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From: Dave Cooper (no email)
Date: Fri Jun 01 2007 - 08:35:48 EDT
6/1/07: Anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon
N 18 02.434
W 063 05.615
Overcast, winds from the east at 0-5kts
We're back underway south now....1st of June and the beginning of the
weather forecasters defined "hurricane season" for the Atlantic.
We had a delightful trip over from the British Virgin Islands on the Blue
Moon. Swell was 4-5 ft at times and the wind waves were 1 to 6 inches!! It
has been an unusual period of calms at this latitude. About 10-14 days with
a couple of maybe 15 kts but mostly 0-10. There was a huge dust storm that
came off the African coast around May 9th and arrived in the Lesser Antilles
a week later. This dust seemed to have really suppressed the tradewinds. We
also had periods of less than 5 miles of visibility which is very unusual
down here.
In any case we had a great trip over of the 80 odd miles. Dodged a few big
thunderheads that were basically stationary and we didn't see any water
spouts which are common when the tradewinds go slack with the very warm sea
water we have, 88.1 degrees where we are anchored right now. Mostly in the
mid 80's on the passage.
Our trip south to Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela will take us to St Barts, Saba,
Saint Eustatia, St Kitts/Nevis, Antigua, Guadaloupe/Illes De Saintes,
Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent/Bequia/Grenadines, Grenada, Los
Testigoes, Isla Margarita and on to the Venezuelan coast. We plan many stops
in associated islands and anchorages on the way.
One thing to keep in mind is that we have to clear in/out of everyone of
these countries. This process ranges from an hour or so and free to half a
day and better than $100! Coming up the cost of clearing in/out was better
than $500 and many many hours of bureaucracy/red tape. Dress well keep a
cool mental attitude and grovel when required and the process will be as
quick and painless as possible. Have an attitude and you'll see more forms
than you thought possible needing to be filled out in 6 parts and they have
no carbon paper or copying machines ;-) Life has changed from the old days
of either not needing to clear in/out or just stopping a local constable and
letting him know that you're the new boat in the harbor!
We'll keep the updates coming and provide a few details of our voyage south.
IF we see a storm coming from the east then we may have to make southing
faster than planned. We have are self insured, otherwise we couldn't be "in
the box doing this" so we need to use all available data to keep out of
harms way. The ironic part is this is the best time of year to cruise the
Eastern Caribbean, warm water, calmer seas and crystal clear water with
visibilities of 100', empty anchorages and a host of other positive things.
The only negative is those damn bowling balls from the east that come thru
the island chain on an unpredictable schedule.
We took on 300 gals of diesel in the BVI duty free @ US2.55/gal. Cheapest in
the area!! Hopefully this will tide us over till we back to the land of
almost free (US$.25/gal) fuel in Margarita and then Cumana where it is
US$.05/gal!
Swan Song is running well, has a new Class B AIS transponder which we just
installed and have confirmed with one ship that he saw the AIS signal but
haven't got other reports yet. We have tweaked the genset auto start
parameters so it is only running about 12 hours a day keeping the AC units
humming and the boat comfortable. 95 degrees, 90+ % humidity and no
tradewinds require AC 100% of the time. So there is 8-10 gals/day fuel usage
underway or not.
As always YMMV as ours does ;-)
Cheers
Dave & Nancy
Swan Song
Roughwater 58
Caribbean Cruise '07
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