Four boats, four crews, four routes
and one destination: Tobago

It was getting towards the end of August 2004 and a bunch of us cruisers had been enjoying the delights of Grenada for a while but were getting itchy to hoist halliards. So we all decided to set sail for Tobago, the beautiful and unspoilt island about 70nm South East of Grenada.

Our flotilla

Our little flotilla comprised Allways Sunday (a Lagoon 38, crewed by Drury and Jennifer from Toronto, Canada); Blue Marine (a Lagoon 41, crewed by Todd and Lynn from California, USA); Voyager (a Valiant 40 crewed by Ron and Jodi from Florida, USA); and Zingano (a Fountaine Pajot Belize 43, crewed by Jeremy and Leonie from London, England). All are sloop-rigged catamarans save for Voyager, a cutter-rig monohull with a 34’ waterline – the cats’ waterlines are pretty much the same as their lengths.

Our destination

Our destination was Charlotteville in Man o’ War Bay on Tobago’s North East Coast. This is one of the few hops you have to make in the Caribbean as an overnight run – partly because of the distance and partly because Tobago officials are insistent you clear in very promptly on arrival and they charge overtime for arrivals outside the hours 8am to 4pm. So a night passage, arriving in the morning, makes sense from every aspect.

In winter, when the NE trades are blowing, you might just make it under sail but in the summer the winds clock to the East, or even South East, making that almost impossible. There’s also a West- or North West-going current of a knot or two, which over the course of the passage can easily set you back ten miles. Many boats, therefore, choose to go up to Carriacou, Grenada’s northern off-lying island and shoot off from there.

Making choices

We felt that going as a group would be more fun and we could keep in touch by radio as we progressed – a friendly voice always makes the long night watches pass more easily.  We chose to leave shortly after Tropical Storm Earl had passed through and there was a clear gap in the tropical waves pushing across from Africa. We would be free of storms and the seas should be slight – around 3 to 4 feet. The downside was that the winds would be East, or even South of East, at 10 to 20 knots and, of course, there would be a few squalls. There was no chance of any of us sailing it directly, so what was the best way to make the passage? In the event each crew chose a different course and strategy.

Allways Sunday chose to sail directly from Prickly Bay, Grenada. This gave them a straight run of 81nm on a course of 119T.

The other boats all went up to Carriacou a day earlier, where we had a great time snorkelling and diving before checking out from Hillsborough after lunch and setting off into winds pretty much due East.

Blue Marine refuelled at Petite Martinique and motor sailed directly to Tobago. This gave them a distance of 88nm on a course of 145T.

Voyager sailed round the North of Carriacou, then tacked North East for 16nm before turning onto their track line for Tobago and sailing down on a course of 157T

Zingano sailed out South from Hillsborough and then motored due East for 20nm before shutting down the engine and sailing towards Charlotteville on a course of 151T.

How did we all make out?

Allways Sunday left last at 6pm and arrived last at 2pm, shortly after Voyager, having motor-sailed all the way. With mainsail only sheeted in hard they found it hard going, plugging directly into the wind and making approximately 3.5 average knots over the ground, so tacked North East for some hours until they could tack back down towards Tobago bringing the wind about 25 degrees off the port bow and improving the SOG to 4.5 average knots. They ran their 29hp Volvos at around 3000 rpm all the way to overcome the headwinds and seas. Total passage time was 20 hours, distance through the water was 94 nautical miles and total engine hours were 20.

Blue Marine was the first to arrive. She left Petite Martinique and ran the direct course using both the Yanmar 40hp engines and the main sheeted in hard with one reef in. The wind was generally about 25 degrees off the port bow, so the ride was reasonably comfortable and they got some lift from the main. They ran their engines at 2200 rpm and could have made a faster passage but, with their animals in mind, that would have had the boat slamming harder into the waves and making it very uncomfortable. Total passage time was 17½ hours, distance through the water was 89 miles and total engine hours were 18.

Voyager left Hillsborough at 3:30pm, motor-sailing the first two hours around the north end of Carriacou and south of Petite Martinique. On this heading, so close to the wind, they were making only 3 knots over ground at 2500 rpm with their 51hp Yanmar engine and it was not a comfortable ride. To gain easting, they motor-sailed North East 16 miles over the next three hours until they were able to tack over to sail their lay-line of 157T to Tobago. They sailed at 5½ knots for the next 12 hours until the wind moved South of East and they motor-sailed again to keep course. After two hours the wind shifted to the east and then they sailed directly into Charlotteville.  Total passage time was 22 hours, distance through the water was 110 miles and total engine hours were 7.

Zingano left Hillsborough at 3pm and, after rounding the South of the island, motored East on one engine at 2700 rpm for 20 miles, achieving about 5 knots over the ground.  Turning onto track and sailing she achieved speeds of 6 to 8 knots through the water in winds East 4-5 with one reef in the main, sailing as tightly to the wind as possible on a track of 151T. In the morning when the wind turned South East she sagged off the track line, so motored East again until she could resume sailing down to Charlotteville at speeds of 7 to 9 knots through the water, now under full sail. Total passage time was 20 hours, distance through the water was 128 miles and total engine hours were 7.

What the crews said
 

Allways Sunday: Had the wind been 10 degrees more favourable we could have enjoyed the lovely 15-20 knot winds and had a wonderful sail. We found that running a Port tack with the current pushing us to Trinidad made the best sense until we reached the 3,000 ft. sea level where the current was weakest. Then we tacked Northeast for about 20 nautical miles until we were about 5 nautical miles above our Rhum line, then tacked back onto Port for a straight tight motorsail into Charlotteville/Man o’ War Bay.  As it was, it was a bit of a bashing but the moon and the stars shone above and we were pleased to arrive in Tobago.

Blue Marine: Our strategy was simple, “Get there ASAP”.  With wind and waves nearly on the nose, we just made a beeline for Tobago.  Our angle wasn’t the greatest but there was enough wind to utilize the mainsail, with one reef in case of squalls.  We throttled our twin engines up to 2200 rpm at 5:30 pm and maintained that setting all night long.  We made 4.5 to 5.5 knots, choosing not to go any faster as that would have been uncomfortable.  The swells and winds were both just off the port bow the whole trip.  We used more fuel than the other boats but the lumpy passage was shorter for us by almost 3 hours.  We checked into Tobago and were sitting down to a nice lunch just past noon.

Voyager: We have a great sailing vessel and we wanted to sail to Tobago. We felt the hours spent motorsailing to the NE in the early part of the trip would allow us to sail through the night on a straight course. We had originally thought to sail several hours further NE, to make the sail less of a beat, but realized that the 2 knot northward sweep of the current was preventing us from attaining any good additional easting. As it turned out, we had a great sail through the night, hard on the wind, with main, staysail, and yankee flying, illuminated by a brilliant half moon and the Milky Way. We reefed as needed in preparation for early morning squalls, getting advance warning both by VHF of the boats ahead of us and our own radar. We considered it a successful passage.

Zingano: To get the most comfortable passage we wanted to bring the wind away from the bows as much as possible. So we decided to start by motoring due East straight into the wind and seas while we were still fresh. The payoff being that we would then have a more comfortable sail during the night. This proved largely true and motoring into the seas was not as uncomfortable as we had feared, with only light spray coming back into the cockpit from the odd wave. In retrospect, we should have plugged on East for another hour or two because, when we turned South, we could only just fetch our track. Had we carried on we would have made an extra knot or two when sailing and perhaps avoided motoring again in the morning to get back on track. Overall we had a good ride, a quiet night, some great sailing under the stars and used little fuel and so it was a good passage for us. 

Who did best?

Who had the best strategy for getting to Tobago? The answer is of course that we all did!

Allways Sunday had the roughest ride but they saved themselves the run up to Carriacou, so overall their passage was the most direct and quickest.

Blue Marine arrived first; they probably used the most fuel but were happy about that and enjoyed the simplest crossing.

Voyager and Zingano had similar strategies, which were adapted to the characteristics of their boats, and aimed to minimise motoring time and maximise the sailing.

Some crews arrived fresher than others but we all got there safe and sound and by evening were rested enough to enjoy a lovely celebratory meal at Sharon & Phoebe’s restaurant.

Jeremy Shaw September 2004