Nazareth Bay was very rolly last night, but it was nice to spend the day with Gail and Jeff at their resort. Carey slept in a bit. We had a leisurely breakfast and motored over to Christmas Cove at 11:10.
We had several tasks we wanted to accomplish today, so this was a work day. Christmas Cove is much flatter, so it was easier to work there.
We emptied and defrosted the fridge, checked the manuals for the broiler and windlass chain counter, and did some engine maintenance.
Later on, we moved to Cowpet Bay and dinghied into the beach for dinner at the Ritz with Gail and Jeff. We had a beautiful dinner (on them, which was so nice!) and a great time with them. We hugged goodbye, sad to see them go, and headed back to our dinghy.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Once again a very rolly anchorage (we knew that going in), and our low battery alarm went off in the middle of the night again. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!
During breakfast, we heard that Gail and Jeff's flight was cancelled until Thursday. Awesome! Two more days in paradise at their resort for them. Her retirement celebration just keeps going on.
We decided to do something about our battery issue today. We purchased them on December 5, so they should be fine, and still under warranty. We called Island Marine Outfitters in Red Hook and Brian, the owner, suggested borrowing their hydrometer and their load tester. That worked well for us, because we didn't have to take them off of the boat and dinghy them in. We could test them here, and only transport if needed.
We had homemade burgers and fresh cut fries at the Bar and Still in Redhook with Gail and Jeff (so fun to have them still here), and then went to Island Marine Outfitters to pick up the load test meter and the hydrometer. After a quick lesson on the hydrometer, we dinghied back to the boat to get started. It is extremely rough here due to the constant ferry traffic roaring in and out so it's kind of dangerous getting on and off the boat from the dinghy. We are very careful not to get fingers and toes slammed between the two vessels and not to get tipped overboard. After successfully maneuvering our way into the boat, we began the tedious job of testing every battery and every cell and then putting it all back together again. The cells showed that the batteries needed to be charged, but they were at 100 percent (according to our monitor) when we returned, so they couldn't have been too low (or so we are thought).
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Today was a work day. I made up my homemade bread packets (ready for me to add water and yeast), and then we tackled the yucky job of fixing the seawater to toilet hose in our head. We've been having a slow drip from a hose, but we had to identify which hose it was coming from (and, of course, they were all tie-wrapped together, so that wasn't easy). With a lot of reaching, straining, and tearing apart, we finally found the guilty hose. Then, we had to find where it was leaking. That accomplished, we set about using Magic Wrap tape to wrap around the split hose. This worked great. We love it when our hard work pays off.
We celebrated with an easy spaghetti dinner.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
After a breakfast of poached eggs on toast in my new handy, dandy poacher, we headed out to Soper's Hole, Tortola. As soon as we got around St. James Island, the wind picked up and the swells were huge. There was an unobstructed run for he swells from open ocean to this pass between St. Thomas and St. John. It almost felt like ocean sailing again--not quite, but I was getting wet at the helm from the swells hitting our bow and splashing onto me.
After about two hours, we arrived at Soper's Hole, and couldn't find a mooring ball! We've never seen it so busy here. We tried to anchor, but it was very deep and we were swinging into the ferry channel. We had just tried to find another spot further out to anchor when a boat moved off of a ball right in front of us. Happy days! We lifted anchor and scooped up the ball as quickly as possible. The wind was about 20 knots, so it was hard to go slow enough to pick up a ball, but fast enough to keep steerage. Oh, the joys of Caribbean sailing.
After I completed all of the Customs and Immigration paperwork (again), we dinghied over to the Customs office. Our boat is only allowed to be in the BVIs for a maximum of 30 days per calendar year without paying a $200 'temporary importing' fee. We'd rather not do that, and certainly want to avoid all of that paperwork, so we are going to make sure that we leave the BVIs for good by March 5. That may be a few days over, but, after much discussion, they've agreed to be lenient if we make sure to leave by that date. Okay, fine!
It was after 2:00 by the time we left Customs. Our next stop was to drop off our laundry to the Divine Laundry lady. That done, we could finally have some lunch at Pussers.
At 6:30, we met Cameron McColl (owner of Nanny Cay Marina and fellow ARC 2016 rallier) at Scaramouche, a Mediterranean restaurant there in Soper's Hole. Carey and Cameron had large shrimp over homemade pasta, and I had large grilled shrimp. Delicious, but very pricey. We had a nice visit with Cameron and were back on our boat by 9:00. Just enough time to relax with our books for awhile before bed.
Friday, February 10, 2017
After a lazy breakfast of homemade raisin tea biscuits, we went to Customs to clear out. The charge this time was 75 cents. Honestly, I have no idea what they are charging for. It seems to be different every time we go. I've given up trying to figure it out. While there, we met another couple (on S/Y Zephyr) who are almost finished their circumnavigation of the globe. They left home from Seattle in 2009 and will probably be at least another year. Yikes! Now, that's an adventure.
We motor-sailed to Benures Bay on Norman Island, where we anchored for the night.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
We left Benures at 10:00, and sailed downwind all the way to Lameshur Bay in winds up to 19 knots in the open water of the Caribbean south of St. John. It's so much more comfortable sailing down wind and down swells.
We are still having problems with our batteries so we are going to equalize them today in the hopes that this will help. Fingers crossed. When the batteries are low, the chart plotter turns itself off. That's not good, especially when it happens in an anchorage, which usually means tight quarters and rock cliffs nearby,
Lameshur Bay is lovely, as usual. We saw at least 10 turtles within the first hour.
Totally relaxing day. Loved it. We sat around, read our books, ate, and chilled. Surprisingly, we don't do that very often, so this was nice. For dinner, I made Ruthy's 6-Layer Pressure Cooker Dinner (my own creation). Carey had seconds, so you know it was good. Haha.
There is a big, bright full moon tonight--so bright that I have a shadow. A moon shadow.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
After breakfast, we motored for about an hour to Cruz Bay, USVI. We have to clear in at US Customs and then buy provisions for our first week with Jo and Craig. We had lunch while we were on land, then completed our chores and returned to the boat. Around 2:30, we motored over to Christmas Cove. It was very crowded, so we didn't love our spot, but we stayed anyway.
Monday, February 13, 2017
First thing in the morning, we put the dinghy on the deck in preparation for going to the dock in Red Hook. We have to go stern in to the dock, so we can't have the dinghy trailing behind.
Once at Red Hook, Carey backed through two spiles to get to our dock, we lassoed the spiles to tie up, and then we spent about an hour trying to get the lines just right. This is a terrible dock, but it was all we could get. We need to be on a dock today, because we are buying new batteries to replace our two month old ones. Aaarrrrgggghhhhh!
We talked to Brian at Island Marine Outfitters and he gave us a credit on the old batteries and we bought new, bigger ones. I hope these ones last. Boat batteries just aren't made to survive when you're constantly at anchor or on a mooring ball. They like it best when tied into shore power on a dock. Oh, well.
We dragged a cart full of heavy batteries back to the boat and Carey lugged them onboard and down to the aft cabin. I cleaned the boat in the dark, because I had no lights while Carey was installing our new batteries (and the dinghy was covering the hatches in the vee berth). Not sure how he accomplished it without the assistance of his favourite apprentice, but he managed well.
Jo and Craig arrived just after 5:00. So nice to see them and to welcome them to R C Wings again! They'll be staying with us for the next month. They had been travelling all day and up since 4 am, so they didn't last much longer after our spaghetti dinner and welcome champagne.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Jo and Craig took us out for breakfast this morning to Molly Malone's. Very tasty! Better yet, no dishes. We took a short walk around he East End before returning to the boat.
Later, we spent hours trying to figure out how to program our Victron battery monitor so that it will properly monitor our new batteries. Several phone conversations later, we finally got it set up, and we were ready to leave. By this time it was 2:00, and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. Great hosts! We starve our guests. Instead of staying there any longer, we decided to go over to Caneel Bay on St. John, where we picked up a mooring ball and had some munchies to tide us over until dinner.
After our snacks, Craig went for a swim and started scraping some of the algae off the bottom of the boat. That stuff sticks like glue, so he didn't get very far, but it was a good attempt.
We took the dinghy off the deck and Carey and Craig set it up for later. Back to towing our tag-along pup.
For our Valentine's Day dinner, we are having sirloin steaks, baked potatoes, and green beans. Yum!
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