tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40900744571815118402024-03-13T12:02:00.791-07:00Weigels On The WaterSam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-37359715120114615822019-12-27T13:48:00.000-08:002019-12-27T14:23:43.787-08:00The Rest of the Story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well....<br />
<br />
I don't know whether this blog still has any subscribers, but in case I do, sorry about those eight months without updates. I got busy at the end of last season, figured I'd catch up the blog over the summer, and then it turned into the busiest summer of our lives (which itself will require a pretty big post). Those who know us or follow us on Facebook or Instagram or read my columns in Flying Magazine likely know the tale, but for those who just read the blog, I have some serious catching up to do. So first off: here's the Cliff Notes version of the last month and a half of last cruising season.<br />
<br />
I left off in St. Lucia, where Dawn and I ended up staying for 14 days in Rodney Bay, Marigot Bay, and Soufriere, and which we left on April 1st. It was a beautiful downwind (finally!) sail to Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent, where we stopped only to check into St. Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG) and move on to the Grenadines. In fact, we could have checked in at our first stop of Bequia, but we had to make Piper a Legal Beagle with the official government vet. SVG is a notoriously tough place to import a foreign pooch but with some persistence and an extra unplanned vet visit we were able to make it happen, 100% legal, and it's a good thing we did as we were queried by policemen and other locals several times down the chain to make sure we weren't sneaking an unsanctioned dog to shore. There are (admittedly second-hand) stories about cruiser's dogs being shot for lack of paperwork. SVG is deadly serious about keeping rabies out of their islands.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3_eKfGdDMkE/XgaB3XCNf4I/AAAAAAAASYg/sFG9nvNm7z8J-umn2wBdtEyXoGfQOpc5wCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190407_084445_468.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1600" height="316" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3_eKfGdDMkE/XgaB3XCNf4I/AAAAAAAASYg/sFG9nvNm7z8J-umn2wBdtEyXoGfQOpc5wCKgBGAsYHg/s400/IMG_20190407_084445_468.jpg" width="400" /></a> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x0UAZ4y0rHc/XgaB3XC6MGI/AAAAAAAASYg/TJ-IgULX4wAJe4hgaq0a_iMAFdcLtGDbACKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190403_132433_575.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="133" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x0UAZ4y0rHc/XgaB3XC6MGI/AAAAAAAASYg/TJ-IgULX4wAJe4hgaq0a_iMAFdcLtGDbACKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190403_132433_575.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YJbe42Y2Ufk/XgaB3XZAOvI/AAAAAAAASYg/uGLvVDzfGXczh8Nx8iBIisj6_vs2BFVMwCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190404_072617_620.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1201" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YJbe42Y2Ufk/XgaB3XZAOvI/AAAAAAAASYg/uGLvVDzfGXczh8Nx8iBIisj6_vs2BFVMwCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190404_072617_620.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cfGkXjjNjWk/XgaB3T8PmLI/AAAAAAAASYg/cE6yYS3-D1EfeW-T6yFKNw22LHxVcGwNgCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190402_154413685_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cfGkXjjNjWk/XgaB3T8PmLI/AAAAAAAASYg/cE6yYS3-D1EfeW-T6yFKNw22LHxVcGwNgCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190402_154413685_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>After one night moored in Blue Lagoon, we made the short sail over to Bequia, which we quickly fell in love with; it became one of our favorite islands in the Caribbean. It helped that several of our cruising friends caught up with us there: Brian and Shelly on Aria, Gary and Niamh on Freed Spirit, and John and Belinda on Be As You Are. We also met "cruiser celebrities" Ann & Steve on S/V Receta; Ann Vanderhoof is the author of two fantastic books, "An Embarrassment of Mangoes" and "The Spice Necklace," which were two of mine and Dawn's first reads after we decided to go <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lryen84Bt9I/XgaB3ZkVkRI/AAAAAAAASYg/IyoLQIgm-bwwFg4Wa9elVeaI6dfMMF2ugCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190417_181450572_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lryen84Bt9I/XgaB3ZkVkRI/AAAAAAAASYg/IyoLQIgm-bwwFg4Wa9elVeaI6dfMMF2ugCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190417_181450572_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>cruising. Bequia has a large fairly protected anchorage (albeit with variable holding), a cute main town with decent provisioning, good walking and hiking, a rich boatbuilding and whaling tradition, good dog-friendly beaches, plenty of dinghy docks, and a fantastic walkway around the main harbor that connects a ton of great bars and restaurants. Plus, shortly before we arrived, the floating "Bar One" was launched and quickly became a cruiser happy-hour favorite. All in all, Bequia is one of the most cruiser-friendly destinations we've found since Georgetown.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ICpLLIW3180/XgaB3WZ74EI/AAAAAAAASYg/SayRMGxju00OavpKuMSxZ52yw8eG_FpiQCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190415_175233294_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ICpLLIW3180/XgaB3WZ74EI/AAAAAAAASYg/SayRMGxju00OavpKuMSxZ52yw8eG_FpiQCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190415_175233294_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_A0UI0PhGVg/XgaB3QfnsEI/AAAAAAAASYg/cUHFCkIKU6gkjAtk7IKrbuD9yAE5_J5hACKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190408_183243241_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_A0UI0PhGVg/XgaB3QfnsEI/AAAAAAAASYg/cUHFCkIKU6gkjAtk7IKrbuD9yAE5_J5hACKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190408_183243241_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>We stayed in Bequia for a week the first time, then moved on to Canouan - which is considerably less cruiser-friendly - and Mayreau, which is quite small but quirky and friendly. We spent several days in the Tobago Cays, which are a lovely little slice of the Bahamas transplanted to the <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6V2NInp8cAY/XgaB3d9WCjI/AAAAAAAASYg/c1-BT-BxD3wPy-12dJNg3_evi2acm55MgCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190411_134939568_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6V2NInp8cAY/XgaB3d9WCjI/AAAAAAAASYg/c1-BT-BxD3wPy-12dJNg3_evi2acm55MgCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190411_134939568_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nD1gisvHmck/XgaB3eNFQ1I/AAAAAAAASYg/LbDuoNVc-YY9Lj4P3inFeThKuQrJ8tAHACKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190409_124407_254.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nD1gisvHmck/XgaB3eNFQ1I/AAAAAAAASYg/LbDuoNVc-YY9Lj4P3inFeThKuQrJ8tAHACKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190409_124407_254.jpg" width="200" /></a>eastern Caribbean, and a couple days at Union Island and one night at the private island of Petit St. Vincent before backtracking north back to Bequia on my birthday, April 17th, just in time for the Easter Regatta weekend. I did a wreck dive with the Aria and Freed Spirit crews that <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wHqeyl5SHT4/XgaB3TtIcPI/AAAAAAAASYg/wPPsxTFUtlAmL71TpcO7tIxsWvYi1TN6wCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190413_183234487_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wHqeyl5SHT4/XgaB3TtIcPI/AAAAAAAASYg/wPPsxTFUtlAmL71TpcO7tIxsWvYi1TN6wCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190413_183234487_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>Saturday, and on Easter Sunday our friends Brad and Amber <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8KCuv3nAkI0/XgaB3RnttTI/AAAAAAAASYg/WU5ukutJfnIP-hSMr5rlr4bZm1PpuWqJwCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190426_110546203_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8KCuv3nAkI0/XgaB3RnttTI/AAAAAAAASYg/WU5ukutJfnIP-hSMr5rlr4bZm1PpuWqJwCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190426_110546203_HDR.jpg" width="150" /></a>Phillips arrived from Portland, OR. After an additional day showing them the charms of Bequia, we sailed down to the Tobago Cays for two nights, then Union Island for a night to check out of SVG, and the short sail over to Carriacou, where we checked into Grenada. In all, we spent three and a half weeks in SVG, and really loved it. It was the highlight of our season.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WxtI8Ns17g8/XgaB3RESpKI/AAAAAAAASYg/S7LlqdzYOlUG1a7mIy0JyFwkf-rOLyvcACKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190429_121020872_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WxtI8Ns17g8/XgaB3RESpKI/AAAAAAAASYg/S7LlqdzYOlUG1a7mIy0JyFwkf-rOLyvcACKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190429_121020872_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>After two nights at Carriacou, we sailed the 40 miles to Grenada and down the east and south coasts to Prickly Bay on the southwest side of the island. Brad and Amber left the next day and we set about exploring Grenada. After a few days in Prickly Bay / Lance aux Epines, we moved over to the Hog Island anchorage, where we were able to cover the <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eR3GAlxFLpw/XgaB3TonXTI/AAAAAAAASYg/oBnT4Ij4358dIlZgzeu9ojqSTLGdrcUJQCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190506_112326346.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eR3GAlxFLpw/XgaB3TonXTI/AAAAAAAASYg/oBnT4Ij4358dIlZgzeu9ojqSTLGdrcUJQCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190506_112326346.jpg" width="200" /></a>south coast by dinghy from Mt Hartman Bay to our west, Woburn Bay and the town of Lower Woburn to our north, and Le Phare Bleu to our east. Eventually the need to make water and Hog Island's green mangrove water drove us to the Calivigny Island anchorage in eastern Woburn Bay. While there we met up with our friends Simon, Kim & Sienna on S/V Britican, who <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mh_kARx0fbg/XgaB3V2VtEI/AAAAAAAASYg/rTgoffbgOTcQuE-5gHafs2eyiZR6mrssgCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190505_180842852_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mh_kARx0fbg/XgaB3V2VtEI/AAAAAAAASYg/rTgoffbgOTcQuE-5gHafs2eyiZR6mrssgCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190505_180842852_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>were at the Le Phare Bleu marina. During the last few days in Grenada Brian and Shelly on Aria caught up with us as well, as did Steve on S/V Alkemi, and a few days before we left we all attended a benefit concert at the popular West Indies Brewing. While we were on Grenada, we also rented a car for several days to explore the island, and went on a night-time expedition to the north coast to watch leatherback turtles lay their eggs, which was really cool. <br />
<br />
In the meantime Dawn and I had picked up a temporary crewmember, without really meaning to. Word had got around via the coconut telegraph that we were headed west, and Matt Ray was newly without a vessel as the boat that he had been crewing on since Australia (!) had just completed her circumnavigation and was going on the hard. Matt needed to get to Panama to complete his own circumnavigation, all done crewing on other people's boats, and was planning an intermediate stop in Bonaire, right next door to our own next destination of Curacao. <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sevgActTHzM/XgaB3e1Nh3I/AAAAAAAASYg/VByXqb-2y84SBqYIBVuUAENV8CiJ4i0LQCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190506_182452643.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sevgActTHzM/XgaB3e1Nh3I/AAAAAAAASYg/VByXqb-2y84SBqYIBVuUAENV8CiJ4i0LQCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190506_182452643.jpg" width="200" /></a>Matt called us during the daily VHF net, we met up, he seemed like a cool guy and a capable sailor, and we agreed to take him on to Bonaire. He moved aboard Windbird the next day, and was with us for about a week since we left for Bonaire a few days later, after moving over to St. George for one night. It was our first time taking on crew we didn't know, and it worked out really well. Matt was a cool guy with a lot of great stories, a good cook who didn't get seasick below, a keen musician with a guitar, and a good sailor that afforded us a relaxing 3 on - 6 off watch schedule on our 4-day passage.<br />
<br />
I think I have to back up a little bit. Originally we were planning to spend hurricane season in Colombia. Our late start to the season due to our repower, plus the fact that some good friends invited us to go sailing with them in the Seychelles in mid-May, made us abandon that plan and find an earlier hurricane season hideout. We considered Grenada, and once we got there we wished we'd gone with it as it's a great cruiser destination that we really liked. But, Curacao is considered safer from hurricanes, we could leave Windbird in the water there, and it would put us halfway to Colombia to start the 2019-2020 season cruising the Western Caribbean. We have cruiser friends who have summered in Curacao in the past and said our intended marina was a good safe, protected place to stash the boat, and the price was quite reasonable. All of which led us to leaving Grenada before we would have really liked to, after only 10 days or so.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1BkZaaX4pMc/XgaB3WsBJNI/AAAAAAAASYg/GCfwXEXSbycrPoluN77n4Z8MuzSwFLJsACKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190508_132419691.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1BkZaaX4pMc/XgaB3WsBJNI/AAAAAAAASYg/GCfwXEXSbycrPoluN77n4Z8MuzSwFLJsACKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190508_132419691.jpg" width="200" /></a>The 450-mile downwind passage to Bonaire was a nice one, albeit with somewhat light flaky wind the first day out and quite a lot of wind the last 24-hours. The only real happening of the passage was routing my spinnaker halyard wrong the first day, leading to it chafing through after only a few hours of flying the kite. The mainsail was down so the boat stopped dead, and it was fairly easy to get the soggy kite back on board. We sailed northwest the first 150 miles, dead downwind/west the next 150, and southwest the final 150 miles in order to stay <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bJIy-Y6j6HA/XgaB3Z213II/AAAAAAAASYg/nfBZwRdFGJ047RY7uUu7Pu3BtG2q3JOLQCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190511_161834978_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bJIy-Y6j6HA/XgaB3Z213II/AAAAAAAASYg/nfBZwRdFGJ047RY7uUu7Pu3BtG2q3JOLQCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190511_161834978_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>well away from the Venezuelan islands due to the risk of piracy. No pirates were sighted and we arrived safely in Bonaire on the afternoon of May 11th. We stayed for only 14 hours, just long enough to drop Matt off and have dinner at his Kiwi/Canadian friend Donna's beautiful oceanfront house and walk around downtown a bit in the morning. We really liked what we saw, and resolved to beat 30 miles upwind at the start of next season to enjoy Bonaire more. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VdXa4Bm-Qs8/XgZ98L9Ky5I/AAAAAAAASX8/6ADCDzxavRM5Cd0XFQR8EpgwSe3tuKuMgCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/IMG_20190516_085611687_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VdXa4Bm-Qs8/XgZ98L9Ky5I/AAAAAAAASX8/6ADCDzxavRM5Cd0XFQR8EpgwSe3tuKuMgCKgBGAsYHg/s200/IMG_20190516_085611687_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>On May 12th we sailed the final 30 miles to Spanish Waters, Curacao, where we spent the next couple dayings stripping Windbird for hurricane season. Curacao historically is south of the hurricane belt, but with climate change storms are becoming less predictable; better safe than sorry. We took our slip in Seru Boca Marina on May 15th, and on May 17th Dawn, Piper and I all flew to Miami and then Atlanta on American Airlines. Piper handled the flying well again. I flew a 4-day trip while Dawn visited her family as they vacationed in Pigeon Forge, TN, and then we left Piper at a DogVacay and flew halfway around the world to go sailing in the Seychelles. But that's getting into our crazy summer, which is a subject for another post.</div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-91472397281351604442019-04-14T09:11:00.002-07:002019-04-14T09:40:18.787-07:00Loving St Lucia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You never know quite what to expect when cruising. You read the guidebooks, talk to other cruisers, think you know what a place is going to be like, but it's never quite how you imagine it. And that's a good part of the appeal of cruising, of any form of travel really. If words and photos and video were sufficient to really experience what any given place is like, why go to all the trouble of traveling there?<br />
<br />
I was prepared to breeze by St. Lucia. An early plan for this season had us spending 5 days, and at one point we considered skipping it altogether in the interest of saving ourselves two vet visits for Piper. There were a couple reasons I wasn't stoked. I knew there was a fair amount of charter boat traffic, and heard their tourism was largely geared to all-inclusive resorts and cruise ships, and I saw the reports of petty theft and even violent crime on the Caribbean Safety and Security Net website, and read online cruisers bitching about pushy boat boys. So the hassles seemed to outweigh the attractions, because I didn't really know the attractions. As it turned out, we ended up staying 14 days and loving it.<br />
<br />
Mind you, I was gone on a work trip for 4 of the 14 days, which was our whole reason for coming to St. Lucia in the first place. It's not that easy to fly from Martinique or St. Vincent to my base airport of Atlanta, while my employer has daily flights from St. Lucia. And Rodney Bay Marina has a reputation for being nice while also being remarkably cheap. So we crossed from Saint Anne, Martinique to Rodney Bay on Tuesday, March 19th. We sailed all the way to the anchorage, beating past the beautiful Sea Cloud II sailing cruise ship. Rodney Bay has gorgeous water, great beaches including some Piper-friendly spots, a nice national park with good hiking on one end at Pigeon Island, and a cruiser-friendly dinghy dock at the marina with lots of good dining, drinking and provisioning spots around. What's not to like?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L1lNkT8WfQ4/XLNd95sWnJI/AAAAAAAANJM/YCbBn06_Jlc3Gvdj7Mb41JLFJ5-jdVr0ACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190321_144418899.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L1lNkT8WfQ4/XLNd95sWnJI/AAAAAAAANJM/YCbBn06_Jlc3Gvdj7Mb41JLFJ5-jdVr0ACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190321_144418899.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5LOGVggVHJ4/XLNd-6i4ANI/AAAAAAAANJQ/lD4_I14SLPMCjBtiNgGJtJn39eg3BOBLACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190321_150532256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5LOGVggVHJ4/XLNd-6i4ANI/AAAAAAAANJQ/lD4_I14SLPMCjBtiNgGJtJn39eg3BOBLACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190321_150532256.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-96aSktWwgD0/XLNd8lz36rI/AAAAAAAANJI/HCSrzl6zs3cc4VoJ4wCE2TjOgC5MUTIlgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190321_133458468_HDR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-96aSktWwgD0/XLNd8lz36rI/AAAAAAAANJI/HCSrzl6zs3cc4VoJ4wCE2TjOgC5MUTIlgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190321_133458468_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Crime, that's what. Rodney Bay has a reputation for petty theft in general, dinghy theft in particular, and even occasional boat boardings, reportedly originating from the local town of Gros Islet. And indeed, our second night in the anchorage there was a dinghy theft that was announced on the VHF net the next morning (and soon made its way to Facebook and the CSSN website). The particulars are interesting. The dinghy <i>was </i>secured to the mother ship, but the thief(s) were well-prepared with a bolt-cutters. The fact that the dinghy was left in the water and had a thin security cable rather than a chain made their job considerably easier.<br />
<br />
When Dawn and I were in Antigua, we purchased a 10' section of beefy 10mm BBB chain and several additional padlocks, and revamped our security procedures before heading south. We padlocked one end of the chain to a hard point on the dinghy and, before leaving it unattended, padlock the other end to a hard point on the dock. An additional cable secures our gas tank and ties in with the padlock that secures our outboard engine to the transom of the dinghy. At night, we raise the dinghy on our davits, and lock it to our stainless railing. We also raise our boarding ladder and close the lifeline gate. Does this make us impregnable? Of course not. If somebody <i>really</i> wanted to get aboard, silence our wildly barking dog (arguably our best security measure), hold us at knifepoint, and steal most of our earthly possessions, they probably could (more likely scenario, they wait until we and Piper are gone, and break through the teak of the locked companionway hatch). But the point to all this isn't to make us impregnable, just to make us a harder nut to crack than the newer and fancier boat anchored right next door. I'm confident we are, so I don't worry about security too much.<br />
<br />
Except when I'm at work. Because if anyone's paying attention, it'd be quickly apparent that I'm not onboard, and that could get some wheels turning in an undesired direction. And it's really hard for Dawn to get the dinghy on the davits by herself, which removes another protection. So far this season we haven't had to really worry, as I left her on the dock in Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, and the lagoon in St. Maarten and Falmouth Harbour in Antigua are both pretty safe. But in Rodney Bay I had to err on the side of caution. Fortunately the Rodney Bay Marina has fantastic floating docks and nice facilities at only US$.70/ft/day. That's the price of a mooring ball in the BVI. So it made for an easy choice.<br />
<br />
The day that I flew to Atlanta, we rented a car and took Piper to his vet appointment in the hills east of Castries to get his health certificate to go to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Then we drove cross-country to the east coast on small local roads, marveling at the sturdy houses splayed up and down the hillsides. St. Lucia was wealthier than I expected, with bigger houses and cleaner yards than seen in anglophone islands further north. We ate at a great local open-air restaurant on the east coast, Chill-n-Grill, before Dawn dropped me off at the airport. When I got back 4 days later (landing currency newly reset), I split a $100 cab fare with a nice young couple from Birmingham, AL that was going to a resort just north of Rodney Bay. <br />
<br />
While on the dock, I chose to have some local guys, Albi and Elvis, detail & wax Windbird (her bootstripe was quite faded and needed some restoration), and repair various dings in her gelcoat, $300 all-in. They worked wonders with the green bootstripe and waterline stripe, and overall she looks way better, but the gelcoat repairs were fairly amateurish. Which is to say, probably about the same as if I'd attempted them myself. In the guys' defense, they worked quite a few extra hours to try to make it right (only partially succeeding) and didn't try to get me to pay more than the initial quote. Because of the extra time to finish the work, we got off the dock a day later than planned (two days after my return from Atlanta).<br />
<br />
In retrospect, taking the dock may have been the wrong move, for as soon as we got to Marigot Bay, Dawn fell in love with the place. Imagine a perfectly protected azure lagoon, surrounded by green hills and mangroves filled with birdsong on three sides and enclosed on the ocean side by a sandy spit straight out of a Corona commercial, right down to the tall swaying palm trees. Add a five star resort with two gorgeous pools, to which your $30 mooring fee gets you free access (plus showers and fast wifi). Add several friendly, lively cruisers bars around the lagoon and a couple of local joints up the hillside. We were planning to spend one night but immediately decided on two, and probably could have stayed a week. That resort pool was absolutely heavenly.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U4P6LYUlC2I/XLNfGMArmFI/AAAAAAAANJo/YFukjh520H88AqG75gL0qlq3uydl_D8YwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190328_125022563_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U4P6LYUlC2I/XLNfGMArmFI/AAAAAAAANJo/YFukjh520H88AqG75gL0qlq3uydl_D8YwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190328_125022563_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3GITKcVwg7k/XLNfEvdpIjI/AAAAAAAANJg/U4Q2yX9to-UbB3FSX2V18DAnuDdlQuGTwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190328_125730885_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3GITKcVwg7k/XLNfEvdpIjI/AAAAAAAANJg/U4Q2yX9to-UbB3FSX2V18DAnuDdlQuGTwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190328_125730885_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YywbwuVGbAk/XLNfF2ab0JI/AAAAAAAANJk/pUGceQh_CIMjIj_ISOL2uVRFYyKz4PdLwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190328_180850398_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YywbwuVGbAk/XLNfF2ab0JI/AAAAAAAANJk/pUGceQh_CIMjIj_ISOL2uVRFYyKz4PdLwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190328_180850398_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QR0WJtoC5VQ/XLNfHcq3a7I/AAAAAAAANJs/-51uFD2Y0BMdp3Np3xiNciaza0baIv5-ACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190329_142442574_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QR0WJtoC5VQ/XLNfHcq3a7I/AAAAAAAANJs/-51uFD2Y0BMdp3Np3xiNciaza0baIv5-ACEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190329_142442574_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
We knew Souffriere would be more rough-edged, with a history of theft against yachts, and so decided to take a mooring ball (mandated by national park regulations) between town and the Pitons. In fact, we thought the town wasn't that bad, and certainly has a good deal to offer cruisers, and were completely blown away by the mystical beauty of the Pitons. Our anchorage below Petit Piton was one of the most spectacular of the season, made even better by the nearness of a very Piper-friendly beach with easy dinghy landing. We only had two nights due to an April 1st appointment with the government vet in St. Vincent; we were sorely tempted to spend a third but would have had to cancel and reschedule last-minute, since we couldn't reach the vet over the weekend. SVG is one of the most notoriously difficult places for cruisers to import dogs, so we decided to stick to the original schedule. This meant that we didn't get to climb either of the Pitons.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lDwLlEkRxRU/XLNf9KCeauI/AAAAAAAANKU/IViqfIbQMHQ9lXhJ2Nx4mq_7tNst1q3SgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190330_154548720_HDR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lDwLlEkRxRU/XLNf9KCeauI/AAAAAAAANKU/IViqfIbQMHQ9lXhJ2Nx4mq_7tNst1q3SgCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190330_154548720_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WCNn3SzSzKk/XLNf-xjhKvI/AAAAAAAANKc/ziDH28l1NWY-0SSwP_ux0ZP2ODs5FMJhACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190331_144734362_HDR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WCNn3SzSzKk/XLNf-xjhKvI/AAAAAAAANKc/ziDH28l1NWY-0SSwP_ux0ZP2ODs5FMJhACEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190331_144734362_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lDwLlEkRxRU/XLNf9KCeauI/AAAAAAAANKU/IViqfIbQMHQ9lXhJ2Nx4mq_7tNst1q3SgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190330_154548720_HDR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
<br />
Instead we did a half-day tour, booked through "our" boat boy (i.e. the first one that met us, a good 3 miles out of town). It was a bit disappointing for what we paid (230 ECD, "reduced" from an initial quote of 300), mainly because the taxi driver rushed us through and the "half-day" lasted a bit over 2 hours. We toured the Souffriere volcano, which is small but pretty neat with a bunch of smoking fumaroles and bubbling mud pits, and then we visited the Black Water Pools. Dawn declined to do this bit as she hates getting dirty, which in my opinion was a real mistake. You dip in jet-black hot mineral water, emerge to smear yourself with gritty, nutrient-rich volcanic mud, let yourself bake dry in the sun, plunge into the water, and repeat. Or at least repeat if you don't have an insistent taxi driver hurrying you along to a small and fairly chintzy touristified waterfall. At least he was willing to finally drop us off at the Diamond Estate botanical garden & mineral baths, which was a really cool spot <i>not</i> on the tour. From there we walked back to town along a pleasant shaded lane. I was a little disappointed over the tour, but I gotta say that I felt pretty awesome after my mud bath.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OBE8JwfViTg/XLNfjYk1YsI/AAAAAAAANKA/z8xVTxa3YpoS7A6ZnU6lPa2gtmvVtCk_ACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190331_093006176_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OBE8JwfViTg/XLNfjYk1YsI/AAAAAAAANKA/z8xVTxa3YpoS7A6ZnU6lPa2gtmvVtCk_ACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190331_093006176_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gyfHWMRNzHo/XLNfk8DLZPI/AAAAAAAANKE/SPfGt6SY4OYIAa9B3YzPC-I0aBVy4ip2gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190331_095249453_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gyfHWMRNzHo/XLNfk8DLZPI/AAAAAAAANKE/SPfGt6SY4OYIAa9B3YzPC-I0aBVy4ip2gCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190331_095249453_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1XWQVYjsBpo/XLNflGeg1jI/AAAAAAAANKI/XL33exWHHxgGzKn9l_mHEy_UhwvEdb6NgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190331_095540900_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1XWQVYjsBpo/XLNflGeg1jI/AAAAAAAANKI/XL33exWHHxgGzKn9l_mHEy_UhwvEdb6NgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190331_095540900_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I had decided to end our stay in St. Lucia with something really special. I made a 6:30 dinner reservations with Dasheen Restaurant at Ladera Resort, and we dressed up and took a taxi up the mountain at 5pm to have a few drinks and watch the sunset before dinner. Wow, what an absolutely magical, tranquil place with an utterly spectacular view of the Pitons. The signature cocktails were amazingly good, the slanting light was beautiful, the music and the mood and the attentive waitstaff just perfect. And that was just cocktail hour! As the Pitons faded in the dusk, we were ushered up two terraces to our table for two. Our waitress was super nice, the meal was fantastic, and even the live entertainment - an older local lady softly strumming the guitar in a corner and crooning a mix of eclectic covers and originals - was spot-on for the mood of the evening. It was one of our most memorable outings in a long time. Obviously, this is a splurge we can't afford to do very often (by my estimate, it cost 1.35 flight hours!), but it was the perfect end to our stay at a beautiful island that surprised us with its charms.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oH3gX1UmAQ4/XLNf-NjqtmI/AAAAAAAANKY/MHz7gYv9l5QgUDHuqHJqYDpzmWGUipEjwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190331_175626123_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oH3gX1UmAQ4/XLNf-NjqtmI/AAAAAAAANKY/MHz7gYv9l5QgUDHuqHJqYDpzmWGUipEjwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190331_175626123_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1y4zeYLdDWo/XLNgI-9iNKI/AAAAAAAANKg/4yU4JsLcZpYzMcZ87l8oxWWpgtF_PfAcwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190331_182650218_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1y4zeYLdDWo/XLNgI-9iNKI/AAAAAAAANKg/4yU4JsLcZpYzMcZ87l8oxWWpgtF_PfAcwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190331_182650218_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Dawn may have felt like a queen for a few hours, but when you live on a sailboat, reality is never that far from crashing on in. Soon after we returned, we got soaked while landing our long-suffering pup on a pitch-black beach in crashing surf. About five hours later, we awoke at 2:30am for a 3am departure to St. Vincent. And so it goes.</div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-61126741602899143962019-03-21T20:03:00.002-07:002019-04-14T10:26:11.560-07:00Speedblogging Thru the Islands<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ok, this being constantly behind really isn't working, I'm going to speed up our trip through the West Indies the last six weeks!<br />
<br />
At the beginning of February, my parents (Dave & Sue) flew into St. Maarten, one day later than planned due to a family friend's funeral at which my dad (who is a pastor) officiated. I met them at the airport, rode the $1 bus to the dinghy dock bar, whisked them via dinghy to the customs dock, checked them (and us) out of Sint Maarten, and within an hour of their landing were underway to Ile Forchue, an uninhabited island just west of <b>St. Barth</b>. The next day, Dawn's birthday, we had a lovely hour-long sail to Gustavia (St. Barth), met up with our good friends Kara and Erin on S/V Vela, and spent the day exploring Gustavia, hanging out on Shell Beach, and celebrating Dawn's birthday at an Italian restaurant. We also ran into Dave, Erin and kids on S/V Roam at famed sailor bar Le Select. The next day mom and Dad and Dawn and I rented scooters and thoroughly explored the island, which we loved. That night we motored over to beautiful Anse du Colombier, where we rejoined Vela and then spent the next day hiking and snorkeling.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5TOB4efGe6U/XLNpr3Og5TI/AAAAAAAANK8/gjVF-Ze-MoUWN1FJRE2JIfM09TC3WgQNQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190203_180359673_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5TOB4efGe6U/XLNpr3Og5TI/AAAAAAAANK8/gjVF-Ze-MoUWN1FJRE2JIfM09TC3WgQNQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190203_180359673_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7vQZEHi2IQU/XLNpsp8sRjI/AAAAAAAANLA/CJAbXCJugdM2-tvwIEGMyLNyT-H7TUAWQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190204_103356629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7vQZEHi2IQU/XLNpsp8sRjI/AAAAAAAANLA/CJAbXCJugdM2-tvwIEGMyLNyT-H7TUAWQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190204_103356629.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RfzSIHX1LP4/XLNprWfoKTI/AAAAAAAANK4/IzSsTdg-VfYdTEie4CEl8GWQ8Dtgmlj7QCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190204_143900327_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RfzSIHX1LP4/XLNprWfoKTI/AAAAAAAANK4/IzSsTdg-VfYdTEie4CEl8GWQ8Dtgmlj7QCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190204_143900327_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xWykJslUyw0/XLNpt60vNmI/AAAAAAAANLE/BWNWESNTqqoaa-V3njOQ_hnVXnw9MpLBgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190205_103045234_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xWykJslUyw0/XLNpt60vNmI/AAAAAAAANLE/BWNWESNTqqoaa-V3njOQ_hnVXnw9MpLBgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190205_103045234_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PBJTRh903Pc/XLNpu8jVb5I/AAAAAAAANLI/p9Ia8yo4JfENg4sD70RGs4eYfKCuXqsmACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190206_095120966.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PBJTRh903Pc/XLNpu8jVb5I/AAAAAAAANLI/p9Ia8yo4JfENg4sD70RGs4eYfKCuXqsmACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190206_095120966.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
After a relaxing second day in Anse du Colombier, we set sail for an overnight run to <b>Antigua</b>, which was mostly a pleasant motorsail in light northeasterlies (we did get in about 4 hours of sailing when the wind got up to 8 knots - which we never would have been able to sail in before the new prop). We spent one night in Jolly Harbour, where we ran into friends Bob and Margo on S/V Ivory Star, and spent another in gorgeous Carlisle Bay. We snorkeled there and dinghied to the exclusive hotel for some rather pricey cocktails and a stunning $1000/night view. The next day we motored a few miles east to Falmouth Harbour, where we anchored close behind YouTube star boat S/V Delos. Later that day we actually ran into Brian and Karin outside the supermarket and talked to them for a little bit (we later talked a bit when anchored next to them at Green Island, and we met Brady and Alex the night they flew back in from snowboarding in CA - all very nice folks). We explored the very cool restored Nelson's Dockyard and then took a taxi up to Shirley Heights. This being Sunday, there was a fantastic steel pan band playing and excellent West Indian BBQ was on offer, both of which we enjoyed to the accompaniment of a really spectacular sunset. On Monday we rented a car and drove all over the island, getting a few practical things done along the way (including commissioning Marine Power Systems to fabricate a mounting bracket for our second alternator). On Tuesday, Dawn drove Mom, Dad and I to the airport, where we all flew on a WinAir Twin Otter to SXM (St. Maarten), hung out on Maho Beach for a couple hours, and boarded our flight to Atlanta. There we said goodbye as Mom and Dad headed back to snowy Minnesota and I started a 4-day work trip to Rio de Janiero.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EngjPlFkn0s/XLNqVYFslbI/AAAAAAAANLc/3UST3yl20E4MUJACeceJ0qQ7X4gw84vZwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190207_183220932.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EngjPlFkn0s/XLNqVYFslbI/AAAAAAAANLc/3UST3yl20E4MUJACeceJ0qQ7X4gw84vZwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190207_183220932.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KZYzb9XhyRs/XLNqXKVXH4I/AAAAAAAANLk/v1z_hj9SMwI_o8tlYMEN5mXN_uz1Zl35QCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190209_172436458_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KZYzb9XhyRs/XLNqXKVXH4I/AAAAAAAANLk/v1z_hj9SMwI_o8tlYMEN5mXN_uz1Zl35QCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190209_172436458_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xzscsxkDKVk/XLNqWka-P0I/AAAAAAAANLg/dWrzV_KOehwv0rE-7HDV1_IxrFRL4NKigCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190210_165519752_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xzscsxkDKVk/XLNqWka-P0I/AAAAAAAANLg/dWrzV_KOehwv0rE-7HDV1_IxrFRL4NKigCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190210_165519752_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NMxpcxIAY5g/XLNqXzvUSjI/AAAAAAAANLo/_3WoUOYPJfUTQq1Lpt1q1JRP8rAZ0dI7wCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190210_183938636.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NMxpcxIAY5g/XLNqXzvUSjI/AAAAAAAANLo/_3WoUOYPJfUTQq1Lpt1q1JRP8rAZ0dI7wCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190210_183938636.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lO8PDgjfgW0/XLNq2hi-83I/AAAAAAAANMA/-fFdMp5sOnE9IA6fF9KfytUjAB1YxWXqACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190211_135941087_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lO8PDgjfgW0/XLNq2hi-83I/AAAAAAAANMA/-fFdMp5sOnE9IA6fF9KfytUjAB1YxWXqACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190211_135941087_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8hhEZFvhGXg/XLNq07ahVMI/AAAAAAAANL8/1Vsh20BD0PM6GdGD-oXl81Zac8xI2duNwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190212_065902819.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1190" data-original-width="1600" height="238" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8hhEZFvhGXg/XLNq07ahVMI/AAAAAAAANL8/1Vsh20BD0PM6GdGD-oXl81Zac8xI2duNwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190212_065902819.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
After the trip was done, I flew back direct to Antigua (my airline flies direct once a week) and arrived back to a Falmouth Harbour that was abuzz with preparations for the Caribbean 600. We actually took Windbird out to near the start line to watch the start (which was a bit hectic in 20-23 kt wind and 7-8-foot seas) and then beat our way over to Green Island, which is a fantastic anchorage tucked behind a protecting reef (much like Ensenada Dakity in Culebra). After a few nights there we moved down to Mamora Bay, and the next day back to Falmouth. For a while it looked like we'd be delayed due to weather (and our next guests would have to fend for themselves for a few days) but then the forecast improved. We did Shirley Heights again that Thursday, collected the finished alternator bracket, attended the Caribbean 600 final party, got Piper's health certificate for Dominica, and sailed out of Falmouth Harbor on Feb 23rd, capping a fantastic 16 days in Antigua.<br />
<br />
It was a lively beam-to-broad reach to<b> Guadeloupe</b> in big seas, to which we were rapidly becoming re-accustomed. Since our crossing from St. Barth to Antigua, I don't think we've sailed in anything less than 15 knots of wind, and most crossings have seen 20 kts or better. We've kept two reefs in the main and have mostly enjoyed the ride and especially the stellar boat speeds. Deshaies is a very pleasant, quiet little fishing village with just a little (mostly French) tourism, which turned out to be a good introduction to Guadeloupe, which is <i>very</i> French. I love France, so that's a good thing, but the language barrier did occasionally prove greater than anticipated. My longtime friends Lori and Kelly (who are fraternal twins) and their husbands Rob and Rob (yep) flew in on Sunday, arriving after dark. We've never had six adults stay on Windbird before, so the twins and the Robs rented a seaside apartment in Deshaies for the first three nights - that turned out to be the perfect arrangement. The next day, we all piled into their rented minivan and headed to the really wonderful botanical garden above Deshaies (which Howard and Doris on S/V Safara had told us about), and afterward rock-hopped up the Deshaies River. The next day we drove a big ring around the south side of Basse Terre, stopping at several waterfalls and beaches along the way and enjoying a scrumptious creole lunch at le Tepic in Capesterre. On the 27th we sailed down the coast to Pigeon Cay (best snorkeling of the season so far in the Jaques Cousteau marine park, but also the rolliest anchorage of the season), and continued on to the Saintes on the 28th. The mooring fields were all shockingly full, and after trying five of them we were reduced to anchoring around the corner at Terre-de-Bas' Grande Baie, which turned out to be the perfect secluded anchorage for that night. The next morning we headed back to Terre-de-Haut and scored a perfect spot in front of town. The Saintes were as spectacular as we'd hoped, and our guests loved them too - we could barely get them on the ferry to Pointe-a-Pitre! We would have liked to stay longer, but our next weather window was about to close for up to a week, so we bade a fond farewell to Guadeloupe on Sun, Mar 3rd.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ToKqbIb3vM/XLNrLcGRy8I/AAAAAAAANMU/8O4aIEVVqwgtCRnYzX9Xu_3Fk4ES01fIgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190221_173156644_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ToKqbIb3vM/XLNrLcGRy8I/AAAAAAAANMU/8O4aIEVVqwgtCRnYzX9Xu_3Fk4ES01fIgCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190221_173156644_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D9Ytfjykefk/XLNrKFTS_EI/AAAAAAAANMM/A65Kv96j95ga6DAJbJatNceLmXAQJvr3ACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190223_121850605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D9Ytfjykefk/XLNrKFTS_EI/AAAAAAAANMM/A65Kv96j95ga6DAJbJatNceLmXAQJvr3ACEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190223_121850605.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kg9rnecCPoY/XLNrKeOaU2I/AAAAAAAANMQ/PINi479nW2kidOLY014g_Dix0y7PFvN-wCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190226_114631890_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kg9rnecCPoY/XLNrKeOaU2I/AAAAAAAANMQ/PINi479nW2kidOLY014g_Dix0y7PFvN-wCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190226_114631890_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PVTwq2NwAMg/XLNrMTKPJxI/AAAAAAAANMY/AJ5JOrsU_dYuRH3GXUB6Ds5KVz_j5pa-QCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190227_181220289_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PVTwq2NwAMg/XLNrMTKPJxI/AAAAAAAANMY/AJ5JOrsU_dYuRH3GXUB6Ds5KVz_j5pa-QCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190227_181220289_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H01PescLOWM/XLNrN5c-QkI/AAAAAAAANMg/VgRhXdrHbfQ8_99QoIO0mUF2CKeH9xN9QCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190227_181720904.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H01PescLOWM/XLNrN5c-QkI/AAAAAAAANMg/VgRhXdrHbfQ8_99QoIO0mUF2CKeH9xN9QCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190227_181720904.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OE8xvMUJYkI/XLNrNEO0DyI/AAAAAAAANMc/JATbELMyHQwZT8qF1EQkmOHFUuM-iyw1gCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20190228_171148941.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OE8xvMUJYkI/XLNrNEO0DyI/AAAAAAAANMc/JATbELMyHQwZT8qF1EQkmOHFUuM-iyw1gCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20190228_171148941.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N8Li8ix9n1g/XLNrx63O65I/AAAAAAAANM8/iQgEWv5vIIgiA6Dllks3di28g3WPlmopgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190301_113549779_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N8Li8ix9n1g/XLNrx63O65I/AAAAAAAANM8/iQgEWv5vIIgiA6Dllks3di28g3WPlmopgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190301_113549779_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Our close reach from the Saints to <b>Dominica</b> will likely qualify as the bash of the season, taking place in 17-20 kts gusting to 23 and steep, choppy 6-7' seas - but even in this, with double-reefed main and yankee, keeping the boat low and powered up at 45 degrees apparent, we were able to maintain about 5.5 knots boatspeed. Thankfully Portsmouth proved to be a very rainy anchorage, because there was a lot of salt to wash off! We took a mooring in Portsmouth, assisted by P.A.Y.S. member Lawrence of Arabia, who per local custom then became our designated contact point for tours, supplies, and anything else we needed while in Portsmouth. It's a decent system, one far more organized than the boat boys further south. Dominica is wildly different from Guadeloupe and Martinique, the two islands it is sandwiched between. It was always one of the poorest islands in the Caribbean, now even moreso after being devastated by Hurricane Maria. The aftereffects are even more noticeable here than in the BVI or the French side of St. Martin. The lush jungle, once the crowning glory of "The Nature Island," is still partially denuded. It's going to take years for this island and its inhabitants to recover, and even when they do I suspect the towns will still be ugly and trash-strewn, packs of skinny dogs will still roam the beaches and get kicked by drunken local teens, and unlocked dinghies will still rapidly disappear. As you can tell, Dominica isn't always the easiest place to love - but after 11 days we did end up loving it, quite a lot actually. So did our 16-year old nephew Dylan who joined us here. There is so much really cool stuff to see and do here, especially if you love wild beauty and outdoors activities (if I listed everything we did, this already long paragraph would be twice as lengthy), and the locals, whatever their faults, are generally the friendliest and most welcoming we've met since Saba (though Antiguans aren't far behind).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WAqk1AMApGo/XLNsMbUpo7I/AAAAAAAANNM/TBAugnYYI6oxW8jcQALMTCwAIzu_eaLuwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190303_111729938_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WAqk1AMApGo/XLNsMbUpo7I/AAAAAAAANNM/TBAugnYYI6oxW8jcQALMTCwAIzu_eaLuwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190303_111729938_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XU2L-fYsW3A/XLNsMS1JemI/AAAAAAAANNI/lr8_qrm4xkkQL4_zkt6zKZ5e11nVnitsACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190305_110035837_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XU2L-fYsW3A/XLNsMS1JemI/AAAAAAAANNI/lr8_qrm4xkkQL4_zkt6zKZ5e11nVnitsACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190305_110035837_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LC3HVc1YUcI/XLNsKRxwuxI/AAAAAAAANNE/DIsle47PauM3o3565H6FoF6715U3Qa8eACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190305_175507017_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LC3HVc1YUcI/XLNsKRxwuxI/AAAAAAAANNE/DIsle47PauM3o3565H6FoF6715U3Qa8eACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190305_175507017_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e9fzMGec0vw/XLNsOeD7haI/AAAAAAAANNQ/6L7f2MZLjOs--HFVKsKHhs8rpdr03bGWQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190307_130718027_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e9fzMGec0vw/XLNsOeD7haI/AAAAAAAANNQ/6L7f2MZLjOs--HFVKsKHhs8rpdr03bGWQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190307_130718027_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8JM6oCcaOsc/XLNsQtaYNyI/AAAAAAAANNY/i1bnUirVVFYOwYvuxw8Dv4h6CAU4VEcpQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190310_101818320_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8JM6oCcaOsc/XLNsQtaYNyI/AAAAAAAANNY/i1bnUirVVFYOwYvuxw8Dv4h6CAU4VEcpQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190310_101818320_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-169UWIpJWKg/XLNsPv3Ys4I/AAAAAAAANNU/5uhwXQ2jarwzGYrC4O-wbvZYNBbChFPSgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190310_163259907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-169UWIpJWKg/XLNsPv3Ys4I/AAAAAAAANNU/5uhwXQ2jarwzGYrC4O-wbvZYNBbChFPSgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190310_163259907.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HGBazYiarVg/XLNsSaoUDrI/AAAAAAAANNc/-AvTjWvgOVoCeZPlPGFrX3XHHhA7FWD9wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190311_155431696_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HGBazYiarVg/XLNsSaoUDrI/AAAAAAAANNc/-AvTjWvgOVoCeZPlPGFrX3XHHhA7FWD9wCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190311_155431696_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sui0_v6opus/XLNsUZU78HI/AAAAAAAANNg/oSx5h5ljZyAT_E-Z_OK9JR6VJZh6oXuMgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190312_111602472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sui0_v6opus/XLNsUZU78HI/AAAAAAAANNg/oSx5h5ljZyAT_E-Z_OK9JR6VJZh6oXuMgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190312_111602472.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x7haPFW4hNY/XLNsVfCgnMI/AAAAAAAANNk/rhiy_2n2PVQMDKlzehGpsFqJVdWUAkXEQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190312_152619964_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x7haPFW4hNY/XLNsVfCgnMI/AAAAAAAANNk/rhiy_2n2PVQMDKlzehGpsFqJVdWUAkXEQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190312_152619964_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Dylan drove the boat for a good portion of our crossing from Roseau to St. Pierre, <b>Martinique</b>, which was a slightly close reach but in far more comfortable conditions than our crossing to Dominica. Arriving in Martinique after being in Dominica was slightly shocking. Everything was so neat, so clean, so chic...so frenchy. We enjoyed exploring the ruins from Mt Pelee's 1902 eruption, visiting the zoo/botanical garden, sampling distinctive agricole rum at the Depaz Distillerie, and snorkeling fantastically good coral (almost equal to Pigeon Cay) near our next anchorage at the fishing village of Case-Pilote. Dylan and I even heard whale song underwater - how cool is that!? In the surprisingly big and surprisingly nice city of Fort-de-France we met back up with our friends Jim, Lisa, and Sarah on S/V Into the Blue - since meeting them in St. Martin we'd hung out in Antigua, Guadeloupe and Dominica. We and they managed to snag a rare English-language tour of the massive fort from which the city derives its name. The next morning a very crestfallen Dylan had to fly back north to cold and snow and school, and we sailed south to Grande Anse, a sundrenched beach bum town whose beautiful bay has good snorkeling. The village of Saint Anne, our final stop in Martinique, took a lengthy beat to reach, but is a very attractive little seaside village. There are a shocking number of boats in the anchorage, but it's pretty huge and accommodated everyone without crowding. We spent a final night with Into the Blue and said goodbye, as they're headed back north after this. Saint Anne also marked the most easterly longitude that we will reach with Windbird, on this trip at least.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I9ZStxiPg3s/XLNtEOMV7BI/AAAAAAAANOE/Ur08P6alFbEvT_43c5CIpK37AJNZ-VKtQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190313_100451869.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I9ZStxiPg3s/XLNtEOMV7BI/AAAAAAAANOE/Ur08P6alFbEvT_43c5CIpK37AJNZ-VKtQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190313_100451869.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VJKzma9I6bE/XLNtDtxdNOI/AAAAAAAANOA/axupHYLPb0Ixq84af0MPPBXvSaqg9mDyQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190313_175823278_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VJKzma9I6bE/XLNtDtxdNOI/AAAAAAAANOA/axupHYLPb0Ixq84af0MPPBXvSaqg9mDyQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190313_175823278_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nck0MRo2BTw/XLNtCFBGJII/AAAAAAAANN8/_6hTlbe0DC01MDgv8YXvMQMEk8GvrKj7ACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190315_172101337_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nck0MRo2BTw/XLNtCFBGJII/AAAAAAAANN8/_6hTlbe0DC01MDgv8YXvMQMEk8GvrKj7ACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190315_172101337_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5AaH2u-MPZc/XLNtFmwhv3I/AAAAAAAANOI/GS7zEkjzbXgiDF4ysK4jC4TzcyUWmXEegCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190316_161328110_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5AaH2u-MPZc/XLNtFmwhv3I/AAAAAAAANOI/GS7zEkjzbXgiDF4ysK4jC4TzcyUWmXEegCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190316_161328110_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
And that brings us up to a few days ago, March 19th, when we sailed on a gloriously easy, comfortable beam-to-broad reach (finally!) to <b>St. Lucia</b>. We were prepared to skip right through St. Lucia considering the tales we heard of dinghy thefts and petty crime and pushy boat boys, but now that we're here we see this island's charm too. We just took a dock at Rodney Bay Marina today and I fly out for a trip tomorrow, but when I get back we'll have another five or six days to enjoy Marigot Bay and Souffriere and the Pitons before crossing to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This season had a slow start with the repower project, but it's been a hell of a lot of fun ever since. It's hard to believe there's only six weeks left before we leave the boat in Grenada; we're determined to get the most out of every day between now and then. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-4389384164146344532019-03-04T20:19:00.000-08:002019-03-04T20:19:36.666-08:00Sint Maarten (not Saint Martin)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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!). <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-66883990514707249822019-02-13T04:35:00.000-08:002019-02-13T04:35:22.850-08:00The Golden Rock<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
From a distance, Sint Eustatius looks like two islands: an obvious volcano rising vertiginously from the sea ("The Quill"), and a series of low hills a few miles northwest. Connecting these two points is the lowland that contains the small island's only town, Oranjestad, and a whole lot of rich history.<br />
<br />
Statia (as the island is universally known to locals and tourists alike) is currently a special municipality of the Netherlands, just like its sister Saba twenty miles to the northwest, but has changed hands no fewer than 21 times during its eventful history. In 1636 it was colonized by the Dutch West India Company and for over a hundred years was a relatively quiet backwater where slaves grew sugarcane and tobacco on a patchwork of small plantations. In the mid-1700s, though, it was made a free port and quickly became one of the great trading centers of the Caribbean, supporting a wealthy and cosmopolitan merchant class (including a strong Jewish community). For a time it was known as "The Golden Rock." <br />
<br />
Statia has a bit of a special relationship with the US as its government was the very first to recognize the nascent United States of America, albeit in a somewhat off-the-cuff way that eventually proved to be its undoing. In 1776 you could buy damn near anything on Statia, including military arms, which is why the American brig <i>Andrew Doria</i> showed up in Orangestad harbor on November 16, 1776. They fired a 13-gun salute for the garrison of Fort Oranje. Governor Johannes de Graff ordered that an 11-gun salute be made in reply (which per established protocol was recognition of a sovereign flag), and the arms trading was on. Eventually the colonies obtained fully half of their supplies through the island, and it was also a critical transit point for communications with our French allies. Britain took a very dim view of this which was one of the reasons they declared war on the Netherlands in 1780 and sacked Statia in 1781. The French and then the Dutch recaptured it within a few years but the damage was done; trade moved on to other islands and Statia became a backwater once more. From an 18th century peak of 10,000 souls, the population fell to under 1000; now it's almost 4000.<br />
<br />
None of this history is readily apparent when you sail into Oranjestad's open, rolly roadstead harbor, but it quickly becomes clearer upon inspection. Fort Oranje has been beautifully restored and dominates the harbor from atop a 120 foot cliff, its cannons trained out to sea. Many original buildings and streets surround it for several blocks, and even the modern town is pockmarked by quite a few ruins. A cobbled slave road leads down the cliffs to the waterfront, where the majority of the warehouses originally stood. Only a few survive; the shoreline itself (which the Dutch, rather typically, expanded outwards a couple hundred feet to accommodate more warehouses) has been reclaimed by the sea over a couple centuries of hurricanes. Two warehouses have been restored, several partial ruins are still standing, and there are a great many foundations, cisterns, and building blocks visible at the shoreline and under the water just offshore. In fact, snorkeling the Orangestad coastline is like going on an archeological expedition. There are quite a few cannons, old anchors, ancient iron ship ribs, and other reminders of Statia's nautical past along with the remains of her once-famed warehouses.<br />
<br />
We found Statia to be a very quiet, friendly and unpretentious island. It lacks the rugged splendor of Saba, and has even less tourism. We arrived on a Saturday and found that almost everything is closed on weekends. Like Saba, there's little crime; most everyone leaves cars, homes, and dinghies unlocked. There is wonderful hiking up, around, and into the crater of The Quill. The water is clear and the diving reportedly good.<br />
<br />
The friendly customs and immigration ladies were open later than advertised on Saturday and actually reopened their office to get us checked in. The forms and procedures were basically identical to Saba, except that there is a $35 port authority fee (which I paid on Monday as the office is closed weekends). In addition, the National Parks office charges $10/day or $30/week to anchor. This theoretically includes wifi and a mooring ball, but neither actually exists. Hiking on The Quill adds $10/person for an annual permit. So our quick 3-night visit costed $85. At least the wind was moderate and well out of the northeast so we had good sleep; when it pipes up from straight E or goes SE, the anchorage is known to get horrifically rolly.<br />
<br />
After checking in on Saturday, we walked down the waterfront road and found a cool little waterfront shop and snack bar in a restored warehouse; we bought some Dutch cheese and crackers and La Trappe beers and enjoyed the sunny afternoon on their deck with Piper. That's where we met Judith, a Dutch girl who is living on Statia for a year working in special education. We got to talking & found that Judith has traveled quite a lot and lived in some really interesting places; we invited her out to the boat for sundowners and fish tacos. The next day, we all went hiking up The Quill and down into the crater, which houses a fantastic little micro-rainforest. Judith worked on Monday but that evening we got together at the excellent Boardwalk Cafe, which is closed weekends but is conveniently located right at the dinghy dock. The delicious specialty: very local goat burgers, made from the same sure-footed trash-eaters that have taken over the hillside.<br />
<br />
Other than our time with Judith, we walked around the old town, explored the well-restored Fort Oranje, perused the excellent little history museum (housed in a handsome 18th-century dwelling), took shelter from an afternoon deluge in a friendly snack bar, snorkeled the waterfront, and did some basic provisioning. It was a pretty chill visit; we were glad we came. Still, a big north swell coming in Wednesday was looking like it could make the anchorage miserable, so I cleared us out with customs on Monday afternoon and we picked up anchor for the sail back to Sint Maarten early Tuesday morning. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-26999241335021913102019-01-27T06:53:00.001-08:002019-01-27T06:53:37.581-08:00Mountain in the Sea<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My phone recently took a dunking, in about 3" of rainwater in our dinghy. So we may not have many photos for a while, until (and if) I recover photos from the memory.<br />
<br />
On Tues Jan 15th, Jacque from Atlantic Divers came to Windbird to install the 19x13 3-bladed prop we'd been gifted by Howard on Safara. Afterward we pulled up anchor and did a quick sea trial, which revealed that there's some significant vibration above 2100 rpm and a strange harmonic hum from 1400 to 1800 rpm. We decided to continue to Saba as planned anyway, at 2000 RPM, which still gave us about 5.5 knots. For a while we were able to pure sail but then the wind died to around 10 knots on the beam. That's usually good for 5 knots of boat speed, but the increased drag of the new prop was so pronounced that we only saw 4 knots, at which point I decided to motorsail in the interest of getting to Saba before customs closed.<br />
<br />
From St. Maarten, Saba looks like an enormous rock sticking out of the water 24 miles south. As you approach, this foreboding impression doesn't change much. The tiny redroofed cottages clinging to the sides seem dangerously out of place, like the Far Side cartoon where the airline pilot wonders "What's a mountain goat doing up here in these clouds?" The base of the island is ringed by particularly steep, dry and crumbling 500' cliffs, with the open sea crashing at their bases. The lee anchorage is basically an open roadstead, fairly rolly and choppy even in relatively calm conditions and completely untenable with a big north swell. Most of it is too deep for most yachts to anchor, so the national park has installed (currently) 5 yellow mooring balls between Ladder and Wells Bays. There used to be ten, which doesn't speak highly of their strength in nasty conditions; at 60' of depth and with a dearth of recent free-diving, I didn't have the lung capacity to inspect all of ours. The sole consolation was that if it broke, we'd be blown out to sea rather than dashed on the rocks. Assuming we were on board at the time, that is. That said, we had a pretty good window to visit Saba: 10-15 knots out of the east, small north swell trending northeast. We rolled all four nights we were there, quite uncomfortably for two of them, but that's just the price you pay to take your boat to Saba.<br />
<br />
We were tied to our mooring by 4:30pm; we launched the dinghy from our foredeck, lowered our Yamaha Enduro 2-stroke with the outboard crane, and headed to shore. There is only one place that is practical to land the dinghy under most conditions: the small harbor at Fort Bay. This was about a mile and a half from our mooring ball, maybe two miles from the northernmost one. Most of it is in the lee of the island, but once you turn the corner at Tent Bay it can get pretty windy, choppy and wet. The harbor provides excellent protection, though, and there is plenty of space for visiting as well as local dinghies. One thing I noticed immediately: nobody locks their dinghies here. And apparently, not their cars or their front doors either. Crime is very low, a rarity in the Caribbean.<br />
<br />
Customs and immigration was still open when we got there at 5pm, and checking in was a fairly simple process though both forms you fill out are somewhat long. They didn't ask about Piper; we were still using the health certificate from Puerto Rico in November, which the BVI had indicated they'd still accept if we'd chosen to stop at the BVI before crossing to St. Martin. There were no customs charges inbound or outbound. Normally after checking in you'd visit the National Park office (also in Fort Bay) to register your yacht and pay fees, but as they were closed I did it the next morning. There are two fees: $3/person/week for the marine park and $1/person/day for the land park. All in all our four night stay came to $14, which I thought super reasonable. Note that the $10 hiking tag is no longer required, it is covered by your $1/day.<br />
<br />
There's not a ton at Fort Bay, though a little more than I expected: two dive shops (third is expected to reopen in a few months), customs & immigration, some well-kept restrooms, a bit of light industry, the island's only gas station, and two bar-restaurants. We visited the second of these, a fisherman's bar atop the currently closed Saba Deep dive shop, several times during our stay. It's a really cool place with cheap beer, good food, and a great local atmosphere. They often have extra fresh fish you can buy at a reasonable price, we got 2+ pounds of super good Wahoo for $20 (our own fishing hasn't been very productive lately. Doesn't help my lures are getting fouled by Sargassum seaweed every two minutes).<br />
<br />
On Wednesday morning I paid our park fees and the attendant called a taxi for us. Rodney was a very friendly South African who has been living on Saba for 12 years; his Dutch wife runs the Bizzy B bakery & deli up in Windwardside. He didn't have time to give us the full island tour that morning since the ferry was coming in, but that worked out perfect since we wanted to hike Mount Scenery. After showing us around the quaint villages of The Bottom and St. John, Rodney dropped us at the trailhead just as you enter Windwardside. The trail was immaculately kept but steep; it was a good 2-hour slog up 1000-some steps and 1600 vertical feet to the summit. We really lucked out on weather. It was cool and shady during most of our climb, the clouds parted just before we reached the top, we had stupendous views out over the island (and to St Maarten, St Barts, Statia, St Kitts, and Nevis), and then shortly after we left the clouds closed in again and gave us a refreshing mist for the way down. We had Piper off leash for most of the hike and he loved it, probably covering twice the distance and vertical that we did.<br />
<br />
Back in Windwardside we had lunch at the Bizzy B and walked through the cute town. What little tourism there is in Saba is largely concentrated in Windwardside, where there are a number of rental cottages. I stopped at the Sea Saba dive shop and signed up for an afternoon dive the following day; they felt that due to my inexperience (10 dives logged) and relative lack of currency (last May) I should just do a single fairly shallow dive and see how things went. It ran $65 plus $10 for equipment rental, $4 for national park fee, and 4% tax. At 3pm Rodney picked us back up and we finished driving around the island. Overall we were quite impressed at how neat and tidy everything is and how friendly the locals are. It's a really cool place. If we were staying longer, there are a ton of hiking trails, which were the only means of transport on the island until the mid-20th century. Everything arrived by ship, was landed during calm periods only at Ladder Bay, was hauled up to The Bottom via a steep set of stairs hacked out of the cliffs, and then hauled overland by porters or donkeys via the trails. Amazing. The Sabans finally took it upon themselves to build "The Road That Couldn't Be Built" between 1938 and 1958. They then carved themselves an airport on the only semi-flat piece of land on the island, which opened in 1963 and currently has the distinction of being the shortest commercial runway in the world at 398 meters. The Fort Bay Harbour followed in 1972, and now Saba has both ferry and airline service connecting it with surrounding islands.<br />
<br />
My dive on Thursday was at Tent Bay Reef, on the southwestern corner of the island. I got back into the swing of diving quite easily; it's always felt pretty natural to me. The dive went to a maximum of 65 feet, but most was at 30-40 feet. There was a ridiculous amount and variety of sealife, and visibility was really good. Among other things I saw 6 or 7 blacktip sharks, huge permit almost as big as the sharks, several green turtles, and a couple octopus. The terrain included an interesting wall and a nice swimthrough. I was down for a full hour. When I got back from the dive, Dawn encouraged me to sign up for the following morning's 2-tank dive, noting that if I was going to do much diving anywhere this season, Saba should be it as it is world famous for its excellent diving. So I did, and both of those dives were as good as Tent Bay Reef. The first one of the morning was at a pinnacle known as "Twilight Zone;" it rises to 80' from a surrounding seabed of 250' depth. The fact that we could see the seabed from the top of the pinnacle and even higher gives you a good idea of how awesome the vis was. Again, there was an enormous amount and variety of sealife. Unfortunately I was breathing air (not certified for enriched nitrox, yet) which at 100' depth limited my bottom time to about 20 minutes. The second dive was at "Babylon," and while not quite as spectacular was still a pretty cool dive. After I got back, Dawn and I went snorkeling up on the north end of Wells Bay, and even that was pretty special.<br />
<br />
I would have liked to have spent another day in Saba to do more hiking and hanging out in The Bottom, but we wanted to also go see Statia and had a bit of a limited window before weather would force us back to St. Martin. So on Friday afternoon I checked out with customs, that night we hung out with a nice cruising couple on the Valiant 42 S/V Aleta, and the next morning we dropped our mooring to begin the 19 mile motorsail to St. Eustatia. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-49620812042382675152019-01-21T06:46:00.000-08:002019-01-21T06:46:06.273-08:00Saint Martin (not Sint Maarten)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Saint Martin, or SXM as it's popularly known due to the IATA code of its famous airport, is an island shared by two countries. The northern 60% or so is an overseas collectivity of France, which basically means it's considered part of France and participates in their elections but has a fair amount of autonomy. The southern 40%, named Sint Maarten, is formerly part of the Netherlands Antilles but since 2010 has been a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The difference is transparent to most travelers, who arrive at the big airport on the Dutch side, clear Dutch customs, and then go merrily about their business anywhere on the island with only road signs and a profusion of boulangeries and pâtisseries and gastronomic cafés to indicate one has crossed over to the French side.<br />
<br />
For cruisers it is not so simple. When you anchor on the French side you check in with the French, and on the Dutch side you check in with the Dutch. If you move from one side to the other, you must check out and then clear in with the new authority. Once you are anchored and checked in, though, you can freely move between the two sides on land or via dinghy. The main French anchorage of Marigot and the secondary one at Grand Case are both exposed to north swell, while the Dutch anchorages of Simpson Bay and Phillipsburg get a fair amount of wake and wraparound eastern swell. Of course for excellent protection one can anchor inside the famed Simpson Bay Lagoon, with anchorages available on both French and Dutch sides. All other things being equal, superyachts stick almost exclusively to the Dutch side and cruisers tend to gravitate toward the French side, due to the ease of clearing customs and immigration and the almost total lack of fees (or at least the French failure to <i>collect</i> published fees).<br />
<br />
Being the cheapskates we are, plus having a dog (who the French don't care about), and myself having fond memories of Marigot from the 2014 Heineken Regatta, we decided to anchor at Marigot and check in on the French side after our crossing of the Anegada Passage on 10-11 January. We anchored on the west end of the large fleet in Marigot Bay, which put us just about abeam the entrance to the lagoon. I dinghied to a floating dock deep in the Marigot side of the lagoon and walked a few blocks to the local Budget Marine, where I was able to clear in by computer terminal via an easy 10-minute process (including learning the French keyboard) and a $2 donation to charity. It's fantastically easy, and is the same process used further down the islands in Guadaloupe and Martinique.<br />
<br />
A walk around Marigot revealed that it was hit very hard by Irma and has a long ways to go to recover. Frankly, I didn't recognize it from five years ago. Quite a few buildings are completely destroyed with their grounds overgrown by brush; many others are damaged and have not been repaired; others are being repaired but are currently covered by scaffolding; and even of the buildings that appear to be in decent shape, many are unoccupied, their former businesses shuttered. Even the neat little waterfront promenade and market looks dirty and unkempt whereas it was formerly quite nice. It's pretty sad to see. Local liveaboards and longtime cruisers report that petty crime and dinghy theft is prevalent. I'd been inclined to believe reports of post-Irma crime on SXM were exaggerated, but perhaps not. We certainly kept the dinghy locked up tight at the dinghy dock and at night on our davits.<br />
<br />
In the lagoon on both the French and Dutch side, there is quite a lot of destruction evident in wrecked docks, half-sunk boats, and mastless derelicts. There's been an effort to find and mark submerged wrecks with small bouys, so cruisers anchoring in the lagoon don't get tangled up. Many of the wrecks are pretty obvious due to masts and other bits rising out of the water, however. On land, the Dutch side seems to have recovered much more quickly than the French. There are a lot fewer destroyed buildings and most of the pre-Irma marine and tourists businesses seem to be back to their old selves. The Dutch Simpson Bay Lagoon bridge and causeway bridge are both operating normally, though the French lagoon bridge is still out of commission. Interestingly, you only pay for a bridge opening if you check in on the Dutch side. You can go through both bridges, anchor on the French side of the lagoon, check in with the French, and pay nothing more than your $2 donation.<br />
<br />
We meant to get over to Grand Case and otherwise check out the island, but ended up spending much of our time chasing down practicalities and stayed anchored in Marigot while dinghying to the Dutch lagoon side. I found a machinist to fabricate a mount for our second alternator when we return to SXM this week (we're in Statia at the moment), and we had a diver put on the free 3-blade prop we got from Howard on S/V Safara. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be a good match for our boat...we're getting a weird harmonic hum at 1400-1800 RPM and rather nasty noise and vibration (cavitation?) above 2000 RPM. We took it to Saba and Statia and have tested it out along the way. There's a pretty big increase in drag when sailing in light air; where we formerly saw 5 knots boat speed when beam reaching in 10 kts of wind, now we get closer to 4 knots speed. We are seeing a lot better speed under power over our 2-blade prop, even in our reduced 1800-2000 rpm window, and it seems to drive the boat through chop a lot better. We've decided to bite the bullet and ordered a 4-blade feathering MaxProp propeller. It's a lot of money ($3850) but combines low drag when sailing with much better speed and driving force under power. I figure as we already spent so much money to install the perfect engine, transmission, and driveshaft, it makes sense to get the best prop we can.<br />
<br />
We did find time to climb Fort Louis for a nice view over Marigot Bay, enjoyed coffee and croissants at Marigot's waterfront pâtisserie, gave Piper some fantastic beach playtime, watched jets land over Maho Beach, and found the local cruiser happy hour hangout in Simpson Bay Lagoon, appropriately called Lagoonies. We hung out with S/V Be As You Are several times and helped them fix their roller furling, met their friends on S/V Freed Spirit, and had dinner with a nice young couple (Lara and Rick) and their lovable but rambunctious pup Roger on S/V Mai Tai. So it was a nice and productive four days on St Martin even though the sad condition of Marigot did cast a bit of a pall on things. Then we cleared out via the same quick and easy $2 computer terminal and set sail for a fantastic week in Saba and Statia - I'll save that for the next post. Tomorrow we're sailing back to SXM ahead of a week of high winds and big north swell, but will be checking into the Dutch side and probably going into the lagoon at some point. Besides the practical boat stuff (2nd alternator, MaxProp, engine 50 hour service), we hope to rent some scooters and check out the rest of the island for a day. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-12925882544426291762019-01-13T10:00:00.000-08:002019-01-14T04:37:35.852-08:00Repower is Finished - On with Cruising!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
To nobody's surprise at all, the repower took a couple weeks<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1WWbgqnjs18/XDyAz86DZDI/AAAAAAAAK38/s3igE6JFg_8jAz9R3hDnMtT84uaFhH7bACLcBGAs/s1600/49001842_10156027580587543_7857358555945369600_o.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1WWbgqnjs18/XDyAz86DZDI/AAAAAAAAK38/s3igE6JFg_8jAz9R3hDnMtT84uaFhH7bACLcBGAs/s200/49001842_10156027580587543_7857358555945369600_o.jpg" width="200" /></a> longer than expected. This was mainly due to our decision to replace the old two-piece drive/prop shaft with a single piece, only to discover that it could not be machined in St. Thomas but was instead manufactured and shipped from Ft. Lauderdale. This was happening right around the holidays, which I think interfered a bit, and then shipping (via USPS) was a mess - it actually got returned to Florida, then mailed again to St. Thomas. The result was that we didn't <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x907lF6gHK8/XDyA-4bmAzI/AAAAAAAAK4A/5VtA0uupMXwnGC6PG0wcmUQFRoe3ar7DQCLcBGAs/s1600/48369962_10156024286212543_437170324329463808_o.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x907lF6gHK8/XDyA-4bmAzI/AAAAAAAAK4A/5VtA0uupMXwnGC6PG0wcmUQFRoe3ar7DQCLcBGAs/s200/48369962_10156024286212543_437170324329463808_o.jpg" width="200" /></a>actually get the shaft until just after the New Year. Meanwhile we sat on the dock at $67 a night, which was frustrating. We launched the dinghy and used it to run Piper around the corner to Vessup Beach, which was a nice cruising-like break from the dock. I picked up a 9-day double Rio trip over Christmas (gotta pay for all this shiny new machinery!) while Dawn flew north to be with family. Back on the boat, we worked on miscellaneous projects like servicing our winches and recaulking our teak deck, and then celebrated a nice, fairly low-key New Years Eve in Redhook, staying up until nearly 3am. <br />
<br />
The shaft, new engine and transmission went into <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JPXFtaj-az4/XDyBQC7tqDI/AAAAAAAAK4M/qC58tzgkr7YPJc2gMhhGJR9dO9ZrHNNjgCEwYBhgL/s1600/49802110_10156066343147543_8946161339898789888_o.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JPXFtaj-az4/XDyBQC7tqDI/AAAAAAAAK4M/qC58tzgkr7YPJc2gMhhGJR9dO9ZrHNNjgCEwYBhgL/s200/49802110_10156066343147543_8946161339898789888_o.jpg" width="200" /></a>the boat on Friday, Jan 4th, about as easy as the old one came out although Kevin did have to take a few more things off of the new engine. We were told fairly late that our second alternator's brackets wouldn't work with the new engine, and not wanting to spend more time in St. Thomas to have a new bracket machined, I chose to install a battery switch to allow the 120A alternator that came with the engine charge either the engine or house batteries (and also allow either bank to start the engine). We do want to keep the redundancy of a second alternator, but this setup buys us some time to get the new installation right. Solar and wind are doing a pretty good job of keeping up with our usage, but it would be pretty disconcerting to head out cruising with no other means of charging your house bank. <br />
<br />
After the engine was physically in the boat on Jan 4th, I had to head to the airport to fly to Atlanta, where I had my 9-month recurrent training on Saturday and Sunday. Kevin did more of the installation on Saturday but not everything was done, so he finished up Monday morning, at which point I was back. By Monday afternoon we'd started the engine for the first time - a very exciting moment - but it was too late for sea trials, so we did those Tuesday morning. The engine ran very well, but it was obvious we're pretty underpropped with the new engine. I think we were with the old one too, but now it's especially bad. Other Tayana 42 owners with 53-57 hp engines get about 6-6.5 knotsin flat water at 2400 rpm; our old engine gave us 5.5 on a good day; with this one we're getting 4.8. It's only an 18-inch 2-bladed prop with (I'm guessing, there's no stamp) around a 12-14 inch pitch, which is quite small. Kevin advised us we should repitch or get a large prop as soon as possible, and we decided to do so in St. Martin, where the marine facilities and services are considerably more abundant than St. Thomas.<br />
<br />
We left the dock at American Yacht Harbor for good at 11am Tuesday with a terribly embarrassing incident, our first ever docking disaster. With a narrow fairway to maneuver in and a brisk crosswind piping up, a miscommunication between Dawn and I plus a misjudgement on my part led me to try to turn out before I had room to clear our rather large neighbor, M/V Tabula Rasa, whose bow was sticking well out into the fairway. We ended up getting blown into her huge anchor, which neatly inserted itself between our forward lower starboard shroud and upper starboard shrouds. The owner and a bystander came running to help, along with two cruisers on small dinghies, and between all of us we were able to extricate the rig from the anchor's clutch and push Windbird clear. We circled back to the T-head to apologize and make sure there wasn't any damage; thankfully both boats escaped without harm (well, we slightly bent one of our stanchions). It was a couple of really tense minutes and could have been a lot worse, and it left us feeling a bit shaken all day, definitely taking away from some of the glorious triumph of escaping Red Hook with a brand new engine.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sOFYeEQybR4/XDyBkr7B9CI/AAAAAAAAK4U/QB-fbHodtdURofd8g_pg3FuVFFUKG3F1QCLcBGAs/s1600/50041782_10156067632332543_6586210435769303040_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sOFYeEQybR4/XDyBkr7B9CI/AAAAAAAAK4U/QB-fbHodtdURofd8g_pg3FuVFFUKG3F1QCLcBGAs/s200/50041782_10156067632332543_6586210435769303040_o.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
We motored to Maho Bay, our favorite anchorage on St. John, where we swam with turtles and I gave Windbird's bottom a good scrub with my snuba rig (it was surprisingly clean for 2 months in marinas, so unfortunately the scrub didn't improve our speed much). Piper got in some good beach play time once the beachgoers went home, although the sunset patrol of vicious noseeums cut short his fun. It was a lovely evening with brilliant stars, and it felt so great to be out cruising again.<br />
<br />
The next morning we sailed downwind back to Cruz Bay, where the local insurance adjuster, Marty Carlson, had asked to see the boat again. The one thing he hadn't been able to figure out, and something that had bothered me too, was just how the top end of the engine got so full of water when the bilge flooding had only reached the bottom of the rear main seal. A remark from the mechanic who worked on the boat in Puerto Rico gave Marty an idea, which was quickly borne out once he inspected our cooling/exhaust system. Our raw water, after it exits the heat exchanger, goes through a vented loop above the water line before returning to the exhaust elbow. The vented loop drains into the scupper hose. Because I apparently neglected to open the scupper seacocks before we left the boat for the summer, once they filled up with water it backflowed to the vented loop, filled the water muffler (that I had drained), then came up through the exhaust and flooded the top end through one or more open exhaust valves. The boatsitters were still negligent for not bringing the cockpit flooding or bilge flooding to my attention, but my inexplicable failure to ensure the scupper seacocks were open after I exercised them (it was on my checklist, and had been crossed off) was the original disastrous mistake. It remains to be seen how our insurance is going to handle this.<br />
<br />
After Marty inspected the boat, we motorsailed around the south side of St. John to Lameshur Bay, our 2nd-most favorite anchorage in St. John. I enjoyed some spectacular snorkeling around the point there, and it was another beautiful night with only one other boat around. The next day, Thursday Feb 10th, we were off the mooring at 11am and headed ESE to St. Martin, 95 miles away. We had a great weather window for motorsailing across the notoriously rough Anegada Passage (which wags call the "Anegada Pukeage"). It was a little slow and choppy at first, but soon the wind went almost directly south and quite light, and the seas settled down and our speed <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IagTkjzzIEw/XDyBuNc0o2I/AAAAAAAAK4Y/kEIa5aehHHA0YAk0ucB7sNgtNbi97xxGQCLcBGAs/s1600/49212517_10156073170752543_7005157965481115648_o.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IagTkjzzIEw/XDyBuNc0o2I/AAAAAAAAK4Y/kEIa5aehHHA0YAk0ucB7sNgtNbi97xxGQCLcBGAs/s200/49212517_10156073170752543_7005157965481115648_o.jpg" width="200" /></a>crept up. We crossed in quite a lot of company, for many cruisers had been holed up in the Virgins waiting for the Christmas Winds to break. While we were about 15 miles out, our friends John and Belinda on S/V Be As You Are radioed back that there were several lobster pots in 100 feet of water just after crossing the dropoff while approaching St. Martin. Since I had my usual 4am-7am watch and didn't want to wake Dawn up early, I slowed down and altered course to the south to cross the shelf once there was enough light to see any lobster pots. We got into Marigot Bay at 7:20am Friday and found a nice spot to anchor in 11 feet of crystal clear water over a perfect sand bottom. And that's where we are now.<br />
<br />
I'll write more about St. Martin later, but my first impression is that they got really, really hard hit by Irma and they've been a lot slower to recover than Puerto Rico, the USVI, and even the BVI. Marigot is a shell of its former charming self. Quite a few completely wrecked buildings have been left where they lay, the bush quickly overgrowing them. There are still dozens of sunken and half-sunk boats in the lagoons. It's still beautiful here and there's a lot of boat activity, and the marine industries seem to be back up to full speed (largely fueled by all the salvage and repair work, I'd guess). But I'd guess it's going to be several years yet before St. Martin fully recovers from Irma.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gmJefOl-7Dg/XDyB97ySCaI/AAAAAAAAK4k/mJ0KZ57lQSY6wPKshbUVd-TORwf5Zc5RwCLcBGAs/s1600/50312667_10156078104542543_8037599023185526784_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gmJefOl-7Dg/XDyB97ySCaI/AAAAAAAAK4k/mJ0KZ57lQSY6wPKshbUVd-TORwf5Zc5RwCLcBGAs/s200/50312667_10156078104542543_8037599023185526784_o.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
We ran into our old pals Howard and Doris from S/V Safara here; they actually hailed us as we were pulling into Marigot. Last year we weathered the blow of the season in Mayaguana with them (and our friends on Sea Otter), and made the short crossing to Provo in their company. They quickly scooted across to the DR and it was several weeks before we saw them once again, in Luperon. After that they scooted down the chain to Grenada, and this season have been working their way back up to St. Martin where they're doing some work on the boat. Yesterday I got on the cruiser's net to inquire about a 3-bladed propeller, and Howard came back to offer a 19" x 13" specimen from his bilge, for free! I'm cleaning it up today and we'll hire a diver to put it on tomorrow, and hopefully it'll be a good match for the engine. If not, we'll have to choose between buying a new fixed-blade prop or springing for a nice MaxProp or VariProp feathering propeller. They're a lot of money and require extra maintenance but have much better power in reverse, have field adjustable pitch, and have far less drag while sailing than a traditional 3-blade prop.<br />
<br />
Our other project here is getting a new bracket <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TJciYiIJ5rQ/XDyCGk1LUUI/AAAAAAAAK4o/vMx5yHNusioA8w5BwS3dihL1YzeoOPk_QCLcBGAs/s1600/48391946_10156078775492543_4963644256028721152_o.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TJciYiIJ5rQ/XDyCGk1LUUI/AAAAAAAAK4o/vMx5yHNusioA8w5BwS3dihL1YzeoOPk_QCLcBGAs/s200/48391946_10156078775492543_4963644256028721152_o.jpg" width="200" /></a>fabricated for the second alternator. A machinist should be coming to the boat tomorrow, and can hopefully draw up some plans. Then it looks like we'll have good weather to head to Saba and Statia for a week before coming back to St Martin. We'll finish exploring the island, get our practical stuff wrapped up, and I'll fly out for a 4-day trip; then my parents will be flying in and we'll head out with them to St. Barth, (possibly) Montserrat, and Antigua. It's good to be out cruising again!<br />
<br /></div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-217452646000905832018-12-10T15:03:00.001-08:002018-12-10T15:03:09.509-08:00Repower Project Part Two<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well, it's been a full week of work in the engine room. I've reinsulated all four walls, tidied up a lot of wiring and plumbing, cleaned the far reaches of the bilge, repainted the whole thing with several coats of bilge paint, and am now in the process of replacing fuel and water hoses and reinsulating the access doors. The result is a much improved engine room that will look quite nice with a shiny new Yanmar 4JH57 engine and ZF 15-MIV transmission sitting in it.<br />
<br />
Oh, and a new driveshaft. The original configuration of the drive train, as Mark and Judy and Dave Laux installed it in 2005, was a drive shaft passing through a pillow block under the engine, attached to the prop shaft via a coupling just forward of the stuffing box. When I replaced the transmission last September, Dave Laux said the pillow block was unnecessary, so I eliminated it - and we've had no unusual vibration since. However, the drive shaft did have a narrow wear spot where it used to ride in the pillow block.<br />
<br />
Fast forward to this week: our engine installer, Kevin of Mi'kmaq Marine didn't like the worn shaft or especially the split shaft with a coupler between the transmission and the stuffing box. He felt it would be much more difficult to get a satisfactory alignment on the new engine, especially without a pillow block. So we decided to replace it with a one-piece shaft. This necessitated removing the current prop shaft. Unfortunately neither the coupler nor the prop would come off despite a lot of coaxing on Saturday (the diver ended up spending well over an hour in the water), so Kevin ended up cutting the shaft just behind the coupler.<br />
<br />
You can probably imagine what happened next. Having made such an irrevocable move, we soon found out that the local machine shop couldn't make a one-piece prop shaft as long as we needed it because there is no 1 1/4" stainless shaft stock that long (84") on the island. So instead it is being machined in Miami and will have to be shipped down here...5-10 days according to the machine shop. Ugh. We really wanted to be done by this coming weekend. There's a possible weather window to Sint Maarten next week and we'd like to be able to get there for the holidays. It'd be a good place to leave the boat while I fly out to work and Dawn flies out to see family, and we have friends who are planning to fly down into SXM to join us on Windbird Dec 25 - Jan 3. If the boat is in St Thomas or the BVI, I'm not sure how easy it will be for them to change their tickets. We're just taking it one day at a time, I guess.<br />
<br />
The engine didn't ship until Friday, it's supposedly on the island but needs to clear customs so we won't have it until Wednesday at the earliest. The transmission arrived via FedEx on Friday but is still in customs, I'm not entirely sure what the holdup is. FedEx had some note about awaiting duty payment. It's supposed to be duty-free as it's part of the propulsion system for a vessel in transit, but the challenge is locating a human to whom I can make that argument. I may have to take a taxi over to FedEx tomorrow or Wednesday. I'd probably be more apprehensive about it, except that now the prop shaft is the limiting factor.<br />
<br />
We're actually awaiting several shipments from our last Amazon order, which were quite delayed. Shipping is much slower and more of a pain in the ass here than Puerto Rico, which is a bit of a surprise. Other things are easier here.<br />
<br />
I mentioned a work trip above. I actually was able to bid Christmas off and was planning to fly up north with Dawn to visit family, but due to all the expense of the repower (and insurance's slow response), I decided to pick up a 9-day, 51-hour trip with two Rio do Janeiro layovers from Dec 20th - 28th. Merry Christmas to the lucky FO who had the improbable luck of somebody picking up a 9-day trip over Christmas! Christmas Day will be spent in New York City, but before and after you'll be able to find me on Copacabana Beach. I get done early on the 28th; depending on how the next week plays out, I'll then fly down to either SXM or STT. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-45353146703794747952018-12-05T17:18:00.002-08:002018-12-05T17:18:42.493-08:00Repower Project Part One Complete<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On Saturday after we docked at AYH we mostly took it easy, checking out the local shops and hitting up Tap & Still for Happy Hour. We'd been to the Tap & Still in Charlotte Amalie with Mak, Dane and Isla from Sea Otter back in May, good spot. We returned there Sunday night to watch the Vikings lose in fairly predictable fashion to the Patriots.<br />
<br />
Before that, though, our Sunday was spent preparing for the engine removal. We started by taking apart our engine room, which was an amazingly easy process involving ten screws and maybe 30 minutes. Suddenly we had fantastic access to our engine...I'd be tempted to do this for more routine projects, except you have to find a place to store everything. For now that's the V-berth, and once that filled up then parts and tools started occupying the forward head and the port side of the salon. It's a cramped boat for the duration.<br />
<br />
After one final ceremonial startup and short run, I removed our big Balmar alternator, bracket and belts, the voltage regulator and harness, and the stock alternator along with engine battery cables to starter and ground. I took off the airbox, drained the oil and coolant, and disconnected raw water hoses. I disconnected fuel lines and let them drain into my used diesel jug overnight, and also left the oil filter off overnight to drain into a baggie as I suspected we'd need the filter off to fit the engine through our cabin door. I disconnected the throttle link mechanism. Finally, I took the bolts out of the drive shaft-prop shaft coupling, as I figured we'd leave the transmission and drive shaft in place while picking the engine and then take off the tranny once we had better access.<br />
<br />
On Monday morning Kevin from Mi'kmaq Marine showed up right on time and got straight to work. Basically the only prep work that was left was the transmission shift linkage and the four engine mount bolts. After that he got out his gear. Kevin has a really impressive and slick system for engine removal and installation. Usually he does this himself, so having two extra people just made it easier. Basically, he uses two jack stands to support an eight-foot I-beam, on which runs a little trolley. He hangs a chain hoist from the trolley and can then crank up the engine and move it up to eight feet. Then he puts the engine down, moves the jackstands and I-beam, and repeats the process.<br />
<br />
It took four of these moves to get our engine off the boat. For the first move, the I-beam was suspended diagonally across the (former) engine room, with one jack stand in our cabin and the other in the passageway to the salon. This got the engine to the passageway, where Kevin removed the transmission & driveshaft, as well as the oil filter and fuel distributor to get it through our cabin door. After we pushed it through the cabin door, Keven used the trolley to get the engine up and over an awkward corner of the nav station seat into the salon. Then he repositioned the jackstands and I-beam up topside, over the cockpit (we had removed the dodger and folded the Bimini back that morning), and I cranked the engine up through the companionway hatch. Talk about a tight fit! Finally, he put one jack stand in the cockpit and the other on the dock, and he was able to slide the engine right through the lifeline gate to his engine cart on the dock. The whole process, from Kevin showing up to the engine sitting in his shop, took only about two hours. <br />
<br />
That made us really optimistic about the while process going that smoothly, but of course it hasn't. We left the transmission on a piece of cardboard in the port half of the salon, and the next morning it was soaked with oil. It was leaking from the shaft seal. I brought the transmission to Kevin's shop and in short order got some very bad news. There was water in the transmission oil, and Kevin had talked to ZF and they said it would need new bearings, seals and races. Add in Kevin's labor, and it was just cheaper to get a new transmission. I had previously checked the oil after the transmission got dunked, and it seemed clean, but I apparently didn't get my tube quite deep enough into the transmission's innards. This really sucks, because as you may recall I just replaced the transmission in Cape May in September 2017. The good news was that ZF was able to rush a replacement from Florida to St. Thomas and it should arrive tomorrow or the next day, beating the engine here and probably not slowing down our timeline. It'll set us back an extra $2800 for now, but we added it to the insurance claim. We'll see how that shakes out, our insurance company has been pretty unresponsive but seems to finally have kicked things into high gear today. I'll be calling them daily to keep them on point.<br />
<br />
Other than that, I've been busy in the engine room. The ultimate goal for the next week is to clean and repaint the bilge, get new bilge pumps secured in place, clean up the wiring and plumbing, and add new insulation to all the walls we didn't do last year. To just get started on that required removing quite a few hoses, engine mounts, and miscellaneous items. Cleaning has proven a pretty huge and disgusting chore, made worse by the flooding that spread the accumulated sludge to every corner of the bilge. I spent much of today literally head down in the bilge. I looked like Swamp Thing by the end. But it's finally clean, I started standing today and will start painting tomorrow, the bilge pumps are done, much of the wiring and plumbing cleanup is done, and we're ready to start prettying up the engine room with new insulation. They don't give that stuff away, by the way. The local Budget Marine charged $120 for a 3x4 sheet. Fortunately I also had about that much left over from our previous engine room project. Hopefully we'll have enough.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile the engine supposedly made it on the boat today, should get here Friday, and will be available for pickup Monday. We're planning on Tuesday and Wednesday for installation, and weather permitting we're hoping to head to St. Maarten ASAP, skipping the BVI altogether this time. We're eager to get this big project behind us and get on with our cruising season. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-13314562808998204852018-12-03T17:43:00.001-08:002018-12-03T17:43:15.293-08:00Season Opener<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Oh, how good it felt to get off the dock! With all the frustration over the engine and the rolling delays at our hot, airless slip in Puerto del Rey, we’d almost forgotten the point of living on a boat. And then we got to Culebra and enjoyed a starfilled night at anchor in the beautiful, breezy Dakity anchorage, and everything made sense again. We enjoyed a 4-day, 3-night minicruise to start our season before taking a dock again in St. Thomas to begin our repower project, and it was just what we needed before taking on this challenge.<br />
<br />
We left Puerto del Rey on the morning of Weds, Nov 28th, after saying our goodbyes to various friends there and relieving Stephen & Luiza of S/V Carpe Ventum (buddy boat from last year) of their Sailrite LSZ-1, as they’re headed back to the states to sell the boat, get hitched, and begin land life together. We were off the dock about an hour later than intended, at 10:15am, and no sooner had we cleared the breakwater than the engine overheat alarm went off. I glanced at the water temp gauge; it was pegged. There was just enough wind to sail, about 8-10 knots from the SSE, so I cut the engine to idle and headed upwind, Dawn heaved up the mainsail, and I killed the engine as we slowly drifted away from the reef at 2 knots. Once she got the boat cleaned up we put out the Yankee and the staysail, and then enjoyed a calm, beautiful 4-5-knot close-to-beam reach. I put both rods out and caught two fish, a barracuda and an edible-size bar jack. I kept the latter and we grilled it up Friday night. I also lost a lure to a hard strike.<br />
<br />
Later the winds became more SE and we had to tack once to clear Cayo Luis Pena; then they veered back S but died to 7-8 knots, and we drifted the rest of the way to Culebra. We actually sailed all the way in the reef enterance and only started the engine to grab a mooring ball at Dakity, but later discovered we might as well have started the engine earlier, for our little 4-cum-3-cylinder Yanmar was more resilient than we thought.<br />
<br />
After arriving at Dakity around 4pm we launched the dinghy to make the mile-long run into Dewey to take Piper ashore and do happy hour at the newly reopened Dinghy Dock bar & restaurant. No sooner had we tied up there than we saw two very familiar faces, Mike and Martha from S/V Laila, our dock neighbors at Puerto del Rey! The weather forecast for the next day hadn’t changed - light and flaky winds straight from the E - so we decided to stay another day.<br />
<br />
Thursday was a delightfully lazy day. I soaked in the bathtub warm water for a while, Dawn and Piper took the paddleboard for a cruise around the anchorage, and then in mid-afternoon our other PdR dockmates, John and Barbara of S/V Mojo, cruised into the anchorage. And then we discovered via Facebook that Hayward, Ainsley & family of S/V Pura Vida were arriving from St. Croix! They spent the summer with other kid boats in Grenada and are now on their way back home to South Carolina. We took the dinghy over to the west side of Culebra via the canal through Dewey, and spent a nice hour aboard Pura Vida catching up. We couldn’t stay long, as we had an early wake up planned for Friday.<br />
<br />
The alarm went off at 3:30am, and by 4am we were off the mooring and steaming out of the channel. The forecast had changed several times, becoming progressively lighter, and indeed the wind turned out to be even lighter than the revised forecast: 7-10 knots and variable from NE to SE. This made for challenging sailing as Windbird doesn’t really like to move in less than 10 knots true wind, especially upwind into chop, and so we ended up running the engine at reduced power for 6 of the nearly 10 hours enroute. She really ran pretty smoothly for only running on three cylinders. The best sailing of the day was when we ran along the edge of a 15-18 knot squall in late morning. When we were two miles from Christmas Cove we finally cried uncle, furled the Yankee, and motored lickety-damn straight to the anchorage. All the mooring balls were taken so we anchored in 26 feet of water over thin grass and sand just north of Fish Cay. We ordered late lunch from Pizza Pi, and had the leftovers for dinner.<br />
<br />
The next morning was leisurely; I paddle boarded around the anchorage and visited with a couple kids who just sailed a Tayana 42 aft-cockpit, S/V Eclipse, offshore from Boston. After waiting out a brief but intense squall, we hauled anchor and motored through Current Cut and into Red Hook bay. Our reserved slip at American Yacht Harbor was still occupied so we took a vacant mooring ball for a couple hours until the dockmaster cleared us in. And that was the last time our faithful little Yanmar ever ran, for over the weekend we began the process of getting her ready to be removed from the boat. But that’s a story for another post.<br />
<br />
First impressions of Red Hook: it’s a little surgey on the dock here, but far less than I expected considering that the bay is open to the eastern prevailing trades. I guess St. John and the offlying cays to the NE break up the swell before it gets in here. The marina here is small, decently nice, and rebuilding after Irma; it’s pretty expensive and some of their policies rub us the wrong way. We probably wouldn’t stay here except that it’s a convenient place to do the repower. The good news is that we’re parked facing west and there’s a nice cooling breeze right down our hatch in the aft cabin. And there are lots of stores and bars around to tempt our rapidly dwindling dollars. Anyways, I’m really eager for this repower to be done so we can get back out there on the hook. Our season opener minicruise was a taste of the good stuff, and I’m looking forward to more.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
,</div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-64928992526583055822018-11-27T12:34:00.002-08:002018-11-27T12:34:13.588-08:00The Decision<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The situation: we have an 8500 hour engine that had a ton of epoxy-contaminated rainwater sit inside the crankcase and pistons for an unknown amount of time this summer, which is only running on three cylinders. The fourth cylinder has low compression and the head checks out fine, so the problem is presumed to be the rings.<br />
<br />
Solution #1: Pull the engine, have it overhauled by local mechanic Gerry Martino, reinstall. Cost: $6700 including all work done to engine so far. Time: 6-8 weeks assuming no long delays in finding/shipping parts. This would have us sailing out of Fajardo sometime in mid-late Jan and living at the dock (at $1.10/ft/night) in the meantime.<br />
<br />
Solution #2A: Purchase new Yanmar 4JH57 from R&B Power in San Juan, shipped from Europe for appx. $14,300 plus 11% sales tax. Time to receive: 6-8 weeks. Have installed by Island Marine at Puerto del Rey (booked up to mid-Jan). Presumably leave Fajardo in late Jan. This engine has the same footprint and dimensions as our current 4JH4E, allowing us to use current engine mounts, transmission, and transmission adaptor plate.<br />
<br />
Solution #2B: Purchase same 4JH57 from R&B Power, but they would order through Mack Boring who they claim charges 20% extra. Delivery in 2 weeks. Install ourselves with help from Gerry Martino. Cost appx $19,000 plus installation costs. Leave in mid-December.<br />
<br />
Solution #3: Order Yanmar 4JH57 from Offshore Marine in St. Thomas, $14160 delivered, no tax. Delivered from mainland U.S. in two weeks. Installed by Mi’kmaq Marine of Red Hook, which does a bunch of engine installs for Offshore and has an engine hoist on the docks at American Yacht Harbor. Sail to St. Thomas for installation, use current engine running on 3 cylinders only to get off dock in Fajardo and take dock in St. Thomas. Done by mid-December.<br />
<br />
Solution #4: Sell boat, move back to land.<br />
<br />
We didn’t seriously consider Solution #4, we haven’t been that beat down enough just yet! We did consider #1. Gerry seems to be a good mechanic and I think he’d do a good job overhauling. However I could see it dragging on and eating a large portion of our cruising season, and it’s a high time engine. I don’t see having the engine overhauled by a shade tree mechanic in Puerto Rico adding much to the boats value or salability when we put her on the market in a few years. Dawn was pretty adamant all along that if we had to take the engine out, she’d prefer we put a new one in, and she has a good point.<br />
<br />
Solution 2B was more money than we wanted to spend, and 2A kept us around Puerto Rico longer than we cared to stay. Plus dealing with R&B Power did not give me the warm fuzzies. They were pretty disorganized, it took a while for them to give me a quote, and their answers on several key things (including sales tax) changed several times. Offshore Marine was really easy to deal with, and talking to the installer at Mi’kmaq, Kevin, gave me a lot of confidence that he’s done a lot of these and shouldn’t have any great trouble doing the swap. Plus, his schedule looked good for the time the engine would arrive.<br />
<br />
So we ended up putting down our 50% deposit and ordering a new engine with Offshore Marine. It should arrive by Dec 10. In the meantime I flew a 6-day trip over Thanksgiving, I’m traveling back to Puerto Rico today, and we take off for Culebra and St. Thomas tomorrow. This whole ordeal is going to basically empty our cruising kitty so I may end up flying more than planned this winter, but at least we’ll have a new engine and be able to keep on cruising.</div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-37710724641119642072018-11-17T16:39:00.001-08:002018-11-17T16:39:42.531-08:00A Week Without Windbird<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We just finished up nine days in the BVI, on a charter boat, without Windbird or Piper. The former stayed here on the dock in Puerto del Rey, where our dockmates John and Barbara on Mojo kept an eye on her. The latter went off to a doggy resort called Wildane Kennels, up in the foothills of El Yunque, while we flew from San Juan to Tortola. We were on a Sunsail-branded Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 389 named "Lady Meta," courtesy of Moorings charter boat owner friends who heard about our bum engine predicament. Their generosity was greatly appreciated, but it was still kind've a bummer to be going back to a charter boat. We brought a ton of stuff with us, and I was still constantly wanting various tools or equipment, turning around to get them, and then realizing they were back on Windbird. Plus the Jeanneau felt small, light and cheap compared to Windbird. We experienced some relatively nasty weather over the week and would have appreciated Windbird's solidity. Plus, surprisingly, we didn't find the Jeanneau to be particularly faster or more weatherly than Windbird; we gave her a good workout the last two days, and her performance was roughly the same as Windbird's in moderate to heavy wind.<br />
<br />
I didn't actually spend a ton of time on Lady Meta; the whole reason we made the trip when we really would have rather been back in Puerto Rico with Windbird was because my brother Steve had put together a sailing trip on a 48' Leopard catamaran with ten of his friends - only one of whom had sailed before - and he needed my sailing expertise to be able to handle that boat. So I checked Dawn and my brother Jon and his girlfriend Heather out on Lady Meta the first day, then spent the next four days as supervising skipper and sailing instructor on S/V Shipyouknot. Only on the last two days did I cut Steve loose and return to the Jeanneau, which Dawn, Jon and Heather really appreciated. They'd been having a tough time keeping up with the cat in windy, choppy, squally conditions that were challenging for an experienced skipper, nevermind one solo for the first time with fairly green crew. It was frustrating for them to bash for hours only to find the cat arrived an hour earlier, with our crew well into party mode without them. <br />
<br />
Sailing the cat was pretty interesting. I've done a few charters on 39-46' Leopard cats, and served as crew on a few others, but always got the impression they were pretty slow and clumsy to windward. Maybe I was just in too light of conditions, or still green and uneducated in sail trim. This time I seldom touched the helm or sheets, but gave instruction to all those interested, and we were able to do really well going to windward in 13 to 23+ knots of wind. When sailing "against" similar charter cats aboard Windbird this spring, I observed that they had a couple knots of boatspeed over us but we pointed nearly 10 degrees higher, generally getting passed off the wind but beating the cats to the upwind mark. This time we were doing 3-4 knots over what Windbird would do in similar conditions and pointing within 5 degrees (58° true wind angle vs 53° for Windbird), for overall better upwind performance.<br />
<br />
One thing I initially disliked about the cat but which eventually made sense was its dual mainsheet system, with both sheets fed to a single manual winch. The upwind sheet serves as mainsheet, while the downwind sheet augments the boom vang to control sail twist. The dance of which sheet to put on the winch when gets a little getting used to, especially for jibing. The Jeanneau, meanwhile, had a double-ended mainsheet with each end fed to the primary winches near the helms. The upwind winch is generally used to trim the mainsheet - but again this results in an interesting routine during a jibe. <br />
<br />
There were a few changes to the BVI since our visit in April. The islands continue to grow back more foilage and get more lush. I saw fewer structures missing roofs, and reconstruction in Road Town is proceeding apace. A lot of sunken and beached boats have been cleared out, although quite a few still remain. The Great Irma Trash Heap on the southwest side of Tortola is much smaller. The Willy T is back, bigger and better, with cheaper drink prices(!) and this time moored in Peter Island's Great Harbour. Suddenly Peter Island is popular, while The Bight at Norman Island looked deserted both times I saw it. There are rumors the Willy T will have to move again due to complaints by the Peter Island Resort, who apparently did not learn the lesson of Pirate's Bight. The Bitter End Yacht Club in North Sound has torn down all its wrecked structures in preparation for rebuilding, while Saba Rock hasn't seen much progress. Soggy Dollar added a few new palm trees but still feels quite different than the old one. Quito's Gazebo in Cane Garden Bay is almost rebuilt, and Myett's (newly sold to Pusser's) nearly has their second story back on. Anegada Beach Club is its old peaceful, welcoming self.<br />
<br />
The seven day charter circuit can really be a slog, especially when you include the long sail to and from Anegada in challenging conditions. Dawn and I much prefer the "BVI Slow Cruise" we practiced aboard Windbird last season. Still, it was a lot of fun to introduce both sailing and the BVI to a boatload of newbies, who were all blown away by the experience. We finished the week with two days of Dawn and I racing Lady Meta against the cat crew, and while we were faster, it was pretty cool to see them sail the boat by themselves. The whole time we were thinking about Windbird; we made a decision about her engine, and set about implementing that decision (which I'll write about soon). We were pretty happy to get back to her (and Piper) today; there's no place like home, which is definitely what Windbird is to us now. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-62461238207973525392018-11-07T08:35:00.001-08:002018-11-07T09:10:55.723-08:00Bad Engine Blues<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our drive to Atlanta went well on October 23-25th, and the flight down to San Juan PR on the 26th went off without a hitch. Well, not quite - we bought a cheap ticket on SWA for Dawn since all the flights on my airline were oversold. I was on a jumpseat pass on the same flight we had paid to have Piper shipped as cargo, and it turned out there were plenty of seats due to misconnects - we didn't have to pay for Dawn after all. Oh well. Piper did very well with being shipped, again.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--LNJV0Tk6k8/W-MavogaFVI/AAAAAAAAKRo/_LiVadf9dpQwpSuuo-kdA-fJZLRZ1HRngCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20181030_150425811_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--LNJV0Tk6k8/W-MavogaFVI/AAAAAAAAKRo/_LiVadf9dpQwpSuuo-kdA-fJZLRZ1HRngCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20181030_150425811_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>Our four days in the boatyard were hot, dusty, and busy. The boat was a little dirtier and moldier than we realized, so Dawn had some work cut out to make it habitable. We steadily worked our way down the long project list and got everything done by our scheduled launch at 3:30pm on Oct 30th. In the week since I had last visited the boat, mechanic Gerry Martino had finished flushing water out of the crankcase, removing water from the top end, and lubricating the cylinders through the injector holes. He also installed a new raw water throughhull and seacock, the job whose estimation (my another mechanic) led to the initial discovery of the water in the bilge. Gerry very briefly ran the engine while the boat was on the hard; I was really worried about internal rusting and potential damage down the road. As it turns out, I was right to worry.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-05Hnc_oKmos/W-MawKC-68I/AAAAAAAAKRs/bK2cEFeG-TATOYFIwYUO0QW9UFwy55fCwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20181030_160645394_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-05Hnc_oKmos/W-MawKC-68I/AAAAAAAAKRs/bK2cEFeG-TATOYFIwYUO0QW9UFwy55fCwCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20181030_160645394_HDR.jpg" width="150" /></a>The launch went very smoothly. Once in the water, the engine started right up but smoked heavily, which I initially attributed to the extra oil Gerry had injected into the cylinders. It made decent power to get us to the dock, though, and we were quite happy to be off the hard and moving aboard (we had spent the previous nights in a rented apartment about 10 minutes north of the marina). Over the next few days we continued provisioning, rigging Windbird to cruise, I fixed the air conditioning and it promptly broke again, and we kept running the engine at various RPMs. Our initial goal had been to leave the marina on Friday, October 2nd, and <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W3oYyaaqDaQ/W-Mar1On7pI/AAAAAAAAKR4/8tZh5mymaPsvT7eCjAVn_6_IehNxryL2wCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20181031_124659967.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W3oYyaaqDaQ/W-Mar1On7pI/AAAAAAAAKR4/8tZh5mymaPsvT7eCjAVn_6_IehNxryL2wCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20181031_124659967.jpg" width="150" /></a>we would have been ready to do so if our engine had been running right. It was still smoking quite a bit and running a little rough, and there was a pronounced top end clatter. Gerry came to adjust the valves on the morning of October 2nd and that cleared up the top end noise, but now the roughness of the engine was more evident. He isolated the problem using the old "crack the injector hold-down" trick: the #4 cylinder was dead. The next morning he came back to swap injectors (between #2 & #4), but the #4 cylinder stayed idle. The injector was clearly squirting out fuel. This left compression as the primary suspect, a very bad sign.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--O-iYQpSvNg/W-MawdVm7jI/AAAAAAAAKSA/Qhu3bgkMw9AbQwcaafEntjH0wMD1Acd4wCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20181101_215042655.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--O-iYQpSvNg/W-MawdVm7jI/AAAAAAAAKSA/Qhu3bgkMw9AbQwcaafEntjH0wMD1Acd4wCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20181101_215042655.jpg" width="150" /></a>We hung out the rest of the weekend as it rained and poured, and on Monday morning Gerry and his assistant David came with their compression tester. Cylinders #1-3 all showed around 425 psi, while #4 registered just under 300. Exploratory surgery was necessary. Gerry and David tore out the head and took that back to their shop, where Gerry inspected it yesterday. He found all valves seating and sealing normally, and no leaks from the top end. This is the worst case scenario. It means a broken ring, possibly a scored cylinder wall (we can't see any evidence of that from the top of the cylinder, though). It means removal of the engine for overhaul, or else replacement. It means putting a ton of money into the boat, and being stuck here for the foreseeable future. It means our plans for this season are on hold for now. <br />
<br />
Because the current engine has nearly 8500 hours on it, Dawn <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GfjGXBI2Jk4/W-Maxf0H03I/AAAAAAAAKSE/GjRgftamIvwi9GYziddaE7xdxYx4BKWjACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20181103_161516563_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GfjGXBI2Jk4/W-Maxf0H03I/AAAAAAAAKSE/GjRgftamIvwi9GYziddaE7xdxYx4BKWjACEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20181103_161516563_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>and I are strongly leaning towards replacing it with a new Yanmar 4JH5E, which is basically identical to our current 4JH4E. It would be about as painless of a repowering as is possible. We'd be able to use our brand new ZF 15 MIV transmission, which thankfully survived its own dunking without water ingress. We'd possibly even be able to leave the boat in the water, as Mark and Judy Handley did when they installed the current engine in 2005. We know the engine will fit through the companionway and down the aft cabin passageway to the engine room, which would have to be partly disassembled. We know it can be done with our main halyard, a few other ropes, and a 1-ton chain hoist. We have lots of photos and descriptions of the process from Judy's blog. It would allow us to do a few other projects to greatly improve our engine room and bilge. But it would doubtless take a while to be shipped down here. We're waiting on a quote from R&B Power in San Juan. In the meantime I'm starting the process of filing an insurance claim. That's going to be interesting, as our insurance has been a pain to deal with every time we've had contact. We would have switched if it didn't require a new survey.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DsvXcELWupQ/W-MbG43z83I/AAAAAAAAKSI/DgsEK6fvowUnnJNnkBL9tJ76JODc42uOQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20181107_123540384.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DsvXcELWupQ/W-MbG43z83I/AAAAAAAAKSI/DgsEK6fvowUnnJNnkBL9tJ76JODc42uOQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_20181107_123540384.jpg" width="150" /></a>In the meantime, though, we're flying over to the BVI for 10 days. Two of my brothers and eleven of their friends are flying in for a charter of a large Moorings catamaran on Nov 10-17th. Windbird was supposed to join them but obviously won't be making it, and besides their need of our sailing expertise there isn't enough room on the cat to sleep everyone. Fortunately some good friends of ours who are also Moorings owners gifted us the use of their points to charter an additional 38' monohull, which Dawn, my brother Jon, his girlfriend Heather and I will sleep on. Piper will be going to a "doggie resort" here on Puerto Rico. Though we're getting the extra boat for free, I honestly hate to leave Windbird here like this and run off to the BVI, but we're doing it because it's family and they've had this planned for a long time, have nonrefundable tickets, etc. My hope is to get the new Yanmar ordered and headed this way while we're gone, assuming we decide to go in that direction. We'll be trying to make a decision in the next three days. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-27030325855465978832018-10-20T09:02:00.003-07:002018-10-20T11:02:26.700-07:00More Offseason Adventures<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Huh, I guess it's been two months since we've posted...time for an update!<br />
<br />
Our offseason has continued to absolutely fly by. I've still been working a full schedule, mostly flying Europe trips, while rebuilding our cruising kitty. But in between work trips, we've found a few things to do that have kept us pretty busy.<br />
<br />
In August we flew out to Salt Lake City, where we had stashed our <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MPZmiVnqi48/W8tpQeaSRlI/AAAAAAAAKFo/m2yJyxaNOd0v0yDUGRfrn-7fIks_wu1DACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180824_143211436_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MPZmiVnqi48/W8tpQeaSRlI/AAAAAAAAKFo/m2yJyxaNOd0v0yDUGRfrn-7fIks_wu1DACEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180824_143211436_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>motorcycles in June and where my airline pilot / motorcycling buddy Brad Phillips had recently purchased a Yamaha Tenere adventure bike. This was our first motorcycle trip with Brad in several years, and we had a lot of fun. The first day we hit the road in early afternoon and made it up to Bear Lake, Utah, where we camped in a state campground on the south shore. Day 2, Brad's birthday, was a really nice day of riding into Jackson, WY with a <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XwGJZ5aqoYw/W8tpPxGjB1I/AAAAAAAAKFw/lVpt16V7SasTyJfgIt9cj1gwLP-6R4oigCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180825_180927002.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XwGJZ5aqoYw/W8tpPxGjB1I/AAAAAAAAKFw/lVpt16V7SasTyJfgIt9cj1gwLP-6R4oigCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180825_180927002.jpg" width="200" /></a>short stop in Grand Teton National Park, then riding through Yellowstone to Madison Campground where we camped for the night (low of 37° F, brr!). The next day's route was a winding series of roads along the Montana/Idaho border all the way to Lolo in the Bitterroot Mountains, where we found a really cool old lumberjack bar (<a href="http://thejacksaloon.com/">The Jack Saloon</a>), where we hung out and danced till after midnight and rented cabins for the night. The following morning we absolutely feasted on over 100 straight miles <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xa_1_GWEDYU/W8tpQDMqW_I/AAAAAAAAKFo/IaQx9ZbuxusbC_o8-Q75-z6yAkYn7PL5QCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180827_172158901_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xa_1_GWEDYU/W8tpQDMqW_I/AAAAAAAAKFo/IaQx9ZbuxusbC_o8-Q75-z6yAkYn7PL5QCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180827_172158901_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>of nonstop curves on one of the most glorious roads I've ever ridden on: US-12 from Lolo Hot Springs, MT to Kooskia, ID. The rest of the day took us further south in Idaho, then through Hell's Canyon into Oregon, where we stopped in Baker City for the night. With four good days of riding under our belts, on Day 5 we just booked it to Vancouver, WA to give ourselves time to clean and pamper the bikes before flying out the next morning.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-irW8I64pifA/W8tpSCEBS8I/AAAAAAAAKFs/e3NwfjSbnBMEtwNujcM_BqhNu1f9P2phQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180919_165348465_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-irW8I64pifA/W8tpSCEBS8I/AAAAAAAAKFs/e3NwfjSbnBMEtwNujcM_BqhNu1f9P2phQCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180919_165348465_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>Our next adventure was in mid-September, when we flew to Europe for two weeks with Dawn's brother Paul. We actually flew out to Brussels a day before him just in case the nonrevving went sideways, rented a BMW X1 from Sixt, and spent the night in beautiful Bruges. The next morning we picked Paul up in BRU, added him to the rental agreement, and pointed the Beamer east. In Bastogne we visited the 101st Airborne Division Museum - which covers the Battle of the Bulge - had lunch in an old tavern, visited the Mardasson Memorial, and <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eCLCz2_YAmU/W8tpRTYGTUI/AAAAAAAAKFw/3Ua20qrIRU0LCAKeNY3LgqcStElLYYGugCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180920_184531861_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eCLCz2_YAmU/W8tpRTYGTUI/AAAAAAAAKFw/3Ua20qrIRU0LCAKeNY3LgqcStElLYYGugCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180920_184531861_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>accidentally happened upon Jacques' Woods, site of some vicious fighting and shelling that was depicted in HBO's excellent WW2 miniseries "Band of Brothers." We continued through the Ardennes into Luxembourg and then into Germany, where we spent the night at a chateau in the ancient Roman town of Trier, which is where many of my ancestors from my mom's side of the family were from.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RQzzZHwENxM/W8tqulT64BI/AAAAAAAAKGA/5utouJUg4ck0U7o2pW-5LpzFXrD8EUyWQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180921_173315103_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RQzzZHwENxM/W8tqulT64BI/AAAAAAAAKGA/5utouJUg4ck0U7o2pW-5LpzFXrD8EUyWQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_20180921_173315103_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The next day we drove through a bit of France to reach the spa town of Baden-Baden, where we walked around, had a beer and bought picnic supplies before driving up into the Black Forest via the Schwarzwaldhochstraße, which was quite scenic and a fun drive as well. We spent a rainy night at a B&B in Hornberg, and the skies had cleared by the next morning when we did some hiking at a waterfall above Triberg. We then continued out of the forest, across the Rhine into Switzerland, and <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MDHlEXa39u0/W8tpTlq6SZI/AAAAAAAAKFs/x1uV-rc4gzgnM27h3UY45BhfA1ewxepTgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180922_151246606_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MDHlEXa39u0/W8tpTlq6SZI/AAAAAAAAKFs/x1uV-rc4gzgnM27h3UY45BhfA1ewxepTgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180922_151246606_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>on to Vitznau on the shores of Vierwaldstättersee, i.e. Lake Lucerne. I haven't been to Switzerland since Dawn and I spent several weeks hiking the Alps in 2006, and I had forgotten how drop-dead gorgeous the country is. We were staying at the base of Mt. Rigi; there wasn't quite enough time left in the day to justify taking the cog railway all the way to the top, <br />
but we did take the cheap local cablecar up to Hinterbergen and <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LAlQoevahv4/W8tpURpiaKI/AAAAAAAAKFw/Z2cW1ikd46I7scyy8U_X2wcCcEkQPC6UgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180922_163225510_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LAlQoevahv4/W8tpURpiaKI/AAAAAAAAKFw/Z2cW1ikd46I7scyy8U_X2wcCcEkQPC6UgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180922_163225510_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>hiked a bit further up to a grassy saddle with beautiful views east and west. Dawn and Paul waited for an hour while I climbed another 700' or so to a commanding side peak; unfortunately the top was overgrown and the views weren't much better than the saddle. We had a beer at a small restaurant below the saddle and then hiked all the way down to Vitznau, about a 2500' drop down a pretty forested ravine.<br />
<br />
<br />
The next morning's drive east <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qovOZHpm1uY/W8tpU20yFRI/AAAAAAAAKFc/xx7W2FM6bsMRM7AURzYDH542DeajpQJ2gCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180923_085558886_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qovOZHpm1uY/W8tpU20yFRI/AAAAAAAAKFc/xx7W2FM6bsMRM7AURzYDH542DeajpQJ2gCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180923_085558886_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>through the Alps was stupendously beautiful, especially the first part across the Klausen Pass. Our route took us through Lichtenstein and the Tyrol region of Austria to the town of Reutte, near the German border. There we explored the ruins of Ehrenburg Castle and stayed up late to watch the Minnesota Vikings lose very badly to the Buffalo Bills (!). The following morning dawned very dark and drizzly, the only bad <br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-brafE2Av1LM/W8ttB0JECjI/AAAAAAAAKGU/Ah2Fensv_pw6394PMafE3ee5fTuIPuHQACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180924_124413255.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-brafE2Av1LM/W8ttB0JECjI/AAAAAAAAKGU/Ah2Fensv_pw6394PMafE3ee5fTuIPuHQACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_20180924_124413255.jpg" width="200" /></a>weather in what was otherwise a remarkably good-weather trip. We toured Neuschwanstein Castle, had lunch and delicious monk-brewed beer at Andechs Monstary, and visited Dachau before heading to our hostel on the eastern outskirts of Munich. It was Oktoberfest, but for the first night we elected to just walk around the Marienplatz and have dinner at the Hofbrauhaus, which was a lot of fun.<br />
<br />
The following day we did laundry in the morning, explored <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OpQ7CoM2N9c/W8tpaagv3SI/AAAAAAAAKFc/LkpLWKiza_E5cPz8CJIvZQexMM2_YikZACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180925_131329100_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OpQ7CoM2N9c/W8tpaagv3SI/AAAAAAAAKFc/LkpLWKiza_E5cPz8CJIvZQexMM2_YikZACEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180925_131329100_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>Munich in the afternoon, and headed to the Wiesn at 4pm. There we met our Munich friend Uli Zinn, who we met on the Navimag ferry in Patagonia in 2011. We went into the "old Oktoberfest" with Uli for an hour or two, then headed to one of the big Paulaner tents, the <br />
Armbrustshützenhalle. There we met an airline pilot friend of mine, Erica S, and a group of her friends - one of whom turned out to be <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1fZpvvN-Li8/W8tpbLOwq8I/AAAAAAAAKFs/8uFwMSWrPVUEYVOAbvbjucxqnehBTw8kQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180925_181210520.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1fZpvvN-Li8/W8tpbLOwq8I/AAAAAAAAKFs/8uFwMSWrPVUEYVOAbvbjucxqnehBTw8kQCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180925_181210520.jpg" width="200" /></a>one of the last pilots I flew with at Compass, my last airline. Erica and I went to college together and have been chasing each other around the industry ever since. This is the third airline we've been at together, having always been hired within a couple months of each other. Uli's sister also joined us. We had a table right next to the bandstand, and it turned out to be a pretty fantastically fun night. I'd love to do Oktoberfest again.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4oKQzri4Ulw/W8tpgqUz6II/AAAAAAAAKFw/5Ru1zE8DPsErCAA7v9cxuH8uGujitq9BACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180929_100318683_HDR.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4oKQzri4Ulw/W8tpgqUz6II/AAAAAAAAKFw/5Ru1zE8DPsErCAA7v9cxuH8uGujitq9BACEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180929_100318683_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r4SGnPJmJnM/W8tpdgsEF5I/AAAAAAAAKFo/5yRpU3ULMDELMabKmwabTr5ymTMbx5YHQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180926_175039219_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r4SGnPJmJnM/W8tpdgsEF5I/AAAAAAAAKFo/5yRpU3ULMDELMabKmwabTr5ymTMbx5YHQCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180926_175039219_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AZ15hxjCPDw/W8tpeuQia2I/AAAAAAAAKFw/s0unTDQw2UoBL-GdAKgPrxNbC-ZUSqoMwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180927_191017398_HDR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AZ15hxjCPDw/W8tpeuQia2I/AAAAAAAAKFw/s0unTDQw2UoBL-GdAKgPrxNbC-ZUSqoMwCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180927_191017398_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
Our subsequent legs took us to Nuremburg, Heidelburg, and Frankfurt. After Frankfurt we spent half a day exploring the Middle Rhine River Valley, which is very familiar territory for me, and then <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q_9dgytdC1o/W8tphyfN7iI/AAAAAAAAKFs/M022FthWPqo2oKxR9bJsuAEzdUadjUUSgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180929_173654279.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q_9dgytdC1o/W8tphyfN7iI/AAAAAAAAKFs/M022FthWPqo2oKxR9bJsuAEzdUadjUUSgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180929_173654279.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
headed up into the Eiffel Mountains to a little town called Nurburg. There we watched all sorts of exotic sportscars (plus some not-so-exotics) run the famous 20-km circuit known as the Nurburgring - and then we took our gutless rental BMW for 3 laps the next morning! Paul, Dawn and I each took a lap. I'm happy to say we didn't wreck the car, and it was great fun. I wouldn't mind doing it in something a little more <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IjCHbY3cYvM/W8tppMRrRrI/AAAAAAAAKF0/JTYWzw5I_2knR56J02W28IjFEub3IwmzQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20181002_194521240.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IjCHbY3cYvM/W8tppMRrRrI/AAAAAAAAKF0/JTYWzw5I_2knR56J02W28IjFEub3IwmzQCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20181002_194521240.jpg" width="200" /></a>high-performance next time though. After the motorsports fun, we headed to Amsterdam for a couple of days, then down to Brussels, where we spent one more night before flying out. The nonrev gods were smiling on us, and we made it all the way back to MSP through JFK on the same flights as Paul. Of course, then I had to head straight back to work!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VPZ91fN8j7o/W8tpswS-MEI/AAAAAAAAKF4/MHVWL_zITOsamwJzRwnKU8JMM5u7PN1swCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20181018_082041022_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VPZ91fN8j7o/W8tpswS-MEI/AAAAAAAAKF4/MHVWL_zITOsamwJzRwnKU8JMM5u7PN1swCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20181018_082041022_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
My most recent adventure was a decidedly unplanned one. Two weeks ago, a mechanic was at Windbird to do an estimate for replacing some seacocks when he discovered that our bilge was full of rainwater - over the transmission, partway up the engine above the crankshaft. Our boat sitters had missed it accumulating over several months. The boat sitters pumped the water out of the bilge but the mechanic subsequently got too busy to investigate further, so I flew down to Puerto Rico a few days ago immediately after arrival from Frankfurt at the end of a six-day trip. What I found was not good. I had accidentally left the cockpit scupper seacocks closed. All the rainwater that accumulated in the cockpit over the rainy season (we'd removed the bimini) drained through an unbeknownst-to-us leak where one of the pedestal guard legs came unbedded from the cockpit sole. All this rainwater leaked directly into a compartment above the engine, into a box containing my epoxy supplies. Eventually one or more of the epoxy containers ruptured, and epoxy-tainted water overflowed onto the engine below and then into the bilge. It was quite a mess to clean up, and much worse I found the engine absolutely full of epoxy-scented rainwater. I pumped it all out and then changed the oil 4 times, at which point the oil was coming out only slightly cleaner. I could crank the engine over by hand only with great effort through a ratchet, indicating there's some water in the cylinders as well. The only good news is that the water level didn't reach any electrical components, and the seals in our brand new transmission kept the water out of that - I changed its oil and it came out clean.<br />
<br />
I rebedded the pedestal guard in the cockpit to prevent a reoccurence and recaulked our propane locker which was letting some water in above our bed, and engaged a mechanic to work more on our engine as I had to fly back north for another work trip. The mechanic is using a pump to flush the crankcase with a cleaning solution and removing the injectors to evacuate water from the cylinders and lubricate them and the valves. I'm hoping against hope that there's no long-term damage, but we'll see in the coming days. It was a pretty stupid mistake on my part to forget to open the scupper seacocks (I'd closed all seacocks to check operation after hauling, intending to reopen the scuppers), made worse because our boat sitters never checked the bilge or turned on the bilge pump when water appeared.<br />
<br />
In any case, Dawn and Piper and I are driving to Atlanta in the middle of next week and flying to Puerto Rico on Oct 26th. Barring major problems with the engine (or late-season hurricane activity), our launch is set for Oct 30th, and we hope to be out of the marina and headed east a few days later.</div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-40307676659172617242018-08-16T12:41:00.001-07:002018-08-16T14:12:40.937-07:00Our Crazy Summer Ashore & Aloft<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's absolutely incredible to me that it's already mid-August, the summer is almost over, and Windbird has already been on the hard for over two months. We've been quite busy working, visiting friends and family, traveling, and doing other fun land-based stuff in that time, and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down at all between now and when we head back to Puerto Rico at the end of October.<br />
<br />
First, I'm glad to say it's been a very quiet Atlantic hurricane season thus far, not just for our sake but also for all the islands and communities still rebuilding from Irma and Maria. The sea temps in the tropical Atlantic have been average or below-average, with persistent high upper-level wind shear that has prevented much cyclonic formation. We had one category I hurricane, Beryl, go through the Lesser Antilles and weaken to a tropical storm before passing just south of Puerto Rico in early July, but all activity since then has taken place in the <i>sub</i>tropical Atlantic, where sea temps are above average. Of course we are just now entering the heart of the storm season, from now until late September. Here's hoping it continues to underwhelm.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oCPRQHepJK0/W3Xh53-UnkI/AAAAAAAAIvw/7eTo5R3oOGgpel5i_tXgS-OzwHAt5WrpgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5821.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oCPRQHepJK0/W3Xh53-UnkI/AAAAAAAAIvw/7eTo5R3oOGgpel5i_tXgS-OzwHAt5WrpgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5821.JPG" width="150" /></a>When we left Windbird in early June, we spent one night in Old San Juan and then flew to Atlanta, where our Nissan XTerra was parked in an ATL airport employee parking lot. This was Piper's first time being shipped by air, and he seemed to handle it very well. I was jumpseating on the same flight in my pilot uniform, and was thus able to go out on the ramp and check on him & give him a little snack both before and after the flight. Once we landed in Atlanta, we had a lunch with friends Kevin & Jeannie <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qBFIzmlMAdk/W3XhiME1C-I/AAAAAAAAIvo/H_cngKU1vdMQ_WMUkrF8g-tpqSYM7KOWwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5826.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qBFIzmlMAdk/W3XhiME1C-I/AAAAAAAAIvo/H_cngKU1vdMQ_WMUkrF8g-tpqSYM7KOWwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5826.JPG" width="200" /></a>and then hit the road, driving to Nashville. Unbeknownst to us, CMAFest was in full swing at the time, and downtown Nashville was CRAZY! Piper handled the commotion remarkably well, just a year or two ago he would have been shaking with fright. I think the cruising lifestyle has really helped him get over his fears (namely, adult strangers, bicycles and loud noise).<br />
<br />
The next day we drove all the way to Minneapolis, and the day after that to Rosholt, SD where we moved in with Dawn's parents for a couple months. Tom and Marg live on Lake Traverse, which forms the border between MN & SD. Shortly after moving in, we installed a mooring system off of their dock and I helped Tom set up their 25' MacGregor sailboat, so Dawn and I have been able to do a little lake sailing! But actually, I've spent very little time in SD considering how busy we've been.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UhbMKfDC26U/W3Xi13N76nI/AAAAAAAAIv8/9-LuAmugNtMWG2s2tA5jtCTV7j5larlWgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180729_171824975_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UhbMKfDC26U/W3Xi13N76nI/AAAAAAAAIv8/9-LuAmugNtMWG2s2tA5jtCTV7j5larlWgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180729_171824975_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I started flying a full schedule in June. Because landing currency isn't a problem for me in the summer, I've been bidding almost all Europe flying on the B767-300ER, with layovers in Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam (and U.S. layovers in New York, Orlando, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh). I've also made getting current in small planes a priority for this summer, which
has led to some really cool experiences. On a Frankfurt <br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-32Db20xGRAc/W3Xj_ZyPKyI/AAAAAAAAIww/kh4AyalVFqo6Y1z1j4OicsTR7nqF_2oAwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-32Db20xGRAc/W3Xj_ZyPKyI/AAAAAAAAIww/kh4AyalVFqo6Y1z1j4OicsTR7nqF_2oAwCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5918.jpg" width="200" /></a>layover, I flew
an Ikarus C42 microlight from Flugplatz Mainz-Finthen up the Rhine River Valley, and in Paris I
flew a classic taildragger Robin DR.221 out of Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole
airport (both of these with an instructor, as my FAA license does not
automatically transfer to JAA). In my hometown of Princeton, MN, I got
checked out in a rental Cessna 172 so I can take my nephews and nieces
flying this summer. And this past week, I used a long Orlando layover to
go to <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--EZPVYpzfOE/W3Xj77yV7mI/AAAAAAAAIwg/CqCAoKwiaCcp78_j6ric-3-X007HV6FYwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180730_173852326_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--EZPVYpzfOE/W3Xj77yV7mI/AAAAAAAAIwg/CqCAoKwiaCcp78_j6ric-3-X007HV6FYwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180730_173852326_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--EZPVYpzfOE/W3Xj77yV7mI/AAAAAAAAIwg/CqCAoKwiaCcp78_j6ric-3-X007HV6FYwCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180730_173852326_HDR.jpg" width="200" /></a>Jack Brown's Seaplane Base in Winter Haven, FL, to start a 2-day seaplane rating course in a Piper J-3C floatplane. After I finished the work trip, I flew back to Orlando for day two of training and the checkride, which I passed with "flying colors." It's been really enjoyable getting used to flying small planes again. Dawn and I both miss owning our Piper Pacer, and the question of what plane we'll buy "post-boat" has been a frequent topic of discussion.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zs1VopCy8SY/W3Xj-AU0_wI/AAAAAAAAIww/10VEXsxKurECrGOftQB_HEZisjhZqt10ACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180812_124138128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zs1VopCy8SY/W3Xj-AU0_wI/AAAAAAAAIww/10VEXsxKurECrGOftQB_HEZisjhZqt10ACEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_20180812_124138128.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cpk5oMpL7lQ/W3XkEcl8YSI/AAAAAAAAIwg/gJkEohsG46MAA-OQEJvWNAL4L6Scx34PwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5956.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cpk5oMpL7lQ/W3XkEcl8YSI/AAAAAAAAIwg/gJkEohsG46MAA-OQEJvWNAL4L6Scx34PwCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5956.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vgf9wR9k2Sk/W3XkILTdqjI/AAAAAAAAIws/liRix-1ajXo1f7NbjLkz3UtFnNmP8zuXgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6148.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vgf9wR9k2Sk/W3XkILTdqjI/AAAAAAAAIws/liRix-1ajXo1f7NbjLkz3UtFnNmP8zuXgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_6148.jpg" width="200" /></a>Another disused form of recreation that we've revisited this summer is riding our motorcycles. From July 7-18, we took off on a 2500 mile trip to the Black Hills, Colorado, and Utah. Dawn's been wanting to ride out there for years, and it proved to be a pretty epic trip with beautiful riding, good hiking and nice camping. We spent time in Arches, Canyonlands, and <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R_dOi8XACM8/W3XkF7PS3XI/AAAAAAAAIwk/lkQEYnJt3p4QCeHr9nCosiVXevj_kjK6gCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6091.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1167" data-original-width="1280" height="181" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R_dOi8XACM8/W3XkF7PS3XI/AAAAAAAAIwk/lkQEYnJt3p4QCeHr9nCosiVXevj_kjK6gCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_6091.jpg" width="200" /></a>Bryce Canyon National Parks, which were all eye-poppingly gorgeous. The bikes ran quite well considering I had only recently resurrected them from two years of disuse. We did, however, wait just a little too long to replace Dawn's rear tire, leading to a flat about 20 miles outside Page, AZ. The bikes are currently stashed in a storage unit near Salt Lake City airport, and we'll be heading out there next week for a 5-day ride to Portland OR with my best friend, Brad Phillips, who bought a bike in SLC for the trip. Hope we can avoid forest fires, this has been a crazy fire season out west.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4fHWTpoRYik/W3XkWkkPHsI/AAAAAAAAIw0/12ec5sSLSvcXIBy-8Pt8WVU4EaRHbi18gCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="954" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4fHWTpoRYik/W3XkWkkPHsI/AAAAAAAAIw0/12ec5sSLSvcXIBy-8Pt8WVU4EaRHbi18gCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG_6201.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5yuZXObTlwQ/W3Xj89_OigI/AAAAAAAAIwg/4eMmjIHmOiMfiqzt7F8aazXObe4l9r-pgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20180721_181438684_HDR.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5yuZXObTlwQ/W3Xj89_OigI/AAAAAAAAIwg/4eMmjIHmOiMfiqzt7F8aazXObe4l9r-pgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_20180721_181438684_HDR.jpg" width="150" /></a>Also in July we headed north of the border for a weekend to visit our friends Dane, Mak and Isla from S/V Sea Otter. We camped together at Falcon Lake (90 mi east of Winnipeg) for two nights and then hung out in Winnipeg for a 3rd night. Just before our arrival, Dane and Mak shared the exciting news that they're expecting their second child (a boy)! Sea Otter is still for sale in Ft. Lauderdale; they'd like to return to cruising
in another five or six years, once the kids are old enough to
appreciate it. It was so good seeing these guys, it's like we've known
them for years though we really just hung out for several weeks this
season. We hope to have them all down to Windbird sometime in the next
few years. Incidentally, we took Piper with us on this trip as Isla<i> loves</i> playing with him, and he's very good with kids. Canada is the sixth country Piper has visited.<br />
<br />
For the first part of August, we moved to my parents' place in Princeton, MN, as Dawn has been helping my mom in the runup to her annual charity 5k race, which takes place this Saturday. Being closer to the Twin Cities has made my commute to Atlanta easier, and we've been able to hang out with my family and catch up with our Twin Cities friends (some of whom will be coming to visit the boat this winter). Last week I had lunch with my first flight instructor, Jerry Graham - it was really good seeing him, he's one of the people in my life who was instrumental to me becoming an airline pilot. <br />
<br />
Our next big adventure (well, after the next motorcycle trip) is in mid-September, when we'll be taking Paul to Europe for two weeks. He's never been outside the U.S., so we'll enjoy showing him around Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands. We're renting a BMW 3-series to thrash around the Autobahn, will be in Munich for Oktoberfest, and are visiting the famed Nurburgring racetrack for a few practice laps on a "Tourist Day." We'll be flying back on October 3rd.<br />
<br />
And then finally in late October, we'll return down to Puerto Rico and get Windbird ready to splash the first week of November. In the meantime I'm having a throughhull replaced, the bottom repainted, and some carpentry work done to the aft cabin sole. After our crazy summer, I'm looking forward to the more relaxed pace of cruising! </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-19186451463645422272018-07-23T20:39:00.004-07:002018-07-29T12:41:33.441-07:00Season 2.0 in Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm not actually even sure this was season 2.0. Last season we spent three months in the Bahamas, our shakedown cruise, which was something like a season 0.8 Beta. But it also included a couple months of cruising up and down the east coast, with some pretty significant sea miles, so I guess we should count it as a season. This definitely felt like Season 2.0, so I may as well stick to that naming convention.<br />
<br />
That said, this year almost felt like two separate seasons. There was the season of Bashing Down The Thorny Path, and then there was a season of Cruising The Islands. Let's review our stately progress down the Thorny Path:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8dJ9Bhk84OY/Wh69GW7MXVI/AAAAAAAAG10/xTJHuZ3EjJUwPn4e5ryFuOtQL5wixcHOgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/IMG_4680.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8dJ9Bhk84OY/Wh69GW7MXVI/AAAAAAAAG10/xTJHuZ3EjJUwPn4e5ryFuOtQL5wixcHOgCPcBGAYYCw/s200/IMG_4680.JPG" width="200" /></a>November '17: We crossed directly from Little River, SC to Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, Bahamas - 478nm, 90 hours. Hung out in Green Turtle, Nunjack Cay, Man-O-War Cay, Great Guana Cay, and Marsh Harbour while we had a local alternator shop replace the diodes in our malfunctioning Balmar <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QXv6Vht0QUk/WmzZXla6HJI/AAAAAAAAG64/KHcIJoXhKOAxf6NuGAZHkdohA_kC0ljYQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/DSC_9528.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QXv6Vht0QUk/WmzZXla6HJI/AAAAAAAAG64/KHcIJoXhKOAxf6NuGAZHkdohA_kC0ljYQCPcBGAYYCw/s200/DSC_9528.JPG" width="200" /></a>alternator. Good weather first few days, then stormy, cloudy, windy. <br />
<br />
December '17: Down to Lubbers Cay and Little Harbour for a couple days before a rougher-than-forecast overnight crossing to Spanish Wells, Eleuthera (55nm). Uneventful daysail across the reef-strewn Middle Ground to Highborne Cay in the Exumas, where we discovered our alternator had failed again. We visited Shroud Cay, Warderick Wells and Hog Cay before running to Staniel Cay <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FCLAZJprBeM/W14KJTJkASI/AAAAAAAAHko/wIfsjhEVJ34Kc6O7ooiREzdbqxn2w56eQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6052.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FCLAZJprBeM/W14KJTJkASI/AAAAAAAAHko/wIfsjhEVJ34Kc6O7ooiREzdbqxn2w56eQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6052.JPG" width="200" /></a>to hide from the season's first good norther. In the middle of that we were joined by my brothers Jon and Steve, and once things calmed down a bit we headed up to Cambridge Cay, then down to Pipe Creek, Black Point, Little Farmer's Cay, and Georgetown. The weather was decidedly mixed in December: lights winds and <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1RaiyVCQoAk/W14Kdaoj_iI/AAAAAAAAHkw/L0-RUmSxlzoDxmhZkl5EKNDJaEZw0p80gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4721.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1RaiyVCQoAk/W14Kdaoj_iI/AAAAAAAAHkw/L0-RUmSxlzoDxmhZkl5EKNDJaEZw0p80gCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_4721.JPG" width="200" /></a>sunny skies one day, rainy and squally the next. We made do without the big alternator thanks to the help of new friends Ken and Tracy on S/V Makana and their Honda 2000 generator until Jon and Steve arrived with our new alternator. We flew out of Georgetown shortly after Jon and Steve to join our families for Christmas, and for me to fly a three-day trip.<br />
<br />
January '18: We flew back to Georgetown in time to celebrate New Years with friends on S/V Makana and Adventure Bound II; around that time we were also joined by S/V Pura Vida, a family of four we had <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QXv6Vht0QUk/WmzZXla6HJI/AAAAAAAAG64/KHcIJoXhKOAxf6NuGAZHkdohA_kC0ljYQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/DSC_9528.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QXv6Vht0QUk/WmzZXla6HJI/AAAAAAAAG64/KHcIJoXhKOAxf6NuGAZHkdohA_kC0ljYQCPcBGAYYCw/s200/DSC_9528.JPG" width="200" /></a>met in Georgetown SC in May '17, and S/V Rondo, another family of four we met in December in Staniel Cay. Due to the holiday we weren't able to get Piper's health certificate in the Bahamas until January 19th; in the meantime we went to Conception Island and Joe's Sound with our friends Dave and Leslie on S/V Texas Two Step. The weather was pretty dreadful during this time, with a lot of high winds, rain, and several bouts of severe thunderstorms including one that put us on a pretty hairy lee shore in Conception for a couple hours. After the delays for <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7u_06TXJSEo/W14LA2xQYTI/AAAAAAAAHk4/b3Y9HFPFqyUCr6nqHD5gRXlM2p4MvzfegCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4866.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7u_06TXJSEo/W14LA2xQYTI/AAAAAAAAHk4/b3Y9HFPFqyUCr6nqHD5gRXlM2p4MvzfegCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_4866.JPG" width="200" /></a>Piper's paperwork, we got a perfect weather window to make a 213 nm / 40 hr run all the way down to Mayaguana. We got stuck there waiting out the blow of the season, with gusts to 44 knots, during which we met our great new Canadian friends Dane and Mak and their infant daughter Isla on S/V Sea Otter. After the blow we crossed to Provo, Turks and Caicos (60nm) together along with a third boat, S/V Safara. Safara bugged out out Provo the very next day but we elected to stick around for the next weather window.<br />
<br />
February '18: The weather in the Turks and Caicos was frustratingly steady for the first two and a half weeks of February: sunny and clear, but with high winds that would have made for a rough passage to <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GZfFGxSoW38/W14Ld6RCSdI/AAAAAAAAHlA/lTUyE7Wk3AQQksRixmtjJIh8uskHll7VgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4883.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GZfFGxSoW38/W14Ld6RCSdI/AAAAAAAAHlA/lTUyE7Wk3AQQksRixmtjJIh8uskHll7VgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_4883.JPG" width="200" /></a>the Dominican Republic (170nm). We and Sea Otter hung out a lot, and Dawn got to know them much better when I left for six days to do a four day trip and two days of training in Atlanta. My friend Brad came back to Provo with me in order to do the passage to Luperon aboard Windbird, so that Dawn could crew on Sea Otter, freeing up Mak to take care of Isla. It was a fairly quick and nice passage, a little bumpy southbound out of Big Sand Cay but wonderfully smooth in the night lee of Hispaniola. The verdant hills of Luperon on arrival were like a technicolor dream. We loved Luperon and enjoyed our 10 days based there, during which we rented <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FlLdnSF1idc/W14LoknHKHI/AAAAAAAAHlE/gOBtZ2xYzkct_V8k5-O-4JSf7lypgrXbgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6040.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FlLdnSF1idc/W14LoknHKHI/AAAAAAAAHlE/gOBtZ2xYzkct_V8k5-O-4JSf7lypgrXbgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6040.JPG" width="200" /></a>motorbikes, did the 27 Waterfalls, and shared a rented 4x4 with Sea Otter to go experience Carnival in La Vega and reprovision in Santiago. The only downer was poorly maintained mooring balls, one of which cast us adrift in the anchorage in the middle of the night. At the end of the month we took advantage of a short window to motorsail 120nm / 24 hours east to Samaná, while Sea Otter stayed in Luperon to wait for another crewmember to arrive and help them make the next passage.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bqrUl_hH8WI/W14MGrj-cSI/AAAAAAAAHlM/ooOTsvl5FkQVWIlGLrPSt7hytiZt2OG4gCLcBGAs/s1600/DSC_9635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bqrUl_hH8WI/W14MGrj-cSI/AAAAAAAAHlM/ooOTsvl5FkQVWIlGLrPSt7hytiZt2OG4gCLcBGAs/s200/DSC_9635.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
March '18: Shortly after arrival at the beautiful and cheap Puerto Bahia Marina in Samaná our friends Erin and Kara on S/V Vela caught up to us for the first time this season, along with new friend (and experienced Aussie cruiser) Steve on S/V La Mischief and lively young couple David and Joanna on S/V Oceananigans. We did two days of touring the Samaná peninsula with a 12-passenger van packed with cruisers, and then Dawn and I went to Santo Domingo to pick up Windbird's former admiral Judy Handley and tour old town Santo Domingo, which we loved. A day after we returned, we had a nice calm window for a motorsail across the Mona Passage, about 170nm / 30 hours to <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tJoCnmiXt_8/W14MdbDmi3I/AAAAAAAAHlU/owcajyKcvyQdD-ayr4ZaTGfq2-ALHC2NQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4986.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tJoCnmiXt_8/W14MdbDmi3I/AAAAAAAAHlU/owcajyKcvyQdD-ayr4ZaTGfq2-ALHC2NQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_4986.JPG" width="200" /></a>anchor down in Magaguez. We met Judy's son and daughter-in-law and their kids, and spent some time with them as they sailed with us to Boquerón and then showed us their home in Rincón and the surrounding countryside of western Puerto Rico. Then, a series of early-morning motorsails moved us further east along Puerto Rico's south shore using the nightly lee: Boquerón to La Parguera to Gilligan's Island to Ponce. We spent two nights there and repositioned to Coffin Island in preparation for a 70nm hop to Fajardo.<br />
<br />
<i>Season of Cruising the Islands</i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yp9qoNLcIOM/WwdMdo03m1I/AAAAAAAAHKg/w54x9fieiRw78pYvAXYE7Pa93YYk14t2wCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/IMG_5156.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yp9qoNLcIOM/WwdMdo03m1I/AAAAAAAAHKg/w54x9fieiRw78pYvAXYE7Pa93YYk14t2wCPcBGAYYCw/s200/IMG_5156.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
I think of Ponce as marking the end of the bash, because we had an almost completely calm overnight motor to Fajardo and from that moment on it felt like we'd arrived at our destination, even though we'd been sailing through and visiting many fantastic destinations in their own right. But now the weather was better, the wind steadier, the waves calmer, the distances shorter, the schedule more free and easy...and we sailed <i>everywhere! </i>And did so in considerable company. We visited La Mischief in Fajardo, Sea Otter caught up with us in Culebra, we <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yyVNSI_euIU/WwdcWFvyM_I/AAAAAAAAHOQ/bVYa1_g7Un0SKQF9rT_0GRN0cLZPnwPewCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/fullsizeoutput_3360.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yyVNSI_euIU/WwdcWFvyM_I/AAAAAAAAHOQ/bVYa1_g7Un0SKQF9rT_0GRN0cLZPnwPewCPcBGAYYCw/s200/fullsizeoutput_3360.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
met friends Duncan and Katie and fam on their new charter cat, S/V Yo Dawg, in the BVI, and a whole flotilla converged upon Jost van Dyke for my birthday in mid-April: Vela, Sea Otter, Rondo, Pura Vida, Savannah, Carpe Ventum, and our "cruising godparents" Andy & Lance chartering Jada. Later we also met Britican and Be As You Are, which made the core group of 10 boats with which we spent a great deal of time over the last two and a half months of the season. We loved the social aspect of this season, making some likely lifelong friendships and helping to cement others. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Rdt5OdjO1Y/WwdNhmY-VYI/AAAAAAAAHKs/XpHfbYJsJUIy41LZIvlstNM47pIP_w6pACPcBGAYYCw/s1600/IMG_5205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8Rdt5OdjO1Y/WwdNhmY-VYI/AAAAAAAAHKs/XpHfbYJsJUIy41LZIvlstNM47pIP_w6pACPcBGAYYCw/s200/IMG_5205.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
Much of the territory was familiar to us, and yet we enjoyed our slow-cruising schedule to poke through the lesser-used anchorages of the BVI. And there was plenty of time to thoroughly explore St. John (*****), St. Thomas (**), Culebra (*****), St. Croix (****) and Vieques (***&1/2). The whole area was heavily impacted and to varying degrees changed by Hurricanes Irma and Maria last year, and it was interesting to see the various reactions and how each island is going about rebuilding. We originally planned to do some volunteering, but by the time we <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qNFhn5HLCQs/WwdU0UUUANI/AAAAAAAAHMM/bvMsS5qF344dWf8zfz4MlUHznrNpgKuzACPcBGAYYCw/s1600/IMG_5349.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qNFhn5HLCQs/WwdU0UUUANI/AAAAAAAAHMM/bvMsS5qF344dWf8zfz4MlUHznrNpgKuzACPcBGAYYCw/s200/IMG_5349.JPG" width="200" /></a>showed up cleanup was essentially complete and the rebuilding effort was being mostly handled by professionals. Asked what they needed, the locals frequently replied: we need the tourists to come back. We did make a conscious effort to spend more at the restaurants, bars and shops of the BVI and USVI than we normally would have. Nobody should mistake our profligacy for charity, but it does seem to be the sort of thing the USVI and BVI needs to get back to normalcy.<br />
<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i> </i><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1uxR7nfLGFo/W14QQb0MhAI/AAAAAAAAHlg/A9qfjZnQV5EAPvYBFGXzfk8HJ6wMhSFcgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5441.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1uxR7nfLGFo/W14QQb0MhAI/AAAAAAAAHlg/A9qfjZnQV5EAPvYBFGXzfk8HJ6wMhSFcgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5441.JPG" width="200" /></a>After our early alternator troubles, the boat ran exceptionally well. After a little tweaking, our solar improvements are meeting all our energy needs. We had some ongoing issues with the watermaker, the cause of which I discovered at the end of the season; it should be in good working order for next season. The dinghy engine also ran rough for part of the season but it never left us stranded and I eventually tracked down the culprit, becoming much more familiar with outboard engine repair along the way. Boat maintenance and repairs came more naturally to us this season, as did everyday boat life with its associated chores. Dawn absolutely killed it on provisioning, meal-planning and cooking. We did a lot better fishing and lobstering this year. I felt we did a pretty good job of passage planning and picking weather windows, though we had a somewhat rougher than hoped for Gulf Stream crossing at the very beginning of the season when we cut a cold <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MNKAycM1RlM/W14QobR_MBI/AAAAAAAAHlo/3C-iZahzGycvQ-m_hUoC3_asINK4GVTPwCLcBGAs/s1600/DSC_9545.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MNKAycM1RlM/W14QobR_MBI/AAAAAAAAHlo/3C-iZahzGycvQ-m_hUoC3_asINK4GVTPwCLcBGAs/s200/DSC_9545.JPG" width="200" /></a>front a little too fine. The couple hours that a severe thunderstorm turned our placid anchorage into a raging froth against a lee shore on Conception Island was likely the most dangerous occurrence of the season, but our trusty ground tackle held firm. We didn't make any dumb mistakes like our predawn exit of Little Farmer's Cut (sans jacklines) last year. With all the maneuvering and hand-steering we did around the Virgin Islands, our boathandling skills got pretty good. If our insurance allowed us to race the house, I'd be fairly comfortable doing so double-handed.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zqgue_6XW64/W14Q1c4Sf4I/AAAAAAAAHls/7wxST02XUK8S9KWtW2Uhw3t9oI9TtGXPQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5983.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zqgue_6XW64/W14Q1c4Sf4I/AAAAAAAAHls/7wxST02XUK8S9KWtW2Uhw3t9oI9TtGXPQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5983.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
Nevertheless, the season wasn't always easy. The weather in the Bahamas was really pretty shitty from November through January, and the incessant wind of February got old. The weather was better in late Feb and early March, allowing us to make steady eastward progress, but the nearly uninterrupted motorsailing from Luperon all the way to Fajardo got monotonous. Towards the end of April Dawn and I seemed to be grating on each other, the boat getting smaller by the day. A six day work trip and a change of pace when I got back seemed to help that, and we were getting along pretty well again in May. Seven months of nearly uninterrupted cruising can be a long time; and in reality we'd been living on Windbird full-time for 17 months by then. Dawn and even I were ready to get off the boat for a bit by hurricane season. And now that we've been off the boat for over a month, we're super excited to get back on her in November and head downisland to unexplored territory!<br />
<br />
There's one aspect I haven't mentioned, cruising with Piper. I'm <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7WY6LV_EFv8/W14RHcOtoyI/AAAAAAAAHl4/429BtncOypoygt5FngWPwO_MXShlyGACACLcBGAs/s1600/DSC_9495.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7WY6LV_EFv8/W14RHcOtoyI/AAAAAAAAHl4/429BtncOypoygt5FngWPwO_MXShlyGACACLcBGAs/s200/DSC_9495.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
going to write a separate post about it because it's a subject of such interest to potential/future cruisers, but suffice it to say he adds a lot of joy to our life afloat. We really enjoyed having him aboard this year and watching him run his little heart out on beaches from Abaco to Anegada. But there are definitely some paperwork challenges to having a medium-to-large dog on board, and they will likely get more burdensome (if not impossible at times) as we move down-island. As with all things cruising, we'll stay flexible.<br />
<br />
Did I say we've been off the boat for a month? Strike that, make it six weeks...we have been BUSY! It's not all work, we've been having a ton of fun with land-based adventures, even visiting some of our new cruiser friends. I'll try to get a post up about that before the summer is totally gone!</div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-66756248139029877932018-07-08T08:45:00.001-07:002018-07-29T12:38:31.457-07:00Season’s End<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The end of the season sort of snuck up on us; it seemed a little surreal that we would be moving off of our home of the last 17 months and putting her on the hard in a boatyard for the summer. There was a <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nHwuv2geHF8/W14V_Ur0EJI/AAAAAAAAHmE/EpWwcHh2pi0kyUxCdaHjmvLvnwKlcHYOQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5739.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nHwuv2geHF8/W14V_Ur0EJI/AAAAAAAAHmE/EpWwcHh2pi0kyUxCdaHjmvLvnwKlcHYOQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5739.JPG" width="200" /></a>pretty substantial list of tasks to be accomplished before doing so, and I suppose my natural inclination for procrastination kept the season’s end at bay as I putzed around with some of the less time-critical items during our stay at St. Croix and our cruise of Vieques. But the list kept growing and it was clear that soon we would need to devote all our time and energy to preparing the boat for her haul out. I didn’t have any great desire to spend any more time in the marina than required, so for our first three days of work we sailed from Vieques to beautiful Isla <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4JfMfwae-vc/W14WAP5TTGI/AAAAAAAAHmI/AcrONF9qamYMb73nB5ESd4b087GFI2r-ACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5750.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4JfMfwae-vc/W14WAP5TTGI/AAAAAAAAHmI/AcrONF9qamYMb73nB5ESd4b087GFI2r-ACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5750.JPG" width="200" /></a>Palominos and took a mooring on its protected lee side. Of course, these three days happened to be a weekend so we had <i>lots</i> of company from the mainland, mostly rafted up speedboaters partying just off the beach and playing their stereos over each other at top volume! We actually didn’t mind it; the party atmosphere seemed to give us energy to keep going from dawn till well after dark, with a few fun breaks to take Piper to the beach for potty time, ball chasing, and swimming-for-treats (and admiring pats from bikini-clad Puertoriqueñas).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
During those three days, we took everything with any windage down from the deck and lifelines, except the dodger and bimini which we left for the marina (and actually should have left up until the boat was out of the water - it was miserable working when the boat was sweltering inside and the sun was beating visciously outside). This included all fenders, docklines, fishing pole and kit, davit lines and hardware, Wirie router, man overboard module, life sling and canister, downwind pole, and wind generator blades. We removed the staysail and its halyard, sheets and furling line, but left the other sails in place until we got to the marina. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We removed the foredeck dinghy lift / block & tackle, the spinnaker halyard, and the downwind pole topping lift, which we had jury-rigged after it chafed through on our first passage of the season; we’ll replace it before next season. </span>I removed the flexible solar panels from the bimini and tidied up its wires, as well as reworking the wires to the rear solar arch to make them more wind-resistant (those panels are staying in place). I spent a long afternoon giving the bottom a very thorough scrubbing, so we wouldn’t <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XHM_GRqizMM/W14W117HQcI/AAAAAAAAHmc/7--6_asO2VIFmxUDH4bAbbn0gBmkuFYcwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5759.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XHM_GRqizMM/W14W117HQcI/AAAAAAAAHmc/7--6_asO2VIFmxUDH4bAbbn0gBmkuFYcwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5759.JPG" width="150" /></a>have to powerwash it after haulout. I did a final water maker pickling and removed the heavy pump and drive from its place below the galley sink; the reason it had been regularly cavitating became immediately apparent. What looked like a hairline crack with the pump in place was actually a major crack plus one missing bolt on the pump-drive coupling housing. Once we got to Puerto del Rey I called the local Katadyn dealer; he’s replacing that housing plus doing major servicing to both the pump and drive during our off-season. The parts and labor will come to about $1300 - a good bit of change but considerably less than the cost of a new pump/drive unit ($2500) or a whole new watermaker system ($5000). It’ll be awesome to have a reliable watermaker again, especially since we have more than enough solar output these days.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The rest of our time at Isla Palominos was spent giving the boat a very deep cleaning, inside and out. Dawn washed every surface in all the cabins plus every cabinet, drawer and locker with a soap-vinegar-water mixture to help keep mold at bay. Meanwhile I cleaned out the propane and dinghy lockers and vacuumed and scrubbed every bilge and tank (using a wire brush to remove all surface rust). We gave the cockpit cushions and dodger and bimini a good scrubbing, and polished all the issenglass. Dawn went through a good portion of our gear and clothing onboard and set aside anything we hadn’t used in the last two years, and we sorted them into three piles: keep, bring home, or donate. We threw out all opened food containers plus anything not in a can, glass jar, or lockable Tupperware container; once at the dock we put these items in large lockable Tupperware bins, and then thoroughly cleaned the freezer and refrigerator. I know a lot of cruisers take <i>all</i> food off the boat but we were loathe to throw <i>everything</i> away, and we think our precautions (plus lots of rat, roach and ant poison) should be sufficient for keeping critters off the boat.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
On Monday June 4th we sailed the final five miles to Puerto del Rey and were assigned a slip near the end of 12 dock. One of the guys that turned up to catch lines turned out to be just the guy I wanted to talk to: Quino Sanchez. Quino came highly recommended by fellow cruisers both as a rigger and for his hurricane tie down and boat watching service (the boat watching part is run by his daughter and son-in-law Bianca & Johnny). They came over to talk the next day and Dawn and I decided to use their services this off-season; the cost is pretty reasonable for the services provided and the peace of mind of having someone watch the boat. We’re also having several projects done to the boat while we’re away (bottom painting, replace a couple throughhulls/seacocks, minor carpentry in rear cabin) and needed somebody competent to manage the projects in our absence. Our initial impression of Quino based on his assistance during the haul out and Johnny & Bianca’s reports since has been favorable.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After arrival at PdR, we rented a car from the Avis down the street in Ceiba, and then ran a number of errands in Fajardo. We dropped off several bags of donations at Salvation Army, bought bins and other storage and cleaning stuff at Walmart, and picked up a shipping crate for Piper at Petco. Once we got back to the boat Dawn began the Herculean task of laundering every piece of clothing, bedding, cushions, etc on the boat - basically, everything cloth. Once laundered, she sealed everything in a giant ziplock bags and pumped out the air with the shop vac. Meanwhile I took advantage of our first unlimited fresh water in over three months to give the deck and cabin top a very thorough cleaning.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HsbgKStBjL4/W14WisvRpvI/AAAAAAAAHmU/FeJTjKZ_FvQ-GawFWDCDsWK7pQglpm53gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5775.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HsbgKStBjL4/W14WisvRpvI/AAAAAAAAHmU/FeJTjKZ_FvQ-GawFWDCDsWK7pQglpm53gCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5775.JPG" width="150" /></a>Early the next morning we took advantage of the lingering night lee calm to take down the Yankee and mainsail. This went amazingly quickly and smoothly compared to previous times, even though I had to go up the mast and slide down the forestay to tighten a couple of set screws on the rolling furler foils (they were backed out enough to prevent the halyard car from sliding down past them). We removed and stowed the yankee sheets, halyard and furling line, the mainsail reef lines and outhaul, the boom vang/preventer, the Gybe-EZ, the mainsheet, the traveler lines, the lazy jacks, and the stack pack. Amazing how many lines there are on this boat! Any piece of running rigging that went through the mast or boom we replaced with a messenger line to make rerigging in the fall easier. While up the mast, I removed the wind stick and masthead fly. We took the battens out of the main and folded and bagged all sails, and took them to Fajardo Sails and Canvas for inspection and repair. In the middle of all this we somehow got Piper to the vet to get his health certificate, which the airline requires to ship him. When we got back from that, Dawn had more laundry to do! And I polished the stainless.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
By now we knew we were going to get everything done by haulout and could breathe a little easier. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we did a lot of this after haulout, but a hot boat on the hard in a tropical boatyard is a truly miserable place to work. We had motivation to finish everything before Thursday at 2pm. On Wednesday Dawn finished putting all the food away and cleaning the fridge and freezer, and we vacuum sealed the last of the freshly laundered clothes and bedding that were staying on the boat and finished packing everything that was coming home with us. I assembled Piper’s crate (he loved it, though it’s been nearly two years since he’s used a kennel) and we took down the dodger and bimini and secured the stainless framework. I launched Dawn’s paddleboard and scrubbed our disgusting waterline and the sooty exhaust area with On-Off hull cleaner, then washed & waxed the topsides with Awlwash & Awlcare.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Thursday morning was a whirl of small last minute jobs, like removing the dorade scoops. After our last lunch aboard, fellow cruiser Harriet came by to offer her assistance handling lines as I maneuvered Windbird into the slipway. Very kind, and as it turned out very helpful. The yard wanted us stern-in, meaning I had to back Windbird in with a strong quartering headwind to catch her bow. <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--JM47Uh63wc/W14XQkZ-thI/AAAAAAAAHmk/J6rtbqOpnrcJpkKgmAg7KFIZXeUpvuzwwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5781.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--JM47Uh63wc/W14XQkZ-thI/AAAAAAAAHmk/J6rtbqOpnrcJpkKgmAg7KFIZXeUpvuzwwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5781.JPG" width="200" /></a>Windbird doesn’t back well under the best of circumstances, and in that situation it’s damn near impossible. Indeed, I aborted our first two tries before getting the timing down just so on my third circling approach. The yard workers caught all of our thrown docklines and then pulled us to one side; Dawn, Piper and I stepped ashore for the last time this season and watched as the 70-ton Travellift plucked Windbird out of the water. Dawn had tears in her eyes as our home of 17 months dangled precariously in the air, swinging slightly from side to side.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It turned out to be a bit of a long process bringing Windbird all the way to hurricane storage, clearing our spot and dropping plastic for our eventual bottom job, transferring the boat from the Travellift to a crazy spider-looking machine that maneuvered the boat to her spot, and finally blocking the boat, arranging the jackstands, and strapping the boat down to the ground anchors. These tie into PdR’s impressive underground lattice system, which is what makes <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x2YYGaqIItc/W14XoUbiHhI/AAAAAAAAHms/ubLYBrh51T4LaSkqd7i-RXC_hwZnDmJkACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x2YYGaqIItc/W14XoUbiHhI/AAAAAAAAHms/ubLYBrh51T4LaSkqd7i-RXC_hwZnDmJkACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5804.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
this boatyard such a good option for hurricane season storage. By the time it was all done the boatyard was about to close, so we headed out for dinner at a waterside bar in Fajardo and then a good nights sleep in a strangely large and non-rocking bed at the Fajardo Inn & Resort.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We had little to do the next morning: winterize the engine, close the seacocks, a few last minute projects, give instructions to Johnny and Bianca, and lock up. One last look at Windbird, a silent prayer for an uneventful hurricane season, and we were off to start the long trek north to our home for the summer. Most of our cruising friends continued south to Grenada or Trinidad, where most have recently hauled out; a few are keeping their boats afloat and staying aboard for storm season. Seeing the Facebook and Instagram photos of their trips down island has us really excited for next season. We’ll discuss those plans in a future post, after a season-in-review recap and “what we’re doing this summer” show-and-tell.</div>
</div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-12627244450465860492018-07-06T16:59:00.000-07:002018-07-06T19:06:38.479-07:00Last Port of Call<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As you may have guessed by the recent lack of blogging, Dawn and Piper and I are off the boat for hurricane season; Windbird is high and dry in the Puerto del Rey boatyard in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. But we’ll get to that. In the meantime, backtracking to late May....<br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LCz459SQbWg/W0AC2FgWGZI/AAAAAAAAHao/LgZpG5EqLBwrdmmLZP-rsI4yQPPyq9pJACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5593.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LCz459SQbWg/W0AC2FgWGZI/AAAAAAAAHao/LgZpG5EqLBwrdmmLZP-rsI4yQPPyq9pJACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5593.JPG" width="200" /></a>Our downwind sail to Vieques was just as pleasant as hoped, six knots speed over ground in 15-17 kts E wind. The day was marred only by losing a very large bull Mahi just as we were lifting him into the boat! Our only other catches were a big barracuda and a smaller female Mahi we released. Our first anchorage was on the east side of Ensenada Honda. It was beautiful, peaceful (had the place to ourselves) and perfectly protected though the breeze came through uninterrupted via a low spot in the mangroves. There is a nice mangrove river we explored by dinghy; it would make an excellent hurricane hole, and there was one relatively undamaged but still apparently abandoned sailboat yet tied into the mangroves from Maria. Unfortunately there was no place to land Piper, we had to take the dinghy 2-3 miles west to the nearest beach (somewhat unprotected from swell wrapping in), so we left after one night.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hUgPlhNYbjY/W0AVlKYWLJI/AAAAAAAAHa8/O6F6Rwh-i08rRpBV11VMDjkg-_PSsoW5wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5621.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hUgPlhNYbjY/W0AVlKYWLJI/AAAAAAAAHa8/O6F6Rwh-i08rRpBV11VMDjkg-_PSsoW5wCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5621.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mLJ_hSpZGHM/W0AVlJ9yyTI/AAAAAAAAHa4/-36NxiqMr1g5ch-_q1BhNVYqRIfjzf0zgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5606.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mLJ_hSpZGHM/W0AVlJ9yyTI/AAAAAAAAHa4/-36NxiqMr1g5ch-_q1BhNVYqRIfjzf0zgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5606.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZqO8zy44HnQ/W0AVloxWTCI/AAAAAAAAHbA/6zQmAEv-sh4GO3QdOu_WIguseSZ1NJejgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5626.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZqO8zy44HnQ/W0AVloxWTCI/AAAAAAAAHbA/6zQmAEv-sh4GO3QdOu_WIguseSZ1NJejgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5626.jpg" width="200" /></a>We went just around the corner to Bahia de la Chiva, which looks unprotected from the south but actually has good protection for two or three boats if you scootch up in behind a small key and reef on the SE corner. Again, we had the place to ourselves. We only saw one other cruising boat our entire time on Vieques, which I attributed to the lateness of the season - all the Thorny Path folks had scooted down island on their way to Grenada or Trinidad by now. We really liked La Chiva and spent two nights there. There’s a gorgeous mile-long crescent white beach that Piper loved running on, beach shelters for picnics (currently storm damaged), semi-wild horses (Vieques is known for them), and some short hiking paths though your options are limited as much of the surrounding land <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w1fRxV5Xb_w/W0AVnFG6u0I/AAAAAAAAHbE/US0l461UhS8emUlttzK514AfGHjrzuHmwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5639.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w1fRxV5Xb_w/W0AVnFG6u0I/AAAAAAAAHbE/US0l461UhS8emUlttzK514AfGHjrzuHmwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5639.jpg" width="200" /></a>is closed due to unexplored ordinance. The US Navy used the east end of Vieques as a bombing range for 60 years, which ironically kept it nicely undeveloped - but cleanup will take a long time. The second afternoon, we were approached by a park ranger and informed that La Chiva beach is actually still closed for hurricane cleanup. The road is blocked off, but we didn’t know since we came by boat from the east. No wonder such a nice beach was so deserted!<br />
<br />
Next we repositioned over to Puerto Ferro, which has a narrow and shallow entrance that makes the inside quite placid. The pretty bay is surrounded by mangroves, but also has several small beaches on which we were able to land Piper. Our original plan was to take the dinghy over to nearby Puerto Mosquito, Vieques’ famed bioluminescent bay, just after dark but before the nearly-full moon rose. However an afternoon test run in big SE swell showed this to be a bad idea. Anyways, we later found out from the locals that there’s been very little bioluminescence since Maria. We certainly didn’t see any in Puerto Ferro, which previously had it.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qR3uDNLQB7M/W0AVoJfB-GI/AAAAAAAAHbQ/sE1XQWHmJMUmw9PckqIR9KYK6tP7f_oMQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5672.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qR3uDNLQB7M/W0AVoJfB-GI/AAAAAAAAHbQ/sE1XQWHmJMUmw9PckqIR9KYK6tP7f_oMQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5672.jpg" width="200" /></a>For Memorial Day weekend we sailed on over to Ensenada Sun Bay, a gorgeous half moon bay with a beautiful white sand beach that is a popular municipal park. It was pleasantly busy the whole weekend, but not crowded. Six or seven powerboats came over from Puerto Rico and rafted up for several days, along with one sailboat out of Palmas Del Mar on PR’s southeast corner. We tucked up into the easternmost corner of the bay but a little swell was still wrapping in; we set up a swell bridle and it made the anchorage perfectly comfortable. We took the dinghy over to the small town of <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iiddP4RQut4/W0AVn1y8RMI/AAAAAAAAHbM/ExoRmAwQ-F0DX82ClXG64itzG9Deev_kACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5663.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iiddP4RQut4/W0AVn1y8RMI/AAAAAAAAHbM/ExoRmAwQ-F0DX82ClXG64itzG9Deev_kACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5663.jpg" width="200" /></a>Esperanza twice, and the boats anchored there appeared to be having a much rougher ride. The short, somewhat wet dinghy ride was worth the good sleep, in my book. I wish we’d tried the swell bridle in St. Croix, although there was enough chop there that we would have still been hobby-horsing.<br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4lfnNhl1SkY/W0AVnoYb1AI/AAAAAAAAHbI/Rq1VJWCjXvkoZKgm-2SC2OJJ9Jjg1xJ9ACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5658.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4lfnNhl1SkY/W0AVnoYb1AI/AAAAAAAAHbI/Rq1VJWCjXvkoZKgm-2SC2OJJ9Jjg1xJ9ACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5658.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
The reef on the SE corner of Sun Bay yielded the last lobster of the season, a medium-sized tasty dude. The only other real event of our time there was that we coaxed Piper into swimming, with no small help from ample treats. He’s a really good swimmer but has hated the water ever since we started cruising, at least anything deeper than splashing depth.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ibQxzrKN0Nc/W0AVoCdMhoI/AAAAAAAAHbU/YwNRCHJ7AOwO-DV7_MX8shFwbYxhczN0QCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5680.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ibQxzrKN0Nc/W0AVoCdMhoI/AAAAAAAAHbU/YwNRCHJ7AOwO-DV7_MX8shFwbYxhczN0QCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5680.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
After two nights in Sun Bay we sailed to Green Beach on the west side of Vieques, which is beautiful and deserted, at least once the last Memorial Day boaters headed back across the five-mile channel to the “mainland.” We got out to the beach and had Piper swimming a few more times, but I didn’t get in any snorkeling which I later heard is quite good there. The next morning we took off fairly early for Isabel Segunda on the north side of the island, which involved a couple hours of upwind bashing for the <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YpamCu6X4AU/W0AVrg5uxuI/AAAAAAAAHbg/Ov1fC9E0QfI3JsMm5eIdzTz08ALf-pwtQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5705.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YpamCu6X4AU/W0AVrg5uxuI/AAAAAAAAHbg/Ov1fC9E0QfI3JsMm5eIdzTz08ALf-pwtQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5705.jpg" width="200" /></a>first time in several weeks. The anchorage at Isabel Segunda was deserted except for some fishing boats moored close to the dinghy dock and one local sailboat further out in the mooring field. There was enough room among the unoccupied private moorings for us to anchor quite close to the beach, completely out of the swell coming around the point to the north. The anchorage here is notoriously rolly but we found it perfectly comfortable with ESE to E wind of around 20 kts.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nVFRFq6LLqI/W0AVsrH5JqI/AAAAAAAAHb0/o_vwBC0Cy4A9ixor7FbKmzaRK4MWWVzWACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6666.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="512" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nVFRFq6LLqI/W0AVsrH5JqI/AAAAAAAAHb0/o_vwBC0Cy4A9ixor7FbKmzaRK4MWWVzWACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6666.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zKBWe_MqLu0/W0AVr97FIuI/AAAAAAAAHbk/p9wUbGHhTE0KAfFKUaWLVOk98QRmMbpYACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5707.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="192" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zKBWe_MqLu0/W0AVr97FIuI/AAAAAAAAHbk/p9wUbGHhTE0KAfFKUaWLVOk98QRmMbpYACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5707.jpg" width="150" /></a>Isabel Segunda has a bit of a reputation for dinghy theft and petty crime but we didn’t see any sign of it. Of course we locked up the dinghy at the public dock and put it on the davits at night, our usual practice in any populated area with a history of dinghy theft (e.g. almost everywhere we’ll be going next season). But overall we ended up liking Isabel Segunda quite a bit more than Esperanza, though the latter is known as more of a cruiser hangout. We have a friend - or rather a friend of a friend - with a rental property two miles east of Isabel Segunda, and he had invited us to use his Jeep Wrangler during our stay. So the second morning we walked to his place, picked up the Jeep, and set off exploring the island. Actually it turns out that a <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E75plcRMhAY/W0AVsyoMotI/AAAAAAAAHb8/aAOk1ZmCWBwkoRDhPA4N8tKxsuiOu3QYgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6703.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E75plcRMhAY/W0AVsyoMotI/AAAAAAAAHb8/aAOk1ZmCWBwkoRDhPA4N8tKxsuiOu3QYgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6703.jpg" width="200" /></a>large portion of the island is closed to the public, and even theoretically public tracks were chained off due to storm damage. It <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jTsD6_sVmXI/W0AVstzKCfI/AAAAAAAAHb4/3kPHIDCNhiAvJ0pFmgE6dG5ZU3HSij0ywCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6686.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jTsD6_sVmXI/W0AVstzKCfI/AAAAAAAAHb4/3kPHIDCNhiAvJ0pFmgE6dG5ZU3HSij0ywCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6686.jpg" width="200" /></a>was too bad because there were some really interesting looking trails I would have loved to take the Jeep on. Still, we had a nice day exploring, and particularly enjoyed the beautiful little trail that follows a small stream and canyon to Playa Negra, a black sand beach a couple miles west of Esperanza.<br />
<br />
Our third day in Isabel Segunda, I did a two tank dive / scuba refresher with Black Beard Watersports. It had been three years since my last dive but I hit the books beforehand and everything came back almost immediately. It was a nice dive around a WW2-era causeway and pier now mostly used for fishing. There was quite a bit of sea life including a lot of large sea turtles, but I think the highlight was discovering the large tentacles of what must have been a huge octopus snaking out of a crevice. I wasn’t tempted to reach in and rouse the beast (they’ve been known to attach themselves to divers’s heads and even rip out their reg). It felt great to get back underwater blowing bubbles, and I’m tempted to get my own gear before next season despite my lack of a diving partner on board. I’d continue to dive with dive shops, but it’s just easier having your own kit.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PFHRkjRMIQw/W0AVsGNCc4I/AAAAAAAAHbo/VEI7Com_D_YLJH0KpaZuVFTD-szt9yiLACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5740.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PFHRkjRMIQw/W0AVsGNCc4I/AAAAAAAAHbo/VEI7Com_D_YLJH0KpaZuVFTD-szt9yiLACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5740.jpg" width="200" /></a>The next day we left Isabel Segunda and motored a mile southwest to a great little snorkel spot my dive instructor told me about, Cayo Blanco. The sizable reef there was somewhat damaged by debris from Maria but was still pretty spectacular, with a ton of fish. I’d put it in the top three or four snorkels of the year. After we got out of the water we had lunch and then set out on what had to be one of <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DVzcFFFR0Nk/W0AVsqFSkhI/AAAAAAAAHbw/9nGMUuwTbM0iqXNhBhTR18YegfNtqotmgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6677.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="256" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DVzcFFFR0Nk/W0AVsqFSkhI/AAAAAAAAHbw/9nGMUuwTbM0iqXNhBhTR18YegfNtqotmgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6677.jpg" width="200" /></a>the nicest daysails of the year, a 12 mile beam reach in steady 15 kt trades to Isla Palominos. Only a couple miles away from Puerto del Rey, Palominos would make a nice spot to begin the long and exhausting process of getting Windbird ready to come out of the water for hurricane season.</div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-32005337446502872582018-06-14T09:57:00.001-07:002018-06-14T09:57:21.917-07:00A Week in St. Croix<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I wasn't sure I'd like St. Croix. It's not visited by cruisers a lot since it's 35 miles south of all the other Virgin Islands and isn't really "cruiseable" the way the rest of the Virgins are: there are only three anchorages, two of them open roadsteads and the third notoriously rolly, plus one nice offlying island. I knew it was as populous as St. Thomas - 50,000 souls - with a fair amount of industry and a reputed crime problem. I knew of its relatively flat geography and colonial past and imagined one big sugar field with a couple of beaches and windmills. But I figured it was a convenient stop for a few days on the way from St. John to Vieques, and we could leave early if we didn't care for it. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wzgkou3TFoM/WyKbA4A9XtI/AAAAAAAAHTk/ivxkNqlFjgsbjBF06lV2sDE-wxuD8bsBwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5471.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wzgkou3TFoM/WyKbA4A9XtI/AAAAAAAAHTk/ivxkNqlFjgsbjBF06lV2sDE-wxuD8bsBwCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5471.JPG" width="150" /></a>We almost left after the first day. We couldn't find a good protected spot anywhere in Christiansted Harbor and endured several very rough nights, some of the worst of this season. Our initial attempts at renting a car (or better yet, a Jeep) yielded closed, sold-out or thoroughly indifferent rental agencies. On our first walk-through Christiansted didn't impress us as much as we thought it would. Yeah, the Danish colonial architecture was nice and the waterfront and first two blocks inland were too cute by half, but beyond that there were an awful lot of boarded up and thoroughly trashed former shops with vagrants hanging around outside giving us the evil eye. It struck me as a pretty depressed place, which after talking to locals and learning the details of the island's last decade turned out to be an accurate assessment.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ApPukJv3YmU/WyKbBbzzjdI/AAAAAAAAHTs/Ev2A6JI2AggLmdNm_OP52ayxAXXAz0r1gCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5474.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ApPukJv3YmU/WyKbBbzzjdI/AAAAAAAAHTs/Ev2A6JI2AggLmdNm_OP52ayxAXXAz0r1gCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5474.JPG" width="200" /></a>And yet we ended up actually liking the place. We finally procured a car the morning after we arrived, and kept it for two days, thoroughly exploring the island. Much of it is gorgeous, particularly the rainforest on the northwest side and the scrub desert on the east end. The northern half is actually fairly mountainous, just not quite so steep as the other Virgins. The flat terrain, dense population and industry (or what remains of it) <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-poCRZMANV5g/WyKcTt2VmfI/AAAAAAAAHTw/_BPxEYTEG1QJ5Tx7FUDVIeuQOj3wmEgdACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5496.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-poCRZMANV5g/WyKcTt2VmfI/AAAAAAAAHTw/_BPxEYTEG1QJ5Tx7FUDVIeuQOj3wmEgdACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5496.JPG" width="200" /></a>are largely confined to the south-central portion of the island. We visited Fredericksted several times and really enjoyed its ramshackle charm. It surely helped that there were no cruise ships visiting at any point during the week, as I'm sure they'd entirely change the character of the place. Actually there weren't very many tourists at all, other than in Christiansted and even there outnumbered by locals 5-to-1.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oIBNxGdbzxw/WyKbBNEDjoI/AAAAAAAAHTo/QLlBDTuMh0kmwsQLqIJOlKJy-g0sfwI8ACEwYBhgL/s1600/30A52008-47F9-468B-B75B-BFDF490916D4.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oIBNxGdbzxw/WyKbBNEDjoI/AAAAAAAAHTo/QLlBDTuMh0kmwsQLqIJOlKJy-g0sfwI8ACEwYBhgL/s200/30A52008-47F9-468B-B75B-BFDF490916D4.jpg" width="112" /></a><br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u8N-wuOqDp0/WyKcaQUWC8I/AAAAAAAAHUE/ymEMI_pkiBArl5szZvPHa0xrZ6Vn_y33wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6577.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u8N-wuOqDp0/WyKcaQUWC8I/AAAAAAAAHUE/ymEMI_pkiBArl5szZvPHa0xrZ6Vn_y33wCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6577.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lpl7fM7LP6o/WyKcUenVfqI/AAAAAAAAHT4/1dyw2_8MfpQm68trL3PEuUIDBTqxBLn8gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6492.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lpl7fM7LP6o/WyKcUenVfqI/AAAAAAAAHT4/1dyw2_8MfpQm68trL3PEuUIDBTqxBLn8gCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6492.JPG" width="200" /></a>Highlights included tromping around plantation ruins, visiting the Lawaetz estate house and museum, running Piper along some deserted trails and beaches, touring the Cruzan and Captain Morgan Distilleries (the former tour is far better, despite the latter's greater resources), visiting the brand new and already excellent Leatherback Brewing Company, participating in Monday night hermit crab races at BrewSTX, driving roller-coaster roads and braving some remote two-track despite our lack of a Jeep, <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RfRSrS3Nnzk/WyKcUQU4MhI/AAAAAAAAHUU/h3l2WxCG0_k945JUxBCmOzapENpnyvhhgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5501.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RfRSrS3Nnzk/WyKcUQU4MhI/AAAAAAAAHUU/h3l2WxCG0_k945JUxBCmOzapENpnyvhhgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5501.JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
touring the 17th-century fort, doing the once-monthly Art Thursday street fest in Christiansted, and patronizing quite a few excellent cafes and watering holes in Christiansted and Fredericksted.<br />
<br />
A few days after we arrived I <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KxhDLWXRcQ0/WyKciyvlh3I/AAAAAAAAHUg/hcaxSijknpgwmrMRkszoDNQvJG85dabvACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5565.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KxhDLWXRcQ0/WyKciyvlh3I/AAAAAAAAHUg/hcaxSijknpgwmrMRkszoDNQvJG85dabvACEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5565.JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
jumpseated from Christiansted to Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas and back on Seaborne Airlines' Twin Otter on floats, mostly on a lark but also as some source material for my monthly column in Flying Magazine. The Seaborne captain turned out to be a sailor and aspiring cruiser as well, so the following evening Dawn and I met <br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ofyXS9gpQiQ/WyKci94OYSI/AAAAAAAAHUc/Onw27Nw74ikX7tG3IJOeOGDAMbU022uqwCEwYBhgL/s1600/DSC_9874.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ofyXS9gpQiQ/WyKci94OYSI/AAAAAAAAHUc/Onw27Nw74ikX7tG3IJOeOGDAMbU022uqwCEwYBhgL/s200/DSC_9874.JPG" width="200" /></a>him and his wife for drinks and then had them out to Windbird. We got to know some other locals, too, and that was a large part of why we ended up liking St. Croix; people were pretty open and friendly and non-jaded to tourists. It felt like more of an organic community than the more touristed Virgins we'd been plying for a month and a half.<br />
<br />
The wind blew hard on Saturday & Sunday (May 19th-20th) and we spent as much time off the boat as possible because the anchorage was even worse than usual. The city park just east of us that we'd been taking Piper to was quite lively with locals, and on Sunday we joined them for a beach day on a nice stretch of sand down a dirt road and just around the point, on the windward facing side. Monday was supposed to be much calmer, and we were looking forward to a nice smooth, fast downwind sail to Vieques, 45nm to the WNW. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-59216083460729431932018-05-28T14:32:00.000-07:002018-05-28T14:32:05.070-07:00Southside<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On Friday May 11th the trade winds were down a couple knots from earlier in the week but continued to gust to 20+. We motorsailed out of Waterlemon Bay and then began tacking up the channel between St. John and Tortola, in the process getting a good view of the giant pile of post-Irma debris on the SW side of Tortola that had supposedly spontaneously caught fire a few days earlier and still wasn't quite extinguished. Eventually we were able to lay Privateer Point and then ease off into Coral Bay. There was some pretty big wraparound swell coming from the south side of Norman Island into the bay, and I suspected a lot of it would work its way into Coral Harbour. When we got there, it didn't really matter - the anchorage was far too choked with derelict local boats plus sunken boats marked by floats for us to squeeze in. Instead we moved a mile south to Johnson Harbor, where the reef off the point knocked the swell down nicely and we were able to find a perfect little patch of sand to drop the hook in and fall back into the protected area. It was a bit of a wet dinghy ride into Coral Harbor, but I'll trade a sporty dinghy ride for a smooth and safe anchorage any day of the week and twice on Sunday.<br />
<br />
There's not a lot at Coral Harbor, it's considerably smaller and more spread out than Cruz Bay. The dinghy dock is well away from the grocery store (which is near the water, but nowhere convenient to land) so we got in a bit of a walk around the smelly salt swamp and grove of pretty beat-up mangroves at the head of the bay. Contractors were hard at work erecting new power poles - they're getting pretty close to reestablishing power to the entire island, and there are a lot of handmade signs at local businesses thanking them for their efforts. The Coral Harbor Dolphin Market isn't quite as good as the Cruz Bay branch (which is good indeed) but it was still <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4utIlYzS4TE/Wwxtki8hsuI/AAAAAAAAHRw/n7habVYIh-E2LuavbNkmbmNOQwPJdO3TQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5459.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4utIlYzS4TE/Wwxtki8hsuI/AAAAAAAAHRw/n7habVYIh-E2LuavbNkmbmNOQwPJdO3TQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5459.JPG" width="200" /></a>decent for the size of town and we were able to find most of what we needed. On our way back we went just past the the dinghy dock for happy hour at the renowned Skinny Legs Cafe. They were cool about us bringing Piper in, and the waitresses fawned over him the entire time, a pretty common reaction. Over the course of this season Piper has become far more comfortable around strangers.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t31gT2_IGsI/WwxzbKhxUhI/AAAAAAAAHSY/CJGfA5_LmVA3V5Y6mw37TIe8vfBqa8_aACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5463.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t31gT2_IGsI/WwxzbKhxUhI/AAAAAAAAHSY/CJGfA5_LmVA3V5Y6mw37TIe8vfBqa8_aACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5463.JPG" width="200" /></a>The next morning we sailed out of Coral Bay, around Ram Head point, and down to Great Lameshur Bay. There was still a big SE swell running and I was worried about how messy the bay would be. There was nobody in there when we arrived; by tucking ourselves into the very last mooring ball we were able to get out of the worst of the surge, and it ended up being a reasonably <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AJsDJVtTsKQ/WwxzXWbIouI/AAAAAAAAHSQ/N6CF_5o4y9I3dKeDbMCb4KqcL9G9KPkewCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5464.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AJsDJVtTsKQ/WwxzXWbIouI/AAAAAAAAHSQ/N6CF_5o4y9I3dKeDbMCb4KqcL9G9KPkewCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5464.JPG" width="200" /></a>comfortable anchorage. I spent all afternoon scrubbing Windbird's bottom, which I'd let go far too long. It wasn't as noticeable when we were sailing, but the fouling was quite apparent when motorsailing into a stiff wind. Even using our Snuba rig, it took well over three hours to scrub the bottom and running gear clean. Dawn spent the time doing other boat work and taking Piper for a paddleboard ride.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_DeQDJh3Exc/Wwxt7FJPGCI/AAAAAAAAHR4/EBJcdJIVfxszVr6ZF5XS9xeDXtCcSDJbwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5461.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_DeQDJh3Exc/Wwxt7FJPGCI/AAAAAAAAHR4/EBJcdJIVfxszVr6ZF5XS9xeDXtCcSDJbwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5461.JPG" width="200" /></a>My reward for Saturday's hard work was Sunday Funday. We started with a nice hike out to Yawzi Point, the peninsula separating Great and Little Lameshur Bays, then walked along the road up the hill to where we could get a little cell phone signal to call our respective moms and wish them a happy Mother's Day. We finished our hike with a climb up the Tektite Trail to its overlook of Great Lameshur Bay. In the afternoon, we loaded up the dinghy and cruised over to Little Lameshur Bay where we tied the dink to a <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qlurde3YRGA/WwxwRiUxzII/AAAAAAAAHSE/dESt5sia3xw44xvgLPIzq-OypCLrRP-3wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6477.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qlurde3YRGA/WwxwRiUxzII/AAAAAAAAHSE/dESt5sia3xw44xvgLPIzq-OypCLrRP-3wCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6477.JPG" width="150" /></a>mooring ball and jumped in to snorkel the eastern shore. It was just ok at first - it was shallow and the coral had been damaged by Irma - but as we got out towards Yawzi Point the snorkeling got better and better, albeit more challenging due to some pretty big waves which broke over the shallowest bits of the reef. Dawn hung back while I explored, then I had to come get her because it was too good to miss. The reef has a ton of fish and soft corals, and is criss-crossed by 20-35' deep canyons, two with arches you can swim through at around 20' depth. We'd done some snorkeling in Caneel and Trunk Bays and at Waterlemon Cay, all of which are shallow and were damaged by Irma; this was the first site I found that matched St. John's reputation for excellent snorkeling.<br />
<br />
On Monday morning the wind had backed about 10 degrees, to ~095°, turning our sail to St. Croix into a 35-mile close reach rather than a hard beat. That was a good thing because the waves were pretty big, mostly a steep 6' with a few 7 or 8 footers thrown in there. It had been quite a while since we'd done any unprotected open-ocean sailing...the Mona doesn't count since it was calm when we crossed, so I guess the last one would have been our passage from <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BxdTJ6kWPhs/WwxzaS1ONbI/AAAAAAAAHSU/gXKgOZdoDqMSU_HjIBKpZyLVd1jHwAVzwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5469.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BxdTJ6kWPhs/WwxzaS1ONbI/AAAAAAAAHSU/gXKgOZdoDqMSU_HjIBKpZyLVd1jHwAVzwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5469.JPG" width="200" /></a>Provo to Luperon. Anyways Piper was a bit uneasy at first but eventually settled down. We made good time, I "put some in the bank" by steering about 10 degrees above the rhumb line, and when we were 15 miles out I was able to come down and turn it into a nearly beam reach. We sailed most of the way down the Old Schooner Channel into Christiansted Harbor, then spent 30 minutes motoring around looking for a good protected place to anchor. There were none; the only protected spot, behind Protestant Cay, was crowded with local boats (though fewer derelicts than St. John). So we anchored in a quasi-protected spot on the north side of Gallows Bay, which at least had the advantage of being near a public park with a decent beach for landing the dinghy for Piper's potty runs. The anchorage ended up being the choppiest and rolliest of the season, and we probably would have left after a few nights except we ended up liking St. Croix so much that we extended our stay by several days.<br />
<br />
Next post, Exploring St. Croix. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-83667017672406259842018-05-26T07:32:00.001-07:002018-05-26T07:32:15.390-07:00The Unspoilt Virgin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Prior to this cruise, my knowledge of the "Virgin Islands" basically extended to the popular parts of the BVI plus St. Thomas airport, ferry terminal, Charlotte Amalie, and Red Hook. I've never had a very high opinion of St. Thomas - and still don't. It's too crowded, too noisy, too dirty, too crime-ridden, with too many cruise ship passengers waddling between too many jewelry stores and souvenir shops. Mind you, there are places I <i>like</i> in the world that are crowded, noisy, dirty, and beset by pickpockets and tourists (offhand, Bangkok comes to mind)...but those places have charms to offset the negatives. St. Thomas is just woefully short on charm, and that opinion has solidified as I've become familiar with the other Virgins: Culebra, Vieques, St. Croix <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KERVrXZjfH8/WwlqdaEcerI/AAAAAAAAHQo/bs471sdektIhD3tb0WIhMk1UK9sZnGDVgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5457.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KERVrXZjfH8/WwlqdaEcerI/AAAAAAAAHQo/bs471sdektIhD3tb0WIhMk1UK9sZnGDVgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5457.JPG" width="200" /></a>and especially St. John. The contrast between St. Thomas and St. John is all the more stark for them being a stone's throw away from each other. Basically, we're all lucky that the Laurance Rockefeller bought up a good chunk of St. John and donated it the National Park Service to form the nucleus of Virgin Islands National Park, thereby preventing the developers from ruining it as they did her sister to the west.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
We picked up a mooring ball in Caneel Bay, just off Honeymoon Beach, on the afternoon of May 3rd. We noticed Pura Vida on a nearby ball but they were not on the boat; we had seen on Facebook that Ainsley's mom was in town and they were hanging out with her. We took Piper for a potty break on the beach - which is signposted no dogs, so we kept him on a leash and took him more inland to do his business - and then headed to town (Cruz Bay). We landed the dinghy at the National Park Service office, visited it and got a hiking map of the island, then headed to the nearby St. John Brewers Taptoom. I've enjoyed their beers for years - particularly the Island Hoppin' IPA - so it was a treat to visit them in person. Afterwards we had an early dinner at Rhumblines, a pan-Asian restaurant and bar with a killer happy hour (half off all drinks and shared plates, of which they have about 20 awesome creations).<br />
<br />
On Friday morning I was busy with boatwork when someone rapped on the hull. To my surprise it was Stephen from S/V Carpe Ventum - I hadn't seen their boat in the anchorage. We chatted for a bit and agreed to meet that night in town. We didn't know where they'd be - but Cruz Bay is pretty small! Indeed, Stephen and Luiza saw us walking on the street and shouted down at us from the balcony of <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KjqzjTcd-SY/WwlpjCG0B7I/AAAAAAAAHQM/LVUrvy6Wm1Injh-YjI55xNPMKK0VFyrkgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5439.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KjqzjTcd-SY/WwlpjCG0B7I/AAAAAAAAHQM/LVUrvy6Wm1Injh-YjI55xNPMKK0VFyrkgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5439.JPG" width="200" /></a>the Quiet Mon Pub, an unique Irish-Rasta bar. They introduced us to John and Belinda from S/V Be As You Are, another couple on the thorny path we'd heard about multiple times but hadn't yet met. John and Belinda had been coming to St. John for about 15 years before they bought a boat, so they knew the island very well. John, Belinda, Stephen and I made plans to hike early the next morning (plus Piperdog) - plans that were thrown a bit into doubt when both couples came back to Windbird for a nightcap and stayed <i>very</i> late!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-px7d2TUopcc/WwlpjMUnVsI/AAAAAAAAHQQ/CGr7UAchXDocvNkQi2t8B5XjanLLQ6MewCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5438.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-px7d2TUopcc/WwlpjMUnVsI/AAAAAAAAHQQ/CGr7UAchXDocvNkQi2t8B5XjanLLQ6MewCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5438.JPG" width="200" /></a>To our mutual surprise, everyone showed up on Honeymoon Beach at 7am. We hiked up the Caneel Spur trail to the coast road and then up Caneel Hill. The trail wasn't as steep as I expected until the very top, and it was something under 800' vertical. John and Belinda were planning to go down the hill via the west side for coffee and banana bread at the North Shore Deli in Cruz Bay, but Steve and I elected to keep going up to the next, taller hill and then down to the coast road near the entrance to Caneel Bay Resort. We had just topped that second hill when John and Belinda caught up to us - they had decided to do the full hike after all. The entire thing ended up taking about 2 hours; unfortunately a security guard wouldn't let us onto the currently closed Caneel Bay Resort (a classic eco-resort created by Laurance Rockefeller that took massive damage from Irma), so we had to walk back via the coast road. I invited John and Belinda over to the boat for breakfast, and told Stephen to spread the word that everyone was invited that afternoon for a combination Kentucky Derby / Cinco de Mayo party.<br />
<br />
It ended up being quite the full boat: John and Belinda, Stephen and Luiza, the four Keys from S/V Pura Vida, and a French-Canadian couple who are friends with Stephen and Luiza (don't recall the boat name, though). Everyone brought food to share - we grilled up some Carne Asada that had been marinating all day - and I mixed up lots of Margaritas and Mint Juleps. Unfortunately our AT&T data connection wasn't the best and our stream of the Kentucky Derby cut out halfway though the race! We restored it to see that race favorite Justify had won by two lengths. The party went fairly late, though everyone said they wanted to go hiking in the morning. I had my doubts.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--L-S_g8CIH0/WwludQGJmWI/AAAAAAAAHQ8/SlHTfmWFZkYq1DNkS-TmjpNiul8MBw5fQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6447.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--L-S_g8CIH0/WwludQGJmWI/AAAAAAAAHQ8/SlHTfmWFZkYq1DNkS-TmjpNiul8MBw5fQCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_6447.JPG" width="200" /></a>To our mutual surprise, everyone again turned out for hiking at 7am! We again went up Caneel Hill, but this time took the west trail down to town for breakfast at North <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KNvalE0SCWg/WwluhH8n6xI/AAAAAAAAHRA/YYP67SEvW3QtywWbRVgwxQyQ3iwc1Vh7gCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6450.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KNvalE0SCWg/WwluhH8n6xI/AAAAAAAAHRA/YYP67SEvW3QtywWbRVgwxQyQ3iwc1Vh7gCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_6450.JPG" width="200" /></a>Shore Deli. We then returned via the coastal trail, all in all a very nice hike. As always, Piper sure seemed to enjoy the exercise. We usually take him off leash while hiking; he's very good about scouting a bit ahead and then returning or waiting for us to catch up.<br />
<br />
After returning from the hike I ran a bag of garbage into town and then we motorsailed over to Maho Bay. S/V Be As You Are was staying in Caneel Bay as they had to reposition to St. Thomas in a day or two, while S/V Pura Vida jumped over to the BVI to rejoin Vela, Rondo, Savannah, and Britican as they waited for a window across the Anegada Passage. S/V Carpe Ventum, however, came over to Maho shortly after us, which was nice as we'd been getting to know Stephen and Luiza. They're a friendly, energetic couple in their early 30s, who recently got engaged.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vNiwswQn1bc/WwluidsL2gI/AAAAAAAAHRU/xNLOL5rLrlwiF6Yzv2lQ2_W_OFbQwhA-ACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6460.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vNiwswQn1bc/WwluidsL2gI/AAAAAAAAHRU/xNLOL5rLrlwiF6Yzv2lQ2_W_OFbQwhA-ACEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_6460.JPG" width="200" /></a>We really liked Maho. It is far more protected and calm than Caneel, which was pretty exposed to wakes from the ferry boats that regularly pass nearby. The beach is gorgeous, and there are <i>tons</i> of sea turtles in the bay. During our three days there we and Carpe Ventum snorkeled, <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uvIt66awLBk/WwlulgcIavI/AAAAAAAAHRY/bzD3ZsCsddEHLK1UicqL9Askf1ydSfVFwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_6462.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uvIt66awLBk/WwlulgcIavI/AAAAAAAAHRY/bzD3ZsCsddEHLK1UicqL9Askf1ydSfVFwCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_6462.JPG" width="200" /></a>paddleboarded, hiked from nearby St. Francis Beach to the ruins of the Annaberg Sugar Plantation, and took a dinghy adventure over to Trunk and Cinnamon Bays. Finally on the morning of the 9th they took off for St. Croix, from which they planned to cross the Anegada Passage to Saba or St. Kitts. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Meanwhile we headed over to Waterlemon Bay, via an <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FEyZS1uNmLU/WwlqbkuPpYI/AAAAAAAAHQk/VEmKUPpfKaw7-Yn0Wnqvx6XIwUzHSCilQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5442.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FEyZS1uNmLU/WwlqbkuPpYI/AAAAAAAAHQk/VEmKUPpfKaw7-Yn0Wnqvx6XIwUzHSCilQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5442.JPG" width="200" /></a>excruciatingly slow passage through The Narrows against 25 knots of wind, big waves, and 2 knots of current. Waterlemon was perfectly protected, though, and there we spent two days hiking to nearby ruins and snorkeling the bay and nearby Waterlemon Cay. There was only one other boat in the bay when we got there, and we mostly had the place to ourselves. There are lots of turtles, sharks, and rays, plus a lot of smaller reef fish on the west side of Waterlemon Cay. On Thursday afternoon I was at the beach with Piper when I was approached by three older women with snorkeling gear who inquired how they <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mwynogai8cM/WwlqZuOvUzI/AAAAAAAAHQc/LE6thYA5G7EPwQ7z9c1WGNwNF7aa864KQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5446.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mwynogai8cM/WwlqZuOvUzI/AAAAAAAAHQc/LE6thYA5G7EPwQ7z9c1WGNwNF7aa864KQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5446.JPG" width="200" /></a>could get out to Waterlemon Cay. I indicated they could walk to the end of the beach and then swim, but then added that Dawn and I were about to go snorkeling out there and I could give them a ride. I should know by now that no good deed goes unpunished! As I dropped the women off at the dinghy mooring, I learned that it was the first time snorkeling for two of them. I went and got Dawn, and by the time I returned one of them was standing on the coral-bound island (which is signposted no landing). I didn't realize it at the time, but she got pretty badly cut up by coral while getting out of the water, and later apparently brushed up against fire coral. <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gVCkACr1Ong/WwlqayVJKyI/AAAAAAAAHQg/oIftsj6i35cK65IuB9h1NZx5GUtT_62jgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5455.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gVCkACr1Ong/WwlqayVJKyI/AAAAAAAAHQg/oIftsj6i35cK65IuB9h1NZx5GUtT_62jgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5455.JPG" width="200" /></a>I ferried them back to the beach and then retrieved our first aid kit to disinfect the cuts and apply butterfly bandages. The area that had touched fire coral looked terribly inflamed and I advised her to keep hydrocortisone on it and see a doctor if it was still bad after a couple days. "For future reference," I told her, "Don't touch any coral while snorkeling!" Guess I should have made that clear beforehand.<br />
<br />
Waterlemon Bay was the last protected anchorage on St. John's north coast, as strong easterlies / southeasterlies continued to feed big swells into every bay with any eastern exposure. It's been an unusually windy May (after an unusually windy winter). We planned to stop at a couple places on St. John's southeastern side before crossing to St. Croix, which was a close to beam reach that could potentially be a tough beat across 35 miles of open ocean.<br />
<br />
Next Post: Coral Harbour and Great & Little Lameshur Bays, St. John. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-14141869290868766982018-05-24T20:16:00.002-07:002018-05-24T20:16:18.272-07:00Work and Play<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As an airline pilot, I'm required to perform three takeoffs and three <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VXDqTkbda5k/Wwd_ZNRej3I/AAAAAAAAHP0/-n_7qm5CObMcC-hRA5RiZzW_Oh8nc5hqwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_3223.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VXDqTkbda5k/Wwd_ZNRej3I/AAAAAAAAHP0/-n_7qm5CObMcC-hRA5RiZzW_Oh8nc5hqwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_3223.JPG" width="150" /></a>landings every 90 days. If my landing currency expired - for example, if I was not being used on reserve or was on an ultra-long-haul international fleet and didn't land often - the airline would summon me to the Atlanta training center where I would reestablish landing currency in a flight simulator. Per my union contract, they'd put me up and pay me my usual rate. However, the contract is pretty silent about what happens when the lapse in currency is the pilot's fault - if, for example, he kept dropping and trading his trips to sail the Caribbean all winter long! I've decided I don't want to know the answer; I have a good thing going and I'd rather fly under the radar, so to speak. So I've made a point of parking Windbird somewhere safe every six to eight weeks, shaving off my sailor beard, and commuting to Atlanta to fly a trip and reset my landing currency.<br />
<br />
Accordingly, I'd been planning to fly in mid-April, until another pilot asked if I'd be willing to trade <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F-NlfyDIQu8/Wwd9IqBgvxI/AAAAAAAAHPg/Z0_UryCQVvQ5pBYAeOqWPmzx1FvRsT0mACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5433.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F-NlfyDIQu8/Wwd9IqBgvxI/AAAAAAAAHPg/Z0_UryCQVvQ5pBYAeOqWPmzx1FvRsT0mACLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5433.JPG" width="200" /></a>him that trip. It wasn't a problem, I still had a trip at the end of the month I hadn't been able to trade away yet, but that meant it would be a full ten weeks since I'd flown last. That's the longest I've gone without flying at my current employer. Thankfully, the Boeing 757 and 767 are well-designed, intuitive airplanes to fly and I had little doubt that with a little prior studying I'd be able to get back in the saddle after 10 weeks and fly safely. But first I had to get to Atlanta, and that proved to be more of a problem than anticipated even though I started travel the day before my trip. <br />
<br />
My airline ID had expired in March, and I hadn't been to Atlanta since then to pick up my new one. I'd talked to the chief pilot's office and they assured me it was no problem, I could pick it up before beginning my trip. However, I wouldn't be able to jumpseat with an expired ID. That didn't seem like a problem until the St. Thomas-Atlanta flight filled up in the last few days. When I checked in at the airport there were still nine seats available, but unfortunately <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-14PRE040dh8/Wwd_a6DqDtI/AAAAAAAAHP4/252CaP0TRng-8UAB3S3eCMQ2O9ZdnURYgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5429.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-14PRE040dh8/Wwd_a6DqDtI/AAAAAAAAHP4/252CaP0TRng-8UAB3S3eCMQ2O9ZdnURYgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5429.JPG" width="200" /></a>the flight was load limited. St. Thomas is a relatively short runway with a hill right off the end of the runway, meaning that we occasionally have to leave passengers or cargo behind to have the required engine-out performance. The airplane's basic operating weight includes a jumpseater so I would have been fine if I could occupy a jumpseat, but as a passenger I was out of luck. Even as #1 on the nonrev list, I didn't get on the flight.<br />
<br />
That sent me scrambling. All the afternoon flights were leaving about the same time. I tried American, United and jetBlue, but without the ability to jumpseat I needed empty seats, and everyone <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZVCJ_1rjk9Y/Wwd_bKSY-zI/AAAAAAAAHP8/-1FHtySIMy0iqgw0AP0JpcOOCoQuS3czQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5430.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZVCJ_1rjk9Y/Wwd_bKSY-zI/AAAAAAAAHP8/-1FHtySIMy0iqgw0AP0JpcOOCoQuS3czQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5430.JPG" width="200" /></a>was full. I tried Cape Air to San Juan, but Seaborne had just cancelled a flight and filled them up. Finally I discovered that the next Cape Air flight had a single seat for sale. Rather than risk nonrevving I bought the seat; the agent was super nice and gave me an industry discount. That got me to San Juan at nearly 6pm, just as the last northbound flights were leaving. I got a hotel near the airport and flew out on the first flight to Atlanta the next morning (lots of seats open, thank goodness), which got me in several hours before my trip's report time.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jPMz2HOJx4w/Wwd9KEqla2I/AAAAAAAAHPk/Aib85PfkyfAVYOsWfIL0kBshcqQg5SPCwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5432.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jPMz2HOJx4w/Wwd9KEqla2I/AAAAAAAAHPk/Aib85PfkyfAVYOsWfIL0kBshcqQg5SPCwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5432.JPG" width="200" /></a>The four-day trip was an easy one, with a 30-hour layover in Jacksonville and 15 hours in Salt Lake City. The first leg was a bit awkward, as it always is after an absence, but the second leg onward felt like I was right back at home. I kept in touch with Dawn back at Brewer's Bay in St. Thomas, and everything went well there. She was finishing up a major round of varnishing she'd begun in the BVI, and one day a fellow cruiser (Dave from S/V Tina Marie) gave her a ride into town to do some reprovisioning. The beach at Brewers is super nice for dinghy landings and Piper running. Sea Otter came in a couple days earlier than planned, and then Dawn had Dane and Mak and Isla to keep her company. <br />
<br />
My trip ended late on April 30th; I flew to St. Thomas on May 1st and arrived at 1pm. Dawn and Dave picked me up, and after stopping at the boat to change out of my monkey suit and discard my shoes and socks for another couple months we headed over to Sea Otter. This was the last we'd be seeing them before they headed up island and back to the states, which made us pretty sad. We understand why they're selling the boat, though. After a beer on Sea Otter we decided to ride the Safari Bus over to the area near Yacht Haven marina and the cruise ship dock (since none were in port). There we went to an open-air cocktail bar and played bocce ball and giant jenga, had dinner at the Tap & Still, and watched the Jets and Raptors playoff games (Sea Otter being from Winnipeg) at the Smoking Rooster. It was wayyy past Isla's bedtime when we took a taxi back to Brewers Bay, but Dawn and I went over to Sea Otter for a nightcap and cigars (for Dane and I, anyways). It's been fun hanging with those guys this season. In July Dawn and I are planning to take our motorcycles up to Winnipeg for a visit. <br />
<br />
Early the next morning Sea Otter lifted anchor and made a close pass as we saluted them with our conch horn. We were sticking around an extra day to get together with Dave and Tina on Tina Marie, but they ended up having to cancel. Instead I worked to pickle our watermaker, which has a persistent leak that I've tracked down to a small crack in the pump housing. The leak itself isn't a big deal except it allows air to get into the pump, which makes it cavitate. I'll be taking the pump out of the boat in the next week or so, and we'll repair or replace it this summer.<br />
<br />
On the morning of the 3rd we motored around the airport, past Water Island and through Haulover Cut to Charlotte Amalie harbour and Yacht Haven Grande. With the watermaker out of commission, we needed a full load of water (170 gal) for our last month of cruising. Yacht Haven's fuel dock is quite easy to get on and off, and the water was reasonable (¢20/gal). After that we set sail for St. John, which was a pretty good beat in strong southeasterlies. A port tack took us west of Buck Island, but from there we were able to (barely) lay Cow Rock and Current Cut with one short-tack around Long Point. After squeezing through Current Cut, Pillsbury Sound bent the wind pretty far south and we were able to lay Cruz Bay on a close reach. Unfortunately, local boats took up every last potential anchoring spot, so we went around the corner to Caneel Bay and grabbed a NPS mooring ball. Usually they're $26/night but post-Irma the park service is not collecting mooring fees.<br />
<br />
For the next ten days we'd work our way along the north coast of St. John, hiking and snorkeling, and then sail around to the SE side, from where we'd take off for St. Croix. We'd previously only spent one night at St. John thus far but had heard good things from our cruiser friends, and we were really looking forward to exploring the island for ourselves. As it turned out, we had good company for the first half of our stay and almost perfect isolation for the second. <span id="goog_1676150398"></span><span id="goog_1676150399"></span></div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-85172628072461204462018-05-23T06:04:00.000-07:002018-05-24T18:05:01.913-07:00Cruising in Company <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F_5pjijSMZE/WwdeMTuQT3I/AAAAAAAAHOY/LEggegzGOXEi_HSaEoA7j45zAQWkU37mwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4863.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F_5pjijSMZE/WwdeMTuQT3I/AAAAAAAAHOY/LEggegzGOXEi_HSaEoA7j45zAQWkU37mwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_4863.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
Dawn and I are sporadic buddy-boaters at best. While we're fairly social and have made a lot of great friends out here, we also decided early on that in the interest of comfort and safety we would sail our own boat and keep our own agenda<i>.</i> This has resulted in us buddy-boating closely with other boats for relatively short periods of time, or very loosely buddy-boating for longer periods, or sporadic combinations thereof. Our "closest" buddy boaters this season were Dane, Mak and Isla on S/V Sea Otter, but we actually only did two passages together, from Mayaguana to Provo and from Provo to Luperon (and three weeks of waiting in Provo in between!); since then we've met up in several places in the Spanish Virgins, BVI and USVI. Our friends Erin and Kara on <a href="https://vela-boat.com/">S/V Vela</a> were on a fairly different schedule than us this year, but we met up in Cape May, NJ, a couple places on the Chesapeake, Samaná DR, and throughout the BVI. <br />
<br />
We knew beforehand that our friends Lance, Chris and Mark would want to buddy boat with us while they chartered in the BVI, and we did spend several days with S/V Jada. What I didn't expect was that my birthday would kick off two weeks of buddy-boating with a good half-dozen boats! Dawn joked that my party never really ended. It was a dramatic change from the previous two weeks when we'd been slow-cruising the BVI by ourselves and getting boat work done. Now, sail every day and party every night became the name of the game. It was a lot of fun - but I'm not sure I could do it all season long (and Dawn <i>definitely </i>wouldn't want to do it for longer than we did)!<br />
<br />
On April 18th we sailed back over from Jost van Dyke to Cane Garden Bay, a two-tack beat on a somewhat squally day. We were joined there by S/Vs Jada, Sea Otter, Vela, Savannah, and <a href="http://sailingcity2sea.com/">Carpe Ventum</a>. In the afternoon we hung on the beach for a bit with Sea Otter, and then us, Jada and Vela walked over to the Callwood Distillery for a short tour and rum sampling; we subsequently hired the kid who working there (and about to close up) to drive us up to Stoutt's Lookout Bar for sundowners. That night we hung out with Jada and figured out our onward itinerary.<br />
<br />
The next morning Jada, Windbird and Vela all left Cane Garden Bay at about the same time, and naturally a sailboat race ensued. It was a hard beat up to Guana Island, and I'm happy to say Windbird took line honors despite an accidental 360 when we were trying to come up to the wind to reef. I wasn't surprised to beat Vela, an IP40; while Island Packets are good stout boats, they're known for being not particularly weatherly on account of their shoal draft and full keel. But Jada (a new 48' Beneteau) should have been much faster <i>and</i> more weatherly than us, so I had to give Lance some ribbing over us beating them. We snorkeled at Monkey Point, after which Vela decided to return to Cane Garden Bay (and give up all that easting!) while Jada stayed with us as we motored another mile east to Lee Bay on the west side of Great Camanoe Island. It was my first time there, and I really liked it - since we were the first two boats in and were able to snug right up to shore and anchor in good sand. A number of other boats came in after us, and had a lot of trouble getting their anchor to set in the surrounding rock and coral. With polarized sunglasses I could see the available sandy spots as plain as day but none of the charter boaters could seem to find them; after several gave up and went elsewhere, a cruising catamaran zipped in, dropped their hook on the bullseye, and fell back pretty as you please.<br />
<br />
On Friday morning Jada left early to drop Mark and Jim off in Trellis Bay so they could catch their flights out of the Beef Island Airport. Dawn and I were considering spending another night in Lee Bay, as seemed quite protected and calm though you get the full breeze from a low point on Great Camanoe Island. The downside is that, post-Irma, the former white sand beach is covered with large rocks and small sharp coral bits, making landing the dinghy a challenge. Piper hates beaches like that too; though he'll do his business, we try to get him some exercise during his shore visits. On Friday afternoon I ran Piper over to the nearest sandy beach, on Little Camanoe Island about a mile away. When I got back some wraparound swell had started to work its way into Lee Bay so we decided to leave after all, joining Jada in Trellis Bay. Lance's crew and guests for the second half of his charter wouldn't be arriving until the next day, so it was just him and us for the night.<br />
<br />
We left Trellis early on Saturday morning, for we had a long beat ahead of us. We motorsailed clear of Scrub Island Sound but then killed the engine and headed ESE on a port tack almost to Fallen Jerusalem, then NNE on a long starboard tack just east of the Dogs and throwing in a short tack to clear the Seal Dogs. Tacking north again off Mountain Point, we came together with a Leopard 48 - and again a sailboat race apparently ensued as he tacked to cover, ahead and slightly leeward of us. He was faster than us but wasn't pointed as high; we tacked away SE to Mosquito Rock, and when we came back together near Necker Island we were well ahead. We sailed into Eustatia Sound from the north side of Prickly Pear and dropped the hook in the lee of Eustatia Island. What a beautiful anchorage! I've been to North Sound many times but was always too chicken to go past Saba Rock and thread my way through the coral. I don't know why not, it's perfectly visible in midday light.<br />
<br />
Shortly after we arrived <a href="https://svrondo.com/">S/V Rondo</a> came into the anchorage. They'd been hanging out on the west side of Virgin Gorda and we Facebook messaged them that we'd be coming to Eustatia. We really like the Rondo crew. Mike and Sarah aren't much older than us and are really great people; I think we're pretty close in temperament and outlook on cruising. Their kids Mikey (13) and Katelyn (12) are adorable, well-adjusted and well-behaved; it's been fun to watch them blossom into full-fledged cruiser kids this year, their first on the boat (we first met them in Staniel Cay, Bahamas). When we showed up, the kids served us virgin Pina Coladas and Bushwhackers they'd concocted (add your own rum!), and then Mikey and I had a good discussion about what fish do and do not have ciguatera in the BVI and his opinions on what color of squid skirts are best for catching Mahi, Wahoo and Tuna. He's become quite the fisherman, and has started making and selling his own lures. Sea Otter had bought one to give to me for my birthday, and as it was very well built Dawn and I ordered several others. Mikey would have gone on talking fishing all day but I suggested we go catch ourselves some lobster, and on the reef just north of the anchorage in about 30' of water I managed to catch a good big one. We donated it to that night's feast on board Rondo, and in gratitude Mikey sketched up charts of all his favorite lobster holes throughout the Bahamas, for our return there in a few years! <br />
<br />
The next morning, Dawn and I went snorkeling a few places in Eustatia Sound. The first one was unimpressive but I did get another lobster; the next was pretty fantastic but there were no lobster to be found. Later, Lance and S/V Jada came into the anchorage with new crew: our friend Chris (another 1/4th owner of the charter boat) along with brand new sailors Jason, Devin, Rick and Rachel. We loaded up our two dinghies and took them snorkeling at another promising place I had spied on my last snorkel safari, a gap in the reef on the NE side of the sound. There were a ton of lobstery-looking heads about 40 feet down, which is about the limit of my lobster-hunting ability (I can free dive to about 60' but have absolutely no bottom time when I do that). I found a couple of lobsters but they were all on the small side so I left them to grow for the next time we visit Eustatia Sound, likely this fall. I really, really liked this anchorage. Protected, no mooring balls, no charter boats, beautiful water, fantastic snorkeling, great long sandy beach for Piper to run on....<br />
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zOcNe_g68ZM/Wwde6UBKcDI/AAAAAAAAHOg/yQ3YwJx6g6ol9PYMx3aAQLM2g6DZ5tm6gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5409.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zOcNe_g68ZM/Wwde6UBKcDI/AAAAAAAAHOg/yQ3YwJx6g6ol9PYMx3aAQLM2g6DZ5tm6gCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5409.JPG" width="200" /></a>At 2pm we headed over to Leverick Bay via the Saba Island cut; Jada and Rondo went the "long" way (actually shorter since you don't have to avoid coral). We anchored behind the Leverick Bay mooring field and were shortly joined by S/Vs Sea Otter and Carpe Ventum. I dinghied to the marina and arranged with a taxi driver to bring us all up to Hog Heaven, the cool BBQ joint overlooking North Sound from high on Virgin Gorda that Dawn and I had found earlier in the month. With seventeen hungry cruisers from five boats to be ferried up the hill, the taxi <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YxOB5L-jXjM/Wwde8eonnyI/AAAAAAAAHOk/nGGfSlzayOcRtPKAi2jbGKQMmZB6chYTwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5410.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YxOB5L-jXjM/Wwde8eonnyI/AAAAAAAAHOk/nGGfSlzayOcRtPKAi2jbGKQMmZB6chYTwCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5410.JPG" width="200" /></a>driver had to take two trips but it worked out well as the restaurant was able to clear three tables to push together right as the second load arrived. It was a really nice night, almost a repeat of my birthday bash, except with fantastic, inexpensive food this time. Everyone raved over Hog Heaven. I now consider it a BVI must-do.<br />
<br />
After coming back to the boats, we hung out with Dane, Mak and Isla on Sea Otter as it was the last time we'd see them in the BVI. Originally bound for Trinidad, they had concluded that cruising with an infant was too difficult, especially since they're planning to have another kid soon; they decided to return to Florida and put the boat up for sale. We'd see them once more this season, though; we made plans to meet in St. Thomas early in May.<br />
<br />
With the last easting of the season behind our transom, it was time to enjoy some downwind sailing. On Monday morning we headed out of north sound ahead of all the other boats except Rondo, sailing all the way down to the Baths. It was already a zoo when we got there and instead of fighting for a mooring ball we elected to anchor just north in Trunk Bay. It was a pretty choppy, rolly anchorage but we weren't staying on the boat; we swam ashore to tromp through the Baths and relax on the beach at Devil's Bay. We were eventually joined there by Rondo, and then also S/Vs Jada, Pura Vida (who we hadn't seen since my birthday) and <a href="https://sailingbritican.com/">Britican</a>, who we'd heard a lot about but hadn't yet met. After returning to Windbird and eating lunch we headed down to Cooper Island, where S/V Vela had already anchored on the south side of Manchioneel Bay. Every mooring ball was full; while Dawn and I motored east of the mooring field deciding where to anchor, we heard a mighty splash from the bow followed by a metallic scream as the anchor pulled the chain over the gypsy and straight down to the seabed 70' below! I had pulled the pin securing the anchor in preparation for anchoring, but clearly this was a bit premature; it fell off the bow roller as soon as we got into chop. Thankfully after a quick sprint to the bow I was able to arrest the chain's escape, we cranked the anchor back up with the Windlass, and headed to the north side of the bay to anchor clear of the madness of the mooring field. Jada meanwhile decided it was too full for them and hightailed it off to Peter Island. We got together with Vela for the Cooper Island Beach Club's excellent happy hour; unfortunately, they ended up spending a good portion of the night and early morning fending off charter cats that anchored way too close to them.<br />
<br />
We and Vela both set sail fairly early on Tuesday the 24th, Windbird's last day in the BVI. We were most of the way over to Peter Island when Vela called on the VHF and informed us that Little Harbour was completely full, they had just grabbed the last spot. I really wanted to anchor there for our last night, so we ducked into Great Harbour and grabbed a mooring ball to wait an hour or two for the anchorage to clear out. Meanwhile Jada was underway to Jost van Dyke for the day to introduce the BVI newbies to the charms of the Soggy Dollar Bar; they said they'd be back to Little <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gttnj0BNM34/Wwdf0oNCyzI/AAAAAAAAHO8/D4VE5bK3OzolGYEIyd1Ow_Iw0S3y3dNmgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5412.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gttnj0BNM34/Wwdf0oNCyzI/AAAAAAAAHO8/D4VE5bK3OzolGYEIyd1Ow_Iw0S3y3dNmgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5412.JPG" width="200" /></a>Harbour later. After a bit Vela called again and said a few boats<br />
had left, so we motored around the point. My favorite spot in the northeast corner of the anchorage was available, and this time anchoring stern-to went much more smoothly than our first time a month prior. We scooched right up to shore, and spent much of the day paddleboarding, lazing in the water, checking out the ruins on the point up the hill, and paddling over to say hi to Vela and borrow them our Snuba rig for cleaning their bottom.<br />
<br />
In late afternoon Jada came back from Jost with a good part <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xKFztGGtwqo/Wwdf0HVIfAI/AAAAAAAAHPI/30lbaVMBMt04likCq5IWH1rl9iQehatEQCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5423.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xKFztGGtwqo/Wwdf0HVIfAI/AAAAAAAAHPI/30lbaVMBMt04likCq5IWH1rl9iQehatEQCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5423.JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
of the crew well lubricated from their visit to White Bay! Little Harbour had filled up again so they rafted up on our starboard side, which worked well as it was a calm night and we were very snugly <br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zBUjXGjv5RI/WwdfyyoK4gI/AAAAAAAAHPE/RuURvvrpNp8-4xpDOhe71Jr2TE_kxKaVwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zBUjXGjv5RI/WwdfyyoK4gI/AAAAAAAAHPE/RuURvvrpNp8-4xpDOhe71Jr2TE_kxKaVwCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5424.JPG" width="200" /></a>situated. Vela came over to Jada for happy hour and dinner; we had a perfect view of the sunset over St. John. We ended up staying up pretty late talking, drinking, and looking at the stars. As popular as Little Harbour has become, it's still one of my favorite BVI anchorages, especially in that NE corner where you can't see the lights of Tortola.<br />
<br />
And that wrapped up our month in the BVI. The next morning Jada cast off her docklines pretty early so we could take in our stern line, pull up anchor, and sail over to West End to clear out of the BVI. From there it was a long and at times rowdy downwind sail along the north side of St. John, through Current Cut, and along the south side of St. Thomas to <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FvIQBEqEukE/Wwdf2Pbrm_I/AAAAAAAAHPQ/iSUSo2EDGmgo9k_NHJmCitITF0xFAIOWgCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5428.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FvIQBEqEukE/Wwdf2Pbrm_I/AAAAAAAAHPQ/iSUSo2EDGmgo9k_NHJmCitITF0xFAIOWgCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5428.JPG" width="200" /></a>Brewer's Bay. The wind started to ease in the afternoon and Dawn decided to get some laundry done enroute so it had a chance to dry before nightfall; I needed some of it for the work trip I was leaving on the next day. And then the wind died further and I decided to fly the Spinnaker; of course setting it up interfered with the laundry Dawn <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5WZawKBaHow/Wwdgvqj-UKI/AAAAAAAAHPU/XWMT-71UwAIzxufnggoEXU6pupJY4xg5gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5427.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5WZawKBaHow/Wwdgvqj-UKI/AAAAAAAAHPU/XWMT-71UwAIzxufnggoEXU6pupJY4xg5gCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5427.JPG" width="150" /></a>had hung out to dry, she lost a few clips and one pair of underwear overboard to flogging sheets, and by the time the kite was set we only had five or six miles left. It ended up devolving into an angry shouting match, over pretty much nothing. Dawn and I have very rarely fought throughout the 15 years of our marriage, and had got along well during the first six months of this season, but this was our third or fourth blowout in April. We were obviously getting on each others nerves; seven month of very close proximity (and ten weeks since I'd last left the boat) were clearly taking a toll. It was a good time to go make some money - and take a 5-day vacation from each other!<br />
<br />
Next post: Adventures in Commuting from St. Thomas, and our 10-day cruise of St. John. </div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090074457181511840.post-55013219655255179392018-05-20T18:41:00.000-07:002018-05-24T17:47:26.610-07:00A Birthday to Remember<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Windbird left her mooring ball in Trellis Bay bright and
early on April 14<sup>th</sup>. We motored through the Camanoe Passage and then
put up the sails and enjoyed a quick broad reach down to Cane Garden Bay,
arriving just after 9am. During the sail I called around to a couple different
car rental agencies and found a 4x4 with a small company that could pick us up
in Cane Garden Bay; they arrived around 10am and brought us to West End where
we picked up the Suzuki Vitara. From there we headed to Road Town, marveling at
all the devastation along the way. In Road Town we did some reprovisioning and
other chores, then headed back to Nanny Cay to pick up the fuel diaphragm for
the dinghy outboard. We also had a really delicious lunch of West Indian Roti at Nanny Cay’s
dockside restaurant, Genaker Cafe. Afterwards we picked up a few things at
Nanny Cay’s Budget Marine store, then engaged in a lengthy wild goose chase for
an unusually long and skinny clevis pin for one of our mainsail mast track
cars (I ended up substituting a cotter pin until I can get the clevis pin from a Doyle sailmaker). By the time we got back to the boat, it was already almost time to head
back across the mountain to Road Town to pick up our friend Andy and his
girlfriend Ann from the ferry dock. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve mentioned before on this blog how our friends Andy and
Lance, before we knew them, purchased a Bristol 29.9 in Bayfield WI and sailed
it through the Great Lakes, down the Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Tom
Bigby Rivers, across the Gulf of Mexico, through the Bahamas, and down the
thorny path to the Virgin Islands. When Andy and I first flew together at Compass
Airlines, we bonded over sailing stories and I subsequently invited him and
Lance to bring their boat, S/V Yolo, from Puerto Rico to the BVI for the 2013
Interline Regatta (along with Chris Warrington, who had by then bought into
Yolo along with Mark Tunucci). The guys sold Yolo in 2014 – after
being dismasted near Culebra – but the four partners have since bought into a
Moorings charter boat. Both Lance and Andy sailed on Windbird last year, from
Charleston to Fernandina Beach, FL.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Andy and Ann were originally planning to spend their entire
vacation helping a friend rebuild his place on Vieques, but upon learning I’d
be spending my birthday in Jost van Dyke, and that we’d be joined by Lance and
Mark (and later Chris) on a Moorings 48’ Beneteau, they decided to detour to
the BVI for the first few days of their vacation. On the 14<sup>th</sup> they flew from
Minneapolis to Atlanta to St. Thomas and then took the fast ferry to Road
Town’s temporary ferry terminal at the cruise ship dock, where we met them in
the middle of a fierce downpour. We quickly retreated to the Pusser’s Pub
(undergoing repairs after losing its second story in Irma, but still open) for
a quick bite and the trip’s first Painkillers. After returning to Cane Garden
Bay we walked along the road and back via the beachfront, marveling at how much
had changed since Irma. Quito’s Gazebo, at which Andy and I spent several late
nights during Interline, is completely gone (but being rebuilt). The friendly
folks at Myett’s rasta bar lost their second story. Many of the sloping palms
that graced the beach are gone, and a great many formerly invisible homes can
be spotted on hillsides stripped of much of their vegetation. The Callwood
distillery, once heavily shaded in a thick copse of trees, is now starkly visible
from the main road. We went back to Windbird for happy hour, a spectacular
sunset over St. Thomas, and dinner and conversation long into the night. It’s
always pretty special to have good friends join us on Windbird. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1uTS3EnpGSg/WwdWH9v0oII/AAAAAAAAHMg/K4R6QR3F_kg-_Lay_fM8JTDK7dW2KsgXgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5350.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1uTS3EnpGSg/WwdWH9v0oII/AAAAAAAAHMg/K4R6QR3F_kg-_Lay_fM8JTDK7dW2KsgXgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5350.JPG" width="200" /></a>On Sunday we had a lazy morning but then got going around
11am; we wanted to explore the island of Tortola while Dawn and I had the 4x4.
This ended up involving quite a few stops at beach bars (starting with the
fantastic Stoutt’s Lookout Bar far above Cane Garden Bay) and an awesome lunch
at a lively roadside joint straight out of Puerto Rico right down to the
spirited dominos game (with heavy betting) in the corner. I got to practice my
Spanish for the first time in a few weeks. We eventually worked our way to
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O-sVCa8Ck6s/WwdWIxJyBII/AAAAAAAAHMo/9pxv8o_t0WoU88YKGCwdP-wbzV585_KLgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5357.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O-sVCa8Ck6s/WwdWIxJyBII/AAAAAAAAHMo/9pxv8o_t0WoU88YKGCwdP-wbzV585_KLgCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5357.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
Trellis Bay to inspect the remaining beached sailboats, then took Ridge Road in search of a viewpoint to watch the sunset.
We found the perfect spot, in a ruined ridgetop home that must have been pretty
spectacular before the storm. Once it was dark we headed back down to Road
Town, to check into Lance and Mark’s boat at The Moorings’ base and do some
provisioning for them at the RiteWay. They’d originally been planning to arrive
Sunday afternoon but the Minnesota weather had other plans with a springtime
Snowmageddon <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-__ix68EgAqo/WwdYQ4HdBhI/AAAAAAAAHNQ/LFTM-cWS9lU6YODbX7X6JCYbjRqCm10ngCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5359.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-__ix68EgAqo/WwdYQ4HdBhI/AAAAAAAAHNQ/LFTM-cWS9lU6YODbX7X6JCYbjRqCm10ngCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5359.JPG" width="200" /></a>that cancelled a bunch of flights and left them scrambling for
open seats out of MSP. They eventually found a way out to Boston and then down
to San Juan, where they were stuck for the night. They’d arrive to Tortola the
next day on Cape Air; we were provisioning to help get them out of the Moorings
base ASAP. Andy and Ann stayed on the charter boat (S/V Jada) overnight so Andy
could do the boat briefing in the morning and have it ready to go. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-61E4SC5w7YU/WwdZPorchzI/AAAAAAAAHNc/RfwYHzxJDJE94cpW4F-viDi-KtQdWqGigCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-61E4SC5w7YU/WwdZPorchzI/AAAAAAAAHNc/RfwYHzxJDJE94cpW4F-viDi-KtQdWqGigCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_5361.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
On Monday Dawn and I returned the 4x4 to West End and got a ride
back to Cane Garden, then sailed over to Jost van Dyke. Our friends Erin and
Kara on S/V Vela were already on a mooring ball in Great Harbour when we
arrived (having sailed over from St. John and already cleared BVI customs). We
poked around looking for a place to anchor but the few good spots were already
taken, so we too took a ball. In the afternoon we and Vela took our dinghies and bashed
our way over to Sandy Cay. The interior, formerly crossed by nature trails, was impassable
due to deadfall from the storm, but we had a nice time playing beach bocce ball
and catching up with Erin and Kara, who we’d last seen in Samaná, DR. When we
returned, we were delighted to see that Dane, Mak and Isla on S/V Sea Otter had
also arrived from St. John. Knowing that Isla would probably be staying up late
on my birthday, they opted to have a quiet night on their boat, while Kara and
Erin came over to Windbird for homemade grilled pizzas and drinks. S/V Jada,
meanwhile, had been delayed at the Moorings base for maintenance, and ended up
spending the night next door in Little Harbour (JVD). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bwh4BusG0MQ/WwdZRNLbO0I/AAAAAAAAHNg/LKveXGXXyjws0bvcH9bbmJjRThJVDCTywCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5375.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bwh4BusG0MQ/WwdZRNLbO0I/AAAAAAAAHNg/LKveXGXXyjws0bvcH9bbmJjRThJVDCTywCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5375.JPG" width="150" /></a>Tuesday, April 17<sup>th</sup>, my 37<sup>th</sup> birthday,
dawned clear and bright. Dawn made my favorite breakfast, Mexican Breakfast
Tacos, complete with her homemade corn tortillas. Then Kara and Erin joined us
and Piper for a spirited hike/climb to the very top of Jost, at just over 1100’
above sea level. After return and a quick lunch, <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aKRlle7gip4/WwdZP61L16I/AAAAAAAAHNY/NihomIUre10wY0x7FUHMOxaoHklMXKx5QCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_5385.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aKRlle7gip4/WwdZP61L16I/AAAAAAAAHNY/NihomIUre10wY0x7FUHMOxaoHklMXKx5QCEwYBhgL/s200/IMG_5385.JPG" width="200" /></a>we took the dinghies over to
White Bay where S/V Jada had just anchored with Lance, Andy, Ann, Mark, and Jim
Corbo (a last-miute guest I knew from the Interline Regatta) onboard. After a
preliminary beer or two we proceeded to shore where the Soggy Dollar Bar was
already doing brisk business in Painkillers. The bar area survived Irma but the
rest of the building and surrounding trees did not, and it looked so incredibly
different. At least they recently replanted some palm trees; in a few years the
Soggy Dollar should have lush surroundings again. It’ll never be quite the same
again, though, which probably goes for all of the BVI. There will always be
Before and After. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yyVNSI_euIU/WwdcWFvyM_I/AAAAAAAAHOM/-EIYsTKORvsBijAMTq_lGh8N2p8rc2segCLcBGAs/s1600/fullsizeoutput_3360.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yyVNSI_euIU/WwdcWFvyM_I/AAAAAAAAHOM/-EIYsTKORvsBijAMTq_lGh8N2p8rc2segCLcBGAs/s200/fullsizeoutput_3360.jpeg" width="200" /></a>Very soon after we got to Soggy Dollar, S/V Rondo (Mike,
Sarah, and kids Mikey and Kaitlyn) pulled in, and then the biggest surprise:
S/V Pura Vida (Hayward, Ainsley, Heyward Jr and Katie Grace), who we first met
in Georgetown SC nearly a year ago, bashed their way upwind all the way from
Culebrita in one day to make my party! Dane, Mack and Isla arrived from Sea
Otter. In addition, there were two boats in attendance we hadn’t met yet but
had heard a lot about as they’d <br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NQ73IrbZyBw/WwdaJfji1DI/AAAAAAAAHOA/CcZD2plFy6kEFccMYpqbjsLV-dhBEHcVgCEwYBhgL/s1600/DSC_9769.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NQ73IrbZyBw/WwdaJfji1DI/AAAAAAAAHOA/CcZD2plFy6kEFccMYpqbjsLV-dhBEHcVgCEwYBhgL/s200/DSC_9769.JPG" width="200" /></a>been with a lot of our friends from Georgetown
onward: S/V Savannah and S/V Carpe Ventum. In all we had eight boats and 24
people (and one piperdog) in attendance! It was a pretty good bash, and I was
really touched that so many of our cruising friends made the effort to make it
to Jost for my birthday. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the afternoon waned we made our way back to Great Harbour
(with us onboard Jada, dragging our dinghy behind). I briefly stopped in at
Foxy’s to let them know <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Um2lyvqDwmw/WwdaKh2_5GI/AAAAAAAAHOE/UFFSYfAVWzk6YDuRYHeH1cxMb9KOS2XYwCEwYBhgL/s1600/DSC_9768.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Um2lyvqDwmw/WwdaKh2_5GI/AAAAAAAAHOE/UFFSYfAVWzk6YDuRYHeH1cxMb9KOS2XYwCEwYBhgL/s200/DSC_9768.JPG" width="200" /></a>our party had grown considerably (I’d made a
reservation for 16) and they said it was no problem. We all went ashore at 6:30
and enjoyed a nice dinner with good conversation (though I have to admit Foxy's food is rather lackluster for the price). Afterward I invited everyone
over to Windbird, and though not everyone came we actually had 16 in the
cockpit at one time! That’s a new record for us. It was a nice end to a pretty <br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c-QjY7o6KdQ/WwdaIBHLurI/AAAAAAAAHOE/VARwSEBlRGILljC8xaLNsoJcZCqCd2lBwCEwYBhgL/s1600/DSC_9764.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c-QjY7o6KdQ/WwdaIBHLurI/AAAAAAAAHOE/VARwSEBlRGILljC8xaLNsoJcZCqCd2lBwCEwYBhgL/s200/DSC_9764.JPG" width="200" /></a>fantastic
birthday that I’ll remember for a very long time. And now that so many of our
friends on the Thorny Path had caught up with us, and with S/V Jada looking to
buddy boat, my birthday bash marked the start of the last, more social phase of
this year’s BVI cruise. </div>
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman";
mso-font-charset:77;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:auto;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style></div>
Sam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.com1