Sailing to Tobago and Grenada
With its colourful anchorages, reggae music and streetfood, the relaxed vibe of the Caribbean is a real draw for liveaboards. So, after enjoying the rainforests of Suriname in South America (see PBO Mar 19), it was time to head north, up the coasts of British Guyana and Venezuela, to our first stop on Tobago. Planning the route, we decided to set a course north-west as we passed Guyana then head more northerly, gradually putting in more miles between us and Venezuela. Unrest in the country had spawned a spate of attacks on Trinidadian fisherman and we weren’t taking any chances.
We sailed Quilcene, our Bowman 40, out of the mouth of the Suriname River at high water slack, expecting a calm exit through the buoyed channel – but no such luck! The wind whipped up quite a chop over the shallow coastal waters, and for 16 miles out to the final buoy. As we left the river influence behind, the colour of the water changed from a muddy brown to green and then finally to blue.
After five weeks on the Suriname River it felt great to be out sailing again on open water. We trimmed the sails and turned north-west at the outer buoy, initially making seven knots with a steady wind on our beam. By morning our speed had dropped to around four or five knots and the motion was very different to that on the Atlantic crossing when we’d had constant following wind and sea. This half of the crew began to feel decidedly queasy! All day we waited to pick up the Guianas, or Equatorial Current, but it was midnight on our second night before we hit seven knots again and were finally zipping along on calm seas.
Low profile
We had decided on a four-hour watch regime for this 470-mile passage, which should take around four days – ample time to settle back
