Jamaica to Aruba

Have not really written about the passage, so let me do that now (I did type some on board but I can’t transfer between my computer and the computers in the internet cafe).

First of all: it took 8 days, the distance was 500 miles, but including tacking I sailed 730 miles, I think the average moving speed was about 3.7 knots.

The first day there were thunderstorms in the area, in between showers there would be little wind, during the storms too much.  But I was able to get around Morant Point (the eastmost point of Jamaica) somewhere during the first night.

The second day the showers were getting less, and from then on the weather became slowly more steady.  I was on a port tack for days on end, except for one time when a big ro-ro (roll-on-roll-off) was overtaking me.  I was hoping he would change his course (when overtaking that is what they are supposed to), waited until he was less than 1.5nm away and decided that it was getting too close.  So I tacked, and when I am still trimming the sails and setting the new course I am keeping an eye on him, and see his bow turn straight at me.  So, we changed course at the same time, so I tacked back and passed with a pretty good margin.

Days were just going by, not much happening.  Nearly any birds or fish to be seen, but plenty of traffic.  Somewhere along the way I noticed that the sun was no longer turning south around me, but actually north of me.  Don’t know exactly when that changed, but I thought that was a fun realisation.

Normally the winds would be a little better (stronger in this case) during the nights.  Winds were lighter than expected during the days (just over 10knots). 

On Friday I came close to the Columbian coast, and the wind disappeared.  That is one of the most annoying things.  All people worry about storms when they think about sailing, but so far, the most nervewrecking is laying on the ocean with no wind.  The sails start flapping, louder and louder, and have to be taken down.  The boat is just doing whatever, it rolls and rocks around the swell, mostly aimless, and there is nothing you can do (when a boat has no speed, the rudder doesn’t have any effect).  Your only two options are sitting it out or start the engine.  So I sat it out, but I am thinking about following a crash course on Zen Budhism of some kind before I am going to cross the horse latitudes.

Friday afternoon the wind slowly started to come up, and I changed the working jib for a genoa.  And that was the wrong decision.  Because within a few hours the wind was getting too strong for the genoa, but it is really hard to change headsails (roller furling) in strong winds.  Plus the wind would always change a lot, there would be spells with pretty good winds, but also spells with way too much. I reefed the main, and then adjusted the head sail by partially (un)furling the genoa.  Sailed like that for two days when Sunday afternoon I decided I really needed to put the working jib in.  Sailing close to the wind with a partially furled genoa wears your sail out (and my sails are not very new) and its shape is far from ideal for that course. 

So Sunday afternoon I attempted to change the headsails from genoa to working jib.  The genoa came down fine (though it was impossible to fold on the windy foredeck, especially just by myself).  But when the working jib had to go up is when the roller furling go jammed.

In general, the crossing went fine.  It is not common for cruisers to do these kinds of passage into the wind, considering that, I think it wasn’t all that bad.  I was prepared for worse, I think I did a decent job in deciding when to reef.  Putting the genoa on was a mistake (and I had decided against that the days before, but the windstill period made me change my mind).  Also the route planning did not work out as expected.  From talking to others the tactic to follow was to go on a port tack all the way untill you get close to the South American continent.  Then you start working in going as much east as possible.  The assumption  is that through the influence of the continent, there can be variable winds (as opposed to the trade winds that are consistently across the Caribbean Sea).  This is where it goes wrong, there seems to be no winds coming from the South American continent.  Actually, right above the continents the winds seem to be even stronger. 

The result of all that was that once I had reached proximity of Columbia, I was going straight into wind for the last 100 miles.  Where I also still had to go around the peninsula (forgot its name, it right west of the Columbian/Venezuelan border).  There was an awful lot of traffic rounding that peninsula, obviously that happened at night.  So I missed a lot of sleep that night (that was from Friday to Saturday).

One of the things I was quite anxious about before the passage was food.  Somehow I was worrying about not having enough food, which is crazy, because there is canned food and rice and pasta on board for at least 4 weeks.  Must admit that coffee was running low (had only 1 day to spare), that was something I forgot to buy the last shopping trip in Jamaica (and I am a coffee junky, I get a bad headache if I do without for more than 24 hours).

So, in a nutshell, that was the passage.  I think it went ok, things were not going as well the first few days in Aruba, and I was bummed about that.  But that is all behind me. 

I might stay for quite a while here in Aruba.  I like the place and are able to do some work.  I have realized that paying docking fees is not that terrible (it is actually staying with my projected budget). 

The dinghy will have to be replaced eventually, but it either has to be the right one (for a decent price) or I might opt for a kayak.  I will take my time with that.  Buying one new here in Aruba is out of the question (I asked for a price today, that was about 8 times what I was willing to pay).