Why hang in the Virgins?  Working on stuff on the boat. Mostly those that know us know we had a minor problem with the Roller Furling the last 6 hours of our trip south.

So to help those not familiar with cruising understand that this is truly not a vacation but a style of living I’m going to list what much of our work load has been these last few weeks.

• Remove the Genoa. (Contact and discuss with sailmaker how we wanted to have it repaired and changed)
  

  Fitting grabs Line

  Remove Roller furling track  ( Contact and order new track. Get mailing address for track to be shipped to)

• Change the oil in the generator.
• Replace Control Lines on  Self Steering
  Add screw / bolt on push pit so the control blocks don’t slide
  Add new saltwater manifold. Fix saltwater manifold (it leaked). Fix failed. Build new saltwater manifold. (This entailed getting new parts which meant walking to hardware store and back).
• Discover that two pumps are mounted vertically when they should be mounted horizontally. Change the mounting which entails cutting new hoses and replumbing and changing some electrical wiring. (I hate plumbing on the boat!) Fixed. Now when motoring at 6 kts the DC refrigeration will work. However sailing on a port tack still gets enough air in the line to stop the refrigeration. But! Once air is in the line and we’re back upright I don’t need to purge the line, the DC refrigeration will start back up fine.
• Replumb the raw water for the Generator. Three Times! Discover 2 small oil leaks. Contact Aquamarine about. Fix oil leak by using a hammer and punch to reset press in plug in the cast block. Tighten fitting on other leak.
• Remove upper spreader lifts (W/ had to haul me up the mast again).
• End for end lines on Genoa.
• Shorten Head Stay. (This required removing the stay - I needed W/ to haul me up the mast, dropping it to the deck, cutting the wire, removing the Hayn fitting, reinstalling the end fitting, then reattaching the wire - W again needed to haul me up the mast.)
• Fix roller furling head fitting.
  

  Can't get Caught

• Add new roller furling track. This took almost 4 weeks from the time we started to time of installation for the track to arrive! Installing  involved two days work - well about 8 hours labor between W/ and I. I at least didn’t need to go up the mast again.
• Re-tune the rigging
• Replace Genoa (wait for as calm a day as possible and then haul it up and furl it.
• Bought a “cruising cart” a dolly so I could haul heavy stuff without having to make many, many trips.
• Adjust tightening screw on the two forward facing ports as they’re too tight an currently not leaking.
• Re-tighten port screws as just 1/4 turn caused them to leak.

Re-Installing the Track

In the BVI’s we….

• Polished most of the Stainless Steel.
• Cleaned / waxed the area the engine exhaust makes black on the hull
• Re-cut the awning poles (for large awning) and added so now we have full boat shade again
• Washed the boat really, really, really, well.

All the while these projects were ongoing we attempted to enjoy being here - well as much as we could. Meeting past cruising chums, coming up with a couple new ones. We did all the laundry several times which entails walking two large bags (I couldn’t get W/ to do it more frequently :)  ) so we carried the bags to the laundry.

SS Wire Hose Clamps

Famet Details:  Notice the wire clamps. The Clamptite tool is really a god send on the boat. I’ve easily saved the price in hose clamps and there are situations I didn’t want a hose clamp that the tool works …….. GREAT!  Also notice that the wire runs over the screws that hold the head fitting on so they can’t come out!

Jan 3: I woke first. We were rolling I would guess 10 degrees side to side. We’re so tired of rolling. Crossing over the horizontal makes life miserable. I get up and move to the foredeck to ascertain how I can stop us from rolling so bad. It’s a little after midnight and I see three dinghies come racing up and stop 100 yards behind the boat next to us. I call W/ she sticks her head up and we watch. Soon; three dinghies go up on plane and two stop at the boat next to us while the other keeps running by.

We watch a bit longer to see if the owner of the boat is on one of the dinghies. Doesn’t seem like it. They’re messing with the dinghy only and not getting on the boat. What to do? Like any good citizen I call 911 and reach the Charlotte Amalie Police Department. (My take was that I don’t want to shoot someone I don’t know for maybe stealing something that isn’t mine; and I don’t want to be shot at, and I thought it would be best to have the authorities catch them as opposed to just scaring them off to steal another day). Unfortunately the police don’t seem all that concerned. I tell them something isn’t right; I describe the situation to them. I tell them exactly where the suspects are and they take down the information. I tell them when they’ve taken the dinghy where the suspects are. I tell them that they’re about 100 yards from the Coast Guard Station which makes them about 200 yards from the Police station! They say they’ll keep it in mind or some such nonsense. I’m told I can call back later for a follow up if I wish.
When the dinghy was gone W/ shone a light on the boat next to us and got Nick up. We told him to call the police; that we had but they didn’t seem all that concerned. They weren’t sure the dinghy was being “stolen”. He called. I don’t think there was a whole lot of action yet.
Also I called the Coast Guard on VHF channel 16. I connected with CG San Juan and told them the situation and that the suspects were less then 100 yards off the CG station Charlotte Amalie. They told me to call the police. I had informed them that I had and hadn’t received much concern from them. I had thought one of the CG’s responsibilities was to protect property (maybe the property has to the have a value of lets say…… 1 million dollars or more). Obviously I’m wrong. (Note: I’ve always been told in education to think like in business. Now here I am a citizen informing a governmental agency of a crime being committed and instead of them contacting the police I’m told to contact the police. In business; when my DSL line was having issues and I called the company that I paid, they in turn called the company they had contracted to and made sure that all parties knew what was going and that it would be fixed by such and such a time. Obviously; the police and CG haven’t received any notice of working together to prevent crimes! )
About 10 mins later; or less, another couple of cruisers came by in a rather large dinghy - 50 hp center console. Our neighbor may have called them; I don’t know, but they were looking for one of their dinghies that had been taken. They picked up Nick and asked where I saw the dinghies last. I told them that I had seen them and they were off the CG station heading towards Hassell Island. They took off towards Crown Bay Marina, just on the other side of Hassell Island on the big island.
I put a bridle on the anchor chain and that set the boat to facing the surge that was coming in the harbor. That slowed the roll down considerably; enough that we could get some sleep. However; about an hour later I was awakened and looked around the harbor, then I noticed that Nick had his dinghy back. Great!
In the following am I waved Nick over as he was heading to work and got his story. They had found the guys in an industrial cove on the other side of Sub Base. The police had arrived there too as they were in off and on contact with the police. He said that one individual had pulled a gun on them, but then put it away when they had just wanted to ask some qsts. When Nick had left he said that the police had two people in handcuffs. He also said that the Department of Natural Resources in the VI’s was there and they were questioning the owners of the dinghies about registrations! You have something stolen and the powers that be want to see you’re sales receipt. How ludicrous! I can imagine what would happen if someone robs a homeowner and they want to check to see if they’re taxes are up to date. Or how about before they respond they check the tax records! Does that mean that only some of the population deserves police protection?
You can see the account on noonsite. It was posted the following day. The word on the street (bay) was that one individual was the son of the chief of police and so they let them go. Another individual said they were all “born here’s” so they let them go. I can’t believe that in the US this would happen; even a US Territory The police didn’t seem interested in getting any prints. The dinghies were by this time in the hands of their owners. One dinghy was slashed up – there goes a grand to two. Sounds to me like “Case closed”.
I am further amazed that with all the boaters there, the political community seems to have so little respect. Maybe if all the boaters voted there it would be different but hey; it shouldn’t need to be. The boaters are mostly working there, doing jobs no one else is or doing jobs that require a skill that no one else has, they bring money to the island (one cruiser said he spends on the island what he makes. :)  ) , they bring a healthy work ethic to the place and a good set of values. What more could a community want. Obviously something I don’t know about.
BTW, Nick’s dinghy was double locked with cables. The thieves had cable cutters (don’t know if they had bolt cutters).

The Old St. Thomas

Another cruiser on Daniels Story described St. Thomas as an island that doesn’t know it. In the VI’s their business is “Cruise ships”. That is their main business and it really seems like mostly that is all the government is really concerned with. The community that existed 20 years ago we barely saw. This pic taken during our visit this time shows a thriving past. That past is long gone. No more is there much fishing, no real agriculture, no real industry, no real ranching. Now the island is only about 40 square miles but if the cruise ships should stop tomorrow, they’ll have a difficult time eating all the gold and diamonds.
Then the story we received is that Dubai talked the old Yacht Haven Marina into building a marina for only the mega yachts. And yes there are loads of obscene megayachts that now transit and even hang out in the area. One, Kismit, owned by an individual in the Midwest charters his out for a paltry $600,000 per week plus expenses! Another was so big I’m not sure it could get into the new Yacht Haven Grande Marina. This private yacht on its deck carries a 40’ sailboat and a 40’ motor yacht (Le Grand Bleu). While we were about to leave St. Thomas, we went to the Crown Bay Marina to fill up on fuel. We needed to take on about 100 gallons. Up anchor at 8 am; they opened at 8 am and went to the fuel dock. We couldn’t get in. There were two boats tied up to the fuel dock (One named “13” and the other something “Bleu”) They took on 10,000 and 9,000 gallons respectively and closed the dock down for about 4 hours. So much for our getting out of St. Thomas this am.

But as in all cruising we look for the show and here we weren’t disappointed! After “13″ filled up with fuel (having spent $30,000 +) they were ready to leave. Crown Bay had kindly let us tie up to an end pier. But about 15 minutes before 13 was ready to leave they felt the need to put another megayacht on the T we were tied to. So we moved and then another 100+ footer moved to the end of the T. As 13 tried to get out, they now couldn’t because they hadn’t enough room to make the turn. So out they attempted to go; and 10 minutes later after probably another 100 gallons of fuel they went back to the fuel dock. Then the captain of Bleu had to move that boat to anther T so 13 could now maneuver out. This entire process took most likely 30 minutes to rearrange all the $$$$$’s. After Bleu was out of the way and all the multimillion dollar boats were settled, they waved us over. We took on 92 gallons of fuel, picked up a bag of ice and finally, finally, left St. Thomas for points E and S.
I wasn’t really thinking I would love the VI’s this time around. I haven’t been disappointed. Had they not been a convenient stop and a place to repair the damage from my stupidity we would have been; long gone.
Adios

Yeah, for whatever reason Ana and Zdravko decided they hadn’t yet had enough of us and invited us to a breakfast at Chez’ Hazana 600′ up the mountain side. (Chez’ Hazana is their home).

It’s amazing that Zdravko and Ana were the first true “cruisers” I met coming down the Mississippi all those years ago. We split up in New Orleans, touched base just outside of Pensacola, Fl, and then 3 or 4 years later when they were just launching their charter business to Buck Island we connected with them again in Charlotte Amalie.

Well 29 years later it’s like we’ve never really parted. Oh, there are qsts about some of the adventures we’ve each had in the ensuing years but for the most part we’re all in the here and now.

While in the here we chose the now to vote whether Ana should start a Breakfast Restaurant in Croatia. It was 3 for 1 against!  Guess who was against?  Yep Ana. Too bad, cause the French toast she made was just plain excellent, the mimossas were over the top and the omeletttes were a tasters delight all the way down. I’m sure Zdravko thought it would be good to have her doing something she loves….. and giving him some time to; dare I say it, take a nap;  we of course thought it would just be a great addition to Croatia breakfast at TifAna’s. But I doubt Ana will listen to the majority. She has a mind of her own and purpose that drives it. And what her purpose is only she knows and she will definitely let any know where they fit into her scheme when the time comes!

Thanks Ana and Zdravko for a great breakfast, great morning, and great friends.

Fair Winds

ps. Sorry no pics!  I think she want’s to keep it all a secret.

In the Begining

It started this way. Dec 30 we planned on working on the repair of our roller furling track. We actually got one piece on!  In the am we looked over the mtn and saw the clouds were coming on low. The mtn top was disappearing. Cool. Yeah, right!  An hour later Brewers Bay was getting a down pour. Two hours later the wind had begun to build and we were getting rain. So much for working on our roller furling!

The winds went from a benign 10 kts to a raucous 20 kts gusting to 30 kts  in the anchorage. The boat would pull from side to side tugging on the anchor and chain while our snubber would once in awhile scream that it was stretched to the limit and back we would be pulled. The boat sails some at anchor and we were sailing! We pulled the foredeck awning down to reduce our windage and later between sheets of rain we pulled down our small sun rain awning that we have connected to the dodger. Most of that day we watched sheets of rain blown across the harbor and we hung out on the boat, reading, hanging on, and doing Suduko.

We awoke the following day - New Years Eve to more of the same. So again we hung out but today was offering a small pitance of excitement. We HAD to move the boat.  We knew it. But who expected this wx in Paradise?  Not I . So about noonish or there after we upped anchor and moved back away from the danger zone of misfired fireworks. With the wind having howled for the last 24 hours (two boats around us dragged - one with the new fangled never to fail Supreme Anchor and the other with a funny claw), we pulled up our funnier XYZ anchor. And we pulled and we pulled and we pulled. It was well set; we weren’t going anywhere. It took us a good 15 minutes to get it out of the bottom and then we moved back to a new farther away location off Charlette Amalie. Deployed it, picked up some junk on the bottom…. again; removed the piece of line from the anchor and re deployed it for the night.

We set the alarm; on a boat staying up much past dusk is difficult and with the fire works going off at midnight we felt the only way we would get to see them was to set the alarm. So we did. And we slept, it rained, it blew and at about 11:50 pm the alarm went off. Up we go; hiding behind the dodger to watch the fireworks in the wind and rain. They were however; surprisingly good. So as the New Year set in we set about to again retire to a  warm comfortable berth and await hopefully a new dawn.

Now I’m not going to get mushy here; who doesn’t wish others well on New Years?  It seems like the most important thing to do on New Years is to make a list and then not follow it:  I believe that is the current American trend. Since most all sailors have a list of varying length all the time we never made a New Years list. And since making resolutions seems to always be of lofty goals I’m just going to make a simple one.

My New Years Resolution is to “wake up tomorrow morning, and the morning after,  and the morning after,  ad nauseum!” A simple plan; one I hope I can stick to.

Fair Winds

ps In trying to continue to use book titles that above title is of a book.

Ana, Joe, Jon, Maya, Loreta, Zdravko

On Xmas we went to Ana and Zdravko’s. There we met her niece and her family. She’s a musician (W/ loved it because her forte’ is the piano), Joe her partner, and Maya and Johnny

Jon da Budding Photographer

their children. Now they’re all “normal” people as normal as any family in the 21st century can be.

Joe N Maya

What was interesting was that Loreta has given concerts twice at Carnegie Hall. Yep!  She’s famous and she plays a hell of a piano! W/ found her on You-Tube. She also has a crazy band called the Texas Slavs, writes music, plays and teaches piano.

So while Ana, Zdravko, W/ and I caught up on the years past we quizzed the clan about life in Texas, on the big stage, etc. Even Joe was on stage in Carnegie Hall when Loreta played a concert there with tendenitis in her right wrist. Joe went on stage and comically oiled her shoulder. Sounded like a hoot!  But to be there playing. Amazing!

W & Zdravko

Two days later we went to Brewers Bay to shorten the head stay. Calm and quiet; very little boat traffic. Perfect place. Up in the am, eat some breakfast and muscles W/ hauls my petite frame up the mast to remove the headstay from the mast head. I remove it; lower it and she kindly lowers me back down. So now we’ve cut off the 5″ (stretch) and I’ve taken off the terminal end and we hear a siren from what sounds like an ambulance. Well that’s weird; this generally is so quiet here; oh well, we keep working. A couple of minutes later the siren is louder and we hear a voice hollering “Hello”.  I go up on deck and the Department of Natural Resources are 3 meters away. “Yes” I say. They kindly and firmly tell us we need to move… now, immediately, soon because there is kindof an emergency!  Yeah right. I tell them it’s really difficult as I have some of my rig taken apart and they acquiese a bit and say soon, I can come back at 6pm tonight though!  Damn, Double Damn, Damn.  Luckily the mast will be fine as long as we’re not pounding. I have the headstay up and both intermediates and the backstay and both port and starboard shrouds. So we motor 5 miles away in basically calm seas to a small cove on Water Island called Flamingo. We had been there years ago sitting out some nasty wx and had looked at stopping there yesterday but a 100′ ship was anchored right in the middle. Fortunately the 100′ er was gone. So we anchored and got to work.

As we finished up we decided that it was too rolly there so we would look at Honeymoon Bay,  Elephant Bay and if they were all too crowded or rolly then back to Charlotte Amalie. They were TOO crowded. Years ago when we were here only about 10% of the boats were anywhere near those two bays that there are now! There had to be 20 boats in Honeymoon and about 75 or more in Elephant Bay!  Jerry from Percephanie tells us that all the people in the bays basically work on St. Thomas. He calls Elephant Bay and Long Bay (the one we’re in) the employee’s anchorage.

So we’re in Charlotte Amalie and to find out what all the fuss was about we picked up a local paper while doing the laundry. Come to find out Vice President Biden and his family are here to vacation with some friends on Water Island. Funny that DPNR wouldn’t let us anchor in Brewers bay (there were a total of 4 boats there), sent us to basically Water Island and that was where the VP and family were staying with about 150 other boats!

Then as I’m scanning the paper further I see that President Jimmy Carter and his family are vacationing in St. Croix. Now out of the three of them maybe Carter is the only one the majority would consider “Great”, I mean he did win a Nobel Prize and was President of the most powerful country on Earth at the time. The others you may choose to say are notable. But hey; there are more pro football players then VP’s and how many people in the world can claim to have entertained at Carnegie Hall. Not I!

Fair Winds