More New "Experiences"

Well, Cheryl left you with us leaving Santa Martha Bay with Rob on board and heading for Spaanse Waters. We had struggled with whether we should leave or not because the weather forecast was for lots of rain and some squalls. They were forecasting only minor increase in winds within the squalls so we weighed that against the need to get Rob to a more accessable place for the airport and our need to clear customs and immigration so that we could leave for Antigua, we decided to go for it. As they had promised we could see lots of squalls forming out to sea and it wasn't long before we hit the first one. We had decided not to put up the main sail for reasons of safety due to the weather. Squalls can hit fast and hard so we thought if we can get enough speed out of our foresail to get to Spaanse Water before dark that is what we would do. The sail was for the most part good although we motor sailed with the foresail so that we wouldn't have to use the main. Rob got a chance to "drive" the boat and although he admitted he is a motorboat kind of guy, he handled the boat well. When we weren't in squalls the skies were clear and blue and it was quite pleasant.

A Video of Rob at the Wheel

We got past Willemstad after being kept out farther than we wanted to be by a tanker that was in the way. Although we eventually established that it was stationary, it was difficult to tell that until we got quite close and the last thing you ever want to do is to cross the bow of a tanker or cargo ship. Their speed is deceptive and they don't have very good brakes!!!

By this time we were about 1 1/2 hours from the Spaanse Water entrance and were sure we would be there before sunset. Of course, then the sailing Gods got together for a talk and decided that they would have some fun. We were approaching the widest squall we had seen that day. Ordinally you can see both sides of a squall and from that judge it's depth. Squalls don't last long, but as I said they can be fast and furious. The ones we had hit had not been too bad so although we couldn't see the width of the one ahead of us due to it's size, we thought the winds would be about the same. Just in case, we headed up into the wind so that the wind would not be affecting our sails and we were being pushed by the motor. Now for the experience. Just before we got to the rain part of the squall, we were hit - from the side - by the heaviest blast of wind that Mystic Journey has experienced since we became owners.

Scary part - even with only the foresail up, that blast of wind drove us over on the starboard side so that the mast hit the water. It held us down for what I now believe was about 5 seconds. Not long but under those conditions a lifetime. I must say that not for a moment did I consider that Mystic Journey would not stand herself back up again and that is what happened. Of course then she tried to lay herself down the other way but only went down to about a 45 degree angle. Meanwhile the rain had hit to severly limit our visibility and we know we had to get the foresail down so that we could be strictly engine driven. The Gods weren't finished - at that point the engine alarm buzzer began to sound. I glanced at the engine instruments and thought I saw that the heat indicator was off the scale. Of course if the engine overheated, it would likely seize so I flipped the engine off. In the meantime we continued to take the foresail down as the winds and squall chops from the wind, plus the swells that had been there all allong were tossing us all over the place. Cheryl handled the stress beautifully.

I need to mention too that after the boat laid down, the first thing I thought of was Rob below decks. I looked down and could see him on the salon floor but he seemed to be hanging on so we did what had to be done to stabilize the boat. After the foresail was in or course we had not power from any source, wind or motor so I went down to check the belts on the engine to see if a fan belt had broken causing the overheat. At the same time I talked to Rob to make sure he was okay. Even though he said he as alright, I still worried that he was just trying to keep us from being distracted from handling the boat but I took him at his word and after I found the belts were intact, I went back up and re-started the engine. It didn't overheat and looking back I am not sure that it had before, but Cheryl offered a good possibility. When we were on our side, the seacock that brings in the seawater to cool the engine was out of the water. The alarm may have been to notify us of this.

Whatever the case, the motor functioned fine, the squall eventually passed, we re-established our course and continued towards Spaanse Water. When the rain passed, we saw that we had been driven back to a point off Willemstad and were now about 2 hours from the entrance. To finish this saga - we did hit one more squall before reaching safe haven although it was minor. We made it through the entrance chanel before sunset and then anchored in the dark but in an area where there were no other boats so it was fairly simple.

It was a real pleasure to settle in for the night in water that didn't rock us around even though the wind continued to stay quite strong all night. The next blog we will hopefully bring us up to date and by the time you read it we will be on the way to Antigua - hopefully!!!

Christmas in Curacao

When we last wrote we were in Santa Martha Baai awaiting the arrival of family to help us celebrate Christmas. Christmas is over and we are back in Spanish Waters waiting for a weather window to head north to Antigua. What happened in between you may ask. Some expectations were met, others weren't.

We headed up to Lucy's Place on the 19th to meet Daniella, the rental agent, and await the arrival of the Perry's at noon. Daniella informed us that there was a major electrical problem that was being worked on and that we wouldn't have access to the villa until the afternoon. Because the Perry's were expecting to meet us there we chose to stay at the villa and relax on the patio. Come 3PM the workers were still busy and it looked like we wouldn't get into the villa that day and the Perry's still hadn't arrived. Daniella arranged for us to stay at another villa for the night and took Griff to the resort in order to check e-mail to see if there was any news from the Perry's - there was. Their plane had been delayed in Trinidad and they were just arriving in Curacao. They finally arrived and we got settled in to the new villa for the night with the promise that Lucy's Place would be available the next day at noon.

We went back to Lucy's Place at noon to find that the workers were still there. The wiring was fixed, but there was no air conditioning, no TV, no dishwasher and we later discovered no hot water. There went the Perry's expectations of hot showers and air conditioning. They were really looking forward to those two things after their apartment in Grenada which had neither. The A/C and dishwasher were repaired later that evening and the TV replaced, but still no hot water and the A/C was making noise like it was working but there was no air blowing and therefore no cooling. We had to move in because the other villa had other renters now. We decided we could live with things the way they were as long as they were still being worked on. Daniella assured us she had been in contact with the owner and everything would be repaired. Oh yes - the WiFi quit working Friday night so we lost contact with family back home unless we went downto the resort, the dive shop or the boat.

On Sunday the A/C was replaced with separate units in each bedroom, however, the workers were in the house most of the day and quite often in the evening. They frequently arrived just as we were sitting down to dinner, which we ate every evening on the balconey overlooking Mystic Journey in the bay. There went another expectation of quiet family meals.

Rob arrived at 8:30PM Sunday. Our family group was now complete. Monday half of us went into Willemstadt to shop while the other half stayed at the resort and went snorkeling. On Tuesday this was reversed. We had to do it that way because we did not have a vehicle big enough to transport all of us at once. That was the last expectation not met for us - group outings to take in the sites of the island and going snorkeling.

By now you are probably thinking that the time we spent together was terrible. Actually, despite all the problems I listed above we did have a great time visiting with family and spending the Christmas season with them. We did go to the beach and snorkeling on Christmas day. We were able to call family on Christmas day and enjoyed watching the Sparks' family and Jason opening their presents. We accepted the challenge of cooking a Christmas turkey when all we had was a two burner stove, a toaster oven and the barbecue on the boat. We finally decided to cut up the turkey, boil it at the villa and then take it to the boat to brown it on the barbecue. Surprisingly it still tasted like Christmas turkey - only no stuffing.

The Perry's headed back to Grenada on the 26th. On the 27th we headed out of Santa Martha Baai with Rob aboard. We were headed back to Spanish Waters. That would be more convenient for us to access Customs and Immigration and for Rob to leave for the airport. We also wanted Rob to have the opportunity of sailing with us. TO BE CONTINUED.

Clarification, Query and Curacao

Clarification about the Donkey Sanctuary in Bonaire. The Sanctuary is run by a non-profit foundation and is staffed entirely by volunteers. If you want more information or to see pictures of the donkeys you can go to http://www.donkeycam.com/

Query – Does anyone know the “proper” procedure for getting rid of a Canadian flag that is too tattered and torn to be flown. We have a couple now that have been repaired, but the material is so rotted from the sun and rain that they are no longer reparable.

We have been back in Curacao since December 10th. We have spent the time anchored in Spanish Waters. Certainly different than the last time we were there. No Omar and only about a third of the number of boats. The “dog boat” is still there with its 6 or 7 dogs aboard that bark whenever anyone goes near but it is not really disturbing, although I wouldn’t want to have been closer.

We didn’t go into Willemstad this time other than to do the customs and immigration thing. I (Griff) wanted to get into town again to shop – still haven’t found the “gift” for Cheryl but we should have time after all the family gets here. One of the reasons we didn’t have time was the “normal” boat thing. We had come into Spaanse Waters and anchored and settled in for the night – all well and good. In the morning I put my tea on and lo and behold, the propane tank ran out. No biggie – switch tanks to our spare. Of course I couldn’t get the spare to make a good seal and so it leaked. Okay, we will go to do the clearance thing, we can be back at noon and on the way I can stop at Budget and get a new regulator and if necessary a new tank. We went over to catch the 9:00 bus at 8:45 because they don’t necessarily stick strictly to the time.

At 10:20 the bus came and off we went to Willemstad. We had “picked up” a young French man who was also going in to clear and had never been here before so he tagged along. Very nice guy who just bought a steel boat in Trinidad and singlehanded to Curacao. He was trying to get the bottom done on his boat and find crew to go to San Blas and we became friends with him.
Back to propane. Of course the bus being late made us late for doing clearances. We knew customs didn’t close for lunch but thought immigration did so we hustled our little buns through the processes and made it to immigration about 11:40, thankful that we would get the paperwork done in time to avoid the lunchtime closedown.

We actually found out that immigration does in fact NOT close for lunch so all seemed well. Out of immigration by 11:47 just in time to go next door to the Port Authority. They are the ones who keep track of where all the boats, both commercial and pleasure, are at any given time so are a necessary part of “things to do”. The kicker – they close from 11:45 to 1:30 so there we were, caught in the lunchtime closedown after all.

Long story short – although we were able to get to Budget before it closed, we ran into some problems because we had not brought all we needed to make the necessary purchases to get our propane problem fixed. We got back to the boat with a regulator but when I hooked it up the spare tank still leaked so our next possible solution was to fill up the tank I had just taken off, get a new tank later, get it filled and all’s well. NOT.

Next glitch was that there is only one place on the island where they refill propane tanks. A lot of the gas stations have a facility where you take in a tank and they give you a full one back but unfortunately they have a different kind of fitting than what most yachties use so that wouldn’t work for us. As far as the refill – it could be done but in normal times it takes 3-7 days to get it done and from all we heard, over the holidays we would be lucky to get it back before 2009. One of the other people in the anchorage offered us the use of one of his tanks until we could figure out what to do or until they or we left so we were able to fire up the propane and ensure that the new regulator was okay. To finish this epic saga, that evening and part of the next morning I worked on the full but leaky tank and was finally able to fix it. No leaks – HONEST!!!

The rest of the time in Spanish Waters was spent cleaning the boat as we had not done a thorough boatcleaning since Trinidad, and as well began getting things organized for visitors. We dinghied over to the yacht club fuel dock and filled gerry cans with diesel and water and then topped up the tanks on the boat from those. On Tuesday we were ready to set sail again for Santa Martha Baai (lagoon). This is where we (Rob and Griff and I) have rented a villa, Lucy’s Place, for the Christmas week and where the Perry’s are joining us.

The sail to Santa Martha was uneventful. We had winds from 2 to 18 knots and were able to set all three sails and only had to use the motor for short periods. We sailed through two short squalls, one off Willemstadt and one just before Santa Martha. We arrived at the lagoon just after 1400hrs and anchored at the base of the cliff where Lucy’s Place is situated. Only one other boat in the lagoon, REBEL, a boat we had anchored beside in Store Bay, Tobago. We have settled in and now await the arrival of family and Christmas.

Last Days in Bonaire

Our time in Bonaire is coming to a close. We will be leaving in a couple of days, weather permitting. I thought I would catch you up on what we have been doing with our time since we finished painting the coach roof. By the way it looks great.

We spent one afternoon with Tom and Bonnie from Toujours going snorkeling. They really wanted us to go diving with them, but I could not get diving gear as I am not certified. We discussed me getting certified, but decided that would not be feasible right now especially since I still find myself panicking sometimes when I am snorkeling. We headed north from our mooring to a diving site called The Cliff. We snorkeled and they dove. It did give us the opportunity to test out the “waterproof” camera I purchased when I was at home. We snorkeled for about an hour and only took 131 pictures. I’ve included a few in the blog and more can be seen in our Picassa web album (see link on the right).

We took one day and rented a truck. This was so we could tour the southern end of the island and pick up a few groceries that would be too heavy to carry (milk, juice etc.). The south end of the island is very different from the north end. It is mainly just one big evaporation pond for the water desalinization/salt production that the island is noted for. Bonaire has been exporting salt since the 1700’s and today that process is how they supply their water needs. We found the slave huts to be interesting. They were buildings that the slaves slept in and kept their personal belongings in. They were about 8’X8’ and had a shelf at the level where the roof joined the wall for their belongings. The walls were maybe 4 feet high. There was no mention of how many slaves slept in each of the huts. It couldn’t have been very comfortable.

It would have been interesting to be able to see how the salt was extracted. All we could see was the large piles of salt and the conveyor system to take it to the ships.

The other place we stopped that day was the Donkey Sanctuary. Donkeys are wild on Bonaire and the sanctuary has been set up as a protected area for them. The lady there said that the government is going to shoot the donkeys on the island next year. Right now the sanctuary has 350 donkeys and they hope to be able to expand to include 450 of the ‘wild’ donkeys by next year. The donkeys in the sanctuary are those that were in the area and those that have been found injured, mainly from collisions with vehicles and human mistreatment, or orphans. We met a couple from Quebec who come down 5 – 7 weeks a year and volunteer at the sanctuary. You can adopt a donkey for $175US per year and this provides food, medicine etc. for the donkey you choose. You get to name the donkey and receive pictures and updates twice a year. We had the opportunity to feed the mothers and babies palm leaves which are a delicacy for them. We then drove around the compound and fed donkeys along the way. As soon as we stopped the truck they would be over thrusting their noses in the window. Some of them would run alongside the truck when we started moving again.

We have enjoyed our time on Bonaire even if there isn't a lot to do on the island other than diving. The people are friendly and we have learned a little about the island customs. We head back to Curacao in the next couple of days. There we will be joined by the Perry's and Griff son Rob for Christmas. We are quite looking forward to that and will keep you posted.

A Pause for Scary Possibilities

Well, today we experienced an event that gave both Cheryl and I real "cause to think". I am not sure whether I had mentioned this before but when we were in Nanny Cay getting the boat ready to sail, another yacht came into the slip beside us that had just broken it's mast off at the 1st set of spreaders while sailing in a stiff wind around the eastern side of Tortola. At the time I was kind of bothered to see the damage done and also in considering the possibilities of people being hurt when this kind of thing happens. It happened suddenly and without warning to these people and I thought about it for quite some time. After sailing for a while we have come to accept that these things can happen and that with experience the dangers can be minimized.

Today the "God's of Sailing" sent us another reminder of the need for alertness and also a wakeup call that we can't control all things at all times. Cheryl and I were below decks about 9:00 AM just doing piddly things when all of a sudden we heard a very loud pop 0r snap. We both rushed up on deck to find the boat 2 moorings over with the rear deck engulfed in flames and a huge cloud of black smoke coming from it. Of course the first thought that came was "Is there anyone aboard" but we couldn't tell because of the smoke and flames. I got in the dinghy and started over to see if I could see anyone but by that time there were already a couple of dinghies that had been going by over by the boat and although one was able to get alongside, it didn't stay so I took that to mean there was no one aboard. The flames got too hot to get close to the boat and the yacht that was between us and them was being moved. There had been only the wife aboard that boat apparently the alternator had been removed so they couldn't start it but 2 dinghies placed themselves on either side, released the boat from it's mooring and took it up to the mooring on our other side which luckily had been freed up that morning.

That left nothing between us and the burning boat except water. We had no idea how big the fuel tanks were, how much propane they had aboard or whether they carried oxygen for diving so we decided we would also move Mystic Journey out of the possible danger area. We took it out away from the moorings and Cheryl kept us from drifting too far by using the engine to adjust when needed.

In the meantime, a tug from the town pier had come up. We had seen it before while at the pier and noticed that it had a water cannon mounted on the "crowsnest" - the highest part of the stack on the tug. Unfortunately it seems that this cannon didn't work because the only water they were able to supply was from a hose on deck with not a lot of pressure. The tug tried to get close enough to use that hose but for whatever reason (perhaps depth - the boat was on the edge of the shelf) they would only go in so far. Bottom line, they were not able to apply any water to the burning boat. The fire engine from town was on the road opposite to the moorings but they were spraying against the wind. Consequently they were also unable to help.

We noticed that the people had now returned to the boat that had been moved and there was a dinghy beside them with a woman who became quite hysterical. Of course our first thought was that there had been someone aboard the boat but it turns out that was not the case.

From piecing together the story then and later at a meeting of a lot of the yacht people who gathered to see what they could do to help we found out most of the story. The couple who owned the boat, a 40' Pearson, had been diving. The reason that the woman became hysterical, aside from just losing their boat, was that she thought their dog was still aboard. In fact, the dinghy that I mentioned earlier that had pulled alongside did so to rescue the dog so that came out okay. The couple had no insurance and everything they had except their dinghy and dive gear was burned including passports, money, credit cards etc etc. At the meeting the SSCA hosts for Bonaire (Seven Seas Cruising Association) said they could put the people up at a house they have on the island. Different folks contributed clothes and money and the couple were able to get in touch with the American Consulate in Curacao and make arrangements to get new passports in quick fashion although they have to fly to Curacao in the morning. The couple were still somewhat in a state of shock but the fact their dog had been saved seemed to be the most important thing to them at this time. The skipper indicated he had no idea what might have caused the fire except that earlier he had heard a snap when he started the boat and he thought it might had been electrical. If it was, according to the sounds we heard and the swiftness of the engulfment, it must have ignited some kind of gas or fuel.

To finish with the burning boat, eventually the flames burned down somewhat and the authorities were able to attach a rope to the boat and tow it out to deeper water (300'). The boat only had a 4' draft so most of it was above the water so when the boat had burned down to the waterline there was very little left. At that point, they scuttled her.

As I said earlier, this experience was quite the wake-up call and in addition very disturbing. Cheryl and I both felt - I guess scared might be a good word although it was more than that. I can only hope that rather than make us fearful on this journey we are on, it will make us more aware of what can happen and thankful it didn't have to happen to us for us to learn this lesson.