Still here

We woke up this morning to the sound of rolling chain. It's pretty common that boats arrive in the morning or evening and the sound of chain usually prompts us to pop our heads out the hatch and check out the change in the neighborhood. But sometimes the sound is deeper, which means a bigger boat, like a megayacht. And then sometimes it's much deeper. This morning was really deep so we knew we had big company. But we're getting a little jaded so we didn't even bother to get out of bed. Then ten minutes later, more big chain, and five minutes later, even more! So we popped our heads up like prairie dogs, and there was not one, but two cruise ships. The second (closer in the photo) had dropped two anchors. Their scale so totally dwarfs everything else that they dominate the scenery. And come evening they will light up the entire area. Fortunately they rarely stay more than the day and don't show up very often. I guess Christmas cruises must be popular.

We've been working away on our annual maintenance. We've upgraded software and setup our weather retrieval systems. The last two days were spent servicing winches; totally disassembling the winches into a myriad of gears and parts, each cleaned, dried, lubricated and then reassembled.

The winches sound so much quieter and smoother that despite the totally grungy job it's pretty satisfying. We've easily got another 4-5 days of stuff to do so we'll stay here through New Years, then head to Los Roques.

And what better place to finish up the annual maintenance than where Fay can quickly get to shore and return laden with fresh baguettes and French pastries?

Where's New Morning is back

Thanks to winlink.org, you can once again check out our current position. And as we build history with our winlink reporting you can also see our historical positions at ShipTrak.org. See them both at Where's New Morning.

Hotel Les Saintes

Hotel California - you can check in, but you can never check out.
Fay goes to the gendarmes today to check in, but they tell her that the fax machine is broken and they can't check us in. But no worries, we can stay as long as we like, but we must check out. So only in France...
Hotel Les Saintes - you can't check in, but you must check out!

Les Saintes

We arrived in Les Saintes last night. It was a really sweet sail that began with 40+ miles of broad reaching from Antigua at 8-9kts. Then a mix of motoring and flat water sailing down the west coast (lee side) of Guadeloupe, then two hours of hard on the wind in 20-25kts with the wind coming directly from our destination. We departed at dawn (6:30 - local sunrise) and arrived about 5:00, just before sunset, to cover the 76 miles of total distance. We're anchored a couple of hundred yards off the little town of Bourg de Saintes and I can see our anchor on the bottom in 33' of water. We slept last night with a gentle cool breeze coming through the hatch above our heads, the first time we've felt that since last May. And this morning we were treated to a rainbow diving into the water at our favorite snorkeling spot at Pain de Sucre. It's good to be off the dock!

We felt like we needed to get clear of Antigua, but she clung on to us to the last. Coming out of the Dockyard Marina, where we were med moored while the port quarter was repaired, the anchor was caught on a chain on the bottom (apparently a frequent occurrence) which required about 30minutes of fancy maneuvering to get New Morning spun around and pulling the anchor in the opposite direction before we finally came free.

Now we're trying to finalize a major change in our schedule which will slow down the trip. Stay tuned for details.

Dockside Entertainment

With the coming and going of boats, and the work being done at the dock, there is a saying that you either watch the entertainment, or you are the entertainment. Yesterday morning, we were the entertainment.

Fay and I were blissfully resting in bed, luxuriating in the idea that we would be departing the dock later in the day and no longer on someone else's schedule. We would sail to Green Island, check out the systems for a couple of days (while waiting for excessive wind and seas to pass), then head for points south and west.

Then the sound of the wind increased, I read 33 knots and climbing fast on the wind speed, the boat heeled, went "thump" and Fay said "we hit something". I came flying out of the forward cabin in a pair of shorts and saw we were pinned at about 45 degrees to the dock. Our anchor had pulled. It hadn't dragged in the usual sense because when we pulled it up there was about half a cubic yard of mud attached to the anchor. The bottom into which the anchor was buried had separated from the surrounding ground.

Everyone on the dock rallied to our assistance and within 20 minutes our anchor had been hauled out in a dinghy, it was set and holding us off the dock once again. Then a second line to a mooring (that we had not known about) was hauled in as a backup. But the damage was done. The port side of the swim platform, and a bit of the radar post, had been ground up by the concrete on the dock. Red fairing compound was exposed all over with a bit of fiberglass visible in spots.

Stan from Antigua Rigging contacted Steve at Precision Yacht Painting who arrived 10 minutes later (on a Saturday morning and dressed for a cricket match) and he quickly covered the damage with polyester to ensure there would be no water intrusion. After a conversation with Steve and Stan we concluded that it needed a proper repair with Awlfair fairing compound, primer and Awlgrip top coat.

With the wind and seas forecasted to increase, and the large fetch at the Catamaran Marina it was suggested that Nelson's Dockyard would be a better work environment. We packed up, said our goodbyes and moved to Nelson's Dockyard. Fortunately, in spite of the crosswind, we were much milder entertainment when backing into our berth at the dockyard!

Steve arrived at 8am this morning and began working so it looks like we'll be in Antigua for a few more days. As you can see, we're Med moored at Nelson's Dockyard where the buildings date back to the 16th century, and the local HotHotHot Coffee Spot sells the "Obama smoothie", half chocolate, half vanilla. Johnny Coconut's pizza and Italian food is just across the harbor; life in the trailer park.

Whittling down the list

When we got back to Antigua, Lyman Morse had the warranty work finished and everything was in great shape.  That cleared the way for Fay and I to start on the long list of maintenance and other things that needed to get done before we departed.

Fay did lots of provisioning, filling both freezers, the refrigerator, the pantry, and the wine locker!  Then just when we thought we could hold no more, a local fisherman showed up at our transom with 25lbs of Wahoo fillets.  Now we're totally provisioned and have very little motivation to fish for awhile.

I've been working on annual maintenance and remedial maintenance.  The engine took a lot of time as what I had thought would be just changing some fuel filters turned into much more.  Sometime in the previous couple of engine hours the nut had fallen off the bottom bolt on the starboard alternator, causing it to shred both of it's belts.  Then a routine check of the other bolts found all the shaft coupling bolts loose.  But eventually we got the belts changed, the bolts tightened, the fuel filters changed, and the engine compartment cleaned up.

The list went on and on with updated software for the plotter, lubrication of everything on deck, completing the installation and interfaces to the new autopilot, setting up our new passarelle, installing a protective boot around the based of the jib furler, picking up some spares, eliminating leaks in the high pressure lines on the watermaker and on and on.

We went out for a couple of test sails with our RollGen spinnaker furler.  The first day was discouraging so we went back, read the instructions, made some changes to the furler installation and the furling line arrangement.  The second day was much better and after an hour or so just Fay and I were able to set and furl our 1,800sq ft spinnaker.  And the new autopilot did a great job of steering off the wind, never wandering.  In 12-14 of true wind the spinnaker gave us an additional two knots of boat speed so we're looking forward to using it.

But in the course of the testing, Stan from Antigua Rigging noticed that our main sail luff was loading the lower two cars.  Since we don't want a failure on the main sail in mid-Pacific we had the main removed and added both a strap for a cunningham as well as increased the reinforcement around the lower two cars.  The list never ends, but once the main is back on the mast we'll be ready to go.

Leaving Dominica

Tomorrow we return to Antigua after 9 great days in Dominica. The hiking was vertical and slippery, but the views were stunning.

Jungle Bay has carved out a niche that I can only call "rustic luxury". Bare board cottages that remind me of 1930's farm houses, but with great ocean views, outdoor showers (with hot water), and a daily massage! Plus, no mosquitoes, which was a welcome relief.

The diving was warm and we saw fish we had never seen before. First off was a sail fish (like a sword fish, but with a big dorsal fin "sail"), probably 6-8' long, a pelagic fish that is not usually seen when diving. Then we saw sea horses (real ones), jaw fish (pile up rocks around a hole like praire dogs), moray eels, garden eels (always entertaining), file fish, etc, etc.

Tomorrow we return to Antigua where Steve has done a great job fixing some major issues. We plan to spend a few days making sure everything is working, stock up the the fridge and freezer. We'll probably spend a few days at Green Island making sure everything is working, then head to Les Saintes.

Updates

The Locavore page for Antigua has been updated with additional information on stores and farmer's markets. Our "schedule" has also been updated.

Dominica

We're really enjoying our time in Dominica. It is incredibly rugged, lush and green. The hiking is arduous, but the scenery is spectacular. Yesterday we went scuba diving in Soufriere and saw a huge turtle munching on coral like a cow eating grass. Steve is making good progress on New Morning but we'll be here at least another 3-4 days. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Back to the dock

We returned to the Catamaran Marina yesterday. Lyman Morse will be
here today to do additional warranty work which is estimated to take
about a week. While they work on the boat we're going to take a trip
to Dominica and do some hiking and scuba diving. Dominica does not
have lots of good anchorages so we decided we'll take the opportunity
to explore it by land rather than by boat. The hiking and diving are
supposed to be outstanding so we've packed our bags and the taxi picks
us up at 2pm.

Off the dock

On Sunday we finally got off the dock. The dinghy was inflated, the
outboards fueled and lubricated, the water tanks filled and we made
our escape. We're now anchored in Freeman's Bay, English Harbour.

It's a little cooler here, and we don't pay dockage fees. There was a
spectacular electrical storm last night as a big front is passing to
the north. Fortunately not too much wind, but a good rain left the
decks sparkling clean!

The weather is unsettled and the wind and waves are confused so the
anchorage is pretty rolly, even with the flopper-stopper deployed.
Now we have a long list of things to do before we can leave Antigua,
but we hope to escape next week for a week or so. Then we'll head
back to Falmouth so Lyman Morse can do some additional work. We're
tentatively planning on a dive trip to Dominica while they work on
the boat.

New mattress

Yesterday was another big step forward. The new Tempur-Pedic mattress
that we shipped down from the states was cut to fit our bunk and moved
onto the boat. That allowed us to move out of the hotel and spend our
first night on the boat since we returned to Antigua.

So now we've completed two steps of our three step plan. Step 1 was
to get back in the water. step 2 was to move onto the boat, and step
3 will be to get off the dock. Step 3 is waiting on finishing up all
the high water consumption projects (cleaning the boat, washing
clothes, etc.), servicing the outboards so they're ready for another
year, filling the propane tanks, buying gas for the outboards, and
then inflating the dinghy. With luck we'll reach step 3 on Sunday.

First sail

It's been a very busy week since we put New Morning back in the
water. The weather has been mostly hot, but then very rainy for a day
(with lots of lightning), followed by totally still air and horribly
hot/humid conditions for two days while hurricane Ida (though far
away) pushed back the trade winds. The water is still 84-85F
(compared to 82F in the winter) and it's usually about 88-90F inside
the boat, with 70% humidity. Lots of fluids are the order of the
day. Today the trade winds returned and cooled things down a bit,
though it's still quite warm below decks.

Much of the last week was focused on working with Lyman Morse, and
various subcontractors, as they finished up some major warranty work
on our refrigerators and freezers. It was an enormous project but one
which they have executed very meticulously. There are still some
items to be finalized, but the boxes are chilling!

We were also working with Antigua Rigging to get the boat re-rigged,
sails bent on and our new autopilots finished up. And then in the
middle of everything the fresh water pump quit working and the
replacement pump turned out to have a different mounting bolt pattern
that the new one, though it is the same model!

Yesterday we got out for our first sail, calibrated the autopilot,
checked all the running rigging and even got our spinnaker up for the
first time! It was a great afternoon on the water with Stan and Kevin
from Antigua Rigging. The new autopilot (Raymarine) seems to be
working much better than the old one, though Fay is holding off
judgement until we can do 40-50 miles in reaching and running
conditions.

Today we started sorting through the 600lbs of stuff we brought down
from California and figuring out where to stow it all. Everything
from water maker filters to salsa and scuba gear. New Morning will
definitely sit a little lower on her lines when we're finished.

We're hoping to move from the Catamaran Marina to the anchorage in
English Harbour in a few days. Once we get to English Harbour we'll
start in on the 75 other maintenance and "home improvement" projects
that are on our lists.

The plan is to spend 2-3 weeks in Antigua, Guadeloupe and Les Saints,
then return to Antigua for a hopefully final set of Lyman Morse
warranty projects. Then we'll be leave Antigua and head west.

Stupid hot, but back in the water

As a few people have put it, it's been "stupid hot" in Antigua. But
today we got back into the water and everything went very smoothly.
No leaks, engine started immediately and ran perfectly, the cleaned up
prop swiveled quickly and the short trip from the travelift well to
the dock was uneventful. Now it's time to go through the list of work
that was to be done over the summer, as well as the final warranty
items.

The fresh wahoo was great a dinner last night. Hopefully we'll be
moving back onboard Saturday.

Schedule?

I've added our "schedule" on the Where's New Morning page. Definitely subject to change, but this is what we're thinking at the moment.

Ocean Navigator again

When I got home this afternoon I finally opened the mail that I had picked up last Friday. To our amazement and pleasure we found our faces looking back at us from the cover of the Nov-Dec issue of Ocean Navigator. We were really pleased with the article they published last month, but we had no idea they would put us on the cover this month! From the layers of jackets you can see that this picture was taken last year in Maine. A larger copy is on the In the News page.

Time to move south

When we returned from China we could feel that summer had transitioned
to fall while we were gone. Now it's cold and rainy in Northern
California. Two and a half more weeks of buying parts, packing
everything, attending to tasks that can only be done here, and saying
goodbye, then we're off to Antigua.

Cruising World & Ocean Navigator

I've posted the Cruising World article on new Morning on the In The News page. John Snyder wrote a nice article on New Morning for the October issue of Ocean Navigator, also available In The News.

Cruising World

Cruising World has posted their article on New Morning titled Up and At'Em.

Dinghy Seamanship

Fay's article on Dinghy Seamanship is now available on the In the News page.

Updated Locavore

The Locavore section has been reorganized and updated with new pages for St. Martin and Antigua.

Sail and Rig Plan

Added a section on the Sail & Rig Plan.

Hull, keel and rudder design

The site has been updated with information on the design and construction of the hull, keel and rudder. There is also an In the News page which lists the various new articles about New Morning.

Cover of Cruising World

Back in the day it was the cover of the Rolling Stone. But today, it's the cover of Cruising World!

I'll post a full size pdf soon. And we'll get a copy of the article to post as well.

More updates coming soon, it's been a busy summer.










.

Fay's first article

Fay's article (and photos) on Dinghy Seamanship appeared in the August
edition of Sail Magazine. This is her first published article. Great
job Fay! When we can get a pdf version we'll post it on the web site.

In her cradle

Here's a picture of New Morning in her cradle in Antigua.

Home

New Morning is sitting in a cradle at Bailey's Boatyard in Falmouth
Harbor, Antigua. Fay and Russ are sitting in their house in
Sausalito. Our world is temporarily at rest.

It's been great to return to Sausalito, so different than life on the
boat, but a great place to call our other home. Already we've seen so
many friends that we've missed over the last 9 months and we're busy
catching up on everything happening here. We hope you're enjoying
your home as much as we are enjoying ours.

3330

That's what the odometer reads at the end of New Morning's first
year. Since we didn't install that GPS until mid-summer last year
she's probably got a few more miles on her than that, but it's a good
rough estimate of our first year of cruising.

For the last week we've been working long days in hot and humid
conditions to prepare New Morning for five months of storage on land
(aka "on the hard"). A combination of decommissioning where we take
things apart and stow them away, current maintenance and preventive
maintenance. The tropical sun will be beating down on the boat for
the next five months so we've basically stripped everything we can
from the deck and rigging. Fay has shined and polished all the
hardware and she removed the running back stays and inner forestay
from the mast. Yesterday Antigua Rigging removed most of the running
rigging and the sails. The sails will go to the sailmaker to check
the stitching and hardware so they'll be ready to go in the fall. The
outboards have been flushed in fresh water and the list goes on and on.

Tomorrow New Morning will be hauled, her bottom washed and then placed
in a one piece cradle and strapped to mother earth. This should keep
her secure during any tropical storms this summer.

Wrapping up

We're anchored in English Harbor for a few days, quite close to Nelson's Dockyard and very protected. It's a great place to be preparing New Morning for summer storage. This morning Fay went up the mast and removed the running back stays and the inner forestay. Then I went up to inspect the antenna's and some of the rigging. I took this shot of Nelson's Dockyard, with various bits of rigging clouding the view. When we have evening cocktails we try to imagine what is was like 230 years ago when this harbor was filled with British warships rather than pleasure yachts.

Warship Foxtrot 831

Today while sailing from Guadeloupe to Antigua, Fay noticed a "cruise ship" behind us, and two sail boats passing to port headed to Guadeloupe. Upon closer examination I thought perhaps the ship behind us was a military vessel. We watched for awhile and could only see it's bow bearing down on us from astern; and with no AIS target. Finally at about 2.5 miles I called on the radio to see how they would pass and they immediately responded as "Warship Foxtrot 831" and said they would pass to port.

But as they pulled abeam on our port side, they slowed and matched our speed for about 10-15 minutes. While alongside we thought it was interesting that they were not flying any flag, other than a French courtesy flag, and we could read the name "Van Amstel" up near the bridge. Finally they came on the radio and interrogated us regarding our registration and trip plans. Satisfied with the answers they wished us a good passage and turned away. We assumed they were the US Navy doing drug interdiction and found us interesting (but why?).
We Googled F831 Van Amstel and it turns it was a Dutch navy frigate. We still think they were doing drug interdiction, but who knows why they found us interesting.

In any case we're now in Antigua and will dock tomorrow at the Cat Club. Next week Antigua Rigging will replace our Furuno autopilot with a Raymarine autopilot which we hope will be a huge improvement.

Third time is the charm

We wanted to visit Guadeloupe, but didn't want to take New Morning to
the marina in Pointe a Pitre. While rocking in the wake of one of the
ferries that serves The Saints we were inspired to just take the ferry
to Guadeloupe for the day. So on Monday we went into town about 8:15
for the 8:30 ferry, but it never came. They told us it was broken and
would be there on Tuesday. So on Tuesday we went to town again, and
they assured us it was late, but had just left Three Rivers and would
On Wednesday we changed the plan and went for the 6:45a ferry since it
spends the night in The Saints and we'd be on the first trip. It
worked! So on Wednesday morning about 7:30 we arrived in Three
Rivers. And quickly discovered that Wednesday was Abolition Day, most
of the island was on holiday!

However we were still able to rent a car and did see a lot of
Guadeloupe. Most spectacular were the waterfalls in a national park.
And since it was a big holiday they were celebrating by offering fruit
juice, fruit, cake, etc. to the visitors. Between the time we arrived
and when we returned from the water fall the rangers had dressed for a
party; US national park rangers never looked like this!
The rest of the day we drove around much of the rest of the western
half of the island, but most things were pretty well shuttered for the
holiday. We did find a great restaurant on the ocean for lunch and
made the most of that with rum drinks, great food and wine. But when
we drove through Bas Terre, the largest town on the west coast, it was
shuttered and empty. Overall we found Guadeloupe to have spectacular
scenery, so much more lush and green than the other islands we'd
visited. To get our departure processed today we ended up driving
from the NW of the island to the capital and saw more very lush
countryside; really a beautiful place.
We were surprised that we'd never really heard of Guadeloupe, despite
it having a population of 450,000 and clearly being fairly
prosperous. It turns out that 93% of the tourists are French and
clearly they don't market the island to anyone outside of France. Too
bad because it's got some pretty spectacular scenery and good
infrastructure.

Another correction

Well it turns out that the cuttlefish picture I posted is not a cuttlefish at all.  What we observed and photographed is a Sepioteuthis sepioidea, or Caribbean Reef squid.  More information and some good pictures here: http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/Ssepioidea.php.  The name is not nearly as interesting, but the squid were still fun to watch and look pretty cool.  They do change their color like the cuttlefish which means we have enormous latitude for adjusting the pictures in Photoshop - we can't get the color wrong because they change color all the time anyway!

Cuttlefish

We've found some great snorkeling here and came across a large number
of cuttlefish. Fay got this great shot of this fairly rare member of
the squid family. Fay had only ever seen one before in all of her
diving experience. We saw 30-40, with groups of 10-20 swimming in
formation. I added few more pictures to The Saints.

Correction

A few days ago I commented that Fay always wins the board games. Fay
would like the record to show that I have won the "best of 3" cocktail
hour backgammon tournaments three days running. Hence, she doesn't
not always win...

More pix

In "Where We've Been" I added a few pictures for The Saints.

The Saints

We've been anchored off Bourg des Saintes since Tuesday. Yesterday we
hiked to Fort Napoleon at the top of the hill overlooking the harbor
and to the north the site of the Battle of The Saintes in which the
British navy defeated the French in 1782. Despite their loss in 1782,
today Guadeloupe and The Saints are French!

This was the only clear day we've had since we arrived, it's been
constant rain and squalls. The town is beautiful, clean, fresh and
being French, has great food. Unfortunately the anchorage is fairly
exposed and has a constant stream of ferry and fishing boat traffic
which has been slamming us around quite a bit. A good dinner tonight
and then we're going to look for a little smoother place to drop our
hook.

Pain de Sucre - Sweet!

On Monday, two days ago, we sailed 77 miles from Antigua to Les
Saintes, a group of small islands just south of Guadeloupe. We had a
great sail, very fast for the first four hours, beam reaching with a
reefed main in 17-20kts of wind and doing 8-10kts through the water.
The autopilot couldn't handle the quartering seas so we hand steered
most of that leg. Then on the lee side of Guadeloupe (a very large
island) the wind went flat so we motored for two hours at about 7 kts
and did a couple of tubs of laundry. When we came out from behind
Guadeloupe we had 25+ kts and sailed close hauled the last hour to
arrive in just under 10 hours.

We were pretty tired by the time we arrived so when we didn't see an
easy place to anchor in front of the town of Bourg des Saintes we
motored about a mile to this anchorage named for the small piton of
rock known as Pain de Sucre you can see in the picture. We anchored
in 35' of water that is crystal clear, we could see the bottom even in
the fading light at the end of the day.

It's been raining fairly steadily since shortly after we arrived which
probably helps explain why these islands are so green. We welcomed
the rain yesterday to give the boat a good rinse. We even applied
some soap and water to loosen up some of the more stubborn salt, then
let the rains wash it all away. But now the boat has been thoroughly
rinsed many times and we're ready for some sun. The sun came out
briefly late in the day when I shot this picture, but it's been mostly
overcast and rainy with some gusty squalls. We'll hoist the anchor
and look for a place in front of the town shortly, then see if we can
find a good bakery!

English Harbor

On Friday we returned to the English Harbor / Falmouth area, this time
trying the English Harbor side. The anchorages were very full,
especially for a boat our size. English Harbor is rimmed by hills
that protect it from the prevailing winds, but which cause the winds
to swirl and gust throughout the harbor. This in turn sends the boats
in different directions which means that rather than swinging
together, they can drift in different directions and are more likely
to "go bump in the night". So we had to find some swinging room.
Even with just 75' of scope on the anchor, add the length of the boat,
and double it to get the diameter of the swinging circle: it's about
260', or about a football field! We didn't find our own football
field, but we found enough to get comfortable and settled in.

On Friday night we had dinner with some cruisers who are bringing
books to schools and kids in the Caribbean. You can help too - see http://www.handsacrossthesea.net/HandsCrew.htm#join
. Dinner was at a great pizza parlor with a real wood fired pizza
oven. We liked it so much we went back again last night!

We've definitely noticed an overall rise in the temperatures and
humidity. It's officially the "off season" at many of the hotels here
and we can understand why.

Tomorrow we're going to leave for the The Saints, a cluster of small
islands off the south coast of Guadeloupe. Depending on how ambitious
we are in the morning, we may go all the way tomorrow, or may stop
overnight in Deshayes on the west coast of Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe and
The Saints are French so we'll be looking for a good bakery.

Waiting in Limbo

Actually we're waiting in Nonsuch Bay on the SE coast of Antigua. We
have a pretty steady 20-25 knots of wind, then in the squalls we get
up to 35-40 knots and lots of rain. Fortunately we're behind a big
reef so there are no seas, just the wind chop. At 30 knots the dinghy
went airborne (always the dinghy problems...) so we strapped it to the
foredeck about 11:30 last night.

The forecast has this wind and squalls for another 3-4 days so we're
doing some things around the boat, playing some board games (Fay
always wins), reading and hanging out. Once things calm down we'll
head to Guadeloupe.

11 days on the dock

Way too many days on the dock! We departed the Cat Club yesterday
morning and had a really beautiful 3 hours of sailing to Nonesuch
Bay. It was all upwind sailing, but the breeze was 13-16 knots with
only 4-5' seas so we had really nice sailing conditions with 17-21
knots of apparent wind. We "raced" a 50'+ ketch all the way, just
catching up to them before we dropped our sails to motor into the
bay. It was so nice to have a good fresh breeze in our faces, sun on
the water and to be sailing again. New Morning was really going to
weather beautifully and Fay and I were both enjoying it so much we
took turns steering the entire way.

We've concluded that we really don't like being on the dock. First,
we're almost always there because we are having some work done on the
boat so we end up working all day. Then the dock itself always has
mosquitoes or other biting insects (Fay is quite sensitive to these),
more noise, less ventilation, less privacy and forget about getting
into the water. And or course we have to pay for the privilege as
well. Water and power are always charged separately but the total
usually works out to about $100 / day; pretty expensive for a parking
space!

It was warranty work again, trying to get some more things sorted
out. This time Lyman Morse had hired local companies to do the work
and it was a mixed bag. Some of the companies did good work, others
less so. But none of them actually finished their projects so there
is more to do next time. I also took the opportunity to do most of
the 250 hr service on our engine.

The two big projects were the bow locker and the refrigeration. The
bilge in the bow locker was reshaped so that we could use just one
bilge pump rather than the three pumps that were originally
installed. That was more or less completed, but there was one item
overlooked that I'll address next week. The refrigeration is an
ongoing saga. The work last week didn't solve the problem, but it was
one more step along the way to further isolate the problem. Hopefully
we'll reach agreement on a solution this month and it will get
implemented over the summer. Additionally a number of paint and
varnish flaws were corrected.

Our other ongoing saga is the autopilot; it has been both unreliable
and inaccurate. I've resolved to replace both hydraulic pumps and the
course computer this summer. More on that later.

The law of unintended side effects seems well entrenched in the marine
industry. I've learned over time that whenever work is performed on
the boat to fix one system, another system will have been broken in
the process. The problem is that I never know which one; I have to
wait and discover it, usually at an inopportune moment. Yesterday it
was the windlass, the critical winch that hauls up our 120lb anchor
and usually another 150 - 250lbs of chain. Fortunately I discovered
the problem while we were dropping the anchor and while the windlass
is useful to make adjustments, it is not required. Two hours of
diagnostic and repair work later I had found the wire that had been
cut by the electrician removing the two bow locker bilge pumps that
were no longer needed, made a repair and the windlass is now working
again.

The forecast calls for a lot of squalls this week so we're probably
going to hang out in Nonesuch Bay and let them blow through, giving
the boat a nice freshwater wash and us some time to relax, clean the
interior of the boat and catch up on various items we ignored while on
the dock. Once the weather forecast improves we'll probably leave for
The Saints and Dominica. But more on that when our plans firm up.

Sail Magazine

I just discovered a nice article written by Sail Magazine, you can read it on their site at Sail Magazine. If that link doesn't work for you there is a PDF of the article on the bottom of About New Morning.

Comments

Comments are now enabled on the blog so if you have something to say
or share, just hit the "Comments" link.

Antigua-Barbuda pictures

Added pictures from Antigua and Barbuda, two islands, one country.
This is what Barbuda looks like as you approach it from the west. A
sliver of sand between the sky and the sea, with the
"highlands" (towering 150' above the island) in the distance.

You can find them in Where we've been or http://www.newmorning.info/page41/page57/page57.html

Another week of repairs

We made it from St. Barths, back to the Catamaran Marina in Falmouth,
via Barbuda and Nonesuch Bay. Now it's another week of work on the
boat (paint, varnish, rebuilding the bow locker bilge, etc.) while Fay
goes to San Diego. More later.

Just the Facts

A did a little reorganization of the About New Morning page added a
page with all the basic information. I should have better connection
next week and will post some photos from the the last few weeks.

St. Barths

We're back in St. Barths. We arrived yesterday afternoon and immediately connected with Chris & Kelly on Verna Breeze. A couple of beers, a great sushi dinner and a big thanks to Chris & Kelly. Absolutely incredible that our dingy was drifting in open ocean (7 miles off Barbuda) and crossed their path. They snagged it on the first attempt and towed it all the way to St. Barths.

So we're reunited with our dinghy which appears to be no worse for the unscheduled 60 miles drift and tow. We'll spend a couple of days here while we wait for the winds to relax a bit, then head back Antigua.

Dinghy found!

We listened to the Coconut Telegraph this morning and confirmed that
our dinghy had been found. We spoke with Chris & Kelly on Verna
Breeze who picked up our dinghy floating by about seven miles offshore
from Barbuda. So now we're going to return to St. Barths.

Unfortunately today is a holiday in Antigua / Barbuda (Easter Monday)
so we can't check out, we have to wait until tomorrow. This means
we'll either leave later on Tuesday and arrive late in St. Barths, or
we'll travel on Wednesday.

Dingy lost!

We got up this morning, had breakfast and then noticed that our dinghy
(and almost new Yamaha 2hp outboard) was not hanging off the back off
the boat where we had left it last night. We had been comfortable
that crime was minimal here so we didn't bother to haul it out as we
usually do. This is really bad, basically like finding your car not
in the driveway when you live in suburbia. You can't go anywhere!

We immediately called our contact in Barbuda and the Barbuda police
and both promised to look further. Then we went on VHF channel 16 and
issued a Securite call about our missing dinghy. Not thirty seconds
later we got a call back from a boat who had listened to the "Coconut
Telegraph" this morning (a cruiser net on the single side band radio)
and heard a report of a boat named Verna Breeze that was sailing to
St. Barths and had picked up a drifting dinghy seven miles offshore!

Thirty seconds after that call, another cruiser hailed us, said they
had heard about our situation and offered to provide any help they
could, ferrying us to shore, etc. Really great support from the
neighborhood!

We've called the port captain in St. Barths and asked them to let us
know if the boat checks in at St. Barths. Tomorrow morning we'll join
in on the Coconut Telegraph and see if we can contact the boat that
picked up the dinghy. At this point we're hoping that rather than
being stolen it was a case of me doing a sloppy job of tying up the
dinghy! We may be making an unplanned return to St. Barths.

Stay tuned for more on this breaking story!

Barbuda-ful

We've been anchored off 11 mile (or is it 14 mile or 17 mile?) beach
on the west coast Barbuda for the last 4-5 days. We actually lost
track of what day it was, thinking it was Saturday when in fact it was
Sunday! There is a powdery white sand beach off the bow pretty much
as far as you can see to port or starboard. The water is a
kaleidoscope of blues, constantly shifting as the sun dodges around
the clouds. When we get some bandwidth we'll post some photos, it's
hard to imagine without seeing it.

Unfortunately the water is fairly murky. The sand is so fine,
combined with a steady swell breaking on the beach that the water
within about half a mile of the beach is churned up and not very
clear. We're in about 15' of water and can't see the bottom, in fact
we can't see the bottom of the keel! But it's 80 degrees and we had a
nice swim to the beach and back yesterday afteroon.

Earlier yesterday we got the grand tour of Barbuda, it's 1600
residents, saw a lot of the 62 sq miles, the frigate bird rookery, the
lagoon and the village. At two-foot bay we hiked from the beach up
through some caves to emerge on the cliffs above with a stunning view
of the bay and north shore (rumored to host more than 300 wrecks).

We're tentatively planning to move to the southwest coast, and more
white beach, in a few days.

Brochure sailling

Yesterday we sailed from Five Island Harbor on the west side of
Antigua, to Barbuda, about 32 miles. It was "brochure" sailing all
the way. Once we got pointed in the right direction we had 13-15
knots of true wind on the starboard beam which gave us 16-19 knots of
apparent wind at about 60 degrees. We moved really nicely through
4-5' waves (as reported by Wind Guru, I can never estimate wave
height) at a steady 8-9 knots with the autopilot having a good day and
steering a straight course.

Warm wind, warm water, 8-9 knots of boat speed and only the occasional
splash onto the deck. That's what the brochure said!

We're now anchored off 11 mile beach and look forward to a little
exploring later today.

Warranty week

Last week was warranty week. Fay went to Pittsburgh for a family
visit while I moved the boat to the Catamaran Marina (aka Cat Club).
Jim came down from Maine and spent the week on a long list of items
ranging from cosmetic to annoyance to needing new fiberglass work.
Some of the more major items still need work (like our ongoing
autopilot saga). We'll return to the marina in a couple of weeks for
another list of items, and then yet another set of items will be
deferred until this summer.

Jim also brought some great pieces with him from Lyman Morse. We got
a new "cocktail" table for the cockpit, small and easy to set up, just
the right size for cocktails, or dinner for just two. Michael made
new poles for our bimini which are really great. The bimini looks
better than ever and is keeping the cockpit shaded and cool, yet still
allows good air flow and view of the horizon.

We decided to leave New Morning at the Car Club for hurricane season.
She'll be in a one piece cradle, strapped to mother earth with the
decks stripped and the boom removed, but the mast still stepped. And
of course we hope that no hurricanes will pass through Antigua this
summer.

Fay returned on Saturday and yesterday (Sunday) we moved to Five
Islands Bay and anchored again off the Hermitage resort. It's a
beautiful spot and a peaceful anchorage. The produce containers
arrive in Antigua on Monday so tomorrow Fay will go shopping for
produce in Jolly Harbor. Then on Wednesday we'll sail about 30 miles
to Barbuda. The beaches are supposed to be unbelievable (11 miles of
uninterrupted white sand) and very few boats. Eleven miles of beach
is also a fairly open anchorage, but we're hoping that the east winds
and seas will mean the west side of the island is pretty calm.

Earth Hour

Sadly I must report that there was no evidence of Earth Hour in
Falmouth Harbor. The mega sailing yachts continued to light the sky
with the up lights on their spreaders, looking oddly like small oil
refineries. And the motor yachts continued to illuminate the water
around their hulls with high intensity underwater lights. And of
course all the mega yachts had abundantly lit decks, cabins and
walkways. The homes around the harbor were also lit up. I guess the
message didn't reach Antigua.

But from what I read, the major cities of the world did participate
with some notable landmarks darkened for an hour. Hopefully this will
build grass roots support for reductions in carbon consumption.

One lap around Antigua

Last week was basically one lap around Antigua. We departed Falmouth
and had a nice sail, mostly downwind, to Five Islands Bay where we
anchored off the Hermitage resort. The next day we motored around the
NW corner and threaded our way between reefs and small "islands" to
Jumby Bay.

Jumby Bay is directly across from the main runway of the airport so we
got some pretty big jets going over a few times each day. It's also a
very upscale resort (though still under construction) with rooms and
villas from $2,500 - $12,000 per day (including meals and liquor)! We
anchored off their beach and enjoyed the same view and water for
free! Pictures soon.

On Monday we picked up Caitlin at the airport and returned to Jumby
Bay. Tuesday we sailed down the east coast, with seas on the beam, to
Green Island. We spent 3 days at Ricketts Harbor swimming,
snorkeling, sleeping, eating and sipping sundowners. We also made a
dinghy excursion to Harmony Hall for a nice lunch and a bottle of
Ferrari Carano (Sonoma county).

On Friday we sailed around the SE corner to Falmouth and completed the
loop. We capped the week with dinner at Le Cap Horn restaurant to
celebrate Caitlin's 21st birthday.

Today Caitlin flew back to school and Fay went off to visit her sister
in Pittsburgh. Next week Lyman Morse will be here to so some further
warranty work and attend to a variety of problems, with a tilt to more
joinery and carpentry issues and less systems problems.

More St. Barths pictures

I added new pictures of St. Barths, including the turtles in anse de
Colombier. Look under "Where we've been".

Catching up

Way behind and a lot of stories to tell!

We escaped Gustavia and moved to Anse de Colombier, a pretty anchorage
on the NW corner of St. Barths. Colombier is a marine preserve so
there are moorings along both sides of the cove and anchoring is only
allowed in the middle. When we arrived the only mooring open was quite
close to the shore, but our depth showed 8' under the keel and it was
designated as suitable for a 60' boat so we hooked up and went for a
swim. While swimming we noticed that the keel seemed pretty close to
the bottom, or maybe the water was just really clear? Upon further
investigation I figured out that the depth offset in our instruments
had been reset to zero when we updated the firmware back in January.
We had been sailing around thinking we had 5.5' more water under our
keel than was actually there! When we thought we had 8', we actually
had 2.5'. We were still floating, but a couple of big swells could
easily have bounced us off the bottom.

The next day we waited for some boats to leave and then moved to
another mooring so we'd have a little more water under the keel; this
proved costly. I'll spare you the details, but at the end of the
exercise we were successfully moored in deeper water, and both our
boat hook and our 2hp outboard motor were on the bottom of the cove.
Fay was able to free dive and recover the boat hook, but the engine
had been ripped from its mounts and we finally resolved to leave it
there, though we did later inform the preserve management so that they
can remove it if they are so disposed.

With our flopper stopper deployed the persistent north swells were
manageable in Colombier and the many green turtles were a constant
source of enjoyment. I'll post some turtle pictures when we have more
bandwidth. We also connected with John Tipp and had a great dinner
onboard MOAB with his friends from Detroit (who report the economy is
really destroying the city).

We monitored the weather and when a window appeared that would allow
us to avoid the usual "wind on the nose" for the 84 mile passage to
Antigua we moved back to Gustavia to prepare for the passage to
Antigua. In Gustavia we cleared out, did our last shopping at the
French stores and used the internet connection to catch up on a few
things. Unfortunately the north seas persisted and the anchorage at
Anse de Corosol was full so we had to anchor across the channel in
what was virtually an open roadsted with a strong roll 24/7. We had a
great dinner at Eddy's restaurant, but no sleep for two nights.

We departed for Antigua at first light on Monday the 16th and arrived
in Falmouth at 4:55pm. We succeeded in having the wind at 40-60
degrees apparent for most of the trip and averaged just under 8 knots.
The first six hours were pretty rough with lots of rain squalls,
confused seas and wind up to 35 knots, but then the sun came out, the
seas backed off and we had a pleasant and fast sail to Antigua for the
last five hours. Fay asked for, and received, a big rain squall in the
last couple of miles so New Morning got a nice freshwater wash and was
sparkling clean as we entered the harbor. The anchorage at Falmouth
was wide open, very calm and we were asleep by 8:30pm!

The next morning we connected with our friends (and double
circumnavigators) Beth and Evans. We chatted away the morning, then
launched the dinghy (using the 15hp engine), made to the trip to the
Antigua Marina and walked to Nelson's Dockyard at English Harbor where
it took us only 3 hours to clear in with immigration and customs. That
night Beth and Evans joined us for dinner and a spirited discussion of
politics and the economy.

Over the next couple of days we made the decision to put New Morning
on the hard at the Catamaran Club in Falmouth for the hurricane
season, got a SIM card for our telephone, purchased a new 2hp engine,
did some grocery shopping, had a nice dinner ashore and enjoyed a
couple of sunsets with a gin and tonic in hand. It's amazing how such
simple things can consume two entire days.

This morning we departed Falmouth and had a nice sail to Five Island
Bay on the west side of Antigua. It was really nice to do a few hours
of downwind sailing! Tomorrow we'll sail around the top to the North
Sound and find a nice quiet anchorage. On Monday we'll pick up Caitlin
at the airport and initiate her into the cruising life.

Escape from Gustavia

Our departure from the mooring field in Gustavia was fortunately much
less dramatic than our entrance! After 4 days of being pushed around
by north wind and seas, combined with 8 hours a day of jack hammers on
the construction site about 50 yards away we were ready to get out of
town. But we'll miss the bakery!

We're now anchored at Anse de Colombier on the NW corner of St.
Barths. We have beautiful clear water, some good marine life (Fay saw
a manta ray take fight out of the water) and had a nice sunset.
Unfortunately the north seas are wrapping all the way around to the NW
opening to this little bay and we're rolling around quite a bit.

We're out of WiFi range now so no internet and not much email. We'll
catch up with everyone when we get to Antigua next week.

We're expecting to meet some friends here tomorrow afternoon, and a
second boat of friends arrives on Friday. Could be pretty social for
a few days!

Cheeseburger in Paradise?

Le Select is widely known to be the inspiration for Jimmy Buffett's
"Cheeseburger in Paradise", both the song and the chain of burger
joints. We had a burger there today and I'd have to say that Jimmy
took some artistic license. Great bar and a fun place (I was even
greeted by the owner - Marius), but the burger wasn't in the same
league as the ones we had at the Fat Virgin on Virgin Gorda.

More pictures and recipes

If the uploading cooperates, I've added pictures of the BVIs, St. Martin and St. Barths in Where we've been. Fay also added sections on Bermuda and the BVIs to Locavore.

St. Barths

After a short and bumpy passage from St. Martin we arrived in Gustavia
on Wednesday afternoon. We had a thrilling time getting ourselves
settled here in the fore/aft moorings that are fairly tightly packed.
In the process we dumped the dinghy in the water (upside down) and
clipped another boat's pulpit which will cost us a little to repair
But we finally ended up with a great spot, moored at the far end of
the harbor with a short ride to shore and very protected from the NE
wind and seas that we're getting today and tomorrow.

St. Barths seems to be a little piece of the French riviera in the
Caribbean. Excellent food and wind, haut couture shopping, and pretty
expensive. We're pacing ourselves on the food and wine and avoiding
the shopping!

Correction!

It turns out the dinghy was not vandalized. Fay figured out this
morning that the dinghy slipped under the dock and the waves pounded
the engine up into the underside of the dock creating the damage.

This is a relief and we now leave Grand Case with a very positive
feeling.

First vandalism

We were told to expect it, but it's still a surprise. The dinghy was
chained to the dinghy dock in Grand Case while we had a delightful
lunch. Fay's back has been in a lot of pain so we went for a large
lunch and planned to skip dinner. We had a great meal with a
wonderful bottle of Pouilly Fume, then bought some groceries and
returned to the dinghy.

There we found that someone had pounded our little 2hp engine with
rocks, particularly the fuel cap. It's not clear if they stood on the
dock and threw the rocks, or got into the dinghy and pounded on it. A
few rocks were found in the bottom of the dinghy.

The case is now thoroughly scarred and the fuel cap is pretty beat
up. It still ran ok so it seems like they didn't dump anything in the
tank. I guess that's why it's called senseless violence, it makes no
sense.

Gourmet cruising

Since Monday we've been anchored off Grand Case, just a couple miles
northeast of where we were in the marina at Marigot for the first
night of carnival. Grand Case modestly claims to be the gourmet
capital of St. Martin. And in case you didn't get the memo, they have
a web site to confirm that at www.grandcase.com. And on top of that,
they close the main (only?) street every Tuesday night and flood it
with bands and peddlers. Last Tuesday was very nice, packed with
people (mostly local), music, lots of artists and general merriment.
We've eaten two meals in the restaurants here and they were both
excellent. The airport is right behind the town so a few commercial
flights and private planes make a pretty low approach over the
anchorage; the first plane was the largest and a real surprise! We
roll a bit in the anchorage, but it's a nice spot overall. We'll
probably be here a few more days.

Carnival in St. Martin

Carnival started today in St. Martin. A big parade weaved through Marigot with dancers, floats and big trucks with bands in the back, each with the volume set to 11.

Surprisingly, it's only 8:30 and things have quieted down, all we hear now is the roar of a few motorcycles being revved up.

Fay got some nice pictures, like this dancer.

A good baguette!

The ride to St. Martin was fast and a little bumpy. We let go of the
mooring at the Bitter End about 9:30pm and very slowly and carefully
found our way out of the north sound into 20 knots of true wind. We
took it slow and easy around Necker Island (owned by Richard Branson),
then double reefed and took off for St. Martin at 8+. We had 20-25 knots of 
apparent wind on the beam most of the trip, then it moved to about 60
degrees apparent for the last two hours and we punched into very
confused seas as the north wind blew into the prevailing easterly
seas. We arrived in Marigot Bay about 7:30am for an average of a
little over 8 knots.

The med mooring was in Fay's words "like pushing a fat lady into a size 6".  In any case, Fay saved our lifelines with the timely application of a fender to the anchor of the adjacent 60' motor yacht.  Then she promptly found a very nice baguette!

As a cold front moves through it's overcast with 20-30 knots in the slip here at the Marina Ft. Louis so we're catching up on email and chores. Tonight we find a nice bistro or restaurant for dinner.

Sooner not later

To avoid the bigger seas and take full advantage of the winds, we're
departing tonight and should be in St. Martin Wednesday afternoon.

Move down island?

A cold front is coming through today, with a big low up north around
Bermuda. The wind has gotten very light and is predicted to even come
from the west which is unusual where the trades usually blow 20kn from
the east. We may use this opportunity to depart the BVIs and make the
trip to St. Martin tomorrow night. Our current hesitation is that the
big low up north is supposed to build up some very large seas from the
north and Marigot Bay at St. Martin is not well protected from the
north.

Snow Day

Well not exactly, but it was poor weather and cool.

Michelle visited last week and we showed her a whirlwind tour of the
BVIs. Then it was back to Nanny Cay to pick up some parts. Leaving
Nanny Cay we got thoroughly doused with rain (just like the last time
we departed there), but it was only a taste of what was coming.

The forecast was for lots of wind and it held true. We no sooner got
over to our anchorage on Norman Island and got the anchor down than
the sky grew dark, the wind whipped up, and it stayed that way the
rest of the day and night. We're used to squalls coming through, but
it's unusual to see a gray rainy sky for an entire afternoon. It's
still windy this morning, but the sun is around. Time to put the
parts to work with a few repairs and a few improvements.

Friends are visiting next week, bringing us mail and some supplies
from California. Beyond that we're beginning to plan our move south,
looking at where we would go in St. Martin, St. Barts and Antigua/
Barbuda.

The Big Stupid

We have a little 2hp outboard which we use for small trips. It's
light, easy to mount, sips the fuel and is a good alternative to our
15hp which does the long distance trips. One reason that it's so
light is that it has no shifter, it's always in forward gear. As soon
as you start up, it goes forward! This means you want to have it
pointed in the right direction before you pull the cord. So if you
start it up when you're still tied to the dock or boat, you drive
right back into the boat or dock.

Two days ago, on a mooring at the Bitter End I jumped in the dinghy,
cast off the painter, gave the cord a pull... and nothing. I looked
down and the "key", the kill switch key, wasn't there. And since it
was a short, quick trip I also had no oars, or anything else. As I
quickly drifted away from boat I yelled for Fay, who came up from
below and quickly figured out the problem.

I realized that I was drifting fast and would soon be outside the
mooring field and headed for "South Marine", the shore where all the
stuff that comes loose at the Bitter End soon drifts to a new home.
While Fay was getting her suit, fins, mask, and the key, time was
passing. I decided to swim for it. I jumped out of the dinghy and
managed to tow it to a mooring and tied off the painter.

Fay then swam from the boat to the dinghy, with the kill switch key,
and saved me. We motored back to the boat, Fay got off, and I
proceeded to the dinghy dock.

Next time I'll make sure I have the kill switch key before I cast off!

Fixing the boat in paradise

That's the cruiser saying, it's fixing your boat in exotic locations.
That was a lot of our last week. We were 3 days in Nanny Cay while a
refrigeration technician tried to improve the performance of our
freezer. He tried everything, but it doesn't chill any better than
before.

So we got out of Nanny Cay and spent a couple of days anchored off
Norman Island which was much more pleasant. We really enjoy the
anchorage over there with a snorkeling reef right off the back of the
boat. On that small reef we've seen turtles, lots of snapper,
sergeant majors, an assortment of wrasses and reef fish, and for
toppers, Fay saw a 10' nurse shark (friendly kind).

But we moved to the Bitter End yesterday to pick up parts for the
autopilot, and misc other pieces that Lyman Morse sent us. Today I
fixed the autopilot, at least I hope I did. The rudder reference unit
failure was a intermittent, but mostly not working and now it seems to
be working. We'll give it a good test on Tuesday. I also got out the
vice for the first time and twisted and pounded a chain hook back into
shape (I bent it during a midnight anchoring exercise - another story).

I did find out that the old New Morning is on the cover of the
February issue of Sailing magazine. And a picture of us may be on the
Cruising World web site in the next 5-10 days, possibly followed by a
full article in the May issue.

One of these days I need to post some new pictures and update the
systems information, particularly the electrical story now that we're
getting some experience off the grid with the wind generator and solar
panels.

Tomorrow Michelle arrives and we'll circumnavigate the BVIs with her
next week. We'll see the Baths, Norman Island, Jost Van Dyke (and
probably Foxy's), Green Cay and Marina Cay.

It's Superbowl time soon, and Fay is from Pittsburg so it's a big day.

Back to the trailer park

We spent the last week buddy boating with Bob and Kathy Wellen. We
spent time in Benures Bay, Green Cay, Monkey Point and Marina Cay. A
good week of snorkeling, dominoes, bubble pool (on Jost van Dyke), and
watched the inauguration. Fay and Bob also went for a dive and saw
the worlds largest lobster, but couldn't figure out how to get it home
for dinner!

Along the way we broke a few things and a few things decided to quit
working. So we've retreated to Nanny Cay for a good internet
connection, a refrigeration technician and a location where we can
receive some parts from the states. The stop here also let's us catch
up some administrative items.

Inauguration day

The last 10 days have been pretty hectic. We arrived back in BVI on
Saturday and the crew from Lyman Morse arrived on Sunday. Mon-Thurs
they stayed onboard and attended to a long list of maintenance items.
We're thankful for their visit and all the little things that are now
working so much better.

Friday and Saturday we spent cleaning up the boat and then moved off
the dock (with it's unlimited power and water) and out to a mooring.
Saturday and Sunday we also got a chance to get back into the water,
swimming laps around the boat and also attending to a few underwater
maintenance items like cleaning the heat exchangers for the
refrigerators and scrubbing a little grass off the waterline that
accumulated while we were in California.

Then yesterday we took off to finally explore the BVIs, buddy boat
style, with our friends Bob and Kathy Wellen. After a quick stop in
Road Town for some provisioning, we're now anchored off Norman Island.

Fortunately Bob and Kathy have satellite TV so we're getting ready to
watch the inauguration. We're looking forward to the change!

In the words of Leon Russell

Well I hope you understand

I [We] just had to go back to the island

And watch the sun go down

Hear the sea roll in

[We'll] I'll be thinking of you

We've had a great time being home for the last few weeks. Michelle's graduation was perfect and seeing everyone was wonderful (thank you for that great party on the 23rd!). And then there were doctor and dentist visits, financial institutions and all manner of administrative and bureaucratic activities. All intermixed with way too many good meals in fine restaurants, complemented with the odd bottle of wine or two.

But now, as the song says, we just have to go back to the island...

Here we come Vera!