Passage from Marie Galante, Guadeloupe to George Town, Guyana
General Passage Information
Chao Lay – Beneteau 461
Passage Crew – Alex Johnstone, Peter Hayden, Jason Kyriakou, Keiron Baptiste. All good swimmers with no health issues.
Dates – depart 1842 local 19 June 2018, arrive 1949 local time 23 June 2018. Leg was part of a longer voyage which left St George’s, Grenada at 0700 on 18 June 2018 and returned to St George’s at 1900 on 25 June 2018.
Distance covered – 677.4 nm for leg, around 1,300 nm for total trip.
General weather – steady pressure around 1010-1012, wind generally E or SE F3/4. Weather in ITCZ was unsettled with frequent squalls and rain showers.
Watch keeping system – flexible during the day, two hour single watches from 1800 to 0600. Breakfast 0800-0900, lunch 1200-1300, dinner 0500-0600.
Vessel Preparation
Full safety check including:
Rig, sails, chafe, running lines, seacocks, engine and gearbox service, keel bolts and steering cables.
Spares, sails, universal stay, spare sheets and halyards, starter motor, alternator, all bosun’s stores.
Tool kits – electrical, plumbing and mechanical.
Fuel 200 litres in tanks and 40 litres in cans (120 hours at 1,800 rpm).
Water 890 litres in tanks, 105 litres bottled water.
Provisioned with fresh food for 10 days, with canned reserve.
Navigation
GPS, Almanac, Charts, gnomonic for great circle, routing charts, pilot books, weather routing, ocean currents, sextant and tables, internet prints for navigation, pilotage and tide tables for final section to George Town, Guyana.
On Route Communication
VHF (including list of frequencies), cell phones.
Medical
Ship captain’s medical guide, ship’s medical stores including antibiotics, pain killers and sea sickness pills. Comprehensive first aid kit, 3 trained first aiders on board.
Passage
The passage up to Guadeloupe was largely upwind, with some squalls on the first night but otherwise generally fair with F3/4 winds. Some motoring was necessary to maintain a speed in excess of 6 knots. The watch keeping system worked well with everyone getting a minimum break of at least 6 hours at night as well as rest time during the day.
From Guadeloupe the passage was again upwind as the wind veered from NE to E, and the wind was relatively steady at F3/4 with fair weather until we started to encounter the ITCZ around 10 degrees north. In the ITCZ, the weather was unsettled with frequent squalls and rain showers. South of the ITCZ the weather was again more settled but the winds were lighter and we had to motor much more on the final stretch to George Town to maintain our speed of 6 knots.
After we turned to head north again back to Grenada we encountered the same unsettled conditions in the ITCZ but once we were through that the wind was steady around F4 and the weather was fair. Sailing downwind we were able to maintain high speeds of around 8-9 knots.
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