High and Dry by Paul Sutcliffe

Author:Paul Sutcliffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Published: 2019-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Jamaica

I set off from Aruba with Paul and Ben after lunch. First we had to motor over to customs and immigration and by the time we’d got through it was late afternoon. We motored out of the channel and put up the sails. As soon as we’d left the harbour, the wind and waves picked up and we started racing along under a reefed main and full jib. Ben spent the first day throwing up and the second day sleeping but then did all his watches really well. Once we accidently jibed as Ben was standing in the hatchway, the boom swung across just missing his head. It probably would have killed him had he been two inches further out of the hatch, or else knocked him overboard which probably would also have been fatal. As the traveller zipped to the other side of the cockpit, the mainsheet though grazed his knee – pretty badly.

The scariest moment happened when I was alone in the cockpit, while the others were sleeping. We were literally in the middle of the Caribbean Sea and the waves were really picking up. Sonic Boom surfed straight down a fifteen-foot wave and I saw the bow dip down into the water. I was looking straight down; Sonic Boom was almost vertical and I really thought we were going to pitchpole (flip end over end). I froze and took a big gulp of air. But at the last minute Sonic Boom came around through the wave and carried on surfing. I could feel the power of the boat slicing through the water, and the strain on the hull, the sails, everything. It was a really incredible moment and another time I’d been saved by the strength of the Elizabethan.

We were all exhausted mentally and losing concentration. None of us felt like eating really, and it was very difficult to even stand up in the cabin, let alone cook. But I knew we needed to eat properly. We’d bought lots of vegetables and rice for curries to eat under the stars in the cockpit with a few beers, but the wind and waves meant we were heeled over and bouncing around a lot. I cooked baked beans and fried potatoes, toasted egg and cheese sandwiches instead. One hand hanging on to the boat and one hand holding the bowl of food, a romantic evening dinner it was not. But the change in mood and energy levels was a welcome relief.

We’d had twenty-five to thirty knot winds all the way, so it took us ninety-six hours, averaging seven knots, but reaching eleven, even with the main sail reefed. We also had some very big seas. Waves were crashing over the deck and we were getting lots of water in the cockpit. After a big squall on the first night, Paul found a fish in his bed. After four days and four nights at sea we sailed through a little channel into Port Antonio, Jamaica.

Port Antonio was beautiful, a laidback coastal town with the spectacular Blue Mountains in the distance.

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