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.