The Pitons to Rodney Bay

Before reading this entry check out the link to Facebook in the comments for Jason's blog "Vacation to this!?!" and the pictures added to our blog "St. Lucia and Part of the Family".

The days after Jason left were busy ones. The day he left we went snorkeling again with the Perrys. Amelia is quite adept at diving down and pointing out various aquatic creatures. She pointed out sea worms, flamingo tongues and various fishes. The flamingo tongues are interesting – they are ‘snails’ (creatures with shells) that attach themselves to the sea fans and feed off of them. I had collected these shells on beaches, but did not know what they were.

Amelia spent Sunday night with us on Mystic Journey. We had a throw together supper, our supplies are running low, and then watched HAIRSPRAY. Amelia seemed to enjoy the movie and pointed out the song she had sung in a production at their school. Monday morning arrived and Alex rowed over with fresh banana muffins baked by Julie. Later Alex came back with his school books and the three of us finished off the music portion of their art lessons. Amelia has a beautiful singing voice and after she felt comfortable with the song, London Bridge, she has to record and send it in. I showed her how to play the song on the recorder. She picked that skill up quickly and was playing the song by memory within a short time. Alex in the meantime was tackling music transposition. He did very well with that, with only very minor corrections needing to be done so he could send it in. I learned a lot helping Alex with this lesson. I have never attempted transposing music before although I was aware of the theory. Thanks Alex for the opportunity to learn.

That evening we spent on the boat preparing for leaving the next mooring. The Perrys visited with their friends on STRAY KITTY.

Tuesday morning we went over to ARTEMO, mainly because we had to take the dinghy off the davits so we could take the motor off, but also to say goodbye. We were just saying goodbye and having a cup of tea when it started to rain and I realized that we had left the hatches open so off we went back to Mystic Journey to batten down the hatches . Julie followed us to download some movies on to our computer for us. More goodbyes and then off we went, headed back to Rodney Bay. We are headed back there to await the arrival of our friends, Judy and Ivor, who are arriving at the beginning of May. We may also head to Martinique for a while before they arrive.

The trip back to Rodney Bay was uneventful. Griff enjoyed himself immensely. Just off Soufriere the wind changed from ESE, behind us, to NE, on our bow, so we were on a close reach which is the point of sail that Mystic Journey seems to do best. The winds varied from 5 knots to gusts of 18 knots. We were doing 6.5 knots SOG (speed over ground as registered by the GPS) when the wind was 10 knots and 7.5 knots SOG with 15 knots of wind. That’s pretty damn good considering that the wind is coming from the front. When I said Griff enjoyed himself that was because we were actually able to turn the engine off and actually sail. He also turned the autopilot off and so he could steer the boat. I am still not totally comfortable with sailing heeled over, but I am sure that comfort level will return to what it was before the squall off Curacao.

Three hours and a bit after we left the Pitons we arrived at Rodney Bay. Now for the “exciting” part of the trip. We checked out the anchorage and decided we wanted to be a little closer to the entrance to the marina so we wouldn’t have the long dinghy ride in for supplies. We picked out a spot and proceeded to drop anchor. Griff had the usual problem of the chain jamming as it was going out. We did get the anchor down and enough chain let out when ------ the engine warning light came on, the engine was overheating. We could not set the anchor (get it dug into the sea floor) because for that we need the engine in reverse at high RPM’s. Soooooooooooo up came the anchor and we were ready to try again. The short time the engine was off was enough to cool it down and we were able to try again. Again we couldn’t set the anchor properly and we started dragging. Griff checked the exhaust of the engine and realized that there was no water going through the system to cool the engine and that was why it was overheating. This time when we got the anchor up we pulled out the staysail and headed away from the other boats and out towards the entrance to the bay. I stayed above decks and kept the boat sailing while Griff went below deck to fix the engine. I tacked back and forth across the mouth of the bay, but realized that the wind was not co-operating and it was difficult to do the tacks by myself. Griff came up and we managed to get into an area that was 25 feet deep and decided to drop the anchor so that he would have a steadier place to work on the engine. He had discovered that the saltwater pump had stopped working and would need to be replaced. Fortunately we did have a new pump he could use. Two hours after entering the harbour we had an operating engine again and weighed anchor to head to a spot closer to shore. Dropped anchor again and settled in.

We were both exhausted by the time sunset came and were in bed by 8PM. It was so nice to sleep without the rolling we experienced in the Pitons. This morning we were able to hear the Coconut Net - our reception in the Pitons was poor to none since we were so close to Petit Piton -and we had the opportunity to talk with Julie on the SSB. She came on the net asking for traffic with us and we hooked up that way.

Today will be spent catching up – writing blogs, putting pictures in other blogs, cleaning the boat, and replenishing the cupboards and fridge.

So this gives you an idea of the ups and downs of sailing life.