Guess where we will be..

Three tomatoes are walking down the street- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him… and says, Catch up.

So its been a while, but we are still safe and having a blast.

We arrived Sint Maarten (Dutch side) and haven’t really strayed very far. It is almost like last year, where we spent almost 6 months here getting the standing rigging replaced. Tho this time is very different.

Sunsets do not suck

Simpson Bay

Christine went back to the states  and I returned to work (remotely) only to find out that my job required an Austin presence, mid-life retirement kicked.

Had already run into our friends. the Princess, the Ogre, and Ho Aloha that we met here last year, they took care of me while Christine was away. So started boat projects, all the oil was changed in all 4 engines. The Dinghy engine (gear oil), the 2 main Volvo engines, and the Honda generator (used for making water and electricity when not wanting to run the diesels). Washed the boat several times, cleaned the engine rooms. Sewed a dinghy gas cover, it was just baking in the sun so I channeled my inner Betsy Ross and it turned out okay – but it still needed some love later when I had more time. That time came, and now it has a velcro opening for refilling the tank and holes for the tie downs that keep the tank from sliding around in the dinghy. Works pretty good, for using scraps of Sunbrella Christine picked up last year.

First cut on gas cover

Just before Christine returned, I had had to clean up the boat and fill up the tanks with the water maker so I went for a sail. Solo. I had moved the boat solo a few times and anchored without too many issues, including a motoring Jib sail to La Semmana, and trip to Phillipsburg to pick up 700lbs of replacement ceiling material, so why not try sailing. Nice ‘green’ day, meaning less than 20knots of wind forecasted so prefect day for full sails and what else am I gonna do. Pulled anchor went out a way from boats and raised the main sail with no real issues, other than making sure all the reefing lines ran free as I wasn’t sure what reef we had in when we last had the sail up. Set a course for Saba, an island about 25miles a way. Pulled out the jib, turned off the engines, fired up the Honda, and started the water maker.

Awesome square rigger

Sailed about 18 miles toward Saba and the Port tank was full, and I just made some lunch, so perfect time to turn around. I was trolling fishing lines too, but no bites on the way out – definitely none on the way back. I went to tack the boat using the Auto Pilot’s tack feature. Well that didn’t go as smoothly as one would have hoped, I didn’t get all the way around and ended up in irons. Hmmm.. I was doing 8knots, I guess that the Auto Pilot 100 degree tack needed to be a bit more so, fell off and got it going again to try again, this time with the dagger boards down and and extra turn of the wheel. Again didn’t quite make it, but this time I was also drifting backwards and the fishing lines and teasers all ended up under the boat and around the rudders. Grabbed the dock hook and was able to untangle the mess as it never made it to the propellers. But in the process broke the dock hook, in half again – had fixed that last year too. Got the lines straightened out, and fired up the starboard engine to get around and back on course back to the anchorage. Then turned it back off and started sailing toward St Barths and noticed a couple squalls (rainstorms) on the way. Now I had full sails up and rain storms normally bring more wind and looking at the water, I could see more white caps, so pulled a reef in the main, and no sooner then the wind jumped to 26knots, pulled a little jib and all was good. No fishing lines in the water tho, thus no bites. Made it back the anchorage, full of water in both tanks and full of electricity – a great day. And now we have a new boat hook that is made from one piece of aluminum instead of one put together with a an old broom handle.

Saba in the distance

Reworked the rain catchment system on the bimini, they were forever getting taken out by flapping jib sheets because they hung down too low, found some 90 degree sprinkler fittings that were able to be customized to a hose connection and epoxied in place, so far they have lasted an should be out of the way of the flapping jibsheets when taking and rolling up the sail.

Rain catchment

Might have found the port engine staring issue as the negative connection on the starter wasn’t giving enough juice to spin the engine over, the solenoid would throw but unless there was perfect star alignment wouldn’t always engage. I had brought an automotive remote starter button so that I wouldn’t have to hot wire the connection while in the engine room, or go up and use the key. When using the remote starter I was able to hear / see the the little arc that was happening on the negative side of the starter – pulled off the wires, re-ordered them after sanding lightly, to where the biggest wire was on first to make the most connection and hasn’t been a problem since – tho now that I talk about it, its bound to happen again. We do have that extra starting battery onboard too.

Remote starter button

Always sunny

​​Picking up the ceiling material was an adventure in its self, I ordered 12 4×8 foot sheets of 3mm PVC sheets, 6 in beige and 6 in white from a sign company in Puerto Rico. PVC will not mold, can get wet, should last a life time, but nothing really sticks to it. After motoring the big boat from La Semana over to Phillipsburg and frantically looking through the cruising guide as to where to anchor (as we had never been there before), found a spot that seemed good, and ran off in the dingy to find the shipping company. Walked to where the containers were, asked the guard and he pointed back down the street a half mile where I came. Then a semi truck stopped and said get on, he was going there. On? Where? He pointed to the back where the trailers get connected. I jumped up there with my dolly and held on, he dropped me at the Front office, of course lunch time had just started so I had an hour to wait till they opened up in some industrial park. Luckily it was shaded, and then I spotted a convenience store. Walked over even though it was going out of business they still had a cold beer, but only Bud Light – oh well it was hot outside, the beer was cold, and it was lunch time. After lunch when they re-opened, I went in and paid $80 for the shipping,  not bad at all, but the invoice said 700 lbs? Uh this little dolly isn’t going to work with 4 foot by 8 foot panels weighing 700 pounds. Its gotta just be the packing right? Went around to the back and the guy looked for the package. It was on the floor on two pallets. Uh-oh. Luckily, they said they deliver, so back around to the office to see about delivery. Lady in the front was so nice, but wasn’t sure when they could deliver, when I informed her the guys in the back said they could do it today as I was only a short distance away, they loaded it up with a fork lift and we took it in a truck down to the place I had left the dinghy. The driver helped me load the sheets into the dinghy, the sheets were so big that was almost no room left for me in the dinghy but made it out to the boat without the wind blowing the sheets into the water. Now back to the boat, how to unload to the mother ship? Two sheets at a time and used the blowing wind against the sheets as a kite, all aboard, then to find a place to store em. The boat is big, but finding 8 foot in a single location was a challenge. Each sheet weighs in at 15 lbs, so the actual weight is closer to 200lbs, not too bad.

There is a dinghy under there some where

Cockpit is full

All you get is a Bud Light

Hiked to top of hill,

View from the top, that is the boat right there.

swam a shore went for a walk.

La Semana

And of course celebrated the last day of work

Celebration

Our one night early explore trip turns into many by the hospitality and cordial guests of the island of Dominica. At first we signed up for one night on the mooring ball, an inexpensive $12USD per night and a 30ecd trip to customs, but then an “indian river” trip sounded fun so we signed up with “Providence” for a 7:30am trip the next day. Yes either we are old or we don’t sleep much at anchor, but by 7:30am we’ve already accomplished many boat chores and stuff.  Providence is slowly motoring up, a head of schedule and we board and head to the ‘canoe trip’ up the island sanctuary.

Its a national park and river, so no motorized vehicles past the bridge, we stop lift the engine and Providence rows us up river, not a class 5 rapid, but there is still current. A quick trip to the left and you can see the home of the witch Calypso from the the movie the Pirates of Caribbean. Unlike down island the shack is well preserved, but I wouldn’t want to walk on the dock. Rumor has it, Johnny is still sleeping up in there, and it was all that I could do to keep Christine from jumping over board to take that chance.

On the way back down the tributary, Martin ( “Providence’s real name” ) snagged a daddy crab from the shore to show us the biological parts of a crab, this one was male – proven by what the crab had hidden in its cod piece. Large pinchers could have easily removed a finger but since they have gills, and can live underwater, he was released with out injury.

Lots of botanical knowledge (Providence is a botanist) and quietness shared as we were the first on the river that morning.  All the way to the end and found the bar, the downsides of early risers is the bar isn’t open yet.. Doh!. Hiked a bit, heard the national bird, a parrot on the flag after all, and some large trees and beautiful flowers. Definitely worth the trip. As we were just finishing our tour we could hear the next boat approaching, turns out it was another guid Martin (Providence) trained.. Cracked a fresh coconut from the river and shared the water, and meat – never really a fan of coconut in cookies, but fresh like that – I cleaned it out.  Came away with an herb for my cough, a bouquet for Christine and a magical leaf that will sprout roots without water or soil.

Back to the boat after a 2+ hour tour and… and we decided to stay and explore .. after a few boat chores of course.

Joker man, Joker I am…

Why they call it a joker, i’m not sure – but its the valve that keeps the nasties from coming back up in the toilet. They need replacing every year or so, and its time. So that was the *shitty* boat task that is now complete – but we’ll be revisiting it later as I think the diverter value needs some attention too as the holding tank was also full. Check back in January on this pleasant topic.

Tired of being confined to these 2 hulls and cleaning up and that darned fort staring at us. Let’s go. Dinghy to PAYS dock, and walk right to the fort. Got there around 4pm, they only had 1 ticket, so we got that one and said we’d pickup another on the way out. As we walked to the gate we were accosted by someone asking if we were going to do the hike. Yes, which one? Dunno, we’ll figure out. Turns out he was they guy taking tickets, not trying to provide us a,chaperoned trip. We go up, Christine all bound up with her lost surgical garment and long sleeves and pants but wanting to go — we go to the right to the east hill as the guy taking tickets said thats the most scenic. We thought we would do both after all, 30mins up and 30mins here and there and it started to get dark. Guess we won’t make the second summit, as we neared the fort on the way down.. I stubbed my toe, drawing more blood than the fish guts we sent overboard. Oh well, sucked it up and squeezed it for a bit and hiked down to the bar for a cold beer and gingerly walk back to the dinghy.

Quick pIzza on board, and Christine made me a Donald Rum and Coke and I completely forgot I had toes. Pass out.

Lazy day.. still here trying to figure out when church starts and what to do today…Christmas Eve.

Time to explore town, found the Church for Dec 24th midnight mass. Mid Night? Hmm.. we barely make 8pm, now midnight? How is that going to happen? Ask about 25 different folks about what time midnight mass starts, and got 24 different answers. The 2 that matched were, duh – midnight.

Chilling on the boat, a neighbor swims over and introduces himself. Been out sailing for years, 8 with this boat. 3 daughters on board 2 of which have only known this boat. Chatted about the challenges of raising a family and keeping a boat cruising. Very nice. From Vail Co, boat from St Johns.

Turns out the PAYs boat boys were having a benefit to support the nightly patrols, starting at 7pm. Perfect timing for dinner, all you can eat fish and chicken, all you can drink rum punch, and music till midnight mass. PartyTime and for a good reason.. 100ec ($40 USD .. and I don’t have to cook – done!)

Music starts at 6pm, I’m are we late.. ?
We show up 7pm and sit with some crew.. odd situation on the boat and owners. Leave it at that.

As dinner is winding down, time to remove the tables and the dance floor opens up. If you know me, you know that my only move is the volume knob. Crank it up, but it’ll be a cold day before I get on the floor. However there were plenty of others who do not hold the same shame. Oh my. They had plenty of others who were not as modest. I would say russians stomp the sand like its been bad, and egg on the others to do the same. Our wallflower neighbors were plenty light, and at least a decade past ours. The local egged him on, he couldn’t resist, think limbo game, the 20 something rhythm gifted and the german holding on to youth by a follicle. Well every 10 mins someone had to help our german friend up off the sand floor, and eventually when we were heading to church for midnight mass at 10pm we gave his “lady friend” a ride back to the boat, and the PAYs boys towed the dingy and the other guy back to the boat. Note: When I started “sweet and low” (our dinghy) her eyes lit up and said in .. crossed eyes.. what is that.. I mentioned 25.. and she understood – we had the POWER.

Good deed done on Xmas eve, we sung by the boat for cold beverage for the ride to the church. Is that wrong? The fishing dock is a bit a way, and after so many rum punches, needed something with less booze in it.

We get to the fishery dock, lots of boats in there at 10:30pm find a spot for sweet and low, lock her up and tied loosely to the dock. Martin (Providence) had said NOT to lock it up, but it was so late and no one seemed to be coming in, so to hopefully have a ride home.. I locked it up.

We walked down the dock, and arrived the locked gate and then out of the darkness. Tim Burton could not cast this guy so well. Dark full length leather jacket, shinny completion and scary as Laurence Fishburn from the Matrix asked if I “Lurked the dinghy” ? Yes I translated that to “I’m sorry sir, I’l unlock and be right back” ..

Fixed the errs of my ways, and we are off to Church, and we find the place by the music. We arrive at 11p and its in full swing already. Christine gets ushered in, I look in my right hand and its a 1/2 full beer. Something wrong about going into the church with a beer, so I step back. Listen to the sermon outside for a while, and decide its rude to not be a part of something that Christine enjoys so find a hiding spot and hide the beer and wait for a break to find the pew. All good, 2 hrs later its wine and cracker time – my cue to split. She goes forward for Communion, I go back .. and the beer is gone – no worries its the fresh long horn coozie thats missing is disappointing.. oh well.. back to the boat.. another great evening to sleep…. early for the next adventure.  I might add that church started at 10p and finished around 2a. We were an hour late and left 30 minutes early and still sat through 2.5 hours of sermon.