34. Ships that pass in the Night

I’ve been in Trinidad for three months already. I just renewed my visa. I guess now I’m part of the hard-core who are staying with their boats over the hurricane season – mainly small, old yachts, tied to beat-up dinghies with tiny outboards. Just like mine.

A big ship in Chaguaramas

Usually we all face east, into the wind, but if there’s no wind a changing tide in Chaguaramas can make strange currents. Out in the anchorage I always think the boats look like they’re dancing as they swing round their moorings in sync. The other day we all did a full 360. The boats on either side of me are on mooring balls; I’m on my anchor, with 120 feet of chain out, so I have a much bigger swing circle. We were slightly out of sync. We all spun clockwise but as I approached 9 o’clock the boat to my left was at 3 o’clock.

Our sterns slowly headed towards each other, but I was sure we wouldn’t hit. ‘Hello, lovely day. Strange currents…’ Six inches, five, two, one, the other captain watched then suddenly disappeared to go turn on his engine. By the time he had, we’d passed, overlapping at different heights. We didn’t touch. ‘Ok see you later…’ I waved, and headed off to 3 o’clock and the boat to my right. Which was rapidly approaching its 9 o’clock.

Had I anchored exactly between the two boats? I thought I was nearer to this boat, which was bad. Again I was going stern to stern and the other boat was looking very worried. ‘Hi. How’s things? Just thought I’d swing by… Don’t worry I’m sure we won’t hit’, I said as I realized we were going to hit and she reappeared clutching fenders. But we didn’t. An inch. I relaxed impressed with my anchoring, my neighbors not so much.

The Vikings have been here for ages

An article I wrote about St. Lucia will be published in the December issue of Sailing Today magazine (out in October), also available online:

http://www.sailingtoday.co.uk

Crew's Inn marina