svElysium

Jul

AquaGen Followup

by Dave Kall

The offending Bolt

Well, she’s back together. At least 98%. I”m not satisfied with that so when we’re in Trinidad I’ll have to take it apart and put it 100% right.

Monday went as follows: Started out locating and getting some 6mm SS bolts at Budget (not) Marine in Grenada. I rode a friend’s bicycle to town and just so you know; I walked up a couple of the hills or what they refer to as mtns. Wanted to get some of the stronger steel bolts but couldn’t find them. Tried the Toyota dealership the BMW dealership (have found what I’ve needed at auto dealers before) and Ace Hardware. I ended up with 10 6 mm x 3/4″ and 2 6mm x 5/8″ SS A-80 bolts. I wanted all 5/8″!

So once back on the boat I spent a goodly amt of time in the engine room using a hack saw and cutting the

Me and My Long Arms

longer bolts down ! Then I filed the ends so the threads would be good. Now remember it is hot here and the boat doesn’t have AC and even if it did with the generator down we wouldn’t have AC anyway. So I’m shirtless cutting the bolts in the engine room and after every 30 minute or so I take a 5 - 15 minute break.

Once the bolt lengths were all correct I went about cutting a new gasket out of the cork gasket material with the black stuff embedded in it. I used the gasket silicone on it. What a PITA on the Aquagen.

When the Aquagen works she’s a dream, but working on it isn’t.

After we got the coolant top that the compressor attaches all gooped up I began to put the new gasket on the engine with all the gasket sealant. About half way installed, I discovered there is one bolt that won’t naturally turn down. It’s the one by the SS tubing Aquamarine added to hold the compressor. I have to put that bolt in first and then turn it down, then put the others in. @#$%^#$^. to say the least. I removed what I had already

It's the bolt behind

installed; lifted the gasket with the goo off and proceeded to put the single PITA bolt in and turn it down so the gasket all fits correctly. I proceeded to install the other bolts and once they’re all in, put the compressor back on. I notice the compressor fits snug (physically touching) to the bolt that was broken off. DAMN! Maybe that was the cause of the broken bolt. So I remove the compressor and take the locking washer off the offensive bolt (yes I considered it offensive by now) ! If the bolts are torqued properly the locking washer shouldn’t be needed anyway. Off it comes - change out the washer and put the compressor back on. Put it all back together and an hour or two later start it up.

What I started out to do was simply replace the gasket on the water pump with one made out of a waterproof chart paper and tighten down one bolt on the coolant cover that was leaking coolant (I was afraid the cup seal wasn’t the perfect size). I’m not getting any water out of the gasket but the cup seal is still leaking. And with the cup seal leaking I”m getting a small amt of saltwater spray sent all over the front of the engine room. Then too I see a little green up by one of the bolts for the coolant at the top of the engine! DAMN and that wasn’t all I said. So like a good sailor I jury rigged a fix. I wasn’t interested in taking it all off and starting over, I’m tired and it’s a been a long day. I don’t have the bolts I would prefer and I don’ t have perfect replacement gasket. I used a fender washer for a 1/4″ bolt and cut a gasket out of the same cork material and gooped it up to and then installed the bolt. Finally it’s not leaking but it ain’t pretty. When I torqued the bolt down (BTW I looked it up and they’re only torqued to 7 ft lbs or so and I may easily have over torqued the others the last time when I had this off to put the vent plug in that Aquamarine suggested) the cork with the gasket goo squeezed out quite a bit!

Thus I’m wondering if I wasn’t to not use the gasket goo on the cork impregnated with something gasket? If W/ had pulled out the gasket paper I would have used that instead. As luck would have it she pulled out the cork gasket material.

When we get to Trini I’ll redo the top plate. The generator will be 100%. Right now it’s holding the coolant but I don’t want to remain this way on a passage. That would be a bigger PITA should it fail there. And I fear that if I leave this for any length of time the antifreeze will react with the bolt, the cover and the Aluminium block making the bolt much more difficult to remove.

Go Slow
Go Far
Stay Long

Tags: Aquagen, Aquamarine, Cruising, Kubota
Categories: Systems

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Jul

Help! I’m Injured!

by Dave Kall

We’ll, not me, at least not physically. The boat is injured and I feel the pain. I feel the pain cause so much of me (us) is in this boat that when something doesn’t work it’s like I’m injured. And I feel the pain cause I’m physically bent over, reaching, cutting a finger - hand or my arm, squinting, trying to hold the light and get a wrench on one end and socket on the other end of what ever I need to fix.

It started out as a couple hour job. That’s what I estimated. W/ usually doubles that time but ok; it’s a morning job. It’s Sunday; day of rest. Boats don’t rest. I had two things to do. I was going to tighten a plate down on the top of the Aquagen (it was leaking coolant) and I was going to put a new gasket (made from a glossy magazine cover) on the water pump (it was leaking saltwater), and I didn’t have a spare gsaket.
First I pulled off the water pump; I needed to loosen the belt running to the water pump so I could pull off the refrigeration compressor so I could get to the bolt (that appeared loose) that was under the compressor. Done! I find the bolt laying on top of the plate. So I gently try to restart it in the hole. Damn! It won’t go. DAMN! (that’s not really all I said). So I pull off the other bolt holding the compressor on and now have clear access to the hole. Words can not fully describe my feelings here. And if you remember the 7 words that years ago were not to be spoken in public you might have heard them all. The bolt had sheared off!

How to get it out. I called Serge on Spirrare and he came over to help. He’s younger with better eyes; and has as much or more experience with engines. Besides; it’s always easier breaking someone else’s boat rather than your own.

So from a job that was to be a couple of hours we’re now to a job that may take us to the marina and I’ll have to pull the engine out; take it to a machine shop and have the stud removed. We discuss some options. But right now it comes down to; let’s see if we can get it out. We look for the Easy Outs. I know I have some. Can’t find any. We do however find some of the screw extractors. Gently Serge punches the center of the bolt and drills a small hole. We try the extractor. Nothing. Serge drills a slightly larger hole. We try the extractor. Nothing. I connect the extractor to the drill and I try using the drill to remove the Bolt. Viola! It’s coming out, it came out! Whew, an am job turned into a month job which turned back into a two day job! Today is Sunday. Nothing is open. Tomorrow I’ll go to the marine store and get some “metric” bolts so they’re all good, I’ll also go to ACE Hardware (yep there is one in Grenada) and see if I can get some strong metric bolts. Put it all back together and hope the leaks are fixed.

After we got the bolt out, we reminisced about my good luck, and Serge took off. After all; there was an afternoon of the Dominos Train Game for cruisers planned at the marina. I would miss it (I’m not really a big fan of that game) and W/ too decided to stay and assist. After lunch I raised up the heat exchanger (one of the things on my Trinidad list and that should make sure no air stays trapped in the top of the cooling system). That done, sweat rolling off me, we picked up and called it a day.

What a day. Aren’t Sunday’s to be a day of rest?

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Tags: Aquagen, Kubota
Categories: Places, Systems

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Jul

Cruising . . . Death and Dying

by Dave Kall

Weird how visual acuity changes while out here cruising. You see all the magical hooks and lines that attach you to places and people much more clearly. While involved in work, or play in a place you’ve stayed for any length of time the hooks and lines weave around you; psychically, and often physically , surrounding you as a spider does with its prey. But as you begin to cruise all the ties that bind you become more apparent. The farther you cast your selves from shore the clearer they become.

I’ve tried to not post a lot of personal family stuff here as I’m of the thinking that some of the people I may write about don’t wish to end up on a public forum.

But; right now a family member has stage 4 cancer. When you go cruising; life doesn’t stop for those that are land based.

Years ago; 30 years or there abouts, we were cruising the N loop in the Caribbean and the two forms of communication were snail mail and land lines. There was no internet, no cell phones, no pactor modem. In the approximately 15 months we were out we picked up mail maybe 6 times. That left a window of 4 to 10 weeks between communication with back home. We phoned the US maybe 4 times. Phone calls were prohibitively expensive in the Caribbean then and we had tried to cruise on about $10 / day (it ended up at about $15 / day if truth be told). During our year one of W’s favorite aunts died. She passed away, had the funeral, and was buried weeks before we knew. Out there; sailing in the deep blue, 30 years ago, you grieved alone.

Now a near and dear relative is close to the end of their life’s tunnel. What to do? How many trips can a cruiser make back to family in any given time frame? We just went back for my nephew’s wedding. Should we return again? Will a return effect our transiting the canal at the right time of year? Will it hold off our leaving he Caribbean? Will we regret not going back? Questions bounce around in my head like a pin ball being played by an experienced player. Questions with no clear cut answers.

I’ve always bragged that I’m socially illiterate. In some ways I honestly am and others not. But I try to be conscientious. And what my conscious tells me is all a mess.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Tags: Consciousness, Cruising, Death, Dying
Categories: Places

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Jul

Fiasco in Grenada

by Dave Kall

Yep, even paradise has a worm in the Apple. And you know what they say about why it’s better to find 1/2 a worm in the Apple versus none; if you find none then obviously you’ve already eaten the worm. Ok, Ok, I know it’s lame.

Truly, the turtle experience reminded me of the book Confederacy of Dunces. Julie on Sea Otter had contacted Keith about a Leatherback Turtle watching tour. She had arranged for us to pick up a local sandwich called a Roti and then we would get to the beach head and wait for the Turtles to show up and deposit their eggs on the Beach. We were informed that there was a 75% chance of having this happen. But it was what we were not informed of that made the trip a mess.

We arrived on time at the marina where the Taxi was to pick us up. We were to be given red flashlights at the beach head and if we had any of our own we were to bring them. The light we are told will not distract the turtles. There we were informed that we wouldn’t be stopping for Roti’s but instead we would stop at KFC (of all places). Fortunately W/ and I had a large late lunch, not sure if we really wanted another Roti. They are good and they’re full of Curry. Curry can only go so far in my diet.

So off we went, taking the Magic Moutain ride through scenic Grenada, we arrived at KFC after sunset. We ate on the luxurious (not) wooden tables down the street. The town dogs were waiting for scraps, and we ate rather quickly and went.

Then we arrived at the Levera Beach head where there is a small building with some restrooms and a new guide. She tells us a little about the turtles; conflicting some with what we’ve picked up from the internet; oh well, it is the Caribbean. But what concerns us is that she’s already downplaying the possibility of seeing any turtles laying eggs. She also said that most of the season for laying is now over! Wait; did anyone tell us that before we left for the tour? In addition she didn’t pass out any “red” lights. Not good.

We depart the Beach building and head down the road to the beach where some local and imported “researchers” (from Ocean Spirits) are to be doing beach sweeps roughly every 1/2 hour. They’re to be sweeping from each end towards the middle and then when they see a turtle they’re to call the guide and then take us to the turtle. We’re brought to the beach and deposited to wait. We had been told to bring mosquito spray and blankets for waiting on the beach. At the Levera Beach Center there were some wooden picnic tables and no one could understand why there wasn’t any table or seating out here. This is after all an organized “Tour”. There were also no toilets anywhere around; fortunately no one required any and I guess the ocean would have accommodated any needs.

About an hour into our wait the “researchers” discovered some Leatherback babies wandering around on the beach. They gathered them up; put them in a bucket to show us. No one from the group was able to go see them wandering the beach or even where the hatchlings came from. We were informed that the “researchers” never found the nest.

After about 10 minutes of everyone looking into the bucket and attempting to take pictures with red lights the guide let them go and they wandered (with some help from a light) to the sea.

Then we waited. The researchers never came back to do a beach sweep. We waited. After another hour passed by and no beach sweep we were informed that they were tired and wouldn’t be doing another sweep, and also that the park closed at midnight and we had to go. WAIT? WHAT?

We were never informed of any of this. In fact one site implies that the females don’t often arrive till after 11:30.

Finally after some grumbling (what were we to do) we all climbed in the taxi’s for the ride back. The driver thought if he provided us with some Rum and Coke’s or Carib’s (beer) we would take it much better. That was not to be. And while all the Taxi’s look full size; personally I’m not sure they are. I can never seem to get comfortable in any of them. I was however only awakened once when the driver left the curve of the roadway for a driveway and came to an abrupt; but slightly bumpy halt.

Personally I’m not going on another Turtle Tour here again until there are some changes to how they operate. There should be a guarantee that you’ll see what you take the tour for. Oh; I know, it’s Mother Nature and all that, but hell; Sport fisherman in Florida guarantee that you’ll catch fish or you don’t pay them. Fish too are related to Mo’ Nature - No? The tour operators need to communicate to each other before hand. The Taxi driver said one thing, the guide another and we never even got to talk to a magical “researcher” (which by the way you can pay to become!)

I felt that someone (I don’t know if it was the researchers, guide or driver) figured since we saw baby Leatherbacks then we got our money’s worth. Not in my book! I want my money back. I know I won’t receive a refund but I can help ensure others don’t fall prey to what I consider an island fiasco.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay long

ps This hasn’t soured me on Grenada. Just on organized tours that aren’t very organized. I too will be more cautious here and in other countries.

Tags: Grenada, Leatherback, Tour, Turtle
Categories: Places

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Jul

Camp Grenada

by Dave Kall

Remember the song by Allan Sherman in 1963:

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
Here I am at Camp Granada
Camp is very entertaining
And they say we’ll have some fun if it stops raining!

We’ll we’re almost back in 1963. Grenada for sailors isn’t much different from a summer camp. Most any

Jenisha

day there are multitudes of activities one can do: The Train Game (mindless), Go to place A for Happy Hour, go to place B for movies, go to place C for TV sports. Then if you don’t like any of those you can take an island tour for a reasonable fee of $25 US, you can go to the weekly fish festival in Guav that’s every

Randy n Julie at Fish Fry

Friday and lasts longer then most any cruiser can stay awake. On Saturdays during the school year you can volunteer for a “Reading Club” at Mt. Airy (we were able to twice), you can share happy hour with any of the 100’s of cruising boats hanging out here to hopefully watch the hurricanes go N of us. You can get certified in diving and dive all over the island. You can trade / sell advertise stuff from your vast :) boat stores on the VHF six mornings a week at 7:30 am.

And of course much of the above can be accomplished even during the rain. Yep, just like the song; it’s been raining here off and on daily for the last 10 days. We have had about 4 Tropical Waves pass through, we’ve opened and closed hatches and ports a hundred times.

Are we ready yet/

We have snuck off the boat between rain showers. We’ve participated in the “Reading Club” the last two times. They even let me read aloud to the group; which BTW I enjoy. The kids all hung with

Ariel and my Hat

the adults like this is the last taste of attention they’ll have for a long, long time! We had a taxi take us to the Mt. Airy community center and like all taxi rides in any of the islands the trip rivals any of Disney Worlds “Magic Mountain” or “Space Mountain” experiences. But as you can tell, we’ve survived the ride and had the thrills that come with island travel.

We’ve also walked around quite a bit. Farther then we’d planned but walking too far always gives us the excuse to find a nearby restaurant. We ate at the “Big Fish”; found it too toursity and full of flies, we’ve eaten at the first Chinese restaurant we’ve seen in months and that effected my digestive track (enough info I hope :) ). We’ve taken the cruisers taxi which is a van that picks up the cruisers at the marinas and ferries them over the hills and around the corners to most of the places boaters / cruisers want or need to go; ie Marine store, Bank, Mall, Grocery Store, Liquor Store, and sometimes misc stops.

In general Grenada is one of the stops that weaves a web around you, trapping you and making sure you almost never leave. There are cruisers here who have hung out for years. We don’t expect to be one of them, there is just too much world out there we haven’t seen and we want to see more of it. Spearfishing still is unavailable to me, we’ve some boat projects to do, we’ll hang here for another week or two then head to Trinidad to complete the projects we want, maybe haul (?), then come back here before our trip west. Some cruisers have been to the islands of Venezuela and say the out islands are safe. We’ll talk to them. We’ll see. Plans are written in water.

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long

Tags: Camp, Grenada, Tropical Wave
Categories: Places

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Jun

It’s Hot, Hot, Hot!

by Dave Kall

I know why people in the Caribbean seem to move slowly, casual movement is burned into them. Sometime before noon, the Sun takes the high ground and emits blazing hot rays from it’s surface. Those rays will cook a turkey, fry your fish, bake bread and age you years. We hide from the Sun. If we can’t hide we go slow. We feel like most of the day we’re engulfed in a permanent wetsuit, clinking, heating our body.

Hot at Salt Whistle Bay

But traveling between one anchorage and the next puts us in the direct path of the Sun’s rays. We try to hide under a small awning we had had made but we still end up with reflected UV off the water. Often we get to our new anchorage and as soon as we get the big awnings up we take a shower!

We’ve spent some time in Bequia, volunteered at a small reading club sponsored by the bookstore on the island and hung out in our

Ms. J's Reading Club

boat waiting for wx to pass (While in Bequia it rained off and on for 3 days straight). We also had a repair completed on our cockpit awning (the one we use when sailing) which was quite reasonable.

One thing other sailors most likely won’t get from these blogs are the places to go, places to anchor with GPS coordinates, things to do and see. What we’ve found is that so much changes; in the islands, even in a year. That too, and one person’s heaven is another’s hell. We thoroughly enjoyed Dominica. Our friends on Passport had an entirely different take there. We used one of the locals as a go between and for tours, they didn’t. Was that the only thing that set our two adventures apart. I don’t know. They also stayed in Roseau, got a taxi and hiked to one of the larger waterfalls there. They felt fine doing that. We didn’t even leave the boat to eat at a restaurant overlooking the boat from the shore - because we felt “wierd” there.

When there is a boat theft on one island - say 2 years ago; is it fair to discount that island now? We were in Antigua where a cruiser was shot 6 months earlier (the locals say it was a drug buy gone bad), a cruise ship individual was killed (not by an Antiguan) 4 months earlier (they captured that individual) and yet we had a great time. I know that when we traveled in the US we NEVER looked at the newspaper or googled police reports to see about crime in an area! We did our best to use “situational awareness”. If it doesn’t look good, then for us it most likely isn’t good.

Be that as it may; we still travel with the idea that if a country doesn’t like the US then we’ll do our damndest to avoid it. As much as we would like to go to Venezuela I’m 99% sure we won’t. Maybe one or two of the outer islands that are reputed to still be safe; but Chavez continues to have a difficult time with the US government and therefore some of it’s people; and it’s not in our interest to become a catalyst with any incident.

So most likely we’re not going but we’re still hot. We plan on doing small projects in the am, playing with friends in the evening and in the middle doing as little as possible. Reading, Sudoku, Reading,

Shark Infested Waters

some chess, reading, maybe a nap. Life is tough, It’s hot, I’m sweating typing on the computer. I’m glad we weren’t relegated to the “Shark Table” at the AYC in Union Island, Grenadines! I think right now I’ll go read, maybe take a nap. Who knows.

Sail Far
Stay Long
Live Slow

Tags: Hot, Salt Whistle Bay, Shark, Union Island
Categories: Places

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Jun

Divine St. Lucia

by Dave Kall

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah; those that know me would say I’ve been imbibing on the local rum just a little too much. That may be so; however, we / I did thoroughly enjoy St. Lucia. Now that doesn’t mean everything was wonderful. But for the most part we had a great time there. And I know this blog will be a little disjointed because there is much to tell. Since there is a lot to say and life isn’t really like a book with one theme I’ll kinda; sorta, report what we’ve been up to.

Grocer on the water

We pulled into St. Lucia and cleared in with Customs, Immigration and the Port Captain. Fortunately the clearance procedures for boaters from the US isn’t like anything like that for foreign boaters in the US. (If I was a non US flagged boat I would avoid the US entirely because of all the hoops that the US government makes boaters go through). I guess; for the US, only their citizens are free to move about. But; back to St. Lucia. Before we were settled for the night a “boat boy”; usually a man doing door to door selling except on the water, stopped by to sell us some produce. We bought mangoes from him the following day.

Once I felt comfortable leaving the boat IB (from a Tayana V-42 named Passport) and I went in to complete the necessary paper work. $45 EC later we were legal in the country. We walked a little and I found a Dove bar; had to have, so we wandered back to the dinghy with ice cream bars and smiles on our face. Of course; the cost I now had to report to my ships purser would be $53 EC for … for clearance.

One cool thing was that we had been hearing on the Caribbean Cruisers Net that IGY Marina was offering two free days of

IGY Marina

dockage and a party for the cruisers in the area. We had just made it in time to Rodney Bay, St Lucia for signing up so we partook of this wonderful gift. We could use a couple of good days at the dock for cleaning and various other boat projects. Like all cruisers in the area; those that went to the Marina spend much more then they wanted. One boater we know even ended up spending a few thousand on a new dinghy; another bought a new stove and then some hired local trades people to get their jobs accomplished.

We hired an island yachtsman for $150 US to clean the hull, we changed all the primary fuel filters, we washed deck on the boat, we did some work on the wind vane, we PolyGlowed the Brown strip on the boat, W/ broke her glasses and we had to find an optometrist to repair them, and we went grocery shopping (Check out the prices in the pic on the left - remember it is in kg and the prices are in EC;

Check these prices!

still ). All of that took a full two days of work and since we’re not nearly as ambitious as God; after two days work we rested two more days. On the first day of rest we chose to get a massage from Soothing Touch Massage Spa and signed up with Debra Nicholas. Both W/ and I chose a Deep Tissue massage and we both felt that it was the “Best Massage” we’ve ever had. I actually wondered if she hadn’t climbed up on a stool to get down deeper into the muscles. She found knots in muscles that neither of us knew we had, she got under our shoulder blades where we didn’t know there were any muscles and she worked my legs over but good! I only wish we could have spent more time there and utilized her service every week for awhile. Upon leaving the slip we picked up 90 gallons of fuel for about $3.90 US / gallon. The price is for imperial gallons and I did calculate the cost for the US gallon.

The windvane needed to be cleaned on the control locking rod for the sail and I had neglected to add (2 years ago when we put it together) a nylon bearing. Obviously; the bearing wasn’t that critical but I took the vane apart and added the bearing anyway.

So after the time in the marina we were sorry we needed to move; again. I’m getting tired of moving so often. My new saying is “Go Slow; Sail Far; Stay Long”; but, this doesn’t seem to be happening as often as we’d like lately. So we left the marina to re-anchor in Rodney Bay and wait a few days for wx to pass. We had checked with NWS and they’re saying a tropical wave was going to be passing through and to expect 3 days of awful wx. So we expected to wait. And having not read the book World Without End by Ken Follett decided this would be a good time. I’ll be hanging out on the boat letting the wx pass and I can consume the book (that’s how I read, I consume and am totally absorbed by books).

On the following day we had a squall with 50+ knots of wind blow through (reported to us from Bay Pelican) and that created our day’s adventure. Our XYZ anchor decided to go on a walkabout and the boat turned sideways and began heading out of the bay. One reason we stayed on the boat was in anticipation of the inclement wx and fortunately we were here to save our boat and the boat behind us. W/ fired up the Iron Genny (engine) and off we went to retrieve our anchor and reset it. We motored up close to the shore and dropped the anchor to watch it bounce across the bottom for 50 feet or so then catch. I had only about 120′ of chain out before in 25′ of water and so this time; with this wx, I let out about 200′ of chain in 20-25′ of water and we sat fine the rest of the time. But; ever vigilant W/, discovered a reason to stay another day. Water in the engine pan…..it’s NOT suppose to be there!

After our anchor resetting adventure of yesterday, today I took apart the water pump. I wasn’t looking forward to this task as the pump sits where I can’t see one bolt and have to reach around the engine and fell the nut to remove it. Removing it was to be the easy part. Putting it back on was going to be difficult. I finally removed the pump and found the offending seal; removed the seal and took that and some of the small nuts (I knew I would drop them where I couldn’t find them as I put the pump back on) to Island Water World and spoke with Ian; a wonderfully helpful man. However; after a few minutes he sent me back to the boat to get the water pump cover and thus we’d have a number to look up. Back to the boat I went; back to the store I went and other than getting closer to a working water pump the only consolation I had for this trip was another Dove Ice Cream bar. Finally Ian was able to locate a new seal ( I asked for two!) he only had one. But what luck; he did have one. Back to the boat - all this by noon - and then to put the pump back together.

After lunch we attacked the reattachment of the pump. I was able to get two out of the four nuts on easily. The one I couldn’t see, and had to twist my wrist and use my fingers to get the nut started and was this ever giving me problems. W/ tried. Her arms were almost too short. Before she broke down into tears I tried again. Before I broke something on the boat W/ tried again. Finally she thought she had the nut started! My turn again. I gently put a wrench to the nut and slowly turned it on the stud. Seemed to be working without much complaining. Unfortunately I could only turn about a 1/6 of the rotation so I spent the next 15 minutes tightening down that nut. We then put the last nut on and I snugged them all down. Put the cover on with a new gasket. Oops, I don’t have one. Take the dinghy back to Island Water World and ask Ian for help. Luckily he was there and gave me some gasket material so I could cut a new one. By 3:30 in the afternoon we were ready to test it out. We started up the engine and after a slight drip; after the pressure built up, the seal held and I was getting no more water out of the pump. Hooray!

That evening we made about 30 gallons of water and the next day we were to meet on Bay Pelican for drinks and then a trip to a unique restaurant Jambe deBois at the national park. There all the cruisers told some more lies; W/ had the lasagna and she says the “Best seafood lasagna ever” We all had a great time. We retired that evening planning on heading S to Marigot Bay.

The following morning W/ again found water where it shouldn’t be. Damn! was not the only word I know but I’ll start with that

Petite Piton

one. Too late. Island Water World had only one seal and we’ll have to fix it in Trinidad when we get there. A while later I discovered where this new water is coming from one - of the filters for the watermaker and that will be dealt with before we run the watermaker again.

We left to Marigot Bay and had a lovely sail with only the Yankee out. After all it was only 10 miles. This was where the original Dr. Doolittle was filmed and although it was a lovely place it was filled with moorings and IMHO was just as idylic as anywhere in the British Virgin Islands. We walked a bit, bought some groceries, bought some fruit from one of the boat boys (door to door salesman) and the following day we got our paper work to go to Bequia. As we had chosen the following day for leaving St. Lucia we stopped at the Pitons.

Sunset Pitons

It was worth the detour. There we picked up a mooring ball for $54 EC for the night and had a splendid sunset next to 100 meters off a mountain that rose almost 800 m in the air.

Tomorrow we go to Bequia.

Go Slow,
Sail Far,
Stay Long.

Tags: Massage, Mountains, Pitons, St. Lucia
Categories: Places

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Jun

Martinique: The Ugly

by Dave Kall

I never want to be around an “ugly” in any country. We work hard to skip those places. But in Le Matin; across from Fort De France, Martinique we saw Ugly.

We were in Fort De France, checked in and spent a couple of days enjoying that town. Quite cosmopolitan.Wx settled in however and we were getting rains every 30 minutes to an hour and lots of wake from the ferries. The rain held us captive on the boat and the ferries turned the inside of our boat into a laundry machine. Needless to say we were a little aggravated. But; we have a boat when there is anything that irritates us enough - we move.

So move we did. The guides gives no warnings about Le Matin. We never received any warnings from locals. There are hotels there, there’s a nice beach there, a marina complex there and a relatively calm anchorage there. Remember: we love calm (sissy) anchorages.

About three days into our stay in Le Matin and a day or two before we were getting ready to leave - a neighbors dinghy was removed from their boat at night, the engine removed from the dinghy, and the dinghy set adrift. How do we know this?

I awoke the following morn early (as is my new uncontrollable habit) and checked our boat making sure all was in order. I noticed on Four Points their dinghy was missing and there were now three dinghies on the catamaran behind us. Both boats less then 100 meters away. Odd!

As boat crews awoke for the day, the owner of the catamaran towed a dinghy to Four Points and spoke to them. After which; nosy me, I went over to Four Points and spoke to them. They had the dinghy cabled / locked to the stern of the boat and tied there. The cable was cut and the line too. The dinghy was found floating at night in the harbor by the owner of the catamaran and he saw that Four Points had no dinghy and figured it was theirs. Four Points said the engine too was chained and locked to the dinghy. Obviously the thieves then floated off in the dinghy and away from anyone hearing cut the SS chain that kept the dinghy engine locked to the boat. They then took the engine and everything else in the dinghy, including oars, and left.

Four Points attempted to call the Coast Guard in English. The local Coast Guard did not respond. Their friends on another boat spoke French and hailed the coast guard. They were told by the coast guard via their friends that the coast guard was currently busy ( I can’t confirm or deny this) and the Coast Guard would get back to Four Points in about 30 minutes. I know all this because the communications occurred over the VHF radio.

As the victims had been planning to continue their transit of Martinique today anyway they readied the boat to leave and were heading to Le Marin. There they would continue the process of reporting the crime. Unfortunately; the wx didn’t cooperate and they ended up in St. Lucia. I don’t believe the crime was ever reported as I checked Noonsite and the Caribbean and Safety net and it shows up neither place.

Unfortunately, this happens too frequently. Since we’ve left almost 2 years ago. we’ve personally known cruisers that have been the victims of 2 robberies (one boat at a dock near a not too good area - another robbery of a rented car where the thieves followed the car and opened the locked trunk with a their own key when the boaters had gone into re-provision - Both happened in St. Martin on the French side), a large number of dinghies stolen in St. Thomas (reported in one of my earlier blogs and picked up by Noonsite) , a boater that had a boarding occur on their boat in Roseau, Dominica (luckily they lost nothing) , and of course our own dinghy theft in the Bahamas (also reported in an earlier blog).

Nothing is the same as 25 years ago here. Of course; why should I expect it to be? I was raised in a relatively small community in Iowa where we knew our neighbors and everyone watched out for everyone else. The community standards were such that if there was a robbery somehow it was an accident and the borrowed item would soon be returned. We cruised the northern islands of the Caribbean 25 years ago where there were some very poor communities and the crime was basically non existent (Almost; we were told not to go the beach in front of El Moro, San Juan, Peurto Rico - so we didn’t). Maybe now with more people, less food, and a greater disparity between rich and poor showing up (yes as evidenced by boats and their sizes and some would include ours here) there is a greed which transcends moral values and ends up infecting individuals with desire and when an opportunity arises they simple take what they want.

So it is with sadness that we left Martinique; we left with a bitter taste in our mouth. A country that loves food, and loves life, we’re saddened by the fact that there is an appearance they tolerate their own thieives. We don’t. We left.

Fair Winds

Tags: Coast Guard, Dinghy, Le Matin, Martinique, Outboard, Theft
Categories: Places

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May

Martinique: The Bad

by Dave Kall

Now when you start seeing the bad in any area and you’re cruising - it’s time to leave. There isn’t much bad about Martinique but what is bad is really a PITA!

Traveling by public transportation was problematic. We couldn’t find any maps! With maps the language barrier isn’t as much an issue but I never saw any maps of the bus system in Martinique (Remember - Martinique is French not just related but the same).

WiFi, pronounced wefee here. I would imagine since this is part of France (not a third world country) that wifi would be available. I don’t mind paying a reasonable fee. But one place wanted about 10 bucks for one hour and another sold us a ticket for 10 hours for 15 bucks US. I’m sorry to say that we’re addicted enough that we purchased the time. That kept us in easy wx information and easy email communication. Ironically, Dominica which is by many considered a 3rd world country has better wifi in it’s two ports for cruisers than Martinique!

The other weird issue we had was their business hours of operation. We were in one town and found a good pizza place to eat. Went back the following day, closed, went back two days later, closed, went by a third day…. you guessed it; closed. We never did figure out their hours. Signs would be posted and we now understood them to read as “We hope to be open from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. But don’t bet on it!”

No; for most people these issues wouldn’t be seen as “bad”. But for cruisers who depend on local businesses- to buy food, get things fixed and to learn about the community, not just the tourist spots these three things effect how effective it is to safely visit a country. And safety in Martinique will be paramount on my next posting.

Fair Winds

Tags: Business, Maps, Martinique, Wi Fi
Categories: Places

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May

Martinique: The Good

by Dave Kall

The Women. (Sorry no pics) I doubt W/ would agree. And remember! I’m a happily married man. Don Street described the women of Martinique as the most beautiful in the Caribbean. He wasn’t lying.

We arrived in Fort de France late in the day and checked in the following day. Daniell Storey arrived shortly after us and as they’d been here a few times before they’d offered to help us acclimate. Part of our discussion centered around taking a local bus to the mall; Le Galleria. Fortunately Michelle spoke passable French and we bought 4 round trip tickets to the mall. Or so we thought. We waited where the busses were and looked for the number Michelle thought the attendant had told her. A Frenchman had observed us hanging around looking slightly lost and asked us which bus we were waiting for. It ended up that we were looking for the wrong number on the bus and waiting in the wrong place. After he double checked and pointed us to the correct location and gave us the correct number bus to board we were on our way to the other bus terminal.

Now my idea of a bus driver has been much like Ralph Cramdon on the old TV show The Honeymooners. Not to be insulting to bus drivers but IMHO that’s generally what all the drivers in the states of all the busses I’ve been on in the states have generally looked like. Not here! We had the most beautiful bus driver I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting behind. Even W/, Michelle and Dave had to agree!

Garbage. One wouldn’t really put garbage in the good category of anything. But the

Martinique Landscape

French have made sure their country remains as clean as possible. I’m guessing that within eye sight of anyplace in the metro areas there is a garbage disposal can, cart or dumpster. There are even recycle containers that are not overstuffed and if one chooses to put plastic, or aluminum into the containers they’ll actually fit! Getting rid of garbage on the boat has been easy and hassle free. All of these containers encourage boaters and residents alike to help keep the islands clean.

Chef's Hat

And finally, the Food. Although I haven’t found any nation that doesn’t pride themselves on their menus, the French have accumulated many of the best and a few of the worst of the worlds menus. Yesterday we ate at the Ti Topues ( in English it’s Chef’s Hat ) and I had the best Pork Ribs ever (remember I grew up in Iowa where Pork is King!) So we’re spending a some of our $$’s on eating out right now. Not that W/ or I will complain. Besides too; we ended up running out of Propane (blame me - I wanted to see how long our tank would really last and it lasted 6 months) and as the island only uses Butane and has completely different fill nozzles for the cylinders we’re living off of Microwaved food and restaurants. Not a bad life eh?

When we get to St. Lucia we’ll get the Propane filled and I’m getting a full set of connectors for the tank so we can get stove fuel anywhere in the world….hopefully.

Fair Winds

Tags: Food, Garbage, Martinique, Women
Categories: Places

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