In the USVI
Pelekan
Tom & Jos Hollway
Sun 25 Mar 2012 16:12
Sunday March 25th
A very straightforward journey to St Thomas, US Virgin Islands. We arrived at the American Yacht Harbour Marina on Wednesday afternoon, March 21st after 1 1/2 days, 2 planes, 1 taxi, 2 buses and a rental car........
Pelekan was in the marina, courtesy of Antilles Yachts, with Phil Oliver on board. Just a reminder that when we left the boat 5 weeks ago the mainsail had shredded, air con broken, water maker broken, batteries on last legs and vent hose from the holding tank blocked.
Happily the air con is now working with a new pump considerably smaller than the previous one, but it seems to do the job just as well.
The morning after our arrival Tom and Phil drove off to extract the batteries from the shippers. Quite a lot of tooing and froeing with paper work but eventually they appeared with a trolley groaning under the weight of several boat units worth of batteries. Phil was returning to the BVI on an afternoon ferry but we clung on to him until the unmentionable job of clearing the vent hose had been completed. I won't go into any details, suffice it to say that it required a couple of journeys to the chandlers for "special tools" followed by a procedure not dissimilar to a colonoscopy, with rather similar results, though thankfully only of a gaseous nature. I kept my distance.
After Phil's departure Tom set about the task of replacing the front 3 batteries, which supply the anchor windlass and bow thruster. It was a 2 hour job of torture. They are situated under the bed in the bow cabin. Tom had to climb into a hatch to get at them and bend double to work on the screws and plates that keep them in place. I was the assistant but really could do nothing but plan how I would get him out if he became wedged. That did not happen and he emerged some time later with resolutions about diets. We are trying to enlist professional help to change the house bank but it is the weekend, and we all know what happens at weekends.
St Thomas is very different from the BVI. Yesterday we went on a shopping expedition. The roads are busy and parking is difficult. The cars are all left wheel drive, but driving is on the left! It is densely populated but the marina is rather lovely, with Pelicans dive bombing for fish within inches of the boat.
Fingers crossed that the remaining 8 batteries are installed be Wednesday so that we can change location. The mainsail is on hold until the autumn so cruising will be limited.
Bye for now.
Jos and Tom