Must be time for a little life update. We just arrived in the USVI and are sitting on a mooring in Virgin Islands National Park. It's beautiful here; but the seasons are calling us north so we need to keep moving soon. We have been back on the boat for over six months. It's been a beautiful, yet frustrating experience marked with massive unforeseen expenses and delays but mixed with a fair bit of adventure and a dash of bliss.
We spent a couple of months in Aruba getting the boat ready to launch and had all the associated drama from leaking transducers and an emergency in-water repair to rebuilding all our electronics systems, installing new sails, replacing all the running rigging, replacing all the through hulls, and replacing some of the standing rigging.
We had difficulty getting parts in a timely manner and frustration with freedom to transact issues using an Australian credit card to order from US online stores and ship to Aruba (caught in an inescapable 3 country automated fraud block by the backend credit card processing systems). In the end, we had to revert to 1970s style international wire transfers to individual stores.
We then beat across (i.e., sailing jargon for sailing into the wind, wave, and current) to Curacao and on to Bonaire; both sublimely beautiful places. We were then fortunate to have a crazy wind reversal and sailed the 90 odd hours straight up to St Martin. This is where things got interesting again.
During the sail up, we had sporty conditions (24 knots and steep short period 6 ft seas on the beam) and we noticed that our davits were pivoting up and down ever so slightly. We soon figured that a bolt had sheared off internally, and feared the others might follow, so we limped into port and then looked for solutions to fix. Due to the nature of the davits, we had to find a dock where they could lift them off with a forklift. So, we booked a slot and then proceeded to wait in the queue.
On the day we were finally scheduled to get into the dock, we had a starboard engine propulsion failure (literally 300ft from the dock). We had no forward reverse selection. I initially thought the prop could be fouled, so I quickly jumped in the water to check, but it turned out the clutch had failed. We had to give up on getting into the dock (which was a tricky entrance) and head back to anchor.
I managed to get new parts for the clutch on the island then set to work rebuilding it. The clutch worked fine, but in the process of leaning on the engine to replace the clutch, the exhaust sea water mixing manifold, which was badly corroded, basically fractured. Needing a quick solution, I used some quick-setting underwater epoxy putty to patch it up. This worked as a temporary fix, and in a couple of days a position opened up again and we managed to get onto the work dock. Ten days of repairs later, we left the dock with rebuilt davits and a welded new anchor roller. We also took the chance to upgrade our 15 year old solar while the davits were off; and put on 3x310w panels on the Davits (to bring our total solar up to about 1.3kW).
We then headed back to anchor in the lagoon and I set about repairing the exhaust manifolds. The issue is Yanmar no longer made the same parts for the engine and the new version was not optimal. The parts I could acquire locally did not fit, and I had to return them. I found an aftermarket cast stainless steel manifold manufacturer in Oregon who made an improved version of the original parts. I then had the parts flown to
in NY as NYC NFT was coming up. I left the family at anchor in the lagoon and headed up for a crazy week at NYC NFT. A little bit of cold shock into almost freezing rain in NYC from Caribbean paradise. I also managed to head upstate into the mountains and catch the eclipse in the snow! Importantly I now had some parts in hand !
After arriving back in St Martin, we had now been there for nine weeks and everyone was going a more than a little mad wondering if we would ever get this adventure started again before we were totally broke. Fortunately, the parts fit; so I rebuilt the engine exhaust manifolds (on both engines to avoid this issue in the future ) and also changed out the starter solenoids as we had some starting issues. Everything miraculously worked, so things started looking up again.
We were now up to ten weeks in Saint Martin/Sint Maarten (shifting back and forth between both the French and Dutch sides). We provisioned hard for a couple of days, going to the shops and back, before heading over to Anguilla. Anguilla was super quiet, sublimely beautiful, and we had most of the amazing outer islands to ourselves. Just what we needed to get back into the flow state of our voyage.
From there, we did an overnight sail to the BVI, spent a little over a week floating around some of the most beautiful anchorages in the world, and then headed over to the USVI. From here, we are planning on heading west, then north up the thorny path to the US East Coast (Spanish Virgins/Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, perhaps the Turks and Caicos, then the Bahamas, and finally hitching a ride in the Gulf Stream to somewhere just south of Cape Hatteras before continuing north, hopefully as far as Maine for the summer).
We are financially much closer to the wind than I would like to admit. In Sterling Hayden's famous quote, he says, “If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.” I finally think I know what that part of the quote feels like; it’s like an intensity multiplier and forces one to break outside of their normal mindset and be creative about the possible path of their life.
We wanted to give this another go on the sailboat, after such a crazy time being stranded during the pandemic. So, we push on, because the only way in life is forward, and I have confidence that we will find a way somehow.
Massive thanks to everyone who has been supporting us along this journey, from collecting work to just following along and engaging on my posts. Means an incredible amount to my family. 🙏🫂
For those that are interested the shot below was taken at anchor in a particularly fiery sky in a remote island off the north west coast of Anguilla.
Sterling's quote changed my life. It reads like it's from the 2020's not the early 1960s. if you dont know it here it is in full...
“To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.
"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? ”
― Sterling Hayden, Wanderer. Published in 1963