{"id":2823,"date":"2024-06-28T22:28:49","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T22:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/?p=2823"},"modified":"2024-06-28T22:28:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T22:28:49","slug":"a-disturbance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/a-disturbance\/","title":{"rendered":"A disturbance"},"content":{"rendered":"

This started as a particularly pedestrian blog post.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m writing it sitting on the leeward berth, the laptop sliding off my knees as we race south \u2013 and it is a race: Me and Samsara<\/em> against the \u201ctropical disturbance\u201d which may or may not develop into a tropical storm or even a hurricane. One way and another, it is not to be trifled with.<\/p>\n

But it is stomping across the Atlantic at 20 knots – straight for me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I am relieved to report that the map shows it is still 1,500 miles away. But there is no doubt that it is coming and since I am rather new to sailing the Caribbean during the hurricane season, I have convinced myself that it is coming for me!<\/em><\/p>\n

So, this is not going to be a post about how these delightful islands are becoming as familiar as my local high street. I was going to say that Instead of the Co-Op for Pringles and Timpson\u2019s for more front door keys, it is St Lucia for the watermaker and Dominica for the Kindle repair. Actually, it was supposed to be Martinique for the watermaker repair but the company there was useless (never returned calls, didn\u2019t acknowledge emails, had no idea when they might get round to it\u2026)<\/p>\n

So, as you might try the cycle shop if you can\u2019t get what you want in the hardware store, I sailed over to St Lucia where Jon White of Regis Electronics fixed it in no time at all (and told me I was operating it all wrong).<\/p>\n

I stayed just long enough to give it a quick test in the marina and drink several bottles of Piton aboard a big boat called Stargazer with some lovely people called Andy, Jo and Jo\u2019s sister Vicky. Jo had given Andy Old Man Sailing <\/em>and now Andy gave me all the electronic charts for the whole world!<\/em><\/p>\n

After that, it was time for a proper sea trial of the watermaker.<\/p>\n

Also, the Kindle needed to go back to the repair shop in Dominica. They said they\u2019d fixed it a month ago \u2013 and it packed up the very next day on the way to Antigua.<\/p>\n

So now \u2013 by this somewhat circuitous route \u2013 I was back in Dominica, anchored off the fishermen\u2019s shacks in Roseau and Maria at Compusol said to come back tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Then the Hurricane Tracker app opened with a big red X. A red X means \u201cseven-day cyclone chance greater than 60%\u201d.<\/p>\n

I turned to Facebook (when you don\u2019t know what to do, turn to Facebook.)<\/p>\n

The advice was as universal as only Facebook advice can be:<\/p>\n

Get into the mangroves in Martinique.<\/p>\n

Get into the mangroves in Antigua.<\/p>\n

Wait and see.<\/p>\n

Go south now.<\/p>\n

Watch YouTube videos about hurricane preparation.<\/p>\n

Pray.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo South\u201d is the standard advice. Even I know that \u2013 but the predicted track for this disturbance covered the coast of Venezuela. There wasn\u2019t any gap to \u201cgo south\u201d into. Maybe I should go north instead – there was plenty of room to the north. \u00a0Come back when it\u2019s all over\u2026 The Facebook seers didn\u2019t even dignify this with a comment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I had to change the freshwater pump or I wouldn\u2019t be able to flush the watermaker even if it was working. The pump is under the sink. Changing it took the whole afternoon. With the cabin temperature at 38\u00b0C, tropical disturbances didn\u2019t seem so urgent.<\/p>\n

But by five o\u2019clock, a new Windy prediction showed the storm passing north of Grenada. Suddenly Trinidad was shown in blue which means \u201clight winds\u201d. Now it made perfect sense to go south.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This was on Thursday evening. The disturbance\/storm\/hurricane wouldn\u2019t hit until Monday afternoon. That gave me three and a half days to do 300 miles. With a trade wind on the beam, I could average 100 miles a day, no trouble.<\/p>\n

I did spend some time working out that if I left in the morning, I\u2019d still have three days and that way I could stock up with beer and buy a 7mm spanner which, I had discovered during the water pump replacement, I am lacking.<\/p>\n

You can just see the headlines, can\u2019t you: \u201cSailing pensioner drowned in hurricane. Beer and spanner blamed.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, I left. Waving to the Frenchman anchored next door, I pulled up the anchor and the sails all at the same time and hastened south.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman raised his glass. The French don\u2019t worry about hurricanes. Why do you think nobody bothers to translate sang froid?<\/em><\/p>\n

And so, as I say, here we are on target, tramping along at five knots with the super zero flying in nine knots apparent \u2013 122 miles to the turning point at the bottom of Grenada. ETA Trinidad midday Sunday.<\/p>\n

I wonder if I can buy a new Kindle in Trinidad?<\/p>\n

And a spanner?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This started as a particularly pedestrian blog post. Now I\u2019m writing it sitting on the leeward berth, the laptop sliding off my knees as we race south \u2013 and it is a race: Me and Samsara against the \u201ctropical disturbance\u201d which may or may not develop into a tropical storm or even a hurricane. One … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2827,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions\/2827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}