8th April - Road Bay, Anguilla 18:12.025N 063:05.648W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Tue 9 Apr 2013 21:25
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"Road Bay,
Anguilla - 8th April"
We left Isle Fourchue this morning and had a cracking good sail past St Maarten and on to Anguilla. The wind and swell was behind us as we left and we rigged the preventor on the mainsail and with a small headsail we were happily cruising at 5-6 knots. As we sailed in the lee of the west side of St Maarten the wind was more on our beam and the swell negligible, by the time we rounded up to Anguilla the wind was on our nose. Whisper is performing well since her scrub at Antigua and with more headsail out she enjoyed coming up to the wind and we creamed along at 7 knots. We certainly were enjoying the sail and making excellent progress. It still amazes me that one can put a long/lat into the GPS and be sailing on course with a visible headland in the distance all of which matches the compass but then as the set position gets closer an island, which is known to be to the right of the position looms to the left. One can convince oneself that this rocky obstruction is beyond the corner that one is navigating around, but your eyes are telling you something different. The lesson is question your eyes, but never disbelieve them, because at the end of the day as the set point gets closer so the compass point changes until the imagined large distant island is in fact the small island at the end of the headland. Navigating is full of illusions. Happily we rounded the corner to see the most beautiful rocky formations of Little Anguilla! Road Bay was directly on our nose and as a squall was ahead of us we dropped the headsail and motored in. Once anchored and the engine switched off, we busied ourselves, securing lines, putting on the sail cover, instrument covers etc. I mentioned that I could hear a gurgling, boiling sound which I had not noticed in the past, but was assured that it was the engine water circulating and it was alright. A little later when putting on the kettle for a much needed cuppa, I mentioned it again as I could still hear it. An audible sigh was heard, the explanation has already been given, time to drop the subject, it had been a long tiring day! After tea we launched Rustle and went to "clear in" at Customs. We were amused to see that the Police Launch at anchor is called "Gotcha". Formalities done, we arrived back at Whisper and I could still hear this odd gurgling sound. This time a response was provoked and an investigation revealed there was water in the bilge and no water from the electric pump in the galley although the foot pumps worked. Where was the leak? It wasn't long before Whisper was in complete chaos, companion way ladder removed to get to the bilge, the cupboard under the galley sink was emptied, there was water in it but no obvious leak. Next the cockpit locker was emptied and this revealed that a hose from the calorifier had detached itself! It didn't take long for Mr Fixit to work his magic, but the problem now was that we were right out of water as the super efficient pump had pumped it all into the bilge! Our next task was to seek a source of water. Armed with three 5 litre Jerry cans we set off in the dinghy. You can imagine our mirth as we arrived at the somewhat rickety dinghy dock, I jumped ashore to tie up and the next thing we knew Noel, still onboard, was suddenly getting soaked in a spray of water coming from the wooden jetty! We desperately needed water but this wasn't quite what we had expected! A dive boat was on the opposite side of the jetty, the occupants were beside themselves with mirth, they were filling up with water but their hosepipe had become disconnected. Once reconnected, we explained that we had a problem and had lost all our water, they very kindly said we could fill our containers. As I jumped back in the dinghy to fill the containers it was my turn to get soaked, don't ask me how it happened, I haven't asked. Anyway, all is well, the problem is fixed and we have water. Our anchorage is beautifully calm and we have spotted a small turtle around Whisper several times since we arrived. All in all it has been a good, if eventful, day! Photograph: "Miss Anguilla" |
