source of such information.) One example of such communication failure nearly cost me Iolaire. In 1985 she left St. Barts bound for Bermuda with just me and the mate aboard. At sunset we saw a light in the Anguilla area. The light was not marked on the chart, and we had heard nothing about a light being established there, but knowing how narrow the channel is between Anguilla and Scrub Island, I assumed the light was on the end of Scrub. (My friend Hank Strauss says: "On a yacht you can never assume anything, unless you see an aircraft carrier going up the channel ahead of you-then you can assume there is enough water for you." He's right.) When the light came abeam, I went below to catch some sleep, but no sooner had I turned in than the mate yelled, "Quick, come on deck. The light has gone out-land ahead!" I rushed on deck and we hardened and just cleared the breakers at the eastern end of Scrub, picking up a lobster pot enroute. I couldn't figure out what was going on, when suddenly the light came on again. Turns out it was On the end of Anguilla, not Scrub. Later that year I talked to the British Admiralty, and they knew nothing of the light. A barrage of letters went back and forth between the Admiralty and me and the Anguillan harbor master. Finally, more than a year later, the harbor authority admitted they had established the light on the end of Anguilla-in December of 1984! Such are the difficulties of keeping charts up to date. In an effort to solve some of these chart problems, I signed a contract in 1981 with Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson, usually known simply as Imray. They have been making charts since 1670, so they know what they are doing. Originally all charts were privately printed. It was not until the early nineteenth century that the British and American hydrographic offices bought up the rights to various private chart organizations and began to make their own charts. Today Imray and Stanford Maritime Ltd., are the only two companies completely redrawing and redesigning charts. Other

43 chart publishers merely photostat government charts. The Imray-Iolaire charts are the only charts in the western hemisphere that have been specifically designed, redrawn, and rescaled by and for yachtsmen. Frequently we have altered the boundaries of charts; we do not cut Virgin Gorda Sound and Bequia in half, and you don't need a magnifying glass to find the Tobago Cays. We have corrected them by personal exploration, frequently consulting unpublished government surveys, and added information supplied to me by experienced yachtsmen. Ranges (transits to the British) are regularly shown on the charts, plus navigational warnings, and tide and current information; we have also inserted various harbor plans on the margins of the charts rather than issuing separate charts. All charts are the same size: 25" X 35ljz" (25" X 18" if folded once-a handy size to fit on a chart table). The result is that the entire Eastern Caribbean -from Mona Island to Trinidad plus the Venezuelan coast and offshore islands as far west as Arubais covered by forty-three Imray-Iolaire charts. They are up to date and much more accurate than the two hundred US, French, British, and Dutch charts they replace. This, of course, is a marked saving to the yachtsman in both space and money. Imray-Iolaire charts are corrected not only through Notices to Mariners, but also by information sent in by myself and experienced yachting friends. Twice a year our agents receive a booklet containing all corrections that have been made to the charts in the previous six months. By obtaining copies of those booklets, the yachtsman may keep his own charts completely up to date. There is no such thing as an absolutely accurate chart, but we believe the Imray-Iolaire (11) charts are the most accurate available today to yachtsmen for inshore navigation. We know they are more accurate and useful than the various government charts. In fact, they have become so much the standard that the US Coast Guard uses them in preference to the NOAA and DMA charts. Furthermore, the British naval officers setting up Coast Guard outfits in the lower Caribbean now use II charts rather than the BA charts. Nevertheless, the problems of updating them remain. In Venezuela, for instance, thanks to Rear Admiral Justo Pastor Fernandez Marquez, Venezuelan Navy (retired), I visited the hydrographic office in Caracas. There Captain Eddy G. Mendez Perez and I spent the better part of the day going over their charts and discussing problems. I made

44

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

the amazing discovery that the Venezuelan Department of Communications and Works, which is in charge of rebuilding harbors and also granting permission for building marinas, is basically not on speaking terms with the hydrographic office. They forward no information on new harbors, breakwaters, marinas, etc., to the chart makers! Thus the Venezuelan, US, and BA charts are completely out of date regarding new construction. Luckily, the 11 charts will have much of this information, but only because of the information supplied to me by friends in the marine construction business who have kept me up-to-date on all new marinas, harbors, breakwaters, etc., that have been built. Therefore, we make an urgent request to all who read this Guide to report to Imray not only errors they discover on 11, DMA, NOAA, or BA charts, but also any new developments they come across during their cruising. Only in this way can the charts be kept accurate. The address: Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson Wych House St. Ives Huntingdon Cambridgeshire PE 17 4BT ENGLAND As for the Atlantic island groups, there are no Imray-Iolaire charts yet, so you'll have to use existing government charts, which generally are OK. In the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira, the DMA or BA general charts are adequate and are completely backed up by the harbor charts in this volume. For serious cruising in the Canaries, you should also have some Spanish charts for areas not covered in enough detail elsewhere. See page 49 and 134 for a list of these useful Spanish charts. For the Cape Verdes, the US or BA charts are adequate, but I would advise obtaining, if you can, Portuguese charts (see page 178 for list); read carefully the Cape Verdes section in this Guide, especially page 182, because the Baixo de Joao Valente reef is misplaced on many charts. With luck, by 1989 all the Atlantic island groups will be covered by 11 charts, which will be helpful, since finding the Spanish and Portuguese charts can be difficult, to say the least. Incidentally, my boasts about Imray-Iolaire charts are not simply an effort to sell them. They were designed specifically for the cruising yachtsman, and I really feel the 11 charts are better for the yachtman's purpose. But if you cannot find them

or want to go with the government charts you already have, by all means do so. As I say, they may not be as handy as the 11 charts, but they are generally reliable. After all this talk about charts, let me point out that as important as charts are for knowing where you are and what to look out for, you can nevertheless pilot yourself through most of the Lesser Antilles and the Atlantic groups with no more than common sense and a good pair of eyes. This is possible because of the extreme clarity of the water, which reveals the nature of the bottom merely by its calor. (Remember that, except in extreme sea conditions, the only thing a seaman really has to fear is land that is closer to him than the bottom of his keel.) A practiced eye can gauge the depth of water with great accuracy. (This is not true in the Cape Verde Islands after a rare rainy spell, because the water can be muddy and the visibility nil for months after rain.) It takes a bit of on-the-job training-and perhaps a few bumpsbut eventually your eye will become an infallible guide, superior to either chart or depth meter. This applies, however, only when the sun is highthat is, between roughly 0900 and 1500 hours. It's also much better if the sun is behind you. With the sun low and in front of you, the glare and reflection will make it difficult or impossible to see down far enough to gauge depth accurately. This is especially important if you're lying in a reef-bound harbor on the eastern side of any island. Don't leave until about 1100, because with the sun low in the east (the direction you're trying to sail), it will be virtually impossible to spot shoal dangers until it's too late. Similarly, when running into an obstructed harbor on the eastern side of any island, don't enter after 1500 or else the lowering sun will be in your eyes and the reefs will be impossible to read. So be foresighted and plan your days' sailing so that you always negotiate harbors with the correct light; in some cases it means a late-morning start, in other cases an early afternoon arrival. I said that the eye is better than a depth gauge and I mean it. In most places in the Eastern Caribbean, the bottom rises so steeply that if you're studying the depth gauge instead of the water ahead, you'll be hard aground before the meter shows any change. There are two exceptions to this rule. One is in Venezuelan waters, where the color of the water is absolutely no indication of the depth. Because of the influence of wind, current, and river outflows, Venezuela's coastal waters are almost impossible to eyeball, except in some of

Charts the off-island areas. The second instance in which your eyes need help is when the sky and light conditions change. Then it's useful to test your visual recordings of the water with a depth meter or lead line until you've adjusted to the new conditions. In any case, polarized sunglasses are well worth the investment, as they accentuate the difference in color and make reefs and shoals stand out in bold relief. In general, dark-blue water is deep. As the bottom shoals, the water becomes a lighter blue, turning greenish as the 2-fathom line is approached. Once you are in green water, you must exercise caution: depending on the shade of green, you'll have from 2 fathoms to 1 fathom below you. At about 1 fathom and shallower, the water becomes almost white and crystal clear. Coral always shows up as brown. If you must enter an area that has coral, use extreme care to pilot yourself between the coral heads. This may well mean sending someone to the spreaders to get a better perspective, and remember, coral literally grows. In any area that shows scattered coral on the chart, I recommend that you subtract roughly 3 to 6 feet from the given chart depth. Areas of grass show up as dark patches. Avoid anchoring in these spots as it's difficult to get the anchor to hold. The most important thing to remember about pilotage in the Lesser Antilles is that you must not try it at night. If you're making a long passage, it will of course be necessary to sail at night; but landfalls should be in daylight unless you're entering one of the main ports that is well lit. Even then, remember that the buoyage and light systems in the Islands are unreliable in the extreme. In short, and most emphatically, I repeat that anyone who tries to enter harbors in this area at night is simply asking for trouble.

Chart Suppliers UNITED KINGDOM

Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson Wych House St. Ives Huntingdon Cambridgeshire PE17 4BT Tel.: St. Ives, 048062114 C harts available: BA, II

4S

Hydrographic Office Taunton, Somerset TAl 20N Charts available: BA Kelvin H ughes 145 Minones London WC3N INH

Charts available: BA, 11, US O. M. Watts 19 Albemarle Street London

Charts available: BA, 11

UNITED STATES

National Ocean Survey (NOS) Distribution Division Riverdale, MD 20840 (US and territorial waters) Charts available: US (NOS) Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) Topographic Center Attn: DPCP 6500 Brookslane Washington, DC 20315 (International waters) Charts available: US (DMA) Weems and Plath 222 Severn Avenue Annapolis, MD 21403-2569 Tel.: (301) 263-6700; Telex: 87-933 CPLATHUSA Charts available: 11 New York Nautical Instruments & Services Corp. 140 West Broadway New York, NY 10013 Tel.: (212) 962-4522 Charts available: BA, French, 11, US Hagstrom Map Store 57 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 Tel.: (212) 398-1222

Charts available: 11, US

EASTERN CARIBBEAN

Virtually every island has at least one store that distributes Imray-Iolaire charts.

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide VENEZUELA

SPAIN

Comandancia General de la Marina Direccion de Hidrografia y Navegacion Caracas Charts available: Venezuelan Shore Base Pampatar Isla Margarita

Instituto Hidrografico de la Marina Tolosa Latour no. 1 Cadiz Charts available: Spanish

II

PORTUGAL

Instituto Hidrografico Rua das Trinas 49 Lisboa 2 Charts available: Portuguese NETHERLANDS

FRANCE

Service Hydrographie et Oceangraphie de la Marine BR 426-29275 Brest Cedet Charts available: French

Dienst der Hydrografie Koninklijke Marine PO Box 90740 2509 LS's Gravenhage Charts available: Dutch

Charts

47

Cha,ts ot Madel,a, the Salvage, and the Cana,y Islands 51260 51261 51262 51263

~orLsanto

51261

51341

51262

~adeira

Func~ 51263

"

51342

~

51343 51380

Canary Islands (Western Group) Madeira Archipelago Bay of Porto Santo (Madeira Archipelago) Bay of Funchal and Praia Formosa (Plan of Funchal) Ports in the Canary Islands Plans A. Santa Cruz ,Tenerife) 8. Puertos de Arrectfe, Naos and Los Marmoles (Lanzarote) C. La Isleta (Gran Canaria) D. Puerto de La Luz (Gran Canaria) E. Santa Cruz (Palma) Salvage Islands Plans A. Selvagem Pequena and IIheu de Foro 8. Selvagem Grande Approaches to Puerto del Rosario (Plan of Puerto del Rosario) Eastern Canary Islands

33"

32"

31'

Setvagem

Grande

I

~Salvage Islands

~elvagem Pequena

51380

I

30'

51342

()

Lanzarot~

V

29"

Arrecife

51260

D51J~

()stcruz

Palma St Cruz

o

O

Tenerife

PIO de:a

Gomera

~Hierro 17'

18'

Fuerteventura

Luz

28'

Gran Canaria

15'

US Charts of Madeira, and the Salvage and Canary Islands

14"

13'

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide 1869 1870 1856

t>.1Porto Santo

1831

Palma, Hierro, Gomera Tenerife, Gran Canaria Western Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote Plans of Santa Cruz (Palma), Puerto de la Luz (Gran Canaria), Puerto de la Cruz Santa Cruz (Tenerife) Bocayna Straight, Puerto Naos, and Arrecife Entire Canaries and Salvage Islands

1857 1886 1229

33'

~adeira

Fun~

32'

1229

31'

Selvagem 3651 Grand'l--,

~ salv1age Islands

~Ivagem

30'

Pequena

L--_ _ _ _-I

1870 ()

~n

1869

f~1

~StCruz

•• ,ot.

29'

Arrecife

)

_~ jPalma

v

~(StCruz

00

~ Pt, de la Luz

OI1\

Gomera

Gran

flue".v. . u,"

28'

~ Canaria

~Hierro

of

17'

18'

15'

14'

British Admiralty (BA) Charts of Madeira, and the Salvage and Canary Islands

13'

18·

15·

16°

17°

14·

13·

The Spanish charts covering the Canaries are: 204, 205, 206, 207, 210, 218, 219, 220, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 519, 520, 5020, 5030, 5040, 5060, 5061, 5080, 5081, 5130, 5131, 5132, 5140, 5170, 5190, 5200, 5670, 9791 (42 in all). The area covered by each is indicated in the accompanying outline-index chart. Spanish charts are necessary only to someone who really wants to explore. Those necessary are 502, 5020,5030,515, and 516.

H31·

Selvagem G rande

SALVAGE ISLANDS

0

CJ Selvagem Pequena

H30°

200

(J

E

291

;t Go

51\)9PALMA I

Sta Cruz de la Palma

207

205 '516

Gomera{'"',

Iq]0

517

~aii

I

Los

28°

seb~stiiln Cristianos

514 d. I. ,,,'"

Hierro

510

Morocco

4:0-

(CJ

27

Spanish Charts of the Canary Islands

50

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

O~

a Trto

11

1 02

ll.

a elra ~d I

l

San

The Portuguese charts covering Madeira and the Salvage Islands are: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157. See the accompanying outline-Index chart.

to

33'

103

104

Funchal_ _-+~., L--_

32'

31'

Selvage105 m

1 157 ~ Salvage Islands [!J ., 1156 I

Gran~e:l

30'

Selvagem '--- Pequena

100

()

~n>a"'t.

W~ife o

~Slcruz

V

29'

Palma SI Cruz

O

Tenerife

o

Fuerteventura

PIOde la Luz

Gornera

28'

Gran Canaria

Morocco

17"

18'

Portuguese Charts of Madeira and the Salvage Islands

15'

14'

13'

,

BA366 P0I1201

11ii

SA,TO ANTAO

i I

I

( ; ] , aBA369 do Sol Port252

~8rt ~o 1B~~70

Terrafal BA369

r------------------I, GlA389 Port 2081I

264

0

I

I

!

S.vl CENT

....1.\.01--88-'T-A-L-U-Z""'1

I

US51500

~

,

:

Pa',!"eoria Port269

'Port 205 I L:----------------------Br .•~co ~

~

I

:'

: Pedra de Lumel IBA389 I SAL Port281 I US51520 I I S!a Mana II Pon280

I I. ~orileora

, 8.0..389

If : I

17'

I

i

I

II

'I

I ' r-~------------------J----,

II

II

I'

,I

I

I

I

I

I

I

,

I

I

I

:I~II I Sal· Rei • I I

I

I t

IBA389 .. Pon262

------- J.o.A VISTA I

La!. 16' N.

I

I

I

i

it

I

I I

~~500

I I . IL_~:+: Bao Joao Valente

i I

US"~I

I -----+1 I

SANTlAG~--e

I

1

I

a " a ~ ; rt.~UMpOlSteoros ~BA369~'""" ~271

~a;3tI6ago

I

le'

I

PO.rt201 BA366 26"

I BRA '0, I '''' VA r;m, ",..,

.

2 '

•

_

~}"

'00

'

\

_.

.'O~

.

•

'OGO

.,," BA36' Port 267

-.

-.

--:-

I I

I

I

I

MAlO

t-----I I I1

"0 .~'0'"••' BA36.

US51540

,_

. US, BA, and Portuguese Charts of the Cape Verde Islands

I

I Port 209 J

____________________ _

I ,___

(J ;:-."

-2 3

I

I

-~

1I

US.E.!520

15'

CI1 <

....

7"

71"

72"

70"

18"

IS"

&7"

&e'

65'

M'

63'

.,"

e2'

10'

IS'

19'

25600

25640

SANTO DOMINGO

~

Vlfgin Islands

E.astern MOfla Pils5i1ge

PUERTO RICO

"'"

"

25609

"Cl

..&1AngUllla

.0

18'

0'

E?~5575 nClguCl

17

17'

nghsh Hr

25570

~

25563

GUADAL~U~ I

'~

w.

'" SEA

CARIBBEAN

'G.~

0 :'"e-G.I.n,e

' 116'

l>

~

....c.n

Cl)

~

V>

DOMINICA

15

'0" de

(1)

"~

~

Castrles

~

~

.:;

l

13"

24470

l

5"

'

Klngstown

~

;:!

'"

\:) 14'

T LUCIA

m 548

Ir-=J25484 OrT VINCENT

~

",,'

~

MARTlNIOUE

~

s

14"

....

11

1

BARBADOS

13'

~

!}

....;:lc:)'

C"')

a""

..""

CJ ~

12'

U" ~ La Orchlll.a

11"

11'

C

La i ortug
10'

VENEZUELA

244401

10'

L44,SUI

9"

9'

73'

72"

11'

US Charts of the Eastern Caribbean

70'

69'

18'

67 '

66'

65'

M'

63'

,

;:l

~

62'

61'

60"

~

71'

12'

7-:",°

118'

70'

...

'7'

IS'

M'

.,.

IZ'

U'

eo'

,.

19-

1

SANTO DOMINGO PUERTO RICO

e'

lB

472

[!\Ba'bUda

Ci 51

3408

ChnSl0Ph.'~ 487

11"

r-I2064 eVls

~n1lgua

7"

Engtlsh Hr

Mon1serrat ~

~

'f}. '!,

16"

~

CARIBBEAN_ _ SEA

IF', I

(,955

,"

~


'"

r----===-------!u,s·

15.

1

14'

-t:J

114'

~

~

(j

~

;:t

~

'"

1966 ,~

13'

13"

cuJ~21

12"

~BONAIRE I de Aves

1~ld .. lo~ Roqut:s

~a·

'1480

12"

bla Blanqu.lla

~ La Orchill.a

Gulf of Venezuela Cumarebo

".

1529

""

b

la Tortuga

la Gua.ra Cabf!Uo

10'

Caracas

10"

VENEZUELA

9'

9"

73'

72'

71'

70"

69"

British Admiralty (BA) Charts of the Eastern Caribbean

68

67'

66"

65 "

64"

63'

12"

""

50"

~

1032

The Antilles, San Juan to Trinidad

3423 Guadeloupe 3125 From Ponte de la Grande Vigie to La Pointe 3419 4519 2872 3375 3129 3172 3418 3422

des ChAteaux From Pointe-a-Pitre to Marie-Galante Port of Guadeloupe Entrance to anchorages of Pointe-a-Pitre From 8asse-Terre to Pointe-a-Pitre lies des Saintes Anchorage of 8asse-Terre to Riviere des Peres at Pointe du Vieux Fort From Pointe du Vieux Fort to Pointe Allegre From Pointe Ferry to Pointe de la Grange Vigie

3367 Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin, east part 3287 Grand-Cul-de-Sac Marin, west part 3128 Marie-Galante 383

386 5930 384

389 390 385 391 5916 5906

I

Martinique Northern Martinique St. Pierre Eastern Martinique La Trinite Harbour Robert and Franr;ois Harbors Southern Martinique Le Cul-de-Sac Marin Port-
\Jt -I:>.

MARTINIQUE t/)

....

J367

~ (':l

.....

",'

~

~

'"= .... 0::.

3125

GUADELOUPE

S"

.......=

~

~

n

~ ~

s· o .: §:

'JQ

3419

384 3423

385 385

French Charts of Martinique and Guadeloupe

72'

71'

17'

18'

70'

M'

16'

13'

M'

'2'

'"

19'

A

1 General Eastern Caribbean Chart

A2,

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

,.

~

A3

o

tlo

'Ill do Mon.

11

(J)

'1"

m

:n

G:.:AVe5 I.

15

CARIBBEAN D

B

SEA

(j

A

~

I:l

a

14'

13'

13'

--

r-~--Bpnair~._ II

"

' I CU!..8!i!.o___ J 0232

12'

I

~ ___

I.de Aves

_

.' ~ D 2 '

0231

Islas los Roques

~ ~

rxL!I

12'

B lanquilla

~'D14

D22

La Guaira

•

Caracas

10'

B

..

Charts in preparatIOn (1989) 72'

71'

70'

I

'

88"

Imray-Iolaire (11) Charts of the Eastern Caribbean

17'

61'

'5'

M'

13'

12'

11'

10'

~

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

56 IMRAY-IOLAIRE (11) CHARTS

This is the most recent list of II charts covering the Eastern Caribbean. Detailed charts show each area of the Eastern Caribbean in blow-up useful to the yachtsman. I

Eastern Caribbean General Chart

A

Lesser Antilles-Puerto Rico to Martinique

Puerto Al All AI2 Al3 Al4 A131

Rico Puerto Rico West Coast of Puerto Rico South Coast of Puerto Rico Southeast Coast of Puerto Rico Northeast Coast of Puerto Rico Isla de Culebra; Isla de Vieques

Virgin Islands A23 Virgin Islands, with inset o[St. Croix A231 Virgin Islands-St. Thomas to Virgin Gorda A232 Virgin Islands-Tortola to Anegada Leeward Islands A2 Puerto Rico to Anguilla (in preparation) A3 Anguilla to Guadeloupe A24 Anguilla, St. Martin, and St. Barthelemy A25 St. Eustatius, St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Nevis A26 Barbuda-Southwest Coast A27 Antigua A271 North Coast of Antigua A28 Guadeloupe A281 Guadeloupe-Iles des Saintes; West Coast of Marie-Galante

Windward Islands A29 Dominica A30 Martinique A30l East Coast of Martinique A4 Guadeloupe to St. Lucia B Lesser Antilles-Martinique to Trinidad Bl St. Lucia B2 Barbados B3 The Grenadines-St. Vincent to Grenada B30 St. Vincent to Mustique B31 Bequia to Carriacou B32 Carriacou to Grenada B311 Middle Grenadines-Canouan to Carriacou B4 Tobago B5 Martinique to Tobago and Barhados (in preparation) Venezuela D Venezuela-Trinidad to Curac;ao Dl Grenada to Trinidad and Carenero D2 Carenero to Aruba Trinidad to Carupano Dll Dl2 Carupano to Cumana and Isla de Margarita Dl3 Is la de Margarita to Carenero Dl31 Puerto Mochima to Morro del Barcelona Islas 105 Testigos; Isla la Tortuga; La Blanquilla D14 D21 Carenero to Tucacas D22 lsla los Roques; Isla de Aves D23 Bonaire, Curac;ao, and Aruba D231 Bonaire and Aruba (in preparation) D232 Curac;ao (in preparation)

Charl8 of the Azores 51041

51081

Flores and Corvo (P'lans: A. Port of Lajes; B. Port of Santa Cruz) 51061 Faial, Graciosa, Terceira, Pico, and Sao Jorge 51062 Plans in the Azores (Plans: A. Angra do Heroismo; B. Santa Cruz; C. Canal do Faial; D. Praia do Vitoria)

51082

Sao Miguel and Santa Maria (Loran-C) (Plans: A. Vila Franca do Compa; B. Vila do Porto) Porto de Ponta Delgada, Archipelago Dos Cores

--\40' 51041

Corv(»,'i'W ·...J"Ponta Negra

Ponta do Alba'"('N Santa CrUl

.... '::/ Flores

.'*' Graciosa·~,

51061

AZORES

39'

".'o,~h. . ~,~O,g:·"·'A:r.'C.i' .

51081

:~··.~.osa.s

"'';I~~ ~~~r:~:1:-It; .~~~ >/-0

...... :PootadoTopo ...

onteodas

n ;:::!"'

•

0::.

2-

Pico- '.

Banco

dOI~:~or;/ () S.Miguel

<":-::.: .:::: C.:

38·

··:.~*~Arnel

Ponla Delgada.~*....",J.·

i!'-:, Vilado

P~~i~.~santa Maria

37·

... ·Gone.lo Velho

31·

30·

29·

28·

27"

28·

26·

c.n.

'..t

US Charts of the Azores

1946 1855

3224

Corvo, Elores (Plans of Vii Nova, Punto de Santa Cruz, and Punta das Lajes) Faial, Pico, Gracioso, western half of Terceira Terceira (Plans of Santa Cruz, Vila da Praia, Folga, Porto de Angra do Heroismo, and Bai de Praia de Vitoria)

1854 1856

1940

San Miguel (Plans of Porto de Ponto Delgada and Porto de Capelas Santa Marta, Isla Formigas Porto de Herta, Canal de Faial

'8,

1950

j40' 1946

Corvo;"

............

Ponta Negra

I :.

I

Ponlo dOAlbGrn.,zo·~ Santa CrU2

I

Cl:! .....

'.. ....• Flares I

~

~

......

.. . 13224 ~

Graclosa'-~

AZO R ES

39"

~

v'leFor~:.~8~.:L '~rgl,:;;~1·+· I ."

....

~o,"'I> .... 1940

...

I

I

~

;:s

'"l::l.....

S"

.........;:s

'~. Hertsmo ' .......Cont.ndas . ...... 'PontadoTopo

Pica ..

'"

~

(')

Cl

3224

"'\

<:::>

~

S·

Banco dos A~ore.f

~

r8:~~~~+e,

381

~

I .... .. .. . . '"

~

Ponta Delgada~ ...... ..,.".,J.. :

..

1865

/ " , Santa Maria

Vila do

31'

30·

British Admiralty (BA) Charts of the Azores

29'

28·

27·

26'

pci~io~:GOnCaIO velh!

I

.

25·

...CJ

I

H3]"

Portuguese charts covering the Azores are: 107, 108, 109,110,111,112,113,114,115,160,161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 172, 174, 176, 177, 178, 180, 181, 182, 183, 186, 187, 188.

f40'

le orv0t!!J .' I ...... 188 Ponta dOAlbarnefrai:Sta Cruz

;"

. 186

I

...... ' Flores

115

I

187

~j4 175

-, 176

,"

109

AZORES

Graciosa ..... •

':'__

~~IS

1131

39'

I.

Merre) ...............

178~. ·· ....$:Jorgel g.Tercelr8 Vale formoso~' .". 180. . . . .. .".. ....... I~erlsmo AnQra d ...... ··tiintendas .'72 I . .... . FaI8.l. .. 184

y..o~

183

..... ~

~

IC0181

~

I

177 ....... :PontadoTopo 170

p ..... '"

~

>:l

~

112

114

Banco dos Ayor~.~ ......

S.Miguel ~167 163 .....::

38

··:it.~~·Arne

Pon!a

Delg·ad~~.. . '.

=...•

160 "165

16

111

(':

166

r;:l

Ld

168

. . . l~··'. Santa Mini8

Vila do Porta .I I 167 ' .. '., :Gonealo Velha

lOB

L..1J.Q1

37'

J

General Area Chart 107 ~

31 '

Portuguese Charts of the Azores

30'

29'

28'

27'

28"

25"

\0

4

Getting There From Europe

south from the East Coast of the United States to the Islands. There is no easy answer. If you leave northern Europe in early September or late August, you will arrive in the Madeira, Salvage, and Canary Islands area in mid-Septemher-much too early for a safe transatlantic crossing, since August, September, and October are still hurricane months. Although by the end of October the hurricane danger is largely past, you shouldn't count on the likelihood of a decent passage before late November or early December, when the trades have settled down to their winter reliability. In the Lesser Antilles the "Christmas winds" herald the departure of fall variables and lead to the winter trades. These Christmas winds come in strong and steady, but arrive any time from midNovember till early or mid-January. Even when the Christmas winds do blow in, they caT) be a false herald. They might blow hard for a few weeks, die out for a few days' calm, then come in again. As each month goes by the trades become more and more settled, to the point that May, June, and July can he the best sailing months in tbe Lesser Antilles. When it blows in these months, it blows a steady 12 to 14 knots all day long with no calm whatsoever, whereas in winter it will blow hard, 20 to 25 knots, for several days, then drop off to a light 6 to 8 knots for a few days before building up again. A late March to early April calm has arrived every year without fail for the last thirty years that I have been in the Eastern Caribbean. No one can explain why, but it arrives and knocks down windy April's average wind velocity to less than that of May, June, and July. With few exceptions, the fastest transatlantic

In the late I950s the number of yachts crossing the Atlantic was a trickle; by the sixties it became a stream, which increased during the seventies. Now it's a veritable flood. In both directions, sailboats of all descriptions make tbe trip, mostly between Europe and the Caribbean. (In 1986 there was a cruising-boat race from the Canaries to Barbados that drew 208 entries. My guess is that 600 yachts crossed the Atlantic in 1986.) What was once a great adventure has become statistically routine. But a transatlantic passage is not routine. Improved equipment and navigational gear may have made the trip easier and safer, but you can still get in a lot of trouble. There are just as many big waves and strong winds out there as ever, and the water is just as deep. The voyage is no less a major undertaking in terms of planning and logistics-and the sea is as tough an adversary as it ever was for the unprepared, the unwary, and the incompetent. The time you leave, the route you sail, the stops you make, your rig, crew, and gear are all important factors in planning a transatlantic voyage, and it can be a fatal mistake to slight anyone of them. A sealed Clorox bottle dropped overboard in the Canaries will eventually get to the Caribbeanand some of the boats that make it across fit that description pretty well. But you'll have a much better, faster, and safer trip if you pay attention to details and make adequate preparations. This book is intended to help you do that-read Chapter 2, "Preparations," carefully! Timing problems plague the sailor who wants to cross tbe Atlantic westward to the Lesser Antilles, just as they plague him when he decides to head 60

Getting There crossings have been made in late April, May, June, and early July, while many slow forty-five to sixtyday passages were made in late October, November, and early December. It's possible for a yacht beginning a cruise in Europe to cross the Atlantic, cruise the Islands, and sail home again all in about eighteen weeks. This is best accomplished by leaving in early April, putting the average 40-footer in Barbados by the end of the first week in May. If seven weeks are spent cruising north through the Islands, the first of July would find you in St. Thomas. From St. Thomas to Bermuda is a five- to six-day trip; from Bermuda back to the Azores is another ten to fifteen days, and from the Azores to Europe takes about seven days. All of which places you home in mid-August, having enjoyed a glorious four-and-ahalf-month summer holiday. However, most European sailors like to spend the summer cruising in Europe and then head out to the Islands for the winter; thus, the majority of transatlantic passages are made in the late fall, even though that's not necessarily the optimum time to cross. Circumstances may decide the time of year you sail from Europe to the Islands, but the route you sail is entirely up to you. There are several options. Racing yachts regularly beat to windward across the northern Atlantic in the OST AR races, but that is a separate subject. To cruise to North America via the northern route seems crazy to me. But if you're determined, have a tough boat that is good to windward, and a crew of masochists, then by all means try it. I advise you to sail from the English Channel to Ireland and then wait in one of the harbors on the south coast until you get a break in the weather. Then take ofl'for st. John's, Newfoundland, 1,700 miles away. Stay well north of the great circle track so as to keep above the lows that march steadily across the Atlantic from west to east; when the lows go by to the south, you may get gale winds, but they should be favorable. How far north you can go depends on how far south the icebergs and growlers get, and that varies dramatically. From St. John's, Newfoundland, you work your way down the east coast of Canada to the States in short jumps-still beating against the prevailing southwest wind, but enjoying some splendid cruising grounds along the way. Some yachtsmen sail down to the Azores from England or northern Europe and then head west to the US East Coast. They almost always end up beating to windward most of the way. One excep-

tion was Kay, a 53-foot S & S yawl now called Legend, which knocked off 1,200 miles in six days and made the voyage to New York in fifteen days, for an average of 7.2 knots. (Rod and Olin Stephens, the designers of the boat, refused to believe it until they checked out the rough deck log and reworked the positions.) At the other extreme was the experience of Westertill, a 52-foot yawl, which sailed from Horta in the Azores to the East Coast and ran into a series of westerly gales; when she arrived in the States the insurance company decided the cost of repairing all the heavy-weather damage was so great that they wrote her ofi' as a total loss. In my very firm opinion, and that of many other yachtsmen, the best route to the Caribbean or even to the East Coast of the United States is the old trade wind route, pioneered by Columbus in 1491. Down to Madeira, on to the Canaries, and then across to the Islands or to the States via Bermuda. Now, in light of my 1985 transatlantic cruise in Iolaire, I would recommend embellishing that route with an additional leg south to the Cape Verde Islands, which will provide an interesting new cruising ground while almost guaranteeing you trade wind conditions when you jump across for the Americas. In the following pages I'll discuss getting to Madeira or the Canaries from northern Europe and then sailing to the Caribbean. The next chapter contains new and detailed sailing and cruising directions for Madeira and the three other island groups in the eastern Atlantic: the Azores, Canaries, and Cape Verdes. Also, be sure to read Chapter 2, Preparations, before you make any solid plans.

Getting to Madeira The first real problem is getting across the Bay of Biscay. Over the years I have listened to innumerable horror stories about the difficulties of crossing the Bay of Biscay, rounding the corner of Spain, and reaching Madeira and the Canaries. The northern European sailor usually leaves the Baltic during the autumn, works his way down the North Sea, and makes final preparations in The Solent for the jump across the Bay of Biscay. Similarly, the majority of English yachtsmen prepare for their jump across the Atlantic from The Solent, some stopping at Plymouth to make good deficiencies in gear discovered while beating down the Channel. The normal routine from Plymouth is to head

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Getting There west to clear U shant, then stand south across the Bay of Biscay. Usually it's a tough fight to work the boat far enough to the west to clear Ushant, and often when rounding that island a southwesterly gale springs up, driving you into the Bay of Biscay. All the old seamanship manuals warned the merchant seamen never to become embayed-that is, caught between two points of land, with the prevailing wind driving the vessel farther and farther into the bay on a lee shore. This is still excellent advice, of course, and applies particularly to crossing the Bay of Biscay: in the autumn, gales come piling into the bay with alarming frequency. On leaving Plymouth, rather than trying to clear Ushant you should work your way down the Cornish coast where harbors are plentiful, at least as far as Falmouth; here you make a decision. If a favorable weather report gives you a good chance of crossing the Bay of Biscay before the next southwest gale comes in, it is best to jump south immediately to Point A, 480 miles southwest magnetic (see the Weather Chart) and to clear Ushant by about 50 miles. The normal routine is to try to cross the Bay of Biscay before the September equinoctial gales. The latter two weeks of August and the beginning of September is the time favored. However, in 1986, August was the wrong time to cross the bay because three bad gales, on the tail end of Hurricane Charlie, swept through the area. Then, during September, one high after another Hoated across the Atlantic, keeping all the lows well to the

north. One could have crossed the Bay of Biscay in an open boat. To avoid having to deal with this craps hoot, and especially if the wind is southwest when you're ready to leave England, I strongly recommend heading across to Ireland instead of sailing directly south. This might seem to be the wrong direction, i.e., north, but the course is basically northwest. You're getting your westing in. You have two excellent choices on Ireland's south coast: Kinsale and Cork. In bad weather r d advise going into Kinsale, because there's an excellent RDF on the Old Head, and only a buoy off Cork. Kinsale is completely sheltered in all weather, has a marina, and a clean yard where you can scrub and paint the bottom before heading south. In fine weather, though, Cork is a lovely place to go. In Crosshaven is the ever-hospitable Royal Cork Yacht Club, the oldest yacht club in the world, founded in 1720. Crosshaven also boasts a new boat yard, Castle Point Boat yard Ltd., started by Paddy Lake and a few of his very experienced shipwright friends. For many years Paddy Lake was senior shipwright at Crosshaven Boatyard, the builders of all the Moondusters, Sir Frances Chichester's Gypsy Moth, and other famous boats. Their speciality is wood but they are also experienced with fiberglass; because of his strong history in the boatbuilding business, Paddy is able to arrange subcontracting on stainless work, engines, electrics, electronics, etc. Crosshaven also boasts good pubs and bus ser-

Westward Across the Atlantic

NORTHERN ROUTE Since you are not racing, Falmouth to Crookhaven (220 miles), Crookhaven to Newfoundland (1,670 miles, course 245 true, probably dead beat to windward all the way), coastwise from Newfoundland to desired US port via St. Pierre, Bras d'Or lakes (no fog), Halifax, Boston-keep all runs short, can play the weather and enjoy life. MIDDLE ROUTE (1) Crookhaven to Azores: 1, lOO miles, course 219; Azores to Newfoundland: 1,200 miles, course 324, since the course is so far north, with luck there should be a lot of close-reaching; then coastwise as for northern route. VIA BERMUDA (2) Crookhaven to the Azores: 1,100 miles, course 219; Azores to Bermuda, course is roughly due west, 1,820 miles, but that course traverses the Azo~es high where little or no wind can be found. North of the high, you will run into the prevailing southwesterlies, and if not beating dead to windward, you will be hard on the wind. Bermuda to the East Coast of the United States: various mileages varying from 400 miles to Virginia Capes to 700 miles to New York and points east. Boats should not head to points of the United States south of the Chesapeake Capes from Bermuda, as doing so you would be bucking the Gulf Stream most of the way. CROOK HAVEN TO THE AZORES (3) 1,100 miles, 219 magnetic. Azores to New York: 2,600 miles, pretty much dead to windward, normally a very long hard slog; the exception, in 1956 a 53-foot yawl, /(ay, did this run in fifteen days, one hour (see page 61 for further details).-but this is the exception rather than the rule.

64

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

vice to Cork, only minutes away. In Drake's Pool, upstream from Crosshaven, a boat can be stored in the water, completely sheltered. You can take the dinghy upstream to Carrigaline and load stores directly into the dinghy, or you can take the good bus service to Carrigaline. West of Kinsale, on the southern Irish coast, are a number of other good harbors. I'm prejudiced toward Glandore, since my wife's cottage is across the street from the Marine Hotel, which happens to be one of the best pubs in southern Ireland. A hundred yards up the road is the Glandore Inn, with a perfect view of the rowing and sailboat races that take place afternoons and evenings and during the Glandore Regatta, a most entertaining event held on the third Sunday of August every year. In fact, August is a great month to cruise the south coast of Ireland, since every weekend the local villages have regattas with rowing and sailing races. The rowing races are well worth watching: four-oared gigs, a smaller version of the famous Scilly Isles pilot gigs, race with great enthusiasm. Castletownsend has a beautiful sheltered harbor; if you're anchored above the sand spit, a hurricane could blow but you'd lie in perfect comfort. Skibbereen, only three miles away, offers most of the necessary food supplies to stock a boat for the trip to Madeira, the Canaries, and points beyond. (I should mention that the one hundredpound sack of potatoes we bought here in Ireland in October was still healthy in Antigua at the end of January.) West of Castletownsend there is shelter at Schull, which has the added advantage of having a fish factor with a deep freeze where ice is available. There are nice places to visit, but I'm not suggesting you go all the way to Ireland simply for the pleasant cruising and excellent pubs. The great advantage of going there from Falmouth is that you'll be well to the west, and will be able to steer about south-southwest to Point B, 500 miles away, and clear Finisterre by 240 miles (see the map, "Routes from Europe to Madeira and the Canaries"). If you wait in Ireland until a front passes through and the wind goes west and veers into the northwest, you have a fairly good chance of getting across the Bay of Biscay before the next gale sets in. If a gale does arrive and you've had a few days of decent weather, you should be completely off soundings in over 2,000 fathoms of water-a course southwest from Cape Clear leads off sounding in only 60 miles of sailing. This is significant, because one reason for the roughness of the Bay of Biscay is the bay's relative shallowness: the Atlantic swells,

coming on soundings, hump up to greater and greater heights. With 300 miles of sea room, you are obviously in a better position even if you catch a gale. (We saw this phenomenon when leaving Ireland on lolairc's 1975 transatlantic. We left Glandore, and headed southwest to get off the continental shelf as fast as possible; within hours we could see and feel the difference in swell. Similarly, coming from the Azores to Ireland in 1985 we knew within hours that we had come on soundings because of the difference in swell.) Once across the Bay of Biscay, YOll have to make an important decision: Do you stop on the SpanishPortuguese coast or do you continue to Madeira? In 1975, on lolaire, we continued south with the glorious Portuguese trades behind us until we were about 100 miles south of Lisbon, when suddenly the wind switched around to the south and either blew like mad or died out completely. The wind was basically southwesterly, but it always seemed to be on the nose whichever way we tacked. We finally arrived in Madeira fourteen days out, feeling very sorry for ourselves. We were even more discouraged to find that had we stopped in Spain or northern Portugal for a few days, the weather pattern would have switched back to normal; indeed, boats four or five days behind us enjoyed consistent Portuguese trades right into Madeira. Many boats coming across the Bay of Biscay duck into La Coruna, an excellent harbor with a friendly yacht club. There is one big disadvantage in La Coruna though: it is east of Finisterre. With the prevailing southwest wind, plus the frequency of westerly gales, you might get stuck in La Coruna while waiting for a break in the weather to allow YOll to get around Finisterre and then south. Better to make your landfall south of Finisterre, explore the rias (the Spanish equivalent of Norwegian fjords) south of Finisterre, then go on to Vigo. I feel Vigo is an essential stop for any boat heading for Madeira, the Canaries, or the Cape Verdes and on across, as it is a large city with good shopping facilities and is probably your last stop with a superb boat yard: Astelleros Lagos. The yard was started by Senor Lagos in 1916 and has been inherited by his three sons, Alfredo, Juan, and Nico; between them they probably speak six or seven languages and all have various skills. It's hard to believe that such a tiny, scruffylooking yard as theirs can have a worldwide reputation and do such wonderful work. The answer is subcontracting and the competence of the Lagos brothers. Their yard has excellent carpenters and repairmen who can do basic engine and electrics

Getting There work; for everything else-from machine work to sail repairing-the Lagos brothers know exactly where to go in the city of Vi go, which is the biggest fishing port in Spain. They can do practically any job for any yacht of any size, either in their own yard or elsewhere, and they personally supervise the work. I walked in one day with two winch handles I wanted cut and joined together to get a little more leverage on I olaire' s winches. I gave them the winch handles, showed them a sketch, made of few phone calls, went across the street for a couple of beers, walked back, and the job was donehaving just been delivered from a machine shop down the street. And then the Lagos brothers will tell you exactly where to find the best buys on wine, food, and staples. In addition, Alfredo, who looks like a friendly Galician pirate, is Vigo / Bayona Port captain for the Ocean Cruising Club and is the most hospitable and knowledgeable fellow you can imagine. He also has a fine maritime libary at home. This stop has become even more attractive as there is now a lOO-berth marina at the yacht club in the city of Vigo. Exact details I don't have, but looking at the plan it appears the marina would accommodate the normal yacht, i.e., anything 60 feet or less. Those are some of my reasons for recommending a stop in Vigo / Bayona. When you leave the coast of Spain or Portugal, you dream of finding the Portuguese trades to blow you down into the northeast trades, which will then take you across the ocean. It can happen, if you're lucky, and if you go at the right time. The Portuguese trades, which blow from the north, are strongest near the coast and begin in late May and continue through early September, getting more erratic as autumn approaches. The northeast trades are their farthest north in late Mayor June. So if you leave Europe in latc April you can luck out and, with a quick stop for refueling and restoring in either Madeira or the Canaries, then sail on almost a great circle course in the trades all the way to the Islands. A 40- to 50-foot boat could do it from England to Antigua in thirty days at that time of year. There's no doubt about it, if you want a fast passage to the Islands, late April or early May is the time to leave northern Europe. (Because of the danger of hurricanes, though, be sure to plan your passage so you'll arrive in the Caribbean by early July at the latest.) Still, every route and every time is fraught with uncertainty. Everyone has heard about the Azores

high, for example, and its effect on where the trade winds are: but equally important is the Sahara low. If it's not there, the trades won't blow. That happened in the autumn of 1985, when there was virtually no wind in the area as the Sahara low became a high (see the Weather Chart). The matter of what course to sail across the pond from the Canaries is hotly debated. Basically, you want to find the trades; usually in November or December you have to go south almost to the Cape Verdes before turning west. One basic rule is to sail south until little puflball clouds of the trade winds begin to appear; then you start to swing west. Another rule: if the barometer rises, head farther south, even if you have wind at the moment. A rising barometer means the Azores high is heading south, which will kill the wind you have. We had an interesting situation in the fall of 1985. As previously mentioned, the Sahara low had become a Sahara high, and what should have been a four-and-a-half-day trip from the Canaries to the Cape Verdes took the engineless Iolaire seven days. We then spent ten days cruising the Cape Verdes, by which time the trades had filled in; we were blown across to Antigua in fourteen days and a few hours. So we had twenty-one days at sea plus a nice cruise in the Cape Verdes. Now, most of the boats that left the Canaries when we did powered southwest, impatiently looking for the trades. In that frustrating process, they used up their fuel and arrived in Antigua after twenty-one to twenty-five days at sea. If these boats with engines had powered on our southerly course to the Cape Verdes, they could have arrived there in five days, topped up food and fuel, taken off, and still reached Antigua faster than they did sailing direct! A few yachts did not go looking for the trades that year but sailed a direct great-circle course from the Canaries to Antigua, and they turned in respectable times of eighteen to twenty days. But as far as I can determine, they were light-displacement, ocean racing boats with crews willing and able to play with the spinnaker for days on end. Thus even in light air they could knock off 150 miles on days when regular cruising boats would be logging 80 to 90 miles. In these times, with so many boats going transatlantic and especially with all the light-displacement sleds, maxis, and multihulls, it's hard to keep track of fast passages. Back in 1956, for instance, in the heavy displacement ketch Arabella, we did 2,156 miles in 11 V2 days; if we hadn't turned north to Bermuda, we would have made Antigua in 14 to

66

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

A 240 Nautical Miles East of Finisterre B 450 Nautical Miles SW (Magnetic) of Falmouth

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Getting There

15 days, which would have been some kind of record. Then in 1979 Peter Bowker navigated the maxi Mistress QUickly from the Canaries to Barbados in 11 days, 17 hours. In the early 70s Eric Taberlay took the trimaran Pen Duick from the Canaries to Martinique in 10 days, 12 hours-an average speed of 10.57 knots, or 252.8 miles per day! In general, though, it'll take a minimum of 16 days for a good-sized, heavy boat to go from the Canaries to the Islands (we did it in 14 days, 17 hours, aboard Joe Huggins' 54-foot heavy displacement ketch Lone Star in 1984). From the Cape Verdes, fast boats in the 45-foot to 50-foot range should take 12 to 15 days; lolaire did it in a little over 14 days in 1985, but the Swiss sloop Antinea, Jean-Marie Vidal, owner, made it from the Cape Verdes to Barbados in 11 days, 2 hours. What kind of voyage should you expect? Iolaire's passages in 1975 and 1985 are examples. In late November of 1975 we left the Canaries under

reefed main and staysail; once clear of the islands, we swung off' to a southwesterly course, doused the main, set the roller-furling staysail on the spinnaker pole, and surged off at 7Yz to 8 knots under staysail only before a 30- to 40-knot northeaster. After a day and a half of this, the wind moderated and we set a light reaching staysail on the other side to the other spinnaker pole. As the days went by the wind moderated more. We rolled up one staysail and attached its pole to the medium genoa. The wind moderated more, but was still northeast, and we sheeted the large genoa out to the end of the mainboom, replacing the light reaching staysail; the wind was 12 to 15 knots. Then we added the mizzen staysail and we chugged along, averaging a little over 160 miles a day for nine days, seeing only the occasional whitecap. The wind picked up for a few days, swung around to the southwest, and suddenly died out almost completely. Then it came back in from southwest and we found ourselves beating hard to

Routes from Europe to Madeira and the Canaries SOUTHERN ROUTE: Falmouth or Crookhaven to Finisterre (525 miles), head southeast to get off Soundings, and once off the Continental Shelf head south for Finisterre. FINISTERRE I MADEIRA: South from Finisterre to the latitude of Cape SI. Vincent (400 miles), hopefully being booted along by the Portuguese trades (April to mid-September) thence southeast 400 miles to Madeira. with a strong possibility of favorable winds from Finisterre to Madeira. MADEIRA TO TENERIFE: 170 true distance 250 miles, should be a fast broad reach. CANARY ISLANDS TO EASTERN CARIBBEAN: Great Circle course, 2,560 miles. 264 magnetic. not an advisable course except in the months of April. May. June. and early July or by racing boats with racing crews willing to set spinnaker and forget light airs. NORMAL TRADITIONAL ROUTE: Course southwest until latitude 20 or whenever you feel YOII have reached the tradewinds, then course a little south of west to latitude of desired landfall, then course roughly due west, sailing distance about 2.900 to 2.950 miles. THE LOGICAL ROUTE: Canary Islands to Cape Verdes: 850 miles, course 216 magnetic. should he a downwind sleigh ride. CAPE VERDE ISLANDS TO LESSER ANTILLES I EASTERN CARIBBEAN: Course west magnetic, 2,200 miles, should be a fast run all the way. Combined mileage from Canaries to Cape Verdes to the Islands is very little more than the normal sailing distance. plus you have a welcome break in the Cape Verdes and a chance to take 011 fuel. water, and fresh stores and buy cheap lobster! This to me is the ahsolute logical route.

Crookhaven to Madeira. Course: 1980 true. Distance: 1172 miles. Falmouth to Madeira. Course: 211 0 true. Distance: 1185 miles. Southampton to Madeira. Course: 2180 true. Distance: 1282 miles. Madeira to Tenerife. Canary Islands. Course: 1700 true. Distance: 253 miles. Gibraltar to Madeira. Course: 254 0 true. Distance: 603 miles. Gibraltar to Tenerife, Canary Islands. Course: 233 0 true. Distance: 703 miles.

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~ Source: Yachting World magazine, December 1986

Getting There

69

CANARIES TO ANTIGUA 1956

Arabella May

45-foot heavy displacement ketch-did 2,156 miles in 111/. days, 187 miles per day, turned north 6SO miles (about 3 1/2 days) out of Antigua. If we had continued, a IS-day record would still stand today-we never broke 200 miles per day but had 7 days of between 195- and 199-milesper-day runs. ISO (18 hrs), 120, 160-average 197 next 8Y. days, then turned north.

1975

Iolaire late November-early December

44-foot heavy displacement yawl-168, 169, 166, ISO, 164, 160, 149, 163, 158, 162, 154, 168, 123, 162, 175, 149, 141, 150, 122. Total: 2,956; average speed: 6.5, average day's run: 156. 19 days.

1984

Lone Star June & July

54-foot heavy displacement ketch. 95, 170, 174, 184, 178, 186, 188, 191, 180, 189, 200, 200, 201, 182, 180 (note-last day's run was only twenty hours, had it been twenty-four, would have had another 200-mile day). Total distance: 2,699 miles; average speed: 7.6; average day's run: 181 miles. 14 days, 4 hours.

CAPE VERDES TO BARBADOS: 1948

Iolaire January

(then a gaff-rigged cutter) 141, 145, 162, 112, 113, 138, 155, 159, 157, 166, ISO, 177, 180, 177. 153 112 miles per day. 14 days, 6 hours plus 6 days, 12 hours Canaries to Cape Verdes. Total, Canaries to Barbados: 20 days, 12 hours.

1984

Antinea December

48-foot medium displacement cutter--exact day's runs not known but total 11 days, 2 hours, 193 miles per day. Plus 6 days Canaries to Cape Verdes. Total, Canaries to Barbados: 17 days, 2 hours.

1985

Iolaire December

(aged 80!) 44-foot heavy displacement yawl. 68, 150, 155, 167, 162, ISO, 170, 141, 159, 182, 105, 169, 162, 40 (150 miles per day). 14 days, 4 hours plus 7 days, 4 hours Canaries to Cape Verdes. Total, Canaries to Antigua: 21 days, 8 hours.

windward on the port tack, rail down under normal working canvas and unable to lay west. The wind died again, and came in light and dead aft, so we set the light spinnaker. After about eighteen hours the wind began to increase. We doused the spinnaker, switched to twin genoas, and slowly reversed the process of sail changing we had experienced on the other side of the Atlantic until we were back down to the roller-furling staysail alone on one pole, running before a 40-knot easterly. We were at hull speed when we made landfall in Desirade, a small island off the east coast of Guadeloupe, eighteen days out of the Canaries. Our 1985 passage wasn't standard either. We left the Cape Verdes in early December and once we were clear of the wind shadow of Santo Antao (5,000 feet high) we should have headed southsouthwest from St. Vincent for 30 to 40 miles before we turned west. The wind came in strong, not out of the east or northeast as expected but from due north. It stayed there for two and a half days, putting us on a close reach with the wind slightly fOlward of the beam. The wind then started shifting aft; no. 2 genoa was set on a pole to windward, and the large genoa hoisted to leeward,

sheeted to the end of the main boom. We sailed on for a number of days until the wind went farther aft to dead east. With the mainsail doused we continued poor man's twins (see page 20 for this rig) still knocking off 155 to 165 miles per day. Twice, however, the wind dropped off to the extent that to pick up speed we doused the no. 2 and set the spinnaker with the no. 1; a couple of times it blew up enough so we had to douse the no. 1, jibe the no. 2 over to the end of the main boom, and set the roller-genoa staysail on the pole, which maintained hull speed but under substantially reduced sail. Each time the wind eased off, necessitating a change back to poor man's twins or to the spinnaker plus the no. 1. One lesson to be learned from these passages is that few generalizations can be made about "normal" trade-wind conditions. Sometimes you think you've reached the trades, only to have them die out a day or two later. The small percentage of westerlies indicated by the pilot charts can turn into one to three days of nasty windward work. Some years, boats haven't found the trades at all. So look for a pleasant downward passage, but be ready for anything.

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide Slow passages are often recorded for the simple reason that all too many people have read inflated stories about "consistent 25- to 30-knot" trade winds and rig accordingly. For many years, most transatlantic passages were made under twin headsails or twin jibs rigged to the helm for selfsteering, but these never gave enough sail area for the 12- to 15-knot blows that are more common. Now, with the advent of really efficient self-steering gear, boats are posting better times under mainsail and genoa, with the genoa sheeted to a spinnaker pole. Some even have set spinnakers under self-steering. But there are still those that come across under the traditional high-cut twins, whatever the strength of the seasonal winds, and who inevitably complain of rolling both rails under all the way and making poor time to boot. My preferred rig for going downwind-the poor man's twins-improves the traditional paring. It provides the sail area necessary for speed and it keeps the center of effort low. It also requires a minimum of re-rigging in preparation for the trip. Nevertheless, some alterations of your boat's rig and gear will probably be necessary. A boat tried and tested in northern waters is not properly equipped for a happy, fast and comfortable tradewind passage. See Chapter 2, "Preparations" (pp. 18-22), for details of the poor man's twins and other ideas about proper transatlantic and Caribbean cruising arrangements that will make your voyage a pleasure instead of a pain. Incidentally, one of the excitements of transatlantic passages is sighting other vessels en route. These days it is not uncommon to see other yachts, and in fact there have been a couple of near collisions between yachts that were sailing happily along on self-steering gear and not keeping a good lookout. On Iolaire, four days west of the Cape Verde Islands, I came on deck one morning to see a spinnaker on the horizon. After a while the boat overtook us and turned out to be a Swan 65, Victoria of Strathearn. She was kind enough to radio messages to our families in England and Ireland. But my point is that, as we learned later, Victoria had been overtaking Iolaire within sighting distance for five hours before anyone on board saw us. Even more dramatic was the time Joel Dressel was sailing the famous schooner America replica on a beam reach somewhere in the Atlantic, churning along at 13 or 14 knots. He spotted a maxi yacht ahead of him, sailing without a spinnaker. Who on a maxi thinks about being overtaken by

another yacht? So Joel chased the maxi for three hours, and was within 100 yards astern before someone coming out of the hatch finally saw America for the first time. What a surprise! Joel's joke was spoiled, though-he had hoped to poke his bowsprit over the maxi's transom and ask for a beer. So don't forget the first rule of watchkeepingkeep a watch. In summary, remember that the hardest part of the transatlantic voyage is from northern Europe to Madeira or the Canaries. After that you're likely to have decent, or at least warm, weather. I recommend you go to Ireland en route to get your westing in and thus avoid the terrors of Biscay. I also think it's wise to stop on the Iberian west coast along the way. There is a lot of good cruising to be done among the island groups of the eastern Atlantic, and in Chapter 5 I've done my best to tempt you to stop awhile in one or more of them. I'm particularly keen on the benefits of extending your route south to include the Cape Verdes. If your boat is equipped to sail in light air, you should be able to cruise from the Canaries to the Caribbean-approximately 2,700 to 2,900 miles, depending on whether you sail the shorter great circle, or swing south to pick up the more dependable trades-not too far below hull speed. That should figure at about the square root of the waterline. A big solid propeller will reduce hull speed to about 80 percent of that figure; if, in addition, your boat is a dog in light air-load stores for a long trip. (All the more reason to stop at the Cape Verdes: you can restock and then it's only 2,100 miles to go.)

From Africa While sailing through the Lesser Antilles you will encounter many South African yachts and yachtsmen, and on reflection, it's hardly suprising. From Cape town to the Caribbean is one of the easiest offshore cruises imaginable. Out of Capetown the next port is St. Helena, 1,700 miles and downwind all the way. From there it is 700 miles to Ascension, a good part of it downwind, although the doldrums must be traversed as well. From Ascension to Grenada is 3,300 miles, with the trades and a good strong current behind you. (The anchorages in Ascension and St. Helena are bad in the extreme, although it's reported that the hospitality ashore more than makes up for that.)

Getting There I'm told you can leave Cape town any month of the year, but December through April are the best months to leave to avoid the spring gales around Cape town and the fall hurricane in the Islands. I've noted that many South Africans make their first long offshore passage a transatlantic one, and frequently they learn their celestial navigation en route. Some don't learn it well enough and miss St. Helena and Ascension. They finally run into shoal water off the South American coast and feel their way northwestward to Grenada-thank God for channel 16 and friendly merchant shipsl Incidentally, and unfortunately, South Africans are not allowed ashore on many of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean. I would recommend yachtsmen to make their landfall in Martinique and there ascertain what islands they are allowed to visit. Trinidad is not a good landfall when coming from southern waters. Offshore oil rigs are being installed off the east coast, and unbuoyed Darien Rock lingers 22 miles offshore under 1V4 fathoms. Fifteen miles north of this rock, Emerald shoal (at 3 fathoms) breaks in heavy weather and is also unmarked. The east coast is low, poorly lit, and generally hard to spot. Boats coming from the south favor a landfall on the high well-lit island of Tobago, entering at Scarborough. Tobago is a beautiful, unspoiled island, which is often just too hard to reach from the rest of the Lesser Antilles. When approaching Tobago from the southeast or when pa~sing between Tobago and Trinidad, watch out for Drew and Wasp shoals, as there is considerably less water over them than shown: divers claim that at low-water springs in May, June, and July, there is only 8 feet over Wasp shoal-a far cry from what the chart shows.

From the US East Coast In the days of the coasting trade between New England, Nova Scotia, and the Caribbean, the old sailing directions to the Islands were simple; "Head east-so'east until the butter melts, then head south, and when you spot an island, find yourself a fisherman and ask him which island you're looking at." It worked well enough as long as you spotted one of the high islands instead of barreling into lowlying Anegada, Anguilla, or Barbuda. In the nineteenth century, high loss of life at sea was a New England method of population control. Now every autumn more and more American yachts head south to the Eastern Caribbean. Most

of them aim for St. Thomas, which is probably the most advantageous landfall for a yacht intending to continue on into the Islands. San Juan, although a commodious harbor, is simply too far to leeward. And a landfall any farther east than St. Thomas is risky indeed; just check the number of wrecks on Anegada, Anguilla, and Barbuda. Besides, in St. Thomas you'll find every sort of supply and repair facility. It's also a free port, so luxury items are relatively cheap: it's a great place to buy yourself a new camera, watch, or spot of scotch whiskey. Since summer cruising is good in the eastern part of the United States, most people plan their Antilles cruise for the winter. But coming down in the fall poses a problem. If you leave in September, when the weather is good up north, you may run into a West Indian hurricane. Wait too long and you get caught in the Atlantic's winter storms or get iced in before you leave. A check of the dates of the hurricanes over the past years and a check of the pilot charts will show that early November is about the best month to come down. In December north of the Thirtieth Parallel you're bound to have a lot of cold weather, and the frequency of gales is 22 percent. South of Hatteras the percentage is 13, and toward St. Thomas the percentage is still 12. In three sectors northwest of Bermuda the December percentages run 7, 10, and 15. During the month of November, however, the percentages are between 5 and 7 for the Hatteras area south, while northwest of Bermuda they run 6, 9, and 12. Despite the outside possibility of a late-season hurricane, I prefer early November or the last week in October because, with a good long-range weather forecast, your chances of making the trip without getting caught in a gale are good. I will not risk an encounter with a December gale. A yacht in warm waters may weather a 45 to 50-knot gale with no particular difficulty, but when a frigid northwester comes through and the temperature drops to freezing or below, crew efficiency will not merely deteriorate, it may disappear entirely. Survival becomes more a factor of pure luck than good seamanship. Trying to reef sails or repair rigging from a sleet-covered deck in three layers of clothing when your mittens are crusted with rime is as dangerous and unpleasant a situation as I can think of. There are three distinct types of storms that you can encounter on your way south to the Islands. Foremost is the true tropical hurricane, although these seldom occur after late October or early November. If one should happen to develop, the

72

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

.. -.

... --

Common track October hurricanes

Track/ollowed by late-season sub-tropical hUrricanes-gales

------ ... -. ._-

"" ...

Bermuda

...

-..........~ Approxi~ southern limit 0/ fall gales

Atlantic Ocean

....._---_.--- .....

."',

St. Thomas

East Coast Routes to St. Thomas ROUTES to ST. THOMAS ROUTE I. New York-Bermuda, 790 miles; Bermuda-St. Thomas, 800 miles. Sometimes difficult landfall in Bermuda, crosses path of both late-season hurricanes and the small gales / subtropical hurricanes that form between Hatteras and Bermuda. ROUTE lI. Newport-St. Thomas, 1,670 miles, crosses hurricane track, passes through area oflate-season hurricane-gales that form hetween Hatteras and Bermuda. ROUTE Ill. New York-St. Thomas, 1,650 miles, same as H. ROUTE IV. Morehead-St. Thomas, 1,160 miles, crosses hurricane track and thc southeastern corner of the late-season subtropical hurricane-gale area. However, this is so close to Morehead that you should be able to cross this area on a good weather forecast. Inland from New York to Morehead safe but draft limited to 7' -8'; not limited by overhead clearance. ROUTE V. Charleston-St. Thomas, 1,200 miles, crosses late-season hurricane track, passes south oflateseason subtropical hurricane-gale area, but so far west there's usually a lot of windward work. Draft limited to 7'; overhead bridge clearance limited to approx. 55'. Long waterway trip from New York. ROUTE VI. Miami-St. Thomas, roughly 1,000 miles, most of it to windward; navigational and draft problems in Bahamas, plus 1,200 miles of Inland Waterway from New York. ROUTE VII. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area, sail across stream to Freeport, Grand Bahama, wait there until norther hits Florida, then take off eastwards through northwest, northwest Providence Channel, head due east as long as weather permits. When trades reassert themselves, fall off on starboard tack for St. Thomas, San Juan, or Mayaguez as wind and current dictate. ROUTE I, II, and III for large yachts only, Oct. 28-Nov. 21. ROUTE IV. Best route Oct. 28-Nov. 21. ROUTE V. After Nov. 21. go farther along the waterway to Charleston, until mid-December; after midDecember, continue south to Jacksonville, then to Miami, then Route VI.

Getting There wise mariner will have ample warning of its origin, growth, and progress. Such depressions are now well tracked by satellite; radio WWV announces at from eight to eleven minutes past the hour all major storms in the North Atlantic and updates the report every four hours. Monitoring this channel will give a few days' warning, time enough to project a storm's course and get out of the way. A second type of storm that occurs regularly from September to June is the familiar northeaster. These low-pressure fronts sweep across the North American continent, become unstable as they pass over the warmer ocean surface, and roll up on themselves to form intense low-pressure centers. Their arrival is announced by a cold northwest wind blowing anywhere from 15 to 40 knots, with occasional squalls. After the front passes, though, the wind will make a switch from northwest to northeast, with rain squalls, snow, or sleet. Sometimes the wind shift is gradual, taking as long as a day to swing from northwest to northeast; at other times the shift will take place in a matter of five or ten minutes. The winds may be nothing more than a good solid one-reef sailing breeze or they may pipe up to 50 knots and above. There's a third type of storm, referred to as a late-season hurricane, and encountered mostly from October through April. It's not a true tropical hurricane, as it usually springs up unexpectedly somewhere between 30° Nand 70° to 80° W. These storms are small in diameter and not particularly long-lived, but they can blow anywhere from 50 to 90 knots. They often give no warning, and the chances of their being picked up on a long-range weather forecast are slight indeed. They've done in a tremendous number of yachts over the years: when the wind blows 60 to 70 knots from the east or northeast, Hatteras becomes a deadly lee shore. In the Gulf Stream the wind blowing against the stream turns it into a seething mass of breaking seas, where boats lying ahull can be rolled over in no time. Obviously, the most important thing in going the ocean route to the Islands is to get well south of 30° N without getting involved in any of these kinds of storms, and then to avoid any young hurricanes south of 30° latitude. Here are a few suggestions towards achieving those goals. First, make sure you know as much about the weather as you possibly can. When going south in the tricky season, never rely on only one means of getting weather reports. Use every source you can find: SSB direct to shoreside sources, a weather fax machine, and an all-band receiver that picks up US government weather reports.

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WWV, the time-signal station, broadcasts storm warnings for the whole North Atlantic Ocean fifteen minutes after every hour. Another useful source is a private outfit named Weather Services at 131 Great Road, Bedford, MA 01730; Tel.: (617) 274-8860. Bob Rice, who runs the service, takes all available weather dope, analyzes it, and comes up with his own prediction. Now, any three experienced weathermen may look at the same complex patterns and come up with three different predictions. But Rice has a fine reputation, having provided excellent weather predictions for boats in the BOC Round-the-World races and for Dodge Morgan of American Promise on his record single-handed round-the-world passage, as well as for many of my friends heading south. Yachts without SSB can make ..lrrangements to call Rice via VHF and the normal telephone. Boats with SSB can keep in touch with him all the way down to the Islands. Typically, a running analysis of the weather from Weather Services, with a recommendation on when you have a chance to get south without too much trouble, might cost from $150 to $200. The exact fee will depend on how much work Rice has to do and how long he has to do it; but whatever deal you make, it's a good investment. Another source of weather information during the autumn is W AH out of St. Thomas, which broadcasts not only Caribbean weather but also North Atlantic synopses on VHF 28 at 0600, 1400, and 2200 (St. Thomas time), and SSB coastal 2506 high seas channels 401, 416, 604, and 804.

Offshore All the Way If you set out from New York directly for St. Thomas or Bermuda, you have about 180 miles before reaching the northern edge of the Gulf Stream and warm water; it's more than 600 miles to Bermuda and it's about 700 miles to 30° north, the approximate northern limit of the doldrums and southern limit of the North Atlantic gales; St. Thomas is 1,400 miles. (Roughly the same distances apply from points east of New York; the New England coast bends so far east and so little north that Halifax, Nova Scotia, is only 60 miles farther from St. Thomas than New York.) As noted, during the month of November the chart covering the area for the first part of the trip shows only 6 to 12 percent gales, but around Bermuda the percentage runs to 17, reaching 19 in December and 28 in January. Bermuda attracts gales like a

74

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

magnet at this time of year and is a risky landfall in bad weather to boot. Except for two powerful lights on its mainland, Bermuda is not particularly well lit and a yacht could conceivably pile up on its extensive northwestern reefs without seeing any lights at all. Further, the bottom comes up so steeply that unless the channel entrances are pinpointed, a yacht approaching in heavy weather could find itself in real difficulty before realizing how close inshore she had come (witness the bad scare yachtsmen received at the end of the 1972 Bermuda Race). Finally, the channels into Hamilton and St. George's are very poorly lit. When a gale is building up, the temptation to fight one's way into the safety of Bermuda may be too great to resist. Such attempts have led to disastrous results, to wit, the sinking of Romana in the late 1960s with the loss of five lives. In Iolaire, I scared the daylights out of myself and my crew in just this way. We made a landfall on Bermuda just before a gale; standing off till the gale had passed, we felt, would alarm those waiting for us ashore. So we entered at night with our hearts in our throats; I assure you it's not something I'm likely to try again. So if you set off in November, I strongly recommend that crews be prepared to make the jump all the way to the Islands without stopping at Bermuda. Then in the event of a gale you can stand off and alter course for St. Thomas. From my own experience, I consider the Bermuda route a risky proposition in November, and I'm reluctant to recommend it. I recommend the Bermuda route at that time of year only to those boats that are of too deep draft to use the Inland Waterway from Norfolk to the Morehead City-Beaufort, North Carolina, area and boats that cannot pass under the 65-foot bridge over the Inland Waterway south of Norfolk, to boats that are taking off well to the east, perhaps from Maine, and to boats big enough to really make fast time and keep ahead of bad weather. In fact, the best way to make the offshore passage is in two separate jumps: the first to Bermuda in September and a second to St. Thomas in November; then both the winter gales and the hurricanes can be avoided. Hurricanes start at about 58° W, 12° to 18° N. At theirformation, they are a minimum of 800 miles in a straight line from Bermuda. But they typically travel in a curve, usually west-northwest, gradually turning farther north and finally east, thereby traveling some 1,100 miles before reaching Bermuda. From the time a

hurricane is first spotted to the time when it could possibly be dangerous to a boat en route to Bermuda is about five days. If you check the weather just before you leave the East Coast in September and no hurricane is reported, you'll have clear sailing for at least four to five days. Keep careful track on the weather via all methods possible and if no hurricane is reported in the first forty-eight hours, you should reach Bermuda without difficulty. If one is reported, calculations will tell you whether you should continue or turn back to the States. Once you've reached Bermuda, the boat can be left there for the final leg of the trip in November. During late October and early November, keep a check on the weather and when the report looks good, hop a plane to Hamilton. With the aid of a good long-range forecast and a little luck, you should be able to push south to the doldrums before any gales arrive. Don't be afraid to use fuel in the beginning of the trip; it's more important to get out of the region of gales than to worry about getting becalmed in the doldrums. Your course is due south. Once you hit the trades, it will be fast sailing to St. Thomas. While I still feel it's dangerous to sail from Bermuda to St. Thomas in September, the advent of satellite hurricane tracking has made this a viable option IF you have reliable methods of getting satellite reports and IF your boat has a good range under power. You should check your weather three to four times a day; if a hurricane is reported, immediately sail or motors ail to clear the potential track of the hurricane. If you can't tap several sources of weather information, or if you don't have the speed or range to outmaneuver the storm, don't try it.

Intracoastal Waterway The alternative to the offshore route is, of course, the Inland Waterway. You can take it down to Florida in the fall and then work your way east through the Bahamas to St. Thomas. This is good in that you have only one long offshore hop-from Turks Island to St. Thomas. But, among other objections to be discussed later, there are the distances involved and the easterly winds. From New York to Miami is 1,200 miles, while st. Thomas is another 1,000 miles east-southeast from Miami. Shortly after leaving Miami you reach the trade-wind belt, with its constant easterly wind and westerly current. This means sailing hard on

Getting There the wind all the way, with plenty of extra distance thrown in because of tacking, Bahama-island dodging, and the leeward set of the current. The Bahamas in general are poorly charted and poorly lit. Many an intended cruise to the Lesser Antilles has been abruptly cancelled on unbuoyed Muchoir and Silver Banks. Other boats have made it halfway through the Bahamas before deciding that all this windward work just wasn't worth it. It's a very time-consuming process that may take six or seven weeks. Once in a while you may pick up a norther and reach all the way to the western tip of Puerto Rico in six days, but such passages are few and far between, requiring a rare combination of time, patience, and skill. So my preferred route to the Islands, the best way to avoid both the northern gales and the southern hurricanes, is inland to the Morehead City-Beaufort, North Carolina, area, then offshore to St. Thomas, 1,260 miles away.

MOREHEAD CITY-BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA

The big objection many yachtsmen make to the Inland Waterway (as most sailors still call it; the properly bureaucratic, seven-syllable label is the Intracoastal Waterway, or the ICW), is the problem of grounding. But if you draw no more than 7 1/2 feet and navigate only during daylight hours, you can get from Norfolk to Morehead City-Beaufort without grounding. Even boats drawing up to 8 feet can still usually make the trip without grounding, if they can maintain 8 knots under power. The trick is to poke along slowly until a tug and tow passes you. The barges may only draw a few feet of water, but the tugs, which will be in the deepest part of the channel, usually draw 8 feet or more. Even larger tugs, which touch bottom occasionally, have so much horsepower that they just chug their way right on through, basically dredging the channel. If you follow directly in their wake you won't run aground, but you must be able to maintain a cruising speed of 8 knots. Just as serious a problem to bigger boats as depth of water is height of bridges. In the winter of 1979-80, a fixed bridge with a clearance of only 65 feet was completed across the waterway just south of Norfolk. Up until then all bridges that low that blocked the waterway were draw or lift bridges. But no more. Now there are numerous 65-foot fixed bridges, and a lot of yachts have been excluded from the waterway, which is a damn shame.

75

Cruising the JCW can be a lot of fun. Many skippers, myself included, normally rush through the waterway en route to somewhere else. But one of my life ambitions is to set aside two weeks, get the current Inland Waterway Guide and NOAA charts 11542, 11544, 11548, 11550, 11554, 11555, 12204, and 12205, and take two weeks on the way to Morehead City instead of the usual three days. I'd gunkhole the rivers that extend back into North Carolina, then go the other way to the Outer Banks, including Kitty Hawk, where the Wright brothers made history. Everyone I know who has made this cruise raves about it. Anyway, whether you take it fast or slow, the route through Morehead City-Beaufort is by far the best way to get to St. Thomas. It will gain you very little to go any farther south along the waterway, as after Morehead City it begins to tend much more west than south. Charleston is 30 miles farther south than Morehead, but 180 miles farther west from St. Thomas. These are hard miles of easting to make back up when you set out offshore. The Morehead City-Beaufort area is an ideal takeoff point because it has numerous places where you can leave your boat in the fall until you're ready to go; there are excellent food stores, plenty of good mechanics, and, in recent years, a growing number of sailboat suppliers. In Beaufort you will not only find slips but also room to anchor out if the slips are all full, something which is not found in Morehead City. Beaufort also offers hauling facilities up to 25 tons, sail makers, electronics, and electrical engineers. There is also Mike Beal, 209 Marsh Street, Beaufort, NC 28516; Tel.; (919) 728-2536, who runs a consulting service for sailors preparing for the offshore jump. Many of the things you may need fixed on your boat Mike will be capable of doing; he will be able to arrange for someone else to do the things that are beyond his capabilities. As a yacht consultant he is well qualified, with ten transatlantic passages under his belt and many years as one of the best-known charter skippers in the Caribbean. Money spent hiring Mike as a consultant before you take off for the Islands will be money well spent. When heading north or south I have always stayed at the Morehead City municipal yacht basin, where James, who runs the docks, has taken wonderful care of me. Now Morehead City has been eclipsed by Beaufort but next time I head south via the waterway I'll still go over to Morehead City Marina to hoist a few pints with James! Incidentally, they don't seem to have good hard blue coal in the South, so take a supply along with

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide you if you use a coal stove. Also, scout around town for some five-gallon drums that can be carried on deck. If you're in a hurry, carry as much fuel as you possibly can, because in November the trades may be light or nonexistent and the doldrums usually extend about 300 miles. One year we burned up eighty-four hours of fnel and could have used still more. A further advantage of leaving from Morehead City-Beaufort is that the Gulf Stream is only about 60 miles off the beach. You leave at the first of the ebb with a fair weather report, and no mater how cold it is on the mainland, you're out in the warmwater area within eight to ten hours, depending on the size of your boat. Further, if you have a decent break in the weather for thirty-six hours, you'll work your way clear of the really bad gale areas. I repeat: if the wind goes light, turn on the mill and push east-southeast as fast as you possibly can to get out of this dangerous gale area. But you should obtain charts of the Morehead City-Cape Lookout area, because the shoals extend well over 20 miles to sea. If you don't have a detailed chart, which is frequently unavailable in Morehead City, you can easily get in trouble on these shoals, which extend well south of the rhumbline route from Morehead City to St. Thomas. When sailing from the Morehead City-Beaufort area, wait for a good weather report and try to take off on the face of a northwester, which will blow you out across the Stream and into warm water before the wind switches to the northeast. With luck the northeaster will blow you down to the trades. If you leave at slack high water the ebb in the channel will really boot you along. Then from the seabuoy at Morehead City take a course to clear the shoals off Cape Lookout, allowing 'for the current, which is northeast. Then steer east-southeast. According to the wind charts, the wind will be in the northerly quadrants for the first part of your trip, northwest to northeast at about Force 4. If the wind stays in the northwest you'll have a nice downhill slide a good part of the way. Around 300 to 31 0 N latitude the wind will fall off to light and variable, so don't forget that big genoa. The final 300 miles should be a fast reach with the wind high on the beam. Many boats report southeast winds of 20 to 25 knots once clear of the Morehead City-Beaufort area; this will be uncomfortable, but with a good boat it won't kill you, whereas a winter gale with snow, sleet, and ice, which you might encounter leaving from New York and points east, can do in even the best boats and the best crews.

Be sure to carry a Bahamian cruising guide and a general chart of the Bahamas. You are not planning to go there but because of heavy weather or broken gear you may be forced to; with a general chart, a guide, and some common sense you should be able to get yourself into a harbor of refuge without losing your boat.

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA

Those boats that can't use the waterway will have to leave from Norfolk or farther north, although if you stay inside as far as Norfolk you'll be taking to the open sea in slightly warmer weather. For the first 150 miles you'll have the Outer Banks and Cape Hatteras on your lee bow starboard bowand that's no place to be in a northeaster. The "Graveyard of Ships" shoals extend 20 miles to sea, and the currents and tides are very strong. So watch the weather report: Hatteras is a fearsome lee shore, and the Gulf Stream in a northerly gale is at the least hellishly uncomfortable, at the worst deadly. Avoid both like the plague. If the weather is not perfect when you depart the Virginia Capes, Little Creek, Virginia, just inside Cape Henry is an excellent place to wait for the weather-but once you get a break in the weather, get going. The danger of leaving from the Virginia Capes lies in a gale coming through before you can get across the Stream and out the other side. My friend Hardy Wright CHardly Ever Right") got caught this way in Onward, a 65-foot Alden schooner. He hove-to and handled her beautifully, and the boat rode the bad seas and howling wind comfortably--except that the Stream and the gale were both moving slowly northeast at 50 to 60 miles a day. So Onward was caught in the grip of the storm for three days until the gale finally went off across the Atlantic. Incidentally, it is not a good idea to lie ahull in the Stream in a northerly gale, because the breaking seas caused by the Stream running against the wind have rolled many a good boat. Heave to properly so that you're inching upwind, or else run off before it. It's my theory that once the wind gets over 50 knots, the survival of a boat depends one third on good seamanship, one third on the boat's fitness, and one third on luck. The best of boats and best of crews sometimes meet that big wave with their names on it and come to grief. Every winter for the thirty-three years I've lived in the Islands, one or more boats bound from the

Getting There

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States to the Lesser Antilles have been lost and three or four have suffered heavy weather damage. Some cases can obviously be attributed to bad seamanship or ill-founded boats. Many good boats and good men, though, have succumbed to the power of a winter gale in the North Atlantic. Sometimes the idiots have survived and the good seamen have not. Many marine insurance underwriters (and this yacht insurance broker as well) insist that boats be south of Hatteras before November 15, that boats of 40 feet or more have at least four in crew, and that, draft permitting, the Morehead City-Beaufort route be used. I think it would benefit everyone-insurers, Coast Guard, rescue teams, and yachtsmen-if all marine insurance underwriters and brokers insisted on these conditions. Some people have made this trip dozens of times with little or no serious trouble. Viv Snow, skipper of Percy Chubb's Antilles, has made over two dozen trips on this run; I have made roughly three dozen. The only times I've had bad scares have been when I've broken my own ground rules by leaving late and not watching the weather. Given a good boat, an able crew, and a decent break in the weather, a November trip from Morehead City- Beaufort to St. Thomas can be a wonderful offshore passage, one to be looked forward to and not to be feared.

City-Beaufort route but because of a late start, or unforeseen problems with rig, engines, refrigeration, electrical, or electronics, they find it is too late in the season-late November or early December-to leave from Virginia or North or South Carolina. So they end up chugging down to Florida before taking off for the Caribbean. Once you get down to Jacksonville, you are pretty much south of the winter gales other than the bad northers that blow down through Florida once or twice a month. My advice is to wait in Jacksonville for one of those northers and then leave Jacksonville about twenty-four hours before it comes through. Obviously, you'll have to keep a close watch on the weather reports. The point is to get across the Gulf Stream before the norther hits (you definitely don't want to be in the Stream when it does), and then ride it east on a sleigh ride toward the Islands. It will probably blow 25 to 35 knots, but with eased sheets and shortened sail this should give you no trouble. (Every once in a while it will be hang up to 50 knots. Be prepared.) Hold as close to east as you comfortably can until the norther blows out. If you've reached the trade winds by then and can lay a course for St. Thomas, fine and dandy; if not, motor until you find them and, if necessary, head for the western end of Puerto Rico.

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

If you are coming south down the waterway bound for the Islands, I don't think it is worthwhile continuing south of Jacksonville. But Miami-Fort Lauderdale is a logical place to jump from if you've refitted in the area, if you're trucking your boat from the West Coast, or if you've come up from the south. (The St. Petersburg-Tampa area on Florida's west coast has become one of the yachtbuilding centers of North America, and many boats come around the bottom of Florida on their way to the Islands.) Still, most of us who have been delivery skippers with a schedule to keep have spent a lot of energy swearing at the Miami to the Islands route. It is much harder from Miami-Fort Lauderdale to the Islands than from New York. It is usually dead to windward, and threading the Bahamas in a hurry is no fun either. However, the cruising yachtsman is not locked into a time schedule. Thus the smart cruiser starting from Florida should take the easy way to the Caribbean. Take off from Miami or Fort Lauderdale and sail over to Freeport, Grand Bahama.

MIAMI-FORT LAUDERDALE

If it is very late in the year some boats continue down the Inland Waterway to Charleston, South Carolina. This gets you farther away from the gale area, but it also means many more miles in the waterway. Because of the curve in the coast, the first day's run in the ICW after Morehead City is literally due west--directly away from the Islands. But it's a pleasant way to spend four or five days. Once you arrive in Charleston, it is basically the same situation as Morehead City: wait for a break in the weather, get to sea, cross the Stream, and head east-southeast until the butter melts. Don't forget, though, that you will have to sail almost 200 miles to reach the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream-a lot can happen in 200 miles, hence the reason for advising Morehead City-Beaufort if it is not too late in the year.

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

The best-laid plans of mice and men, etc., and frequently boats are all set to do the Morehead

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide Then wait there until a north er is predicted to come through and take off in the face of the norther. As mentioned above, it may blow very hard but you will sail 100 miles from Freeport to northeast Providence Channel with the island of Grand Bahama sheltering you from the sea but not the wind. The norther will be a fair breeze with eased sheets. Carry the norther as far east as possible, then when it dies, proceed as if you were coming from Jacksonville (see preceding description). Boats leaving from Florida should have onboard a general chart for the Bahamas and the north coast of Hispaniola, plus Harry Klein's Yachtsman's Guide to the Bahamas and Yachtsman's Guide to the Greater Antilles and the Virgins, as they have useful information on places you may end up in if you. have a gear failure. For Puerto Rico, and Passage and Virgin Islands, have onboard Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean, vol. n, part I.

From the US West Coast When I first arrived in the Lesser Antilles I was amazed to discover that most of the yachtsmen were from either Europe or the West Coast of the United States. The Europeans I could understand, but when you consider that it's roughly 3,000 miles from San Diego to Panama, and another 1,000 miles against both wind and current to the Eastern Caribbean, the number of West Coast sailors in the Islands was hard to account for. Perhaps it's an indication of the scarcity of extended cruising opportunities on the West Coast, and perhaps it's also testimony to the adventurous and frontier spirit of West Coast sailors. Two such excellent sailors are John and Joy Pantlin, owners of Bellina, the best-maintained wooden boat I know. They have made the trip from the West Coast to the Panama Canal twice, and they are extremely competent seamen who thoroughly research their trips. I am grateful to them for supplying the invaluable information that follows; but remember, this information dates from the early 1980s-since then there have been radical changes in Central America both in the amenities and in the political situation. Further, to the best of my knowledge no one has written a guide to the area from Acapulco to Panama so the yachtsman heading south is doing so with minimal information. When planning a trip from California to the

Panama Canal, groundwork is most important, and a sound, well-founded vessel is a must. In general, Central America is far less geared to the needs of the cruising yacht than many of the more popular sailing areas of the Caribbean. Therefore, even greater care and thought should go into the subject of what spares and replacements ought to be carried, in an endeavor to avoid the frustration of the boat's being stranded in some remote spot while you frantically try to obtain the unobtainable ashore, or get it sent down, or even in desperation fly back to the States to get it. Stores for any voyage are a matter of personal taste, but just remember that stateside prices for most nonperishable articles and foods, canned goods, etc., are usually lower than any you're going to meet elsewhere. However, if there's a space problem, don't worry unnecessarily because most of the ports along the way have well-stocked stores and supermarkets. Fresh foods and produce can usually be obtained without too much difficulty from the local native markets, prOViding you can stomach the unhygienic conditions under which they're often sold. An essential item when facing a voyage down the coast of Central America is a supply of Spanish Crew Lists, as several copies will be required at each port you call in. The easiest way out of the problem is to obtain a special block of them, already printed, with spaces left for you to fill in and samples of how to complete them, which is a boon to those of us unfamiliar with the Spanish language. They were the brainchild of the late Larry Baldwin and are obtainable from any of the leading yachting stores on the West Coast. At some ports there are shipping agents who will do the paperwork for you, if you can afford their fees. Don't forget, though, that the entry and clearance procedure has to be followed at every port you visit, not just when entering or clearing a country. It involves a visit to the port captain and Immigration, and often Customs as well when you arrive in port; then when you want to leave the whole procedure is repeated for clearance. What makes matters worse is that in most ports you will find that the offices of the port captain and Immigration lie at opposite ends of town. While often frustrating and time-consuming, it's quite possible and usual for cruising people to do their own paperwork, although it's understandable that the more affiuent yachtsmen take advantage of the services of agents when available. We hope that one day Mexico will make things a little easier for visiting yachtsmen by treating cruising boats less like commercial vessels and more like motor homes

Getting There and automobiles, which are subject to far fewer formalities when touring Mexico. While on the subject of paperwork, it might be well to mention here that a visit to a Mexican consulate before entering Mexico can greatly facilitate the initial entry procedure. Here again Larry Baldwin's block of Crew Lists is a help because not only does he explain the procedure but he also gives a special form of Crew List for this purpose. You can obtain Tourist Cards for each member of the crew from the consulate, another requirement when cruising Mexican waters. If you have any fishing equipment on board, you should also inquire where to get fishing licenses, as these are required for the boat and each member of the crew when cruising the west coast of Mexico (although, strangely, they don't seem to place such importance on them on the east coast). There are several fast patrol boats running up and down the west coast of Mexico keeping an eye out for possible offenders of this law. Cruising guides for this trip are somewhat limited and concentrate more on Baja California and the Mexican coast as far as Acapulco. The Admiralty Pilot, although a useful source of information, is intended more for larger ships and a lot of anchorages dismissed by it as being unsuitable except for "small vessels with local knowledge" are just what the cruising man is looking for. In this respect a lot of useful information can be gained from the bulletins published monthly by the Seven Seas Cruising Association. These are made up of letters sent in by members and others, giving useful advice and telling of their various experiences in different parts of the world. Many of these letters relate to the coastline between the States and the Panama Canal, and the SSCA publishes an annual cross-reference that gives the issues from which information about various regions can be gleaned. It is not necessary to be a member of the association in order to obtain the bulletins, which can be purchased from the Editors, Seven Seas Cruising Association, Inc., Homebase, PO Box 38, Placida, FL 33946. On the subject of charts, a word of warning is necessary. Some charts, especially the large-scale ones, are not always too accurate in their detail and should not be relied on implicitly. Neither should any reliance be placed on lighthouses, as many don't even show a light and most of the rest don't follow their allotted characteristics. This can make nighttime travel extremely hazardous, particularly considering the dangerous currents, often shoreward setting, that when running with or against the boat can add or detract 20 miles or more on

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the dead-reckoning position. This is why the practice of setting a safe course to take the boat away from shore during the night and closing the shore to confirm or discover your true position during daylight is a good one to follow. The Admiralty Pilot warns of the more dangerous currents and it's well to heed such advice, as many a large freighter's hulk rusting on a beach or reef along the way will testify. Now to the trip itself and when to leave: The most important thing is to avoid the hurricane season, and you'll find that most boats wait until the middle or end of November before entering Mexico, as the northern parts of Central America are subject in general to the same hurricane season as the Caribbean. The route taken will vary according to individual tastes, from those people who prefer to make long hops and get it over with quickly to those who like to take their time and see as much of the intervening countries as possible. For the latter it would be well to mention here that, having waited for one hurricane season to clear before starting, you'll have to get your ship into a safe area of the Caribbean before the next hurricane season commences. It's easy to linger too long enjoying the delights of Mexico only to find that time is running out and the equally appealing delights of the southern part of the cruise have to be bypassed. Those with unlimited time, of course, can spend the next hurricane season cruising the safer areas off the coasts of Costa Rica and Panama. The coastline from Ensenada to the Panama Canal has many good anchorages suitable for small craft. Some are more popular than others and some have amenities, while others have none, relying for attraction on their very remoteness. Here is where a cruising guide and the SSCA bulletins prove their worth in helping you decide which anchorages will suit your particular needs or tastes. The us charts that cover this whole coast are numbers 18009, 21011, 21014, 21017, 21020, 21023, 21026, 21030, and 21033. More detailed charts are listed in the descriptions. The following is just a brief description of the larger ports to be found along the way.

The Mexican West Coast ENSENADA

BA 3056 Port of entry. The purely commercial harbor has poor holding ground and is filthy, but the offices

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of the authorities are close by and so are banks (you get a better rate of exchange if you change your dollars at a bank rather than at a store), stores, liquor stores, etc. TURTLE .BAY (PUERTO SAN BARTOLOME)

US 21081, 21120; BA 2885, 3055 Good anchorage off the pier. Fuel and water are available and shops are primitive but adequate for basic items. Care should be taken when entering the bay as there are several rocks and reefs to avoid. MAGDALENA BAY

US 21120, 21121; BA 3053, 3054 This is a good alternative to Scammons Lagoon, the famous breeding ground of the California gray whales, since the Mexican authorities have placed restrictions on boats visiting the lagoon. Near the entrance to the bay it's possible to get almost within touching distance of these huge mammals, which is a bit nerve-racking at first until you realize that so long as they see the boat, they'll be the first to take avoiding action. Another advantage of Magdalena Bay is that fuel and water and some provisions can be obtained at the Port of San Carlos at the head of the bay, but take care when nav'igating the tricky, twisting channel leading there. Puerto Cortez, a naval base reached by following a channel indicated by two sets of leading-in markers in the southeastern corner, provides a good anchorage and the navy is reputed to be helpful in times of mechanical and medical crises. CABO SAN LUCAS

NOAA 21100; BA 3053 Very popular and therefore crowded, as it's the end of the line for some California boaters with only limited cruising time. There is a small inner harbor affording fair protection, but most boats anchor fore-and-aft off the beach where there's reasonable protection under normal conditions. However, conditions are not always normal as was related in stories in Sail magazine in February, March, and April 1983 when an onshore gale and big swells came in, on September 8th, 1982, and put thirty-two boats on the beach, twenty-two of which became total losses. If you're anchored off the beach in Cabo San Lucas, monitor the weather reports very carefully, and at the least sign of a blow get out to sea immediately.

Entry and clearance here are sometimes complicated by the elusiveness of the Immigration officer and the distance between the various offices. The little town is picturesque and touristy, and adequate supplies, fuel, and water can be obtained without too much difficulty. MAZATLAN

US 21301; BA 2060, 2323 A large commercial harbor and popular sportfishing resort. A bus service takes you into the town, which lies some distance from the smallboat harbor, but which is quite sophisticated and supplies most needs. Fuel and water are available. PUERTO VALLARTA

No charts available A popular tourist resort, very attractive, with a small boat harbor some miles north of the town. Be prepared to anchor fore-and-aft in an impossibly small space among countless other boats, unless you prefer (and are able to find) a space in the marina there. Fuel is usually trucked from the nearby garage to the cruise-liner dock, but take on only bottled water for drinking as the piped supply has been suspect for years. Entry and clearance are somewhat complicated, starting at the port captain's office at the harbor entrance and involving at least one and often two trips into town to the Immigration office. A bus service takes you into town where most supplies are available. MANZANILLO

US 21342; BA 516, 587, 1053 The old commercial harbor near the town is dirty, and landing from a dinghy is difficult although not impossible. Supplies are good once you get into town. Officialdom is confined conveniently to one modern building between the old and new commercial harbors. Cruising boats usually congregate either in or near the marina at the Las Hadas Hotel at the other end of the beach from the harbors, conditions there being much more pleasant and the surroundings picturesque. ZIHUATANEJO

US 21382; BA 1051 An attractive little holiday resort with a good anchorage. Officials and shops are conveniently close to the beach off which the boats lie, and the

Getting There friendly atmosphere of this fast-growing little town makes it well worth a visit. Fuel and water would be difficult to get on board in any quantity. ACAPULCO

US 21401; BA 1051, 1944 The largest tourist resort on this coast, with all the advantages and disadvantages to be expected therefrom. Officialdom and touristy shops are an easy bus ride from the yacht club, but the market and food stores are readily accessible only by taxi. If you don't want to use the yacht club's marina, it is possible to anchor off it. Fuel and water are available at the yacht club and also across the harbor where the sports fishermen obtain theirs. (The coast from the Mexican border south to Acapulco is covered in Boating in Mexico, by Dix Brown; contact the Aztex Corp., 7002 East Paseo San Andres, Tucson, AZ 85710.)

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breakwaters built out from the shore and by its lighthouses. It's gradually being developed as a small-boat harbor and is fast becoming popular as a clearance port for yachts heading south. Yachts sailing down the coast of Mexico are advised to have on board BA charts 349, 516, and 587, which have numerous harbor plans ofharbors not listed here.

Mexico to the Canal Zone Given the highly volatile political state of this part of the world, particularly El Salvador and Nicaragua, it would seem prudent to research the situation carefully before leaving, and then to give the questionable parts of the coast a wide berth. BA charts 660, 1049, and 1960 cover the area. Costa Rica, though, seems pretty stable at this writing, and you can probably count on finding an end-of-passage haven there.

SALINA CRUZ

US 21442; BA 587, 1050 A commercial harbor mainly catering to the huge fleet of shrimp boats that fish the Gulf of Tehuantepec. In the past it hasn't been popular with cruising folk due to poor experiences with officials, although fuel, water, and provisions are available. GULF OF TEHUANTEPEC

PLAYA DE COCOS, COSTA RICA

The officials at this attractive little tourist resort are empowered to check your papers and grant temporary permission to cruise Costa Rican waters until your boat is entered properly at Puntarenas farther south. Water can be got off the beach in cans, but supplies from the village are restricted. Anything else involves a bus ride into Liberia, inland, which is interesting but time-consuming.

US 21023; BA 1050 A word here about navigating this sometimes dangerous stretch of water. The accepted method for most small craft is to go around the edge, keeping close to shore, which provides maximum protection if you're unlucky enough to meet a Tehauntepecker, a gale which comes roaring across the low-lying land between the Gulf of Campeche and the Gulf of Tehauntepec. The usual procedure if caught in a Tehauntepecker is to nose into the beach and anchor just off it; you may get sandblasted, but at least you won't have to suffer the mountainous seas that quickly kick up farther out in this shallow gulf, and neither will you be blown miles off course as you ride out the storm. PUERTO MADERO (SAN BONITO)

No charts available The new harbor here, just short of the Guatemala border, is easily recognizable by the double

PUNTARENAS

US 21545, 21546; BA 1931, 2145 Entry procedure is simple, provided the rule of anchoring near the commercial pier while the skipper takes the papers ashore is observed. Any boat which enters the estuary before entering the country is regarded with suspicion. When attempting to go up the estuary for the first time, it's a good idea to take a pilot or follow a vessel with local knowledge, preferably just before high-water slack, as it's very easy to run aground in this tricky channel. Inside, the channel runs unbelievably close to the shore, and the current flows swiftly. Once you're anchored somewhere off the town docks, you'll find the facilities are good, with everything in the way of stores within walking distance; fuel, water, and ice are readily available. There are several boat yards here where repairs and haulouts can be effected.

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GOLFITO

US 21560, 21562, 21563; BA 1932 A well-protected harbor where fuel, water, and supplies are available, and whence clearance from Costa Rica can be obtained, although some boats prefer to enter and clear the country at Puntarenas and bypass Golfito. BA charts 1928 and 1929 will carry you on to Panama. PUERTO ARMUELLES, PANAMA

US 21581; BA 1300 The authorities here have a reputation for overcharging and it is not terribly convenient, so most cruising boats, if they need only to overnight in some of the more remote off-lying islands and bays with which the south coast of Panama abounds, bypass this port and obtain their entry and cruising permit at Panama City itself. PUNTA MARIATO TO CABO MALA

US 21601 This is where the shipping lanes leading to the Panama Canal start to converge on the coast, and a sharp lookout should be maintained as there are often several large, fast-moving commercial ships in sight.

You can supplement this excellent advice from the Pantlins by reading Chapter 3 of Hart and Stone's Cruising Guide to the Caribbean and the Bahamas. As to the canal itself, the July 1979 issue of Cruising World magazine has an excellent article by Russell Van Keik titled "The Panama Canal After the Treaty." Other articles on transiting the Canal appeared in Cruising World February 1985, p. BB, and February 1987, p. 129. Norrie Hoyt's three-part article in Sail magazine, starting in December 1979, is also a gold mine of information. Check your insurance before traveling the canal; the Panama Canal Corporation is a law unto itself, responsible only to God-the US government, at least, seems to have little control over the corporation. Boats have been damaged and the corporation has denied liability. Lloyd's has paid off and then tried to collect from the Panama Canal Corporation. The corporation denied liability, despite the fact that the boats were under the charge of their pilots, and even all Lloyd's heavyweight lawyers could do nothing. The pilots vary in the extreme: most are efficient and helpful; some are fantastic, making traversing the canal a wonderful experience; others, luckily a very small number, are so miserable and officious that the crew of the yacht concerned is reduced to abject terror and made to suffer an experience they will never forget. Cross your fingers and hope!

ISLA TABOGA

US 21603; BA 1300 A sometimes rolly anchorage off a small resort, where yachts waiting to transit the canal often lie. Its big advantage is a regular ferry service to the Panama Canal Zone. PANAMA CANAL ZONE

US 21604, 21605; BA 1299, 3111 When approaching the Panama Canal it's a good idea to contact the Flamenco Island Radio operator (VHF channel 16), who will direct you to the smallboat anchorage just inside Flamenco Island. Here you will be boarded and, in due course, measured (unless your vessel has been through the Panama Canal before). Landing from this anchorage is not allowed, so that unless a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club can be obtained, the only way to gain access to the Canal Zone is by ferry from Isla Tabogo. Your boarding officer will advise as to the best procedure to follow; it's a little complicated and the authorities go very much by the book.

East from the Canal Once the canal has been traversed and you're anchored in Cristobal Colon, the eastern terminus of the Panama Canal, you should prepare yourseif for what is undoubtedly one of the worst hauls you'll ever undertake. The thrash to the east across the Caribbean is no fun, no matter how you tackle it. But first, you can treat yourself to a visit in the San BIas Islands (see US charts 26063 and 26064), which lie 80 miles east of Cristobal Colon. These islands, which to the best of my knowledge were first cruised by an American yachtsman in 1922 when Alf Loomis and his new bride, Priscilla sailed there in his 28-foot gaff-headed Hippocampus, are still reputed to be one of the high points of a Caribbean cruise. (The natives no longer have the reputation for cannibalism they had back then.) There isn't much cruising information on the islands, although Hart and Stone's excellent book covers them briefly. Furthermore, the charts aren't

Getting There much good either. The American chart of the islands (US 26063) does have enough information on it to enable the careful navigator who is experienced at reef piloting, and who only sails when the sun is high, to explore the San BIas Islands. However, both this and the equivalent British chart are of dubious accuracy. Kitt Kapp, one of the charter skippers who arrived in the US Virgin Islands in the early 1950s, left the area to explore the Colombian and Central American coasts in the middle 1960s. As a result of his exploration, he has produced four privately printed charts of the San BIas Islands; they can be obtained from Kapp Publications, PO Box 64, Osprey, FL 33559, for $3.50. Once you've explored the San Bias, you have to face up to a difficult decision. Do you stand north on the starboard tack across the Caribbean to Jamaica, or do you fight your way east to Aruba and then along the Venezuelan coast? I very much favor the latter route, for the following reasons. The course from the San BIas Islands to Fort Royal, Kingston, Jamaica, is 025° magnetic, a distance of51O miles. However, because of the strong westerly set in the Carihhean, plus leeway, the actual course sailed will have to be about 045°. Furthermore, 30 miles to leeward of the rhumbline course lies the San Pedro Bank, which is completely unmarked, an area of shoals and rocks that scarcely bare at low water. This bank covers an area almost the size of the Virgin Islands. Not only is the bank dangerous to navigation, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the cays on the eastern end of San Pedro Bank are frequently used as a rendezvous point for Jamaican and Colombian dope smugglers-and they're even more dangerous than rocks and shoals. There is also the Bajo Nuevo (New Bank), which again, extends over a considerable area with shoal water that would certainly create breaking seas in heavy weather. There are also the dangerous reefs of Banco Bancador and Banco Serrana. Both of them are supposedly lit, but the reefs are extensive enough that you could easily end up on the bricks before seeing the light, if it's working. The only offshore stops in this area are St. Andrews Island, run by Colombia (covered in Hart and Stone's book), and Old Providence. The disadvantage of breaking the trip and going to the islands is that it puts you well to the west of Jamaica. Not only that, but the area east of Central America is noted for poor charts, strong and variable currents, erratic lights, and plenty of wrecks. Once you arrive in Jamaica, you do have the

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chance for good R & R; but after you've relaxed, restocked the boat, and recuperated, you still have to stick your head down and bull your way east along the coast of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. The distance from Jamaica to St. Thomas is a full 750 miles, most of it to windward. It isn't always a beat from Jamaica to Puerto Rico. There's the story of Richard Scott Hughes, who with his wife Jenny was running the 65-foot De Vers Lentch steel schooner Boekanier. They had finished a charter to Guatemala and were engaged to take the boat back to Antigua; everyone figured on a long, hard beat, so the deadhead fee was very substantial. As it happened, a north er blasted through as they left Guatemala, and with eased sheets they took off on a beam reach across the width of the Caribbean, getting to the south coast of Puerto Rico in no time. He didn't dare go right on to Antigua for fear the charter broker would insist on refunding some of the deadhead fee to the charterer if the boat got back so far ahead of schedule. So he sat in the bar at Marina Cay enjoying life and making up stories about the rough trip he'd had from Guatemala. Incidentally, when coasting along the south coast of Hispaniola, remember that the island is large enough so that the sea-land breeze routine is felt: easterly winds during the day die out at dusk and come offshore at night, enabling you to work your way along the coast with favorable winds in relatively smooth seas close to the shore. You are also likely to find an easterly current along the shore between Bayaux Cayes and False Cape and, similarly, between Beata Point and Soana Island. (For more information on Hispaniola, check Harry Kline's book, Guide to the Greater Antilles and the Virgin Islands.) Well, then, you ask, what's the easy way across? Unfortunately, there isn't one, unless you have Richard's luck. I think the southern route across the top of South America is less dangerous and in the end more rewarding, but it's still a long, hard slog to windward. In the old days you could break the trip by stopping along the Colombian coast and visiting, among other places, the fascinating city of Cartagena. This old Spanish city is probably the best-preserved Spanish colonial city in the western hemisphere and is still a wonderful place to visitbyairplane. Now that drug smuggling is big business in Colombia, the country's coastal waters are so infested with smugglers and local pirates that I doubt if any insurance company in the world will

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide insure a yacht in those waters. I certainly wouldn't go there myself. Thievery and worse violence are rampant, and even in Cartagena it's reputedly impossible to ensure the safety of an anchored or moored yacht. Furthermore, the US and British charts of much of the area are badly inaccurate; Puerto Colombia, west of Isla Verde, offers no shelter at all, and the coast should not be approached under any circumstances. Baranquilla, on the Magdalena River, and Santa Marta should be avoided at all costs; in both ports many boats have been completely stripped. East of the Caya de la Agua-Santa Marta area is a series of fjords, coves, and anchorages that should make a fantastic cruising area. However, in light of what has previously been said, they are best avoided. From these coves east to Cabo de la Vela, a distance of 130 miles, there is no anchorage. You can anchor under the light at Cabo de la Vela for a rest before the next hitch east, but be sure to keep an armed guard awake on deck. Similarly, in the attractive-looking harbors of El Portete and Bahia Honda, to the east, yachtsmen have reported keeping a twenty-four-hour, armed deck watch while fishermen (pirates?) continually circled them. It also can blow extremely hard from the east along the Colombian coast, and frequently an easterly countercurrent sets up very rough and often dangerous sea conditions. In fact, if you check the weather chart for the area, you'll see a big red circle off the Colombian coast for December, January, February, and March. That red circle means that seas more than 12 feet high are encountered there 10 percent of the time. The chart shows that the sea stays calm until July (as mentioned elsewhere, July is the windiest month in the Caribbean), and then eases off again from August through December. It seems the best time to cross via this route is during the hurricane season, hugging the Venezuelan coast to avoid the hurricanes. So, all in all, I have to advise against cruising the Colombian coast, because it can be a mucho dangerous place. If you find yourself there, though, and you get to the western side of the Gulf of Venezuela, be warned that the final 80 miles across the Gulf of Venezuela to Aruba can seem like the longest 80 miles in the world. Fortunately, there is a harbor of refuge in between the southern most Los Monjes (Harbor Chart VI). On the chart and from the northwest, these islands look like one; but they are two, with a navigable passage between, which offers a passable anchorage. There is a small Venezuelan military base there, which safeguards

you from contrabandistas. But don't enter the place at night; stand offshore till daylight, and try to contact the military on VHF. So, all things considered, I feel the best thing to do on leaving Panama is to head directly for Aruba, a beat of some 600 miles. Start off on the starboard tack, taking an occasional hitch to the southeast, but always remaining outside the lOO-fathom curve of the Colombian coast. It won't be much fun, and Aruba isn't exactly a yachtsman's paradise, being mainly a commercial port. But the hospitality and food are good, and the joy of not having the boat bouncing up and down anymore will more than offset the lack of palm-fringed beaches and coves. Besides, you now have the prospect of a pleasant few weeks working your way east along the Venezuelan coast, which is a wonderful cruising ground indeed. If you feel you absolutely have to stop for a rest before getting to Aruba, you can duck into the Gulf of Venezuela and seek refuge in the southernmost Los Monjes. Once rested you can again head eastwards in the Gulf of Venezuela to Amuay. Stand in on the port tack to the Bay of Amuay, on the Peninsula de Paraguana, and find anchorage at the oil terminal at Los Piedros. There are no real yachting facilities, but it's an anchorage. You can enter at the Customs House pier at Ensenada Caheta Guarana, south of Bahia de las Piedros. Inquire as to water, fuel, and stores, which are available. Remember, though, that the Peninsulas of Paraguana and Guajira are both deserts. The wind howls across them, and you may find it's blowing considerably harder inside the gulf than offshore. You'll be out of the sea, but it may be blowing gale force. I'd be wary of standing into the Gulf of Venezuela. Eastward from Aruba is covered in detail in Volume IV of this cruising guide. Basically, you can fight directly east to the Eastern Caribbean, a long and painful process, or you can island- and coast-hop, spending three to four weeks reaching Grenada. You will soon discover that there is ample cruising along the Venezuelan coast. Try it, enjoy it, and you may take a month to reach the Antilles; once you do, you may decide you like Venezuela better! One last word ahout coming from the West Coast. The advice of many yachtsmen is to put your boat on a truck in California and ship it to Jacksonville or Fort Lauderdale and set out for the Islands from there. Trucking is not such a big deal-many of the 1987 Twelves, for instance,

Getting There ;'

14

19

23

85

MONJES DEL SUR 18

22

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V 1-Monjes del Sur were built in the East and trucked to the West. If this sounds like heresy from a cruising yachtsman, consider that the estimated cost for shipping a 40foot boat is about $3,500 and that travel time is about four days. That's a whale of a lot faster and cheaper than sailing those 5,OOO-plus hard miles. When you do finally approach the West Indies, from whatever direction, you'll want to know what the best landfalls are. Read the following pages, 85-87, very carefully.

Landfalls from Europe Barbados was for many years the most popular landfall, since it is well out to windward of the other islands and therefore shortens the transatlantic trip by about 100 miles. It is also well lit on both the south and north ends, there are no offlying shoals, and you can home in on the radio air beacon and on Barbados Radio (see appendices B and D for frequencies). A recent development in Barbados is the newly created fishing harbor north of the carenage, which is planned to become a yacht harbor. Right in the middle of town, the carenage will be most convenient if developed into a yacht harbor. If you decide instead to anchor out in Carlisle Bay, you no longer have to land your dinghy through the surf, because there is now a dock at the Knowles brothers' boathouse. This is a good

setup, with showers, bar, restaurant, laundry machines; the Knowles brothers know how and where to get things done on the island. Your dinghy is safe alongside, and it's an easy walk to town. As yachting facilities have developed in the Islands, yachtsmen have used other islands as their landfall. Read the brief description on the following pages, then check detailed descriptions of the islands concerned in Volume 11, Part 11, and Volume Ill; then make your decision as to your landfall. Tobago is not a good landfall from Europe under any circumstances, though it might be a good place to home in on if you're coming from Africa (see pp. 70-71). But if you've landed in Barbados, Tobago is worth visiting on your way to Grenada. It's very hard to get back to once you reach the other islands. Grenada is an excellent landfall if you want to bypass Barbados; either way, it's a must-visit island-high and lush, with varied topography, plenty of fresh food, friendly people, and dozens of good anchorages. Pass around the south end of the island and pick up Cabrit light flashing 2 + 1 every 20 seconds, visible 18 miles but obscured east of 135° magnetic. Then you can go into either Prickly Bay on the south shore and enter at the Spice Island Marina, or around Point Saline and up into St. George's, the island's main port. Yacht repair and

86

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

maintenance facilities are available; see Chapter 9, "Provisions and Services," and also Volume III for further details. St. Vincent is a poor landfall, with no reliable lights, no harbor, and no marina. St. Lucia does make a good landfall, since the east coast of Martinique is well lit and a landfall can be made at Martinique. Then turn south to St. Lucia and enter at Vigie Cove, Rodney Bay, or Marigot. In all of these harbors there is a good chance of being able to tie up alongside a dock. Before you decide on whether to enter Vigie Cove, Rodney Bay, or Marigot, read the relevant sections in Volume III on St. Lucia. Martinique is not too good a landfall because the anchorages are so crowded that it's difficult to find room to tie up alongside to get fuel and water on board, take showers, get all the dirty clothes off to be laundered, and so on. Finding a shower in Martinique is extremely difficult. Dominica as a landfall is hopeless. Guadeloupe in recent years has developed into an excellent landfall because of the brilliant lights on Deserade and Petite Terre. It's an easy sail down the south coast of Guadeloupe to enter into Point-a-Pitre harbor and tie up alongside the brandnew marina at Pointe a Bas, where all possible facilities are available. There is also a big marina at Fran~ois but it is not too good as a landfall as it is well out of town and though it does have marina facilities, restocking the boat is more than a little bit of a problem. Antigua is a very popular transatlantic landfall and has become a safer one with the building of the St. James Club in Mamora Bay, which is brightly lit and visible many miles to sea. Mamora Bay/St. James Club is a port of entry, but it is a private club with few facilities for the arriving ocean sailor. It's better to continue on to English Harbour, but be aware that the Shirley Heights light is very unreliable. (However, the bar and restaurant on Shirley Heights should be lit until midnight and is a useful landmark. ) You can anchor in Freeman's Bay and hoist "Q," or you can proceed directly into English Harbour and moor stern-to to the dock. Skipper only goes ashore with passports, ship's papers, etc., to clear. English Harbour has no marina but water, fuel, food, showers, and laundry (ask for Mrs. Malone), hauling, repairs, and sailmaking are all available. When approaching Antigua from the south or southeast, be very careful not to confuse the lights of the Curtain Bluff Hotel with English Harbour; if you do, you could end up on Cade Reef, an

unlighted, unmarked danger that regularly claims one or more boats every year. Don't try to make a transatlantic landfall anywhere north of Antigua. It's too easy to pile up on Barbuda, which has about 300 wrecks on its reef, or on Anguilla, which has 150 wrecks, or Anegada, with somewhere around 500 wrecks. Even in this modern day, Anegada still nails at least one boat a year, often two and sometimes three. Don't add to the statistics.

Landfalls from the North St. Thomas is by far the best landfall from the north. St. Thomas has become so developed that the glow from the island can be picked up 15 to 20 miles to the north and the radio towers on Crown Mountain and Signal Hill are clearly visible in all normal conditions. If approaching at night, one should always come around the WESTERN end of the island as there are just too many islands north of St. Thomas, and between St. Thomas and St. John's to make that entry worthwhile. When approaching the western end of St. Thomas it should be remembered that Cricket Rock, Cockroach Island, Dutchman's Cap, Salt Cay, and their off-lying rocks are stilI unlit. If you desire to enter at night, pass west of Savanna Island and then proceed eastwards south of St. Thomas in deep water using the Buck Island light, flashing every four seconds, visible 8 miles, as your main reference point until you pick up the channel lights of St. Thomas. I'd wait until dawn to enter due to the crowded conditions of the harbor. In daylight you can go directly to Tortola (via West End) if Tortola is your destination. Make sure your ETA is in the middle of the day or later because if you have an early morning approach you must remember that Anegada-a graveyard of ships-is a little over 20 miles north ofTortola. As of this writing (summer 1987) Anegada is still unlit. If you are farther east and a little ahead of your DR when aiming for Tortola, you could easily pile up on the north end of the low island of Anegada in the dark, rather than making your proper landfall on the high island ofTortola. If this happened you would become another statistic in the wreck book! To go for a landfall east of Tortola is insane. If your navigation is just a little off, you can pile up on Anegada without even seeing Tortola or Virgin Gorda. In the last twenty-five years or so, at least a dozen boats coming from the north have been

Getting There lost here, and there have been many more nearmisses. Norrie Hoyt, a superb seaman and navigator, was one. Sailing Telltale with his wife, Kitty, from Bermuda, he thought he was doing fine and went below to cook breakfast. Kitty, on watch, suddenly said, "Norrie, please come on deck; there seems to be an island ahead." A few hundred yards away was the reef. Another ten minutes and Telltale would have been a permanent monument on Anegada. The groundings are caused as occasionally the current reverses itself and runs EAST across the top of the Virgin Islands. Despite the fact that your fix the day before landfall is dead on, if you figure on the normal westerly set, you can still end up being reef bait if the current has reversed itself and is running east. I advise against using Sombrero as a landfall because, again, if your navigation is off, Anegada to the west can grab you before you even see Sombrero's powerful light. If you're heading to Antigua from the north, be careful not to get tangled up with Anguilla. Allegedly, in years gone by the Anguillans made a large portion of their living by shipwrecking. As far as this author is concerned, they are back in business again. In May 1985 we came within a hair's breadth of losing lolaire on the eastern end of Scrub Island, which basically forms the eastern end of Anguilla. We had departed St. Barts heading north on the first leg of lolaire's eightieth birthday cruise-a double transatlantic passage. We spotted a flashing light, which we presumed was on the end of Scrub Island, as the channel between Anguilla and Scrub Island is so narrow and rough that one would think twice about using the channel in daylight, much less at night. My good friend Hank Strauss says that one should never presume anything at sea unless there is an aircraft carrier in the channel ahead of you-then you can presume there is enough water for a yacht! As the light came abeam I went below; suddenly my mate gave a cry: "The light has gone outbreakers ahead." I came flying up on deck, threw

off the preventers, hardened up, and just cleared the end of Scrub Island. The light was on the end of Anguilla and had disappeared behind Scrub Island. Upon arriving in Ireland in mid-July I called the British Admiralty. They knew nothing about the light. We both wrote to the harbor master in Anguilla-silence! Finally in September 1985 after a couple of letters, it was admitted that a light had been established on the eastern end of Anguilla. Many more letters followed until in October 1986 it was admitted that the light had been established in early December 1984! The sequel is even more amazing-in late April 1987 when sailing by Dog Island off the northwestern end of Anguilla we spotted a quick-flashing white light. I again wrote to the harbor master in Anguilla, asking who had established this light and when. The harbor master replied a month or so later, stating that he knew nothing about a quickflashing white light off Dog Island but he had just discovered that the light on the eastern end of the island hadn't been working for two or three months (no one seemed to know exactly how long it had been out) and no one seemed to know when enough money would become available to reestablish the light, but of course, neither the British Admiralty nor the US Coast Guard had been informed so they could put a notice in their Notice to Mariners. In short: Avoid Anguillan waters at night! Barbuda, low and unlit, is even more dangerous. If you are coming south toward Antigua stay well east of Barbuda. When you get near its latitude turn on the depth finder; if you get soundings, you are too close; alter course to the east. San Juan, Puerto Rico, is an easy landfall from the north, but that puts you dead to leeward of the Virgins and you'll have a long, hard slog ahead. If you're coming from Florida or the Bahamas, though, then you can head for San Juan; failing that, duck into Mayaguez on Puerto Rico's west end, rest, restock, and then head east along the south coast of Puerto Rico and through the Passage Islands using the information contained in Volume 11, Part I, of this series of guides.

88

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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The Atlantic Islands Bermuda, the Azores, the Madeiran Archipelago, and the Salvage, Canary, and Cape Verde Islands Bermuda BA: 332, 334, 360, 867, and 868; us/ DMA: 26340, 26341, 26342, 26343, 26344, 26345; Sketch charts Bl, B2.

visible 26 miles. (Needless to say, in periods of bad visibility the lights can be obscured by rain squalls and one could still sail onto the shoals north and west of Bermuda without having seen either of the lights.) The Gibbs Hill radio beacon has a range of 50 miles, the Naval Annex air beacon has a range of 30 miles, and three Bermuda radio stations broadcast twenty-four hours a day (see appendices Band D for further details). And, of course, Loran and Satnav make it a whole new ball game. Whether approaching the island from north or south the entrance is the same: via St. George's cut in the northeast corner of the island. You can enter the channel, continue west into St. George's Harbor or swing northwest and follow the main channel around to Hamilton via Great Sound or via Ferry Reach. I am very partial to the town of St. George's and feel that it is not worthwhile going around to Hamilton (except via bus or motorbike) unless you plan to spend a long time in Bermuda. For the average yachtsman who is merely stopping in Bermuda and continuing elsewhere, St. George's is the place to go. lf you decide to go on to Hamilton, you may not have to go hack out of the harbor and around via

The Bennuda Islands lie roughly 900 miles north of the Caribbean, 870 miles east-northeast of Miami, 620 miles from the Chesapeake Capes and between 600 to 700 miles from anywhere along the East Coast from New York to Cape Cod. They are a way-stop for yachts heading from the northeast to the Caribbean Islands in the fall (especially since 65-foot bridges on the Inland Waterway close the Morehead City-Beaufort route to many yachts), and a good stop for boats leaving the Caribbean in the spring heading for either the States or Europe. Bermuda used to be very hard to find, due to the erratic current of the Gulf Stream, poor lights on Bermuda, and difficulty with direction finders. In years gone by it was entirely possible to pile up on the reefs north of Bermuda when the lights of the island were still invisible. Now, North Rock and Northeast Breakers have decent lights on them; St. Davids light, on the northeast corner of the island, is visible 18 miles and Gibbs Hill light on the southwest corner is go

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The Atlantic Islands Great Sound: page 45 of Yachtsman's Guide to the Bermuda Islands by Michael Voegeli says you can pass from Hamilton into Great Sound through Ferry Reach. (The British and American charts show Ferry Reach closed off; they're only about twenty years out of date.) As of the summer of 1986 there was no overhead clearance problem and depth was good for 8 feet. However, I would check this information locally as things may have changed. If you cannot pass through Ferry Reach and have to go around north of St. George's, note that the South Channel will save you considerable distance over the long shipping route via North Channel. If you are delayed in Bermuda, especially if you have a shoal-draft boat, use Voegeli's Guide to spend a pleasant week or so exploring the Bermuda Islands. The first thing you notice about Bermuda is how polite and helpful the Customs and Immigration officers are to visiting yachtsmen (a far cry from most of their counterparts in the Caribbean), and how friendly the locals are (only in the Azores are they friendlier). It's a pleasant culture shock! The only problem with Bermuda is that it is expensive. Remember that the Bermudians have been in the tourist business since the 1870s. They are so adept but so polite at relieving you of your money that it doesn't even hurt. I have never heard anyone complain of being ripped off in Bermuda, but neither have I heard of anyone who left the island with any money in his pockets. Bermuda weather by Stateside standards is superb, as there is basically no winter, i. e., no snow-but from November through April/May temperatures in the 50s can be regularly encountered. During May/June and October/November, when yachtsmen are likely to be there, it will be warm though seldom hot during the day and cool at night. Although the weather on Bermuda is good, influenced by the Bermuda high, the weather around it can be lousy. Bermuda seems to attract storms like a magnet, and all the "garbage" weather that comes piling off North America goes whistling by not far off. This is particularly true in the late fall, and you're very likely to encounter at least one good blow on your way there. For that reason, I avoid Bermuda like the plague in the fall. (Bermuda is technically in the hurricane belt, but the Bermuda high almost always holds passing hurricanes off to the west of the island. Needless to say, though, the edges of a hurricane can give the old

93

Onion Patch a pretty good whack, as happened in 1987 when "Emily" passed close by. ST. GEORGE'S

Sketch chart It's best to enter St. George's only during daylight hours. You must absolutely stay in the dredged 31-foot channel: close to both edges there are more than a few nobbies. In 1985 Iolaire left her mark on one of them when we tacked a little too late. Once inside the harbor, proceed directly to the Customs and Immigration dock on the western end of Ordinance Island, clear and then find yourself a mooring spot. There is space between Ordinance Island and the mainland where boats can lie alongside two or three deep. As of 1985, you could tie up anywhere you liked east of Ordinance Island at no charge, but there were no facilities in the way of showers, water, or electricity. To find these facilities go down to the western end of the harbor and make arrangements to lie at the small marina of the St. George's Sports and Dinghy Club, a most pleasant organization that formerly had its headquarters on Ordinance Island where it was accessible to members working in town. They would stop by for a noontime pint or one at quitting time. The visiting yachtsman was quickly absorbed into the group-it was a superb location. Unfortunately, the building caught fire and burned in the early 1970s, and the present location of the club is a pretty long walk from town, so the club is no longer the great gathering place that it was. But it's still friendly. Water and fuel are available east of Ordinance Island at Dowling Shell Marina. St. George's used to be the world's most expensive place to have laundry done but now, thankfully, there is a laundromat in town. A sailmaker may be found west of town, on the way to the club. At the head of the eastern end of the harbor is Myers Marina-Shipyard with a 50-ton travel lift plus a I,OOO-ton railway capable of hauling any size yacht. Bermuda does have enough tide for a boat to either dry out or semi-dry out (4-foot tide at springs) but we couldn't find any convenient place to dry out alongside a wall. We had a small leak, which we could have easily plugged by drying out or hauling, staying in the slings for half an hour, and then going back in. Myers Shipyard gave a flat price for a haul, chocking, and going back in whether you stayed out four days or thirty minutes. (With the aid of a borrowed Aqualung I found and plugged the leak.)

94

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

Outerbridge supermarket right in town can supply you with just about all you could need in the way of canned goods and other staples. Also, if you butter up the manager and are very nice, you might discover they have block ice in their deep freeze or can arrange to have ice frozen for you on special request. They do grow things other than tourists in Bermuda. There is an open market three days a week in the main square of Hamilton where fresh, locally grown produce is available. Further, when we were there in 1985 we contacted Warren Brown, Jr. (son of a famous ocean-racing owner of War Baby), who is a farmer and a sailor. He stocked us completely with fresh fruit and vegetables. He also knew the tricks of stocking vegetables ripe, almost ripe, and green, so that we were eating Bermuda tomatoes two and a half weeks later in the Azores and nothing had been refrigerated. Liquor seems cheap if you're coming from the States, but expensive relative to St. Barts. So if you're sailing transatlantic from the Eastern Caribbean I advise you to stock beer and booze for the whole trip in St. Barts, where it is considerably cheaper than in Bermuda. Bermuda has excellent air communications to the States, making it a perfect place to pick up or drop off crew. However, all of Bermuda's air contact seems to be via the States: the cheapest way to get to Bermuda from Europe is via the States; unfortunately the only way to reach Bermuda via air from the Caribbean is to fly to the States and thence to Bermuda. As a tourist mecca, Bermuda of course has hotels, restaurants, and bars too numerous to mention. When you arrive, obtain the local tourist guide, make your own local inquiries, and then find the places that fit your taste and pocketbook. For upto-date, detailed information on the islands, the Voegeli Guide mentioned before is first-rate.

AZORES

BA 1854, 1855, 1856, 1940, 1946, 3224; Portuguese 107-15, 160-66, 168-70, 172, 174, 176-78, 180-83, 186-88; US 51041, 51061, 51062, 51081, 51082. The Azores, a group of nine islands in the eastern Atlantic, lie between 37° and 40° north latitude and between 25° and 31° west longitude. This puts them about 800 miles off the coast of Portugal, to whom the islands belong. They are 1,100 sailing miles from Falmouth, England; about 2,200 from

Provincetown, Cape Cod, a good jumping-off place from the States; and 1,800 miles from Bermuda. Three hundred miles separates Flores, the western most island, from Santa Maria, which is the farthest east and south, and which lies 180 miles south of Corvo, the group's small northern outpost. Thus there is a great deal of water around, and it can get lumpy. The islands lie south of the Gulf Stream and on the edge of the track of the North Atlantic gales, which produce swells that make many of the group's anchorages untenable for much of the year. June, July, and August are the prime-in fact, some say the only-months for yachtsmen in the Azores. The islands were first found in the fourteenth century and then they were lost; Vasco da Gama rediscovered them in 1427, and ever since they have been called the Disappearing Islands or the Floating Islands. Over the centuries many a reputable navigator has seriously testified that the islands have moved or vanished. I can vouch for this confusion, for although they are high volcanic islands, they have an uncanny way of being invisible, even close-to. In 1985, the last time Iolaire visited the Azores, we approached Flores from Bermuda with a good celestial fix and a clear horizon; at 5 miles off there was nothing. Suddenly the southern end of the island popped into view, right where it should have been-and only two miles away. Later, approaching Pico, a 7,000-foot volcanic peak, we could see nothing at five miles off with an apparently clear horizon! The answer seems to be in the fine mist that forms around the islands under certain conditions. Heavy long-term fog is not common, but you can run into thick patches that reduce visibility to a few hundred yards before you come out into brilliant sunshine again. It makes navigating among the islands an exciting business. The climate is mild, somewhat like Ireland's; it never gets really cold in the winter, never gets really warm in the summer, and water temperature is down in the 60s. In the summer while sailing on good days, it is usually long pants, wool socks, and light-wool-sweater weather; on bad days and at night it is cold. Ashore it is usually shirt and shorts weather until dusk and then it is definitely long pants and a tight wool sweater. The Azores are out of the trade-wind belt. The most common. wind in the summer is from the westerly quadrants. However, the wind can also go to the east and can blow hard from that direction. Summer gales are infrequent, but stormgenerated swells continually roll through the Azores.

40·

.n. Corvo tru Vila M

~

Novo AS

Flor.s

Santa Cruz 1.2 , A3

Vila das lajes Al

G raciosa Folga

A12

Santa Cruz

~Vila ~

da Praia All

39"

A13

Terceira

Al0~

Faial

~

Sao Jorge

Vel as

Q

A15

Praia da Vitoria

~

Angra do Heroismo A14

Madelena

('t>

>

Horta AS

59 EO Banco das Acores

§=-

S.Cruz das Ribeiras A9

23

;:s .... c;-

-

Banco O.Joao de Cas/ro

';:s" " 1S'

~'l>"

38"1.

(j'l>V"

6°

EO 65

~

~5'

B/Jnco de la Princess Alicis

Pta Oelgada

A16

A 17 Viis Frsnca do Campo

1.21

Formiga. @) Santa Maria

A20 37" ~ S.Lourenco Vila do Porto ~ A19

31·

30"

Index of Harbor and Sketch Charts-Azores

29"

28"

27"

26"

25"

3;

96

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

In winter the edges of the North Atlantic gales bedevil the area to the extent that local advice is that no yacht should arrive in the Azores until early June and that everyone should be out of the Azores by the September equinox. Even the large harbors of Ponta Delgada and Horta, despite being protected by huge breakwaters, can be totally untenable to yachts during the time of winter gales; even yachts out of the water in cradles ashore have been washed out of their cradles in Horta. But there may be a change to all this in that at Horta an inner sea wall has been built to make a yacht marina (Harbor chart A 6). It appears that this inner sea wall allows yachts to remain in the Azores during the winter. If this is so it will certainly change the cruising aspect of the Azores. They traditionally have been visited only by yachts on their way through, coming from the States, the Eastern Caribbean, or Bennuda. Yachts have tended to stop, spend a week or so in the Azores, then continue to European ports. Now, if you can winter in Horta, a whole new pattern may emerge in which the Azores could be the end or beginning of a season's cruising instead of just a way-stop. Some yachtsmen sail out from England, cruise around the islands for a short period and then go back to England; but it's a long way to go. The only real way to cruise the Azores is to have one crew sail out, cruise the islands, and fly home. Then another crew flies in, picks up the boat, cruises the islands, and brings the boat back. American yachtsmen can do the same thing en route to Europe: stop, explore the islands, and change crew there if necessary before continuing on. It is possible to fly direct to the Azores from New York or Boston, which is much cheaper than flying to Lisbon and then doubling back to the Azores. The Azores are volcanic islands rising vertically out of the ocean floor with relatively few really secure all-weather harbors; thus, most anchorages are nothing but open roadsteads on a shore that drops away very steeply. You will often be anchoring in extremely deep water (sometimes 100 feet), so make sure you have enough anchors (I think four is a minimum for a proper cruising boat), plenty of line, and lots of chain. Many of the anchorages will be open to certain directions, winds can shift, and you may have to move out in a hurry. In an emergency be prepared to slip your line and buoy it to be retrieved at a later date when conditions calm down. Because of these conditions, I feel that the best

way to cruise the Azores in comfort is with a big crew. Then some can remain onboard while others explore the islands. If the weather changes, the onboard crew can pick up the anchor, stand offshore, and await the return of the rest of the crew. The double-hander who goes ashore to explore is always worrying about whether or not the anchor will drop off the almost vertical cliffside in which it's set or whether the wind will shift and drive his boat ashore. Cruise the Azores with a full crew. The population of the islands varies from the smallest, Corvo, with only 300 people and no cars, through Faial with about 25,000 people, to Sao Miguel, the largest of the islands-30 miles long and a population of 150,000. The amenities and availability of supplies is roughly in direct proportion to the population. The language spoken is Portuguese-a language that relatively few yachtsmen speak. However, the connections between the Azores and the States and Canada are very close (so many Azoreans live in the New Bedford-Boston area that a passenger freighter plies back and forth on a moderately regular run between the Azores and New Bedford) and thousands of islanders have gone to the States and Canada, learned English, made their money, and gone back home to retire. Finding an interpreter is not too difficult. The islanders, incidentally, proudly consider themselves Azorean first, Portuguese second; they even have their own flag. With all the disadvantages of the Azores-their isolation, lack of warm water and white sand beaches, the scarcity of good harbors-why should a yachtsman go to the Azores? Because of the people, the prices, and the scenery. In my experience the Azoreans are fantastically friendly people. After our landfall at Flares I thought the hospitality there was the best I'd ever seen anywhere-but I've been told that the people of Graciosa are even friendlier. Amazing. Then, too, the Azores are cheap. A beer at a good bar (not a local dive) was US twenty-five cents in 1985, dinner with wine in a good restaurant ranged from three to four dollars. Fresh food, although not tremendously varied, is available and also cheap. Ice is either free--chipped ice from the fish factories-{)r else ridiculously cheap, US fifty cents for 50 kilos of good block ice. Local wine is a good buy but imported liquor is expensive and it can not be bought duty-free, so load up with duty-free at your port of departure en route to the Azores! Water at the major ports is free; fuel, while not too easy to obtain as one must queue up among the fishing boats, is reasonably priced. Taxi fares

The Atlantic Islands are reasonable and the buses that crisscross the islands are so cheap as to be virtually free. Interisland air fares, while not as cheap as those in the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands, are cheap by Caribbean and European standards. The lOO-mile flight from Faial to Santa Maria is only US fifty dollars. The Azores are wonderful islands for shoreside expenditions. There are working windmills, and flowers of all types growing wild in such profusion that you'll think it is a cultivated garden. There are colorful festivals, beautiful farms, amazing little lace factories. Sao Miguel boasts a blue lake and a green lake right next to each other, a fantastically beautiful grotto with an underground lake, magnificent views from the tops of volcanoes, and hot sulfur springs. There is also the legacy of the Azores' whaling past. In Flores we discovered a defunct whale factory and only one whaleboat. Upon inquiry, though, we learned that there were twelve whale boats operating out of Flores until a couple of years ago; the last year they hunted whales (1982, I think) they caught sixty-six. In the Azores, unlike in Japan and the Caribbean, the idea of eating whale meat is just not heard of. They use only the oil and the bones and teeth for scrimshaw. The basic old-fashioned whale boat was a sixoared boat with a crew of seven; about 33 feet long, it had a 7ljz-foot beam, and depth of hull from the rail to the top of the keel was 26 inches. The seat was set 10 inches below the oarlock, with 32 inches between seats and no foot braces. Instead of tholepins they had beautiful bronze oarlocks and the longest oars I have ever seen a single man pull-17 feet! The steering oar appears to have been a full 24 feet long. Frames were 10 inches center to center, 11/4 inches deep, Vs-inch wide; seam batten construction, seam battens 2 inches by I/z-inch, 10 planks to a side. In Ponta Delgada I saw a fairly new whaleboat that was either single or double diagonal with another layer of planking going fore and aft, the whole thing held together by copper rivets rather than glue. This gave a smooth interior; frames were I-inch deep by %-inch wide, 18 inches center to center; thwart knees were galvanized steel. It would be interesting to know what its weight was versus the old-fashioned construction. The rig of the whaleboats leaves a lot to be desired: high-peaked gaff main, low aspect-ratio with a long boom, and a tiny club staysail. The mast is set on a pivot so it can be raised or struck by merely pulling a pin. (Unlike the Bequian style

97

where one must lift the mast up and drop it vertically into the mast partners. If a Bequian misses when stepping the mast it goes straight through the garboard strake!) I am altogether in sympathy with the great worldwide Save the Whales effort, but I do admit to a twinge of regret about the end of the Azorean whaling enterprise. It provided a bold and honorable living for generations of Azoreans and made a very small dent in the total whale population. It also produced a rich tradition of folk art in the now endangered genre of scrimshaw. Azorean scrimshaw can still be found in the islands, but it's getting scarce and its quality varies drastically. In Horta the best source is a fellow named Orton; Pico prices are cheaper, Terceira is dearer, due probably to the presence of the US Navy Air Station there. The best scrimshaw depicts traditional whaling scenes and local Azorean vistas; efforts to picture modern yachts for the tourist trade are pretty bad. Incidentally, I understand that during 1985 Sailing Week (the Azorean equivalent of Antigua Week) there was an exhibition of whaling techniques, and whaleboat races under sail and oars. I hope this will continue and preserve a unique Azorean heritage. Customs and Immigration in the Azores could not be more helpful and more friendly, but you must enter and clear at every port. This takes time and requircs a stack of papers, hut the fees are negligible. The routine varies slightly from island to island but if you go to the Port Captain's office, he will point you in the right direction. Usually Customs and Immigration are at the Port Captain's office and some more papers must be filled out at the Guarda-Fiscal. Don't fail to follow the routine. We did not realize we had to enter and clear in every island and we almost got into hot water for not entering when we arrived in Horta; we placated everyone with apologies. Then on leaving I completely forgot about clearing until just before the noon closing time (they close until 1500 in the afternoon). I rushed down to the waterfront to discover that the immigration officer had just left. One of the GuardaFiscal ran up the street, pulled the immigration officer out of his car and back to his office. I apologized profusely and explained that I had completely forgotten about clearing. To which he replied (his English was fair but not perfect) "You lie, you lie." I thought "Oh, boy, here's trouble," as he thumbed through his papers muttering "You lie, you lie." Suddenly a big grin spread across his face

98

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

and he said, "Ah, here you lie," and he pulled out the entry papers and handed them to me. "You lie" was his pronunciation of Iolaire. Needless to say I was a very relieved skipper, and when I explained it to him he almost fell out of his chair laughing. He said he would be happy to join me for a drink except his wife already had his dinner cooked. He was as anxious to keep on his wife's good side as I was to keep on his. Like everywhere else in the world the Azores are beginning to have a drug problem, and like everywhere else the smuggling is being blamed on yachts. True or not, yachtsmen are allowed to visit only the major towns (many of which are mere villages). You are not allowed to anchor without prior written permission in many of the little outisland coves. Customs and Immigration are also very firm (but polite) about the fact that you must leave your dinghy within the dock area; they won't allow you to take your dinghy anywhere else as they say they are afraid you may smuggle something ashore. This is a little ridiculous, since they don't inspect you, your baggage, or anything else you wander in and out of the commercial dock with, but there it is. As to charts. The Portuguese have the Azores incredibly well charted, covering the area with thirty-two charts. They haven't kept up, though, with the construction of new breakwaters or marinas. For general use I would stick with the US or British charts and then use the Portuguese charts for the small out-of-the-way ports. There are three general DMA charts and two detailed harbor charts. The British charts cover the group with one overall chart and six for the individual islands. By the spring of 1988, I hope, two Imray-Iolaire charts will cover the area, with one general overall chart with some harbor plans, and a second chart with the remaining harbor plans. For now, the best alternative source for information is Bob Silverman's excellent Cruising Guide to the Azores, available from Robert B. Silverman, Apartado No. 65, 9900 Horta, Faial, Azores. The magic of the Azores is not just about disappearing islands. If you've come from the Caribbean in May, where water is scarce, ice expensive, and the people grumt>y, to arrive in the lush Azores with waterfalls spraying onto the beach and to be greeted by people who want to give you water, ice, and hot showers, where the Customs Officer offers to buy you a drink. . . well, it makes an old sailor think he's arrived in Valhalla. Obviously more and more yachtsmen are discovering these pleasures. I knew the Azores were

popular, but was amazed in 1985 to discover that by August some 750 boats had passed through Horta, which is the main yachtsman's rendezvous. In 1986 the number was about the same. Admittedly, most of those boats were passing through, but with the new marina, my bet is that increasing numbers of them will be staying for a longer look. During the winters of 1986-87 and 1987-88, a couple dozen boats wintered in the marina with nO problems.

Flores US 51041; BA 1946 with a plan of Santa Cruz and VHa das Lajas; Portuguese 107, 115, 186 (plan), 187 (plan); Harbor charts AI, A2, A3. Flores, the westernmost island of the Azorean Archipelago, makes an excellent landfall for boats approaching from the west. Flores is small, only 10 miles in a north-south direction and 5 miles wide; it rises 2,000 feet out of the sea, and has a population of about 7,000 people. It cannot be considered a place to restock a boat but it does have the basic essentials that any sailor would want coming from sea. Flores has a D. F., beacon callletters FLO with a range of 250 miles and call letters SC, Santa Cruz, with a range of 25 miles, making the approach easy in foggy conditions. (See Appendix B for details.) When we made our landfall from Bermuda we were about to anchor south of Santa Cruz in the open roadstead but someone got On the radio (speaking French, not Portuguese) and said we could fit into the inner harbor at Santa Cruz. He came out in a dinghy to lead us in. He lashed the dinghy alongside and towed us (engineless) through one of the narrowest, rockiest, hairiest harbor entrances I've ever been through. An immediate 90° right turn avoided a particularly nasty rock and put us in a tiny basin crisscrossed with floating lines. We were greeted by two American yachtsmen standing by in dinghies, and by a bunch of Portuguese fishermen standing by on both sides of the basin to receive lines. We were talking English, they were talking Portuguese but everyone knew what they were doing and in no time they had us over the floating lines, turned around 1800 and moved into the innermost part of the basin and properly secured. All this with much waving, shouting, and gesticulating but no real confusion. A few of the fishermen came onboard and had a beer; one of them, Jose Augusto Lapez, who would

The Atlantic Islands

99

Depths in Feet

282

472

Pta Oesta

223 229 Baixos do Joao de Lisboa

195

IIheude 0 Monchique .;,' . o~3sa" '..

;.:~ IIheu de Alvarvo +: Rodriques

1963 •

Bal~

'72 Testa da Igreja

. 2662

FLORES

o Aero RC

78

• 2157

39"25' N

~

~

114~ofJ~'b

pta o\) Bo do Escolar 62 Depths in Feet

l~)

;:~>,:+:.. ~1i' 28 "oQ0'"

...

::1.~)BO dos Morros

~ \)

282

o I

2

3

I

4 ;

Sea 5Mile

I

Outline Flores and Corvo

easily pass for Ron Holland's twin, immediately asked how we would like some nice hot showers. He said he would be back to pick us up in about two hours. Then he looked up at the mast and saw our wind generator, which had done a 1800 turn when a weld on the bracket let go, and they were amazed to discover we had no engine. We said we had solved our engine problems sixteen years before by throwing it overside. They then looked at our

upside-down generator and said, "Then you must need electricity." I said, "Fine but obviously you have no shoreline here," and they said, "No, but we can rig a jumper off the light pole [pointing to the light pole 100 feet away], run the wire over to your mizzen masthead and down to your batteries." They were all set to do it but we did not have a 120 12-volt battery charger. Later we discovered a small ferry, operated by

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

100

Jose's father, Augestino--the Augustos seem to run everything in Flores, including a 55-foot freight boat powered by a 200 horsepower cat dieselthat was heading for Corvo. Three of us jumped onboard, made the two-hour, I5-mile run from Flores to Corvo, had a quick tour of Corvo, and returned; the ferry stays there only forty-five minutes. (What we should have done was made arrangements to spend the night in a Portuguese home.) On the trip back we tried to pay Augestino, but no way would he accept any money. On the

following day when we were getting ready to leave Flores they insisted on giving us enough ice to fill our boxes. There are four separate anchorages in Flores. VILA DAS LAJES

Portuguese chart 187; Harbor chart Al Anchor in 60 to 80 feet of water northeast of town, which in reality is a small village, a secondary anchorage for the island, sheltered in all winds

75

19 '367

20

10

~ 0

14

,,0Baixode Chicharra

29

:-r 0>

45

~

M 39 22:50 N 0

25 9

30 52 12 27

40 79

26

······0 ..:22

33 95

82

85

o I

Al

100

VHa das Lajes

200

300

I

400

I

Yards

99 Depths in Feet

The Atlantic Islands from south-southwest around to north, completely open to the easterly quadrants. Some of the crew should be left onboard so that the boat can be moved if necessary to stand offshore if the wind comes in from the east. If you have clothes to wash, there is a beautiful waterfall that provides all the water you need for washing and showering right on the beach half a mile north of where you anchor. SANTA CRUZ

Portuguese chart 186; Harbor charts A2, A3 Ten miles north of Vila das Lajes is Santa Cruz, the main town, with two anchorages. The outer anchorage is in the bay just south of Ponta Espigo in 40 to 50 feet, rocky bottom; sheltered from southwest around to north. This anchorage is used by the tunny fishermen sheltering from westerly gales and by the small freighters that periodically bring cargo to Flores. The second anchorage, Porta das Pocas, is the inner basin described above. It is suitable only for boats drawing less than 8 feet, and if you draw much more than 5 feet, don't go in except at high water-a rocky ledge stretches across the mouth of the harbor. Get the southern end of the breakwater on a bearing of 304 0 magnetic, run in on this line, and practically kiss the rocks on your starboard side: immediately turn 900 into the basin. Be prepared to work the floating lines that crisscross the harbor underneath your keel. (This is a place where a long-keel boat is really worthwhile; fin-and-skeg boats have a lot of trouble with the floating lines.) The farther into the harbor you can work yourself the calmer and more secure you will be, but be aware that in total this harbor is probably 100 yards long and no more than 50 yards wide. If there are more than four boats in the harbor don't try to get in. And don't go in unless the weather is settled, because if it gets rough you are trapped inside until the sea calms down. Water can be obtained from the town landing via a long hose; basic food supplies are available ashore-nothing spectacular but adequate. Fuel strictly by jerry cans, but ice, as previously mentioned, is free. There are a number of small good restaurants ashore and plenty of bars. Taxis to explore the island are cheap: $18 for a three-hour tour and about $2 an hour after that. You can call home from the post office in town. Maria, whose house overlooks the basin at Vila das Lajes, does laundry but she has no drying facilities and be sure you agreed on a price before

101

you leave your laundry. If you think the price of anything is out of line, check with Jose Augusto in Santa Cruz. WHALE FACTORY ANCHORAGE

Portuguese chart 186; Harbor chart A4 This is north of Santa Cruz beneath the old whale factory. Here you anchor and run lines ashore to various rocks: stern line to the west, starboard bow lines to the rocks, drop the port anchor but be prepared to anchor in 100 feet of water. Since the anchor will be pulling uphill, you will not need the standard three-to-one scope. Be sure to be facing out; if the weather changes and you need to get out, you want to be able to get out fast, powering directly into the head sea rather than trying to back out. Arrange your lines so they can be cast off rapidly and have your anchor line rigged so that it can be slipped and buoyed to be retrieved later if it is fouled and you have to leave in a hurry. This cove is completely sheltered from all directions except northeast, and is a place to be entered only by boats with an engine. It is a halfmile, very scenic walk along the cliff to town, or you can hitchhike along the road. Rumor says that a large breakwater is to be built extending due north from Ponta San Pedro, which should create a big all-weather harbor here.

Corvo US S1041; BA 1946 with harbor plan of Vila Nova; Portuguese 107, lIS, 188. Harbor chart AS Corvo, a small island rising steeply out of the sea ten miles north of Flores, has no real harbor. You can take the launch-ferry from Flores to Corvo, but it remains alongside the jetty for only fortyfive minutes. Better to try to arrange through Jose Augusto overnight accommodation so that you can spend a night and day in Corvo exploring and then return on the ferry the next day. It is possible to anchor northeast of the small jetty in 15 to 20 feet of water. Use two anchors on a Bahamian moor, and make sure that some of the crew stay onboard, as the anchorage is protected west through north but is otherwise completely open. Amazingly, there is an airstrip on Corvo--too small for TAP's Avro 748, but it's used by the military once a week. With a population of only 300 people, the island of Corvo is run like one big family-a very loose form of local government. There are no cars, just little three-wheeled single-cylinder tractors attached

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

102

Depths in Feet

36

50

758

85

71 ,('f\ <-

27

+

+~+ +

52

++

76

70

Ch.S.Pedro

138

--------

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Porto de Santa Cruz 201 Monte das Cruzes

39"27'N"",

. 695

--- ---

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+

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----

221

+ .39

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89 178

75 728 20

o I

500

1000

I Yards

A2

Santa Cruz

The Atlantic Islands

10 3

19

Depths in Feet

+. +.: 175

\

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+

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34

+

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Porta de Santa Cruz

100 I

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300

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...

_ .

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

85 138

"+" ...... 16

39

85 132 82

~ N

.....

P M 39'27:8 N

5 -'.23

112

*.

135

24

2 : 125

o I

100 ,

200

I

I

Depths in Feet

Yards

A4

Whale Factory Anchorage

to two-wheel carts that haul goods to the dock from the village, about 200 feet up the cliffside, If you are interested in working windmills, there are three of them on the southeast corner of the island that grind corn, the island's major crop,

Faial

US 51061, 51062; BA 1855, 1940; Portuguese 114, 183 (plan), 186; Harbor chart A6 HORTA

Harbor chart A6 Horta, the harbor for the island of Faial, is the favorite stop for yachtsmen passing through the Azores, as it is the western most Azorean island with a harbor that has good facilities and is secure in all normal circumstances. As of 1986, Horta provided free yacht moorings or free berthing alongside the docks; water and

fuel are available, and shaved ice in reasonable quantities is free from the ice plant right on the dock. At the head of the harbor is a public bath where for about US twenty-five cents you get a clean hot shower with all the water you want-a welcome change from the Eastern Caribbean that you have probably just left. Just behind the public baths is a laundry that does washing quickly and economically, and gives you dry laundry (in contrast to Maria at Flores), This harbor is also known by yachtsmen the world over as the headquarters of Peter Azevedo, the owner of the Cafe Sport, who has followed in his father's footsteps and continues to offer a warm welcome to all visiting yachtsmen, He serves as a bank, mail drop, agent, and counselor for yachtsmen of all nationalities; he forwards mail, and finds mechanics, welders, and carpenters and in general is an all-round good fellow, In summer you will find as many as forty yachts anchored in the harbor. One of the musts before leaving Horta is to paint your yacht's name on the

The Atlantic Islands

105

.... : .... "16

L 'i-

Senhora dos M,lagres

60

100

20

39

Portinho da Casa

24 33

Tank

43

+

+

+

+ 39 ~

'"

57

~

····0::-····

56

18

+

+

66

."

56

' .. ' Laredo da Catheta

52

56

;;:; 39'40'N

33

--~~~~-----6~5

31

o Depths in Feet

A5

I

100

200 !

300

400

I

Vila Nova

mile-long harbor wall, which serves as a catalog of yachting history for the island. There are a number of small supermarkets in Horta, some of which offer free delivery to yachts. The open-air market should, of course, be visited for fresh supplies, Taxis are cheap, so carrying large quantities of supplies from the market or elsewhere is no problem. If there is space in the new marina, that is

obviously the place to moor, but I suspect that there will be a waiting list to get in all summer long. In that case you can lay alongside the west wall, or raft out from the pier in the southeast corner. Yachts under 40 feet can pick up bow-andstern moorings in the southeast corner. If you anchor out it is incredibly poor holding--miscellaneous loose hard rock and sand over a very hard bottom. The only thing that will keep you from

106

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide Depths in Feet

246 . Cabeco Verde

1601

38"35' N

FAIAL • Cabeco Gorda 3425

879· 192 Pta do Castelo Branco ----.-..~_,/'"-""-...,.-~--'" 't: 91

o I

4 Sea Miles !

550

i2}: Ba

cio'Sul

Outline Faial

dragging is hooking onto one of the mooring chains that crisscross the harbor bottom. This will keep you from dragging, but will inhibit you retrieving your anchor unless you have a tripping line rigged; be forewarned. In calm weather, I am told, it is worth taking the dinghy out around to the extinct volcanic crater of Monte da Guia, The island of Faial is certainly well worth a tour either by taxi or by the tour bus that operates on certain days. When we were there with Iolaire in 1985 there were virtually no yacht supplies available in Horta but you could get almost any kind of repair work done well and cheaply. The large Reet of wellkept, electronically sophisticated tunny fishing vessels in Horta attest to some competent electronics, diesel, and general repair experts in the neighborhood. Holga Kreuzhage, of the 72-foot schooner Lord jim, tells of trying to get a broken gear train for a Barlow winch welded. The machine shop he found said they couldn't do that but they would machine him a new part. They did it for less than he figured it would cost to buy the new part and have it shipped from Australia, and in a fraction of the time. Peter Azevedo can tell you where to find that wonderful place. And now, with the new marina operating, I'm sure someone will show up to sell yacht supplies. We had no trouble filling our gas bottles in

Horta. Mail is slow, telegraph expensive, and international phoning difficult but possible. Hauling facilities are primitive, but it's possible to arrange for yachts under 25 tons to be hauled by crane. Bob Silverman, author of the Azores cruising guide, also runs a sail repair loft in Horta, where he does good work at a reasonable price.

Pi co US 51061, 51062; BA 1940; Portuguese 107, 114, 180 (plan), 181 (plan), 186; Harbor chart A7, Sketch charts A8, A9. Pico, dominated by its 7,000-foot peak, is famous as a longshore whaling station. Until 1984 whales were harpooned from boats similar to those Captain Ahab used. Lookouts on the mountain telephoned to town, the boats were launched and then towed by launches to the pod. The launches helped herd the whales, and stood by as crash boats to rescue survivors if a boat was holed or capsized; once the whale was killed they towed it in. But the approach, the harpoon throwing, the "Nantucket sleigh ride," and the killing were all out of Moby Dick. Pico's anchorages are all open, so the only sensible way to go there has been by ferry from Horta. Going on the first ferry in the morning and returning on the last one is a fairly good day. Some yachtsmen have spent the night at a pension on

The Atlantic Islands

107

in Feet

57

36

N

59

102 46

~138'32N Mast IJ

HORTA 43

108

75 IJ

105

92

135

o

500 Yards

A6

Horta

108

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

84 36

216 38'30' N

:!: (:) N

00

. Pico

2B8

Pica

N

7713

i\,6 0

181

• Groloes 3304

~...o

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Bahiados Caste/etes

Laje , 3172

162

PIa da Ilha 204

144

o

10 Sea Miles

5

I

Depths in Feer

I

I

Outline PieD

Depths in Fee

78

57 41 c.S.bkShCo

114

144

27

F5.bk Sh

13

~ FI.R.6s.65ft.3M

(+ \;f.

65

23 Baixa Bran ca

"

53 91

PIa da Pedra

Bra;'_:~-- ALdg Oc.R.3s.33/39fI2M

----::,-----;;+; L~~':!~~~ - - - -- --...... ,/ 2'

_-------

A7

Madalena

44 ", ,,'5

0

500

1000

I:::::;':=::::::::::::::::::::::I::::::::::::::::::::;;:~';11

Yards

The Atlantic Islands

L09

Depths in Feet Mole Head Light 38°24:4 N 28'11 :2 W

52

237

.' 7

2

+ 30

9

92

66

Atafona F.R.42ft.5M

~

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~

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85

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17

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52

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A8

100 Yards

, I ApproK. Depths in Feet ..

Cais do Pico (sketch chart)

A9

Pico and sat up late in the evening, listening to all sorts of stories when liquor has relaxed the whaler and loosened his tongue. There is also a whaling museum on Pico that is said to be worth a good look. Most recent reports say that breakwaters have been built at Madalena on Pico's west coast, and Cais do Pico on the north coast (Harbor charts A7 and A8). Ask in Horta whether or not these have made suitable refuges for yachts. There is also a possible anchorage and dock on the south coast at Santa Cruz das Ribeiras, Sketch chart A9.

Silverman's guide to be small and crowded; he advises anchoring in the northeast corner of the harbor in a suitable depth, being ready to move in a hurry. Bob Silverman feels a stop is worthwhile as "Sao Jorge's foreboding exterior cliffs and mountains hide a most attractive interior."

Sao Jorge

US 51061; BA 1855; Portuguese 107, 109, 114, 177 (plan), 178 (plan); Harbor chart A 10. VELAS

We did not visit Sao Jorge, but only sailed along its shores. The main port, Velas, appears from Bob

Santa Cruz das Ribeiras (sketch chart)

Graciosa US 51061; BA 1855, 3224 with plan of Folga; Portuguese 107, 109, 113, 174 (plan), 175 (plan), 176 (plan); Harbor charts All, A12, A13. Doctor Paul de Bie of Musette, an extremely experienced yachtsman, states that the people here are even nicer and more friendly than they are on Flores-something which I find hard to imagine. There are three separate anchorages. Since the island is fairly small-basically a circle 6 miles in diameter-you can choose your anchorage according to the weather and move from one to another as conditions demand. The anchorages are only 3

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

110

336

o Depths in Feet

5

10 Sea Miles

tl~==~==~==±I==~~====~~1

Outline Sao Jorge

miles apart. This is unlike most other Azorean islands where the anchorages are either one to an island or a good distance apart.

VILA DE PRAIA

Harbor chart All Vila de Praia was formerly an open anchorage but now a breakwater has made a harbor sheltered, except for winds from the southeast. If the wind moves to the southeast you can move a half mile and anchor behind the island of Praia.

SANTA CRUZ

Harbor chart A12 Santa Cruz is an open roadstead, open to the east through northwest, no real harbor; anchor in 80-plus feet. But according to Bob Silverman the town is well worth a visit. If the wind is in the

northwest to north, you'll find shelter in Portinho da Barra half a mile to the east of the anchorage off town and within walking distance of town. If you're sailing from Portinho da Barra to Santa Cruz or the reverse, stay well offshore as Baixa Alagada, a pinnacle rock with only 3 feet of water over it rising out of 45 feet of water, is a full quarter of a mile offshore and surrounded by deep water. FOLGA

Portuguese 174; Harbor chart A13 Folga, on the south coast only 5 miles from Praia, is open from the west to the southeast, a deep open roadstead; just be ready to move. Ice is available at the Entreposto. The major danger of Graciosa is Ilheu de Baixo, a rocky island off the southeast corner of the island. Bob Silverman advises passing outside the island, staying well offshore because of the shoal that extends southeast from Ilheu de Baixo.

The Atlantic Islands

111

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+

43

50

53

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85

79

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112

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53

95

115

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65

85

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Depths in Feet

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Depths In Feet

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216

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Baixo

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

112

Depths inFeet

38

IS'

42

37 42

31

FI.G .3s.49ft.9M

35

+

41

42

27

37

do PfJdrfJ d, Porto Poeirinho

+

41

12

~

14

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10

+

12

38

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23 13

3

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36

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+

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8

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111

9 12

+ 1

All

30 11

5

3

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39'03:1 N

+

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12

0

100

200

300

Yr

Vila da Praia

Terceira US 51061; BA 3224; Portuguese 107, 109, 112, 170, 172 (plan); Harbor charts A14, A15. This island has two harbors and is the home of a big US Naval Air Station. The main city is Fanal with its port of Angra do Heroismo. ANGRA DO HEROISMO

Harbor chart A14 Angra do Heroismo is the anchorage for the main town. You can lie on the western side of the harbor under the Club Nautic, which before it closed in June 1985 offered showers, a mail drop, etc; perhaps it will reopen. The Customs Officers do not like you to anchor on the eastern side of the harbor but would rather have you anchor by the main commercial dock. However, the Customs Officers usually will grant permission to lie on the

eastern side of the harbor if a direct and plaintive appeal is made. The trouble with the western side of the harbor is that it can be a very tight squeeze when the large ships, which enter and leave with no tug, come to the main commercial dock. The easiest way to reach town is to run the dinghy over to the fishing-boat ramp in town, drop part of the c