Yikes, the blog is getting pretty seriously behind. We're actually in Dominica and it's March, and here I am writing a post about St Maarten and late January. I'll make this a quick one because it frankly wasn't all that interesting; we've been enjoying our cruising since SXM much more (so much I rarely have time to write!).
When sailing back from Statia, we initially anchored in Simpson Bay but sandwiched ourselves into a a pretty tight spot at the head of the fleet to get out of the incessant roll from passing boats. It wasn't a very good place to leave Dawn while I left to fly my trip, so the next day we waited for the 3pm bridge opening and then motored into the lagoon. We selected a very good spot with rock solid holding just south of the causeway bridge, and that was our home for the next week and a half.
Before I left on my work trip, one of my "to do" items that never got done was to verify that our second propane tank was full, as we knew the first one would run out soon. I thought it was full because I remembered getting it filled in Carolina, Puerto Rico, at the end of last season. We did indeed get our tanks filled in Carolina, but it was actually during our first pass through Puerto Rico, in late March. So when Dawn ran out of propane the very same day I flew to Atlanta, she very quickly discovered that the second propane cylinder was also empty. Whoops. Complicating matters, our anchorage was beyond the range of any useful wifi, and Dawn normally relied in the 4G hotspot of my Google Fi phone - the one I took with on my trip. So she was left with no way to communicate with me while I was in Atlanta and then Rio de Janiero, other than to use the wifi at Lagoonies or Dinghy Dock once a day. Nevertheless she was able to get the propane filled in my absence, as she remembered hearing that Island Water World in Cole Bay accepted propane tanks for refilling on Mondays. She was also able to disconnect and reconnect the propane cylinder from its boat plumbing even though that's always been my job. Good girl. I felt bad about leaving her in a lurch - and without easy communication at that. I discovered that Google Fi offers free data-only SIMs that would allow Dawn to have her own internet via my Google Fi plan, independent of my phone, so we ordered one of those; she got it in mid-February and has worked very well.
We never actually made it to Grand Case or Philipsburg or anywhere that was much beyond walking distance from the lagoon, though we had every intention of doing so. The few days that we had the time, the weather sucked or a cruiser friend came into port or I got suckered into waiting for the machinist to visit the boat to draw up plans for our alternator bracket. Spoiler alert: he got busy and kept delaying making it until the very end and then said he wouldn't be able to build it for us, it was basically a big wild goose chase and a fair waste of our time in St Maarten. Instead we had it fabricated in Antigua in a few days; I haven't installed the second alternator just yet but will do so shortly.
The one thing that came together in St Maarten in a very nice way was the arrival and installation of our new MaxProp 4-blade feathering propeller. Simply unpacking it was almost enough to make me weep tears of joy, for the assembly is an exquisitely beautiful (and exquisitely expensive) piece of modern sculpture in bronze. Even Dawn admitted it was quite gorgeous. And then we had Jacque of Atlantic Divers install it, and took it for a sea trial within the flat confines of the lagoon. Wow, what a game-changer! It is absolutely perfect for our engine, with exactly the right pitch and power and zero of the vibration issues of the gifted 3-blade, and 1-2 knot gains in speed under power over the old 2-blade. The difference in reverse is particularly startling. With the old prop, 2000 rpm in reverse resulted in a lot of prop walk and a lengthy wait for any rearward progress. With the MaxProp at even 1500 rpm in reverse, water boils up as you get immediate pull and are up to a knot in no time, at which point the rudder starts to become effective. It makes Windbird a heck of a lot easier to handle in a marina (we've taken a fuel dock and a customs dock since). In real world conditions, I've become an even bigger fan of the MaxProp's performance. Motoring or motorsailing, we punch through chop far better than the old prop ever did, and the decrease in drag while sailing has been extremely noticeable, especially in light air. We sailed in as little as 6.5 knots of wind on our St Barts - Antigua passage and still made 4 knots. That usually took 8 or 9 knots before. Ten knots on the beam now gives us close to 6 through the water, which is about a knot faster than before. In heavy air the difference in speed is negligible, but I do feel like the boat does better bashing to windward in a seaway, perhaps because she's quicker to accelerate after colliding with bigger waves. Long story short, our $3800 piece of art was a great investment.
Our last move in the lagoon was to motor over to the Island Water World marina and top up on diesel, dinghy gasoline and water. This was our first chance to verify the new engine's fuel consumption, which is right around .7 gallons per hour. This was before installation of the new prop (at which point we reduced our normal cruising RPM to 2000, which nets nearly 6 knots), but also before installation of the second alternator. So a real apples-to-apples comparison will have to wait.
We exited the lagoon at the 4pm bridge opening on Feb 2nd, and anchored on the far north of Simpson Bay, which doesn't get swell with NE seas (it does in SE) and is fairly removed from the boat wakes. We were just waiting for my parents to fly in Feb 3rd, and then begin our cruise with them to St. Barth and Antigua.
When sailing back from Statia, we initially anchored in Simpson Bay but sandwiched ourselves into a a pretty tight spot at the head of the fleet to get out of the incessant roll from passing boats. It wasn't a very good place to leave Dawn while I left to fly my trip, so the next day we waited for the 3pm bridge opening and then motored into the lagoon. We selected a very good spot with rock solid holding just south of the causeway bridge, and that was our home for the next week and a half.
Before I left on my work trip, one of my "to do" items that never got done was to verify that our second propane tank was full, as we knew the first one would run out soon. I thought it was full because I remembered getting it filled in Carolina, Puerto Rico, at the end of last season. We did indeed get our tanks filled in Carolina, but it was actually during our first pass through Puerto Rico, in late March. So when Dawn ran out of propane the very same day I flew to Atlanta, she very quickly discovered that the second propane cylinder was also empty. Whoops. Complicating matters, our anchorage was beyond the range of any useful wifi, and Dawn normally relied in the 4G hotspot of my Google Fi phone - the one I took with on my trip. So she was left with no way to communicate with me while I was in Atlanta and then Rio de Janiero, other than to use the wifi at Lagoonies or Dinghy Dock once a day. Nevertheless she was able to get the propane filled in my absence, as she remembered hearing that Island Water World in Cole Bay accepted propane tanks for refilling on Mondays. She was also able to disconnect and reconnect the propane cylinder from its boat plumbing even though that's always been my job. Good girl. I felt bad about leaving her in a lurch - and without easy communication at that. I discovered that Google Fi offers free data-only SIMs that would allow Dawn to have her own internet via my Google Fi plan, independent of my phone, so we ordered one of those; she got it in mid-February and has worked very well.
We never actually made it to Grand Case or Philipsburg or anywhere that was much beyond walking distance from the lagoon, though we had every intention of doing so. The few days that we had the time, the weather sucked or a cruiser friend came into port or I got suckered into waiting for the machinist to visit the boat to draw up plans for our alternator bracket. Spoiler alert: he got busy and kept delaying making it until the very end and then said he wouldn't be able to build it for us, it was basically a big wild goose chase and a fair waste of our time in St Maarten. Instead we had it fabricated in Antigua in a few days; I haven't installed the second alternator just yet but will do so shortly.
The one thing that came together in St Maarten in a very nice way was the arrival and installation of our new MaxProp 4-blade feathering propeller. Simply unpacking it was almost enough to make me weep tears of joy, for the assembly is an exquisitely beautiful (and exquisitely expensive) piece of modern sculpture in bronze. Even Dawn admitted it was quite gorgeous. And then we had Jacque of Atlantic Divers install it, and took it for a sea trial within the flat confines of the lagoon. Wow, what a game-changer! It is absolutely perfect for our engine, with exactly the right pitch and power and zero of the vibration issues of the gifted 3-blade, and 1-2 knot gains in speed under power over the old 2-blade. The difference in reverse is particularly startling. With the old prop, 2000 rpm in reverse resulted in a lot of prop walk and a lengthy wait for any rearward progress. With the MaxProp at even 1500 rpm in reverse, water boils up as you get immediate pull and are up to a knot in no time, at which point the rudder starts to become effective. It makes Windbird a heck of a lot easier to handle in a marina (we've taken a fuel dock and a customs dock since). In real world conditions, I've become an even bigger fan of the MaxProp's performance. Motoring or motorsailing, we punch through chop far better than the old prop ever did, and the decrease in drag while sailing has been extremely noticeable, especially in light air. We sailed in as little as 6.5 knots of wind on our St Barts - Antigua passage and still made 4 knots. That usually took 8 or 9 knots before. Ten knots on the beam now gives us close to 6 through the water, which is about a knot faster than before. In heavy air the difference in speed is negligible, but I do feel like the boat does better bashing to windward in a seaway, perhaps because she's quicker to accelerate after colliding with bigger waves. Long story short, our $3800 piece of art was a great investment.
Our last move in the lagoon was to motor over to the Island Water World marina and top up on diesel, dinghy gasoline and water. This was our first chance to verify the new engine's fuel consumption, which is right around .7 gallons per hour. This was before installation of the new prop (at which point we reduced our normal cruising RPM to 2000, which nets nearly 6 knots), but also before installation of the second alternator. So a real apples-to-apples comparison will have to wait.
We exited the lagoon at the 4pm bridge opening on Feb 2nd, and anchored on the far north of Simpson Bay, which doesn't get swell with NE seas (it does in SE) and is fairly removed from the boat wakes. We were just waiting for my parents to fly in Feb 3rd, and then begin our cruise with them to St. Barth and Antigua.
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