Saturday 29th  April 2023

The Caribbean Sea

Blog by David  (Time zone: BST -5)

I checked out of customs and immigration late yesterday afternoon – once the bilge pump had been fixed.   You have to check in and out of every country you visit and many islands or pairs of islands are a separate country so checking in and out becomes a material part of a skipper’s workload; it also gives an interesting oversight of the variations in practice from country to country. The BVI process is among the more officious I experienced – and certainly the most bewildering.

Having been resident in Nigeria for a few years, I thought I had seen officious and bewildering – how it was possible, having travelled in business class, to get to passport control at the head of the queue, only to find yourself still waiting to be processed by the time most of the queue behind you had dissipated.  Happened every time - and yesterday, I experienced it again.  There were people milling around everywhere leaning over other people at the desk to accost the customs or immigration officer, or circling round behind them exchanging documents …… Vessels whose representatives had not docked at the time I tied up my dinghy  managed to get processed ahead of me while I languished in the queue watching them untie their dinghies and return to their vessels. ….. most frustrating.

We were up reasonably early this morning: a breakfast bagel ashore

Sopers’ Hole

Then paid for our berth and fuel before returning to the boat = all prepped up and raring to go:

Serendipity – Champing at the bit

We untied our lines and moved swiftly out of the marina and then anchored in the channel for an hour while we cleaned some debris and barnacles off the haul around the waterline etc.

Progress

A couple of people have done the math and asked why a 2,200 mile journey could take 15-17 days - given that it took us only 18 days to do circa 2,950 on the way across from the Canaries (and when I was complaining that the wind was light).

Well, the Azores are ENE from BVI (circa50^o True).   And our forecast of wind for the next few days is 7-11 knots from ENE, veering E and possibly ESE for a time.  So we can only sail NNE (circa 15-20 ^o True) and then only at speeds of 5-6 knots.

The Azores High has been squeezed into a sausage shaped balloon between the Canaries and Newfoundland and when we get to it there will be close to no wind – so we motor.   We have enough fuel to motor for perhaps five days – the rest we have to sail. Since we left we have sailed at a speed which is commensurate with covering 120-130 miles a day – errrr …. in the wrong direction.

Once we get through the balloon, we can expect to experience the normal procession of westerly and south westerly weather that accompanies depressions as they bass (hopefully) north of the UK and that should speed us up but not for a few days, at best.

We’ll keep you posted!