Askari Sailing: June 2019

Monday, June 24, 2019

Arrival in Bonaire

Our last night at sea was lovely, we switched the pole onto the Port tack about 4pm so we could lay the north tip of Bonaire and then sail around the west end without changing things in the dark. The wind lightened up to 15 or 15 knots so it ended up being a little slower than we planned however as the sun came up we saw the outline of the island. At 7am we dropped the pole and sailed on the wind right into the bay at Kralendijk.

Approaching Bonaire

Here's a little clip I posted on instagram from our sail https://www.instagram.com/p/BzNoRxxACdf/

We managed to grab a mooring ball off the town and by 9am we all secure in our new home for a while at least.

Look at that water

Clearing in was super easy and free, we pay US$10 a night for a mooring ball, $10 a week to access a dinghy dock in a marina and $45 for a dive permit that lasts a year. We can dive straight from the boat and there's over a 100 marked dive sites we can access by dinghy or hire car. We will get straight in the water.

Angel fish at the back of the mooring field

Scorpion Fish

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Passage to Bonaire 23rd June 2019

Position at 1200 local time 12 degrees 43 minutes north, 066 degrees 11 west
Sailing with poled out genoa wing on wing at 7 to 8 knots
Wind 14knots from the East
Swell lengthened
VMG to Bonaire has been 7 plus for the last 24 hours and we have 130nm to go

Yesterday afternoon the wind eased off a little and we continued to sail poled out other then a short stint were we went onto a starboard tack as the wind went a little more north easterly. It was a lovely relaxing afternoon reading and catching up on sleep. Andrew got the fishing rod out and we hooked one fish but it got away after fish drill to slow Askari down from the 8 knots she was doing at the time. We spoke to Steve on Alkemi and they caught a huge Mahi so we were a bit jealous.

Overnight the wind was amazingly consistent and I don't think we touched a thing all night. We had about 15 knots of wind and it was lovely. This morning the sunrise was shrouded in cloud unfortunately but then the blue sky broke through and the wind dropped, our speed dropped to and it was a bit frustrating for a while.

Food has been going well and I even just made a cake as I had left over frosting from Andrew's birthday.

Now we have a few squalls around us and in between the wind is lighter, so one minute we are trucking along and then we are being slewed around by the ocean and not enough wind.

Update 1400 we just spotted a military ship approaching us - it was the same one Steve mentioned came by him yesterday TTS Moruga - the MMSI looks American to me but they told him they were Trinidad and Tobago Navy. We will be tracking them.

We should arrive in Bonaire tomorrow - yay!

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Saturday, June 22, 2019

Passage from Grenada to Bonaire 22nd June 2019

Position at 1200 local time 12 degrees 29 minutes north, 063 degrees 28 west
Sailing with poled out genoa wing on wing at 8 knots
Wind 18knots from the East
Swell fairly short interval approx. 5 feet
VMG to Bonaire has been 7.5 to 8 knots since we left and we have 298nm to go

We ended up pulling anchor just before 1 am as the calm rolling anchorage at St George's wasn't working for us and I think we were both just keen to get on the way. The bars on Grand Anse beach were in full swing as we gently motored out of the bay under a lovely big bright moon. About an hour later we had cleared the wind shadow of the island and set the sails - Askari was off. The wind was quite northeasterly, so despite having set up our pole we were able to run on wind angle of about 120 on a starboard tack through the night.

We agreed we wouldn't take a direct line to Bonaire as this would take us too close to the coast of Venezuela, where there have been some reports of those desperate people approaching yachts, so we have set a waypoint keeping us 100 miles from the mainland. The conditions have been perfect so far, even though the sea is a bit steeper than we would like it is giving us an extra push; Askari is surfing down waves frequently over 10 knots and occasionally we have seen 11. This morning was a glorious blue-sky day and just after breakfast we pulled the genoa across and have been running wing on wing since.

We both managed to get a little bit of sleep during the dark hours and have just have pita pizza for lunch which was yummy. We learned yesterday our friend Steve with Nellie the dog on Alkemi is leaving today too so we hope to chat to them on the SSB later.

All well on board - we can still do this!

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Friday, June 21, 2019

Destination Bonaire

This whole season floating around mostly in places we have been before has really all been about Bonaire - Bon Bonaire one of of the places we dreamed of going back to when we built Askari. When we left Cuba last year and went back to the USA it was all because it's really hard to sail from the West end of Cuba to Bonaire - so we took a big tack north then east and now we can sail downwind to Bonaire.....

The blog has been a bit neglected I'm afraid to say but going to sea again and actually feeling like we are on an adventure and not shore dwellers always inspires me.

Askari looks like she ready for a hug or an ocean passage!?!

Andrew and I learned to dive in Bonaire in 2006, and even though we have since dived all over the world from the Galapagos, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia the Philippines and of course Indo, we have always dreamed of going back to where it all started. As we have our own compressor and dive gear on Askari and previously have been lucky enough to dive from amazing private yachts and resorts we have never bothered to take any more classes - yes we are the PADI open water divers with over 1000 dives.... we may well rectify that with some more courses but definitely a lot more diving.

Our Dive Cards

So today we loaded our liferaft back on Askari in Clarks Court Grenada, after a service and comprehensive inspection by Sea Safety Service, this included getting to see it inflated and reviewing all the contents. Donal and his team were very professional. Then we set about readying our girl for an ocean passage to Bonaire. We have loved our time in Grenada however it's definitely time for us to leave the Eastern Caribbean and start heading West again.

Donal shows us all the features of our life raft

Never want to see this again

We realised we actually have not sailed downwind in the trades since we crossed the Atlantic in 2016 so decided we should run everything in harbour and go for a practise. We run a halyard to the end of our spinnaker pole and lead the genoa sheet through the end of the pole. We then ran for and aft guys, this means we can leave the pole in place and furl the sail and it is a really safe stable set up when running downwind. We then place a gybe preventer on our main sail and if we keep the tension perfect we can furl and un furl our main sail when running down wind. It takes a while to get it all set up and check for chafe points and clear runs but we know this is going to be so easy to manage when we get out in the ocean with just the two of us. We also run safety jack stays on the deck and securely wrap up the dinghy in her cover with cross straps and padding.

This all done we decided we would take a gentle sail along the south coast of Grenada to check we were happy. It was then that Andrew gave the engine a look over and realised we had a weeks worth of washing up water in the bilge under the engine. Yay, greasy soapy water lapping under the floor. Andrew quickly realised it was the sink pump out that was leaking and set about pulling it apart while I grabbed another pump and a lot of fairy liquid. Yes the diaphragm in the pump was split but we had a spare and Andrew had it rebuilt in an hour about the same time as it took me to clean up the mess - I get all the glamorous jobs! (No pictures of that yuck).

We finally got our little sail in and all was perfect but we decided we would have a rest before leaving early hours of tomorrow morning. It's a bit hard to judge how long this passage will take - between two and three days. We are expecting good conditions and I will post an update from Sailmail on the way if I can.

See ya Grenada - Askari smells of nutmeg and we have many happy memories - more pics to come later.....