Najad 511 'Song of the Ocean'
Passage from Sweden to the Caribbean
The Retirement Plan
Following our return to Sweden on Song of the Sea, Jan and I, decided to base our retirement around cruising in Scandinavia during their Summer season followed by the Caribbean in the Northern Hemisphere winters without needing to transit the Atlantic each year. As a result, we laid-up Song of the Sea with Najad under sheltered storage until May 2006, in order to sail our new Najad 511, Song of the Ocean to the Caribbean in c2005..
We slipped our lines in Orust on the 23rd June 2005, together with an old H.R. sailing mate Chris Carver for an 80M shake-down sail to Skagen in a SW 3/4 in fine weather. This placed us in pole position to round the north coast of Denmark and bear away down the North Sea for the Hamble, England.
On departing Skagen, we were obliged to motor-sail to the North Sea whereupon a northerly breeze filled in and steadily increased to F4/5 by evening and 5/6 following day to provide a perfect reach under full sail all the way to the North Foreland, Kent. This was followed by a run under Simbo Rig down the English Channel to the Solent, whereupon HM the Queen was reviewing the Royal Navy fleet. As we had still to register SotO in the UK, we were flying under the Swedish ensign. This was quite in order, however on being approached by a Royal Navy vessel politely requesting us to proceed up the north shore of the Isle of Wight in their best ‘pidgin’ English, we felt it only kind to just nod our heads and wave in acknowledgement to avoid embarrassment. The 623M passage to the Hamble though, will always be remembered as our best North Sea crossing.
As I was still running my Company which was in the process of sale Jan and I, flew back to the IOM leaving Chris to return to Scotland. This deferred our return to SotO to the 25th July when we slipped our lines under British registration in company with our friends David & Stephanie Prior to sail the 185M to Falmouth. Once again the marina with its close to hand facilities provided the perfect venue for provisioning before setting sail on the 30th July for the Bay of Biscay to round Cape Finisterre for Portosin in Rio de Muros y Noya, Spain. We settled into a 3hrs. watch system with Jan and I, taking single watches and David & Steve a joint watch.This permitted each person to enjoy 6hrs off watch for what became a relaxing reach in NW3-5 to Finisterre by the afternoon of 2nd August. The remainder of the 659M to Portosin giving way to motoring in glassy calm seas.
David & Steve, wisely took time-out to visit Santiago de Compostela following which we reached down the 65M coastline with an obliging NW3 to Povoa de Vazim marina in order for all of us, to enjoy a final day together in the beautiful city of Oporto with its famous port houses. It had been fun cruising together but they needed to return to England to keep on top their blossoming garden and of course, family commitments.
Jan and I, slip our lines following day for an overnight sail over the 165M for Cascais to enjoy a few days in Lisbon before setting sail on the 17th August for another overnight sail for Cape St Vincent under the Simbo Rig, to round up on a broad reach along Portugal’s south coast for Lagos on completion of the 120 miles passage. Here we met up with our daughter Lorna and Paul together with son James on their holidays following which James was making up our crew to Lanzarote. In the meantime we prepared Song of the Ocean for our onward passage to Puerto Calero. However, to accomodate the divergent interests of all, we arranged for the three of them to stay in a nearby hotel so that our preparations wouldn’t impinge upon their long awaited Summer holiday but still enable us to meet up in the evenings.
On the 11th September, we slipped our lines with James, for the Canary Islands. The weather was perfect for the passage with a N4/6 with occasional squalls under Simbo Rig for the whole 565M which took 3 days & 3hrs. During the voyage we experienced problems with the auto pilot dropping-out on five occasions but fortunately, with the twin jibs controlling the steerage, the risk of either a broach or accidental gybe was averted which is a massive safety factor of the Simbo rig. On a more comical note, James enquired in a matter of fact voice following the build-up of high seas, how far-off the African coast we were and if it was in range of a helicopter. In his defence though, I should mention that this was his first ocean passage as he had never previously shown any interest in sailing. Straight in at the deep end, one might say!
As I was in the midst of selling my Company, it was beholden upon me to personally introduce the purchasers to our markets in the Middle and Far East followed by the financial centres of the Caribbean. This resulted in our having to lay Song of the Ocean up in Porto Calero until the 21st December. A minor interruption in our personal pursuits, by comparison with the importance of ensuring that our five thousand personal clients built up over 40 years were personally acquainted with the Company’s new board of directors.
Our old sailing mate George Malony joined us on the 21st December in Lanzarote, to slip our lines at Porto Calero for Barbados. To our pleasant surprise, we found ourselves sailing in company with Goran Lenkel on his N511 Cover Girl 4, accompanied by his wife and son Erik. On a less welcome note, the weather had turned calm which led to our having to motor-sail south in search of the trade winds to such extent that by the time we came across them, we were only 50M north of the Cape Verdes! The decision was taken in liaison with Cover Girl, to make for Mindelo to refuel, after having motor sailed for 930M. This unexpected stop proved quite an 'eye opener’, as the town was very poorly stocked by way of provisions leading to our only loosing a day before weighing anchor for Barbados. The passage down to the Cape verdes had taken 4 1/2 days which included Christmas dinner in close company with Cover Girl who astounded us by not only dressing overall but at dusk, lighting-up from bow to masthead and down the backstay with a chain of multi coloured lights. All very effective and reflective on a glassy calm ocean.
We weighed anchor in Porto Grande on the 29th December. Once clear of Cape Verdes, the Simbo Rig was set in a NW7 which resulted in SotO surfing down the following seas at up to 12 knots SOG, all under the control of a single watch-keeper. The problem persisted regarding the instruments periodically dropping-out which would have been particularly concerning if it hadn’t been for the twin jibs’ control of the steerage. However, the further frustration arose in our log now also mal-functioning with the chart plotter crashing periodically. There is much to be said for acquiring a sound second hand yacht of up to 5 years vintage, in preference to a new one with all its ‘gremlins’! One has to appreciate that yacht manufacture unlike motor vehicles, is very much a cottage industry relying on a corp of third party subcontractors to supply the technical equipment in whom one can mistakenly place too much trust!
However, in addition to these technical problems, we were also faced with having to restitch a panel in the mainsail which became particularly challenging once the the jibs were left to fly alone. This immediately set up an intolerable roll which not only made working on deck hazardous and sail repair difficult but caused off watch sleep deprivation. To make matters worse, not 24 hours after completing the initial repair, we were faced with having to repeat the exercise to attend to another line of stitching!
On a brighter note, the trade winds settled down to a steady F4-6 for 2/3rds of the crossing before expiring to leave us to motor-sail for a day and a half. As is often the case, we had lost sight of our companion but as a result of Goran motoring at a higher speed than ourselves we did regain contact for a couple of days before once again pulling away from him with the advantage of our downwind rig following the welcome return of the Trade Winds. Typically, the occasional line squall would pass through to set up big following seas and occasional cloud bursts but on the whole, we experienced a good 12 1/2 days crossing to Barbados over a passage of 2030M. We lowered the anchor off Port St.Charles on the 10th January. It was good to subsequently re-unite with Cover Girl, not only for socialising but warn Goran that the Caribbean follow the American ‘red, right returning buoyed system’ to avert a potential disaster occurring on his entering St Charles harbour to refuel.
Having bade farewell to George on his return flight to the UK, taken in the highlights of Barbados and informed Goran that we would catch up with him later in the Caribbean, Jan and I, got underway on the 14th January for Trinidad with a helpful E4/5 on a comfortable broad reach under blue skies and bimini protection. One hundred & ten miles into the passage, we were called-up by the seismic survey vessel Geko Diamond requesting us to alter our course to 125 degrees for one hour. This enabled us to rig our whisker poles and split the jibs on a Simbo Rig run. On reverting back to our original course of 135o, the wind had conveniently backed NE which permitted us to maintain our downwind rig all the way to Chaguaramas to complete the 190M passage on the 15th January 2006 to celebrate my 63rd birthday!
We were pleased to catch up with a host of old friends from previous experience in Trinidad with Song of the Sea and also arranged for our Raymarine instruments to be replaced under warranty, in readiness for our return to sailing up the Windward and Leeward during the forthcoming months of February and March. In the interim, we had arranged to fly to Aspen CO for three weeks skiing, satisfied in the knowledge that we had now achieved our retirement plan to sail in the Caribbean during winter and Scandinavian in summer in the future.