Off the Coast of Venezuela…..
July 25th, 2013 Time: -3 on GMT
We left the Mighty Essequibo River yesterday around 1pm. The major feature at the end was dodging the \”fish stix\” and the fisherman\’s nets over the extremely shallow river
bar. The water depths were occasionally down to 6 1/2 feet under the hulls. That in itself is not a concern, but when it stays that way for a mile, you hope the errant rock or shoal doesn\’t appear. No worries and we were off. The tide had turned and so despite the fact we were going more and more away from the river, the current eddied back and was against us for almost 40 miles! The wind came up, but pretty much on the nose. This last leg was looking a bit like dragging over the finish line. At mid night, the wind backed to around 60 deg. off the starboard bow so we set a reefed main and staysail. This was a good combination to keep up our speed; yet comfortable. We were basically headed right for Tobago.
Since then, we\’ve been sailing between 6-8 knots with a NE wind (hopefully it will go to ENE soon!). S/V \”Jongilanga\” has just entered the Dragon\’s Mouth at the top of Trinidad and will be in Chagaramas today. S/V \”OZ\” is 95 miles ahead of us and will be in Trinidad tomorrow. S/V \”This Side Up\” just left Paramaribo where they had to leave as they could not anchor in the river with a 5 knot current running. They should be in Tobago in about 4-5 days. We should be in Tobago by noon tomorrow. And that\’s the update on our \”buddy boats\” across the Atlantic.
CONGRATULATIONS TO JEANNE SOCRATES OF S/V \”NEREIDA\”!!!
Old friend Jeanne, has just completed (on her third attempt), a solo, non stop sail around the world in . She\’s in Washington State and I\’m sure the champagne has been flowing.
It took her 295 days and she\’s been in quite frequent email contact with us as we\’ve been sailing along as well.
If your interested, check out her blog/website at: www.svnereida.com
Jeanne is the OLDEST FEMALE single handed sailor and now has the official record. Congratulations Jeanne!
Lastly, we\’re now due east about 100 miles of the Boca Grande. The entrance to the vast and wide \”Orinoco Flow\” (Rio Orinoco of Venezuela).
Similar in some ways to the Amazon, it has one of the widest river delta\’s on earth and is eco heaven. Maybe by land….:-)
169 miles to go to the top of Tobago, we should be anchored in Man O\’ War Bay, Charlottesville by noon tomorrow.
I\’ll most likely put out 1-2 more position reports before we arrive.
Stay safe,
KIT,
Scott and Nikki