but fear itself...
And never has this been more true.
There were a lot of things that I was very anxious about when I first
convinced Sally to come sailing.
Sure I had sailed a boat before, I had
taken watches and manned the helm on a few night passages while both
racing and for pleasure. I had crewed countless times on racers and
cruisers, with friends family and competitive skippers. What I had
never done before, was everything else...sailing is the easy part!
I had never owned a boat before. Short
of a Day Skipper course to teach some of the basics around mooring,
anchoring, navigation and seamanship, all of this was new to me.
I had a list of 'things that made me
anxious', that I tried really hard to research in order to become
more confident with knowledge (theory) prior to actually doing them.
These included, anchoring in a crowded bay (how to pick the right
spot, how to set an anchor, how not to drag, how not to look like a
novice / idiot doing it), clearing in and out of a port (what
documents are required and what is the process?), yacht maintenance
(what anti-fouling to use, when to use a primer, engine basics), etc.
Our first 'dropping of the anchor', I
made sure we had a experienced friend with us to help guide us and
ensure we did not arrive in some one else's lap later that evening
when the wind picked up.
We had to anchor a number of times
since then just Sally and I. I must admit we are getting pretty good
at it. I guide us in while Sally does her bit on the bow. I still
have yet to convince Sal to dive on the anchor and bed it in, she
much prefers to sit on the bow and offer guidance. As it turns out,
anchoring is not a big deal after you have done it a few times and we
are no longer daunted by it.
However we had never cleared in or out
of customs before. We dressed up, yachtie style – meaning I wore
shoes, socks, longs and a button up shirt...I wouldn't usually, way
too hot. Nerves were on edge...do we in fact have the right paperwork
and documents...what is the procedure...who do we see first?
Earlier that week friends had shown us
where we had to go and who to see first. We strolled in acting like
pro's. “Hi, We would like to clear out” I said to the immigration
officer. To which he responded. “Coom bak 1pm, cus we is on lunch
at 12.”. I looked at the clock...it was 11:45.
We took the paperwork with us and
filled it out over a nice fruit smoothie. Sure we had to wait an hour
(and a bit) but hey, we are in the Caribbean. Everything runs on GMT
here we are told. “Grenada Maybe Time”. So one of the
biggest lessons we learnt was patience.
Sure, in fact we did not have all the
right paperwork as we did not have a form to clear us in. The
previous owner had it. But... as with all things in the Caribbean,
nothing is insurmountable and they waved us through after we
explained we had just bought the boat. (We did show our Bill of Sale
to prove it).
In short, the documents you will need
to clear out appear to be...
- Passports for you and your crew
- Previous document clearing you in / out of your previous port
As for your ships registration, it will
probably be required when we check in some where (but it was not
required to clear out).
The process is probably going to be
different in each port, but all in all by asking a few people, they
will be able to tell you what to do.
Clearing out (and in) is no longer as
daunting as it used to be.
Anchoring and more to the point
dragging, is still a bit of a concern. When a big gust comes through
I tend to shoot up to the cockpit and eyeball all the other yachts to
check that we are not dragging and they are not dragging into our pride and joy! The night likes to play little tricks with the mind
though. Shapes always appear closer at night and swinging around in
the dark leads one to think that you are moving towards other shapes.
However, I left the Nav Instruments on the other day during a good
blow to see what we peaked at. 36 knots! While probably not a massive
blow by some standards, it is not what we were expecting in the
“calm” Caribbean. I anxiously sat in the cockpit for 30 minutes
listening to the wind, watching the swing and the other boats. I ran
all the scenarios. If we drag, then I will wake Sally and we will up
anchor and get out of the anchorage and re-anchor somewhere or hove
to just out side the bay. If they drag, I will try get their
attention. Dinghy over and bang on their hull or something. (note to
self: get a fog horn).
Needless to say, our little 35lbs CQR
held us firm. I dived on the anchor the next day and we had not
dragged a foot. Our regime of: anchor, leave it for 10 minutes to
settle, put the snubber on, reverse on it at 2000 revs for 20 seconds
and then dive on it and bed it in even further, seems to be paying
off.
As a note, chain does you no good
sitting in a chain locker...as a result, we pay out all our chain
regardless of the depth of water. As I write this we are in 20ft of
water and I have 140ft of chain out. As I have mentioned before,
about 40 feet of chain is not even touching the bottom due to the arc
of the chain. This extends to 50 / 60 ft when a solid gust pulls the
snubber out the water at what looks like parallel to the sea bed. If
I lived by the 5:1 ratio, sometimes as little as 40ft of chain would
be on the sea bed. I have 150ft on board and wish I had 300...
I had my best sleep the other night. I
only woke up 3 times to check our situation (using two of those as
opportunities to have a covert pee over the side while it was still
night).
The more we live on board at anchor,
the more we are relaxing. We trust the holding power of our bedded-in
anchor and confident about the terrain we are anchored in. Sure we
have manually moved an anchor just so I could bed it in sand (as
opposed to weeds) but hey, I needed the exercise and the lung
training.
All in all, clearing out was not a big
deal. We look forward to clearing in and seeing how that process
works. Off to Union Island to find that out!
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