Anchoring for friends

Today was pretty much like a normal day cruising.  Did a few maintenance items, electrical, plumbing, etc.  Then ran to town for some fresh veggies, dropped of trash, picked up some beer.

Came back to the boat and did some more maintenance then noticed what appeared to be a charter boat dragging down on a boat anchored beside us.  Being the kind concerned person that I am I hopped in the dink and went over to see if I could help.  The only person on board appeared to speak Russian with an occasional word of English - his English was better than my Russian so I asked him to start the engine and he did.  Then he said something I didn't understand and climbed in thru the forward hatch and started retrieving chain.  Seems that the windlass remote control does not work and he was shorting out the switch from below deck.  I thought he said I could control the windlass from the helm (2 helms actually - a very tired Beneteau).  The only switch I saw at the helm was a bow thruster and there was not a depth sounder or any other electronics visible.

I asked the gentleman how much chain and he said 30 meters - which was pretty strange as when I got on board the chain was snubbed and the boat had started out in 8 - 9 meters of water.

Anyway, I drove the boat forward some to where there was a patch of sand and without knowing how deep the water was told him to drop anchor.  I then went up on deck and dropped the rest of the chain and played out about another 75 feet of nylon rode.

Looks like they are holding and the other two fellows are back on board.

After handling only an Island Packet for all these years it sure was weird driving a Beneteau.  Think I'll keep my IP!

до свидания

Kind of like work!

I've been helping a local Internet Service Provider (actually a WiFi provider) resolve some issues with their service.  First I found a co-channel interference problem and resolved that by switching the service to an unused channel.  Then this morning I was unable to login so started troubleshooting and appears that the Internet connectivity for this side of the Bay has been seriously bad all day.   Attached a directional antenna to my Bullet2HP and have been using a signal from the far side of the Bay for most of the day.  Have made some suggestions and will see what happens but it seems like the local wired provider (Lime - was Cable and Wireless) generally does nothing on outages till they get a "ROUND TUIT" and these are locked up over the weekend.

Starting to see some activity in preparation for the upcoming Easter Regatta.  More of the traditional double enders were out practicing today and have seen a few more J boats than normal in the past few days.  I've started taking pictures of the local boats and will post some over the next few days and as the Regatta progresses.

In the meantime - I'm getting ready to prepare dinner - spaghetti with meat sauce (I need to compare mine with Kate's sometime) hot Italian sausage, mixed salad with Lesley's special dressing and a nice loaf of homemade multigrain bread (courtesy of the kind graces of Daffodil Marine Services!).

LED Indicators

I just removed the LED indicator strip from my auxiliary 12VDC breaker panel so that I can change several of the LEDs.

Each red pigtail is connected to the adjacent circuit breaker and the black pigtail had to be cut so that I could remove the strip.  Will crimp on a new lug before reinstalling the strip.

Key Lime Cheescake

Lesley made a Key Lime cheesecake in the pressure cooker yesterday.

 Cheesecake still in spring form pan after coming out of the pressure cooker.

 Dessert is served!

Whaling

Bequia is one of the few places in the world where whaling is still allowed. Natives of Bequia are allowed to catch up to four humpback whales per year using hand-thrown harpoons from small wooden sailboats. I'm not sure but think it has been several years since any whales were taken.

But yesterday afternoon, in the outer part of Admiralty Bay, a small sail boat with 8 men aboard was able to approach a humpback and make an attempt at harpooning the animal.  The fishermen were not successful but it was amazing to see whaling going on only a few hundred yards from our anchorage.

Chicken Florentine

We had another of those fabulous dinners last night.  Lesley was able to snag another bag of spinach just before we left St Lucia and made chicken Florentine, spiced chicken breast over a bed of sauteed spinach smothered in a mornay sauce, buttered noodles and steamed candied carrots. 

We didn't have anything for dessert so she made a Key Lime cheesecake in the pressure cooker this afternoon.  Cake is in the fridge chilling and I will take a picture of it tomorrow after it's removed from the spring form pan.

Now in Bequia, SVG

We left St Lucia yesterday morning in light and variable winds till we were clear of land.  We had a fairly strong west setting current once off shore of the Pitons, beam seas of maybe 3 -4 ft, and winds abeam at 18 gusting to 22.  A great day to sail to St Vincent - we thought.  As we moved along we had a bit sloppier conditions with a large steep long period swell crossing differently than the wind chop and the current moved more on the nose till we were just off St Vincent.  The current turned to aiding for about an hour then back to the nose so we motor sailed to Buccament Bay.  We had planned to stop here but there were no other boats in the anchorage and our rule on ST V is if no other boats then move on!

With current still on the nose we called Daffodil Marine and asked them to hold a mooring for us - expecting that we would arrive well after dark.  We cleared ST V, the wind filled in to 18 gusting to 22 and we put every bit of canvas we had up and headed for Bequia.  The gods definitely smiled on as as we picked up our mooring right after turning in from Devils Table about 10 minutes after sundown!

We slept very good last night!

Leaving St Lucia

After clearing out later this morning we will move to the fuel doc to fill up with duty free diesel.  Tomorrow morning we will sail to Buccament Bay where we are booked for dinner at the Little Bay Hideaway - fresh water crayfish!

Working on a boat in exotic places

Between finishing up our rigging project and finishing the teak I have been helping a fellow here on a 380 with several projects.  Chain plates, fresh water system, anchor locker/chain castling, GPS, AIS, DC power panel, etc.

Finished up and made a run to the grocery store and bumped into Dan, aboard Island Packet 37 Wind Dancer.  Headed over there later this afternoon to visit then we are going ashore to celebrate Gra'innes' Irish Heritage!

Lá Fhéile Pádraig

Rigging parts, Seco South

We finished up a rigging project (we thought) on Tuesday and realized that we needed a couple of parts that we did not have.  I called Jean at Seco South via Skype at about noon and spoke with a rigger to confirm the parts for the 98 350 were correctly identified.

Jean arranged to have the parts sent out via FedEx that afternoon.  I got the tracking number at about 2:00pm and then tracked the package to Memphis, Puerto Rico, then early Wednesday to St Lucia where the status indicated "available for clearance".  I called the local FedEx Office and spoke with a nice lady and I verified that the parts were for me and a Yacht in Transit.  I checked the FedEx tracking info at about 3:pm on Wednesday and it indicated that the package had been delivered.  I walked up to the Rodney Bay Marina and picked up my package.  This is an all time record for any package that I have received in 5 seasons in the Caribbean!

Anchor locker on an Island Packet 380

Between scrapping teak and working on an IP380 anchor locker I didn't do anything today.  I'm wondering why I'm so tired!

Have a friend here in St Lucia on a 380 who has a vertical windlass and has had an ongoing problem with castling of chain in the chain locker.  Made some modifications and have a few more to go to see if the problem is solved.  More to follow.

Going out for Pizza and salad tonight - I think we are both to tired to cook - Lesley did teak oil on interior surfaces today.

I had a great experience with Seco South and FedEx delivery - will provide a separate post on the topic tomorrow. 

Working on the rigging

Today I plan to finish replacing the shrouds. I tried to get this done last time we were here but had a problem getting the stemball fittings out of the mast.  I've since made models of the fitting and the cutout on the mast and practiced to make sure that the procedure will work.  The problem is that the fitting - a Stemball Backing Shell Tang - fits inside the mast with the rigging wire protruding from the lower hole.  This fitting with the rigging wire attached has to be removed from the side of the mast through the teardrop shaped cutout.















I'm having a second cup of coffee now and will then gather up the tools, bosuns chair and camera and head up the mast.

Starting the project - first I had to go up the mast as far as the spreaders and remove a tip casting, boot and insert.

Once at the masthead I attached the bosuns chair to the backstay clevis and was now at the stemball fitting/upper shroud.

 

To remove the stemball fitting and shroud we had to loosen the jib halyard, main halyard and the spare - yikes - I'm on the spare halyard - but I had already secured myself to the backstay.  With these three halyards loose I was then able to twist, rotate and lift the fitting and shroud so that it came out of the mast.

After running a new shroud through the stemball fitting I reversed the twisting/turning and was able to insert the new shroud after making sure that none of the halyards were pinched.  I then attached the new turnbuckle to the chainplate and installed the spacer washers on the clevis pin.  The washers close the outside gap on the clevis at the chainplate and prevent the jib sheet from getting stuck!

As an additional note:  My owners manual shows the upper shroud length at 45' 1", turns out it is 43' 8".  So if you plan to do a rigging project make sure if possible that you use the old rigging as a template for the new.



Later today I am going to help Joel on SV Andante (IP380) replace his main sail.  This will be a good chance to check out a Mack Sail as I plan to purchase one for our boat this summer.

Jardine Balat

Sorry for so many posts on the same day - but we have good WiFi here now so taking the opportunity to post some pictures from earlier excursions.

Several weeks ago, while we were anchored off Fort de France, we took a bus to the Balat Botanical Gardens.

Lesley and our friend John

These images are from that trip.

Oven Cleaning?

Cleaning an oven on a sailboat takes on a whole new approach.  We've been on many sailboats where the oven and surrounding areas are biology experiments.

We removed the oven (a Force 10 Model) and vacuum cleaned the outside parts and then used "CIF" to wash all of the exposed areas.

We cleaned the teak in the area around the oven and then reapplied teak oil.

The area behind the oven is gelcoat but it can get pretty grubby.  When we moved aboard in 2003 we put two flexible cutting mats in the area behind the oven to make future cleanup easier.

Oh, we keep the oven clean so conventional oven cleanup was unnecessary.

Seaweed everywhere

We are now in our 5th season cruising in the Caribbean.  This season we have noticed a very unusual sight as we cross the various channels between islands - Sargasso Weed.  The weed is normal in or around the Gulf Stream, in the Bahamas and further North in the Atlantic but not so here in the Islands.  This winter we have seen large clumps of the weed on every crossing and along the coasts of each of the Islands that we have visited.

This means that we need to really pay close attention to raw water strainers if we run the engine or generator.

Cleaning the bottom

Before leaving Martinique I needed to clean the bottom, prop and keel cooler.  Since I had been stung badly by hydroids while doing the same thing in Dominica about a month ago I decided to wear my dive skin.  Spent about 30 minutes under the boat using our dive hookah setup.  Some barnacles under the keel and scattered around on the hull, some growth on the heel shoe and buildup on the keel cooler and prop.  Got everything cleaned up then surfaced and climbed up on the transom. 

I had large spots of sea ants all over the dive skin - more than we have ever seen before.  Luckily though no stings or bites - some sea ants took residence in my hair and mustache though!

Yesterdays sail - Martinique to St Lucia

After saying bye to friends on other Island Packet Sailboats (35 Seabbatical and 380 Northern Lights IV) we headed south for St Lucia.  Once we cleared out of the shallow water and set our sails we were making good speed with beam seas and winds of 18 - 20 knots.  The St Lucia channel is roughly 21 nautical miles across and we were able to cover the distance in 3 hours - sure like our 110 yankee jib!

On the way over we crossed paths with Canadian friends aboard a Gozzard (Reberth) and got really close to two humpback whales as we neared the coast of St Lucia off Pigeon Island.  We thought the sighting of the whales was really unusual as the water where we were was approximately 90 feet deep!

The boat is washed and clean, and so are we, as we are now relaxed and getting ready for dinner aboard - fried chicken, cous-cous, and sauteed snow peas.

Tomorrow we will move the stove and clean and oil the teak area around it and then start work on the upper shrouds. 

Dinner aboard

You've probably noticed that we like to cook and also like to eat.  While in the French Islands you have a chance to obtain some ingredients that can be scarce in the other islands.  Especially like the butter, vegetables, bread and wine.

Several days ago we went ashore and were able to obtain a nice head of broccoli, wine, and a nice rustic loaf of bread.

So I made beef stroganoff  -  attached images show the process.

Dry aged beef, onion, garlic, mushrooms, etc

Seasoned and floured meat is browned

Chopped onion, garlic and mushrooms added

roux is thickened then sour cream and wine are added

Stroganoff over noodles with steamed broccoli in oil

Hummingbirds

While we were in Fort de France we took a bus ride up into the hills outside town.  Two nice photos of some of the hummingbirds that we saw.

Back in Marin - strange weather

Moved around from Fort de France yesterday in a day of the strangest weather we've seen in the Caribbean in 5 years.  Started out calm and rainy, clouds down low and almost foggy out.  Decided that the weather forecast was wrong so we picked up anchor and headed for Marin.  Trip down was fine weather cooperating until we were about 4 miles out of the channel leading into Marin when the sky fell.  Solid wall of water, near zero visibility and 30 knot winds.  This continued off and on as we slowed down and made our way in to anchor.  Weather lightened up long enough for us to anchor then the clouds closed in again and it started raining and rained until 4am this morning.  Temperature was down to 72 degrees when we went to bed.  It is still overcast now but only a few spits of rain.

Heading in to Mango Bay for a lunch of mussels and draft beer. 

Another great dinner

We took a walk around town yesterday then came back to the boat and made a grilled pork tenderloin with mole sauce, Spanish rice and fried plantains!  Finished that off with a vanilla eclair and some port then watched another episode of the BBC Series "Frozen Planet".

The parts for the new NAV computer are on order and should be shipped in 3 weeks.  The holdup is the D2500 motherboard - Intel just released it and they are currently on backorder.