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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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Most cruisers sailing up and down the Caribbean island chain prefer to do so along the leeward side. As a matter of fact, that’s what Mark and I have been doing on our sailing catamaran Irie for the last three years as well. Why?  This side of the islands offers relative calm water and a multitude of protected harbors to pull into when desired or required. The negative? One most likely has to motor a big chunk of this coastline, because the land blocks the wind in many places, especially when hills and mountains represent the scenery. For this very reason – trying to sail the whole way and not use the engines – we decided to do it differently and choose the windward side of St. Vincent to reach the Grenadines. Little did we know that there was another, huge, advantage to sticking to the leeward side...

 Approaching the Pitons from the north                                                           © Liesbet Collaert

Plenty of people have done it before and in theory, it does make sense to pass an island along its windward side. The wind should stay strong and persistent, progress should be faster and diesel should be saved. If the predicted sea state is not too choppy, with manageable wave heights, the sail can even be relatively comfortable and pleasant! With such a prediction, SV Irie left Rodney Bay on the northwest side of St. Lucia at 4am, planning a 10-12 hour journey to Admiralty Bay in Bequia, which is part of the Grenadines. Since we were already on the leeward side of the country, we took the flaky wind as it came and managed to slowly sail down to the Pitons, averaging 4 knots. For some reason, the current became very strong in that area and after battling with it and staying pretty much stationary for an hour, we switched on the engines to make some headway towards the channel between the islands. At that moment, a pod of dolphins joined us briefly to wish us farewell.

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Martinique is the biggest one of the Windward Islands and an overseas territory of France. In turn it belongs to the European Union and that means modern infrastructure, good roads and dinghy docks and the Euro as a currency. Unfortunately, another result is that life in Martinique is on the expensive side. Most cruisers keep their grocery shopping to a minimum, with the one exception of a visit to Leader Price to stock up on affordable French goodies, like cheese, pâté, salami, olives, rosemary crackers and wine. There’s one in Marin (with dinghy parking), the boating mecca of the island, and one in Fort-de-France, the capital.

 Mt. Pelee volcano in St. Pierre                                                                             © Liesbet Collaert

From a sailing perspective, Martinique is relatively big and has a lot to offer. Anchorages abound on three sides of the island and one could spend months here without getting bored or seeing the same place twice! Starting from the north, St. Pierre is a very interesting stop along the west coast. The small town lies at the foot of the picturesque Mt. Pelée volcano. In 1902, St. Pierre had 30 000 inhabitants and was the commercial, cultural and social center of Martinique. When the volcano erupted in May of that year, the devastation was enormous. All that remained were smoking ruins and two survivors. The town is worth a stop to take in the magnificent views of Mt. Pelée (when not in the clouds), learn about its history in the museum or walk around town and inspect many of the ruins. A visit to the theater ruins and the prison where Cyparis was jailed and survived the 1902 eruption is recommended.

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The annual cruiser’s migration in the Eastern Caribbean goes as follows: in the winter sailboats move inside the hurricane belt and explore the Leeward and Windward islands in a very comfortable climate. November 1^st to May 31^st is the high season in Caribbean waters. In the summer months, most sailboat owners travel outside the hurricane belt, north towards the United States or south towards Grenada and Trinidad. Or, they leave their boat somewhere safe and fly home, escaping the sometimes intolerable heat and humidity. Some sailors head further west, not being bothered by the hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1^st to October 31^st. Another Caribbean trend, weather wise, is that the wind blows from the northeast during the winter season and from the southeast during the summer season. What this means is, that whenever you want to follow the island chain down to reach the safer islands south, you have to beat into the wind and … when it is time to sail northeast again, the wind happens to exactly come from that direction as well. Ironic?

 Irie on her way out of Simpson Bay Lagoon in St. Maarten                                            © Liesbet Collaert

For this reason -sailing dead into the wind is impossible- weather windows are very important when you plan a long sailing trip. Not only are you looking for northeast winds or “better” to head southeast, you also desire a velocity of 10-15 knots. This keeps the waves at a reasonable height and brings the apparent wind to 15-20 knots (since you are moving into it at about 5 knots), creating a nice speed and pleasant motion to get somewhere. Of course, these are ideal situations and they are rare. If one can get winds out of the east as late in the season as June, one should be lucky and happy regardless. Sailing very close to the wind still beats motoring directly into it and the waves…

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