St Kitts ? next year

Oriole
Sun 20 Mar 2005 22:56
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.