Diary for Sailng on Windwanderer.


Day 47 passage to Trinidad Tuesday 15th March 2016

2016-03-15

Day 47 Passage to Trinidad Tuesday 15th March 2016

11.45pm

Position 10°55'N  061°16'W

Speed a whopping 1.1kts  wind 6.8kts.

Well if I survive this night without having a heart attack it will be a friggin miracle, seriously send me back out in the open ocean any day.
My stress levels are that high I may have a stroke instead, the back of my neck is so tight with tension I can hardly move my head.

We decided to set off this morning instead of bobbing around here all day and there was very little wind so we thought if we can keep to around 3kts we would reach the entrance of Trinidad at around 5-6am tomorrow morning.

So all was ok we had such a nice gentle sail, a few ships passed us here and there, by late in the afternoon while The Captain was asleep a super fast ferry zoomed past us, you should of heard the engines roaring, I was thinking that The Captain would love seeing this and it's a pity he missed out on it.
He woke up around 6 and because the traffic was getting thicker we had decided that one of us needs to stay on watch, the whole time no going down and doing stuff.

I went down to cook dinner, and The Captain calls out that the ferry is coming back.
This was the start of it all, it sure was something to see and it passed us within .2nm doing 34.9kts it was flying.

Then it got really dark, I came up with dinner and The Captain says don't stress out when you see the radar.
Well of cause I had a major stress out, even total meltdown, as we were 8nm from land and all I could see was mountains in front of us, and the lights on shore.
The Captain explains to me the radar is showing that but the boat is actually moving in a different position with the current flowing, and to take notice of our position on the Chart plotter instead.

This is very hard to do when you see it all in front of you but he said he has faith in the chart plotter, me not so much, that was the first major stress.
The Captain lays down for a sleep and leaves me to it, I so hate this, I hate not being in control.

We have had every different shape and size vessel  go past some way too close, some on the AIS some not, some on the radar some not really showing up, I'm hearing engine noises all the time and jumping up every few minutes to see where it's coming from.
Just trying to work out where they are is a shocker as you can hardly make them out with the lights on shore, and they are coming thick and fast.
I'm also keeping a close watch on the radar and chart plotter.
 
Than the wind drops off completely so I wake The Captain to see what he wants to do about it, as the rate we were going it would be like 17 hours before we get there.

He let out some more Yankee, and had just layed down again and he said wake him if anything bothers you, I look ahead and there is a boat crossing straight in front of us, it came out of nowhere, yeah this was bothering me.
He jumps up I race to the front of the boat with the binoculars and could not really make it out.
We think it may of been coastguard, but not real sure, it passes very close and with our hearts racing we settle back down again and The Captain lays back down once more.

Half an hour later I look out and there is another boat straight in front and is shining a really bright light on us.
I wake The Captain once again we both watch and it's heading right for us, as it gets closer we notice it's a skiff the type that the Pirates use.

Oh man I was shaking like a leaf, The Captain just says, this does not look good, I do a mental dash, and try and hide stuff real quick, they were stashed all over the boat I'm a bit worried that I might never find it all again.

On my last trip back I grab the  mace   spray and our little handheld tazers and our bright torch.
I come back in the cockpit and they are beside us, they stayed there for a little while than they went behind us, we raced out the back to see what they were doing and they just took off.
Maybe they were just fishing or decided we were not worth the effort who knows but it frighten the hell out of us.

So onto the next drama we have been having problems with our laptop that the AIS is hooked up to, we think it may of got a bit of water in it.
Which has resulted in that the caps button stays on and several keys don't work.
So when the Pirates were about to attack us, The Captain just unplugged it and gave it to me to hide.
Well do you think I could get it started again, to log in I need the correct password and none is in caps, no matter how many resets it just would not come to the party.
This was turning into major as we are in a spot where we really need it.
Eventually after an hour or so I got it working again and with a sigh of relief I can settle down a bit.

I've had next to no sleep in the last 48hours and I don't think I'll be getting much tonight.
I just want the voyage to end I've had more than enough to last a lifetime.

Well tomorrow is another day.