Friday 6 February 2015

 

Thank you to those who replied to my question in the end of season blog.  It seems there are more people reading this than we realised so here we go.

 

Why has it taken so long to update the blog?  Well, again we have been delayed by the usual boat repair dramas which we didn’t think would be very interesting to report but perhaps the reality of Liveaboard life is worth recording even if it is just for our own records.

 

We flew from Barbados to Antigua on 18 November a week before the planned launch and checked over the boat.  We had had a lucky escape when Tropical Storm Gonzalo hit Antigua and became a hurricane during it’s visit.  Our boat was safe and as far as we know no boats laid up ashore were damaged in Antigua.  Sadly some afloat broke their moorings and ran aground or in a couple of cases in Jolly Harbour Marina they sank.  We had some internal water damage from a leak which developed in a porthole window which had work loose from vibrations during the high winds.  This was not picked up by the people checking the boat (at great expense) and quite a few things had to be thrown out.

 

The hurricane got stronger as it progressed northwest.  The island of St Martin was not so lucky and we heard one report of over 100 boats sunk in Simpson’s Bay lagoon and one sailor died on board his motor yacht.

 

I had checked the prop shaft for play when the boat was lifted in July but didn’t detect any movement which was a surprise at the time as we had been getting some vibrations consistent with a worn cutless bearing (which the prop shaft spins in).  For some reason I checked it again now and it was sloppy!  The bearing has a hard rubber like surface and seems to have dried out during the summer revealing the play.  A new cutless bearing was ordered but had to come from Miami which takes a week so our launch was put back to the 28th.

 

Our friends Angie and Mark came over to Antigua from Barbados on the 21st for a few days as we had spare rooms at the place we had rented and they hadn’t been here before.  We toured the island a little (there is not a lot here) and had a lot of fun together.

 

 

Lin and Angie at Jolly Harbour Marina:-

 

 

 

 

On Sunday we did the traditional barbeque at Shirley Heights.  This is well supported from late afternoon when there is a steel pan band followed later by a rock/reggae group.  Shirley Heights overlooks English and Falmouth Harbours which are natural bays used by Nelson in years gone by.

 

 

English Harbour in the foreground and Falmouth Harbour in the background beyond the narrow isthmus:-

 

 

 

 

We later overheard a captain warning his charter guests to be careful about the fruity rum punch served at the barbeque because they use 105% rum which has little taste.  This explains a lot of things.

 

 

Mark dancing with a relaxed looking Lin.  I think Mark might be doing his ‘yeah baby’ thing:-

 

 

 

We launched to a leak which was quickly resolved and motored over to a berth at the marina for a few days whilst we sort out the boat.  Our new North Sails arrived on Monday and the mainsail seemed fine but, as we feared, the genoa was completely wrong.  When taking measurements they had completely overlooked something I had drawn their attention to several times.  A new genoa is needed and will be here in about three weeks. 

 

I fitted the new GPS sensor I had brought out with me from the UK complete with a convertor so that the new computer language would talk that on our older equipment.  Unfortunately it turned out our particular set up needed an additional junction box which ‘will only take a week from the US’.  We really don’t want to sail amongst all the reefs without a working GPS showing us where we are on our chart plotter so we ordered the part. 

 

In the meantime our liferaft came back from service (every 3 years).  A lot of the safety contents had had to be replaced but we were not amused to find that this cost more than todays price for a complete liferaft.  We were annoyed then to find the next day that the safety line which is pulled to launch the raft and make it inflate was damaged!  They came and collected it the next day and returned it repaired the day after but it was disappointing all the same.  With this and several other things we have learnt that Antigua’s pricing policy seems geared towards superyachts and racing yachts which are usually owned by those who are time poor and are ready to pay whatever to get things done in time for a race or before charter guests arrive.  But sadly the quality is no better than elsewhere.

 

The new junction box arrived from the US and I fitted it.  Now our navigation systems were fully up and running for the first time and we only then were able to discover that our autopilot hydraulic ram which goes directly to the rudder was not working!  All is not lost because we can switch across to a back up drive motor on the wheel but we really want to fix the hydraulic one as this is the more powerful of the two.

 

Steve from MPS came out to look at the hydraulic ram next day (now 12 December) and suspected that a solenoid valve was faulty but would need to do some more tests.  We were due to fly from St Martin on 17th to the UK for Christmas and decided to leave the boat in Antigua for tests so at least new parts could be ordered whist we are in the UK.

 

In the meantime during the various delays the Antigua Charter Yacht Show was taking place.  This is aimed at Brokers to whom clients approach when choosing which yacht best suits their US$50,000 a week.

 

 

‘Athena’ is the largest private sailing yacht in the world:-

 

 

 

 

All shapes and sizes:-

 

 

 

 

Mines bigger than yours....  :-

 

 

 

 

Obviously you expect a water slide amongst all the toys:-

 

 

 

 

And to prove that money doesn’t buy taste:-

 

 

 

So we flew to St Martin, then to the UK via Paris for Christmas.