Sometimes You Just Need To Stay Put To Get Things Done!

Our comfortable spot in Vero Beach to get a few jobs done.

Sometimes you need to stay put somewhere to get things done. I know for some it comes as a surprise that our job list is so long considering the time we have just spent in a boatyard. But that time was dedicated to the hull and all that that entails.  We all know how Sim is a belt and braces kinda guy who likes to tinker and fix things.  I use to join him on this continuous maintenance mission that he is always on, but over the years and for the sake of both of our sanities I have happily learned to just let him get on with it while I potter  and tinker with my own interest and projects. And that keeps us in a happy place, so its a win –win!  
 A ‘bad’ clevis pin got changed. Since then I have lifted Sim up the mast 7 times changing the rest of them, just in case.

The dye test shows that this clevis pin definitely needed changing - see the purple stress line near the top of the pin.

Sim has thoroughly inspected all the rigging and changed all the clevis pins at the top of the mast for the shrouds and the backstays and both the T bolts from the lower cap shrouds at the bottom. He has cleaned it all and conducted a three part dye test on any suspect pieces that show any fractures or corrosion.  So far all seems good and we are glad we have had this time in Vero Beach to do this, as had we left for the Bahamas it would have been delayed and delayed and a constant worry.

Our wheels for a couple of days....there was no losing this car in the parking lot!

But it’s not all work. We hired a car for a couple of days while it was still cheap and convenient and got a surprise message from Jennifer who was here in Florida on vacation with mum and dad, Jim and Linda – our old cruising buddies from Opus.  They were 150 miles away somewhere near St Augustine so we agreed to meet halfway in Titusville – a spot we are both familiar with. We had a delicious lunch and catch up at the Dixie Crossroads, renowned for their various seafood selection and Rock Shrimp.

Linda, Jennifer and Jim from Opus at Dixie Crossroads

We walked around the marina where we had both previously hung out over the years.  This area is a good place to spot manatees and sure enough we got to glimpse a few.  They love fresh water – one manatee was feeding from a boats’ cooling system and another couple from a running hose. Despite their funny looks, I think these docile creatures are very cute. 

The marina, like the rest of the US east coast had its fair share of resident Osprey.

We bought an ice lolly and were sitting eating them together with our friends, watching the boats come and go when we recognised two familiar faces. It couldn’t be  ‘Wind Whisperer’ with Terry and Barbara who we had all sailed loosely together with six years ago along the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico? It was. How uncanny!  Sometimes it really is a small world and no more so than when they tied up beside us two days later in Vero Beach.

 'Wind Wisperer' leaving early one morning after rafting to us for the night. 

Running From The Cold, The Captains Birthday And An Endless Job List!

Wandering Star on a mooring with the Christmas lights of St Augustine, Florida

After running from the cold for the last few weeks we have finally arrived in sunny Florida. Temperatures are perfect and yet I feel a little sad. Florida is the end of the line for us, the last state we will be passing through before we head over to the Bahamas and back to the East Caribbean. And though we are excited to return to a place that is as familiar to us as any 'home' has been, we can't deny how much we have enjoyed the US.

Sunrise at Sisters Creek free dock, Jacksonville, Florida

After leaving Beaufort, SC, Sim would have liked to sail on the 'outside'. Our plan was to head down to Hilton Head, do a quick shop at the very nice Kruger supermarket, then head out of the Caliboque Sound for an over night sail to Florida. But it was very cold and we would have had to wait another 3 days for a good forecast. We could be there by then. In the end we opted to take the waterway route, on the inside, to keep moving, and to safely tuck up warm somewhere at night at anchor (because the waterway is no place to be moving in the dark). The days were mostly long, grey and drab. We passed through some of the shallowest areas - the notorious Hells Gate and Fields Cut, timing the 9ft tides to clear the shallowest spots of 2ft MLW. We rose and retired with the sun catching some of her awesome early morning or evening displays. 

Hurrying south, I now wonder what the rush was for? But here we are, in time to celebrate Sims Birthday in sunny St Augustine, Florida. A fun 'historic' town with a good atmosphere. We had a mooring right next to the seawall. What a fantastic spot. On one side we had the old fort 'Castillo de San Marcos' and to the other the ornate Bridge of Lions - the whole waterfront lit up at night. It was gorgeous and a very lovely contrast to the marshy anchorages of the previous weeks.

The Birthday Boy at Georgie's Diner, St Augustine

We started Sims Birthday, with an epic breakfast at 'Georgie's' - a very cool, typical American diner - it was fully decked out in chrome, and red and white leatherette seating. We loved it. Then a fabulous dinner at A1A on the waterfront that evening. The whole of St Augustine is covered Christmas lights and festive decorations, it looks amazing. We have passed through At Augustine many times but always with an agenda or schedule and then we move on. This time we really enjoyed our time  - walking the red bricked streets and taking in the ambiance. It's been wonderful.

The old district at St Augustine

But now, again, we must press on, we hope to be in to Vero Beach next week to change some more clevis pins on the rigging, to pick up some packages, to do our last load of mounting laundry and to hire a car for a last big provision before we head over to the Bahamas. And to deal with some of the jobs mounting up. We haven't even left America and our list is piling up. Our hopeful solution of replacing the ($200!) cable for the radar hasn't changed a thing. It fires up, the radar scans but we receive nothing. Because of the short days our batteries are starting to dwindle. We hauled out our brand new generator that we bought at great expense in the Bahamas earlier in the year, but guess what? It won't run. I've no doubt that Sim can fix it. Where do we draw the line between the necessary and the nice to have? We've managed for a decade with no radar or watermaker.  It's one of those times when we feel things getting on top of us. It might be time to put the kettle on.

Passing the ubiquitous shrimps boats so familiar on the east coast at Fernadina Beach

Endless days of sky and water just after passing Hells Gate on the ICW

On the free dock at Sisters Creek, Jacksonville, Florida

At anchor in Hilton Head with a full moon.

Freezing and another early start to the day.

Sim has made several trips aloft to measure for new rigging pieces.

A one legged pelican....there has to be a joke in there somewhere.

The Bridge of Lions, St Augustine, Florida

The Christmas tree in the square at St Augustine

Sims birthday evening stroll - St Augustine -all lit up.

All the trees are wrapped in fairy lights

Even some boats in the marina are all dressed up

The birthday boy in the birthday boy hat.

Thats a tall one!

Busy Daze in St Maarten

Wandering Star at anchor in Simpson Bay Lagoon.

St Maarten is not a place for sitting still.  Not for us anyway.  We have been working (fairly) hard every day.  Jobs are slowly being ticked of our latest “to do” list.  Most of the jobs or items are to do with our departure to the US which includes some longer sails and stops in more remote anchorages. We need to be more self sufficient than we have been in a while. The engine is having a thorough check over including redoing the fuel system.  The gauges and sender units have been replaced.  Sails are being repaired. The rig inspected.  Running rigging replaced. Navigation chips for our chart plotter bought. More gas bottles purchased. We are making a rain catcher to keep our tanks topped up. All outside items like the gas bottles and the life buoy have had covers made for them.  We are buying a huge bilge pump giving us three in total.  Having had some good advice from my sister’s doctor boyfriend we are revamping our medical kit. Getting the prescriptions from a doctor on the Dutch side and buying from a very reasonable chemist on the French side.  The cat must go to the vet for her health certificate.  And we have a provisioning list as long as your arm with all the food, alcohol and other sundries to add to our stocks.  Not to mention all the spare parts we want to carry.  The grab bag is being up dated and we have to consider buying a new dinghy. Which basically equates to lots of $$$ being spent.  When you live on such a tight budget it stings a little to be spending so much.  But all of these are necessary investments, except perhaps the alcohol. But you have to live for today right? We do like to know there is food in the fridge for tomorrow  ;-)!

Laying out the material for the rain catcher at the local curry house!

St Maarten is also a social place.  The lagoon is starting to get busy.  More and more cruisers arrive every day.  It makes happy hours and get-togethers big social events.  We have eaten out twice in local restaurants where they have had to close their doors to others as there were so many of us. The Shwarmas and Chinese are very good value.  Beer at happy hour is between $1-2.  The days are sunny, the skies are blue, and the lagoon is surrounded by deep green hills.  The beaches are some of the best around with the most amazing hues of blue.  Everything is so colourful and cheery.  It is hard not to like this place and going to be even harder to tear ourselves away.

The lovely Simpson Bay beach

Out for a stroll on Simpson Bay Beach

Fun times for Izzys b'day party on "Izzy R"

 

Decisions, Indecisions, Inflatable Toys & Hookahs

Decisions, indecisions!

I don’t know about you, but Sim and I are terrible at making decisions or more accurately we are great at making them, just hopeless at sticking to them, to the point that we drive ourselves crazy.  Take this impending haul out for example. We feel (and have been feeling for sometime) that we really need to get stuck into a maintenance period on land.  But we have been dragging our feet and changing our minds for one reason or another for some time now.  I actually try to view this fickleness as part of the beauty of our lifestyle. But I digress. Our latest plan had been to haul out here in St Maarten.  But once again we have changed our minds! Maybe we are dragging our feet, or maybe we are looking for change of scene and some new adventures. Maybe to need to feel like we are sailors rather than people who live on a boat.  As much as we love our sunny and colourful Caribbean maybe we need to explore some different places. Whatever the reason our latest plan is to head north, up through the Bahamas to the US east coast.  Where we can find some little yard to plod on with the work during hurricane season without battling the unbearable heat or torrential downpours of biblical proportions and enjoy some of the beautiful coastline that the east coast has to offer.  And this is our plan du jour!

So with this latest plan in mind we need to use this time in St Maarten to get the boat prepped for a few longer sails and to make sure that everything is in order for the stricter rules of the US. 

First on the list were our life jackets that were out of date to say the least! Sim serviced them putting new gas cylinders in and making sure they were in good condition.  We had fun setting the out of date ones off - a good lesson in familiarizing ourselves with the release toggles.  All the out of date vests inflated which was reassuring and held the air for a good 24hrs before we deflated and repacked them.  Now if god forbid, we ever have to use one, we know exactly what we are doing and that they really do work.

Geoff shows Sim his hookah

That is one little job done.  Next is the trickier job of changing the packing in the stuffing box which is the material around the shaft as it fits through the hull of the boat to stop water leaking in.  Ours is old and can’t be tightened any further.  When we motor there is a considerable trickle which can amount to gallons of seawater in our bilge!  Not good when you want to keep a steel boat dry! We also need to grease our “Max Prop”,  another underwater job with the grease gun.  None of these jobs are easy whilst in the water.  Chatting to Geoff from ‘Izzy R’ it was suggested that the use of a hooker might help.  I have to say I couldn’t see how and was not keen on the idea but Sim got fairly excited. Geoff continued that if Sim felt inclined he could try out his and if he got on ok could then borrow it.  I glanced across at Izzy, Geoff`s wife to see if she knew about this business but her serene face gave nothing away.  If she was bothered, she was hiding it well.  As it turns out a hooker (spelt hookah) is a compressor come dive tank that sits on your boat with a hose to a demand valve - similar to scuba gear but without all the fancy bits. Apparently I had nothing to worry about.  We gathered along with Jon from ‘Imagine’ and Dave from ‘Banyan’ for a Hookah party on ‘Izzy R’ to show Sim how to use it the following morning.  Jon bought his new toy along - the ‘’Waveblade’’, to prove to the rest of the party it was a worthy and useful piece of equipment.  The packaging says that this 12v vibrating tool makes easy work of removing barnacles and other unwanted crusty bits from below the water line.  The pastel packaging, along with gloves and carry bag made it look like some sort of kitchen device – it almost resembled my hand blender. Sim put it to the test while hooked up to the hookah.  Verdict – It won’t make smoothies but it does remove barnacles easily, only, if its weed you want removed you are better off with a regular scraper.



Izzy, Jon and his tool

Sim is a convert to the hookah and now wants to get one – it will make cleaning the underneath of the boat a breeze.  In the mean time ‘Izzy R’ have leant us theirs so that Sim can do the two underwater jobs without having to constantly come up for air.  The Waveblade he might pass on....sorry Jon.

Sim testing out the hookah

 

Aside from all this work (really it is work) we have had fun joining friends in the various bars around the lagoon and enjoyed the firework display to celebrate the official opening of the new causeway bridge across the lagoon.

Fantastic fireworks

 

 

 

Back in the Grenada Groove

St Georges Grenada

We arrived back in Grenada, for our 4^th season after our fabulous sail down from Carriacou.  And it feels like coming home.  We anchored outside St Georges for a couple of nights hoping for a last few days of clear water to swim in, only to find the bay full of jellyfish washed in with the tide.  With the threat of Tropical Storm Chantal fast approaching we moved around the corner to Prickly Bay our old favourite haunt and a step closer to more protected bays should we need them. We anchored close to the beach so we could enjoy nice swims in the afternoons to cool off from the excessive heat this season is bringing.  We’ve caught up with friends and settled down into a familiar pattern.

 

Views out to sea St Georges

With our new STEEL boat the jobs have started in earnest. I remember reading on a yellow sticky note attached to someone’s nav station that said: the secret to success is getting started.  Sim has jumped straight in. The staysail is down and the furling unit in pieces.  But as with all things Caribbean and all things boaty, its 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.  It takes days to get a seal out or hours and hours researching spare parts for reasonable prices over an internet that is slow and frustrating. The weather doesn’t play fair.  But Sim is master at tackling jobs like this.  He always tells me that patience and perseverance prevail; I am in awe of his.  

 

Sunny day, Prickly Bay!!

To keep things more manageable we have set ourselves deadlines for the end of each approaching month. It goes something like this for the next two months

JULY & AUGUST

Repair, overhaul or replace staysail furling unit

Repair, overhaul or replace genoa furling unit

Put up new genoa sail.

Repair other Genoa sail.

Repair Staysail sail.

Fit new davit pulley

Check all chain plates 

Get a rig check

Replace Genoa stay.

Fit jackstays

Replace sink drains

Fit saltwater deck wash

Make fridge divider.

Investigate Wind Gen repairs/ more solar power/ generator & charging systems.

This is just the list for the first two months and things we consider a priority. There is a similar list for September/October too.

 

Wandering Star in Mount Hartman Bay

In the mean time we have moved from Prickly Bay to Mount Hartman Bay or Secret Harbour as it is also known.  It’s quieter here, less distractions.  The birds chirp away and at night when the wind isn’t howling (which it is right now) you can hear the crickets and cicadas. It’s surprisingly rolly for a bay protected by reefs.  But we like it here, and despite the overwhelming feeling we are happy, I think we will stay a while.

A trip to Phare Bleu marina

My favourite flower - Purple water lillies

Interesting house built into hill right behind us

Just horrid weather today