Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean: Transatlantic Crossing Guide (Street's Cruising Guide) (v. 1)

ponald M. Street, Jr.

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

Books by Donald M. Street, Jr.

A Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles A Yachting Guide to the Grenadines The Ocean Sailing Yacht, Volume I The Ocean Sailing Yacht, Volume 11 Seawise Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean in six volumes A Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide Iolaire's westward transatlantic passage is covered by a two-hour video, "Transatlantic with Street." Iolaire's swan song as a roundthe-buoy racer is narrated on "Antigua Week '85," largely shot aboard Iolaire. Both videos are available in the States from the Dolphin Book Club, 485 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017. The Transatlantic video is available in Europe from Marine Marketing, 54 Bollingbroke Road, London SW2 GHR, England.

Street:s- Transatlantic Crossing Guide THE ESSENTIAL COMPANION TO THE AUTHOR'S GUIDES TO THE EASTERN CARIBBEAl{, VOLUMES 11, Ill, AND IV

Donald M. Street, Jr. Imray-Iolaire harbor charts courtesy of Imray, Lauric, Norie and Wilson, Ltd.

W. W. NORTON & COMPANY NEW YORK

LONDON

Copyright © 1989 by Donald M. Street, Jr. All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Ltd., 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario L3R IB4. Printed in the United States of America. This hook is composed in Caledonia. Composition by Vail-Ballou. Manufacturing by Arcata Graphics. First Edition Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data Street, Donald M. [Transatlantic croSSing gUide] Street's transatlantic crossing guide / Donald M. Street, Jr. lst ed. p. cm. "Imray-Iolaire harbor charts courtesy of Imray, Laurie, Norie, and Wilson, Ltd." Includes index.

ISBN 0-393-03329-5 1. Yachts and yachting-Islands of the Atlantic. 2. Nautical charts-Islands of the Atlantic. 3. Harbors-Islands of the

Atlantic. 4. Introduction to the Eastern Caribbean. n. Title: Transatlantic crossing guide. GV817.1747S74 1988 797.1'0997-dc19

1. Title.

88-23487 CIP

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. lOllO W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 37 Great Russell Street, London WCIB 3NU 1 234 5 6 7 890

Dedication The idea for this crUlsmg guide was originally conceived in 1963, and it was only through the hard work, perseverance, courage, and self-sacrifice of my late wife, Marilyn, that the original book got off the ground. Fortunately for myself and my daughter, Dory, I met Patricia Boucher, now my wife, on the beach in Tyrell Bay. She has presented me with three active sons, yet has had time to help in business, sailing loiaire, and exploring. Although she had hardly sailed before our marriage, she has taken to sailing like a duck to water. Her love of sailing was largely instrumental in my decision to keep lolaire when I was thinking of selling her to reduce expenses. It is only because of Trich's hard work keeping our various business enterprises going in my absence that I have been able to keep the third love of my life, lolaire. lolaire has been my mistress for thirty years; at age eighty-two she is still the type of boat Michael Dufour would appreciate: she is "fast, beautiful, and responsive." She first arrived in the Islands in 1947, remained for a few years, and cruised back to Europe in 1949, from Jamaica to England direct. In 1950, under the ownership of R. H. Somerset, she won her division's RORC Season's Points Championship at the age of forty-five, returned to the Islands in 1951, cruised there during the winter of 1951-1952, sailed in the Bermuda Race in 1952, then cruised back to Europe and the Mediterranean. In 1954, she returned to the Islands, where I purchased her in 1957. In 1975, we celebrated lolaire's seventieth birthday by cruising to Europe via Bermuda, New London, New York, Boston, Halifax, and then

having a fifteen-day passage to Ireland. We cruised on to Cowes, took part in the fiftieth anniversary of the first Fastnet Race, and then raced to La Rochelle, La Trinite, Benodet, and back to the Solent-four races, totaling 1,300 miles, in twentyone days. After Calais, we went up the Thames to St. Katherine's Dock in the Pool of London under Tower Bridge, then back down the Thames and up the Colne River in Essex, where we lay alongside the dock in Rowhedge, where lolaire had been built seventy years before. Then to Plymouth, Glandore in Ireland, Madeira, the Canaries, and back across the Atlantic in eighteen and one-half days to Antigua. We arrived in Antigua seven months and seven days after our departure, having sailed 13,000 miles and raced 1,300 miles, all without an engine, visiting all the places people had said we'd never make except under power. We decided that lolaire should celebrate her eightieth birthday in 1985 by retiring from roundthe-buoy racing. Her swan song in Antigua Week of 1985 was wonderful-third in the cruising division (seventeen boats), first in the boats twenty years old or older. Then we took lolaire on a 12,000-mile, double transatlantic jaunt. In seven months we visited Bermuda, five of the Azores islands, Ireland, Vigo in Spain, the Salvage Islands and the Madeiran Archipelago, five of the Canary Islands, and three of the Cape Verde Islands; then we rolled on home in fourteen days and four hours from the Cape Verdes to Antigua-not a record but a good fast passage for a heavy-displacement cruising boat. v

vi

Dedication

Iolaire has nine transatlantic passages under her belt, and I have sailed her a minimum of 120,000 miles. Who knows how many miles she has sailed altogether? There is little of the Caribbean whose waters have not been furrowed by her hull, and, as some

of my good friends will point out, few rocks that have not been dented by her keel! To my three loves-Marilyn, Trich, and IolaireI dedicate this book. D.M.S.

Contents Publisher's Note Preface Foreword Acknowledgments C harts List of Harbor Charts List of Illustrations 1 The Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands-A General Description 2 Preparations 3C~~

ix xi Xlll

xix xxiii xxv xxvii

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4 Getting There 5 The Atlantic Islands-Bermuda, the Azores, The Madeiran Archipelago, and the Salvage, Canary, and Cape Verde Islands 6 Wind, Weather, and Tides 7 Sailing Directions 8 Entry and Communications 9 Provisions and Services 10 Chartering 11 Yacht Clubs and Racing 12 Leaving Bibliography Appendix A Principal Visual Navigation Aids: Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands Appendix B Principal Radio Navigation Aids: Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands Appendix C Principal Radiotelephone Communications Aids: Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands Appendix D Principal Commercial Radio Stations: Eastern Caribbean and Atlantic Islands Appendix E Holidays Index vii

60

90 204 235 240 256 295 304 313 328 331 340 344 346 351 355

Publisher's Note D. M. Street, Jr., a veteran Caribbean sailor, is also known as an author and the compiler of ImrayIolaire charts of that area, and as a worldwide yacht insurance broker who places policies with Lloyd's of London. Mr. Street also serves as a design consultant on new construction, most notably recently on Lone Star, a 54-foot wooden ketch, built by Mashford Brothers of Plymouth, England. He also serves as design consultant on rerigging existing yachts and finding good cruising boats for people who want a proper yacht. His latest project is to do a sailing and seamanship video serics with SEA TV. Street is mainly known as a cruising skipper, but he had raced with success on Iolaire and other boats. lolaire has retired from round-the-buoy racing at age eighty, but the skipper has not and can be found at the various Caribbean regattas skippering, or sailing as tactician with local knowledge, on other boats. His contributions to sailing in the Eastern Caribbean consist of his cruising guides and the ImrayIolaire charts. Forty-sevel) Imray-Iolaire charts have replaced roughly 200 French, U. S., British, Dutch, and a few Spanish charts and are all that are needed to cruise the Eastern Caribbean. As an author, he is prolific. His original Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles was published in 1966, A Yachting Guide to the Grenadines in 1970, and an updated and expanded Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean in 1974, with continued expansions and updates in the 1980s. The title of the last is now Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean, a six-volume work that covers an arc of islands 1,000 miles long. He has also written The Ocean Sailing Yacht,

Volume 1 (1973) and Volume 11 (1978). Seawise, a collection of articles, came out in 1976. He has completed rewriting Volume I of Street's Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean in light of the information obtained on his seven transatlantic passages and hundreds of interviews. The new book will be titled Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide, Guide to the Atlantic Islands, and Introduction to the Eastern Caribbean. He is also working on a series of books, Street on Sails, Street on Seanulnship and Storms, and Street on Small-Boat Handling, and lolaire and I, the story of Iolaire's eighty-two years and Street's lifetime of adventures and misadventures in the yachting world. He regularly writes for Sail, Cruising World, Sailing, Wooden Boat, Tell-Tale Compass, Yachting, Yachting World, and Yachting Monthly, and for publications in Sweden, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. For well over twenty years, Street owned land and houses in Grenada, but unfortunately the houses are no more. They were taken over by the People's Revolutionary Army (PRA) in May 1979 as part of its military base. The houses did not survive the U. S. liberation in 1983, when helicopter gunships destroyed both of them. He hopes someday to rebuild on the old site. During the winter he crisscrosses the Caribbean. In the spring, he heads south to lay up lolaire in Grenada, south of the hurricane belt. In July and August, he can usually be found in Clandore, Ireland, on the family Dragon, Gypsy, either skippering her or trimming sheets for his sons. In 1985 lolaire again did a double transatlantic passage, visiting Bermuda, Spain, the Madeiran Archipelago, Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands

ix

x

Publisher's Note

before returning to the Caribbean. As a result of these explorations Street has revised Volume I of this series. The title is now Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide, to be published in 1989. He continues to explore the Eastern Caribbean to update and expand both his Imray-Iolaire charts and his guides. In both 1987 and 1988 lolaire did five weeks in Venezuelan water re-exploring and checking. lolaire was retired from round-the-buoy racing at age eighty at the end of the 1985 Antigua sailing week. This series was a good swan song. She

placed third in the cruising class, and first of the boats twenty years or older. D. M. Street, Jr., still races, but as an elder stateman, usually as "rock pilot." It is said he knows all the rocks, as he has hit most of them while exploring the Caribbean. In 1989 lolaire is again doing a double transatlantic crossing, from Antigua to the Azores and then direct to Ireland. She is returning via Spain, the Madeiras, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verdes, and is exploring the islands she has not yet visited.

Preface When I first bought Iolaire in 1957, I found on board what was then the only straight cruising guide to the Lesser Antilles. This was a mimeographed publication produced by the Coast Guard Auxiliary and edited by a Lieutenant Commander Buzby, Carleton Mitchell's Islands to Windward, published in 1948, was generally regarded as a good cruising yarn rather than as a cruising guide, but it did have some basic cruising information in the back of the book. Unfortunately, by the time I started sailing outside the Virgin Islands in 1959, Islands to Windward was out of print. In 1960, The Virgin Islands by George Teeple Eggleston was published, the result of a one-month cruise aboard Eunice Boardman's 55-foot ketch Renegade. In 1961, Perey Chubb Ill, after a eruise through the Lesser Antilles, produced a small, privately printed Guide to the Windward and Leeward Islands of the Eastern Caribbean. In 1964, Linton Rigg authored The Alluring Antilles, a combination guide and cruising adventure of a half-year sail from Puerto Rico to Trinidad aboard the 45-foot ketch Island Belle. These seemed to suffice for the small amount of Caribbean cruising done in those days, but starting in the early sixties the charter-boat business suddenly began to expand, and many new boats arrived. It was Frank Burke of Island Yachts who inspired my entry into cruising-guide writing. Figuring that too many of the charter parties were missing the best spots in the Virgins because their skippers had not been in the Islands long enough to get to know them intimately, he asked me to write a cruisiJ,lg guide to the Virgin Islands. This was done, and he had it privately printed. I received

the magnificent sum of $lOO-which to me happened to be a veritable fortune in those days. This small volume later formed the basis of the Virgin Islands section of my Cruising Guide to the Lesser Antilles, published in 1966, after I showed it to Phelps Platt of Dodd, Mead, who encouraged me to expand it to cover the whole island chain. This was followed two years later by Tom Kelly and Jack van Ost's Yachtman's Guide to the Virgin Islands, and then by Al Forbes's excellent Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands, notable in that, unliked many guide authors, he had sailed the area for many years before he wrote his. In 1970, following eight years of cruising the Grenadines, I produced A Yachting Guide to the Grenadines, after which, in 1973, came Julius M. Wilensky's Yachtsman's Guide to the Windward Islands, which covered largely the same territory as mine. Also in 1973, Gordon C. Ayer produced an interesting small guide covering an island group which had never been detailed before-namely, the Passage Islands. New Guides to the Virgin Islands are becoming too numerous to list. In the southern end of the Islands Chris Doyle has produced his Sailor's Guide to the Windward Islands. He is presently at work covering the area I covered eight years ago--the Venezuelan coast. The guides have been translated-into French, German, and Spanish. The Guides have been expanded to cover the Atlantic islands-Bermuda, Azores, Madeiran Archipelago, Canaries, and Cape Verde Islands. This was done because yachts going to and from the Caribbean sail through these islands but have had great difficulty in obtaining information and harbor charts for the islands. There has been a

xi

xii

Preface

dearth of information on transatlantic passage-making despite the number of boats crisscrossing the Atlantic. The Bermuda Islands are covered by Yachtsman's Guide to the Bennuda Islands by Michael Voegeli, the Azores by Bob Silverman's Yachtsman's Guide to the Azores, and the Canaries by Jack Hooper's privately mimeographed Guide to the Canaries. The difficulty with all these guides is that they can be found only after you have arrived in the islands they cover; hence the inclusion of the basic information on the Atlantic islands in this volume. In the five volumes of the Cruising Guide to the Eastern Caribbean, I have tried to include all the information I have gleaned in more than three decades of cruising these islands. I have drawn not only from my own experiences, but also from the experiences of old friends who are, in addition, good sailors. Thus I feel I have described probably every cove in the Eastern Caribbean where one could possibly think of anchoring. If you find one I may have missed, please let me know. In my 1966 guide I claimed that the book would never become dated because rocks don't move. Little did I realize how eagerly island governments would actually start moving them, creating new islands, making islands into peninsulas, and building low bridges, as the development of

the Eastern Caribbean boomed. Further, any guide is destined to go out of date simply because the idyllic uninhabited spot of one year becomes a thriving hotel and cabana settlement the next. Indeed, one of my readers lately took me to task because he was using my original guide and expected to anchor off an island described therein as uninhabited. As he rounded between Pinese and Mopion, he was greeted by a brand-new hotel ablaze with celebration, and counted no fewer than forty-five boats moored in the lee of Petit St. Vincent! At various times, Venezuelan yachtsmen have extolled the virtues of Venezuela and the offshore islands. I originally went to Venezuela to give a slide lecture to a yacht club and to take part in a race. I then took Iolaire to eastern Venezuela for six weeks and later visited western Venezuela on Boomerang. There followed a month's cruise in 1978, a two-week cruise in 1979, and a six-week cruise on my publisher's boat, Toscana, a Swan 47, which enabled me to complete the guide to Venezuela, Aruba, Bonaire, and Cura

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Terceira US 51061; BA 3224; Portuguese 107, 109, 112, 170, 172 (plan); Harbor charts A14, A15. This island has two harbors and is the home of a big US Naval Air Station. The main city is Fanal with its port of Angra do Heroismo. ANGRA DO HEROISMO

Harbor chart A14 Angra do Heroismo is the anchorage for the main town. You can lie on the western side of the harbor under the Club Nautic, which before it closed in June 1985 offered showers, a mail drop, etc; perhaps it will reopen. The Customs Officers do not like you to anchor on the eastern side of the harbor but would rather have you anchor by the main commercial dock. However, the Customs Officers usually will grant permission to lie on the

eastern side of the harbor if a direct and plaintive appeal is made. The trouble with the western side of the harbor is that it can be a very tight squeeze when the large ships, which enter and leave with no tug, come to the main commercial dock. The easiest way to reach town is to run the dinghy over to the fishing-boat ramp in town, drop part of the crew off, and return to the boat; someone should remain onboard, since this is a commercial port with crews of all nationalities visiting the harbor. The town of Angra do Heroismo is interesting, with plenty of shops, some good, very inexpensive restaurants, large hotels, and a beautiful old church; but the town is still in a state of rebuilding after suffering a very bad earthquake in January 1980. The Port Captain can tell you how to get fuel and water, but there are basically no yacht facilities at all. If the wind begins to blow hard out of the southeast this harbor would get either uncomfortable or untenable; you'll find shelter by going

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around Monte Brasil and anchoring in Fanal, a 2mile distance, but you would first have to obtain permission from Customs. Alternately, you can sail around the island to Praia da Vitoria. PRAIA DA VITORIA

Harbor chart A15 Praia da Vitoria is now well-sheltered due to the completion of the new breakwater extending north from the south end of the harbor. It offers good holding on sand bottom and clean water. The village of Praia da Vitoria is very much a tourist village as it caters to the American base, which is shared with the Portuguese Air Force. It also attracts the people of Terceira as it is apparently the only sand beach on the island. There are windsurfing schools, restaurants, bars, etc., but virtually no yachting facilities or marine supplies. In an emergency, I would imagine that if you befriended the crews of the tugs that lie in the harbor to serve the American ships carrying supplies for the air base, you could get practically anything done, as has been discovered by more than one retired US military person.

Something else worthy of note: if all the restaurants in town are closed-believe it or not-you can take a taxi to the naval base, go in, and eat American-type chow at the Navy Petty Officers' Club. Furthermore, at the PX, any retired military person can avail themself of the great variety and cheap price of Stateside products! Finally, our friend Mr. Fraga of SATA, the local airline, reports that block ice is available at Hotel Lota at San Mateuz-but you'll need a local road map to find this village as it is not a harbor!

Sao Miguel US 51081; BA 154 with inserts of Ponta Delgada and Porto de Capelas; Portuguese 107, 111 (plans), 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165; Harbor charts A16, A17, A18. Sao Miguel is the largest of the islands, about 30 miles long. It is also the most populous-about 150,000 people-and has the biggest port, Porta Ponta Delgada with a steamer quay a full half-mile long, a large town with excellent restaurants, hotels,

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supermarkets, shops, etc. Ice is available at the beer factory, only a short walk from the dock entrance gate, good block ice and cheap. Yachts anchor up on the north side of the harbor or moor alongside the floating docks at the western end of the harbor. Customs and Immigration are in the Port Captain's office at the head of the dock. Everyone is very friendly but they are very firm about the fact that dinghies are allowed to be

brought only into the orange floating dinghy dock; they are not allowed to land at the small dock at the restaurant or at the north edge of the harbor. This seems a bit silly and means a longer walk into the city, but see the section on Customs and Immigration in Chapter 8, for reasons. Free hot showers can be had right outside the gate to the Club Naval. Contact the Port Captain for fuel and water and check very carefully. Remember that

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not known at this time, so proceed with caution and only when the sun is high and the light good. If approaching from the north, care must be exerted as reefs extend 500 yards offshore from Pta Melenara; approach to the harbor should be made from the southeast. The town of Taliarte is within walking distance (half mile) from the harbor. ENSA DE SALINETAS

Harbor chart CIO

all winds except those in the southeasterly quadrant. ARINACA

Harbor chart C 12 A small village, offering a moderate degree of shelter; useful as a stop when going north and beating to windward against the northeaster, but I think in that case I would be more inclined to continue up to Cando, which would provide better shelter.

This should be regarded as merely a harbor of refuge in an emergency; it is basically a commercial harbor.

Southwest Coast of Gran Canaria BAHIA DE CANDO

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Harbor chart CI3

When approaching Peninsula de Cando, beware of Baja de Cando, about half a mile due east of the peninsula. It's unmarked and unbuoyed, with plenty of deep water inside or outside of the reef; I would be inclined to hug the steep-to coast, favoring the shoreside, when passing either north or south. Swing on into the bay and anchor in the northeast corner where there is a small Village and a road that leads to the airport. This would be an excellent place to anchor if you're awaiting crew arrival or departure by plane. The bay is sheltered from

This ll-mile stretch of the southwest coast is the scene of instant tourism, but there are plenty of spots for calm weather, daytime anchorages, and a number of harbors: Pasitos Blancos, two at Arguineguin, Puerto Rico, and Mogan. The mountains come right down to the coastline, so the highway is a tortuous zig-zag route along the edge of the cliffside. Driving from one port to another is not particularly fast and unless you are in a bus, it is expensive. On the other hand, this coast is usually flat calm in the morning so that if you have a

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

154

Depths in Feet '46

39

. ' 39 59 Pta de la Salineta

....

7

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27'58' 2N

95

69

BAHIA DE MELENARA

o ClO

500

I

59

I Yards

Ensa de Salinetas

Depths in Feet

BAHIA DE MELENARA

65 197

75 72 Roque de Gando

724

~

(!)~ ~ 27'56'N

.+ +':

Baja de

Gando

722 Fort

.......

.' 37

65 75 BAHIA DE GANDO

C 11

Bahia de Gando

104

174

o I Sea Mile

The Atlantic Islands

155 I

I

I

. 102/

++:r;?: Roque de :Arinaga

128

59 I I

59

40

'{

Bahia :e 7:9a ~

62

42

I

Depths in Feet

C12

89 Anchoring and Fishing Prohibi,ed

Sea Mile

Arinaga

dinghy, and especially a fast whaler or inflatable, you can zip up and down the coast, stopping at various marinas and towns for supplies and then transport them directly back to the boat faster and more cheaply than by car. Likewise, having walked from the road through the daunting sand dunes at Maspalomas to reach the beach, I certainly would visit the beach and the sand dunes via dinghy from Pasitos Blancos.

PASITOS BLANCOS

Harbor chart C 14 Excellent marina, as described on page 138 but remember it is expensive for one night. Better, unless you are really pushed, to continue on 6 miles along the coast to Puerto Rico. However, in calm conditions I would think you could anchor off the beach anywhere between Moro de Colchas and Pasitos Blancos.

ARGUINEGUIN

Harbor chart C15 This is a rather attractive town, an old fishing village that has obviously become an "in place" with the local Canary Islanders, as many of the old houses are being completely rebuilt in the old Canary Island style with wooden doors, wooden balconies, and louvered windows. There are two harbors here. There is the new commercial port behind the jetty west of Ponta Taozo (Harbor chart C15) which has only recently been completed. On the eastern side of town is a small commercial fishing harbor (Harbor chart C16). Yachts should very definitely stay out of the way of the fishermen here. PUERTO RICO

Harbor chart C 16 Puerto Rico is one of the major jumping-off spots for yachts heading for the Caribbean. (In 1985 we

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Depths in Feet

C22

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

o I

1000

I Yards

The Atlantic Islands Breakwater Head Light La!. 28° 23'9N Long. 16° 19'·3W

'",

....

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Depths in Feet

Radazul (sketch chart)

Breakwater Light La!. 28° 21 '3N Long. 16' 22' 'OW

0. PUNTA LARGA

o Depths in Feet

C24

100

200

300

400

C:=:±I:=:::t:1:=:11=::;!I Yards

Candelaria (sketch chart)

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

166

allowed to use the facilities is, of course, unknown. Recheck page 151 for advice on how to obtain entrance to the large yacht club at Puerto de la Luz. There is also a small fishing harbor protected by a breakwater nearby, but much construction is going on, so I would advise proceeding with caution only while the light is good and to go strictly by eyeball navigation. Any information sent to this author would be greatly appreciated.

ABONA

Harbor chart C25 Here is a small village and a large open bay, usable only in settled conditions. Completely open to the east but sheltered from winds north counterclockwise around to south. If the wind is from the south, anchor at the southern end of the bay; if the wind is around to the north, anchor in the northern end.

251

LAS GALLET AS

West of Abona is the small fishing village of Los Abrigo, which enjoys a reputation among the locals as an excellent place to obtain a good fish lunch or dinner. Basically a lunch-time stop in settled weather. Still farther west, one will see the tourist development of Las Galletas. In the winter of 1987, a new breakwater was under construction, which will probably produce a well-sheltered harhor. How much the harbor will develop as a yachting harhor remains to be seen. ROJAiMEDANO

Harbor chart C26 Southwest of Mount Roja near the airport there appears to be an anchorage shelter from the north, with a long, deserted beach. Remember that something put all that sand there, probably a large swell.

0Aero RC

402

69

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28' 09·N

56

23

739

254

138.···

85 ..... ,.

95

136

......

··w .....,

297

~ 28' 01·N 102

181 Depths in Feet

C25

Abona

o I

500

224

1000

, . I Yards

Depths in Feet

C26

Roja/Medano

o I

Sea Mile

The Atlantic Islands LOS CRISTIANOS

Harbor chart C27 Los Cristianos is a popular harbor with yachts getting ready to take off across the Atlantic because there is a hauling facility. The travel lift in Los Cristianos provides incredibly cheap hauling, and you can do your own work. Shopping facilities for food are excellent, and as mentioned elsewhere, good block ice is available-you find it underneath the post office! The excellent laundry is at the back of the Dutch butcher shop. There's a nice long beach that is cleaned every morning at dawn; by noon it is wall-to-wall with people. The problem is that the harbor is very crowded. Lying alongside the wall southeast of the ferry slip is not a good idea unless you have extremely large fenders and a big enough crew so that people can stand by whenever the ferry enters or leaves. The ferry comes in around the quay full bore, then backs down hard. The wash it throws up against the wall has to be seen to be believed. Anchoring out is a problem in that the bottom is a thin layer of sand covering rock, with rocks sticking up here, there, and everywhere. Although we had tripping lines on our anchors when lolaire anchored there in 1985, it took me four hours of diving to retrieve our anchors and lines. Apparently this is not unusual. Frequently a strong onshore wind develops in the afternoon as the land heats up; it dies at night. When entering or leaving Los Cristianos, note that the shoal water off Punta de Camison extends well offshore. If you're approaching from Palma, do not get too close to shore, as the sea humps up on the shoal.

West Coast of Tenerife

corner of Tenerife. Now a harbor, Puerto Colon, has been built; it will undoubtedly expand as a yachting facility in years to come. PUERTO DE PLAYA DE SAN JUAN

Formerly this was an open beach off a small fishing village. In 1987 a breakwater was started, but as of January 1988 we still do not know if it is a breakwater to shelter the local fishing boats or if it will provide services for both fishermen and yachtsmen. LOS GIGANTES

Harbor chart C29 Los Gigantes is a beautifully constructed new yacht harbor, with a 3D-ton travel lift; entrance is from the north. If a northwest ground swell is running, entrance to the harbor can be extremely difficult; furthermore, Hooper reports that with a hard southerly blow, which very seldom occurs in the Canaries, a bad surge builds up in the harbor. Ashore there is a new tourist development; a whole village has been created where nothing existed twenty years ago. As in Arguineguin, the architecture is quite nice, modeled after the old Canary Island style. There is a nice restaurant at the head of the dock, a good beach north of the marina, showers available, and shopping; but since it is all catering to the tourist I suspect everything is expensive. Even with the cheap hauling it would not be worthwhile hauling unless you had all the material you might possibly need already on board. From north of Los Gigantes to Teno at the northwest corner of the island are numerous interesting beaches that can be anchored off. Be very careful of the weather, though, as there is absolutely no shelter.

LA CALETA TO PTA TENO

Sketch chart C28 On the west coast of Tenerife there are some anchorages in settled weather; consult Spanish chart 515. Hooper's Guide refers to anchorages at La Caleta and at a small fishing village at Santiago.

North Coast of Tenerife GARACHICO TO SAN MARCOS

Spanish charts 515, 516; Harbor chart C30

PLAYA DE LAS AMERICAS/PUERTO COLON

Playa de las Americas has been a resort for many years, part of the "concrete jungle" of instant resorts that have sprung up on the southwest

Along this coast in certain conditions there are possible anchorages: Garachico, Ancon de San Marcos, and Puerto de la Cruz. However, considering that there are no detailed charts of these anchorages it would take a very adventurous skipper to explore the area. I think I would rather

168

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

3 6

........................... 13

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10'

.... ......

6

15

27

...... '. '"

........... ....... 36

.... ............ "

5

20

48

19 60

'.

'.

60

o r-,

Depths in Feet

C27

69

27

19

500 ,: 4

--...,..---...----,---,--~I

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Los Cristianos

explore this area in a rented car than by boat; but one way or another I feel that Garachico must be visited by everyone who visits the island of Tenerife. Having been to Garachico and seen the fantastic road cut into the hillside, I can only wonder what San Marcos is like. If you do sail on the north coast you should have a Spanish chart on board; 3 miles west of Puerto de la Cruz lies Baja de Nos Realejos, an unbuoyed lO-foot shoal rising out of 160 feet of water.

Comera US 51260; BA 1896; Harbor charts C31C33 The island of Gomera has three anchorages: the main port of San Sebastian de la Gomera, a small fishing port at Santiago, and another fishing harbor at Valle Gran Rey. Gomera, with a population of 25,000, is a favorite with many yachtsmen but only those that like

to get off the beaten track and see the world as it was. San Sebastian is a nice, old-fashioned, friendly town largely bypassed by tourism, with a good, sheltered, clean harbor but open to the southeast. Reputedly the best water in the Canary Islands. If you have no power, one thing to watch very carefully when sailing in or out of the harbor is that the current runs to the north at about 2 or 3 knots and sets directly up on the rocks of La Gila. In 1985 in Iolaire the wind died about a mile off the harbor and we spent three hours fighting our way into the harbor trying to avoid the rocks in water that was too deep for anchoring. (Sailing without an engine puts the sport back into sailing, but it also puts a few gray hairs into the skipper's beard.) Ashore you'll find an attractive, old-fashioned little town with a beautiful parador (governmentsponsored hotel) built in the old Spanish style with antique furniture, antique prints, a beautiful garden, and a fantastic view. If you can't afford to buy a dinner there it is still worthwhile going up to the

-2952

'656

San Juan

213 /

~

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....

157

El ;:!

....c:;-

115

367

354

124

?40

200

475

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925

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2 Sea Miles

I

Depths in Feet

C28

West Coast of Tenerife: La Caleta to Pta Teno (sketch chart)

'"' ~

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide Depths in Feet

'\u \

.,"

Pto Deportivo

:" 59

ACantilado de

IOiG;ga,'" ~

28' 14' 5N

38

Puerto de

o o Santiago

Cl 75 ;

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Yards

C29

Pto Deportivo

parador and having a couple of drinks at the bar. It also has, as far as I could figure out, the only phone on the island of Comera that works. Comera is 4,900 feet high, with a series of huge ridges separated by deep ravines. Apparently the old method of communicating was whistling-the shepherds had a complete whistling language to "talk" from one ridgeline to the next. The hillsides are so steep that for getting downhill they used a special pole, called an astia, 2 meters (6 feet, 7 inches) long, 2.5 cm (1 inch) in diameter with a steel tip, which they used to vault down the hillsides at tremendous speed. Be sure to notice the open irrigation ditches, open-topped like Roman aqueducts. They wind their way around the hillsides mile after mile, bringing water down from the high mountains to the arid lowlands. I've no idea how they were constructed, but they're fascinating. Another interesting point about Comera is the castle that still stands in the town of San Sebastian.

It was the fortress of Doii.a Beatritz de Perona, who entertained Columbus during his trip through the Canaries on his first voyage of New World discovery. The second time he came through she welcomed him with fiesta and fireworks; but the third time she had lost interest in him and apparently taken a new lover. Doii.a Beatritz was a beautiful but ruthless woman. Her husband was ambushed and killed by the original inhabitants of the Canaries-the Cuanches, a light-skinned race from Africa, who were not entirely subdued until the sixteenth century. Doii.a Beatritz's husband was on his way to a lover's rendevouz with his mistress, a Cuanche princess, when he was ambushed. To avenge her husband Dofia Beatritz killed a great number of Cuanches and enslaved many others. So brutal was her revenge that she was heavily fined by the Spanish government for exceeding her authority. She was big on revenge. When one of her lovers was too loud-mouthed about his conquest, she

Depths in Feet

287

972

409

273

907

2fi

....

Rada De Garachico 326

287

211

313

.....

402

99 Cl

'

.'

..

47

. :0'

Pta de Juan Centella

:'

132

151

......

48

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o

o

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Sea Mile

C30

North Coast of Tenerife: Garachico to San Marcos

... ...

'!

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide Depths in Feet

396

244

623

495

82 .'

Lat.2S·10'N

250

415

OMERA Alto Garajonay

:, 227_--'1--_

. 4878

• 8ahia

: de Avalo : !. San Crlstobal

272ft 20M ~ :

TT

San Sebastian

FI.G.6M.

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.

980

Ptd Gdviota

Santiago

244

o

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1617

Outline Comera

invited him to her castle for a banquet, then after dinner had him seized and hanged until dead from the castle walls. In Comera in the fifteenth century it didn't pay to kiss and tell; sounds as though Columbus was well out of it. SAN SEBASTIAN

Harbor chart C31 On the eastern side of the harbor, which has been dredged and drops off very steeply, use two anchors, inshore one set in as shoal water as your draft will permit. Basically you are anchoring on the backside of a shelf; hard gusts can come roaring down off the hills and you may drag. lolaire dragged off the shelf after having been anchored for five hours. This necessitated hauling up 130 feet of anchor and chain that was hanging straight down, and sailing back into the harbor and re-anchoring on three anchors-two bow anchors in shoal water, stern anchor in deep water to prevent us swinging when the wind died. The ferry arrives early in the morning and departs, arriving back in the afternoon. Once the ferry is gone you can go alongside the ferry dock to pick up water. To get water you must go to the Port Captain's office, where for a small fee you will get a note for the water "King." Finding the water "King" is difficult, but once you find him you can lay right alongside and fill with excellent water.

Diesel and gasoline have to be lugged in jerry cans. Ice is unavailable unless you con the man who runs the kiosk in the main square out of a little. Or make friends with the stewards on the ferry; sometimes you can get ice from them. Shopping means visiting numerous small stores. Driving around the island is well worthwhile as it is one of the most spectacular of the Canaries. Northeast of the dock is a tunnel that takes you to the yacht club, which unfortunately we did not visit. It would probably be a good place to make friends, learn more about the island, and get a shower. SANTIAGO

Sketch chart C32 Five miles southwest of San Sebastian is the small fishing port of Santiago, protected by a breakwater 600 to 700 feet long. The inner end of the breakwater is used by fishing boats for loading and off-loading fish in the evening; yachts lie sternto to the outer end of the breakwater with anchors off to the north. This is strictly a fishing port, an interesting place to watch the fishermen at work and their comings and goings. Ashore we saw a shipwright refitting a fishing boat, working with a portable and very noisy generator, and an electrical planer, Skil saw, electric drills, etc. He was one of a number of carpenters working on boats.

The Atlantic Islands

173

Depths in Feet

8·

N

SAN SEBASTIAN DE LA GOMERA / /

V

" ~

5

........

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5

......

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/......

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Yards

C31

San Sebastian

Obviously, if you spoke Spanish and needed carpentry done on your boat this might be a good place to stop. There are a number of very attractive-looking restaurants and bars that obviously are supported by the fishermen, as there is very little tourist development in the area. There is a fish cold store and trucks loaded with ice arrive every afternoon about 1700 to load fish until 2100 or 2200. If you don't mind ice that smells of fish you can get chip ice from the trucks.

VALLE GRAN REY/PUERTO DE REFUGIO VUELTAS

Sketch chart C33 Valle Gran Rey is on the western side of Gomera with an artifical harbor; the breakwater is 800 feet long with a light at the end. I certainly would not advise entering at night under any circumstances, as although they have built the breakwater they have not removed the rocks at the entrance. Once inside, anchor off bow and stern or lie alongside

the wall. This is very iffy, though, as at times a bad surge builds up. It is hest to run stern lines up to the quay with bow anchors out on the northern side of the harbor. There is a ramp at the head of the harbor with 9 feet of water at its outer end and a wall a boat can be leaned against if you want to dry out and scrub. There are small shops within walking distance of the harbor plus car rental. The tourist population on this end of Gomera seems to be exclusively Scandinavian and German. In fact we discovered that in Gomera little or no English was spoken at all. The beach at Playa Santiago is strictly a shingle (stone) beach.

Palma

U. S. 51260, 51342; BA 1856, 1869; Sketch charts C34, C35 The island of Palma, with its capital and major port Santa Cruz de la Palma, is considered by

.' .

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

174

Jetty Head Light Lat 2S' 01 '5N Long 17' 11 '7W

Santiago

.................

15 feet "

.

'

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"

.

30 feel .,'

33

FIR2s.43ft.5M

82

PUNTA DEL ESPINO

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100

200 Yards

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Depths in Feet

C32

Santiago (sketch chart)

Jetty Head Light La!. 2S" 04'7N Long 1 T 19'5W

PTA TRIGO

Vueltas

.... ..... 16 ......

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.

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C33

Valle Gran Rey / Puerto de Refugio Vueltas (sketch chart)

The Atlantic Islands

175

Depths in Feet

-

..... ui o

...

~

Pta del Mudo 1593

Pico de la

1791

Cruz

7713

:4521

LA PALMA

4917

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/

4719

4422

.....

".

..S9

....

5379

/'

.:

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FI(3;;'~i ,..i~ de Fuenc.lient.

138ft 14M .. . 1551~

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.......... .....f 15

10

I

Sea Milet

Outline Palma

many to be the nicest of all the Canary Islands (population 76,0(0). The market certainly had the cheapest fruit and vegetables I have ever seen in my life. We filled two of Iolaire's big ice bags full of fresh fruits and vegetables. We must have had 80 pounds of fruit and vegetables-total cost us $20! The island boasts a most hospitable yacht club;

temporary membership is extremely cheap and it grants you the facilities of the pool, good restaurant, showers, and friendly Canary Islanders. The lower end of Santa Cruz is an old Canary Island town complete with wooden balconies; definitely a spot to visit. A drive around the island is well worthwhile, especially if you go up into the caldera of the volcano. Allow one and a half hours

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

176

for the drive up to the caldera. Also look for the sign, halfway up the dirt road to the volcano, that reads: "Donkeys for rent, you drive it---donkeys." Another worthwhile stop is Los Llanos, where we found a beautiful old building, a bar and restaurant that is an offshoot of a private club built in 1901. The building is a magnificent structure, with inexpensive, excellent drinks: three beers and snacks (tapas) all for only 500 pesetas! There is an old cobblestone square and church and beautiful trees around the church. The rest of the town was quite modern but the area around the church is well worth a visit.

on it. Some yachts can tie up stern-to with lines ashore off the yacht club, the rest of them are crowded with bow-and-stern moorings south of the club. When we were there in 1985 the harbor was very crowded and there were wars going on between the yachtsmen and the Port Captain. I counted twenty-four yachts anchored outside the designated yacht area. Someday the western side of the harbor will be enclosed by a breakwater, which will give enough room for seventy-five to one hundred boats to lie alongside in complete shelter. It would make Santa Cruz one of the most popular yacht harbors in the Canaries. At the present time the harbor is clean, with everyone going in for an early morning swim. An extremely friendly atmosphere prevailed among all the yachts-at one point I was trying to do some underwater patching on Iolaire when a friendly Norwegian came over with his Aqualung and spent an afternoon helping me put strips of lead bedded in navicoat along the stem seam; total payment was a large quantity of beer. Water is available along-

SANTA CRUZ DE LA PALMA

Sketch chart C34 This harbor has excellent shelter except when the wind is from the southeast, which is relatively uncommon. Yachts may sometimes be allowed to lie alongside or stern-to on the southern corner of the west side of the harbor but I wouldn't count

Depths in Feet

22

SANTA CRUZ DE LA PALMA /

10'

/VV'

Harbour OfficV ~F.R 1M.

N

':48

p-FR1M.

25 56

63

185

149 38

~

b

....

o 48

C34

142

....::?

Santa Cruz de la Palma (sketch chart)

400 Yards

The Atlantic Islands side, check with Pedro; slush ice was available at the main port right on the dock; gasoline must be humped in jerry cans from the petrol station and diesel is available via a bouser, i. e., a four-wheeled cart that is towed around to the yacht. On the southern end of the harbor there is a hard ramp so that a boat with legs can dry out on the tide to scrub or paint the bottom.

1 77

deadman, tractor, bulldozer or anything. There are absolutely no facilities at Tazacorte. The old port of Tazacorte (how did they ever use it with a huge Atlantic swell coming in?) is half a mile away. There are a few small stores and a number of very attractive-looking beach bars and restaurants.

Hierro TAZACORTE

Sketch chart C35

US 51260; BA 1869; Harbor charts C36, C37

Tazacorte is the only other harbor on La Palma, an artificial harbor with a 1 V2-mile-long breakwater that is 50 feet high and built of massive concrete blocks measuring roughly 10 X 10 X 10, and weighing about 80 tons each-how they ever got in a crane big enough to lift these blocks is beyond me. Again, there is a hard slip on which boats can dry out, and the locals haul their fishing boats there, though I can't figure out how; there was a 50-foot trawler up on the yard, with no sign of a winch,

We did not visit Hierro because we wondered whether it was worth visiting. Obviously it is, as in May 1986 in Antigua I ran into the Norwegian friend who had helped me plug the leak while we were in Palma. He reported that they had enjoyed Hierro so much that they spent two weeks there, The port of Hierro is not the main town-the port is Puerto de la Estaca, but the main town is Valverde. The population of the island is a mere 7,000 people with 5,000 living in Valverde.

+

++

Dlgue de Abrigo Light La! 27' 38'3N Long. 17' 587W

+ +

+ '.

'.

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+

+

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100

200 Yards

t:1===:::::::::It::::::::===::jl

C35

Tazacorte (sketch chart)

+

+ +

+ + +

+

+

Depths in Feet

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide Depths in Feet

'.

.... -

r- .....

CD 0

\ gt5

;lOO·q

:i!

4101

4728

5326

;3686

Malpaso

4884

HIERRO

4921 4217 .......

5131

o I

.

.

5

I

Sea Miles

Outline Hierro

PUERTO DE LA ESTACA

Harbor chart C36 Anchor off or lie alongside the dock but of course check with the Port Captain when lying alongside the dock as the dock is also used for the ferry from Tenerife. There is a small village ashore, but a bus runs to Valverde where there are the main markets for fruit and vegetables, and small supermarkets. Hierro is definitely not a tourist island and the selection of food will not be anywhere near as varied as onc will find in Tenerife or Gran Canaria. RESTINGA

Sketch chart C37 This is a fishing village with a small port and breakwater only about 100 yards long. Fresh fish is available and fresh fruit and vegetables are delivered to the market from Valverde a couple of times a week. It is one of the few places we have heard of in the Canary Islands that has a diving school where bottles can be filled. One reason for the diving school must be the fact that a quarter-mile offshore, out of almost 200 feet of water, rises a pinnacle rock to within 20 feet of the surface; I imagine it is absolutely loaded with fish. In his Guide Jack Hooper mentions that one can anchor off Naos and also at Cardillos-both must be regarded as merely open daytime anchorages.

Note that on the northeast corner of the island at Punta Roques de Salmor there are a number of off-lying shoals-again pinnacle rocks rising out of deep water. Give this point a very wide berth.

CAPE VERVE ARCHIPELAGO DMA 51500, 51520; BA 366, 369, 370;

Portuguese 201, 205, 208, 209 The Cape Verde Archipelago is a group of islands 700 miles south of the Canaries and 300 miles west of the African coast, off Cap Vert-Dakar, Senegal. They are 2,020 miles from Barbados, which makes them closer to the Caribbean by some 500 miles than any other logical jumping-off place on the east side of the Atlantic. Traditionally the Cape Verdes have not been popular with yachtsmen: they have a reputation for being short on food and water, expensive, unfriendly, and too far south; there has also been very little cruising information published about them. Yet many yachtsmen who have visited there recently, myself included, are coming to feel that the Cape Verdes are worth going to and writing about. They certainly are isolated, but that's a plus for many cruising folk, who want to get away from tourism and fellow yachtsmen. And the Cape Verdes

40

46

....

PUERTO DE LA ESTACA

..... 54 : (~') .Roca Anegada

31 39

:.26"

5·'

". 19

50

:23::

4~ on r-.

22

12,.'

27'4T~

........ .

....

21

55 46

29

35:

50

50

:"8; ;:

;i

··· .... ::38

~

~ .....

31

21

36

.: ~Fl.G4s 30ft.5M

S'

112

... ;:!

-

125

("')

73

:

:

'" S' ;:! !}

32 .:

22

41 37 73

9 :

30:

231 380

19

5 49

25 102 51

22

716

74

o

I Depths in Feet

C36

../2

,,;

Pto de la Estaca

284

500

I

1000

I Yards

....

'I CO

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

180

Dlgue de Abngo Light Lat 28' 38'5N Long. 1T 56' 5W

23

19

Q.(2)G 7s,46ft.5M

Dlgue de Abrigo

+

====:I2?O Yards

0tl====:::::::::::;:.='Otlo

Depths in Feet

C37

La Restinga (sketch chart)

offer some very attractive crUlsmg possibilities, with good beaches, diving, scenery, and interesting culture. Finally, at the time of year when most yachts cross to the Caribbean-late October, November, December-you have to sail so far south from the Canaries to get into the trades that you might as well go a little farther and win the double bonus of a new cruising ground and a shorter transatlantic hop. The islands were discovered in the fifteenth century and were settled by the Portuguese, who developed a sugar cane culture, using slaves from Africa. The islands were prosperous enough to invite aggression: Sir Francis Drake sacked the original capital on Ilha de Santiago in 1585 and again in 1592; later, the Dutch tried and failed and the French succeeded in 1712, at which point the capital was moved to a more defensible site. Eventually the Cape Verdes became a slaving center, exporting slaves to North and South America until the mid-nineteenth century. When that nefarious trade died down, coal-burning ships came to the rescue, and after that the transoceanic cables. Now diminished in importance, the islands export tuna, lobsters, and landing rights on Ilha Sal to various airlines, including German, South African, and Soviet. In recent years the Cape Verdian government has also successfully solicited aid programs from many nations, including the United

States, Belgium, Iceland, Britain, the Soviet Union, France, Holland, Germany, and Austria, as well as from the EEC. The Cape Verdians have close ties to America, originally through the whalers who came out from New Bedford to top up supplies and flesh out their crews before heading to the Pacific and South Atlantic whaling grounds. Later, Cape Verdians provided cheap labor for the Cape Cod cranberry bogs. There are now about 100,000 Cape Verdians in the Boston area alone. The money sent back to relatives is a considerable chunk of the islands' economy, The Cape Verdes lie between north latitudes 15° and 17°, like the middle islands of the Eastern Caribbean, and the climate is similar: dry season from December to June, wet season from June till early November. The wet season produces sudden heavy rains and flash floods, and the wind can come from any direction. (Heavy rains can also muddy the normally crystal-clear waters for many weeks afterwards.) Dry-season temperatures are in the low 80s during the days, cool at night. It's normally clear, but occasional sand storms blast out of the Sahara, reducing visibility and giving everyone a sore throat. Also like the Caribbean Islands, the Cape Verdes are exposed to the northwest ground swell produced by North Atlantic storms. Remember that

SANTO ANTAO

Tarra!al

O

ladOSOI CV18

17°

PlO Novo CV1? Mmdelo CV16

CV19

o SoVIC'NT,a

~AWZ1A

~

Palme,na CVl

S.NICOLAU

Branco~ ~

Mo,delra

Ped,a de Lume CV4

SAL

CV2

Raso

Sla Mana CV3

Sdi

~

Re, le

CV5

BOA VISTA Lat. 16'N

> S;:! .... ~o

~

'.+:

CV9

R,belr" da Ba'ca

Fa)a CVl3 26'

VA

rttTrl

0"

''''''o(,!:J;::{u"", CVI4~\\\Oe

25'

Index of Harbor and Sketch Charts-Cape Verdes

FOGO

CVI2

SaO

CVII

~ ~

~

PlO In91ez

cve

iJle,/I~ ~Mo,slelros Ci/~Vi/le

BaD Joao Valente

OM.,O

Ptb Tarralal

BRA

S" ;:!

15°

CV6

cV?

N

.3"

23

22

...Oc

...

182

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

the swell has absolutely nothing to do with local conditions; it can come in at any time and give you grief if your anchorage is open to it. The Cape Verdes have only one natural allweather, year-round harbor, but many docks and breakwaters have been built in recent years, and, particularly during the dry season, there are many safe harbors and dozens of more open anchorages that can be used with care. Details of these harbors and anchorages will be discussed. Like the Canaries, the Cape Verdes vary drastically from east to west. (They spread about 150 miles east to west, about 135 miles north to south.) Sal, Boa Vista, and Maio are low and dry with miles of beaches and off-lying reefs, good fishing and lobstering. The other islands are volcanic peaks rising from the sea with few beaches and few offlying dangers-and difficult anchoring conditions. (Nota bene: Abnormal magnetic variations are reported to exist in the vicinity of the Cape Verdes, especially near Fogo and Brava, off the eastern side of Boa Vista and the western side of Ilha 'Sal.) The northeast trades blow strongly in these islands-sometimes building up to gale force-and since they don't lie east-west but in a sort of square, you have to be clever to visit them all without doing some hard thrashing to windward. Ilha Sal is the logical place to arrive if you're coming from the Canaries, and then it's downwind to Boa Vista, Maio, Santiago (where the capital is), Fogo, and Brava. But getting back up to the Sao Nicolau-Sao Vicente-Santo Antao group would then be almost dead to windward, considering the strong westerly set of the current. A better way to do it would be to zig zag from Boa Vista to Sao Vicente (and its main commercial port of Mindelo) and then back down to Maio or Santiago; departure for the Caribbean would be from Fogo or Brava. That way you would sail a few extra miles, but could probably avoid any beating. Charts give a bit of trouble. Many are based on an 1819-21 British survey, updated by various Portuguese surveys, mainly in 1932, 1954, and 1971. Often there is disagreement among the British, Portuguese, and US charts; and we found some harbors on German charts that weren't even covered by the others. One major anomaly is the island of Boa Vista, which a BA Notice to Mariners a few years ago listed as being 2 miles to the east of its charted position. (The Admiralty Pilot also warns that Boa Vista's east coast is poorly charted, with off-lying rocks and shoals.) Where does that leave Baixo Joao Valente, a dangerous shoal 19 miles southwest

of Boa Vista? The British and Portuguese charts don't agree on its position or even what it looks like. The BA chart shows the center of the reef as a pinnacle of rock; the Portuguese show a reef extending 2 miles in a north to south axis. (If that's so, a shoal-draft boat might even be able to work in through the coral heads and anchor atop the reeffor some glorious fishing.) In any case, be sure to give Baixo Joao Valente plenty of sea room. There are four Portuguese charts of the Cape Verdes: 201, 205, 208, 209; three BA charts: 366, 369, and 370 (supposedly being redone, but when?); and three US DMA charts: 51500, ,51520, and 51540. The latter include three port plans and are of a useful scale, but they're based on old surveys. Number 51540 is the most detailed for the southern Cape Verde Islands. (I expect Imray-Iolaire to have Cape Verde charts before too long.) We have compiled nineteen harbor charts of the Cape Verdes for this book, based on the best available data: from other charts, other yachtsmen, and our own explorations on Iolaire in 1985. I would advise getting the general Portuguese chart for the Cape Verde area: 201. To order Portuguese charts, write Instituto Hidrografico, Rua das Trinas 49, Lisboa 2, Portugal. Tidal rise and fall is negligible: 21/2-foot springs, 1 foot at neaps. Current, though, is something else. Despite the relatively small tidal rise and fall, the tidal cllfrent funnels to the southwest between the islands of Sao NiL'Olau, Santa Luzia, Sao Vicente, and Santa Antao like a millrace. Beating to windward against this current is next to impossible. Even more significant is the constant westerly current that flows among all the Cape Verde Islands, as it does in the Lesser Antilles. The east- and northeast-flowing tidal current is largely negated by the constant westerly current. Because of this, the current runs probably eight hours southwestward and four hours northeast out of every twelve, as in the Caribbean. The southwest current begins about three and a half hours after high water, and the northeast current begins one half hour before high water. If you don't have a tidal atlas covering the whole Atlantic, note that HWF&C (High Water, Full and Change) is about eight hours after the moon passes overhead on the days of the full and new moon; thus you can calculate time of high water from the Nautical Almanac. See the table in Chapter 6, page 233, for further explanation. In any case, whenever you make a long passage from onc island to another, be sure to factor in the constant westerly current; in the normal northeast-

The Atlantic Islands erly trades, the current will always be setting you to leeward. Everything said about anchoring in the Canaries applies to the Cape Verdes. Off the high islands you'll have trouble finding a good bottom-or finding the bottom at all. Use more than one anchor and be sure you have enough on board so that you can afford to lose one. Customs and Immigration procedures are different on each island. On Ilha Sal no one seemed to want to know anything about us, and I'm told this is also true of Boa Vista and Maio. In the capital city of Praia on Santiago, the Immigration officer hailed us from the shore and we picked him up and filled out a stack of papers. He went ashore with our passports, which we retrieved the next day after filling out more papers. Cheap, and friendly, but time-consuming. In the large commercial port of Mindelo on Sao Vicente, Customs and Immigration came out in a big outboard-powered rubber dinghy. Since we had already entered at Santiago, we didn't find out what the routine is in Mindelo. Warning: when you leave Sao Vicente you must leave behind four passport photos of each crew member. They're available in town at the photo shop, but they take twenty-four hours, so plan ahead. The food situation is generally acceptable, but the prices come as a shock after the great bargains in the Canaries-an orange cost us as much here as at a green-grocer in London. The variety of fresh fruit and vegetables is acceptable, and seafood of course is excellent. Fogo produces wine, and, according to some, the best coffee anywhere. Water, however, is definitely a problem. Some places it comes from a distilling plant and you have to carry it ahoard in jerry cans. In Santiago I was told the water is contaminated and must be boiled before drinking. In Mindelo it's possible, with a bit of effort, to get distilled water at the dock. Better to try asking a freighter loading in the harbor; they are usually happy to give a yacht whatever water it needs. Ice isn't easy, but in many places you can buy or beg slush ice from the fishermen, then leave it overnight in their deep freeze. In Santiago, according to US AID Officer Tom Ball, ice is so scarce that when invited to a cocktail party you are not asked to bring your own bottle but your own ice! Gas bottles can easily be filled at the bottling plant at Mindelo, within walking distance of the dinghy dock, or on Santiago, a taxi ride from town. Diving and spear fishing are excellent on various

of the islands, and lobsters are almost a dime a dozen. (Not quite, hut we heard that on some islands they're so abundant they're fed to the dogs.) Actually, lobster runs about US $1 a pound; less if you go directly to a fisherman, more jf you deal with the young entrepreneur dressed in white who tours Mindelo harbor jn a rowboat selling live lobster to yachts at US $2 per pound-but he does provide to-the-"door" delivery! The fishin~ boats in the islands, incidentally, are surprisingly crude for people who live so much by the sea. The smaller ones are lateen-rigged with a great long yard, difficult to tack and not very efficient. Their hulls are not sweet, to my eye, but the Verdians are obViously good seamen. They also row, one man to an oar, swinging great crude 12 to 14-foot oars scarted together out of two pieces of wood. Outboard motors have made the scene, but are still rare. There are direct, though infrequent, flights from Lisbon, and South African Airways flights from New York stop at Ilha Sal to refuel. It's possible to huy a ticket just to the Cape Verdes, so you could arrange crew changes there if necessary. Within the islands, air transport is wondertully cheap, with fli~hts varying from US $8 to $30. (Would that it were even half so cheap in the Caribbean.) All the islands except Bravo have airfields, so it would he easy to visit any islands you don't want to sail to. Cables are possible hut expensive, ditto telephone calls. You can try the post office first, but hotels seem to be the best bet for telephones, even if they're more expensive. Note that the telephone exchange is not open twenty-four hours. Mail is slow: I mailed a post card to Antigua before we left Mindelo, and it arrived precisely as we radioed English Harbour for Customs clearance from lolaire fourteen days later. The langua~e of the islands is Portuguese, hut a Spanish speaker can usually get by. In the eastern islands the most common foreign languages were French and Spanish-practically no English. But in Sao Vicente and, we were told, in Fogo and Brava, it's not hard to find an English interpreter. Whether they speak English or not, the Cape Verdians are extremely friendly. In Ilha Sal, for instance, which has no public transportation, you get around by standing on the road and waving your arms. Any car or truck driver passing by feels obligated to take you wherever he's going. If your paths diverge, you stand on the road and wave some more. The same friendly spirit prevails throughout the islands.

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide All in all, it seems to me that two weeks spent in the Cape Verde islands would make for an interesting and enjoyable cruise-and you still wouldn't see them all. Maybe you should stay for a month!

Ilha do Sal US 51520; BA 366, 369; Portuguese 208; Harbor charts CVl-CV4 Ilha do Sal is the northernmost of the Cape Verde islands and the obvious landfall for any yacht coming from the north as there is an excellent aero radio beacon-the range is almost 300 miles. The airport lights, however, cannot be relied on as they are turned on only about half an hour before a plane lands-no planes, no lights. Part of the wealth of the Verdes came from exporting salt obtained either by mining or the evaporation of sea water from shallow "salt ponds." Before the days of refrigeration, salt was an essential commodity, and wars were fought over control of its sources. Salt is still exported from Ilha do Sal. Water on the island comes from a distillation plant, and must be taken aboard in jerry cans. Abnormal magnetic variations are reported west of the island. There are four anchorages, only two of which are any good: BAIA DA P ALMEIRIA

Harbor chart CVl On the island's west coast, this is an excellent anchorage in all normal conditions. The new jetty off Ponta Jaoquin Machado shelters it in all but extreme conditions. A small village is nearby, the main town three miles away. BAIA DA MORDEIRA

Harbor chart CV2 This anchorage, south of Baia da Palmeiria and Ilha do Rabo de Junco, is an excellent anchorage, described in the British Admiralty Pilot as the best in Ilha Sal and one of the best in all the Cape Verde Islands. It is sheltered in all directions except west through south, and thus is exposed only during the wet season. In the dry season, tuck into the northeast corner and anchor in 15 feet of water. Superb diving, snorkeling, fishing and lobstering, a fair beach, and you are com-

pletely off by yourself as there is no road coming to this bay. One wonders why it did not develop as a port in the early days of the island, except that maybe the salt mines and salt pans were too far away for easy transport of salt. SANTA MARIA

Harbor chart CV3 On the extreme southern end of the island, this is a rather exposed anchorage off Santa Maria with its two hotels, Moraboza and Bolo Norizonte. Best anchoring is to the west, to leeward of the reef (which should provide good snorkeling) and the semiderelict salt-loading dock. Getting the dinghy through the surf onto the nice beach could be exciting. However, our Icelandic friend Toby (with an unpronounceable last name) insisted it was a worthwhile anchorage as Moraboza is extremely friendly to yachtsmen anchored off the hotel. The clientele of the hotel is interesting-mainly the flight crews of the South African, German, and Soviet planes that refuel at Ilha Sal. Politics are forgotten while they swim, drink, and play snooker. BAIA DE PEDRA DE LUME

Harbor chart CV4 This is an old salt-loading port on the island's east coast. I would definitely NOT anchor in or off it, except in ideal conditions. But if you hear they are about to load salt it is worthwhile going there by car to watch the process. It is hard to see how they can compete with the completely automated salt-loading operations in Venezuela, Bonaire, and Curac;ao. A tour of the salt works here is worthwhile, as the archaic machinery is very interesting; most of it looks as if it should be in a museum, not continuing to be worked.

Ilha cIa Boa Vista US 51520; BA 366, 369; Portuguese 209; Harbor chart CV5 As previously mentioned, Boa Vista's east coast is poorly charted; the island should be approached only from the west and then only in good light. British Admiralty charts state that the island is two miles farther east than charted. One wonders how accurately Baixo de Bartola and Baixo da Estancia ou Baixona are charted. The previously mentioned Baixo Joao Valente, 19 miles southwest of the island, is also problematic. Finally the chart gives

23"

Pta do Morrinho Vermelho

16'30'

16'30'

+

+ Pta Antonia

+

.

Pta Rodrigo

•+ +

Calheta do V.elh

Fl1:e'~~':~ei~

I

Ba. do Bartola +

I

+

·1076

+

IlHA DA BOA VISTA ·1210

80. Vauban +

I

Pta Varandinho HI OM. Racan 16'

Lat. 16'OO'N

.....j:., Bal)(o Joao

.+ .

\.....*..'

Valente

~

o

'" ~

Cl

c:

o

...J

Outline Ilha do Sal and Ilha da Boa Vista

==::!::::::::±~====ljP_iiiio;;;;;;;;;;;;'itr===:::::::3io Se. Miles

01::1

22'30'

186

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide 737 Ptcl JoaoZlnho

'''v

7.11

~

106

FI3:5s.49ft.3M.

/

'.' PIa JoaQulm Machodo.

124 98

/*'Fl.3:5s.30fI.5M. j,

2t.··m: . ,/'f.

.'

..........

'.. , .t'. ~~" '. o

72

/

..... ..... ---

c;:)",,' ..

~\(\~ ... "'14

56 131

,.

"'?4~~~~~

72

FI.C":l 0

/

~---F.R.26ft.5M(Occas)

,,--

98

FI.I;;l

\..o~

\..'1.

~

S-

PIa do Calhau

....

;:!

-

D.Amelia Pta Machano FI.5s.22M.

~.

';:!E>"

PIa lombinho

~

PIa Mae Grande

PIa Espechim IIheu Braneo (\.. (1073) ~ IIheu RasoO (538)

Pta do Barril FI.(2)9M PIa leste FI.(4)9M.

,

16'30' Pta da Vermelharia ~

~

o I

10

I

25'30'

Outline northern Cape Verde Islands

b

~

20 Sea Miles I~ I Cl o

"

-'

o

~

"! c

24'30'

'"

.9

....

(0

'I

198

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

PREGUICA (PORTO VELHO)

'lha de Sao Vicente US 51500; BA 366, 369; Portuguese 201, 205; Harbor chart CV16

Harbor chart CV15 South of town, the BA ano Portuguese charts show what appears to be a river entrance, but it's a dry river-no water. It's hard to see what attracted the whalermen to this place-the anchorage is exposed and always rolly; not a terrific place for whaling ships or yachts, I should think. (Apparently SaD Nicolau was one of the most cultivated islands, so it may have been the food supply that drew the whalers.) There is a fishing village at Carrical on the southeast coast, and at Tarrafal (another one) on the southwest coast,

SaD Vicente, with its city of Mindelo and harbor of Porto Granoe, has been the commercial center of the Cape Verdes for the last hundred years. Porta Grande, Mindelo, is the only really good natural deep-water harbor in the entire archipelago and thus dcveloped as a major commercial port from the earliest years. If you're coming here from Sao Nicolau, it's probably best to sail north of Santa Luzia and Sao Vicente so that you can slide down the channel between Sao Vicente and Santa Antao to Mindelo. As mentioned earlier, the southwest tidal current will be almost impossible to beat up against if you come arouno the south coast of Sao Vicente. Coming from the north, Ilheu dos Passaros can be left on either hand. Its light is listed as being visible 8 miles, but I suspect it's more than that. If you can figure the tide right (see Chapter 6,

Ilha de Santa Luzia US 51500; BA 366, 369; Portuguese 209 Santa Luzia is uninhabited, has no harbor, and is very badly charted. These are good reasons for avoiding it.

N 41

13

71<x.':t: 0.0

q't·

111;'0

- - 25 37'

I

42 /

59 // I " , r

41

.;,(Q>

I

I

0' ~''''' ;.-

102

J

I

64

--

/

I

54

....

I

f"

.. / I

-~--:.::...:.

'./~

I.,

18

~~c...............

~----------

216

I I

118

I I

292 16'33'5 N

92 187

76 107

o 500 Yards ~I==~==~~==~==~I

36 Depths in Feet

CV 15

Preguica

The Atlantic Islands "Wind, Weather, and Tides," page 233) and want to come south around Sao Vicente, be prepared to be becalmed under Ponta Machado and then blasted with strong gusts as you stand out into the channel. But I repeat: don't try to beat into the northeast trades and against a southwest running current at the same time in this channel; it's murder.

199

and Immigration will come out to you in their outboard-powered rubber dinghy. There is a new yacht club ashore, which by now should have working showers and other amenities that were still in the works in late 1985. (There is also a derelict dock south of the anchorage, which if repaired would make a terrific yacht mooring area. They could even post a guard at the head of the dock to ensure everyone's security.) When you go ashore you'll be beset by a host of friendly but slightly overenthusiastic boat hoys. Rather than cope with the crowd each time, it's better to hire one boy for your whole stay. Check with Customs and Immigration to ascertain a fair wage; they may even recommend a reliable boat boy. Then have the boy run your dinghy service, wash dishes, polish brass, do errands, and generally make himself useful. You'll certainly need a guide and interpreter if you plan to do any serious shopping. Marcel and Rodrigues were well recommended when we were there, but who knows where they are now. A

MINDELO (PORTO GRANDE)

Harbor chart CV16 If you come in from the north, head for the end of Mole 2, round the mole, tack to the east and tuck up in the northeast corner of the harbor, as close in as your draft will permit. The holding is pretty good in sand; I've been told that's the only place you can get good holding. If you're arriving at night, don't confuse the bright lights of the new shipyard north of the mole with the lights of Mindelo. You can anchor off the shipyard-but you won't be in the har~or. Once anchored, hoist your "Q" flag and Customs

56

36

62

MINDELO 64

43

.. '

52 18

PORTO :'"

GRANDE

.. '

16°53'N

-=3: o P

~/

43

19n

.cd~ 16

.'

......

~

20 35 ....

.. ..... '

26

17

22

.'

23

~: ..... 2 1:4"" :'S'" .' Wks -.--;";

... ' ....:.(

.......... + +

,

......

,.'

~3

\

o

1000

I I Yards

CV16

Porto Grande / Mindelo

.·'5 +

20 .1

...........

\ .........---8·+.....+ ~-,5+

~ 0000 Tanks

+

.·• .. · .. 7 +

++

Depths in Feet

200

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

Senor Cartolina was highly recommended as an expediter who makes his living getting things done. He knows the islands, the port, the shipyards, Customs, airlines, and so on, and can be a great help. With your guide, you can do pretty well with supplies. Ideally, you will have stocked the boat in the Canaries and will be just topping off here. Visits to four or five different stores will do it. We found a butcher two blocks east of the main market, which is itself a must to visit. Eggs are available, but people start lining up at 6:30 A.M. to get them; your guide can arrange to get eggs for you (provide your own egg cartons). For dishwashing soap go to the old Shell station on the waterfront with your own bottle and buy Teepol, a commercial detergent. For water arrange for some through the dockmaster, or go alongside a freighter and ask for some. Fuel can be taken on at the dock and it's apparently cheap. Get crushed ice from

the fish plant and try to get them to freeze it overnight in their freezer. lolaire's crew found an excellent restaurant back among some relatively new apartment buildings. At first we thought we were going into someone's apartment, but there was the restaurant Casa Maria (named after Maria) and it provided us with a splendid meal. For repairs, the big new shipyard north of town can do anything. Its fancy side-launching railway is so big that hauling anything less than 100 feet would not be economical. But they have engine, electronics, electrical, and machine shops. Another excellent machine shop is behind the fish factory; they can fix almost anything. At the south end of town is an ancient shipyard whose cradle is hauled by an old steam engine and can handle all but tbe biggest yachts. Certainly not a yacht yard, but they can do emergency work, and the price is right.

The Atlantic Islands Depths in Feet

Bllixo do Cllvlllo

778

201

.... "',Baixo : ··.Ama,.'o 23'

.'

46

.. 79

N

.

35 '

25 20 20

705 :'

..

102

75

78

85

Pta do Sol ~

(Maria Pia)

~A

85

O~'V

56

.:+ .... :.';,' ". 2 i·.

85 ;53

59

". Pta da Rocha G rande

53

49

.. '

.. ' .P'~.

Brasrl

·······0:

27 :" BD.

18

': it. ..... 20

Lisboa

23

..

15

.. ' 12

11

;+ '. 23 .... : ··i... ·. 14--

,.... . .

12

.' pr ai3 .

o

500 Yards

cl==~==~~===r==~1

CVl8

Ponta do Sol/ Maria Pia

Mindelo is not a modern tourist town. It seemed to me to be much the way Kingston, St. Vincent (in the Eastern Caribbean), was when I first arrived in St. Vincent in 1961. Maybe that's why I liked it so much. If you leave from Mindelo bound for the Caribbean, don't forget that Santo Antao can cast a wind shadow a good 20 miles or more to the southwest. Run downwind south-southwest for at least 25 miles before turning west for the New World.

RAIA DAS GATAS

Portuguese 205 On the northwest corner of Sao Vicente is this small fishing port. Entrance can be made in moderate weather approaching from the southeast, sailing between the reefs, and anchoring in suitable depth. There is a shallow lagoon in the northeast corner that makes a popular swimming hole on weekends.

Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

202

In summer there is a large music festival here, and one reason for coming would be to have your own accommodation for the festival. But I would definitely scout the harbor by car from Mindelo before taking my boat around.

llha de Santo Antao US 51500; BA 366, 369; Portuguese 205, 252, 253; Harbor charts CV17-CV19 Some say Santo Antao is the most beautiful island in the group. It's only a day's sail from Sao Vicente, but don't forget the fierce current in the channel between the islands. It's also only a 90minute ferry ride away. You could ride over in comfort for a day's jaunt or to spend the night. Being so high (5,000 feet) and so big (20 miles long), Santo Antao gets a lot of rainfall, even during the drought that has plagued the archipelago in recent years, Its pine forests up in the mountains are part of its scenic charms.

PORTO NOVO

Harbor chart CV17 This is the island's only real harbor and is a good stop for yachts since the mole has been extended to be almost 1,000 feet long. Anchor bow and stern behind the mole because the muscular trades are likely to die out at night under the influence of the high island. A light offshore breeze (conditions also encountered in Madeira and the Canaries), may develop, swinging you in a circle and breaking out your anchor.

OTHER ANCHORAGES

Harbor charts CV18, CV19 Both the Portuguese chart 252 and BA 369 show an anchoralSe behind Ponta do Solon the northern tip of the island (Harbor chart CV1S). But the BA chart also shows breakers half a mile offshore, I for one would be very leery of going into any place with breakers half a mile offshore. But it might be

107

157

785

Tarrafal

141

211

276

138

204

56

46

"

o

1

500

1000 Yards

I

Pta da Salina 16"56'6 N 25"19'1 W

CV 19

Tarrafal

The Atlantic Islands worth a careful look in settled mnditions. Topographical maps of Sao Antao show anchorages on the north coast off the villages of Cruzinha de Garcia and Baia de Fundas. Similarly on the west coast are fishing villages at Monte Tigro and yet another place called Tarrafal (Harbor chart CV19), which should bc sheltered by the high mountains to the east. An old BA chart shows a "tunny factory" and two buildings labeled "water works" at Tarrafal, which would indicate grander days there, when there might have heen a water

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pipe mming down from the hills. I wonder if it is still there? All these fishing villages face the ground swell, and all have very steep hottoms. These pages are written in the hope of encouraging more yachtsmen to visit the Cape Verdes. There is still much to be discovered about them, and I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who knows more or learns more than is written here.

6

Wind, Weather, and Tides radic and will seldom last fur more than two hours, with intervals of bright sunshine in between. It sometimes rains in late April or early May, often in a veritable deluge causing washed-out roads and flooding. But the real rainy season is considered to be late June through October; it tapers off in November, though sometimes intermittent heavy rain and squalls will continue until December. In the southern islands there is often a two- to three-week wet period in January that is referred to as the petite rainy season. South of Antigua the islands' high elevation allows moisture to be gathered from the trades. Here heavy rain squalls occur the year round, but in the dry months of January through June they seldom last long. Mid-August to early December is the season of heavy rain squalls in this area. Life is not as pleasant as during the dry season, except at the southern end of the Antilles, from Ile de Ronde to Bequia in the Grenadines, where the sailing is good twelve months of the year. Venezuelan weather it totally different from that of the rest of the Eastern Caribbean. It is true that the offshore islands are in the trade-wind belt; they are small and windswept and thus the wind will blow twenty-four hours a day. It will not die out at night except possibly in Margarita. The rest of Venezuela is affected by the continental land mass of South America, and more particularly by the ridge of mountains that runs along the coast from the eastern end of the Peninsula de Paria westward to Puerto Cabello. These mountains are high, ranging from lows of 2,000 feet up to 7,000 to 8,000 feet along the coast by Caracas. At dusk the cold air immediately starts dropping down off the mountains, fighting the easterly breeze that has built up during the day.

General Weather Patterns The Eastern Caribbean is renowned for its consistently fine weather the year round. The daytime temperature ranges from the high 80s in the summertime to a mean of 84° F in the winter. In the evening it falls to about 75° F on the water, except along the Venezuelan coast where it drops to 68°70° F, and on a "cold" winter night it might drop to 65° F. As long as a breeze is blowing the sun is never oppressive. Out of the wind in the towns it always seems a lot warmer. During the winter months the humidity is relatively low, and on a well-ventilated boat there should be no problem with mildew. In the late summer and fall when the trades ease up, they lose their cooling effect and the threat of hurricanes can make things uncomfortable. This is the time when Island people take their vacations or move from the large towns to a windward shore or to the hills, where the temperature drops approximately one degree with every 150 feet of elevation. One point that many people forget, including experienced Caribbean sailors, is that April is the time of year when you really feel the sun the worst in the Caribbean. The sun, on its way north, passes directly over Grenada on April 22 and over the Virgin Islands on May 16. Thus people who have sailed all winter in the Caribbean and have not had trouble with sunburn will suddenly discover themselves getting sunburned during the Rolex, BVI, and Antigua Sailing Week regattas, which always take part from mid-April through the first few days of May. BE PREPARED! From Antigua north very little rain falls, a condition hard on farmers but favorable to tourists, sailors, and paint contractors. Precipitation is spo204

Wind, Weather, and Tides The strong easterly will usually die out to zero along the coast by 2000 or 2100. There will then be an all-night calm or the wind will come in light out of the south. Sometimes it gets cool enough so that someone sleeping on deck will want a couple of blankets or a warm sleeping bag. At dawn along this coast it's almost always glassy calm; the wind picks up around 1100 out of the northwest, works its way slowly around to north-northeast, and then settles down in the east-northeast or east, blowing anywhere from 15 to 25 knots. Plan your days accordingly-it's great for those crews who like to sleep late in the morning. Except for rain squalls along the mountains, the coast of Venezuela is dead dry-even in the rainy season it practically never rains-but of course you can get caught. When we arrived in Margarita in 1978 I told the crew not to bother taking rain gear ashore while we went to Pampatar for the day: Hit never rains in Margarita." Ashore, the locals confirmed the fact that it hadn't rained in Margarita for eighteen months. But that day the clouds opened u{r-it rained steadily for six hours and flooded the whole island. So much for my weather predictions. At the western end of Venezuela, in the Maracaibo area, the land to windward and leeward of the Gulf of Venezuela is desert. This heats up and sucks the wind in off the water, so that in the Maracaibo area in the winter months, gale-force winds blow practically every day. It should be noted that the very active racing fleet of Stars, Rhodes 18s, and other classes completely shuts down in the beginning of November and doesn't race again until late April or early May-it just blows too hard. Venezuelan yachtsmen universally claim that June, July, August, and September are the best sailing months in Venezuela. At this time of year the trades die out. It doesn't blow particularly hard and the rainy season isn't really that rainy. You're south of the hurricane belt, so that worry is basically eliminated. Along the coast of Venezuela the water temperature is anywhere from 7° to 10° F colder than the Eastern Caribbean, often going as low as 68° to 70° F. Where this cold water comes from no one knows. It isn't noted in any of the pilot charts or pilot guides of the area, but it does exist; wc have carefully taken water temperatures. Fog is virtually unknown in the Antilles (but make sure you're carrying a foghorn and a fog bell on board, as required by the Coast Guard and enforced by a stiff fine). At times, though, a haze will form on the horizon, reducing visibility to as

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little as 3 miles. When the sun is high overhead these hazes may be difficult to detect, so don't be duped by an apparently clear horizon. I have sailed right by Martinique within 5 miles of the coastline and have never seen a thing. At other times the visibility will be excellent and the high islands can be seen from distances ranging from 40 to a really extraordinary 70 miles. I was once becalmed in Anegada Passage and I could see St. Croix, Saba, St. Martin, Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and St. Thomas all at once. Keep in mind, though, that a sudden rain squall can reduce visibility to 50 yards in a matter of minutes. The weather departments throughout the Islands are infamously inaccurate in their reporting of wind velocities. It has been alleged that the departments put a tape recording on in early December which says, "Winds east to east-northeast, 15 to 18 knots, higher in gusts." Sometime around late March or early April the tape recording is changed to play "winds east to east-southeast, 12 to 15 knots, higher in gusts." This recording plays until June. In early December 1978 we sat weatherbound in Clifton Harbour, Union Island, for five days, listening to the standard December weather report, which did not say how much higher in gusts it was blowing. Various yachts' wind-speed indicators showed that it was blowing a steady 30 and gusting to 50. Yet throughout that blow the weather report remained unchanged. Many experienced Eastern Caribbean sailors never bother listening to weather forecasts until early June. Then from June to November they listen to the early-morning weather report to ascertain if any hurricanes have been spotted by the satellites-the most complete weather reports seem to be given by Radio Montserrat on 930 kc, 0805 local time. It's receivable in the entire Eastern Caribbean. The report is complete, covering the western Atlantic up to latitude 25° N. Another good source for weather information is Virgin Island Radio (WAH), which three times a day broadcasts an overall view of the whole North Atlantic, plus the Caribbean. It is relatively useless for the Caribbean, except that it is very accurate in predicting the arrival of ground swells and the cold fronts that approach Puerto Rico and kill the wind in the Virgin Islands (see Appendix C for more complete radiotelephone listings). This weather broadcast comes at 0600, 1400, 2200 on VHF 28; SSB channels 2506, 401, 409, 416, 604, 804. As a service for yachts coming to and leaving the

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Street's Transatlantic Crossing Guide

islands during October through mid-December and May through June, they broadcast a really detailed North Atlantic weather report. Not only that, but if you can raise them on SSB at times when traffic is light, they will rebroadcast it. The barometer is relatively useless as a weather indicator in the Caribbean. It tends to stay so steady that one frequently thinks the instrument is broken. The only two rules that seem to follow are that the higher the barometer goes, the harder it blows; and that by the time the barometer does start to drop drastically, ifs too damned late to do anything about it because the hurricane will be there in a few hours. Thank God for satellites! Wind-velocity averages over a long period of time paint a false picture, so be prepared for a few surprises. During the winter months it usually blows 12 to 15 knots, a good working-sail breeze. At times it will blow 15 to 20, and it may stay that way for a couple of weeks or may pipe up to a solid 25 or 30. I have kept the lee rail down for a week on end under staysail, storm trysail, and mizzen, but such conditions are more the exception than the rule. The trades are often referred to as northeastern, but this is generally inaccurate. They are more east-northeast to straight east during the winter months, when the wind will rarely go south of east; but as summer approaches, it will tend to east and east-southeast with periods of southeast and south. Come midsummer and fall, it usually will be southeast to south with variations west of south. The farther south you travel, the more north the trade wind is apt to have in it. Any time the wind shifts to the north you can expect a good stiff blow. Except for the hurricanes, though, there's never so much wind that a 40-foot boat, well handled and well rigged with adequate reefing gear, cannot stand up to it. The one real variation in the winter trades is what is known as an "easterly wave," which is often accompanied by high winds, heavy rains, and generally uncomfortable conditions. There's a good description of the easterly wave in Bill Robinson's book Where the Trade Winds Blow. The wave "takes place in a broad stream of air, in this case one that blows initially from east-southeast . . . . The wind gradually becomes northeast, then goes back to southeast and finally settles again in the east-southeast. The wave, with an axis that runs roughly north-northeast / south-southwest, moves to the westward at about 15 miles an hour, and the cycle usually takes a day or two to move by. As the

wave approaches, the wind decreases as it goes into the southeast, with fine weather and few clouds. After the crest of the wave passes, some medium and high cumulus clouds develop, with a chance of showers, while the wind remains light. In the final part of the cycle, the wind swings back to the east-southeast and strengthens, with heavy showers and sometimes even thunderstorms. It holds fairly strong until the clouds move by and then it settles back to normal seasonal strength." The harometer gives very little warning of this easterly wave, and in the past it was seldom identified; now Virgin Island Radio reports the easterly waves very accurately. Their squalls seldom bring more than 30 knots of wind, but on occasion they may mount up to 50. Sometimes they have no wind at all, just plenty of rain. Even after a couple of decades in the Lesser Antilles, I still cannot reliably predict how much wind a squall will contain. It's wise to prepare for the worst. Squalls are easily spotted and there is no excuse for being caught unaware. They generally move with the trade winds. Sometimes in the hurricane season, when the wind is light, they come in from the west, but this is highly unusual, and when it does happen, be on your guard: there will be wind aplenty. One thing r ran predict, though, after thirty years of sailing in the Caribbean, is what I call the April Calm. It doesn't show up on the weather charts, but every year for the past twenty-five, I have noted that sometime between the last days of March and early May there is a spell of four to eight days where the wind goes flat. April is thought of as a windy month, and so it is; but sometime in that period----