Antigua Arrival 17.05.200N 061.54.150W
Suzie Too - Western Caribbean
David & Suzanne Chappell
Sat 2 Jun 2012 18:55
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We left Nevis and before we had motored out of the lee of the island the
dinghy lift bolt broke again, after being changed in February – only 3 months.
Fortunately the safety strops held and Suzanne did her limbo trick out onto the
davit arm to make additional lashings to secure it for the 50M trip to Antigua.
So we had to sail conservatively which in the usual 25kts of wind on the nose is
not easy in steep seas, but we arrived just after dark into Five Islands Bay to
anchor for the night.
In the morning I changed and upgraded the 8mm bolts to 10mm – which I think
will be 50% stronger – based on my algebra days π r2 – so 8mm radius is
3x(4x4) = 48mm2 and the 10mm radius is 3x(5x5) = 75mm2. Then when we do a mini
refit I may upgrade them to 12mm bolts which will be 3x(6x6) = 108mm2 which will
be twice as strong.
We also have a cunning plan to
change the davit strops to Dyneema, and I have sourced new size magnets for the
safety switches – Ha, watch this space for another Suzie Too - Top Tip. That
will be followed by my Suzie Too – Preventer Top Tip – which is so Top Secret
you will have to kill yourself if you read it and anyone else watching –
actually thinking about the logistics it’s gonna be best if you kill them first
before you top yourself.
On Friday we tried to anchor off the channel going into
Jolly Harbour Marina, but we could not find much more than 3m of water (about
1ft under the keel at 2,6m), so after half an hour of driving around we gave up
and went into the harbour to pick up a mooring buoy for USD$12 per night,
including WiFi. Suzanne then provisioned the boat from the excellent Epicurean
supermarket (with a whole range of Waitrose produce) ready for Helen and Ethan’s
arrival on Saturday.
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