Dear All,

 

Hello from the good ship Out-Rageous, back in the sunny Caribbean.

We both returned  on the 9/11/16 after an eventful summer culminating in the wedding between Mark and Claire.  During October the weather got colder and wet, it was time to leave.

We arrived in Antigua to overcast but 28 degree temperatures. We decided to return to a little rented apartment that we used at the end of last season whilst we prepared Out-Rageous for launching.

 

The next day we returned to the boat yard and went aboard, upon opening the door we were greeted by an over powering smell of diesel, not good.

On investigation I found that the engine room bilge had about a foot of diesel but this had also leaked inside our hull and there was a foot of diesel throughout the length  of our side of the boat!

It turned out that the engineer who had serviced the engines at the end of last season had not tightened a filter sufficiently and six months of a steady drip had filled the bilges. I should have turned of the diesel tank feed!

The boat yard paid for professional cleaners to clean the boat and all linen and laundry was washed. It has taken over a month to get rid of the smell.

Apart from the diesel and the usual promises of work not completed, all was reasonably good and we were looking forward to getting back on the water.

 

This year we were being joined by a Canadian couple Mike and Peggy with whom we had spent some time with at the end of last year. Mike and Peggy had flown down from Toronto to meet us in Antigua and then sail to Dominica together.

We were so glad of their help and company in getting all the systems on Out-Rageous working and supporting us on our first trip of the season.

 

After leaving Antigua we headed for the French Island of Guadeloupe  some fifty miles south. The conditions were excellent resulting in an average speed of ten knots and a huge smile on my face.

After an unofficial overnight stop in Guadeloupe we carried on to the Isle des Saintes, which are a small group of French Islands. On the main Island Terre-de-Haut there is a fort where there is an exhibition telling of a famous  large naval battle in 1872 between the British and French during which the British gave the French a good Rogering! Although the French describe the battle a little differently.

The Caribbean is littered with fortifications from this period during which the French, Spanish, British and Americans were at war.

 

We moved on to Guadeloupe and decided to spend the night in the anchorage, the weather conditions during the day were calm but looked as though something was brewing!

It started with torrential rain we could not see beyond the bow of the boat by that time we were tired, wet and it was getting dark, the gusting wind was concerning but I knew that we had pulled the anchor in hard.

During a particular howling gust a sixth sense made me look at the GPS it showed a speed of 2.6 knots and as the anchor was out there was only one direction that we could be going and that was backwards, our anchor was dragging!

At the same time horns and sirens were sounding we had dragged down on to the boat behind us, and it was the crew alerting us and trying to push us off before their own anchor gave way too.

I quickly started the engines trying to take pressure off the anchor and move away from the other boat. It was at this time I was so glad of an experienced crew who knew exactly what to do enabling us to narrowly avoid touching the other boat who just so happened to be French!

We set the anchor once again and spent the rest of the night on anchor watch and reflected and what I had forgotten to do, luckily we were all awake!

The next day we decided to spend the rest of our stay in Guadeloupe tied up in the local marina, we also went shopping for a BBA (a bloody big anchor) which currently is on its way from France.

 

We spent the rest of our stay in Guadeloupe exploring the Island and I have to say it was one of the best Caribbean Islands that we had visited where everything is available as it is a region of France and as such enjoys all the benefits of mainland France including funding from the EU. The high mountains are covered in rain forest and provide some excellent hiking.

 

After leaving Guadeloupe we headed for Dominica which was to be the jumping off stage for Mike and Peggy and the Island on which we are to spend Christmas with our Dominican friends Andrew and Mait.

This would be our fourth visit to Dominica and it still remains our favourite Island.

Its like coming to our Caribbean home I started calling Andrew on the VHF as soon as we came into the bay but then I remembered last year he had dropped his in the sea never to work again, but I need not have worried there he was in his boat in the distance next to our mooring buoy ready to tie us on.(remember our BBA has not arrived yet!)

 

So the end of our first trip nothing unusual really, we just needed waking up.

We have come from our Cornish, regulated, safe existence where the most riskiest thing  is to get my ankles wacked by a trolley in Tesco, to an environment where there is no life boat or coast guard, you rely on you, your crew, skills and equipment. In short sometimes it takes a scare or two to sharpen the mind and appreciate life.

 

Finally a tale to share.

 

Having an experienced crew of Mike and Peggy on board was a real pleasure and great fun, Mike’s  knowledge of boat systems is extensive, so when he mentioned that the “joker valve” in the guest toilet may need changing it was a job to put on my to do list once they had returned home.

 

So today was the day. I quickly removed the old valve however discovered it was perfect and remembered that I had changed it last year, so that could not be the reason they found it difficult to pump out the toilet.

Now the workings of a sea toilet are different to a domestic loo at home, the main is that they are not gravity fed but need to be pumped the other is that the pipe work at home is 4” and boat pipe work is 1 1/2”

which means they become easily blocked, I will be quick to mention that it was nothing to do with what Mike and Peggy did!

The action of Pee and sea water combines to form a scale to the inside wall of the pipe, eventually it can block the pipe.

 

So I thought I would detach the pipe from the outlet valve and try to push a thin rod up the pipe to remove the blockage having first closed the valve to stop the sea from pouring in (now remember the valve is closed)

Well the pipe was in an awkward place and I could not pull it off, so I decided to repeat the process from the toilet end. This time I managed to get the rod part way down the pipe but to no avail.

So what to do? As some of you know both Lynn and I are divers and we carry our own equipment on Out-Rageous including our own air tanks, a plan began to dawn, I quickly assembled my cylinder and regulator together with an inflator which allowed me to blow up air bags under water to lift heavy objects. Looking through my plumbing bits I found a reducer to fit 1 1/2” down to my inflator. Now good to go lets see what happens when you introduce 3,000 psi, something's got to give?

 

I slowly cracked open the valve, I could feel the toilet hose bulging in my hand..... nothing. I opened it some more, things began to hiss with escaping air still nothing. I unwound the valve fully giving it the whole 3,000 lbs.

Well it was at this stage with pipework straining and escaping hissing air that I remembered the valve is still closed !

Oh, S -- -t. Too late, the pipe blew off with the force of an eruption, the built up back pressure in the toilet pipe deposited all the unmentionables indiscriminately within the confines of the toilet.  It was at this stage that I was still seeking to find the funny side when Lynn called out is there anything I can do to help?      My hair, my glasses even in my ears and up my nose.

 

That's Life on our boat.

 

Merry Christmas

Derek & Lynn.