MERIDIAN PASSAGE OF THE MOON

February And March 2023

Crossing the channels between Eastern Caribbean islands, an ebb tide carries you off to leeward and a strong flood tide creates lumpy seas, so crossing with a favorable tide is faster and more comfortable. The table below, showing the local time of the meridian passage (or zenith) of the moon for this month, will help you calculate the tides.

Water generally tries to run toward the moon. The flood tide starts running eastward soon after moonrise, continues to run east until about an hour after the moon reaches its zenith (see TIME below) and then ebbs westward. From just after the moon’s setting to just after its nadir, the tide runs eastward; and from just after its nadir to soon after its rising, the tide runs westward.

The first hour after moonrise, the westerly current is barely negated. The second hour the flood tide is stronger, the third and fourth hour it’s strongest, then it eases off in the fifth and sixth hours. The maximum tide is three or four days after the new and full moons.

All information was correct to the best of our knowledge at the time this issue of Compass went to press — but plans change, so please contact event organizers directly for confirmation.

If you organize a sailing or boating event not listed here that you’d like to have included in our monthly calendars, please send information two months before the event date(s) to editor@caribbeancompass.com

30th Anniversary

Dear Ms. Editor Lembo,

I am pleased to greet you very sincerely on behalf of the Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba and on my own behalf. As well as, to express my most sincere gratitude for your willingness to support the continuation of the excellent and fruitful relations of friendship and collaboration between Caribbean Compass and our Yacht Club. Which is considered as a Sanctuary of love of the sea and friendship between people who love the sea and Bastion in defense and rescue of the nautical history and Cuban maritime and nautical traditions.

For my part, I would feel very honored and happy to have the opportunity that we can meet personally one day. I had that honor with Sally, who responded positively to invitations to events organized by our Yacht Club. We are very sorry that she could not join us in the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of this Cuban nautical institution, on May 21st. We will keep you in mind to invite you to any event of international relevance hosted or organized by our Yacht Club.

I am also very happy that the pages of Caribbean Compass continue to be open to the news generated by the activity of our Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba.

Next week I will send you a note about the graduation of a group of young people as sailors. They studied at the headquarters of this Cuban nautical institution in compliance with the Friendship and Collaboration Agreement signed with the “ Andrés González Lines ” Maritime Fisheries Institute of Cuba, with which we continue contributing to the rescue of the nautical culture of the Cuban nation.

Waiting for us to meet in person in the near future, I take this opportunity to reiterate my most affectionate greetings and express my highest esteem and distinguished consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Commodore Escrich

Facebook: Cnih de Cuba

Dear Commodore,

How delightful! I would love to meet you in person someday. The Compass will definitely continue its coverage of your club and stunning sea and shore. I look forward to receiving news of the graduation of the young sailors. Please remember to include high resolution photos!

Until we talk again,

My very best regards

Elaine Lembo

Editor-in-Chief

Missing Hutch

Dear Compass, Man, do I miss summer after summer of sailing Jim Hutch Hutchinson's Fran II and Cocoa dinghies in Tyrrel Bay and its mangrove lagoon. You try not to take unique experiences like that for granted, but then, in 2009 on and off for the next ten years sailing around the point into our favorite Carriacou harbor from the northern throes of Culebra and USVI, I thought I’d live aboard until I died somewhere in the Eastern Caribbean.

Now, I'm a CLOD (Cruiser Living On Dirt). We sold our 40-foot sloop Boldly Go in April 2022 and live in my partner Jim's native northern Utah. Reading and seeing the photos within Hutch’s “Phil and Di” article in the December Compass brought times shared with Phil, Di and Hutch fully to mind. All special people from special times and places in the Caribbean.

Hutch’s style of storytelling, just as he displayed in his day to day life of teaching, nurturing and caring for and about people of diverse ethnicity, age and outlook, is what endears many to him. Of our 13 years aboard, it is time spent chatting or silently nestled in Ambia’s cockpit as Hutch and my partner played chess, sailing in one of Hutch’s cleverly designed dinghies that could be dismantled and nested in his small cockpit for passagemaking, watching Hutch in action teaching sailing, knots and seamanship to Carriacou local youth or kayak-paddling Fran II , mast stowed, against strong headwind, these are poignant memories I will always cherish. I'm thankful that Hutch lives on in Compass issues and the books he produces on OneManSpeaks.com. Write on!!

Ellen Birrell

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