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.
