We started the week with a rental car so we could take the 30 minute drive around St. Barts. With Carnival celebrations starting later in the day, we got an early start to go visit some vistas and beaches. We pulled in for lunch at the marine reserve and after having a heart attack over the food prices, we split some over priced but delicious chicken and potatoes. We then hopped in the ocean to hunt for turtles. The cool part of the marine reserve was the water was only waist deep even 200 yards off shore. We spotted three turtles which seems to have been the record of the week according to one of the restaurant workers. As we drove back into Gustavia, the police stopped us and said Gustavia was closed for Carnival so we had to just park the car and leave it. The rental guy said, “Just park it somewhere and take a picture. I’ll know where to find it that way.” We are assuming he found it since we have not heard from him all week! The Carnival parade in St. Barts was very different from Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It was family friendly and one needed extreme patience to watch the parade. A float would pass by followed by 25 dancers in the carnival costumes. Then, we waited another 15 minutes. The next float would pass by followed by 25 dancers in different costumes. Then wait another 15 minutes. In between the floats, random people, randomly dressed, wandered down the middle of the street. After an hour and some rain, we voted we had seen enough of carnival and headed back to prepare to sail the next morning.
The sail to St. Kitts was a perfect day. Easy wind, easy seas, no issues from Galt. We arrived in Basseterre and dropped anchor for the night. The next morning we checked into the country and went exploring. Basseterre was a typical cruise port town with a cruise shopping area and a small downtown. We mapped out the sites we wanted to see while on the island and put together our plan. On Friday, we went on the St. Kitt’s historic railroad. It was a double decker train and they served free cocktails….even at 10:00am! We hopped aboard, grabbed our pina coladas and we were on our way. On islands, you have the leeward side and the windward side. Usually, the leeward side is where everyone lives and the windward side is where they hide all their junk. Alas, the train took us 1 ½ hours down the windward coast. The poor tour guide did her best to liven up the windward side (imagine an island accent for full effect)….. “To your right, we have the large machinery company. If you need a cement truck or a bulldozer, that’s where you go! On your left is the rock quarry. All the rock on the island for our roads and houses comes from this quarry. Further down to your right is the garbage disposal site. All the island’s garbage ends up here!” God bless her soul! The ocean views were lovely and even a cold rain shower didn’t dampen our spirits. At the end of the train ride, we hopped onto a tour bus for a ride back to the station. Our new tour guide pointed out highlights along the way on the leeward side. She showed us the church where Amazing Grace was written and she sang it for us as well which was touching. She showed us all the churches, the fort and the plantation sites. She summed up her tour with, “St. Kitts has just about everything you need for a wonderful vacation. If we could get our crime under control, it would be perfect.” Following silence on the bus, she stated, “Well, the local boys smoke too much marijuana and then they shoot each other. So, you have nothing to worry about!” Bill and I both decided she should probably keep that local tidbit to herself! Today, we relocated Galt into the marina so we could go out and about the next few days. We will go to the fort, the plantations and we will take the ferry over to Nevis for the day. Then, we will head back out to anchor so we can explore the southern portion of the island while we wait for good weather to make the crossing to the BVIs. Until then, look around you on your drive home from work and see how exciting you can make the McDonald’s and the Starbucks sound….I bet you won’t be able to match our St. Kitt’s tour guide! More pics on pictures tab
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I need to learn to watch what I wish for when I say “adventures”. We pulled into PDP marina in St. Maarten to finish up our last few adjustments on the sails and make the final preparations for departure to St. Bart’s. We woke up early to get everything stowed and tied down. As we pulled out of the slip to head to the bridge opening, the alarm on our autopilot system started screaming and Bill stated that he did not have any rudder response. Needless to say, being within 50 yards of at least 5 superyachts was not the time we wanted to have no control of the boat. I immediately shut down the autopilot system and the rudder control came back in line. We got in line for the bridge opening which was right on time….until an ambulance needed to cross the bridge so back down it went. We circled around the lagoon with about 15 other boats until the tender re-opened the bridge for us to pass. The trip to St. Bart’s was a standard one with our usual fuel line issue rearing its’ ugly head but Bill quickly refilled the line and got us on our way. While we were in St. Maarten, we bought a gadget called a “Happy Hooker” (I kid you not). The Happy Hooker was designed to make catching a mooring ball a much simpler task. Once we get to the BVIs later this spring, there will only be mooring balls so we knew we had to find an easier way. Most boats are closer to the water than Galt so grabbing a mooring ball is not a big deal. On Galt, we are at least 8 feet off the water so leaning over and grabbing a line at water level is physically impossible. As we pulled into St. Bart’s, we entered the mooring field and attached the Happy Hooker to our line. I stretched the Happy Hooker out to the maximum length, leaned over the side of the boat and snagged the top ring like a pro (see picture below for what a mooring ball looks like). Then, I pushed the Happy Hooker back off the ring and our line was supposed to slip right through the loop and be secured. Not so much. The knot I had tied in the line to attach to the hooker was a little large and got stuck on the loop. So, while I held onto our new gadget with all my might, Bill moved Galt closer to the mooring ball to ease the tension on the line. As soon as he moved the boat, voila! Our line came through the loop and we were on the mooring ball! Even though it did not go perfectly, it was much more successful than our previous mooring attempts so we are quite happy with our Hooker!
Our anchorage was at the top of the island so the next day, we hopped in the dinghy and motored three miles over to Gustavia to check in at customs and immigration. St. Bart’s is marketed as the island for the rich and famous and it most certainly sets the standard high. It is amazing what some nicely cemented sidewalks, palm trees planted along side the main street and every designer store known to man does for an island. St. Bart’s is a beauty! The island’s prices also match the rich and famous so we were glad we had supplied in St. Maarten because $8.00 a beer was much more than Bill’s $5.00 a case he found on St. Maarten. We enjoyed a walk around town and reserved a rental car for Friday so we could tour the island. The drive around the entire island was reportedly about 30 minutes so we figured a day would be plenty. As the week wore on, the winds increased significantly as did the waves. On Friday morning, we climbed into Harry with pretty rough seas. We knew we would be okay because we had the new motor. We packed the VHF radio as well as a life jacket just in case. About 50 yards off Galt, our new motor died. Nothing Bill tried could revive it. We began to row against very strong current and waves. We had one last mooring buoy between us and a very dangerous situation so we rowed as hard as we could to grab the buoy. We missed it by 6 inches. As it flew past, we knew we were in serious trouble. I called out for assistance on the radio but no response. We knew we could not row to shore because we would be crashed into the rocks. We had no other choice but to row with all our might to try to maneuver through the very rocky and very rough cut. Waves crashing all around us and slamming into Harry, we managed to make it through the cut in one piece and still in the boat. We had a brief moment to breathe but then quickly had to begin rowing again because the current was heading out to sea. There was a large yacht directly in our path about a quarter of a mile away. We knew we could make it to the yacht and grab hold for safety. As we rowed, I called on the radio again. No response. To our dismay, the yacht hauled anchor and pulled away in the opposite direction. Our last hope was gone. Then, a miracle. We saw a catamaran pulling out of Gustavia. I hailed them on the radio. No answer. As Bill continued to row, I stood up and waved the bright orange life vest above my head, hoping the catamaran would spot us and realize we needed help. As the catamaran changed course and headed toward us, we knew we were saved! They kindly dragged us into Gustavia port so we could tie up and find help with the motor. They were truly our heroes. No longer in the mood for touristing, we found a Yamaha dealer to assist with the motor. Our brand new motor that had less than 5 hours of run on it had a loose wire that caused the issue. We contacted Outdoor World in St. Maarten but they refused to exchange the motor so we just have to hope that this instance was a rare oddity of really bad timing. Luckily, most islands have a Yamaha dealer so if we have further issues, at least it is under warranty. We were both very nervous about taking the dinghy back over to Galt at the end of a long day so we stopped by the coast guard office and they told us which channel to use on the VHF if we needed them. We made it safely back to Galt after a thrilling (for Bill) and not so thrilling (for Sally) ride back through the cut. Giving Galt a huge hug, we climbed back aboard. As we reviewed our situation from the morning, we both agreed we had done everything we could to be safe on that outing. We discussed all of the worst case scenarios and what we would do if they occurred again so we would be even more prepared in the future. Always learning. Always preparing. The next day we snorkeled over to the beach and watched as at least 70% of the dinghy motors caused their owners issues throughout the day. We felt a little better then! I decided perhaps the motor was upset because we had not given her a name. We christened her “Lulabell” and she fired right up for us! We are hoping to get our island exploration in on Monday or Tuesday and then make our hop over to St. Kitt’s for a couple of weeks. I will not ask for adventures over the next week! Just a nice day of sailing! (May not have pics this week. I'll keep trying!) Just learned that tomorrow is Carnival in St. Bart's! Hopefully I'll get some good pics for next blog! I would love to regale you with adventures from the week but there were none. It was a quiet week with only one day of moping (by me) due to a sudden shift in the weather which curtailed our desire to depart for St. Bart's. When the weather came in on Wednesday, we were very glad we had not continued with our plan to leave as the winds were roaring and the waves were seven to ten feet which would not have been fun. We spent the week on small projects and I decided to try my hand at oil painting which has been a new challenge (I have always used acrylics). I almost gave up on the oils but Bill encouraged me to keep trying so we'll see how it goes. It is certainly testing my patience!
After Bill had worked on a nasty macerator pump clog, we decided we needed a day at the beach. We had a nice lunch of wings and spring rolls at the Cocky Turtle and then went for a crisp swim. There are definitely worse ways to spend a day in February! At this point, a weather window appears to open on Tuesday and Wednesday to make our jump to St. Bart's. Given the fickleness of the prolonged Christmas winds this year, we never know! I have included a few lovely beach pictures for those of you in colder places! The week waiting for our dinghy motor part was a long one. Bill started calling Outdoor World on Monday morning for updates on shipping. On Monday, we were told it was enroute. On Tuesday, we were told it was “on the island”. On Wednesday, we were told the part should arrive at the store via FedEx “either early in the morning or last thing today”. Thursdays’ call revealed that the part was still “somewhere at the airport”. Outdoor World sent one of their employees to track down the part and he brought it back to the store so we could “pick it up”. Excitedly, we jumped into Harry and grabbed the oars to make the long, arduous trek over to Outdoor World. Mother Nature had other plans. We started with just Bill rowing. As the wind gusted every minute, we ended up behind Galt instead of moving forward. We then decided to try both of us rowing. We made 10 feet of progress for every 20 feet we were pushed backwards. Finally, after making it about 100 feet from Galt, I was exhausted so we gave up and drifted our way back to homebase. Bill called Outdoor World and asked them to send someone to get us or bring us the parts. The manager responded that no one had a “boat license” to come get us. “A what?” Bill asked, laughing, “No one in St. Maarten has a boat license and the officials certainly don’t care,” but no amount of begging could convince them to come get us. On Friday morning at 8:30am, a fellow boater came over and dragged us to Outdoor World. When we arrived, our usual helper, Dylan, heard about us being stuck on the boat on Thursday. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have come to get you! I was bored just sitting here.” Sigh, evidently no one informed him we needed a ride. Bill told the mechanic we were going to run over to Island Water World for a few items and we would return shortly.
When we returned, the mechanic told us that the parts we ordered did not match the actual engine. That piece of information meant that our used motor had been rebuilt with parts other than Yamaha parts and without knowing what parts they were, we were stuck. Finally reaching the end of our patience, we broke out the credit card and bought a brand new motor. By this time, it was 10:00am. Dylan stated they would need to pick up the motor from the warehouse so it would “take a bit”. We walked over to Lagoonies restaurant to kill time and decided to eat breakfast again since they were not yet serving lunch. After we had eaten, Dylan pulled up to Lagoonies in his dinghy and walked toward us with the look of a man who had been sent to tell someone their dog died. “Even though that particular motor was in our inventory system, we don’t have it on the island. However, I have a better engine and I’ll give it to you for the same price if that’s okay.” Needless to say, we took the deal and Dylan settled in for a quick beer before heading back to work. I guess he figured he earned a beer since his boss had sent him on a suicide mission. After lunch, we walked back over to the shop. The new motor was not on the dinghy. “We can’t put the motor on the dinghy until we get this form completed. The person who needs to complete the form isn’t responding to me yet,” Dylan informed us. So, we waited. And waited. Finally, Dylan decided the mechanic could service the motor and install it prior to the form being completed. The mechanic walked over to Bill and said, “I need you to go to Island Water World and get some fuel so I can mix it for you.” Bill and I stared at him in disbelief. We had been sitting around for at least an hour doing absolutely nothing and yet he could not tell us about the fuel run? Bill sighed and told Dylan to give him a lift over to the fuel dock. It was just before 1pm. The fuel dock worker was at lunch so it took them until 1:20 to get the fuel. The good news was that by the time Bill and Dylan returned, the elusive form had been completed so we could pay for the motor. At 2:30pm, we left the store with our shiny new motor. Only 6 hours to buy a motor! It was like buying a car in the States in the 1980s! The good news is that we finished our Harry Potter marathon for the week and Harry triumphed over Voldemort once again! Our plan to get on the move is in place so fingers crossed we escape St. Maarten this week! Otherwise, I guess we’ll have to start a Lord of the Rings marathon! |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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