Just Arrived in Bermuda!
May 5th, 2011 | 
Author: Current Position: 32°22.83'N, 64°40.33'W
Distance sailed since last post: 796 nautical miles
Wow, we made it!
After picking up Doug and Cheri in Nassau last Wednesday we had a look at the weather forcast and realized that if we didn’t leave the next morning, we would probably be stuck in Nassau for at least 10 days.
So, off we went.
We had a very pleasant sail out of Nassau, sheltered by the island.
Then we entered the open ocean and the waves started! Cheri had on her patches, Ceu and Doug took some Gravol/Dramamine and I took a Travelease and everyone was fine (ish).
We had fresh winds on Starboard close fetch and sailed the rhumb line to Bermuda for two days. Making good speed we joked that if it held up we would be there in 4 days.
But, of course, we knew the wind was changing as a front was coming through.
We had one day of light winds with the spinnaker up, and then the north winds started. This put us close hauled on Port, bashing into the waves which over the next few days built up to a good 3-4 metres. We were crashing and banging into the waves, which made sleeping a bit of a challenge, so we were all pretty tired by then, even though we had pretty easy watches.
The wind continued to turn against us, so we then had to tack a few times which, of course, really slowed down our progress to the destination. But finally, yesterday morning we knew we were in striking distance of the final destination. The wind had totally turned against us by now, and we REALLY wanted to make landfall before nightfall, so we put on the engines and motorsailed, and then just motored.
We arrived in St. Georges harbour at about 6pm (local time) with sunset at 8pm, so that worked well!
We pulled up at the government dock to check into customs and guess who was directly in front of us at the dock? James and Emma Kate with Ondine – who had left St. Martin a few days before us and had a rapid FOUR DAY sail here!!! They averaged an unbelievable 10.5 knots over the whole journey.
So we had drinks and went out for dinner and all was good.
Today we discovered we are anchored right next to Philip who we met in Little San Salvador and who had also left the Bahamas a few days before us. So he is coming over for drinks tonight.
Our trampoline got ripped by the waves, so it is going to take a week to get that fixed up here, so I guess we will have a full week in Bermuda before we set sail for the Azores. But it should be fun, seems a nice place.
Will update you with a more chatty post as soon as we can!
All is well, we are enjoying the sun and the FLAT water in the harbour!
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No Internet for 4 days – aargh!
Current Position: 25°4.48'N, 77°18.8'W
Distance sailed since last post: 160 nautical miles
Well, we arrived in Rum Cay, only to find there was nowhere for us to clear immigration, nor to get online. In fact, the entire population of the island is just 50 people.
And now it was Easter weekend, so all the immigration etc would be closed.
We decided that we would amble our way to Nassau, just doing day sailing of 50 – 60 miles a day, anchoring overnight in some deserted bay. One such cay we stopped at, Allan’s Cay, had a lovely little beach with a welcome party – a whole tribe of big fat iguanas that rushed down to the beach to great us as we came up out of the water, having just snorkeled there from the boat.
Today we arrived in Nassau. Not impressed so far. We were told that we had to dock at a marina in order to clear customs, as they would not come out to an anchorage. But all the marinas were full. And we weren’t allowed to anchor until we had cleared in. They did suggest that we could go under the bridge to the customs dock on the other side. We almost did that, but then backed out at literally the last second, as I was to scared that we wouldn’t clear the height – though they assured us the bridge was 70 ft and, I believe, our mast height is under 65 feet. Just seemed too close to me.
So then we anchored somewhere temporarily (and had someone shout at us to tell us we couldn’t do that) while I went to a marina in the dinghy. While there, they had an unexpected departure, which opened up a berth for us, so we could dock with them.
Once we had done that, we then had to wait over an hour and a half for the customs officer to come to our boat. We were not allowed to get off until we had been cleared in. Finally she arrived and, after we had filled in about 5 different forms, charged us the regular $300 for a cruising permit, even though we were going to be here for only two or three nights. What a procedure and what a rip-off! And we thought St Vincent was expensive when they charged us $70 to clear in!
Not only that, we are now in a breeze-less marinas, with mosquitoes, traffic noise (yes, even sirens), neighbours, and no clean sea water in which to swim (though they do have a pool) AND we have to pay $2 per foot per night for the privilege (double what the Caribbean charges). As I said, not impressed so far.
Tomorrow we pick up Doug and Cheri and then we depart for Bermuda as soon as we can!
We are all getting excited and are ready to go!
180 Miles in under 24 Hours – Provo to Rum Cay
Current Position: 23°38.37'N, 74°50.34'W
Distance sailed since last post: 181 nautical miles
On Provo we rented a car and toured the island a bit. Actually there is not a great deal there to see. The island itself is very flat and dry. No lush tropical vegetation like you would see in the windward islands. However, the water around it is a spectacular blue.
What is there, however, is a conch farm! The only one in the world, they actually breed and raise over a million conch each year. On the short tour you get to see tiny baby conchs, just a few millimiters long, which you would never see in the wild as they bury themselves into the sand until much bigger.
They also have two ‘tame’ conchs who are used to being lifted up, and so instead of retracting into their shell, will actually hang out of the shell. It is the weirdest sight! They have one big ‘foot’ with a sort of claw at the end, which they use for moving around, two eyes set at the end of long stalks, and a mouth that is rather like an elephant’s trunk. They live in the sand and grass areas and graze on the algae that grows on the sea grass.
We then set off for the Bahamas, as we have to get to Nassau by next week in order to pick up Doug and Cheri who will be joining us as crew on the Atlantic crossing. We decided to just do a straight leg from Provo to Rum Cay so as to burn off half of the total 360 miles on one go.
Another beautiful sail! This time the wind was more from the north, so we were on a fetch all the way, in 15 – 25 kt winds, giving us an average speed of 7.5 knots ‘door to door’ with a single reef in the main and full genoa. No spinnaker this time!
As we did so, we finally left the tropics – crossing the Tropic of Cancer at about 06:30 hours. Certainly we have noticed the evenings getting cooler as we have been moving north, though the daytimes are still hot. The water is also cooler but, of course, that is also because it is still only spring time. The sea temperature will warm up through the summer so as to produce this year’s hurricane season once again.
But by then we will be in Europe!
Day 4 of our 4 Day Passage
Current Position: 21°44.5'N, 72°17.41'W
Distance sailed since last post: 463 nautical miles
Another beautiful day! The sun is shining, the wind is light, and we are ambling along at about 5.5 kts average.
Overnight we had a good breeze which then dropped in the early hours of the morning. At 10am we switched the main and jib for the spinnaker again, as the wind had gone aft.
We made good time yesterday, covering 148 miles.
At 4pm exactly we reached our waypoint just north of North Caicos, at which point we turned to port to head for North West Point of Providenciales. The plan (hope) is to round that point and then sail 3 miles south to Malcolm Roadstead and the Tiki Huts Anchorage. For that reason we just (5pm) put on the engines, just to give us a bit extra speed to beat the sunset. We should arrive at our planned anchorage just about sunset, which is 7pm exactly here.
The Turks and Caicos islands are surrounded by reefs with very few breaks through which one can enter into the Caicos Bank. Our final destination here is Sapodilla Bay which, not surprisingly, is on the south side of Provo, and so access is through the Caicos Bank, which is a huge area of very shallow and rock strewn water.
Malcom Roadstead is about the only place around the whole area where there is a sizeable break in the reef that lets one in to an anchorage area that is sheltered and has easy access. So the goal is to anchor there overnight, and then first thing in the morning to go farther south to the Sandbore Channel which will take us through the reef and onto Caicos Bank. From there it is about 10 miles of careful navigation between the coral heads to get to our destination.
Many people say to not do this first thing in the morning with the sun in your eyes. But we will follow Bruce Van Sant’s advice (The Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South) in which he describes the rational for going while the winds are light, before the afternoon sea breeze kicks in and makes going to windward difficult. By tacking up, rather than motoring dead upwind we avoid having the sun right ahead of us. Well, we shall see. If it gets too tricky, we shall just stop and wait a few hours.
Today I pulled out our new SNUBA compressor and fired that up for the first time. Can’t wait to use that for some of the awesome diving that is around this area!
Right now Ceu is cooking up some seafood pasta. Another fantastic meal in paradise!
Tonight we actually get to sleep the whole night through! Woo Hoo!
It's a hard life, this passage making
Day 3 of our 4 Day Passage
Well, I must say it’s been going pretty well. Since our longest passage we had done so far was only 24 hours, we had no idea how it was going to be. We wanted to do a long passage on our own before we set off to do the Atlantic, so we planned to do this one leg of our trip. But it meant we had to bypass Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Sad to see it getting further and further on our port side.
So far we are on our 50th hour. It is going very well, the weather has been great, calm seas, of course we can always do with a bit more wind, to speed us up but our spinnaker has been working beautifully as we don’t like using the motor much.
I did prepare some meals in advance, in case we got some rough weather, but its been very nice so instead I roasted some lamb and baked a chocolate cake. We have been enjoying our cooking, the beautiful sail, sunshine and turquoise waters. Wow it’s starting to feel like a holiday!
Roast lamb served at the Heavenly Delights restaurant
I even have time to write my blog post…finally!
Surprisingly the trip has been very relaxing. First of all, we are not running around ashore shopping, looking for things and places we can’t find from people that can’t give directions. And most of all we are not stressed about not being able to connect to internet and run around town to finally find it, only to be in a middle of an important business call and it all fails!! Or frustrated I can’t Skype with my kids and my grandson. Although we do look forward to arrive soon and get a connection so we can skype again. Let the game begin all over again!!!
On my first night on watch I got so excited, thought we caught some fish, finally. We had our line out and tied on the cockpit. (we dont even have a proper rod with a reel) We then put a clothes pin on it and tie again. If we catch something the clothes pin will go flying. Well at 3am it did! I started thinking how I was going to bring it on board and all, since we have a rule, that if its only one of us on watch we do not leave the cockpit. I had some gloves with me and the bucket not far. Nervous and afraid of the unknown I started pulling in the line, which was pretty tough ( it’s going to be big) In the dark ,but the moon shinning,and a far distance in the water I could see it was whitish color, and looked spiky. Heck ,I was ready to just let go of the line and all, then I thought it looked like a loofah, that us ladies use to exfoliate! My curiosity kicked in and I brought the line closer only to find out it was a big bunch of weed and sponge-like sea stuff which we cleaned out when Noel woke up. I think we DO catch fish but other fish come and eat them. We need to buy some proper fishing equipment maybe, then we can brag.
Night watches have been pretty good. We now have installed a Radar and AIS. Ha, that’s another blog post. With so many toys at the helm station, I find myself very busy and getting use to these strange and demanding noises. Every few minutes our radar scanner is beeping, going on to scan the area. I have to get up, CHECK. 2 minutes later beeping again, scanning time over. GOT IT!!! Check course, make sure when Noel wakes up we are still going in the right direction!!. Then wind direction changes or dies down, the kite starts to make noise and needs attention. You’re still busy playing with the kite or jib sheets and the timer is ringing away to remind you it’s time to write on the log book. We record the time, position the wind and our destination. When I’m not running around looking at everything, I am snacking…..ohhh and avoiding to look at he screen where it says 4000, 5000, and even 6000 and something meters in depth. If I look, I gotta snack some more!!! I do read for a bit or watch movie but I find it makes me sleepy. Not a good thing!
Its pretty neat though, to be able to check up on the cruise ships via our AIS. We saw quit a few at night. They look very beautiful all lit up, they are so big, looks like you’re approaching an Island but it’s only Ruby Princess,or Carnival Glory…..well they do have more population in them then most of the Islands around here!!!
Tomorrow we are looking forward to another day in Paradise and that should take us very close to our destination, Turks and Caicos. So far we feel good and rested, we get enough sleep.
So stay tuned to our 4th day of our great journey!
Day 2 of our 4 Day Crossing
So, here we are, 50 miles from the nearest land, and I just saw a whale! Cool. Though unfortunately it didn’t make a reappearance, so Ceu missed it. I hope there will be others!
Yesterday at 7am we departed St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands bound for the Turks and Caicos Islands some 470 nautical miles north east. The forecast was for pretty steady 8-14 kt breezes on the starboard quarter, gradually backing to a bit forward of a beam reach.
We motored out of Charlotte Amelie and, as soon as we cleared the islands wind shadow, we hoisted the spinnaker and sailed off in pretty smooth seas. The wind was light, our speed was rarely above 5 knots, and overnight the wind pretty much disappeared completely.
That meant dousing the spinnaker and motoring for a few hours, as our speed had dropped down to under 2 knots. By the morning the wind was back up to 5-6 knots again, so up went the spinny again. That sail is amazing. With it alone, we can do 4 knots of speed on a dead run in 6 knots of wind. Barely a breath. But once the wind drops below 4 knots, then we really die.
But right now it has picked up and veered. Spinnaker is down, full main and genoa are up, and we are trooping along at 7+ knots in 14kts wind on a starboard fetch. Sea is a bit more lumpy, but still comfortable. And this will certainly help us get to our destination!
Calculating when to depart is tricky. The goal is to arrive with lots of daylight left so that we can easily navigate into a safe anchorage. We have about 450+ miles to go. So what do we take as an average speed? In that light stuff, we were averaging just over 5 knots. In this fresher breeze we do 7+ knots.
So, if we assume a 5knot speed, that would take us 90 hours, or 3days and 18 hours. Which would get us there early on Sunday morning. So we would have to slow down a bit so as to arrive in daylight.
On the other hand, if we do a 6 knot average, that makes the trip just 75 hours, just over 3 days. Which would have us arriving late morning on the Saturday.
Based on the forecast, we figured we should be able to beat 5.5 kt average, so that is why we left at 7am. We shall see how it works out! Our first 24 hours gave us only 126 miles, but now the speed has picked up, so who knows?
We are also testing out our new radar and AIS (automatic identification of ships). The later transmits our position, course and speed to boats around us, and receives similar signals from other boats. All commercial vessels now carry this.
Early this morning I sighted a big Maersk container ship heading straight for us on the port bow. The AIS was off. So I turned it on. It takes a couple of minutes for it to find our position by GPS and then transmit that information. It then displays the boat on the chart plotter and if you hover over it, you will find out its name, speed, course, and radio call sign. It also tells you their closest point of approach which, in this case, was about 0.2miles in 2.5 minutes! I was about to radio him, when I saw him alter course to pass astern of us. I am pretty sure that his course change was prompted by his AIS sounding an alarm to his officer on watch.
Like trucks and airplanes, these big ships carry black boxes that record everything. Which means that if anything happens they can look up the details and see if they ignored an AIS alert. So, it seems to work, and gives one some degree of comfort out here in the big blue.
The radar takes a little getting used to also, but it does show up very clearly both ships, and rain – and also has an alarm to warn you if something comes within a specified distance. But unlike the AIS that isn’t predictive. The AIS, for example, can pick up a vessel from 20 miles away and calculate that it will come within half a mile of us, and so sets off an alarm, even from that distance. Useful!
What is interesting is when these gadgets pick up vessels at 15 miles that one cannot even see on the horizon!
Wow! Wind just picked up to 24 kts! Had to go up front to put in a reef. Now we are zooming along! Doing a steady 9 kts – so how does that work with my calculations? With 278 miles to go at 2:30pm Thursday, that gives us just 30 hours to go, getting us in at 10pm on Friday night! Of course, it might all drop down to 5 kts again. So hard to figure it out. I guess we just keep trucking until it is clear that we need to slow down to wait for dawn.
Day 1 of our 4 Day Passage
Current Position: 18°20.17'N, 64°55.44'W
Distance sailed since last post: 18 nautical miles
At 7 am we set off from Charlotte Amelie for a 470 nautical mile sail to the Turks and Caicos Islands. We figure it should take us about four days, but who knows?
We got a bit of shopping done in St. Thomas; most notably some quilts and pillows for our guest cabins so that our crew for the Atlantic crossing have somewhere to sleep! We also bought some provisions, but are regretting not having bought more in St. Martin. We were told that St. Thomas was cheaper than St. Martin, but it doesn’t appear that way. Especially not for beer! Boy, we should have stocked up on that when it was only $17 for a flat of 24 cans! But, hey, soon we will be in England where I can get some REAL beer.
So, the weather is light winds, and the forecast is for pretty consistent 10 -13 knot easterlies, backing to more north east by the end of the trip. That means that It is basically a run to broad reach the whole way. Should be very straight forward. As long as we get some sleep, of course!
Will keep you informed!
Home Improvements Made to Life Part 2
Life Part 2 was bought out of a charter fleet. That means it was pretty basic in its equipment – but its price reflected that. Now, chartering for a week or two is one thing, but living on a boat is very different. It is, after all, HOME!
So like any self respecting home owner, I have been doing some Home Improvements! And, in case you are thinking of buying your own yacht, I thought it might be of interest to list the stuff we have done. So here it is.
As you will see, this stuff adds up. Are they all essential? Most of them, no, but fortunately we are in a position where we can make life a bit more comfortable, easy, and fun by having them. Bear in mind that the cost of installing stuff is often about the same as the cost to buy them. Or a fair bit of work doing it yourself. Usually crawling under some tiny space, upside down. Count on any job taking about three times as long as you expect it would.
Also bear in mind that on top of these you also have the normal costs of maintenance – stuff is forever breaking on yachts. True, if you buy brand new you won’t have to replace as much stuff straight away – but you will be paying way more in the initial price. Also, a new boat comes with pretty basic specs too, so either you buy all the additional options, or you add them on later. Personally, it seems to make sense to buy a boat that is a few years old so that all the steep depreciation is passed already.
| Item | Reason | Approx Cost |
New Sails & Cradle Cover
 New cradle cover
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Actually, the sails weren’t too bad, but I figured I would have to replace them in a year or two for sure, and so I might as well get new ones now, so that I can enjoy them. Especially since I got a good deal on them | $3,500 |
Spinnaker
 Life Part 2 and her new spinnaker
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Very rarely part of the charter specs as it is too easy to get it all messed up – as we saw with our Dominica episode back in July. But in those calm airs am I glad to have it. Without it we would be motoring, with it we can still do 3 – 4 knots. Get the ATN sock – it makes it dead easy to hoist and lower your kite. See our post on flying a spinnaker on our cruising catamaran. |
$2,000 |
Bimini top and sides
 Our new bimini cover withdrop down sides for both rain and sun
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The bimini top was old and patched. So we had it replaced with a nice grey vinyl one. And we also had some clear plastic sides, plus sun-scrren mesh for both sides and back. They are expensive, but does mean you can use the cockpit even when it is pouring. Or when the sun is shining through the stern, as it does in the afternoon when we are anchored nose into the easterly trade winds. Here you can see the aft side sun screen is down. Also when sailing in foul weather, helps to keep the crew somewhat comfortable. | $10,000 |
Jordan Series Drogue
 Jordan series drogue – you can see some of the little cones on the right
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The ‘Rolls Royce’ of drogues to slow you down when running before a storm. We bought the one made with Spectra line as it is a third of the weight of the standard line – ie 25 lb instead of 75lb. It consists of about 140 small cones, all in series along a 150 ft line. When dragged behind the boat, the cones act as little brakes, with the net effect that you slow right down to a knot or two max. It also keeps you pointing straight down wind. Plan is, of course, to never have to use it, though we have done a practice with it. | $3,500 |
Epirb, Life raft servicing
 Epirb mounted just next to the door, above the radios
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Essential safety equipment. Actually, it turned out that our life raft was soaked with water and badly corroded! So just as well we had the inspection done! | $2,000 |
Radar & AIS
 Lef to right: Radar, chartplotter (with AIS display), authelm (top), depth and speed, and wind
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Helps us to see and be seen – especially useful at night or fog, and in crowded areas such as the English Channel. Our speed log exaggerates, the GPS tracked us at going about 8knots, not 8.99 as shown here! The little blue kitchen timer reminds us to write in the log each hour. |
$2,500 |
Handheld VHF & spare & Iridium Satelite phone
 VHF radio and Iridum 9555 satelite phone
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Actually, I only just got the spare as the first one has died – it won’t receive, though transmits fine. Very odd. At least it is on a 3-year warranty. | $1500 |
Fortress Anchor
 Fortress anchor ready to go
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You can never have too many anchors if a storm comes by. The Fortress is just like it says, the strongest setting in just about all tests. I have it rigged ready to drop over the starboard quarter at a moments notice. | $600 |
Interior Upholstery
 The Salon – with new upholstery
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Who wants to sit on sticky blue vinyl? Had it replaced by some nice brown Sensa Suede. Looks lovely, though clearly not an essential. | $2,700 |
Wind Generator
 Our D400 Windgenerator
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The aim is to try to be self sufficient for electricity without having to run the motors. That works if the wind is above about 13kt with a nice sunny day. But usually the anchorages are too protected to be 100% sufficient. Still it does churn out some useful power even if the wind is lighter. Unfortunately mounting these things is as expensive as buying them, as they need a good sturdy pole. And makes sure you have it far enough away from the boom even when on a broad reach. We had to move our back one step as it was too close and we broke a blade. The picture here is before we moved it down to the step below. |
$3,400 |
HookahMax  |
A low pressure Honda air compressor that pumps air down through two hoses to divers at recreational depths. Sits in a small dinghy and follows you around as you dive. This is almost pure toy, but it means you can go diving anywhere without having to get tanks refilled all the time. And it means you can clean the boat bottom or un-snag your anchor without having to hire scuba gear. Also cheaper than buying BCU, tanks, regulators etc for two people | $2,000 |
Spares
 Some of our spares and tools in a locker
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You name it, we probably have it. Lots of spare parts for the engines, Autohelm, and various other bits that might go wrong. | $6,000 |
Gale Sail storm jib – 80 sq ft |
Bought this off a fellow yachter in Grenada at below half price. Actually, Ceu beat them down an additional $100 as otherwise she would have no cash left for my birthday the next day J Again, probably will never use it, but good to have it anyway. | $450 |
LED Lamps
 Ceiling lights with new LED bulbs
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I replaced all the halogen lamps with LED so as to use a fraction of the electricity. This includes the masthead anchor light but not yet the navigation lamps. Our salon has a lot of lights, so this was not a small change. BTW, there is a big difference in brightness and reliability between different lamps. Some are voltage regulated, which makes them more expensive but longer lasting, especially if your voltage fluctuates (eg upto 14.2 v when charging and down to under 12v in use). | $300 |
‘Sofa’ at rear of cockpit
 Noel’s new ‘sofa’ complete with foot rest (aka cooler with cusions)
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I saw this on one boat that we looked at when were still buying. It is positioned so as to provide a good all-round view, while at the same time providing an almost sofa level comfort. Especially if I put the cooler under my feet as a foot rest. Had it built for me out of anodized aluminium by Havin in Simpson Bay, St. Martin. He did a great job. Wiith the ‘footrest’ in place it is ultra comfortable. |
$750 |
Hooks and netting in the forward sail lockers
 Netting for spinnaker storage on left, brass hooks for lines on right
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I put in some brass hooks to tidy up the spare lines we have, plus some netting to make a compartment for the spinnaker. Actually I used aluminum hooks first, from Home Depot, but they disintegrated within a month. So then I tracked down some proper solid brass ones and they are doing fine. As you can see, I had to glass in some wood in order to attach all these things. | $50 |
Interior decorating
 Ceu’s redecorating of our bedroom
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Ceu is a star at this, she now has coordinated curtains and bedding in both forward cabins, plus cushions to match the new upholstery, and endless cleaning. With the mildew in the tropics that never seems to stop! | $100 |
Endless Tupperware and Rubbermaid
 Perfect storage behind our galley
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Get as much Tupperware and Rubbermaid as you can lay your hands on – perfect for food storage and for storing all your tools, spares, socks and so on. All sizes from the smallest herb container to the big tubs. Fortunately Ceu bought most of this stuff years ago – it lasts forever. | $1,000 |
| Fishing gear | Ha! That’s a joke! 2,000 miles and still haven’t caught anything (apart from some sargasum sea weed, that is). Mind you, we only got some basic lures and handlines that we then troll while sailing. Still, it is supposed to work 🙂 | $100 |
Life jackets with harnesses
 Spinlock ‘Deckvest’ lifejacket with harness
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The charter fleet lifejackets are usually pretty basic. So we bought some fancy Spinlock lifejacts with integral harness. You HAVE to wear a harness any time you go outside the cockpit either in the dark or in any kind of wind. One small trip, or a sudden movement that knocks you off your feet and you could find yourself in the water. And that is almost certainly the end of that story. | $350 each. |
Tools
 Some of our tools
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Once you are out of port, pretty much anything that breaks is down to you to fix. So bring an extensive toolkit – I don’t think there is a tool that I brought that I haven ‘t used yet – even the tap and die kit was used for installing the radar bracket onto the mast. | |
Rocna 33 Anchor |
Life Part 2 came with three anchors – a 15kg bruce, 20kg CQR, and a Hydrobubble. Each of these was way too small. After we dragged anchor a number of times, and then breaking our chain, we finally decided it was time to get some real steel up there. So we bought two Rocna 33’s. As you can see, this fits nicely into the bow roller on the Leopard 42. And it is about 50% bigger and heavier than the Hydrobubble. Incidentally, Hydrobubble went broke in 2008. I guess they couldn’t compete with the setting and holding power of the new generation anchors such as Rocna, Manson Supreme, and Buegel, all of which are pretty similar in design and performance. |
$1170 each. |
NASA PC Navtex Pro |
This gadget passively receives Navtex messages, which include weather warnings, navigational warnings etc. They are transmitted by multiple stations in most countries, and are propogated farther than VHF. I installed this as a backup system for getting weather information if, for some reason, I cannot receive grib files and VHF reports – for example if I am out at sea without a Satelite phone.It is easy to use – it just sits there receiving messages, and when I want to read them, I hook up the laptop through a serial cable and download them.As with many things on board it is a bit of a belt-and-braces approach, but seemed like it would be useful. |
$170 |
Ship Modul MiniPlex 2USB/BT – NMEA Multiplexer |
All the boat’s navigational systems communicate with each other by means of the NMEA protocol. So the chartplotter interacts with the autohelm and the radar and the AIS and so on.Normally each gadget will be able to transmit its own information (ie it is a talker), and also receive input from other talkers (ie it is a listener). The problem is, a talker can talk to up to 4 listeners, but a listener can list to only one at a time. In addition, many instruments don’t fully conform to the NMEA specs, which can cause problems when you try to connect them all together.Into this mix I wanted to be able to receive all the data (including wind speed and direction, and water depth) onto my laptop running the OpenCPN charting software. I also wanted better connections to my radar.The only way to achieve all this is by means of a multiplexer. This can listen to many talkers, and then it will combine all the data from these talkers into one single output stream. That output can then be sent to up to 4 listeners. Typically a multiplexer has several outputs, letting one send data to eight or more different listeners. I also wanted to be able to receive all this data on my laptop without any cables or wires. The solution, and it works well, is this little black box which receives all the inputs, blends them together, and then outputs them by normal NMEA connections AND by USB and Bluetooth connections. Perfect. I now have all the helm instruments duplicated on my laptop AND since the AIS has its own GPS, separate from the chartplotter, I know have two GPS units providing input, one acting as a backup to the other. ShipModul Multiplexer |
$340 |
Remote Control Radio Switch |
To play music we have to turn on the radio in the salon. But if we want to play music while in bed, how do we then turn it off again without having to get out of bed, waking onself up again in the process?Simple. Just install a remote control switch, bought off Ebay for about $12. We switch the radio on at the panel, and then we can switch it off again either at the panel, or by using the little remote control switch from the bed. 🙂 |
$12 |
Window Sunscreens |
Sometimes the some coming through the side windows is just too hot. So we bought some silver ‘bubblewrap’ insulation from a hardware store, and inserted some small plastic suction cups into it. Now we can stick the insulation up in the window and cut out the heat. Also works well to cut out the nosy passers-by when we are tied up at a busy dock! |
$5 |
Lightning Protection |
The chances of being hit by lightning in a yacht are actually quite high, yet few boats seem to get around to putting up any kind of lightning protection. That is probably partly because the jury is still out on the best way to achieve such protection.Anyway, after much analysis and discussion, we have put up our solution. Hopefully we will never find out if it works. Click the link for full details on our lightning protection system. | $50 |
Our New Radar
Current Position: 18°25.56'N, 64°37.01'W
Distance sailed since last post: 90 nautical miles
How many times Noel had to go up the mast to complete installation of the radar??? The same amount of times I had to winch him up there….too many times! It took many tries, but it was always amusing!
That's me up the mast!
We started off with one trip up to see how far up we wanted it and how much cable we needed to feed through. I always wanted to try and climb the mast so I did that too, because it was only halfway, but then I was ok with it and kept going to the top. Was ok going up, but I’m sure its not a piece a cake when you have to carry the tools and actually move around the mast a lot.
For that, we picked a quiet bay where waters were smooth. Noel went up and started drilling..needed 12 holes. On the eleventh hole the bit broke. We didn’t have spare. Next day while Noel did some work in the computer he sent me shopping for bits. I bought more tools and lots of extras. I had 2 guys helping me with that. I said to the 2 guys that on boats you always need spares, for everything, so with a big smile on their faces they offered to be second and third mates. It’s all in a days work, right????
On the next trip up Noel was then able to finish drilling and put up the bracket. By now it was getting dark. Next day we had to sail away to a different location to pick up Noel’s new seat. We plan to finish our installation and really wanted to get in to that Bay again with the protected waters. When we arrived it was very busy but we managed to anchor in some tight spot beside the Channel. Tools and all ready to go, we got kicked out by the Harbour Master…too close to the channel. I explained it was only for an hour or so, to fix something , but he didn’t care. We left but came back again later to see if there were more spaces available. As soon as we got in he kicked us out again. He was expecting some big ship to come in. We left and anchored outside the bay. Noel got up the mast and there was no way he could work…it got so rolly, we moved again. After being kicked out twice, we wouldn’t try the inner harbour again.
We moved to Road Town and Up the mast! This time Noel attached the actual bowl to the bracket and it all went well. All its left to do is a half inch hole in the mast for the cable to get trough.
I sent up the drill and the perfect 17mm bit. The bit did not fit our 3/8” drill.
Ahhh! the next day I had to go to the same store and see the mates again. I was trying to find a bit that was still 17mm but a 3/8” end (instead of a 1/2” end) to fit our drill. No luck. None of the stores had such a thing. How can it be?
A week later we met up with our new sailor friend James at Bitter End Yacht Club and asked about his drill. Sure enough, we tried our bit and it fit. Ahhhh you have a Bosch, I said! Ohhh he was so proud! And we were so happy and grateful as well that he also helped us to move our wind generator down one step. Thanks James!
Next day…there we go again! The last stage of our never ending job. Noel drilled the hole, I sent up the cable and he fed it through. I had to dig for it somewhere at the bottom of the mast and put it through some little other hole somewhere!!
Ohhh so much fun wiring stuff on Boats, all the scrapes you get…its finger lickin’!!!!
It’s finally over and we look forward to attaching all the electrics and see the magic.
Now you know why I lost count how many times we tried…..and sooo much time consuming. Hope to enjoy our new Radar soon , especially on our long passage coming up soon
The final few bolts to tighten
Makeover
The last 2 days I was on my own I was actually able to go out and not worry about the anchor, plus I had some great neighbors watching out for me.
Now, remember what our salon used to look like?
The salon - Before
I wanted to make some cushions for my newly covered seats inside. I had looked many places but couldn’t find it. Finally I decided to take a bus ride to the French side of St Martin. I found this place with beautiful fabrics, I couldn’t make up my mind which one I liked the best or matched the best, so I got three different ones and made cushions all reversible, so I get 3 looks.
I kept busy sewing, which I really enjoyed.
Sewing cushions into the night
Now, put my nice new cushions on our nice new upholstery (done while we were in Canada) and our nice new front windows (no more leaking hatches and duct tape), and here is what you get:
The Salon - After
Ahhhhh…the Rum has been replaced!!!
No worries it was just added in with the other big stash of booze
I was also very busy making shopping lists, safety lists planning for our Atlantic Passage. Provisioning in St Martin is sure cheaper than having to shop most places around here and more variety as well.
I have never bough so much canned stuff in my life. I thought it even didn’t look normal, my cart was overflowing, couldn’t take any more…..full of just cans and some pasta and rice. I got a ride from the Store to the dock. I was joking with the driver, that with such big shop I was worried to sink my dinghy. He said It wasn’t a big shop. I felt so much better now. I guess they’re used to big Yachts doing their shopping, mine was small!!
loading up and finding a home for all the provisions
First day I went shopping for some housewares stuff, I was not in the groove yet. Kept adding to the shopping cart and when I got to the teller I forgot that my car was not in the parking lot. So, stuffed everything inside this big Rubbermaid container I bought and walked home with it. Very friendly people, 2 cars stopped to give me a ride and I actually didn’t take it because it was a big tub and awkward to put inside and wasn’t that far any more. After that, I did more shopping, but more trips……..
I did get a lot done, even dragging away, including Cleaning of course! LifePart2 was very very dusty from being in the Shipyard.
Noel thought I got so much done while he was away. He says he should go away more often. I say:
NEXT TIME, I’M GOING WITH YOU. I LIKED YOUR ADVENTURES BETTER!!!!
At the moment I’m not talking to him very much……I wonder why
He’s too busy working with his computer. We talk only at meal times…….(Yeah, I’m still cooking for him)
He’s not complaining in the office…he’s loving the beautiful view of the island and beautiful turquoise waters all around him….and of course, I AM still here!!! And tonight I’m taking him to the Island’s popular full moon party. Ahhh……in the name of Love, it’s So good!
Update:
Yesterday we lost connection and I was not able to publish this. This morning sailed across to Marina Cay. Nice little Bay and we are connected again
Full moon party was great. Any excuse to party in the Islands!
We met this nice couple from Chicago who are staying at the resort where the party was at and had some laughs with them. They were amazed with our lifestyle. They are very excited to come and visit on Tuesday for a drink and maybe a quick sail.