Visitors, ‘on the run’ to Montserrat, In-Laws and engine trouble…

Before I start here – I know! It’s been too long since the last blog, more than one person has told us, but there’s been so much happening that I haven’t sat down to write one. Not only that, the longer I leave it between blogs, then the longer the blog will become, requiring even more time, making me feel ‘guilty’ about not writing more frequent blogs requiring less time per blog. Get it? If not I must admit that I’ve had a can of Breda Dutch lager – highly recommended if you can get it. Maybe Vicky in London might find it…

Anyway, we are still in Antigua (more on that later) and one day the mate and I were in our dinghy (Pierre) en route to the dinghy pontoon (I’m trying to resist calling it a dinghy dock as our American friends call it, but it’s getting more difficult as time goes by and we become more accustomed to Americanisms) when, as I think we said in the last blog, we saw a little blonde head waving from another dinghy heading out to a boat. We veered off and saw my lovely friend Louise. We knew she was here – she was having a few days sailing with a chap called Martin and his dog, Buzz. We’d never met Martin or Buzz but we now regard him (and Buzz) as good friends. Then, the plan was for Louise to come over to Stargazer for a few more days before her flight home.

The mate and I got busy with chores and after a few days Louise appeared, having sailed with Martin and Buzz up to Barbuda. We were pleased to welcome Louise onboard and we had a great time, she treated us to cocktails (well, I had red wine) at a very expensive beachside resort and we did all manner of things including a sail inside Cades reef up to Jolly Harbour. The mate also managed to fit in lots of yoga before our next visitors arrived - my in-laws.

Cocktails (and snacks!) on the beach :)

Antigua – where orchids grow on trees

En route to Jolly Harbour

We said goodbye to Louise in Jolly Harbour. I was sad to see her leave, the mate might have been, but she was also very excited about her parents coming out. Sailing back to Falmouth Harbour, we anchored in a nice spot and then hired a car to head to the airport to collect Sue and David. [We thought this would be better than getting a taxi but Skip had just downloaded a new navigation app which decided to send us up a goat track pretending it was a proper way to the airport! This resulted in some six million point turns and raised voices but luckily my Mum and Dad had only been waiting outside the airport for a few mins before we screeched into the car park to collect them! – Mate]. They looked remarkably well considering the eight hour flight, and their apartment was very nice indeed. I think it’s probably best to leave full details of their visit to the next blog (which we promise will be quicker than this one) as we did quite a lot and had a great time. Plus, the mate will want to add lots of pictures and right now it’s her turn to do the dinner…

What did happen though during the early days of Sue and David’s visit was a bit of an emergency. Our visas were running out and we had to do something quick. Previously we’d made an arrangement to sort this out on land but it fell through and so we had to leave Antigua. What happens out here is that you can leave a country just for a day or so and then come back so it’s not like Schengen. We looked at the charts – Montserrat was the closest island. You can get the picture, Sue and David were here, and there was no way we could be away for more than one night so Montserrat it had to be. The only problem was that getting there is easy, but getting back is an upwind bash against the ocean current… Nevertheless, there was no option and on the final day of our Antigua visa, the mate and I set sail for Montserrat. The sail over there was fast and we soon anchored in Little Bay, Montserrat’s only main ‘port’. I say ‘port’ because Montserrat was subjected to recent volcanic activity which devastated the southern part of the island, the airport and the main port. Everyone now lives on the Northern tip of the island and the inlet, called Little Bay is the place where you have to go. There are lots of things to see and do in Montserrat (volcano tours being an obvious one) but not for the mate and I. We were there to get our paperwork so that we could get back to Antigua and Sue and David as fast as possible! The mate said Montserrat reminded her of a Hebridean island only 25C warmer! After a rolly night in Little Bay we set off early the next day with one reef in the main and one in the genoa. Sure enough, the northern tip of Montserrat was choppy and gusty but we pointed our bows back over to Antigua and, wow, Stargazer proved herself to be what she is… a fast and stable boat, exceptionally good at going to windward. With water crashing over the bow and an apparent wind angle of 40 degrees (come on catamarans where are you?!) we saw 6.5 to 7 knots all the way back to Antigua. The sail set was the best we’ve achieved over here so far and we were both smiling from cheek to cheek – Stargazer amazed us (you do get the odd day like this between all the jobs you have to do on boats).

Little Bay, Montserrat – under (re?)construction

SG at anchor in Little Bay – with chunky cargo vessel moored next to her

Arriving in Falmouth Harbour, we soon had the dinghy pumped up and were with Sue and David for dinner. We needn’t have worried about leaving them, they’d had a great time at Pigeon beach and treated themselves at the local beach bar. We on the other hand were tired out – but there was one more thing to do – yes, check back into Antigua. I can’t really elaborate on what went on, but we had a misunderstanding (we’ll call it!) with the authorities. This was thankfully sorted without being banned from Antigua but it did result in us having to go back up to Jolly Harbour the following day. We were all in St John’s (the capital) when we realised that we had to head to Jolly Harbour, so it was a mad dash to the boat, leaving Sue and David to their own devices (again) and sailing to Jolly. The sail would have been fine if, approaching the main channel into Jolly, the engine hadn’t cut out. I didn’t get it, no one, but no one, looks after their boat engine more than I do – but it had cut out and that was that. I’ve spent years teaching people how to do things like sail onto moorings and to anchor, so getting into a suitable spot and dropping the anchor manually wasn’t a big issue, but we were quite far out in the channel and the whole anchorage was pretty rolly. The mate wanted to go to Shirley Heights (see next blog) with her parents so she got a taxi back whilst I was left all alone on Stargazer, far out in Jolly Harbour at the back of the anchorage. I could go on about wanting to go to Shirley Heights myself, but you cannot leave a boat at anchor on her own well out at the back of the harbour in rolly and potentially squally conditions and nor would I. Luckily, I had onboard some steak, some oven chips, some peas, three or four cans of Heineken and some music from my youth (the likes of which only my friends, Pete, Phil and Martyn would probably understand) so I ended up having a great time [I’m pretty sure I enjoyed the music at Shirley Heights better than I would have Skip’s offering! – Mate].

I’d diagnosed the engine problem not to be the engine at all but one of fuel delivery. To cut a long story short, all diesel tanks get some ‘crud’ in the bottom, perfectly capable of blocking fuel lines and filters. Despite using plenty of biocide on a constant basis, Stargazer’s was no exception. In Jolly Harbour all we could immediately do was change the filters (two of). Having done this we attempted to bleed the system but sadly no fuel was coming through. The only other thing it could be was a blocked fuel intake pipe from the tank to the primary filter. The mate and I attached the dinghy pump to the end of the pipe leading to the primary filter and pushed, and after the first half stroke we heard the happy sound of a blockage being released. Putting it all back together again we were able to bleed the system and the engine fired up perfectly. The only remaining problem was that whatever had caused the blockage was still in the fuel tank!

After one night at Jolly Harbour (the mate in luxury back in her parents apartment) the mate reappeared and we prepared to take Stargazer back to Falmouth Harbour. Weighing the anchor, the engine spluttered and cut out again. Damn! We did the same with the dinghy pump but all was well there and we traced it to air in the system which surprised me as we had bled the system and the engine ran perfectly the evening before. On the next anchor retrieval, all was well and we set sail in difficult and squally conditions back to Falmouth Harbour. I was mainly worried about the choppy water stirring everything up in the fuel tank and causing problems when motoring into Falmouth Harbour.

Falmouth Harbour is pretty busy and unlike Jolly Harbour you have to weave your way through anchored boats to find a spot. Sailing in is not impossible, but it is not to be advised, so in anticipation of any problems, we enlisted the help of our friend Steve who has a powerful dinghy. Steve showed up as planned at the entrance to Falmouth and followed us in all the way to the place where we dropped anchor. Naturally, after taking such precautions the engine worked perfectly throughout.

Sue and David were still with us for a few days, they were very understanding of all our problems and might even have enjoyed some of the drama?? (More in the next blog on Sue and David’s ‘holiday’).

After a few more days I’d researched the ‘best’ course of action for Stargazer’s fuel tank. This was to add a shock treatment of a product (Biobor JF) that breaks down and disperses any sludge. After such treatment the broken down particles are caught in the primary filter during use and you are advised to keep filters easily accessible in case they get clogged. We had the idea of extracting fuel from the very bottom of the tank instead, not only because changing Stargazer’s primary filter is a right pain in the #### but they are also quite expensive and hard to find over here. Using a suction pump, the first 5 litres extracted was pretty ‘grubby’ but by the time we’d extracted the 30^th litre it was running crystal clear. I regarded this as a complete success and the engine sounded perfect. Being very pleased with ourselves, we took this opportunity to change the engine oil and do all the things one does for a more or less complete engine service.

First five litres extracted – yuk

Last litres extracted – clean as a whistle :)

As it stands right now, we are securely anchored in Falmouth Harbour in 5.5m with nearly 40m of chain out and well dug in. This is good, because there are some serious blows being forecast over the next few days. I know the UK has had some miserable weather this winter, but the systems emanating from the States are coming this far south too…

I’ll leave this blog here, the mate and I will upload another one fairly quickly about my in-laws visit. After that, Antigua Classics is taking place, starting on the 17^th April. This is one of my personal favourite events in the world and I have put forward the mate and I to help run the event. We have the position of ‘dinghy wrangler’ – this an American phrase which actually means zooming around in a powerful dinghy in English Harbour and helping all the beautiful classic yachts in and out of their berth. This year, there are three or four of the most beautiful classics in the world are in Antigua and to be able to get so close to them in a proper way is going to be very, very special.

Oops, as ever, there is a final thing to say before we go. That is we were horrified to see loads of barnacles all over Stargazer’s hull and rudder. Not only was this not good, it was a total visual embarrassment. As luck would have it, the mate is a pretty good snorkeler (my own level is pre-beginner) and she swam around with a dinghy oar and got rid of the lot…

Aha, yes there is another thing. Pierre, our dinghy, has got leak after leak on his air deck (floor). This makes it impossible to go anywhere without a pump (the ultimate chic cruising accessory!). Clearly this is not good and so today is the day we will attempt some tricky floor repairs. Results to follow in the next blog…