Position 10°40’614N 061°38’4184W
At anchor, Chaguaramas, Trinidad.
Hi dear friends, thank you for following my journey. Here is this week’s update.
What a week this has been with me leaving Trinidad and sailing over to Tobago then back to Trinidad.
Life on board:
I currently have three crew members onboard; they have flow out from the UK for a holiday. My sister and her friend Julie and a friend of mine David. If you visit the web site then a photo of crew can be found under the heading of ‘delivery crew’ for it is the same crew reunited some 18 months later.
I left Trinidad on Tuesday afternoon at 14:00hrs unfortunately some two hours later the engines cooling failure alarm sounded, I shout down the engine and started sailing. Now technically you cannot sail from Trinidad to Tobago because both the wind and the current come from Tobago heading towards the west. It is nearly impossible to make any headway. I sailed some 58 miles taking my way towards Tobago before I fixed the engine problem, during that time I only made 5 miles progress and in some very uncomfortable winds, seas. Winds up to 35 knots and seas just making it uncomfortable.
All the computer models suggested I would not arrive in Tobago until 11:00hrs on the 23rd June, some 17 hours after my friends arrived. I spent 6 hours working on a computer model before I found a rout that would get me there some two hours after they arrive.
The boat:
Pinta had been sitting at anchor for some two months and during this time she had turned into a floating coral reef with barnacle up to 50 cm thick. She handled like a pig until going through the ‘Boca’s’ or Dragons mouth then the short pounding seas starting breaking up the coral. It was all floating behind me know however this later caused a problem for the very fine peace’s of coral had found their way into the cooling system causing it to become blocked.
This was the longest I had sailed without sleep since I was 17 years of age, some 50 hours and during that time I thought I had two other crew members onboard for I found myself talking to the binnacle several time. This especially looked like a person from down below. I also found myself talking to someone up forward who I thought was on lookout.
Fair winds and calm seas
David.