St Kitts ? next year
Oriole
Sun 20 Mar 2005 22:56
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It would appear that we are destined not to get to
St Kitts this year. We
were due to check out of Antigua on Monday afternoon but discovered just before the Customs closed that Chris had lost her purse with credit card. A quick search around the places we had just visited was fruitless so we concluded that she had left it on the bus from St John's to English Harbour. We stopped the first bus driver we could find who gave us the welcome news that it had been found complete with credit card and dollar contents and was with the bus driver of our bus. Phew!! but too late to check out, which we did the next day and sailed round to the west side of Antigua so we could make an early start for St Kitts next day. We were underway by 0600 and were about two hours out when we noticed a funny smell which was not Montserrat which was to leeward and was sourced to the engine (there was very little wind). It appeared that we were losing coolant and it was baking on the outside of the engine. As St Kitts is a bit off the beaten track for facilities we decided to sail back to Jolly Harbour to investigate properly. By 1000 we were secured in the marina and the galley was dismantled to expose the whole engine in all its glory. While running the engine to detect the source of the leak the alternator suddenly stopped charging. Double trouble and probably two different diagnoses which is always a dangerous assumption. After an hour with the multimeter John decided it was probably the alternator itself which had failed which was confirmed as very likely when John telephoned his godson and electrical guru Peter Ingram with the symptoms and signs. Fortunately we carry a spare and that solved the problem. So now we have just the leak to fix which we have probably done. We had a lovely sail back to Falmouth Harbour yesterday and met up with more friends and went to a Blues Charity Evening. So, as the engine still has a potential problem which would be a big issue to fix in the sticks, we have decided to sail gently back down the number 9 bus route - Guadaloupe, The Saintes, Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent, The Grenadines, Grenada and on to Trinidad. Hardly a hardship but not what we had planned. The definative cure for the engine cooling leak will have to wait, we hope, until we lay up. Yes, I hear you all saying, 'Thought Oriole was a sailing boat, what's all this about engines?' Well, we need to make electricity and water, both of which need the engine. Isn't life complicated! Even more so by the advent of electronic charts which we have now succumbed to. This weeks picture shows our route tacking inside the reefs on the west and south coasts of Antigua yesterday. The conditions were wonderful and most of the dangers could be identified. The reef where the HM Services Yacht Adventure was grounded last week is shown with a X top left, the y to the right is another nasty bit of coral and the main reef at the bottom of the chart is outlined in red. Soundings in fathoms.  |