Yesterday didn’t get off to a good start. First of all, we had intended to get up early. We wanted to get all of our errands run in the morning so we could spend the afternoon SCUBA diving. But we wound up sleeping late, which put us behind schedule.
Our morning routine at anchor/mooring is to turn the generator on to charge the batteries and make water when we get up. Eric turned on the watermaker and was dismayed to see the high pressure pump didn’t go on. Eric suspected that Continue reading
Day 1
We spent the morning getting ready to go and pulled out around 11:45. We decided to run with dual stabilization, so we left the paravanes out when we took off. We like the idea of the smoothest ride possible.
Initially, we were in the lee of Dominica and seas were calm and pleasant. Even after leaving the lee, the ride was nice. At 1730, the seas started to pick up some, but only enough to move us from the “nice” to the “fairly good” category. It was a dark night with no moon.
Pretty much the entire ride the wind was 8 14 apparent on the aft (directly behind us), which means the usual problems with the hot air from the engine room getting blown into the downstairs cabins. It is definitely stuffy and stinky down there. Since it is calm, we have the hatches and portholes open, which helps a lot.
Day 2
Conditions were status quo until the early afternoon, when the wind picked up to 11 20 apparent. The seas followed suit and Continue reading
Eric went right to work as soon as he got up. He took down the rest of the mountings from the mast. The second shot is of one of the broken mountings. You can see it used to be a perfect square with 4 holes.
Eric had agonized yesterday over how to fix the problem, until he remembered that in his cache of spare parts there is a rubber hose intended for exhaust, so it could stand to get really hot. He dug out the hose and cut it into squares, then made holes for the screws. It was a total pain in the rear to get the shape and holes just right. He is becoming a pro at fabricating spare parts these days.
Eric went outside and mounted the rubber pieces to the mast. Originally, there had been Continue reading
At midnight we heard a loud crash on the top deck. It was windy and rainy and very dark out from the lack of stars and moon. We turned on the lights and looked out the back windows. Everything looked fine. The kayaks, dinghy and dock boxes were all secure. Eric went outside briefly and glanced at the top deck. All looked fine. We couldn’t figure out for the life of us what caused the crashing sound.
About the same time as the crash, the wind calmed down some and the seas started to improve a little. By 0100, we were in the lee of Guadalupe and the ride became smooth and nice. The wind was blocked by the big mountains on Basse Terre, so it died down to 3 5 knots. There are definitely a lot more lights at night on Guadeloupe than on Antigua, but it is no surprise since Guadeloupe has 450,000 people and Antigua only has 72,000.
We left the shelter of Guadalupe at about 0400 and it was instantly back to not being a fun ride. At sunrise, Dominica was visible, but the big mountains were mostly enshrouded in clouds. As morning progressed Continue reading
Yesterday was chore day. Eric changed the forward racor fuel filter, changed the generator racor fuel filter, changed the main on engine fuel filter, changed the generator on engine fuel filter, changed the transmission oil and filter, ran the wing engine, and replaced the sea strainer for the diaphragm bilge pump. Eric also put the storm plates back on the salon (living room) windows, which we had taken down for the boat waxing. He also put Lanicote corrosion protector on the screws for the storm plates.
Christi did laundry, cleaned, and did the never ending and thankless job of reorganizing storage spaces.
This morning we walked over to Falmouth Harbor to go Continue reading