PART II

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I decided to dismantle the engine. I cleared the entire system again and replaced the oil. About 0430 I was ready to start it again. Unfortunately, the pressure control lamp did not turn off. “So we don’t have the engine, the only source of charging our batteries – we have to manage the energy even more efficiently now”.

Around midday we were still in almost the same spot. Well, maybe even a little farther from the Dominica. If we could have run the engine... we could reach one of the southern ports within two hours...

In the afternoon variable wind began to appear from time to time. Each of its new presence was causing a lot of action on board – we tried to quickly adjust the sails. Very slowly we were moving somehow to the North. At one point in front of us we heard the noise of shimmering water... Hmm, interesting...

It turned out to be the sound of strong current - a river in the sea. It flew across our course, to the West. The first time we witnessed such a phenomenon – about 100 meters wide strip of water in a different colour, with clearly cut off edges. As soon as we got into it, we started drifting into the West, in a company of garbage variety, pieces of palm trees, coconuts, etc. In static wind conditions (weak gusts from different directions) we spent the afternoon trying to escape from the clutches of "the sea river".

Evening and night were very silent. Only from time to time empty sails fluttered when the boat was moved by lonely wave... And a delicate current discreetly was taking us farther and farther away from Dominica…

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Sample entries from the logbook of the morning: "...the wind blew slightly, for a few moments” or “the distance to Dominica still increases, the island is not visible, in the clouds."

On the fourth day of our trip I stopped to get annoyed at the weather though earlier I was angry at it a lot. “What shall we do with the day which began so beautifully?" – I asked. "I dream about swimming, it’s terribly hot already", Pati said. It did not take us much time to change clothes and jump into the water with mask, fins and snorkel :) We did it in turns so that one person was always aboard. Another safety measure was the attachment to the boat with a long rope - it gives the freedom to swim and at the same time it provides a rapid return to the yacht, if needed.

It turned out that plenty of tiny, multicoloured fish was swimming around YouYou’s hull – it seemed they were cleaning the bottom :) ‘Beautiful’ help! Thanks!

The colour of the sea was magnificent, there were over 6500 feet below us. "I wonder what creatures are swimming here now, deep beneath us", we thought. After swim in the sea, we ate breakfast and then we started to look out for signs of Dominica, as well as for the wind...

None of the two. In return, we saw whales! Dominica is famous of Humpback whales coming close to it’s coast annually for breeding. This time we saw only the adults.

At noon we received weather forecast and the storm warning. In the late afternoon we began to have more constant gusts of wind and for a moment we even reached the speed of 5 knots :)) This time in the right direction.

Dominica was already visible and getting closer!

In the evening, just two miles from Portsmouth and a mile from shore, suddenly the wind died completely again. This time the coastal current going to the South began to take us further away from the bay, where we have already seen yachts at anchor... What was worse, we had no control over the boat and we were fairly close to shore... "What if soon forthcoming storms appear and it shoves us ashore?" - such a thought came to my mind and it felt not funny at all. In the end I decided to try the engine again, though I knew it should not be run without proper lubrication even for a longer moment.

This time, after a few seconds pressure light went out! Hurray! Now quickly to get a shelter in the bay!

We put the anchor down in Prince Rupert Bay at 0015, on 4 May. Less than twenty minutes later from the sky showered streams of water, and it was really windy even in the well-sheltered anchorage. But we were already sipping rum with coca-cola and we even danced that evening :))

Mikolaj Westrych