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!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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