For info: Jacare is in the state of Paraiba and the river Maroni is part of the border with Suriname.
Well it is along the coast – just that it’s 1450 miles along the coast!! The journey took us 15 days, was a total of 1545 miles and we averaged about4.2 knot; so not bad for us!! A fairly uneventful sail – but with a few hiccups!
We finally started off Just before eight am on Sunday as this gave us a full 5 hours of tide to help us down river and to our waypoint out at sea. The river bit was great but once out at sea and still in shallow water it became very rolly - as usual!!!
We finally started off Just before eight am on Sunday as this gave us a full 5 hours of tide to help us down river and to our waypoint out at sea. The river bit was great but once out at sea and still in shallow water it became very rolly - as usual!!!
e were sailing quite well but on Tuesday we hit a couple of problems. I could see that the staysail we were using had a slight tear in the bottom – probably from the effect of the sun so we rolled part of it away and got out the red staysail and Chris starting a bit of stitching that was necessary before we could use it. There was not enough wind to fill the main sail so we were sailing under staysail only. Typically, as we were doing this, another slight problem as the steering oar from the wind vane steering came away from its fixing – it was tied on so there was no danger of losing it (and anyway Chris had bought a new piece of wood in Jacare to make a replacement if necessary!). It was dark by now and although there was a full moon it was not bright enough for Chris to re-fix it hanging over the stern! The sea was too choppy for the electronic auto-pilot to work so we started hand steering but very quickly realised that the boat would steer herself on the course we wanted! Good old Moontide!!! Chris’ watch on Wednesday pm the steering was fixed and he could get back to his stitching. It was sewing through multiple layers of sail and tape so it was pretty hard going.
Saturday night/ Sunday morning we passed back over the Equator with a quick vote of thanks to King Neptune for keeping us safe in the southern seas.
Sunday morning early (before it got too hot!!) we were able to get the red head sail back up and that upped our speed a little. HOWEVER, the wind vane self-steering suddenly stopped working! We had changed course by now and the seas were calmer so luckily the electronic pilot could cope very well. Having taken it all apart during the afternoon by late on Sunday (when he had calmer down a little) Chris realised that nothing much was wrong – it just needed anew split pin so he sorted it all out and put it all back together again on Monday.
Sunday morning early (before it got too hot!!) we were able to get the red head sail back up and that upped our speed a little. HOWEVER, the wind vane self-steering suddenly stopped working! We had changed course by now and the seas were calmer so luckily the electronic pilot could cope very well. Having taken it all apart during the afternoon by late on Sunday (when he had calmer down a little) Chris realised that nothing much was wrong – it just needed anew split pin so he sorted it all out and put it all back together again on Monday.
That night we had our first hitch-hiker!!! During Chris’ watch he had seen what he thought was a crow (dark and making cawing sounds) trying to land on our solar panels and getting biffed occasionally by the wind generator. We thought that maybe it had got lost. We found out later it was probably a Brown Noddy. On my watch I glanced up and there was something strange sticking out from the spray-hood. EH? Then I realised it was the tail feathers of a bird. I got a drop of water and tried to offer it to him – he stretched out for it once but (we realised later) he was not thirsty. I also drop up a little luncheon meat we had open but he was not interested in that either. He flew off as I tried to get closer but came back and managed to land on our rails and stayed there until light!
We had been sailing along very nicely and with the help of the current were sailing at over 6 knots. When we went over the continental shelf from deep water to shallower (very noticeable as the sea was really disturbed in a long line rather like the Meeting of the Waters in the Amazon!!) we did slow down as obviously the current was not so powerful. Well, I say we slowed down – that was until a squall hit us during my watch – the wind-vane went out of control and our speed was just increasing and increasing, we were heeling over well and I was not happy! I had called Chris when I started having trouble with the wind-vane but had just not cottoned on to what was happening. We were crossing over and back across the disturbed water and that’s my excuse for not realising!! No real problem, Chris quickly got Moontide back under control by reducing sail and all was well; although I was quite nervous the next night that I might get caught again!!
Timing was now becoming an issue! We did not want to arrive in the dark as we knew that there could be many unlit fishing boats and nets around the mark and just outside the entrance to the river!!
Having been going at a fair pace, on Saturday the winds lightened and we slowed right down. We expected to reach our next way point about 3 hours into my watch at about 0700 but when we were not close I called Chris at about 0730 and we altered course early and eventually put the motor on as that we could regulate our speed.
At daybreak we arrived at the co-ordinates of the safe water mark we had originally been given but no mark! We could see something a little way away and headed over there to the mark and also red and green navigation buoys marking the channel.
Having been going at a fair pace, on Saturday the winds lightened and we slowed right down. We expected to reach our next way point about 3 hours into my watch at about 0700 but when we were not close I called Chris at about 0730 and we altered course early and eventually put the motor on as that we could regulate our speed.
At daybreak we arrived at the co-ordinates of the safe water mark we had originally been given but no mark! We could see something a little way away and headed over there to the mark and also red and green navigation buoys marking the channel.
From then on it was easy to follow them in and we travelled the 25 mile from the safe water mark (15 mile from the mouth of the river) up to St Laurent du Maroni and dropped anchor at about 16.45pm just downstream from the town.