Richard Hewson & familyDeparting Trinidad

Hurricane season in the Caribbean can be hot, humid and sweaty. We left Sunday Island on the hardstand at Powerboats yard in Trinidad and headed back to Tasmania for some work contracts and to keep ourselves sane over the Hurricane Season. This year has proven to be a good one with respect to the lack of Hurricanes, but we did not wish to stick around to find out with the family onboard.

Tasmania offered a fantastic relief to the hot and humid conditions. I was able to earn some money with Incat and an offshore oil company, while Emilie and the kids settled into house life. Issy and Max were accepted into the local Lauderdale primary school where they made some fantastic friendships, enjoyed school and performed well. It was a relief to find that our home schooling efforts were on the correct path, with both Issy and Max entering the Tasmanian education system as an average with most of their piers. When we departed Tasmania six months and two terms later, Issy and Max were both nearing the top of their class in grades.

I arrived in Trinidad on the 8th November to find Sunday Island looking a bit worse for ware. Our caretaker and the company who were commissioned to do some work on Sunday Island, appeared to have promised the world, not just to us, but to many other yachts in the yard, and Sunday Island work and duties had been neglected with the contractor thinking it was better to wait until our arrival to do any work on the boat. This was very disappointing, but when Emilie and the kids arrived two weeks later I had the boat back it the water and almost livable.

On the 24November 2023 I re launched Sunday Island in the morning prior to Emile, Issy and Max arriving that evening. We enjoyed a weekend off the boat exploring Trinidad and found some great waterfalls, monkeys and even took a river cruise to watch the Red Ibis birds come home to roost, turning an entire island from green trees to red! Also on our tour we saw White Ibis, Caimans, Constrictor snkes, and other wetland wildlife.

On the following monday we began to sort Sunday Island out in preparation for onward adventures including a thorough clean and sorting of cupboards, and getting sails and awnings back on deck. Finally by the 29th November we moved onboard and began stowing $3000US worth of dry provisions onboard to keep us going for the next 6 months of cruising.

Work completed in the Trinidad Yard period included
* Re wire Sunday Island batteries and fuses to accommodate new Lithium Batteries * Install lithium batteries – we now have 600AH of Lithium Power! * Remove internal ballast, paint bilges and clean
* Secure ballast
* Antifouling and painting
* Repair dent in Starboard side of gunwale we received in Malta * Re initiate all systems onboard
* New cockpit Bimini
* 70m of new 3/8 anchor chain
* Re-installing solar and wind generators.

On Friday 1st December we paid our bills, filled up with 350L of fuel and left Power boats yard. We sailed to a small bay around the corner for the night as a sea trial, packed away the last of the food and equipment, stowed for sea and departed the following morning for Los Roques.

The first leg of our onward journey took us 60nm due north near and oil rigs, so as to be well clear of the troubled Venzuelan coast, before altering course to the west. The first day we have experienced reasonably light winds so gave the engine a good run to charge batteries to 100%, and remove all our heavily chlorinated Trinidad water to be replaced with nice clean water maker water. I’m very happy to note that all systems onboard are working well and the crew are getting their sea legs again. We have excellent wind to push us west with 12-15 kts from the ENE.

Panama Update. Panama has experienced “Drought” conditions throughout 2023 and the canal is only operating at minimal capacity to preserve water in the lake that provides the water that feeds the canals. At present Panama Canal are only allowing 25 ship slots per day. 1/25 slots are reserved for non Panama vessels, resulting in only one slow for small vessels to pass through the canal. Our latest information from an agent in Panama is that by rafting the small vessels Panama are able to process 14-15 small yachts per day, resulting in only a 5 day waiting period. Our aim is to pass through Panama in early January ahead of the World Arc and Oyster Rally yachts.