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There is a reason people have been sailing around the world from east to west… for ages. That thought crossed my head very recently, when we were on our first long voyage west. Before, I never gave that reality much thought, except when having those big old ships of the first explorers in mind. They could basically only go to places downwind. Modern boats have way more flexibility and we basically sailed Irie wherever we wanted, except straight into or very close to the wind. Catamarans don’t go to windward very well.

 Sailing downwind towards the rainbow and the west, with just the jib                         © Liesbet Collaert

The first year into our cruising life, we made it from the east coast of the US to the Eastern Caribbean. When you look at a map, this is not a direction boats like to go in easterly trade winds, so it involved a lot of timing and motoring. Once in the Leeward Islands, we went up and down the chain a few times, heading south when the winds had a southeasterly component (summer hurricane season) and sailing back north when the wind blew from a northeasterly direction (winter cruising season). This meant we always sailed close-hauled, with the sheets trimmed tightly and the boat bashing into the waves. On short occasions, we’d have the wind behind us – leaving harbors or moving along south coasts – and our minds on high alert, to prevent accidental jibes. During some of these downwind trips, we wouldn’t even bother raising the mainsail and just unfurled the jib.

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Back in the day, you would look knowingly at the palm tree and clouds outside your window, and combine that with a guru-like sixth sense to predict what you'd find in the way of waves when you arrived at the beach.

Nowadays, the surf forecasting websites have made predicting surf similar to making microwave dinners - Easy (with a capital 'E'). This normally means that you can make a fairly good call from the comfort of your living room as to whether there'll be waves on any given day.

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“I say, that mooring is taken!”

We were about to pick up a mooring ball in one of our favorite spots in the BVI, ‘Cane Garden Bay’. On the north coast of Tortola, it features a very fine beach in a pleasant village setting surrounded by high hills. It’s a great place to spend a few days, beaching, swimming and generally ‘hanging out’. We had made an early departure from Jost Van Dyke. Foxy’s, and the red-lipped swooner, drooling over the crooner were behind us, together with the loud verbal bric a brac and guffawing reverberating into the late tropical night had ‘filled our cup’, so to speak. It was time to move on, chill out, and Cane Garden Bay was just the place!

On the way, we had stopped at the delightful islet of Sandy Cay, a little ‘desert isle’, the size of a football pitch. With the token central palm tree surrounded by a sprinkling of bush and a beach of powdered coral, it is pure ‘castaway’ material. We anchored in its lee, loaded up the dinghy, went ashore and spent most of the day there, swimming, snorkeling, snacking, sunning, and daydreaming! 

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Byron Surf Festival 2011

The sky opened her arms to welcome the first ever Byron Bay Surf Festival this weekend, two and a half days of full paced fun showcasing the best of old and new Aussie surf culture.

Kicking off on Friday night at the Stone & Wood brewery, Bob McTavish officially opened the festival with a historical slide show and comical yarn about Byron’s early days followed by a brief talk about shaping and his tools of the trade.

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Giving up your accustomed shore life, to move onto a sailing vessel is a huge change that entails preparations and adjustments in many ways. Once that big step is taken and you have gotten used to living aboard, similar experiences of a smaller scale will occur. Every time you leave a place where you spent some time and made friends, it feels like you are leaving a part of yourself behind. It is a bag of mixed feelings and day to day adventures soon turn into fond memories, while you “move on”.

 When you leave a certain popular area, you leave friends and fond experiences.          © Liesbet Collaert

My husband Mark and I sailed throughout the Eastern Caribbean for the last three years. After going up and down the island chain once, we knew the “lay of the islands”. We anchored in our favorite spots, knew where to pick up decent internet signals, shopped in the best stocked and most affordable supermarkets, knew which day the local vegetable lady showed up, attended the greatest happy hours, saved our dirty laundry until we reached a harbor with a do-it-yourself washing machine and frequented the places we liked. Every year, we would sail to and explore a few different parts of this or that island, but those adventures were short and in close vicinity. Every time we ended up in St. Martin or Grenada, we stayed put for a few months to work or spend hurricane season. The excitement took place in between these destinations, when we mostly “did what we wanted” and during the occasional weekend.

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As a young white South African girl, I recall the poster of Cass Collier hanging above my bed.  I never realized at that time that this man was breaking down walls of inequality and pioneering the way for the coloured surfing community.  Looking at Cass today, one might doubt the strength and dedication of the dreadlocked Rastafarian, but he convinced me of the opposite within our first minute of conversation.

There are very few times in a person’s life that you’ll meet a man that makes you view the world in a different light.  A person that makes you look deep within yourself and re-evaluate your outlook on life, your contribution to society and where you fit into the playground we call earth.  I experienced this rare delight whilst sitting down with previous big wave surfing champion, Cass Collier, and here follows his tale….

Q: What was your introduction to surfing?

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What do bamboo glassing cloth, hemp surf wear, limestone-based wetsuits and cork deckpads all have in common? That's right, they're all green alternatives to the run-of-the-mill petroleum-based surf products which we've grown accustomed to. While it's tempting to feel that we surfers are but a drop in the ocean (so to speak) in terms of helping out this amazing planet that we've been given, we can all make a difference if we really want to by making a few simple changes to our lives.

globalgwa.org

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One of the "side-effects" of cruising full time as a couple is that you and your partner are together all the time! You share the same small living area at the same time and even though this might be a situation that you fully expected before the big adventure, it is not an easy feat to be around each other 24/7, no matter how much you love each other or how compatible you are. Even when in perfect harmony, break-downs, ominous weather, power hungry officials, language barriers with locals, rationing food and water and the relatively primitive lifestyle can put strain on any relationship. Compare it to a couple living together on shore and working in the same office, driving a semi together or being retired under the same roof, with added complications…

 A 35' catamaran is big enough for two people: you each have your own hull!       © Liesbet Collaert

Of course, the good things are shared as well and it isn’t all arguments and challenges, but before deciding to go cruising together for a long time, you and your other half better be sure you get along well and are plenty compatible. Once removed from your familiar habitat, family and close friends, your partner is the only one to fully connect with months or years at the time. He/she will listen to you, explore and sail with you, comfort you and be your companion, 24/7. More relationships than sailboats end up on the rocks, and a lot of cruisers we meet are in their second long-term relationship or marriage! Therefore it is important that you each can be independent and find personal interests and things to do. Not only will the “alone time” benefit you both; you will also have something new to talk about!

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The Virgin islands, so called because Columbus, on first seeing them was reminded of St. Ursula and her 11,000 martyred nuns (virgins). They are a sailors dream come true, particularly the ‘British Virgin Islands’ (BVI’s)!

cruising the virgins

As a sailing ground, I love them but I also must be straight and frank about their little downsides. The truth is that the Caribbean is not always what it is pumped up to be in the brochures, and more often than not man is to blame; the so-called ‘latitude attitude’ cultured by some locals and a brash and selfish nature cultured by some cruisers.      A good place to start one’s exploration of these islands is the easy cruising route along the Drake Channel islands off Tortola, the main island of the BVI’s. We started with an idyllic stay on anchor at Cooper Island. We swam a lot and took the dinghy on little safaris to good snorkeling spots and hidden coves. We explored these quiet coves; myself, always on the lookout for hidden treasure. Alas, no treasure - only evidence of twenty first century man - the odd flip-flop, a broken snorkel and the like. The snorkeling was good but much of the coral in the vicinity of the popular Virgin anchorages is damaged or destroyed by careless anchoring. In some places, hurricane action plays a further role.   The water quality however was pristine, with incredible visibility. At Cooper Island, we could clearly survey the bottom 8-10 meters below.

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Knowing of my special interest in the Caribbean islands, a friend sent me a clipping of an article from a cruising magazine. It was entitled, ‘The Night of the Long Knives’!

          My interest was aroused!

          The choice of title in itself was, I felt, in poor taste and would be more in place in a cheap tabloid, but I proceeded to read and study the contents of the article. It was in reference to a night-time robbery with some violence involved on board a cruising yacht on anchor at Chateaubelair on the West coast of St. Vincent. Robbery and petty theft is not an uncommon occurrence in the islands where the very rich (in the local’s eyes) come ‘face to face’ with the very poor. Although I found the ‘sensationalised’article somewhat unbalanced, this post is not about that particular robbery, nor indeed any one robbery. I will proceed instead and take a look at the problem as a whole, based on my own observations and experiences.

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How I sometimes wish I could jump in my car and run the errands I need to run within a couple of hours’ time. When the tank is running low, I’d pull over at one of the many gas stations and fill her right up! But, I don’t have a car and even if I did, it wouldn’t be of much use while I’m living on our sailboat in the Caribbean. As I have realized many times before and as I probably have mentioned before as well: life on the water is a tad more difficult and inconvenient than life on land and some of why we chose this life is because or despite of that.

 Leaving Tyrrel Bay in Carriacou to - maybe - obtain fuel in Clifton, Union Island (SVG)    © Liesbet Collaert

Mark and I try to sail our boat as much as possible which results in not needing all that much diesel. Normally, we take our dinghy to a fuel station on the water and fill a 5 gallon jug, whether it is gas for the dinghy or diesel for the big boat. Fuel in the Caribbean has become very expensive (compared to US prices; similar to European prices), but if you buy a little bit at a time, it’s not too bad. Now, however, anticipating a long trip to – for us – unknown territories west, we want to leave with a full diesel tank and some spare gasoline. Being on a budget and having principles, we looked into a few things to spend as little money as possible on this fuel mission.

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As ying finds its yang, such have many sporting routines merged to feed and draw strength from each other.  Big wave surfers have teamed up with the world of freediving to extend their breath holding abilities as well as develop focus, skill and strength to ride big waves.

If you cannot hold your breath for 90 seconds under duress, you have no place here.   Your mind will scream this truth to you when you’re in the jaws of a 30 foot wave trying to fight your way to a single breath.  As a big wave surfer, taking on these Goliath waves ill prepared would be suicide.  Thus, training techniques have been perfected and tailored in order to keep up with this fast changing sport of big wave surfing.

Freediving training is becoming an ever more popular surf training add on as breath holding skills are becoming increasingly important for surfers, with bigger and heavier waves being surfed all the time.  Before you can assess the benefits of the breath holding sport to surfing, you will need to become familiar with the key principles of freediving. 

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Not to be confused with the Dominican Republic, as one of the country’s tourist brochures rightly and amusingly states, Dominica is part of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean. It is located between the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and is unlike any of its neighbors. While most tourists and sailors frequent the Caribbean for its pretty beaches and sunny climate, sand and sun are not the reasons to come to Dominica.

 Dominica's interior                                                                                                        © Liesbet Collaert

Dominica’s highlight is its nature. Some of the attractions can be found near the water, but most interesting sights are located in the lush interior and renting a car or taking local busses are your best bets to see what this little gem of an island has to offer. Good bases to do so are Prince Rupert Bay, where the town of Portsmouth is situated and Roseau, the country’s capital. Prince Rupert Bay is big, well protected and geared towards cruisers. They have nightly security patrols in the harbor and the boat boys are courteous and not too pushy. There is always room to anchor and the bay is easy to approach, even at dark. The town offers small stores, car rental places and customs and immigration on the waterfront.

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While people in most of Europe and North America regret that the summer is over and hope for a pleasant Indian summer, I (and other cruisers in the Caribbean) can’t wait for it to be done! Even though fall has officially started, the days in the Eastern Caribbean are still extremely hot and humid and the nights are only slightly better. Day temperatures are around 32°C (90°F), with a heat index of 40°C (104°F) and at night it is a “pleasant” 28°C (82°F). The biggest reason for those uncomfortable days and nights of sweating non-stop is the fact that there is … no wind!

This picture of paradise does not show the heat, humidity, lack of wind and many bugs! © Liesbet Collaert

During hurricane season, nobody wants one of those big named storms coming their way. Here in Grenada, none of them passed by so far. They all went way north of us, but we still feel their presence of not being present. They suck all the wind away from well around them, leaving areas of hundreds of miles without wind. If there is one group of people relying on this wind, then it is the sailors and the cruisers, the human kind that lives on the water, where there is always supposed to be a breeze. The saying goes: “It is always cooler on the water”. That is, if the breeze is not hiding or being “taken away”. The presence of the wind is not a matter of survival, it is a matter of comfort, productivity and flexibility and it plays many roles in the daily cruising life. And, to be honest, no wind also has some advantages.

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Current cruisers, arm chair adventurers, weekend sailors, boat owners, prospective sailors and returned or “retired” (world) cruisers all benefit from or enjoy reading publications that focus on the sailing and cruising life. Whether it is to gain information, knowledge or ideas, read tips and recognizable problems or sit back in a comfy chair, relax and marvel about people’s adventures, plenty of resources are to be found on the internet or in print.

                                                                                                                                     © Liesbet Collaert

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