1 September 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Hurricane Luis is now at 16.3°N 43.1°W and it is expected to pass to the NE of Antigua on Monday 4th. It is now a Grade 3 hurricane with 105-130 knot winds and an eye 30 miles wide!
Glenys went to West Mall with the boys while I changed the engine oil. I then cleared out so that we can go to Tobago when we want to. Glenys did a big food shop and we got soaked loading it all onto the boat.
We went to the Lifeline Bar in the evening and Brett was caught with a big box of matches. He was reported to us by “Daniel K” who had found him striking matches in between the power boats, with all those outboards and those petrol tanks. He had apparently bought the box of matches (a cooking box size!) in West Mall, while Glenys’ back was turned. Craig was sworn (bullied) into secrecy. Glenys was really hacked off about it and gave Brett a real hard time!
2 September 1995 Chaguaramas to La Vache Bay, Trinidad
Hurricane Luis is now at 17.1°N 47.4°W and is heading straight for Antigua. It’s expected there on the 5th with winds 115-140 knots! I hope “Dabulamanzi” is secure.
We decided to get the hell out of Chaguaramus, so Glenys sorted the boat out while I ran a few errands. I talked to “Kelly’s Eye” and found out that they hadn’t managed to find our mail in St Lucia. They are going back there in October, so they’ll try again.
We motored around to La Vache Bay which is surrounded by steep slopes covered with rain forest – spectacularly beautiful. We swam, snorkelled and had a quiet afternoon. I filled 3 tanks. Some teenagers came over to say hello and towed Brett around on the windsurf board. They left us with a gift of a bag of mangos and an avocado – this is one of the few places in the West Indies where we have been given things! Last year, we gave the same family some children’s books.
3 September 1995 La Vache Bay, Trinidad
Hurricane Luis is now at 17.3°N 52.5°W and is still expected to hit Antigua at 0200 local on the 5th September. It is now a category 4 hurricane with 120-145 knot winds. The eye is 30 miles wide, winds of 65+ knots expected within 40 miles of centre, 50+ knot winds with 75 miles of centre, 35+ knot winds with 150 miles of centre, and 25+ winds within 300 miles of centre. Cloud cover extends 250 miles from centre. It’s big and nasty! We shouldn’t be affected too badly down here, thank God!
We had a pleasant day - swimming, went for a walk up into the rain forest and visited a local fisherman’s house. His house is about 200 metres from a waterfall, so he has lots of running water piped down to his house. The children have a turtle, 3 squirrels, (2 in cages, 1 free) and about 6 dogs. It rained in the afternoon which didn’t bode well for our night passage to Tobago.
4 September 1995 La Vache Bay to Anse Bateau, Tobago
We left La Vache Bay just after midnight and motored out into flat calm seas with little or no wind. We motored all night and didn’t even have any wind for the crossing over to Tobago. Glenys woke me up 20 minutes early because we had hooked a fish. It turned out to be a large barracuda which I shook off and lost the hook. We’ve not caught a decent fish for months.
Hurricane Luis is at 17.0°N 47.4°W with winds of 120-145 knots. It’s expected to pass straight over English Harbour at 1400 hrs tomorrow. Winds of 65+ knots within 110 miles in north quadrants and within 60 miles in the south quadrants. The eye will pass over Antigua, Statia and St Thomas with hurricane force winds expected in all islands from Guadeloupe to the USVI. Terrifying to listen to the radio report, never mind being up there!
We anchored in Scarborough while I cleared in and then we motored around to Anse Bateau. We put a stern anchor out because a bit of swell is getting in the anchorage and there are two other boats in here. The boys went to the beach and we slobbed about.
5 September 1995 Anse Bateau, Tobago
Hurricane Luis is now at 17.4°N 61.4°W directly over Antigua heading for St Thomas. The wind here picked up to about 15-20 knots from the SSE which caused a 3ft swell to come into the anchorage. By eleven o’clock it was very unpleasant, so we went for a walk and then had lunch at the hotel.
We thought about going around to Man-O-War Bay, but decided to stay. The conditions didn’t get any worse and by dinner time the motion was fairly comfortable. I’ve had a headache all day which made me pretty miserable.
6 September 1995 Anse Bateau, Tobago
Hurricane Luis is now at 19.2°N 64.4°W which is just north of Anegada. Luis is now moving NW and should be out of the way in the next couple of days. We will probably get a 2-3 metre northerly ground swell down here over the next couple of days, so we’ll probably stay put. It sounds like a lot of boats were swept away in St Martin (25 boats on the beach and 10 sunk) and Antigua has declared a state of emergency having sustained $350 million worth of damage!
I spent most of the day sorting out our finances – we managed to spend nearly £7,000 last month, leaving us with £15K in the bank and $5,000US cash on board. Definitely need to be back in Europe next year. Glenys pottered about doing a bit of sewing. The wind has started to back to the SE and the conditions in here are getting better.
7 September 1995 Anse Bateau, Tobago
Hurricane Luis is now at 21.6°N 66.2°W, which is north of Puerto Rico and going away. It sounds like St Martin has been devastated with reports of up to 1000 boats on the shore! The boats in English Harbour survived without any major damage, so hopefully “Dabulamanzi” is OK.
Glenys and Brett walked into town, while I continued looking at our finances. I reckon that since April ’92 we have blown £92K! About £40K has gone on the boat, which means we have spent £52K on enjoying ourselves for 3½ years, which is about £1300/month. In the afternoon, Glenys took the boys on a glass bottomed boat across to Petit Tobago. I went snorkelling to try to spear some fish, but couldn’t get near any large ones. I saw a nice turtle.
8 September 1995 Anse Bateau, Tobago
Hurricane Luis is now at 25.3°N 68.8°W which 500 miles SSW Bermuda. There was a lot of chat on the radio about damage in St Martin. “Sahara Blue” is badly damaged but afloat, Guy and family are OK. “Blue Monsoon” is afloat and OK. “Namaste” is sunk but Bob, Diane and Dorian are OK.
Glenys and I did 2 dives and caught a 1½ lb lobster and some fish. Nice day. Filled 3 tanks.
9 September 1995 Anse Bateau, Tobago
The weather seems to have settled down, back to tropical waves and ITCZ. Glenys walked into town to get some bread and then we went for a dive. A massive squall came over at lunch time and we had to retire below for a while. We opened the water tanks and filled them a third full. Glenys rang her Mum and found out that “Dabulamanzi” is safe and secure in Jolly Harbour. We had a quiet afternoon and I did a lot of clarinet practice.
10 September 1995 Anse Bateau to Man of War Bay, Tobago
The ITCZ is going to give us squally weather today and there is a strong wave with a low at 20°N 48°W which should pass north of the islands. We motored around to Man-of-War Bay in a horrible, confused lumpy sea. We were tossed around for about 30 mins until we got to the outside of the Melville Islands and started down current.
When we got to Man-O-War Bay, we met Pete and Dina from “Coquette” and Craig and Jenny on “Asylum”. Brett and Craig immediately went to the beach with Robin and Matthew from “Coquette”. I filled 4 tanks.
Glenys and I went for a dive. I caught a 3lb lobster and, in the frenzy, I got an attack of nitrogen narcosis – tunnel vision and confusion. Craig from “Asylum” speared a 5ft fish that was hanging about under his boat – it was a Cobia. We had a nice quiet night.
11 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
The wave at 53°W will pass well north, but there is another strong wave at about 41°W which shows potential for development. We met Helmut and Pauline from “Tiama”, Helmut is a keen diver. Glenys and I went into town and bought some beer and diesel. We went for a dive in the afternoon and I caught a 3½lb lobster. Another quiet night.
12 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
There’s a strong wave at 48°W with a low at 12°N which will bring unsettled weather here on the 13th or14th. I filled 4 tanks. We went for a dive in the afternoon and then went for a night dive. Helmut and Pauline from “Tiama” came for a beer after the dive.
13 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
The low has now turned into tropical storm Marilyn and is expected to pass just 120 miles north of us. We can expect 35+ winds tonight coming first from the north east and then from the north west. We thought about moving over to the west side of Man-of-War Bay but it looked very rolly over there.
We decided to re-anchor because we couldn’t let out any more chain where we were - we went into Pirate’s Bay. We had a worrying afternoon and to cap it all, we got moved by the fishermen who wanted to do some seine net fishing. At five o’clock, we started to re-anchor and a bloody French yacht zoomed in and anchored right next to us as we anchored – we couldn’t believe it!
We listened to the weather at six o’clock on 4003 kHz. (David sounded drunk – he’s in Grenada!) Tropical storm Marilyn now has winds of 65-75 knots and is located at 12.8°N 57.2°W. It will hit Barbados at 0200 local and then intensify to a hurricane with 75-90 knot winds before it hits St Vincent at 1400 tomorrow. We are not happy. The brochure said that we were outside the hurricane belt and we want our money back! At seven o’clock we had zero winds and a nice starry night, it’s hard to believe anything is out there...
14 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
We had an unsettled night. I set the alarm clock to go off every two hours so that I could check on what was happening. At midnight we had a squall which gave winds from the SE which put us close to the rocks – I had to pull 10 metres of chain in so that I could sleep properly. I’m sure that we would have been OK but I had a “feeling” and I had to obey it. The worst thing about “feelings” is that I ALWAYS act on them and whatever I thought was going to happen, doesn’t. But, was it ever going to happen or has my prompt action saved the day? Anyway, the night passed with little wind, but a large swell made us roll.
At 0500 local time, hurricane Marilyn was at 13.3°N 59.4°W with winds of 65-80 knots. It is just east of Barbados and is heading 285° at 11 knots. It has slowed down, is moving more northerly and is due to pass through St Lucia at 1400 today. We should be OK now, but the people in the Windwards and Leewards are diving for cover.
We re-anchored out of the way of the fishermen and settled down. I dropped Glenys and the boys off in town and they spent two glorious hours in the air conditioned library, poring over books. I went back to the boat and put out a stern anchor because the swell was so bad. At lunch time “Marina Em” turned up. After lunch, the boys and Marina went to the beach while Glenys and I went over for a chat with Tony and Dee. I ended up working on his PC trying to test his RS232 ports – it’s been a long time since I dabbled in that “black art”. We made a loop back plug and I wrote a simple Basic program which I think proved that his ports work. I filled 4 tanks.
15 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
The wind decided to blow from the south at six o’clock, so I had to get up and drop the stern anchor, which we were hanging on. I couldn’t sleep after that, so I finished a novel and then at seven am went and recovered my anchor and warp.
Hurricane Marilyn is now at 16.9°N 63.2°W and is expected to hit St Croix and St Thomas this afternoon with winds of 80-95 knots. Poor old St Martin is getting winds of 50 knots and heavy rain to add to their problems. Down here we will be getting convection activity from a feeder band of cloud from the hurricane.
It was a very windy day and we spent the morning messing about on the boat. “Marina Em” went over to the other side of the bay so Brett and Craig didn’t know what to do with themselves. Glenys and I went for a dive (my 200th) and we speared 7lbs of snapper. Keith and Charlotte from “Vaquero” (Aus) came for a beer and ended up staying to have dinner with us. The snapper was excellent.
16 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
Hurricane Marilyn passed over the US Virgin Islands last night and is now at 18.8°N 65.5°W with winds of 95-115 knots. We should start getting normal trade wind weather again. There are two waves at 52°W and 42°W which don’t appear to have any circulatory motion – fingers crossed!
Brett and Craig are excited about Craig’s birthday tomorrow and were up early running about and making plans about presents and cakes! I did a few jobs in the morning and then scrounged some water from “Marina Em” - they’ve got a water maker. I put 22 litres of fuel in the main tank from a jerry can. We went for a dive with Tony and Dee. I started to sort out a modem for the weather fax program with Tony’s assistance.
17 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
Craig’s birthday. The boys were very patient and waited until Marina came over at nine o’clock before Craig had his presents. GI Joe Jeep and Lego Flying Circus were the favourite presents. I went for a dive with Tony and Dee, while Glenys made food for the party.
The party started on the beach at half past twelve. Everyone brought some food and beer and a good time was had by all. There were only 7 children but they had a good time. “Vaquero”, “Marina Em”, “Tiama”, “Asylum” and “Morgangry” came to the party.
I filled 2 tanks. I fiddled around with modems, but I still can’t get a fax picture – I reckon its electrical noise from the PC.
18 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
Looks like we are back to normal trade wind weather. Glenys and the boys went to the library with Dee and Marina, while Tony and I messed about with my weather fax problem. We used his modem and radio to set up my computer, then I rebuilt the modem and tested it on his computer and radio, unfortunately the thing doesn’t work with my radio – I’m picking up noise from the computer so I need to play with radio and antenna position. We went for a dive with Tony and Dee in the afternoon - I speared 4 big eyes and caught a 3lb lobster.
19 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
A black day today – we started school work again! Craig’s starting Grade 2 and Brett’s starting Grade 4. Both of them are a year more advanced than they need to be, so we are going to take it easy and spread the work out so that they finish in 18 months time, just before we go back to the UK. I filled 4 tanks. We went for a dive again and Tony and Dee came for a beer.
20 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
School work in the morning. I rigged up a bipole antenna and finally got a good satellite picture. I now need to sort out a permanent antenna, but I was very pleased with my first picture.
The coast guard came around with some health department people on board and asked if we had a holding tank. We just said “yes” even though we don’t have one. Apparantly, if you don’t have a holding tank you have to anchor 1 kilometre from any beach. Many places are getting more sensitive about holding tanks, I know that they are pretty strict in the States, but I hope that we don’t have problems elsewhere. We did a couple of runs to the town to buy diesel in jerry cans.
We went for a dive with “Marina Em” and speared about 6lb. of big eyes and snappers. It was rainy, ITCZ weather today with a big swell from the east. We went out for a meal with “Marina Em” which was very nice.
21 September 1995 Man of War Bay, Tobago
Miserable weather with squalls and rain caused by the ITCZ and a tropical wave. We did school work in the morning. Put some more fuel in the tank from a jerry can - it is full now.
We dropped the kids off at the beach in the afternoon, while Glenys and I tidied up the boat ready to leave tomorrow. I’ve finally got my sailing memoirs up to the point where we left Ipswich! At this rate we will be back in Portugal before I start writing about spending the winter of 1992 there!
In Craig’s school work there was a story about a boy who had to get his eyes tested and then had to wear glasses – it was titled “Super Kid”. Craig was interested in what an eye test was, so I made an eye chart and we pretended to check his eyes. To my horror he couldn’t read the bottom three lines – we’ll have to get his eyes tested properly in Trinidad.
22 September 1995 Man of War Bay to Englishman’s Bay, Tobago
No school work this morning. It looked like a nice day, so we tidied up the boat and Glenys nipped into the village to get some food. I filled 4 tanks. We said goodbye to everyone and motored around to Englishman’s Bay.
Glenys and I went for a dive which was nice and deep (well I thought so, Glenys wasn’t impressed!) I’ve become very trigger happy and shot 3 grouper, 1 hog fish and a big eye – too much! The boys had fun playing in the river. I went over to “Liamuga” for a quick chat. They are a Wharram Cat who know “Tekaroa” well. They don’t know where Pete and Kirsty are but they do know that they left St Martin before Hurricane Luis hit. We had a nice peaceful night.
23 September 1995 Englishman’s Bay to Bucoo Bay, Tobago
We were woken by fishermen seine netting. They actually laid their nets about 10-15 metres in front of our boat before they woke us. It was almost as if they wanted us to catch our anchor on their net so that they could get us to pay for repairs! We managed to extract ourselves without any problems and motored down the coast.
The weather is pleasant, but there is a low at 13°N 45°W which we need to keep an eye on! We went around to Mount Irvine Bay and were surprised to find 15 yachts anchored there – last year we were the only boat anchored there. We did a dive and then left for Buccoo Bay. I cocked up the approach and went straight over the top of a 4 metre reef before entering Buccoo Bay, where we anchored in splendid isolation.
We went for a quick walk around the village, but most places were shut. Buccoo village holds a goat race at Easter and there are many splendid looking goats tethered about the place. I stayed up until eleven o’clock writing my CV – I must be mad!
24 September 1995 Bucoo Bay to Store Bay, Tobago
Miserable weather, there’s a lot of convection activity over Tobago. The low at 45°W appears to have dissipated, but there is a new low at 16°N 38°W. We did school work in the morning and after lunch decided to go over to Store Bay, ready to clear out tomorrow and go back to Trinidad. We dropped anchor next to “Vaquero” who told us that tomorrow is another bloody holiday. We’ll have to wait until Tuesday to clear out.
25 September 1995 Store Bay, Tobago
There's a low at about 13°N 46°W which is moving slowly and a strong tropical wave at 38°W which has lots of activity and needs watching. We did school work and then went to the beach for lunch, rotis, shark and bake, etc. We messed about on the public beach for a while and then retired to a quiet beach so that we could get a haircut. It was a fantastic place with palm trees bent out over the sea. We used one as a seat while Glenys cut our hair. We had our next to last bottle of wine for dinner.
26 September 1995 Store Bay, Tobago
The strong tropical wave is at about 40°W and has a lot of activity. We had Huevos Rancheros for breakfast because we have no breakfast cereal and no bread left. (It’s only been 3 weeks and we’re out of drinks and essentials). We then went into town on the bus to clear out. 10 minutes to clear out and 3 hrs 20 mins waiting for buses and messing about in town. We had rotis for lunch at one of the beach bars. Quiet afternoon – I must remember not to drink beer at lunchtime.
27 September 1995 Store Bay to Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Up at quarter to six, tidied up and left. Discovered that our batteries were down to 22.3V – I must have another one down. I’ve had nothing but trouble with the crap batteries that I bought in St Martin. We had very little wind, so we motored all the way to Chaguaramus Bay. We were initially heading for La Vache Bay, but were doing 7-8 knots over the ground so we just carried on.
Miracle of miracles, we caught a Dorado – I put a smaller hook on and it seems to have worked.
It took us 5 attempts to anchor because we couldn’t dig the anchor in without dragging. Eventually we pulled back a bit and left it to sink in. I hate Chaguaramus. We dropped the boys ashore and tidied up the boat before retiring to the Lifeline Bar. Typically we stayed in the bar too long, had chicken sandwich and chips and got drunk – welcome back to Trinidad!
28 September 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Bit of a hangover this morning. Glenys took the boys to the doctor to get something for the warts on Brett’s feet and also to get their eyes checked. The doctor said that we should get both of their eyes tested properly. I went and picked up a new bike wheel, dropped off the broken printer and came back for lunch.
Glenys went into town and it poured down. I re-anchored (twice) with Brett and dropped off my steel dive tank to get the inside tumbled. I also ordered a car for tomorrow. We had another evening in the bar, but forced ourselves to leave at eight o’clock to go back to the boat for dinner. Unfortunately, we were all bad tempered because we were so tired.
29 September 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Up early. I went to customs at eight o’clock and picked up the new Adverc regulator. I rang the car company to remind them to drop off a car at nine o’clock. I went to pick up Glenys and the boys but we ended up re-anchoring again.
After a few bad tempered exchanges, we arrived ashore at ten past nine. No car! I rang them up and they said they were waiting for a car to come in. I rang at half past nine and again at ten o’clock when I was told that they wouldn’t have one until lunchtime! We ended up getting a maxi taxi into Port of Spain and picking up a car from another company.
We then drove to a couple of carpet warehouses and bought a 4x4 metre piece of carpet for the saloon and cabins. We visited a few shopping malls and went back to Power Boats to drop Batman and a Pirate off at Organ’s birthday party. Glenys and I took the carpet back to the boat and found out that we were still close to another boat, so we re-anchored off IMS. 9th time lucky...
Glenys and I then went and did a big shop, came back to pick the boys up and went out for a pizza. The locals have a curious habit of smothering their pizzas with ketchup and mustard. I would estimate about 6oz of each on a medium pizza for two people. It looks gross and must ruin an otherwise delicious pizza!
30 September 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
We dropped the car off and went into Port of Spain. Brett and Craig had their eyes tested. Brett came out at -0.75 and -1.00, short-sighted but not bad enough to warrant glasses yet. Craig came out as being short-sighted as well, but he also has an astigmatism which the optician said was more of a problem, so we bought him some £80 glasses. The opticians is very high tech and said they could make the glasses within an hour! We said that we would pick them up on Monday.
We then went to the movies and saw “First Knight” and “Top Dog”. It only cost us £3 for 4 hours entertainment for us all! We went back to the bar and got drunk again.