THE FINAL PASSAGE : BARBADOS TO TRINIDAD.

     
After a magic week in Barbados enjoying Bajan hospitality to the full we were ready to sail our final passage for the season to Trinidad and end our seven month Caribbean sojourn . We had booked our haulout at Peakes Yacht Services for the 15th May and we needed to be prepared for living on the boat on the hard until the 1st June when we would fly back home to Capetown, South Africa.

Sailing from Barbados to Trinidad would be a 200nm broad reach all the way back, a point of sail the First Mate really enjoys. At least her house almost stands upright and it's a comfortable surf all the way back making it easier to work in the galley and move about the boat.

After settling our account at the Port St Charles Marina office (which amounted to the equivalent of one year's berthing fees in our homeport) we backed out of our slip, motored out into open water and hoisted sail. Being in the lee of Barbados the seas were flat and with steady trade winds blowing we were soon up to speed and making good progress. Once we had cleared the shadow of the island and were out in the open North Atlantic swell we settled down and watched the island disappear over the horizon.

The one feature about this passage that was quite disturbing was the large amounts of pelagic sargassum seaweed that we came across while underway. Huge rafts of the orange grass that stretched from one horizon to the other. A common sight at first light usually after a bumpy night at sea would be clumps of sargasso mixed with flying fish lying on our side decks.
Apart from minor problems affecting boats like fouled props and rudders the influx of sargassum weed that originates off Africa and drifts in the currents via South America is now having an impact on the windward coasts of the Caribbean islands from Trinidad north. In many bays and on many beaches piles of off-gassing sargasso are creating serious health issues and environmental problems which will have an impact on island tourism. The gas given off by the decomposing seaweed is Hydrogen Sulfide which at levels of 100ppm is deadly. According to experts 2ppm can cause spontaneous abortion in pregnant women and if you suffer from any respiratory issues, lying on a beach with a shoreline littered with the weed you will find breathing very difficult. The accompanying appalling, nauseating smell the rotten weed gives off could become a major problem for holiday resorts if they cannot devise methods of removing the weed quickly and effectively.
Apart from health issues other problems like plugging the intakes of reverse osmosis watermakers, metal tarnishing, paint damage and the corrosive effect on electronics have surfaced and in one case in Virgin Gorda the influx shut down the island's watermaking plant for several weeks seriously impacting on the water supply to the inhabitants and tourists.
There is also a huge environmental impact on sea life. Turtle nesting beaches of which there are many suffer with adults getting trapped in the weed while trying to gain access to the sand to lay their eggs and similarly the hatchlings become trapped while trying to gain access to the sea. Lobster and many other marine species are killed which then directly affects the local fisherman. 
Poor beach-cleaning practices have been a big problem so lots of effort is now going into establishing quick and effective methods to deal with the scourge.  


Getting back to our sea life, closing in on Trinidad we had a number of pirogues cross our wake and with all the talk of piracy in these waters nowadays, we kept a beady eye on them. We arrived off the entrance to Monos Bocas on the outgoing tide and snuck around the edge of the opening to avoid the strong outflow in the middle of the channel. We headed straight for the authorities in Chaguaramas to be able to clear in before they closed for the day. By the time the formalities had been completed and we had motored back to Peake Yacht Services their staff had all knocked off for the day. Not knowing which berth had been allocated to us in their small marina off the yard, we took the liberty of backing into Peter Peake's private slip for the night. The next morning he arrived on the dock and after a handshake and a warm welcome he suggested we make ourselves at home until we move into our allocated berth before hauling out. 

Apart from a group of dolphins paying us a visit, rafts of sargasso weed and a couple of rain squalls through the night, our final passage of the season was pretty uneventful which most sailors would agree is not a bad thing.