We have amazed ourselves by getting to Rodney Bay before the
first of December. It was our plan to
head north from Grenada early, to stay out of the strong "Christmas
Winds", but we certainly got wind.
Here is how it shaped up:
We were launched on the 23rd of November, and spent until
the 26th just putting the boat together and fixing small problems. Except for a couple of trips to little
restaurants near the university with Lorna and Brian, we kept pretty low key
and busy. Indeed, instead of running
with the Grenada Hash House Harriers, we maintained our exercise regiment
hauling heavy groceries back from various locations. Finally, with L and B, we made the short trip
to the shelf outside St. Georges, and I did one last chandlery run. Both Cat Tales and Peace & Plenty left
for Carriacou on Sunday morning, with an anomalous wind from the
south-east. The sailing was beautiful,
and Tyrell Bay was made without an extra tack or motoring.
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| Heading into Tyrell Bay, Carriacou |
That does not mean without drama, however. Peace and Plenty had a seawater impeller
problem, meaning no cooling water to their heat exchanger and no water in their
exhaust. We tried harnessing the boat to
the side of Cat Tales twice - the first time, we were still in some small
waves, with poor alignment, and the heaving was too much for us; indeed the bow
line broke. Brian sailed under jib to
calmer water, we reconnected and got them in far enough to anchor. Before poor Brian had his first "anchor
beer", he had to put in an hour as a mechanic, but he got the impeller
replaced.
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| Brian and Laurie connecting our boats together to tow Lorna and Brian into Tyrell Bay. They are still working on getting the life line repaired after the damage done that day. |
Monday morning, we both cleared customs and headed
north. The wind had further clocked
around so that we were on a lovely broad reach.
Most of the afternoon we were traveling over 7 knots. Cat Tales handled beautifully, but Brian
spent a lot of time at the helm of Peace & Plenty as she wallowed back and
forth with a following sea. We anchored
in Bequia with the intention of leaving at 0300 hours, but we all had second
thoughts as the sky darkened, lightning flashed from all directions all night,
and we got communication about a dangerous squall line that swept through
Martinique and St. Lucia at 2100 hours.
At 0300 hours, we made the decision to pull the plug, and went back to
bed. Dawn and I were awakened at
daylight with breaking waves under our boat and our stern terribly close to a
rocky beach. After re-anchoring, we all
spent the day in the rain and wind reading and trying to put together a picture
of what had happened in Rodney Bay during the storm.
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| Rainy day in Bequia waiting to sail north |
Apparently, many boats we knew were very much involved. John Fallon's boat Stopp Knot was blown into
the shallows near Sandals, and pounded on her keel for a long time before Sandals
dive boats worked together in the dark to get her back into deep water. He's in the boatyard now, getting some keel
cracks patched up. Robin Unwin's boat
had her bowsprit and a shroud ripped when a charterboat blew past, and his
wooden mast is now in two pieces. Steve McMullan
and Jenny's boat Tanglewood was stopped
at the last minute when the anchor found a giant hunk of coral, but it
apparently loosened the windlass (repairable).
We understand that some boats cut loose their ground tackle and headed
to sea to avoid disaster. At least no
lives lost. I have been snorkeling for
John's lost sail cover, with no luck so far.
On the 30th, we finally carried on to Rodney Bay, but the
wind and rain were the main event, along with a few freighters coming out of
the mist. These were monsters traveling
at 12-13 knots, with bow waves bigger than houses, but they first showed only
on our AIS devices (devices that use a combination of VHF frequencies and global
positioning systems to provide a radar-like picture of impending doom), and
only later appeared much closer.
However, in two cases, in spite of the visual information we had that
insisted that death was imminent, the electronic devices determined that they were
passing our track at least a half mile away.
...and they did. Both ships
approached from the west, and the signals indicated that both, one a tanker and
the other a container ship, were headed to Singapore.
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| A single Piton of St. Lucia in the mist. Where did the other one go?? |
Both boats had some amazing sailing with broad
reaching. Cat Tales was often doing 10
knots with the smallest amount of sail and only 3 feet of jib, while Brian used
only his jib and found his boat wallowed much less and had a great performance.
Since arriving, we have had a party on the marina boardwalk,
and a lovely meal of curried conch with Lorna and Brian last night on Cat
Tales. We'll lay low and recover
tonight. I spent the afternoon swimming
around where John had his mishap - apparently, he had a new mainsail cover
folded up in his cockpit when the wind hit, and it went over the side. No luck finding it so far. Maybe Dawn will help tomorrow.
I should mention that we have been enjoying callaloo,
christophene, plantain, green fig, conch, and a little tuna we caught on the
west side of Grenada, aboard our boats since we were launched - in a hurry to
pick up our culinary skills where we parked them last year.
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| Brian using our stern shower hose to add water to his Demerera Rum! How handy is that? |
Technical
After losing yet another bilge pump, I am rewiring the
systems with quick connect plugs to make them easier to test and replace. I am more than a little disappointed in the
short lives these Rule 500gph pumps seem to have, with never an indication as
to why they stop working. I took the
pump apart, and it was totally dry and shiny inside - no indication of the
cause of the failure, and no way to reassemble.
Cat Tales had a failure to shoot seawater from the starboard
exhaust upon being launched, and even after being primed with water, the output
was a little light. Yesterday, I
dismantled both the front and back of the heat exchanger, and found a partial
blockage in the black section:
apparently a piece of fibrous waxed paper that had been able to pass
through some of the exchanger before opening up and covering some of the tubes.
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| Laurie cleaning the fuel filter |
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| Reading the manual...looking for clews about the oil pressure sensor! |
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| Tearing the boat apart again!! |
I had some luck with the cleaning out of a Racor 500 filter
assembly, today. I turned off the fuel,
drained the unit into a little pail (cut up vinegar jug), and then used a
construction syringe to spray the drained fuel back through the housing with
the filter removed. I was able to dislodge
all materials on the vanes and on the bottom of the acrylic bowl without having
to dismantle the unit with only six syringe-fulls. The filter had not been replaced since 2012,
and still did not look dirty, but the housing was no longer allowing
visibility. We checked the primary
filter at the engine, and it was pristine.
Dawn and I jerry-jug our fuel aboard, apply algae killer, allow the fuel
to settle, and then pour the supernatant into our tank. As well, both the primary and secondary
filters are 2 microns. The system seems
to work for us, and contrary to some older texts on the subject, the filters do
not seem to be breaking down with extended use.
Presently, I am working on a faulty oil pressure
sensor/sender. I'll post about it next
time.
