I couldn't resist taking this photo.
Paul and Joyce came over for dinner and we played Mexican Train, aka "Snake".
We had met up with a Canadian boat (Artemo) in La Blanquilla and they sailed with us to Los Roquas - a really nice family Julie, Graham and two children, Amelia and Alex. The sail from La Blanquilla to Los Roquas was not fun - very gusty winds up to 30 (even 35 knots), waves up to at least 10 feet and to be honest, I hated every second of it. Paul and Phillip have been sailing most of their lives so they don't even notice it. Joyce has been sailing for a couple of years, doesn't get seasick, and their boat is bigger with hydraulics, so neither of them have to worry about going up on deck to adjust the mainsail or anything like that - they just press buttons. Plus their boat is made for downwind sailing - for them to put their side poles out is no big deal, but for us we have to lug this great big pole and physically lift it up, clip it on to the mast, thread the sheet through it and secure it - even when we're on completely still waters in broad daylight with two of us doing it, it is a HUGE task. Phillip has done it by himself in rough waters in the middle of the night (when we left Grenada I think) - at the time I had no idea what he was doing - he just said he was going to put the pole out, like he was going to have a nice stroll round the deck. Once I found out how difficult it it, I gave him a really good talking to about doing it himself. Don't think it had any effect on him though. Having a pole out means you can move pretty fast with a wind right on your tail but it means your boat really pitches from side to side, rolling heavily.
Since then, having helped him do it while we're in anchor, I just cannot imagine how he did it by himself. Anyway, with the wind directly behind us we needed the pole out to secure the genoa in place (or else it flaps from one side to another) - and it was a really rough night. It was so comforting to hear Julie on the vhf asking was anyone else panicking or worried about it - I jumped on the radio and said no, nobody's panicking, this is perfectly normal but it's so lovely to hear someone else who isn't feeling right at home and who is a little uptight about the whole thing and feeling unsure and nervous (like I was). I don't think Paul or Phillip or Joyce can relate to how it feels being brand new to sailing, in the middle of the ocean with high gusty winds, the boat rolling over from one side to the other, in pitch darkness, waves up to 10 feet - I just hated it and when it came time for my watch, I spent 5 minutes up there with Phillip, asking him if his head was screwed on the right way and did he REALLY expect ME to handle the boat BY MYSELF, AT NIGHT, UNDER THESE CONDITIONS, while he went downstairs and slept? And yes, he did. He seemed to think it was no big deal but I would not let go of the bimini rails, I would not budge out of the corner of the cockpit and told him frankly I was terrified and he'd better jolly well stay up there and sail the boat with me. He still looked at me with a puzzled look - like "what are you talking about? this is NOTHING." I got pretty mad with him and he really didn't seem to understand where I was coming from. I HATED it and felt very uncomfortable. When I say I was terrified, I am not scared of the boat sinking or turning over, but one strong gust has the boat off course, sailing down a wave in the wrong direction, the boat flips around quickly, the sails flap like crazy and sound like gunshots going off when they snap in the wind, the boat rocks and rolls even more, things fly all over the place, and to get her back on course is a job - the steering is heavy, and if there's no moon out I find it next to impossible to get her back on course. Yes I have a compass to steer by but it's so darned difficult - I'm looking at the compass and wondering where the heck we are, what direction are we facing, trying to see the radar and chart plotter to see the exact course, trying to find the auto pilot to turn it on again, and in broad daylight on a calm day, I would struggle with all these, let alone midnight on a dark night in rough seas. In the end he sent me below and he stayed up and sailed the boat. He's done that hundreds of times before, so it's no big deal for him to be up all night (and it was only one night after all) but under those conditions, only someone with serious sailing experience could handle Delphinus.
Only later on when I spoke to Julie the following day did she gawk at me in horror and say "YOU'RE KIDDING! He wanted to leave you up there by yourself? NO way would Graham leave me up there by myself, absolutely no way!!!" So that made me feel a lot better. Thanks Julie :-)
Anyway, after that slight digression, one night in El Grand Roque, we walked past them having pizza in a restaurant - they insisted we have a slice or two then and there and later on, they brought more over to us in our boat - how nice was that! (see below)
Such a nice family - we met up with them again in Bonaire too, they are now off to Cartagena.
We needed diesel from the fuel barge - so while we were filling up, they brought out beers for Paul and Phillip and they all had a whale of a time, drinking the beer and filling the tanks. Where else do you get free beer while you fill up?
One small point: as soon as we got to Los Roquas, we noticed that our charts were out (our electronic chart plotter). Not by much, but maybe 1/3rd to a 1/2 a mile - that meant that we'd plan our route in somewhere very carefully but when we saw our boat icon on the dotted route line and we looked up, we were nowhere near where we were supposed to be. Very disconcerting, particularly when you're gingerly finding your way into an anchorage, threading your way through the reefs and your chart plotter tells you you are now halfway across the island itself. According to the chart plotter, many nights we actually anchored several hundred meters inland and goodness knows how many times we steered the boat across land. Apparently it wasn't just us - many other boats had the same problem and it immediately rectified itself once we got out of those waters and into the ABC's. But that's not fun, let me tell you!
