Endings By Cheryl

December 28, 2009

For me this marvelous sailing adventure is fast drawing to a close. It's hard to believe that in four days I will be back in the land of ice and snow. I just hope the weather gods will be kind and there won't be too much of the white stuff and the cold temperatures when I first arrive.

The most common thing we are asked is what is our favourite island. Any of you that have asked this knows our answer is that they all offer something unique and it is hard to pick a favourite. However, I found more relevant one of the questions one of the cruising women asked me when she queried what the most important thing was that I would be taking away from this experience.

That too is a difficult question to answer. I guess the most important thing is the knowledge I have gained about myself and my abilities to deal with new situations. I have definitely learned new skills related to sailing, but more importantly I have learned how to live with another person, Griff, on a 24 hour basis. I think we have grown as individuals and definitely as a couple. While sailing we are able to anticipate what is needed and do it in concert with the other person.

Being away from family and friends has been difficult, but life does go on even if you are not there. I am looking forward to spending time with family and friends especially little Eva. It will be fun watching her grow and develop.

Getting back to the acreage and putting things back in order will be the next challenge. I look forward to that and to Griff joining me when Mystic Journey gets a new owner.

December 30, 2009

While travelling up the island chain Griff wrote about some of the 'lasts' we were experiencing. Well this past week has been filled with more lasts for me. My last sail and swimming in the Caribbean Sea. The last sail was from Norman Island, BVI to Fat Hog Bay, BVI. You may be wondering if this was my last sail how did we get from USVI to BVI - WE DIDN'T SAIL. When we moved on Boxing Day there was absolutely no wind so we motored the whole way from St. John to Norman Island with a brief stop in Soper's Hole to clear in.

The sail to Fat Hog Bay was great! We had all three sails up and no motor. We had decided to check out Trellis Bay as a place for Griff to anchor while waiting for Mystic Journey to sell since he could anchor there, go swimming from the boat and it is close to the airport. However, when we got there we decided it was much too crowded both with moored and anchored boats and it would only get worse this week since 'Full Moon' and New Years Eve are on the same day meaning there would be larger full moon festivities. Since we knew the water in Fat Hog Bay is not condusive to swimming we went onto a mooring ball at Marina Cay, had lunch and I went for my last swim. What an experience. The sea was relatively calm, but there was quite a current. Most of the time there is a current present around the boat. The current that day was unbelievable. I swam for about 10 minutes and never got past the ladder, in fact occasionally I was pushed backwards. Nothing like 'swimming on the spot'. It was a nice last swim though and then on to Fat Hog Bay. Here was my last anchoring which turned into a couple of times since we changed spots. Griff is now set up in what is hopefully going to be a good spot to spend some time and have the boat safe.

As for me, now it's just waiting for tomorrow to come and head home.

Christmas and Stuff

Well, here we are with another year under our belts (does the rope we use to hold up our pants qualify as belts??) It has been a good year although there have been ups and downs just as there would be if we were home.

I have mentioned to Cheryl that I will have to be careful that I don't let my "damn, we are selling the boat" mood slip over into my gratitude for all we have experienced this year.

Although we didn't put as many knots on the boat this year as we did last year, mainly because we didn't sail to the ABC's and up to the Leewards, we still managed a goodly number of sailing days. I think probably we are up around the 3500 nm mark for the 2 years and considering we had never sailed before I guess that is pretty good.

So - our year. We were blessed with lots of people again this year. We started with Holly and Joe in Antigua, then Jason in April and Judy and Ivor in May. We also were able to hook up with Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia on Artemo in St Lucia. Unfortunately we never did get a chance to sail with them for any distance. Best laid plans...........

That reminds me of some realizations I have been having about where we have gone and where we have not gone. Cheryl and I had many discussions when we were in the ABC's last year about whether to go west or to stay in the Caribbean for another year. When we made the decision to stay in the Caribbean for another year and sail to Antigua and meet with Artemo and Holly and Joe, I was okay with that. By myself I likely would have been leaning toward continuing west but Cheryl leaned more to staying and taking all things into consideration we decided that staying was the better thing to do.

The reason I mention this now is because this blog is a retrospective in a sense and I now find myself struggling with the decision I was part of then. I know, I know, "Accept the things you cannot change' - and you can't change the past etc etc but I will definitely have to work on this!!!

So, onward - we made ourselves consciously more social this year, culminating in the Grenada Carnival where we shared the good times there with a number of couples we had met over the last two years. Another huge social event was the Canada Day celebration at Clarkes Court Bay where we shared a meal (ours was free because we had the best Canadian costume) with over 100 other cruising Canadians. We also became net controllers for the Coconut Telegraph and that was definitely a broadening of our social circle. We both still find that we are quite happy sharing this experience with each other most of the time though and we definitely did not become part of the "happy hour" crowd.

We are both glad to say that we made friends that we intend to keep in touch with when we are back in Canada - I would be remiss if I didn't mention Sue and Maurice on Strider in this intent - great folk!!!

What else - well, we have found ourselves much better sailors than we were when we started but the funny thing is this realization kind of dropped on us out of the blue - actually when we were checking our sailing times here in the Virgin Islands versus our times last year. It didn't seem that we consciously recognized "oh, we're doing this or we are doing that better". Who woulda thunk it!!!

Highlights of the year

- becoming a grandparent (me again and Cheryl for the first time)

- having a chance to go home and see the new granddaughter

- having Jason come down and visit

- being able to share that visit with the crew of Artemo

- having Holly and Joe come for a visit - meant a huge amount to us Holly

- having Judy and Ivor visit

- meeting lots of new people - see above

- we also have to include our sail from Curacao to Antigua, even though it was last year. Although it was tough sailing we can both look back with pride on the fact that we did it!!!!

I think the overall second place for highlight of this year is having the health and (relative) clarity of mind to be able to have these adventures

First place goes to being able to do all of this with each other.

I guess it wouldn't be truthful to paint the whole year as stress free. Our major stressor was of course our acreage - actually not our acreage but the tenants who lived on the acreage and this stressor is one of the main reasons we are coming home early. We also had the ongoing expense of sailing to contend with - but a very positive slant to that is although this whole experience has required a constant and very steep learning curve, we have both been up to the task. There is not very much that we would be unsure we could handle now, be it on the boat or at home. We just hope it doesn't cost as much at home as it does out here!!!

Now on to Christmas.

We decided that since we spent last Christmas on the hard (at the villa with Rob and the Perry's) added to the fact it will likely be our last Christmas in the Caribbean, that we would do it up tropical style. About the 16th we decorated the boat, including our little Christmas tree, tinsel and snowflakes. We have seen a number of the bigger boats with the outsides decorated too. We did some Christmas shopping in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas and Cruz Bay, St John and of course Cheryl did her pre-christmas thing in September.

It is now Christmas Eve day and we were net controllers for the Coconut Telegraph today so were able to wish all our friends the joy of the season. We are at an anchorage where we should be able to get fair wifi tomorrow so we can be in touch with family at home. We are hoping to go snorkelling today for a while and maybe again tomorrow. Our stockings are hung by the porthole with care and there are presents under the tree. We are both focussing on the fact that we will have this Christmas together even though we will also both miss our families very much. We are also trying not to let the fact that Cheryl leaves on the 31st and I stay until ???? interfere with the gratitude that we both feel for all of the joy that we provide for each other and that we get from our family and friends.

!!!!!HAVE THE HAPPIEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!!!

Francis Bay, St John - USVI (Jason this is the real one!)

Weeee're back!

Had a pretty good sail from Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas to Francis Bay although we sailed to the wind and not to specific waypoints. The difference is - sailing to waypoints you preplan your course and sail it based on setting up legs designed to get you from point A to B to C etc, meanwhile missing things like rocks and islands and all that stuff. You put the course into the chart plotter and the handheld GPS and then go from point to point. That works if you have winds and seas that cooperate. It is also usually used on longer trips.

Sailing to the wind is just what is says. You know where you are going but you get there using the wind to its' best advantage - each leg is sailed using the wind most advantageously. It usually involves lots of gybing and coming about (tacking) and is great for up here in the Virgins where the sailing is kind of line of sight due to the islands being so close. You still use the chart plotter but more as a map of where you are in relation to those rocks and islands you still want to miss!!

Anyway, back to Francis Bay - we were actually heading for Maho Bay, which is a small bay next to Francis Bay that, on the charts, seems more protected. As I said before, all of the National Park anchorages are protected so mooring balls are mandatory. When we got to Maho, we picked up a mooring ball and then of course the first thing we check is to see if we have wifi. Our friend Dave on Daniell Storey had said there was wifi in Francis so we hoped Maho would have it too but no such luck so we moved about 500 yards/metres into Francis Bay and were able to get a fair signal.

Francis Bay has 28 mooring balls and access to 3 beaches, Francis Bay, Maho Bay and what Cheryl and I called Little Maho. It is in the middle and has a path that leads up to an Eco-camp type resort. You stay in little cabins or tents BUT, because it has "Eco" attached to it they are still able to charge $155.00 Us per night. Go figure.

Some of the things we have done while we have been here - walked to Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay by accessing Maho beach and going southwest from there. Walked to Coral Cove (they call it Love City because it is a haven for hippies who still believe they are hippies) by heading southeast from Francis Bay beach. It is funny that although they are side by side, Francis Bay beach and Maho Bay beach do not connect over land and the roads that run behind them are different "highways".

We also walked to Watermelon Bay which is part of Leinster Bay on the north side of St John. While visiting these places we accessed the Annaberg ruins - an old sugar mill and Annaberg school about 5 miles away from the mill. The school was set up to educate the children of the ex-slaves who stayed to work when they were supposedly emancipated. There were supposed to be 5 schools set up but only one got used. This was all during the time that St John belonged to Denmark. The US bought St John from them for $25 million back in the early 1900's.

We also saw ruins of another sugar mill at Cinnamon Bay and we would periodically explore ruins that had no name and no way to tell what they had been or who used them. Incidentally, none of these ruins have been restored in the manner that most historical sites we visited down island have been. Local people have done some volunteer work but that was more just brush clearing and rubble removal and putting up signs that say don't climb on the ruins.

Needless to say, all of these walks that Cheryl and I went on were up and down hills that were constructed with no need to worry about snow so of course they were STEEP!! The shortest walk we did was likely 2 miles and the longest about 8 miles so we were definitely getting our exercise. Oh and we visited the "eco-camp" and noted in the mini-store they had there that the crunchy Cheetos (I used to have a weakness but got all better!!) were $7.70 US and when we looked at the same thing in a store in Coral Cove, they were $3.95 US. Eco-camp indeed!!

On these walks we also noted more animal life than we usually have seen on other islands. Of course we saw the usual goats and sheep, chickens and dogs. However we also saw deer, donkeys, pelicans and lots of termite nests. We even saw a row of termites going across the road. Termites are blind and follow each other head to tail. On the trees you can see their trails as raised dark brown lines on the trunk. There was a similar line going across the road. At one point it had been broken open, presumably by the sheep that had run ahead of us, and you could see the termites themselves. We have also seen lots of fish, both snorkelling along shore and beside the boat. Lots of fingerlings in both places. The fingerlings were so thick that at times you really couldn't see beyond the school. The numbers certainly explain why the pelicans are also numerous here. They sort of "jump" off the water, coast a couple of feet and then head back into the water beak first. Then they float and you can see them 'tossing' the fish from their beaks to their throats. Very interesting to watch.

I wanted to do this blog to catch up because we are hoping to do a Christmas blog from Caneel Bay, which we are going back to tomorrow so we will have a strong Wifi for Christmas Day.
So, next blog - Christmas!!!!

USVI - 2009

As promised, a small blurb first about the sail to St John, USVI. When we left Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke the skies looked ominous, with a whole bunch of small squalls looming. We had already cleared out so figured, what the heck, we won't have any problems - and we didn't really. I say that now and think of the last blog where I said we are better sailors now than we were then. This kind of showed itself because of course after we left JVD, it seemed all the squalls combined into a line to windward of us and then descended with a crunch.

We had the main and foresail up as we were sailing but the wind picked up quickly so we started to take the f0resail down but before I took the first full pull on the furling line, the wind and rain and total blindness hit us. We immediately turned into the wind to take the stress off the sails and keep us upright but we had left it a little late and I had to use all my strength and a few good primeval howls to bring the sail in. ho-hum, all in a days work.

We got to Caneel Bay, just around the corner from Cruz Bay, where customs reside, about noon. Practically the entire island of St John is a national park so there is no anchoring but the mooring balls are relatively inexpensive and very well maintained so we picked up a ball and went in to clear in and take a look around Cruz Bay. This is the capitol of St John and quite an interesting town although the prices and the kinds of shops they have are very much geared to tourists and cruise ships. Of course all of USVI is a very popular spot for american tourists as it belongs to the US, is fairly easy for them to get to and is duty free.

We stayed in Caneel Bay for 2 days and decided to sail down to St Thomas - Charlotte Amalie to be exact - to stock up and maybe do some Christmas shopping. When we were home in September Cheryl was thinking ahead and got me a Christmas present but of course I am very much into today and maybe tomorrow - further than that and I get confused - so I still had my shopping to do. Charlotte Amalie is the capital of St Thomas and is really kind of a neat city. We went for a long walk down the waterfront street and also checked into customs to ask for clarification on something we had been told by the Cruz Bay customs - that we didn't need to bother checking out when we left. The lady in customs said it was a good thing we had gone there because of course we do have to check out and knowing their paranoia, if we hadn't checked out they would have sent Homeland Security after us!!

After staying a couple of days in Charlotte Amalie we decided to sail up to Francis Bay on St John. This blog is running on so we will pick up the next blog on the way to Francis Bay.

On Caneel Bay

Then and Now

Here we go again - time to catch up!!

We last sent something about Tortola and what we were doing there so we will move on from there and talk about the rest of our BVI time.

We finally met with Clive and talked about the boat and how best to look at our decision to go home and look after our first love - our acreage.

For those of you who did not get the message, we have been having very bad luck with the renters we have had at the acreage.When we were home in September we were both very upset by the condition of the grounds as left by the last tenants and also with the seeming lack of interest by the tenants living there in September. Well, that situation got very much worse so with great sadness and regret we made the decision to sell Mystic Journey and come home. There were other factors of course - missing things going on with family that we wouldn't be able to instant replay and of course the ongoing expense of maintaining the boat. Overall it was the only sensible decision - of course for those who know me (Griff), when has that ever been a factor.

So, Clive was helpful and we did the paperwork necessary and the following day we left for Norman Island. This is a medium sized island with very little on it but a couple of restaurants and maybe a resort. The water is clear and the snorkeling is good though, so we spent a couple of days relaxing after quite a bit of pesky boat work. From the boat we watched three pelicans on the shore 'diving' from the rocks into the water. When we snorkeled past we could see why. The water between the large rocks was teaming with little fishes. The pelicans didn't have to dive very deep to get a beak full. We also saw some fish species that we hadn't seen before - a large grouper under the boat, a French Angelfish, Stoplight Parrot Fish (their tails are striped red, green and yellow down the middle). We also saw a ray, Sargent Major Fish and many, many more. The coral wasn't that spectacular, but the fish variety was. Unfortunately no pictures - no camera.

After we left Norman Island we stopped in Nanny Cay to fuel/water up, touch base with Clive and then sailed around to Little Harbour, Jost Van Dyke. We had a few reasons for going that way. We had enjoyed JVD both previous times we had been there, we wanted to see if our license plate was still up at Foxy's (it was although our signatures had worn away) and there are customs there so we could clear out before going to USVI. We stayed the first night at Little Harbour and the second at Great Harbour, where customs resides. As with most anchorages we have been in in BVI, both of these harbours had mooring balls. In Little Harbour we had barely picked up the mooring line when out came a couple of local boats. One was from a restaurant on shore with his menu. The other was Cynthia from Harris' Place, another restaurant. She had her menu, but she also was there to collect the $25US mooring fee. We were the first ones to pick up a mooring that day and we watched her do the same with every boat that came in after us.

While at Great Harbour we went for one of our normal walks - as usual mostly uphill - and we got adopted. There was a little dog - about 15" long and 6" high, with a back leg that had obviously been broken and not set. The paw as turned sideways and the leg didn't bend at the "knee" joint. Anyway, he adopted us and followed us on our journey. If we stopped, he would stop and wait in the shade and when we started again, he would stay with us. He was obviously known by the natives because three of four of them called him by name and tried to get him to come to them but he stayed with us all the way. The walk included some pretty steep uphill work but he persevered. He finally left us after we got back down to the village. Cool!!

Something we had both forgotten was the amount of constant wind up here. Maybe it is because it is the winter season and we are farther north or maybe we just have faulty memories but whatever the reason, our wind generator loves it. Of course there is also a lot more rain on a regular basis too but we take the good with the not as good.

The reason for the title relates to the wind and the sailing. We sailed from Fat Hog Bay to Norman Island to Nanny Cay to Jost Van Dyke (and we are now in Caneel Bay, St John, USVI) and each leg seemed to go so much quicker that we remembered. Just in case we were both getting Alzheimer's, we checked our logbook for the last time we were here and in fact we are getting around a lot faster. The other nice thing about the wind is we can sail everywhere, even though we have to do some tacking and gybing and stuff. It is so nice though to leave the anchorage and within minutes be sailing at 7-8 knots with total quiet. Of course we have to keep an eye out for "charterers" (you've heard of "them" of course) but the whole experience really shows how much our sailing skills have improved. We may even be sailors some day!!!

So, that is it for the BVI's for now. The next blog will be about our sail to here (nice big squall - high, high winds) and about some of the revisiting we are doing.

Stay tuned.

Trellis Bay

In the last blog we mentioned the Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay that we decided not to go to. Well later that week we decided to walk over to Trellis Bay to see what it was like. The guide books mentioned that it was a one minute walk from the airport. We had noticed the road sign for it when we walked to the airport (to access an ATM) and thought it was probably more than a one minute walk. Road signs here don’t give mileage. We headed along the road from the airport and walked for about 5 minutes before we saw the buildings of Trellis Bay on our right. Looking to the left sure enough there was the airport terminal and a paved road that was probably one minute’s walk.

Trellis Bay is a unique little village. It reminded me of some of the artist villages on the islands off Vancouver Island. The main building was a pottery studio and a studio for steel sculpturing and of course the usual store for selling the artists’ wares.

We did see some evidence of the Full Moon Party – the steel sculptured balls used for the fireballs, some wooden replicas of the stilt dancers which were full size and some of the masks that we assume were used during the stage presentation.

I guess the full moon party would have been fun except the weather was rainy and you couldn’t see the moon and although we did attend the carnival in Grenada with thousands of other people and lots of loud music and crowd noise, we are still basically “stay on the boat at night” people so we were just as happy looking at the party trappings in the daylight and at our leisure .
Maybe when we get back to Canada we will start a tradition of at least one full moon party a year at the acreage. Wanna come????

Bloggin' On In BVI

So here we were in Virgin Gorda thinking it is time to move. We wanted to see our friend Clive and talk about the boat while we were in BVI so after talking to him on the phone, he suggested sailing over to Fat Hog Bay on Tortola and meeting him there. So we did - sail over that is. As in the other anchorages, there were a lot of mooring balls taking up space and since our charts said the bay was quite shallow, we decided to take a mooring ball until we could explore the bay a little better.

The sail over we no big whoop - lots of charter boats to miss on the way but we had a bit of wind so it didn't take long. The bay itself is quiet although quite close to the perimeter road on Tortola. There are three small marinas there and Clive suggested we touch base with Walter at Penns Landing as he is very accommodating. We did that and he is a really nice guy - there are showers and nice washrooms. We went walking a couple of times, once towards Roadtown, the capital of Tortola and once towards the airport and Trellis Bay. Trellis Bay is where they have the full moon parties which apparently are quite exciting - burning fireballs on the beach, special music, Mocko Jumbie stilt dancers and lots of arts and crafts to see. We had talked about anchoring there but heard on the Coconut Telegraph that it is really really crowded with charter boats. It also sits right at the end of the runway for the airport on Beef Island. We considered going to the full moon party on December 2 from Fat Hog Bay but it is quite a distance to walk at night and no sidewalks.

We talked to Clive by phone and found he couldn't make it to the boat until after the weekend so we decided to go to Marina Cay, a trip of about six nm around the corner of Beef Island. Marina Cay is a small piece of land kind of surrounded by Grand Camanoe, Scrub Island and Tortola. There is a dock there and of course mooring balls. Again, they take up all of the good anchoring area unless we wanted to anchor in 30 feet or more of water, which we don't like to do, so we took a mooring ball.

The Cay has a Pussers store and a small resort hotel as well as a fuel dock. Pussers are world renowned for their rum (I think they originated with the British Navy)and they have stores in a number of different places. Something interesting if you want to see our picture latest and up-to-datest. There is a red phone booth on the dock that takes pictures every 15 seconds and sends the pictures to their website so if you want to see us, go to www.pussers.com/redbox/archive. There is a spot where you can put in a date and time and it will show the pictures from that time - well actually is shows a couple of minutes before and after. You can go to Nov 29 at 3:15:46 or Nov 30 at 2:41:16. Kind of neat.

Marina Cay was the scene of a book called "Our Virgin Island" written by Robb White in 1953 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robb_White) and you can still see the house where he and his wife lived up to WWII. It is now a bar.

We also saw another instance of the "danger" of charterers. We had watched a boat come in towards the middle of the afternoon the day before. There was a guy standing on the front giving directions to the helmsman while someone else stood by with the boat hook. The guy standing at the front was one of these guys - you know the type - posed like Washington crossing the Delaware - giving instructions like "hold your course", "cut the engine" etc etc. When they hooked up they tied the mooring line directly to their boat instead of using their own mooring lines (the proper way) although the helmsman did run up with a line which they used somehow on the cleat.

Anyway, that was just an indication because when they left they started out across a reef clearly marked with a red buoy. They got in far enough that they must have hit bottom but luckily for them they were able to back out - but "charterers!!!!!

Stay tuned.

Catching Up

It is easy to get behind - at least for me - so it is time for a catch-up blog.

We last blogged from St Maarten just prior to leaving for BVI. It was a Sunday and we were able to catch the 5:30 evening bridge opening and were off for an overnight. Again the winds had been forecast to give us a broad reach - from the side and back. This is normally a good wind for us although Mystic Journey likes the wind from the side/front. Again - as usual - the winds were more a following wind than from the side.

For those uninitiated, although it seems to make sense that wind from the back will push the boat better, in fact (unless you sail wing on wing or with a spinnaker - more about that in a moment) it doesn't. For one thing, if you put the main sail out to catch the full wind, you very effectively block the foresail - the speed sail - and the staysail, which also adds umph to the speed. Sailing wing on wing or with a spinnaker at night in waters where you might unexpectedly get wind shifts is not my cup of tea. Taking down either set of sails at night with seas of 8-9 feet from the side is not a pleasant job and even if the winds cooperate and you are able to leave the wing on wing up, with the seas that high from the side and heavy poles stuck out opposite sides of the boat (the whisker pole for the foresail and the boom for the main sail), the boat rolls to the extreme.

Enough of that stuff - bottom line is that the seas were as I said and we had a following wind most of the way so again we spent a lot of time looking for a "sailing wind". Overall, though, it was a good night with the moon about 1/3 towards full so we had some light when the storm clouds didn't block it. Oh, didn't I mention that we sailed through a couple of storms?? Not to worry though, they didn't have squall winds along with them, just lots of moisture.

We got to Virgin Gorda about 7:30 AM and temporarily hooked up to a mooring ball outside the marina at Spanish Town, the capital of Virgin Gorda. We went in and cleared customs and when we got back out we moved and dropped the hook (the anchor).

We had forgotten how many charter boats there are here in BVI and as a result of the chartering business, the majority of the anchoring spots have been invaded by Moor Secure, a company that puts mooring balls down in all these places and then charges $25 US a night to use them. If you are careful you can still sneak in and use the anchor so that is what we did.

As I said, the last time we were here there were a lot of chartered boats out and about. Well, this time it seems to be about 3 times worse. One morning, before coffee break, Cheryl counted over 30 boats sailing between us and Tortola and out of the 12 mooring balls at the anchorage we were at, I would estimate that on the average, 10 had charter boats on them. We saw the result of that one afternoon. I had just gone below for something and heard a loud bang. Went on deck and saw a guy who appeared to have started his motor, probably to charge the batteries and he had just run full tilt into the (non-charter) boat that was on the mooring ball in front of him. There was no one aboard the other boat but he waited around and eventually the people came back and ended up going in to the marina, probably to get the damage assessed.

Something else that was of interest - fuel is fairly expensive on most of the islands, probably because of the shipping costs, among other things. Well, for Virgin Gorda they have another problem - access for the tankers.

One morning we noticed that some friends we had met who were from Whitby, ON had moved their boat from where they were, out towards the channel, to up beside us. The reason soon became evident. A fuel tanker came up beside the anchorage and anchored parallel to the channel that the ferry uses to get into Spanish Town. It then proceeded to put a fuel line overboard where it was picked up by one of their tenders. The tender then took the fuel line, which they fed out from the tanker, into the fuel depot which was beside the ferry dock. The fuel line, as it was fed off the ship, had orange float balls attached about every 100 ft so the whole thing floated on top of the water. In spite of the brightly coloured floats, it was surprising (or not) how many people in boats or dinghies tried to pass over the fuel line to go into the marina. There was a guy on the tanker who manned the air horn and every time someone started that way he would blow and the crew would yell until whoever it was got the idea and went around back.

We did some walking on Virgin Gorda and some snorkelling and some grocery shopping and some laundry and that kept us occupied until we left for Fat Hog Bay.

Here are a few snorkelling pictures. Our 'waterproof' camera quit working again after we took these pictures. We had found an old shipwreck about 100 feet off our port bow. There were a lot of fish and coral making their homes there.

Stay tuned - same bat time, same bat channel.

"For Lack of a Nail"....The Alternator Saga

Well, there we were in St Maarten to get something for the boat that we couldn't reasonably get anywhere else. The reason we were in there and the resulting non-affordable outflow of our hard earned money is why I titled this blog the way I did. We told you that the alternator went bad in Nevis - so - here are the connections to the expenditures

Go to St Kitts Marina to get an expert to look things over (no cost) - result - the dock boys pulled Mystic Journey's prow into the cement dock making a major boo-boo - cost of the St Kitts marina

Go to St Maarten (we hadn't intended to go there at all but it was the only place we could get the expertise for a very, very puzzling problem) - extremely expensive entry into Simpson Bay Lagoon. (The gov't is taking over the Lagoon because the present caretakers - through fiscal mismanagement - have driven away all but the super yachts.)

Cost of bench testing the 2 alternators we had - the one that went bad and the spare. The spare was good but the system was still bad - hence the one that went bad.

Cost of moving into the marina for 3 days so the prow of the boat could be repaired (boat boys in St Kitts!).

Having an expert electrician come in the troubleshoot the charging system

Purchase of a new alternator to replace the one that went bad PLUS, purchase of an automatic charging relay to change the design of the system - not directly related to the system problem but a much better end result system.

Purchase of a new improved external regulator for the alternator - necessary to avoid overheating due to high current.

Cost of having the prow of the boat repaired and repainted

So, all of the above highlighted stuffies were the result of the charging system frying an alternator. Oh, and as Cheryl just mentioned, we suffered a goodly number of sleepless nights trying to troubleshoot the original problem - which incidentally was inherent in the initial installation back in BVI in 2007 - it just never popped it's ugly head up. Don't know why I decided to tell you all this except when Cheryl and I talked about it and realized how it all tied together - "for lack of a nail"!!!!

St Maarten is actually a neat island. As we had probably said before, half belongs to the Netherlands and half to France but there is no border per se on land. If you are yachting you can come into the Lagoon either through the French side or the Dutch side. All of the boat repair facilities are on the Dutch side and since the Lagoon is about 12 sq miles, if we had come in the French side we would have had a long dinghy ride just to get the stuff done.



The island has a very European flavour to it. The main road that runs by the Lagoon has 3-4 casinos and many, many restaurants as well as lots of French pastry shops. Lots of resorts on the island and most countries have direct flights to and from, including Canada with West Jet.


The people are friendly for the most part and in spite of all the resorts and the fact that the main currency is the US$ (they use guilders too on the Dutch side and Euros on the French side), prices are quite reasonable. There was a 8 theatre cineplex just up the road. We almost walked up to see "2012" but figured we could get it on DVD when we get back!!

Lots of dogs running loose, even though there is a very active Animal Shelter organization. When we walked over to look at the cineplex we saw a bunch keeping cool in the shade of the parking lot. You could really hear them at night also.

And while I am on the subject of animals, when we were in St Kitts we noticed a pet store that advertised Exotic Tropical Fish - ""Fresh Water Aquarium Fish"" we thought that was quite strange.

So, after having solved our problems in St Maartens, we decided to continue our journey to the BVI's and leave for Virgin Gorda on Sunday night. Next blog will talk about that. One thing we were really happy to discover - fixing the charging problem the way we did has resulted in a vast improvement in all aspects of our charging and battery system. It is finally working like I thought it should but had been told it wouldn't and that "that was okay" In other words - the system is optimized - hurrah for our side!!!

Simpson Bay Bridge SNAFU

You may remember from our last visit to Sint Maarten that there is a lift bridge that we have to go through in order to get into the lagoon. Friends of ours had told us that the schedule for the bridge now was opening only at 6AM and 6PM instead of three times a day because they were doing bridge maintenance. We arrived in Simpson Bay midday Sunday so we knew we wouldn't be able to go in until 6PM and we weren't to keen on anchoring after dark so resigned ourselves to staying in the bay overnight and going through the bridge the next morning. However, when we went to Customs and Immigration the lady at the Port Authority said the bridge was back to regular operating hours - 930AM, 1130AM and 530PM. We decided to still remain overnight in the bay and go through the bridge at 0930 the next morning, which was a Monday. At 530PM that evening we watched other boats go in and because it was already getting dark were glad that we had decided on the morning entrance.

Next morning while listening to the Cruisers' Net at 0730, mention was made that the bridge was not back on regular hours. Griff hopped in the dinghy and headed over to the Port Authority where he was assured the bridge was back on regular hours. That was about 0800. By 0830 we were getting ready to lift anchor in preparation for the opening at 0930. At 0855 Griff heard someone in the lagoon calling the Bridge Operator to see if the bridge would be up for him to leave the lagoon at 0900. Boats in the lagoon go out through the bridge before boats can come in. He was informed that the bridge was not on normal operating hours, but would be open again at 6PM that night. Once again we had to change our plans because of external circumstances beyond our control.

We went by dinghy into the lagoon and organized the repairs we would be needing. Since the bay was very rolly and we had spent a poor night we decided to go through the bridge at 6PM even though it meant anchoring in the dark.

530PM arrived and we started raising the anchor. Sometimes when we raise the anchor the chain gets caught and Griff needs to use a large screwdriver to release it. Today was one of those times. To top it off he dropped the screwdriver into the bay. Anyway he got the anchor up and we got into position to enter the lagoon. Everything was going well until the boat in front of us was just entering the bridge opening. The Bridge Operator announced that incoming boats were to stop. The light had turned red and we realized that there were blue flashing lights and sirens at the bridge. We were still moving forward at about 4.5 kts so Griff put the boat in reverse which stopped forward movement, but when in reverse our prop walk turns the stern of the boat to port especially when the rpm's are high like they were then because we were trying to stop quickly. We ended up cross ways in the channel. Remember this is after 6PM and dark. There are lights from land, but they don't really light up the channel that well. Griff deftly turned Mystic Journey and again we were facing the bridge. We watched as the bridge came down, an ambulance headed across and the bridge went up again. We were given the green light and proceeded into the lagoon.

This picture shows the open bridge from the lagoon side. (It's actually from when we left the lagoon last time. That's Mystic Journey's side deck in the foreground.) The position of the red boat is approximately where we were when we were turned sideways in the channel.

By now it was quite dark, no moon and very little light from shore. Fortunately one of the sailboats that went through the bridge before us still had their navigation lights on and we were able to use those as a guide for where we could drop anchor. We did this and managed to get it to grab the first time. We set the anchor alarm, had supper, watched our usual evening DVD's and went to bed hoping the alarm would not go off. We were able to sleep until 6AM when the alarm went off. Fortunately it was because we had swung around on the anchor and not because our anchor was dragging. Our position in relation to the other boats was unchanged.

A new day arrived and we could now concentrate on getting the boat repaired.

Side Trip to Isle Forchue and Another Fish Story

Half way up the windward coast of St. Kitts we decided that the wind was not cooperating again - it was from behind us. If we continued on our planned route to Marigot Bay, St. Martin (the French side) it would take until after dark to get there; if we changed our plans and took a side trip to St. Bart's we would arrive there about 2PM. Needless to say we opted for the side trip to St. Bart's, 'yellow flagging' it at Isle Forchue one of St. Bart's marine parks. The sail was still not ideal, but at least the wind was more favourable and the seas remained flat. We were still using the AC generator to charge the batteries.

Griff decided to try fishing yet again. Another fish story about the one that got away. Griff was using the hand held fishing reel that we had bought on Union Island as a souvenir of the Grenadines. As usual he was relaxed behind the wheel when suddenly he felt a large tug on the line. He gave a huge pull to set the hook and said "this time I got him". Next thing he knew, the fish grabbed back - in spades!!! He grabbed for the line, which was whizzing off the reel, but before he could get a good grip on the reel it got yanked right out of his hands, went flying across and out of the cockpit and hit the lifeline and stanchion on the side of the boat. The only thing that saved it was the fact that the handle broke and the remaining piece got hung up on the lifeline. Needless to say that was one big fish that got away. (Griff here - it must have been absolutely huge - honest!!)

The other thing that happened on this trip as well as the trip from Dominica was that two large cargo ships/tankers came very close to us. The one from Dominica passed behind us, went along our starboard side, crossed our bow and then headed back the way it came along our port side. The one this trip came up on our starboard side, meaning she had the right of way except we were sailing therefore we should have had the right of way. However, since she was much bigger than us and moving faster we gave way so that she would pass in front of our bow with room to spare.

We finally got to St. Bart's which is a French island. As with other French islands if you don't go into the major centres they don't seem to mind if you 'yellow flag' your stay. We sailed past Pain de Sucre (Sugar Loaf), an island just off the main harbour of Gustavia and went to Isle Forchue. This is a privately owned island that is also a marine park. They have mooring balls in place and when we arrived we were all alone in the bay. Later two other boats came and moored as well. We went snorkelling to check the state of the mooring and also just to snorkel. The mooring was good - large rope in good shape attached to a large cement block. Although there wasn't a reef to swim around the shore had lots of boulders with corals and fish. Maybe not as spectacular as the Tobago Cays, but there seemed to be a larger variety of fish and we didn't have to fight the surge of the surf.

We spent a quiet night and headed to St. Maarten the next morning. We decided to go the Dutch side since that was where all the businesses were that we needed to access. Next blog is on St. Maarten. We haven't had any recent comments so if anyone is still reading our blogs stay tuned!

Alternators and Other Woes

Well the storm was over and the deck was clean. It was now time to start the engine so we could recharge the batteries. Turned the engine on and no rpm's registering on the tachometer. This is usually an indication that the alternator belt has stretched or broken so Griff heads downstairs to check. The belt was tight and nothing was charging so we turned the engine off and started the AC generator to charge the batteries. Thank God we had bought that generator in Grenada last year.

Griff then started to trouble shoot. We checked voltages in the wiring, he pulled out the alternator and replaced it with our spare. The problem with that process was first he had to pull the alternators apart. When we had the alternator installed in BVI in February 2008 the electrician had removed the internal regulator and used an external regulator. Now Griff had to modify our back-up in the same way. Once he had that done he installed the back-up and started the engine. This time the tachometer was registering rpm's and the batteries were charging, but in less than a minute the smoke detector went off - the alternator was overheating and the batteries were overcharging. Back to square one.

Griff again pulled the alternators apart and reinstalled the back-up. Again things worked, but the system was overcharging. By this time it was supper time and Griff decided to sleep on the problem and try again in the morning.

Morning arrived and the problem hadn't changed. Griff phoned a fellow on St. Kitts who was listed in our Doyle's Guide as being able to help with yacht mechanical problems. David of Indigo Yachts told Griff that it would be best if we went to St. Kitts so he could have a look at things. He said it would be safe to run the engine with the field disconnected so that we could get movement from the engine, but would not do any charging. So we headed over to St. Kitts, a 11nm trip. Poor wind again so it was a good thing we did have the engine for power.

We decided to go into the marina in Basseterre to make it easier for David to access the boat. Now comes the Other Woes. The marina is only a few years old, but it is not really cruiser friendly. Most of the slips are taken up with either local fishing boats or local tour/sightseeing catamarans. They have short finger docks with pelican poles similar to the marina we stayed in in Trinidad, but the finger docks are much shorter. There were two men on the dock to assist and we felt everything would be good. However, that was not to be. I passed the bowline to the dock master and he wrapped it around the cleat at the end of the finger dock - about midships. Griff had stopped the boat's forward motion by briefly putting it in reverse. He then left the cockpit to get the stern line around the pelican pole. For some reason after I threw the second bowline to the second man on the dock the dock master moved the first bowline from midships to the bow. They both started pulling forward. Because Griff had not secured the pelican line yet Mystic Journey started moving forward. Before I could get into the cockpit and put her in reverse the bow made contact with the cement dock. OUCH!!!!! We now have a boo-boo on the prow of the boat. Another one of those things not planned for but requiring money to fix. Fortunately it is just cosmetic, not structural.

Back to the alternator. David came and looked at the alternators and Griff explained what was happening. He felt the alternators were probably okay, but he would access the company's website and try to find some schematics for us. He also said that we would be better off heading to St. Maarten because the testing equipment and technicians we would require would be best accessed there. We considered staying in St. Kitts for a couple of days to do a little bit on the island, but then decided we would head out the next day for St. Maarten, a 51nm trip.

Because we would need to charge batteries during the trip, Griff set up the AC generator on deck so we could use it for charging underway. Fortunately the seas are fairly low right now, although when Griff went to start the generator the starter cord failed and there he was at sea fixing the AC generator in the cockpit. It always amazes me how he takes things in stride and does what needs to be done.

We headed out to Major's Bay at the south end of St. Kitts for the night and left for St. Maarten at daybreak from there so we could go up the windward side of the island. Don't want to sound like "whine, whine, whine", but the winds were still low and from the rear so it was one of those find the wind if you can trips. That was the main reason we decided to stop at Isle Fourchou - which will be talked about in the next blog. (Griff here - Cheryl is a literal blog machine the last few days!!!!!)