Sint Maarten, continued
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sun 24 Apr 2011 00:13
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Well, we're still alive and kicking - kicking our
heels at present. We have done almost all the work we intended here, spent a lot
of money and are ready to leave. We haven't even seen the island - too busy. We
did try to hire a car one day, but the guy at the hire base had obviously
forgotten that Friday was a Bank Holiday. We were there at 0830hrs as arranged,
but he wasn't. So we polished the boat instead. Bliss.
Here is a photo of the boat with our smart new
riding sail on the backstay. 'Vulcan Spirit' moves around a lot at anchor in a
wind - basically the tall superstructure acts like a sail, so the boat yaws from
one side to the other like a pendulum, brought up sharply and jerkily on the
anchor chain at the end of each 'tack'. In a crowded anchorage this is very
disconcerting for us, and our neighbours. Hence the riding sail which acts like
a wind vane keeping the bow pointed into the wind. no more wandering around
the anchor for us. It has the added benefit of keeping our wind scoop at the
front hatch working (not deployed in this picture) so a cool draft blows through
the boat. Or it would if there was any wind. Since we erected the riding sail
for the first time we have been sitting in the centre of a very large,
unseasonal, wind hole. Hardly a breath for days.
 North Walian sailors reading this should note the
very nice sunshade made for us by Stephen at The Boatshed in Felinheli. The rear
section we use as a bimini to shade the cockpit (basically left up the
whole time in the tropics); the front section (erected separately and joined
with a zip) shades the whole of the hard top area and is very useful in hot
airless conditions. You can also see the beautiful shine achieved on
the hull by dint of a few hours in the dinghy in the scorching sun.
So we were all set for the off today, heading for
the Dominican Republic some 400 miles away - but our SSB long range radio
suddenly decided to stop working properly. This is used to receive weather
information as well as ship to ship voice comms. Of course, it stopped on
Thursday night immediately before the double Bank Holiday. Incredibly we have
managed to get the local SSB expert to look at it today. He confirms that it's
bust. So now we're waiting here until Tuesday to see if we can get a secondhand
replacement when the economy starts up again. Failing that we'll have to wait
till we get to the USA.
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