Busy Day in Antigua

We went ashore this morning and I mailed a letter and then met with Arnold (HotHotHotSpot) to discuss some WiFi Access Point issues in the Caribbean.  We had a nice meeting then Arnold gave us a ride over to the Slipway where we purchased a few items at the Chandlery then stopped at Salty Dogs for lunch.

We headed back to the boat and bumped into Marco (IP 380 Habibi) and we talked a little while then he invited us over for snacks and drinks.  We made it back to the boat just before the sky opened up with a heavy rain shower.

I worked on the Diesel Genie and have things back to normal with it and have a few more minor projects onboard to deal today.

I then did some email with a fellow aboard an IP-40 in the Exumas who is trying to sort out an issue with stray current in, of all places, the rigging.  This is a very unusual issue but think that it is related to the lack of DC block capacitors is the RF ground leads on his wire tuner and HF Radio. 

When we first outfitted our boat for offshore in the late 1990’s HF with Pactor was pretty much essential but if I was going to make a recommendation on it now I would say that the Inmarsat  (voice and data) is both more economical and reliable.  I don’t think I would go the HF route again.  I’ve had an Amateur Radio license sine I was 14 years old but see very little use for it out here with options that are available.

I also got an email from SuperYacht Times asking if they could use some of my recent photos of the MV Garcon - so they included two on their website.

We went over to Habibi and Marco gave us the tour – he’s made some nice improvements onboard.  A small computer desk that doubles as a cockpit table expander, EchoTec Water Maker, refrigeration, LED lighting, etc.  We had a great visit and hope to catch up with the again in the future.

Today we plan to meet Kim and Sandy (IP-40 Kewaydin) and tomorrow Mike and Lynn (IP-35 Seabbatical).  It’s getting crowded with IP’s out here!

Super Yacht Challenge Antigua

As we sailed in to Antigua on Thursday we were in the thick of things as some of the yachts in this years challenge were out on the water practicing.

Falmouth, Antigua

We left Guadeloupe at 0700 this morning and had great conditions on the way here arriving at about 2:00pm.  As we neared the harbor entrance we saw several large yachts practicing for the large yacht race series that starts tomorrow.  Will post some of those photos tomorrow after we get back from the generator shop.

In the meantime, we were sitting here at anchor and this big ugly boat - looks like a mix between a sub and a yacht - left the marina.  The boat has a large toy deck and helicopter.

From the Triton:

"Moran Yacht & Ship has delivered the 223-foot (68m) M/V Garcon, a support vessel built by Amels. The vessel carries a Bell 365 helicopter, five tenders ranging from 10 to 14 meters, a four-man submarine, a custom diving cabin, as well as jet skis, wave runners and sea bobs."

Wonder what it supports?  A very serious water party?

Dinner tonight then moving on to Antigua

We have the folks from Habibi coming over for dinner tonight. Spaghetti Bolognese, salad, Chianti Classico, baguettes, chocolate ecclairs for desert.  Looking forward to the get together.

Early tomorrow morning we plan to head to Falmouth, Antigua where I plan to have our Diesel Genie Alternator rebuilt and visit with the folks of HotHotHotSpot.  We also have plans to join up with IP owners the Rogers and the Ahlers.

We always enjoy staying here in Deshaies - seems that we see more small sea turtles here than anywhere else in the Caribbean. 

Moving to Deshaies

We left Iles de Saintes tuesday morning and headed to Deshaies, on the Northwestern tip of Guadeloupe.  We bought a ham/cheese/baguette to take with us and also brought along some croissants.  Once we crossed the channel between the Saintes and Guadeloupe we had breakfast - smoked back bacon, hardboiled eggs, croissants with French butter - yum.

The trip was good - we had wind most all the here.  On the way in we passed and IP-380 Habibi and shortly after we anchored the couple came by and we talked for awhile then decided to meet on shore for a beer later in the afternoon.

We went ashore a little early so that I could work on a local WiFi Access Point and then met up with the folks from Habibi and had a few beers and talked.  We did not get back to the boat until around 6pm!

Mayday Maday Francais

When we are anywhere near a French Island out here we often wonder what would happen if an emergency situation developed.  Maritime Safety Announcements are in French and are not repeated in English.

Well, we left Portsmouth, Dominica this morning on our way to the Saintes.  About half way over we heard a Matitime Safety Announcement from Martinique (nothing from Guadeloupe about 20 miles away) and then it was repeated in fairly good English.  A Mayday reported NW of Dominica with a sunken (or sinking) boat and three people in the water.  I noted the position and we were already well North and had seen a Patrol Boat moving in the right general direction.  A native English speaker came on CH-16 and asked for a repeat of the position and the person who answered (think it was also Martinique) did not speak English.

We have no idea what the outcome of the search was but the call on 16 was repeated every 30 minutes until we turned the VHF off at 1230.

Makes you wonder?

Found this on the internet today (24 Jan 2013)

"

HYDROLANT 203/2013 (25)

EASTERN CARIBBEAN SEA. LESSER ANTILLES. DOMINICA-NORTHWEST COAST. VESSEL CAPSIZED AND ADRIFT IN 15-37.65N 061-31.48W AT 201600Z JAN. THREE PERSONS MISSING. VESSELS IN VICINITY REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT, ASSIST IF POSSIBLE. REPORTS TO MRCC FORT DE FRANCE, INMARSAT-C: 422799024, TELEX: 42912008, PHONE: 59 659 670 9292, FAX: 59 659 663 2450, E-MAIL: ANTILLES@MRCCFR.EU.

( 230457Z JAN 2013 )

Portsmouth, Dominica

Last year when we were here the Venezuelan Government was working to remove all of the old steel boats that were wrecked along the shores of town.  There is one final wreck that is nearly gone now.  The sad thing is - locals have moved in the next bunch of wrecks.  The next time a serious storm hits the area these derelicts will then line the shore!

 Finally the next wreck with a photo of the last of the old wrecks ashore with salvage work still underway.

Video - Valley of Desolation

I put this short video together from clips I took while we were in the valley.  Amazing blend of steam, noise, boiling water, sulphur, coming up out of the ground.  the surface of the valley was even warm to the touch.

Valley of Desolation and Boiling Lake

We left SeaCats home at about 7:30 am Sunday morning along with a boat neighbor Gretchen headed for The Valley of Desolation and Boiling Lake.  We drove up toward the Trois Piton Forest, parked the van and started out on our 20 mile trek.

We walked for what seemed like forever, in and out of rain clouds, and began smelling Sulfur.  At this point we had been going uphill for more than 2.5 hours.  The clouds moved out for awhile and we caught a glimpse of the fumes/steam coming up off Boiling Lake.

 

We continued our Trek and after about another hour we entered the Valley of Desolation.  Steam, fumaroles, Sulphur, sounds of boiling water.  In the background we could also see the steam rising from Boiling Lake.

 

 

 We explored the floor of the valley and were amazed at the different colors, heat and smell.

This is a boiling vent with a coating of sulphur along the sides of the vent.  I took some short video clips while we were in the valley and will try to add them to the blog.  The sounds were incredible!

When all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere "MUD MAN".  He took the women captive, gave them a facial, served us fumarole boiled eggs, then let us go!

Set the Captives Free!

We continued our walk and finally made it to Boiling Lake.  When the wind was not blowing we were in a standing outdoor Sauna. 

 Boiling Lake

The steam and smell were incredible making it very hard to get a picture of the boiling portion of the lake.  I took some short video clips while we were in the valley and will try to add them to the blog.

We are now rested, have most of the mud off of us and our clothes and are on massive doses of Advil!

Trip to Dominica

We are now on a mooring off Roseau - about 50 ft from shore and the mooring is in 100 ft of water - watch that dropoff folks.

We had a good trip over and took a few early morning pictures of Mt Pelee' with no cloud cover on the top. 

Also on tap for tomorrow at 0700 is an all day hike with SeaCat to Boiling Lake and Valley of Desolation.  If I survive will post some photos after I recover...............

Mooring in Martinique

We spent last night, 11 Jan 2013 on a mooring at Grande Anse D’Arlet.  We had heard that the moorings had been installed but had no personal experience till yesterday.  The mooring filed was nicely laid out  with plenty of swing room between moorings.  It looked like there might be more than 50 mooring on the North side of the Bay and probably half that many on the South side.  Many people were still anchoring up close to the town dock area and that is just as onfused as before.

The mooring are good sized but do not include a pennant and are not easily lifted out of the water so that you can attaché your own.  We pulled up along side our mooring and Lesley leaned out of the stbd side gate and attached a line then walked it up to the bow.

We watched another boat come in after we were settled in and they did not have such good fortune.  The Captain drove the boat up so the lady on board could pick up the mooring at the bow.  She got the boat hook on the mooring then tried to lift the mooring ball.  You could see her surprise when she could not bring the ball up.  Then the Captain came up and tried to help, still not line on the ball.  The lady then started trying to hold the mooring ball as the boat was blowing back off it.  She could not longer hold the boat hook so off it went into the bay.  The Captain then motored around in a small circle and came up short of the mooring and the  lady then played out some anchor chain.  The boat hook was drifting away and the boat was dragging down on anchor!  A fellow on a US flagged Cabo Rico 42 got into his dinghy and went over and saved the day.  Picked up the boat hook and passed it back then took a line and motored the dinghy up where he attached it to the mooring ball.  The boat then motored back up to the mooring where the lady was finally able to secure the boat to the mooring.

We figure that watching boats attempting to moor may be a local form of entertainment – sure was for us.

The mooring filed is nice and for now is free but there were many free mooring but with many more boats still at anchor.

We’re underway now headed for Roseau, Dominica.  

Today in Marin

We went ashore late this morning so that we could pick up a few boat items in the local chandlery, have lunch at a local Turkish place and stope by the stores on the way back to the boat for some wine shopping.

Our wine cellar is starting to get a distinct French look - sort of like Gregs!

Bon Apetite!

Yoles again

Each year while we are anchored near Le Marin, Martinique we see lots of local Yoles out on the water.  Most of them are single sail versions so when we saw this double sail version go by I could not resist taking a few photos.

The crew hikes out on small boards to compensate for heel - the technique looks similar to the log boats out of Oxford, MD.

The boat does not have a tiller or keel but is steered with a large stern oar.

When you watch the boats underway the crew on the hiking boards are all over the place

Martinique

We haven’t had decent WiFi since getting here so this is a consolidated post covering several days.

We finished up replacing the standing rigging (except for the fore stays) while we were in Rodney Bay Marina. It was nice to have completed that project finally.  When we left St Lucia on Tuesday there were 3 IP’s in the Marina – 2 38’s and a 37.  I borrowed a cordless drill from the folks onboard 38 Oceana and owe them a drink – they plan to move over to Martinique so hope to bump into them again.

1 Jan 2013

Our trip over from Martinique was great – started out motoring – sailed some – then motored on in to St Anne.  While we were motoring we had an unusual vibration in the drive train so suspect that the prop may have excessive growth already – will check it out later.  We arrived late in the afternoon on Jan 2^nd so anchored and had dinner – Church’s fried chicken (from St Lucia), home made coleslaw, and steamed basmati rice.  Really hit the spot.

2 Jan

I took the dingy in to the Captainiere Office and completed clearance and then stopped at Leader Price for some wine, Goats du Roam, a baguette and some lettuce.  Got back to the boat and some folks that we met 2 years ago here stopped by to say hi and invite us in to play dominoes tomorrow?  We had leftover pressure cooker pot roast with potatoes and carrots and sliced baguette with butter.

3 Jan

I checked the prop shaft alignment, adjusted the packing gland, checked transmission fluid and motor mounts and everything is OK.  Put the dive skin on and got out the long hose/scuba tank and dove on the bottom of the boat.  Lots of barnacles on the prop and weed shoe and scraped them clean.  Will check the drive train out when we move in a couple of days.  Went ashore and played Mexican train with 3 other couples.  Lots of fun as we had noted played dominoes in a very long time.

4 Jan

We decided to try out the prop/shaft and see if the noise/vibration issue had been resolved.  Picked up anchor and motored around some at higher than normal RPM.  Drive train is now fine and no unusual noise or vibration.  We reanchored and I was able to get a marginal WiFi signal from shore but just as we got comfortable a French boat came in and anchored on top of us.  We picked up anchor and decided to go ahead and move in closer to Marin so that we could do some shopping and also go ashore for lunch (Mussels at Mango Bay).

5 Jan

The chart extract image shows where we are anchored (we are the only boat here) and we have an easy dinghy ride in to town running behind the reef and along some mangroves.   

We are anchored at the Green Boat but now having a beverage ashore at the Mango Bay in Le Marin.  The rains stopped for awhile this morning so we were able to do some shopping and Lesley is now doing some Skype calls.

Windguru now shows that the weather will improve late next week so we plan to move up to Fort de France late next week then scoot on up to Roseau Dominica where I will be working on a WiFi access point.