21 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina
I got the alternator and fitted it. It seems to work well. I ran around all day sorting out the boat so that we can go tomorrow. Brett and Craig painted the anchor chain for me. Craig painted the gaps between the marks, and I had to finish it off but it kept them busy for an hour. Brett agreed to throw away his bike and he bravely did it himself! We had a Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner.
22 June 1994 Charlotte Amalie Marina to Norman Island, BVI
Ollie helped me get the boat out of the berth and onto the fuel dock to fill up with fuel. We motored around to Soper’s Hole to clear in and then went across to Norman Island. The log packed up as soon as we left Charlotte Amalie. It showed 10 knots and the log reading was clicking really fast, so I disconnected the impellor cable. I left the ignition on while we were at the fuel dock and the temperature gauge is oscillating now. It never rains but what it pours!
I was real slick picking up the mooring in Soper’s Hole and the boys helped me anchor by steering the boat. When I snorkelled down to check the anchor, I found a conch shell with two small cardinal fish and a baby octopus – I took it back to the boat but the octopus wouldn’t come out! Brett managed to water ski backwards on his body board today. It’s great to be at anchor again. “Dabulamanzi” turned up at sunset and Gareth let Glenys stay overnight on Glencora – after she had served dinner of course!
23 June 1994 Norman Island
We went to “The Caves” to do a bit of snorkelling with Glenys, Gareth and their guests. I made my diving sign in the afternoon which took about 5 hours. We had leftovers from “Dabulamanzi” for dinner.
24 June 1994 Norman Island
I did two days’ worth of washing up and then cleared the cockpit drains. In the afternoon, I just went down to look at the log impellor and I was so disgusted with the coral garden on the bottom of the boat that I spent 3 hours cleaning the bottom. I spent 2 hours with a snorkel scraping the top 2 feet and then 1 hour with a tank scraping about 1/3 of the rest – I’ll have to finish it tomorrow!
25 June 1994 Norman Island to Cane Garden Bay, BVI
Some people on a charter boat kindly brought over their left over food and drink because they were dropping the boat off today. We had a short but pleasant trip to Cane Garden Bay and anchored in good holding sand. It seems to be a very pleasant anchorage. We had lunch and then I spent 2 hours scraping the bottom of the boat. It is very time consuming doing the area around the propellor, skeg and rudder. I found a small crab living among the growth!
26 June 1994 Cane Garden Bay
I spent another 2 hours finishing off the bottom. It took me 6½ hours and 3 air tanks to do it. I must remember never to scrub anyone else’s hull! “Dabulamanzi” arrived at midday and we went there for lunch. It looks like their guests are going to come again for the second week of November and may want to do a diving course.
I’ve discovered that the log impellor problem something to do with electrical “noise” from the alternator – I tried connecting a suppressor across it with no success. We all went to “Dabulamanzi” for a barbeque. Glenys got paid $500 for her week on “Dabulamanzi”, but it sounds like she earned it. Craig was playing on “Dabulamanzi” and managed to fall in, fully clothed. He swam to the dinghy at the back, crying as he swam. He was very embarrassed and wouldn’t come out of the dinghy for ages.
27 June 1994 Cane Garden Bay to St Martin
I did a few jobs first thing and then we motored over to the Baths for a last rendezvous with Gareth. Glenys and Gareth went to the Marina to buy a bit of food and clear out while the boys swam to the beach. We dismantled the dinghy and sorted the boat out, then left at half past four. Gareth followed about an hour later.
It was very unpleasant. We could only point to 140° instead of 120° and the sea was a bit rough. After about an hour we felt rough too! Glenys managed to put a pizza in the oven but I’m afraid that it didn’t get eaten until about eight o’clock by which time it had gone cold. Gareth passed us at about nine o’clock just as a big squall hit us with 30+ knot winds. I was of course in bed and had to get up to check it out. Gareth passed us about ½ mile downwind which surprised me as I expected him to be pointing higher than us. Perhaps we are pointing too high!
28 June 1994 Cane Garden Bay to St Martin
A very unpleasant night. By midnight we were about 17 miles south of our rhumb line and I’d given up on the idea of going to St Martin. Gary’s new watch and my dive computer could wait for next time! During my off watch (2-5), I felt a few drips on me and woke at three o’clock feeling cold. I pulled a blanket over me and woke at five o’clock feeling cold and sweaty. At this point, I realised that the starboard saloon hatch was leaking and I (and my bedding) was wet!
At eight o’clock, we decided to make for Statia and tacked to go north a bit. Two hours later, we tacked again going SE as we had decided to carry on for another night to Guadeloupe. That was when we heard something heavy thumping ……. Glenys eventually tracked it down to the rudder moving up and down about ¼ inch – PANIC! Was the shoe at the bottom of the skeg falling off? Would we lose the rudder?
We decided to head for St Martin to check it out. We then had 5 uncomfortable hours waiting while we sailed there. As soon as we anchored in Simpson Bay, I dived over the side and had a look. It appears that we have lost a nylon/Teflon spacer from the rudder stock which is allowing the rudder to move up and down. It doesn’t seem to be an immediate problem, so I’ll wait until we get hauled out before doing anything about it. We went into the lagoon in the evening.
29 June 1994 Simpson Bay Lagoon
Lots of running about buying things - watch for Gary, dive computer, fins for Glenys and Brett, game gear for Craig’s birthday, food, etc. Glenys sent a fax to Lloyds cancelling her credit card (and mine) because the mail from Carol hadn’t arrived in St Thomas. Guy and Marie and Tom from “Sahara Blue” came for a beer.
30 June 1994 Simpson Bay Lagoon to St Barts
I tried to get a weather forecast first thing in the morning with no success. It was windy all night and is gusting ESE 25 knots. We ‘ummed and ahhed’ for ages and then decided to “just” go to St Barts. What a good decision! It was three hours of hell motoring straight up wind into 3 metre seas, but it was great when we arrived in Anse De Columbier and jumped into the clear, calm water. Brett and Glenys tried out their new fins and I played with my new dive computer. The instructions for the dive computer are only in French, so Glenys and I spent an hour trying to translate the manual – life’s never easy!
I finally got a weather forecast at 1800hrs from Radio Antilles on 930 kHz. The guy talks so fast that I was glad I recorded it. Anyway, the weather is very unsettled and we expect ESE 20-25 knots tomorrow and for the next few days. It looks like we will be doing day-sailing from island to island until the weather gets better.
Glenys’ mum, Ceris, arrives in 7 days and we’ve still got about 350 miles to go! Glenys discovered that the steering wheel is giving out electric shocks when the engine is running. I suspect that the alternator has some kind of fault on it and is causing the engine and steering to be live. It doesn’t appear to be a problem (except for us getting mild shocks!) so I suppose I’ll wait until we get to Grenada.
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