St. Kitts cruise ship Mecca

We didn't spend enough time in Nevis. It's a shame, but when we tried to get to the most Northerly bay, the wind made it impossible to get there. So we sailed immediately to St. Kitts, across the Narrows.



The stay in St. Kitts was nice, very relaxing and calm. We stayed a couple of days in Whitehouse Bay, where we met Sam and Alex and got together for a drink and some snacks. We snorkeled the bay to see some old wrecks and saw some old cannons lying on the sea bed right below Victor Too, and a Manta Ray swimming next to one of them.



In the capital Basseterre we got into the marina for water and fuel and to get six weeks of laundry done. The laundry cost was a bit of a shock and very badly folded on top of that, the price of water was a joke (15 US$) and the fuel never materialized. But apart from that, it was a nice marina and a pleasant town. But it also shows that if you put enough cruise ships in a port, prices become a joke while service not necessarily benefits. We had a similar experience with customs and immigration officers, which we wouldn't rate as high as our sacred guide (Doyle's) does. Perhaps bad luck, but perhaps they just don't need yachts that much anymore with up to 5 cruise ships in port at the same time.

Anyway, the people in town were very friendly and helpful, as everywhere we've been. We didn't go see a lot, being victims of the inflated prices (64 US$ per person for a train ride), but I did two dives at very good sites in excellent visibility.

I prefer smaller islands to bigger ones, but with too many cruise ship passengers in town, sometimes the larger islands with more remote bays provide more alternatives to escape the crowd. So far, we've had plenty of everything not to decide either way. We still have a couple of islands to go, each different. Plenty of opportunities along the way!

(Power) Systems Failure

Being in France again feels strange. Of course, we're still also in the Caribbean, but at the same time it feels weird walking around in a large supermarket. It's the largest store I've been in since the Canaries in October.

We arrived in Martinique yesterday and while visiting Fort de France today we entered a Casino supermarket to get some drinks. And of course I ended up buying Brie and Dan'Up drink yogurt. And then it hit me, about the supermarket. I'm exactly seven months away today, and I'm not yet thinking about tomorrow.

So we shopped and later today I hope I'll get some good news about our alternator which is acting strangely, that is to say it doesn't work anymore. We've been keeping the batteries topped up with the solar panels, but sooner or later the alternator had to come out, and this morning it did.

In the line of things electro-mechanical breaking down, this was the first to go. After that, the spark plugs of outboard and generator gave the ghost, and the shore power circuit shorted.

So we were saving energy for a few days while I was busy altering power cables and checking supply and demand. Then we got to Martinique and now the electrical systems are getting fixed. Who says cruising is all fun and games?

But of course, being in a place like Cumberland Bay St. Vincent like we were yesterday, it just isn't all that urgent.

A year's worth of water

After the great water party a couple of weeks before Victor Too left Ostend, we were carrying 500 liters of Bru spring water. Everybody had a good laugh and so had I, but I had my cherished source of drinking water for months to come.



So far, every bottle has been handled seven times: once when getting it from the store, the second time when delivering it to the pontoon, third was when we hauled it all on board, a fourth time when the lazarette had to be emptied to work on the engine from the lazarette hatch. Then a lot of the bottles were taken from the lazarette to the storage underneath the bunks or from the aft cabin to the saloon, which makes five. Finally, many bottles in the aft cabin were taken to the saloon to be replaced by Brisa, a Madeiran soft drink and Guarana, a Brazilian soft drink bought in Madeira. About half the bottles in the aft cabin were taken out of storage from underneath the bunk, because of water ingress from the wind vane supports. All the remaining bottles in the lazarette were transferred to the aft cabin, where the surplus was temporarily stored in the heads. And then, about 250 have already been drunk, which makes seven.



So after all this shifting of water, am I still enjoying every single drop? Well, to tell the truth, the natural carbon is slowly going out of the water, so the taste is altering slightly. The remainder will not last me the whole of the trip. But I’ll probably get across to the Azores on my final bottles, which was exactly my intention and I guess I can live without Bru for a month or two.

But it will be hard.

Trees and cathedrals

I got a chance to see the famed Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Ines and I went to see it on our last day in Vigo. So we took the train, a very nice and clean one, which took us there in just over 90 minutes.

Once we got to Santiago, we walked to the cathedral but there was a mass going on, so nobody could get in from the huge crowd already inside. So we went for lunch in a local bar and afterwards walked around some more until we could finally get in. The church is a very ornate Baroque style on the outside, but on the inside it's quite sober - apart from the huge gold altar ornaments, undoubtably a remains from the colonization.

I didn't feel any sort of catharsis, so perhaps I should walk there next time. I remember reeding the book "O caminho de Santiago" by Paulo Coelho and there wasn't a real catharsis at the end of that journey, either.

After getting back to Vigo, I took a picture of our boat tree Bao, which is short for baobab. Our tree got a shoot the day before we left, and now it's coming along nicely. I've had it for 5 months now and I was sure it had died, but baobabs are the most amazingly resilient trees.

It is my companion to care for while the trips lasts - and hopefully afterwards!

The Cape Route

Exactly a week after leaving Jersey, we finally made it to Brest. South Westerly winds, a Southerly storm force 9 and seaweed contrived to keep us from getting West. We spent three days near Tréguier waiting for the weather to improve, playing Colonists of Catan and visiting the bar on shore for ice cream. It's called Pesked and is very picturesque and they have good mussels. The oysters, however, may have had something in them as all of us got sick two days after eating them.



Once we got going, the North Westerly the forecast promised turned out to be rather Westerly, so no good progress was made and lots of diesel used. After the tide turned in favor for us, the waves got even higher so we made a short stop to sleep somewhere near Morlaix. After the wind and tide turned again, we left to make for Ouessant.

The wind was North Westerly at last, but it didn't last. After two hours, we were beating into a Westerly again and the engine stayed on for the next 12 hours. We had just rounded Portsall on the outer tip of Brittany, when a big field of sea weed got pulled into the propellor and stalled the engine. Just prior to it dying, I got it out of gear and now we were stuck with a prop full of weed and neither forward or reverse made it come free. So we stopped the engine.

Now we were drifting slowly towards the rocky passage of the Chenal Du Four, with hardly a Force 2 South Westerly and no engine. But as we tried gaining speed, the prop started turning along. So we tried starting the engine and it worked, but only forward. So we made for Camaret at slow speed. By 6 a.m. I tied to a buoy in the bay of Camaret and later, dove to free the prop from a thick layer of weed.

Later that day, I sailed the boat with two sick crew and a rather bad lack of sleep to Brest, where we moored next to the visitors pontoon at 5 p.m.

We were in Brest, and ready for the first big crossing.

South, always South.

It's been a roller coaster ride up till now. Our departure was delayed due to bad weather, but on Monday evening we finally left.



Lots of family and some friends made it to wave us goodbye, for which my thanks!

We set off with 6 crew, Troy and Helen from China, Ines and Tony from Belgium and Ingrid and me, obviously. Our first evening and night was uneventful, we sailed and motored and soon we were past Calais and getting some distance between us and the traffic system. Helen, unfortunately, was never without sea sickness. She managed to get some sleep in between of her exhausting dizziness, but could hardly eat or drink. After a rough night on the third day, on which we stopped over at Omonville-la-Rogue, just past Cherbourg, a decision was made.

Troy and Helen would get off the boat at St. Helier, on Jersey. This would put me two crew short for the Biscay crossing. Since this was already the 8th of July, it would be difficult to find new crew for the next part. So once we made it to St. Helier, I got busy with internet connections, e-mail and contacts I made earlier while looking for crew.

After a nice day at St. Helier, we left the following morning - or so we thought. Upon starting the engine, nothing happened. This was a first, and with only 30 minutes before the tidal gate shut, a tough decision was made to get a mechanic in order to make it for the next tide.

An hour later, a robust man showed up, said hi and jumped into the engine room. After a minute or so, he said to start the engine, got into the other side and said start her now. And at the first turn of the switch, she started! It turned out a wire had come loose from the starter motor. 10 Euros later, we were a happy crew again and the rest of the morning was spent in laziness.

Getting to St. Malo in Brittany was easy enough, although now we had to make the approach in the dark, as we couldn't start in Jersey until 4 p.m. But with the help of our trusted chart plotter, we got in alright and at 4 a.m. the next morning, tied on to the last available berth. We got around the Cherbourg promontory alright, although with 2 crew members less than planned.

Set it all up, then switch off.

It's been in planning a while, and a lot of things had to be organized for the solar panels to be mounted. I started with a simple radar and antenna pole which came with the boat.


I needed plenty of solar power so the pole had to go. Two large panels were to be sited at the aft of the boat. But the radar had to get in as well, plus the antennae, and I wanted a solution which didn't obstruct a wind vane and hold a dinghy in davits.

So I got a welder to draw me a design, and then I changed it because it became hugely expensive, and then I had to wait for hours for them to show up and actually work on it.
This is the basic shape, with a detail of the new wiring:

And after we mounted the panels, the radar, the antennas and the davits it sort of looked like this:



From the top, you can see the solar panel surface is quite huge:



Next up were three service batteries to replace the existing two. We now have 300 Ah in battery power and 270 Wp in solar power. I've got an emergency 1100 Watts back-up generator and the new alternator regulator, so it's hard to imagine us ever being out of power.

And we'll need it to power all our gizmos such as two portable PC's, satellite phone, instuments and lights, fridge and chart plotter. I've spent the day yesterday setting up the main navigation portable with maps and software. It'll take some tweaking and tuning to get it all up and running. I hope I can get away from it all once it's set up.

That'll be the real challenge of this trip: switching everything off every now and then and enjoy the places we visit.

Prep work

We had some fine weather this week-end, so we got to do some work on the outside. It wasn't very hot but there was some sun instead of the usual rain, sleet and snow we've been having the last months.

So on Saturday, we went out and measured the exact location of the wind vane supports. It took some doing and re-doing as both inside and out there were some obstacles. But finally, we got it right as you can see in this picture:



Next were the backing plates. After drilling pilot holes, on the inside one location out of three had landed where a reinforcement was already in place. So two more reinforcements were needed. I put those in place on Sunday, while Ingrid was cleaning fenders and taking off the last layers of varnish from the hand-holds. There are now no more varnished surfaces outside, apart from the companionway. We like the natural teak look better and it doesn't flake as quickly.

After I epoxied the pieces in place, I added a few layers of fiber cloth and epoxy for an even load distribution. Hopfully, next week work will start on the arch, so I can start finishing the vane construction soon.

Ups and downs

The weather has been awful of late. But it didn't take much, just one good day without rain or wind. So when that one day came, I quickly mustered up a strong hand of a good friend and up I went!

It was the first time I actually did work up at the top of the mast. Since I got over my fear of heights, I can't say it bothers me much these days. So once the hard work was done - winching me up - it was a very concentrated hour of careful fixing to replace the wind rotavecta, resolder the connections, and change the mast top light wiring. I changed to LED lights and ran a new cable through the mast as the old one had become inflexible and corroded.

To change the wiring, I had devised to sew the old one to the new end finish with some insulation tape. And to my surprise, this worked a treat! The most difficult was connecting the leads to the lamp housing, as I had a hard time getting high enough above the mast head to see what I was doing. I still feel my thighs 3 days later from pressing my muscles to stabilize against the mast and stays.

Once that was done, it was down again. I must admit that even though it is a balancing act, being up there is quite the experience. After thanking Jorn for his much valued assistance, I finished the wiring with the connector and then took out all the halyards and other lines. I hope I haven't forgotten to do anything up there, because it'll be spring before they go in again, freshly washed!

Next item on my planning is getting quotes for the sails. It'll be the first serious investment in a long series.

The holiday that went bump

Just got back from a two week holiday on the English east Coast. We had two different sets of experiences; on the one hand everything was fine, with nice weather, walks and visits.

On the other hand, though, everything went wrong. We hit two other boats, suffered two major scratches, hit ground thrice of which two times fairly hard and once in a major way, and dropped a £85 VHF in the black East Coast mud. The sprayhood stitchings came loose before we even set off, and the wind measurement instrument gave the ghost. On the way back, in an unforecast Force 7, two waves piled on top of another dropped right in the cockpit at just two Miles from port, drenching us thoroughly just before we arrived. The wind was always either on the nose or dead astern, with the exception of the crossings, which gave us a Force 6 and 7.

So did we enjoy it? Well, it wasn't too bad as holidays go, but it was a mixed feeling we took home and not that of the leisurely cruise we had planned.

I did manage to get a new anchor, chain and rope extension, but not the second anchor roller I'd hoped to find. But the anchor was a big step towards the all important reliable ground tackle so much needed for cruising. Here's some pictures of the new stuff:

11 months to go...

As we'll be casting off the lines for the Caribbean around July 1st, 2010, it is now less than a year before this long anticipated date. A good time, it seems, to start the story of our preparations and tribulations to get out there.

The reason I post this now, is because I succeeded in buying a second hand wind vane. I've been looking for a used Hydrovane for a while now, and I was just starting to take a concrete interest in actually buying one. And then, all of a sudden, two appeared for sale the same week! I bid on both and ended up paying £1000 for one in good condition somewhere in the Welsh Wild West (Cardiff).

Needless to say, this is a bargain price and what could have set me back £4500 (list price) turned out quite nicely. This leaves more for other equipment, of course, since there is no doubt that I will be spending quite a lot of money on other goodies before next July.

But self-steering is now officially off the list of things to get! Now only to mount it on Victor Too's nice fat transom.

Things to come, things to do...

We're off to England for a well deserved holiday!