Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Tuesday afternoon I dinghied into Charelstown and checked out of Nevis. This put us in quarantine and nixed the idea of an early evening walk along the beach. Ho hum.

Tuesday evening we were treated to a spectacle of nature. Towards dusk we heard some splashing outside the boat so we went outside to investigate. Turned out we were surrounded by many shoals of small fish which were desperately trying to evade the predation of larger fish by leaping out of the water all at once it seemed. On a few instances dozens of small fish would land on our transoms successfully evading predation but not an untimely demise. Initially I thought we could collect them to fry up but the idea waned and I simply scooped them back into the water. The predator fish did their own fair share of out of water acrobatics but none landed where they could be kept.

Overnight I was woken to bumping on the side of the hull near where we slept. Turned out the wind had completely died and we’d drifted up against the mooring ball we were on. I was able to oh so quietly reverse the boat by doing nothing more than turning a switch, pushing a button and pulling back on the throttles. Nobody woken. Nice.

6am Wednesday we set off for St Barts. We set off on the electric motors to find the wind which we met within 30 mins. We couldn’t quite make The Narrows between Nevis and St Kitts on one tack so a couple of turns and a close approach to Cow Rocks were made. The sail was a close reach all the way so we were 10 degrees off where we could raise the Code Zero. We therefore sailed the entire way on our regular sails. Winds varied between 12 and 22 knots. Sea height was between 6 and 12 feet except for when we were sheltered by Nevis or St Barts. As the day progressed wave frequency decreased (length increased) so sailing became smoother.
The whole trip was accomplished without running the genset. Along the way we recharged the house battery bank, the drive battery banks and filled our water tanks. I believe I’m getting better and managing the energy sources. I continue to believe that running solar and cross charging together is not efficient. While making water I kept half an eye on the cloud cover. When solar generation was minimal I would turn on the cross charger to continue the house bank catch up and water maker running. Thursday morning I am cross charging to put some of yesterday’s regen’d power into the house bank.

As an aside I looked back at some of my previous maintenance logs. I know that over the last 16 days I have run the genset for 21 hours. In this time we have moved the boat in and out of Simpson Bay lagoon a few times, we have kept our clothes laundered, we have used the microwave cooker a few times. We also vacuumed the boat in preparation for my parents. We’ve done some coastal cruising in St Martin, St Kitts and Nevis. We’ve only had the two big sails for proper regen. In hindsight I’m pretty sure I could have used 2-3 hours less but I’m pretty pleased all the same. Even so, I do look around at the folks with wind gen and wonder how much less we could use if we had one too. However, budget is tight and this would require a lot of careful thought. Right now we are close to the shortest day of the year and probably seeing the most wind. As we go into next year, the sun will get higher in the sky and be out for longer – all of which will make our current equation better. I also understand the winds may subside too.

Back to St Barts. Upon arrival I went ashore to check in. Much simpler than St Kitts. Filled in a couple of forms and was done. Then it was off to hunt bread. The supermarket was closed Weds afternoon so I had to go to the tourist office to be told of a boulangerie that may just have some baggettes left over. I was able to get two for dinner.

It’s now Thursday morning. We plan to go ashore later this morning and explore the town of Gustavia. We will have lunch at Le Select which is allegedly the restaurant in the song ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise.’ From our last trip here we know the burgers aren’t the best but it’s worth going to. Mum was recommended the place and can’t leave without eating there. Tonight we plan to anchor off Anse de Colombier with another lazy day planned for tomorrow probably spending tomorrow night off Ile Fourchue.

(later)

We went into town (Gustavia) this morning just before 10am and separated agreeing to meet at Le Select at noon. Helen and I shopped, took food back to the boat, looked for open wifi connections with the Canary, climbed a hill and explored around town and were ready for lunch. We all had bacon cheeseburgers and fries with a beer. We decided to walk over to shell beach for another beer. I had a fit as they were 5 euros each but the view was good - very french - very caribbean. Helen and I had a paddle.

Mum and Dad are now back on the boat and we’re using on of the free wifi spots to catch up with things before clearing out. Next update in 2-3 days.

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(Monday morning)

The trip from St Martin to St Kitts was very enjoyable. The weather was clear and the clouds that we had were pretty high. That meant we had good views all the way of the islands around us : St Martin, St Barts, Saba, Statia, St Kitts & Nevis. The curvature of the earth was quite apparent as our destination rose to greet us throughout the day while the islands we left behind sank over the horizon.

Initially it was slow going leaving St Martin as the winds were under 10 knots. Once we rounded the NW tip of St Martin we unfurled the Code Zero and were able to bring our boat speed up. As before we were getting around half the wind speed. This time we were running as close to the wind as we could which set us on a course to go west of Statia. Occasionally the wind shifted enough to put us on a course east of Statia but never for long enough. The wind gradually picked up so we eventually put the Code Zero away and went back to our regular head sail. Now we could go closer still to the wind and it was straightforward to aim for the passage between Statia and St Kitts.

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Trip time was 11 hours. Winds a little lighter than predicted and had clocked around close to the East. We had the code zero up for about a third of the way. Regen topped up house batteries and filled our water tanks. Checking into customs involved balance walking across rusted girders over water. But we’re here. Views along the way were spectacular. Here are a few pics.

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Thanksgiving 2008 will be one to remember. Pat, Tom, Jim and Anne all showed up around 3pm with homemade food and wine. Pat and Tom brought a family recipe corn bread and green bean dish. Jim and Anne brought pumpkin pie and another desert they called gunge but tasted far from it. They also brought some sweat potatoes. We supplied the turkey (cooked in the new Magma grill) and mashed potato/stuffing combo. All the food was simply delicious. The company was better. The festivities went on until late in the night (cruiser time) with everyone retiring at 8:30pm. Yes - that is late for us water folks.

Today we’ve prepped for our forthcoming travels. We’ve done our shopping and I’ve checked out of customs. We’re now flying the yellow Q flag which means we can’t go ashore until we’ve checked in somewhere. Tomorrow we’re planning to leave at first light and head for St Kitts with a possible stop at Statia if we need to cut the trip short.

Tonight is curry night. We have some leftover turkey so it’s going to be turkey curry. No wine or beer tonight due to long trip tomorrow and we want to minimize possibility of misery on the journey.

Here are some pics of recent days.

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To all that celebrate Thanksgiving our wishes go out to you. Have a great time with your families.

We’re going to move back into the Lagoon under the 8:15 bridge opening then do some shopping. This afternoon we’re having Pat and Tom from s/v Lone Star and Jim and Anne from s/v Bees Knees over for a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner. Should be nice.

Tomorrow we’ll head back out of the Lagoon, do our final provisions for a while, check out at the port and prepare for a dawn departure on Saturday for St Kitts.

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In the spirit of Monty Python, I’ll say no more.

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Monday night we walked around Marigot looking for a suitable place to eat for Mum’s Birthday. In the end we opted for The Village in Marina Royale. Very pleasant food and delicious desert.

Tuesday we went sailing. Finally. At 8am we weighed anchor and hustled over to the canal where we waited for the bridge to open and squeeze through. Then it was sails up and out into Anguilla Passage. Our target for the day was not ambitious – merely Grand Case a few miles away. We figured a short sail would be good as this would be the first real sail after loading the boat. We did have one internal spill so this was wise. Being upwind and up current of us we had to tack a few times to get there. Before going to the town proper we stopped off at Roche Creole for snorkeling. The conditions weren’t good and the water murky so it wasn’t a great success.

We had ribs for lunch then made our way back to the boat where we chilled for the rest of the day.

This morning we sailed back to Marigot. Being a downwind sail we decided to try out the new Code Zero headsail. It worked a dream. In 13knots of wind we were sailing down wind at 7knots. Methinks the current helped a bit but this was good all the same. I’m getting the impression we are under reading the regen as I’ve noticed that after running for a while, I can’t push too many more amps into the batteries if I turn the genset on. Need to work on this.

Anway, we sailed straight into Marigot, dropped the sails and anchored close to our old spot. Feels like home.

Shortly after returning we were able to establish contact with the local Beneteau rep in Marigot as we had a free upgrade waiting. Serge was soon over to replace a microprocessor which promises to provide better 72V power readings/management. Can only be good.
More chores to do today. One of the heads is backing up. Nasty job ahead. We’re doing a lot of flushing right now to clean up the lines so that when I open things up it won’t be a total nightmare.

Today we’ll also stock up with food for Thanksgiving. We’ll visit a US supermarket on the way back from the marine store.

A couple of extra incidentals for those of you really keeping track. My camera has decided to start working again. Hurray. We also found the missing suntan lotion – double hurray. Maybe the excitement of all this will make up for the mess I’ll probably endure quite soon.

Looking ahead the weather looks good for some extended sailing. With the confidence built over the last couple of days we should be able to stretch our wings.

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The bond movie was a lot of fun.  We had agreed to go with Pat and Tom from s/v Lone Star and were joined by Jim, Anne, Lauren from s/v Bees Knees.  We convoyed over in three dinghies to the other side of the Lagoon, had a beer then watched the movie.  In our discussions we approached the idea of Thankgiving.  The upshot is that we’ll be hosting a pot luck dinner aboard Dignity on Thursday for all of the movie goers.  We’ve tried to get in contact with Desue to invite Des and Sue over but had no success yet.

This means we won’t be heading to St Barts tomorrow but we are keen on sailing so we’ll probably head to Grand Case (uphill from here), do some snorkeling then stay the night before returning to the Lagoon on Wednesday.

Today is my mother’s birthday.  We’ll be going out for dinner tonight - location as yet to be determined.

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Yesterday Mum & Dad bought us a Magma grill for the back of the boat. As with many things this was an all day event. In the morning we dinghied over to Island Water World and Budget Marine to take a look at what was available. With all four of us in the dinghy travel wasn’t swift. We eventually settle on a unit which we took back to Dignity. With us all feeling a bit tired we rested and installation was left until the afternoon. Very quickly we realized the mounting bracket was incorrect so back I went to Island Water World to resolve. They were more than helpful both swapping the bracket we had and giving us a bunch of nuts and washers for free.

Back on the boat the unit was finally installed. Evening meal was grilled chicken, mushrooms and salad. Came out very well – even if I was chef.

Here is a pic of the grill. Click on it and you’ll see a few more around the boat.

From 2008-11-22

Today we’re going to see the latest Bond movie with Pat and Tom. There are a few boat chores to do. I won’t bore you.

Tomorrow is Mum’s birthday so we’re thinking up what to do then. I’m also itching to get sailing again. Looking like we’ll head off on Tuesday and go to St Barts.

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Wednesday afternoon we decided I should go alone to pick up my parents from the airport. I initially went to the wrong place. Coupled with the fact I had to pick up some oil and fuel on the way I was a bit late. Hey – it’s da ilonds mon. I think they enjoyed the 2+ mile trip back to the boat. I was able to show them were we loaded the boat when our gear finally arrived.

We stayed aboard the boat for the rest of the day. Tom and Pat from Lone Star popped over to say hello. It was nice to get together again and relax and chat.

Thursday we felt like relaxing – we all deserved it. So first thing in the morning I dinghied into town to get fresh croissant and bread. Then we realized we still had a bit of a leak in the starboard aft transom. The previous day we’d tried recaulking the seals which appeared to have a crack and could be letting in rain water. Wednesday night had presented little rain but the water ingress was abundant. To trace the source I went into contortion mode to try and get my eyes into the area the leak could be coming from. Well, the source was the dock water inlet – quite curious when one is on anchor. I wondered if the watermaker setup was somehow pushing water back into this line. We had rigged it so that the feed from the starboard tank came from the starboard vent and over to the port tank. The thinking being that the slow input of water from the watermaker would push water over to the port tank but a sudden overfill from the dock would correctly rush out the vent. Worrying that we’d buggered something up I then went to check the valve that switches between internal and external water sources. I found it slightly misaligned and correcting that fixed the problem. It was the pressure from the internal system forcing the water back out the wrong way that caused the problem.

Ursurla the dodger maker arrived to fit the dodger. I ended up having to help her attach (by drilling and application of 5200) all the poppers. She took the dodger away again to clean it up and complete the stitching knowing it was now a good fit.

We all went into town on the dinghy developing our elderly people dinghy entry and exit procedures as we went. We visited the mall and walked around a bit before sitting for lunch. I rather regret choosing a cheeseburger but it was exceedingly nice – washed down with a beer.

Back on the boat we arrived just in time for Ursula’s return with the dodger. This will make a big difference. The rain, until now, has made the back seats wet. Also, when it rains when one is at the helm, wetness is the outcome. Hopefully no longer. The dodger has a couple of panels than can be opened to allow air to flow when needed. All good stuff.

The talk on the cruisers net for the last couple of days has been the potential impact of the incoming NWerly swells. We would be protected from a northerly swell by Anguilla to the north but a NWerly was concerning. Pat and Tom swung by to let us know they had been talking to a few locals who had swung their opinion and were heading into the lagoon for the next few days. I’m pretty sure Dignity will handle the swells ok but getting my parents on and off would be a challenge so we commited to making the 5:30 bridge opening.

Before then we had a visit back to Desue to attend to. We’d been invited back there by Des and Sue, the owners, as they knew my parents had arrived and they were keen to meet up. We had to keep this one short as we had to make it back to the boat for the bridge.

Heading to the bridge we discovered about 15 boats had all arrived at the same decision so it was a bit of a scrum. Not just that, a flotilla of dinghies, it seemed, came out to watch the fun as one doesn’t normally see this many boats coming through at this time of year. As we waited for the bridge to open, the first swells began to arrive. Amazing to think this was due to storms over a thousand miles to the north.

I was a bit frustrated as the boats in front went through the bridge quite slowly. We don’t have much clearance either side and I prefer (having had Eddie’s tuition last week) to have maneuverability that comes with higher speed as a sacrifice against to potential impact should I get it wrong. A wind gust at slow speed could be disastrous. So I held back a little then pushed it forward when I could and popped straight through. Mum, sitting at the front with her camera, was so enthralled she took no pics at all. That’s ok.

Helen cooked a great meal which we’re now digesting. It’s 8pm. They call 9pm the boaters midnight. I feel it. No internet so no surfing. Time for bed.

Friday morning.

This morning I dismantled a motor cooling fan that appeared to have seized. One of the brushes looked dislodged and quite to my amazement, the motor ran fine when I finally reassembled it.

Unfortunately, when I reassembled the motor I had somehow left the wires coming out of it a little shorter. Now they don’t reach where I need to plug them into. Darn.

This morning we shifted the boat a little nearer town. I now have an internet connection. News from back home seems grim. Our thoughts are with everyone back home and the stresses that come with these times. We continue to evaluate our future options too.

On the fixing front my attention now goes to my single side band radio. We need to get this going in order to receive weather forecasts. Here in St Martin we have a net where forecasts are shared each morning. When we can access the internet we can view the weather online. The internet is a luxury we can’t rely on. We need something more reliable. I’m hoping I can get the receive side of my SSB setup going fairly easily. The send side will come later as this is more complex and needs proper grounding.

Looking ahead, the NWerly swells are not going away for a while. This is going to curtail our roaming. No probs. We’re enjoying ourselves just where we are.

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