Happy New Year!
Eowyn
Sat 2 Jan 2010 22:02
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Éowyn is lying in Rodney
Bay Marina, St Lucia in position in position 14:04.442 N
60:56.943W
 It has been some time since I
managed to update the blog - busy days with a number of problems to
solve
The work on the watermaker was
completed in time to leave Grenada on Tuesday 15th December in the early
hours. the winds were kind and we managed a fast rach to Salt Whistle Bay on
Mayreau. Another early start and we were moored in Bequia, but only for a couple
of days. I was still concerned about the watermaker as the rejection rate of the
new membrane was not good enough - of course as I did not have a meter before,
so that may have been the situation for years!!
After some discussuon with
Echo marine, the offered to sell me an upgrade kit nelow cost. This would give
purer water and a greater output of 45-50 litres per hour. The downside is that
the watermaker could really only run when the engine was also running. After
some deliberation, I decided to accept that solution and ordered the new motor.
We had another great sail to
St Lucia and arrived in Rodney Bay on 18th December just in time to attend the
OCC and a good time was had by all. It also gave us the chance meet some more
World ARC crews including the Portuguese crew of Thor VI, a 42 foot Moody of
similar speed to Eowyn.
By now, Eowyn was looking
splendid with Christmas tree and 1200 fairy lights - thank goodness for
L.E.D's.
The package duly arrived from
Echotec and after employing the necessary Customs agent, we duly fitted the new
motor and tested it in Rodney Bay - all was well - our troubles were over -
WRONG!
We had an excellent Christmas
dinner at Bosuns restaurant but were rudely greeted the next day with a battery
failure. Strangely the newest battery which tested perfectly Ok was also
perfectly kaput. a phone call to Sea Services confirmed the battery was
available so we had a great sail to Martinique to purchase the battery. After
some shopping and an afternoon nap, I went to start the engine to move to a more
attractive anchorage only to be greeted by total engine failure - HELP. I
telephoned Frank Agren the Volvo agent who told me they were closed until 4
January - DOUBLE HELP.
Frank telephoned one of his
engineers who informed us the next day that he would cut his holiday short and
come out to us. He duly did on the 30th December and a new fuel pump was needed.
It took some time to track one down but all was fixed by 2 pm. We sailed back to
Rodney Bay just to catch the tail end of the WARC welcome party.
New Year's Eve saw us at he
Yacht Club and we enjoyed the St Lucia firework display back on
board.
 We have now pretty well
completed out preps and tomorrow the 3rd, we go out to test the Twistle Rig. the
forecast for the start on 6th is for light winds - hopefully that will
improve.
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