Off the Grid

Roger here:
The New York Times on Christmas day had a front page story about a woman in Kenya who had traded a few goats to get money to buy a small solar panel. It permitted her to charge her cell phone, a process that used to be very expensive, including taking two days for two long motorbike round trips. The first trip was to drop off the phone to be charged and the second to go back another day to pick it up because the place was so busy charging cell phones. The solar panel also permitted her to light one electric bulb in the evening, by the light of which her kids were able to do their homework and thereby have hope for a future. In addition, she now charges cell phones for her neighbors and earns money.
We too are off the grid, and feeling good about it. In the past, despite the need to charge our refrigerators' cold plates by running the ship's diesel engine for an hour most every day, which also increased the juice in our ship's batteries, we were quite niggardly in our use of electricity which gradually tended to run down until we had to either run the engine more, or pull in to a dock for a charge of shore power. But no more. This summer we installed two eighty watt BP solar panels on a specially, and ingeniously, designed frame. They feed our batteries every day that the sun shines. For all of its faults, it appears that BP has been a leader in the solar power field and these panels are just the right size to fit and provide enough juice for us.
Special credit must go to our friend, master engineer and metal work impresario, Erwin Eibert, Past Commodore, the Harlem Yacht Club's secret resource. The problem was where to put the panels: They are big and there are not that many flat accessible spaces that are not used for other purposes and are not obscured by shade where they can go. One solution, which I had thought to use, was to mount them on top of the bimini, the canvas cover that provides shade to the cockpit. The problem was that this big piece of canvas is supported by relatively thin stainless steel tubes that are fastened at one side of the boat, loop up over the top and are attached on the other side. This contraption had come loose during the storm going to Newport in August and was neither strong nor trustworthy enough to serve as a mount for these panels. The next candidate location was the top of the radar arch which is atop the bimini. It is plenty strong enough but mounting two big panels so high and so far aft would have been just plain ugly.
Erwin's solution was a frame that draws rigidity from both tubes of the radar arch but slants down to just above the bimini. I hope the photo does justice to this device because 1000 words could not describe the ingenuity of this solution.
Another issue involves the precise location: they have to be centered so as to lay between the sides of the split back stay. They have to be forward enough to not obscure the helmperson's view, through the plastic window, of the wind indicator at the top of the mast. They have to be back far enough so as to not get whacked by the boom as it swings from side to side when we tack or jibe the boat. Our panels seem to be in the perfect position. Even the cats like them, hiding between the bimini and the bottom of the panels. Note the parallelograms on each side.
Another part of the system is a regulator that prevents the solar panels from overcharging the batteries. Too much of a good thing could cause the explosion of the acid-filled cells. Bob Fleno, who sailed the Hampton-Tortola run with me advised me where to mount this small panel and I've not regretted that location: I can get to look at it when needed but it is out of the way otherwise. Dennis, who sailed with Lene and me from NY to Hampton helped me snake the wire from the panels to the regulator through the radar arch tube and connect the wires. I did some of the connections myself. One regret is that I have not been able to actually measure how much electricity is flowing into the batteries at any given moment but thwarted curiosity is of little moment. The good news is that the panels are producing enough.... though not enough for the megayachts pictured above. One we witnessed coming through the bridge on the Dutch side which opens just three times a day. This one had the bridge opened 30 minutes after the bridge closed at a cost, we were told, of only $1800.00. The other picture is of 3 of about 50 of these behemoths already docked.
I no longer run around like a maniac turning off lights; we can also charge our cell phones and computer whenever we want and will still have enough left over to run the new Shop Vac for a few minutes every once and a while. Not enough to operate the refrigerator, the microwave or the air conditioner, though the fans can run all night if that's what it takes to make Lene happy. The plan was never to make that much electricity -- that would have required a diesel powered generator. And the panels provide enough juice to run the water maker for an hour or two each day.
So we do not have to bring ILENE to docks to get electricity, or water, but only to get diesel fuel. I think this will need to be a monthly trip unless I use the four 5-gal yellow diesel jerry cans to bring fuel to the boat by dink. My only reluctance to use the cans is that diesel fuel stinks so much and invariably a bit of it spills.
Speaking of water, I am reading Tony Horwitz' book, "Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before." It is a biography of sorts combined with the author's travels through the South Pacific, following in Cook's footsteps, or I suppose I should say following in his wake. The author draws a lot of analogies between Captain James Cook's voyage of discovery on the Endeavor and Captain James Kirk's voyage of discovery on the Starship Enterprise. But the point is that water was always a problem for Cook (much relieved by tons of beer and rum which they packed and drank excessively). But they did need water and a primary consideration was to find a source of fresh water when they arrived at an island. Then the men had to lower huge casks, many of them, one at a time, to the ship's boats, row ashore, fill the casks, row them back, hoist them aboard and stow them securely. Our watermaker relieves us of all this. Our Cruising Guides, which tell us where to find the things we might need in each port, based on the experiences of many who have sailed these waters before, do not mention water; the quest these days is for a source of internet service! We are not discovering new lands but only trying to discover truths about ourselves.

Fort Louis and New Purchase

The blogging below is co-authored by us both.
These photos were supposed to be placed in the order to tell the story. However, each takes about 20 minutes to upload from the computer to the blog, and they appear in the disorder that they want to rather than the order we try to place them. Just another opportunity to say the serenity prayer!
In the photo at the right bottom is the fort that guards Marigot (its name has to do with Mangroves according to the museum) with Lene in front and the flag of France flying atop, as it does from our boat (so called courtesy flag) along with the US flag, while we are here. But this shot shows little of the hill one has to climb to get to this elevation, which gives the fort such a commanding presence. In fact, in the one battle fought here, the cannons at the fort were not used -- musket fire drove off the invaders with great loss.
The lowest right photo is Roger with his back to the town and to the western side of the island, from the same elevation. Marigot Bay, where we anchored our first night, is off Roger's left shoulder and our marina, inside Simpson Bay Lagoon, is above his head. The ferry dock and immigration office are at his right shoulder. The pointy peak above Roger's head is on a peninsula extending into the lagoon and is named....we kid you not, the Witches Tit. Beyond it is the town of Simpson's Bay, on the Dutch side (south side) of St. Maarten, where the megayachts are docked and the big marine stores and better shopping is located, though Marigot has an Hermes store, etc.
The top photo was taken from the top of the fort and with zoom, showing ILENE in Marina La Port Royale, with other boats moored on either side of us. We are the boat toward the back of the mass of moored boats, center right, whose mast sems to go up through a blue hulled boat further away.
Two photos of Lene with a cannon in the photo grace this posting; the one with me as well shows a portion of a large circular seawall that encloses Marina Port Louis, the expensive one outside the lagoon where our new friends, the Morecrafts, are staying.
And last but not least, top left is a view of our new dinghy. It is an "AB" brand dinghy, made in Colombia, SA, for Caribbean waters. You can see its deep "V" bow made of aluminum. Inside that bow is a small enclosed space for life jackets, pump, bailer, oil, oil measurer, lock, night lights etc. This is very handy and the top opening compartment is cushioned and covered with vinyl for seating comfort and as a step in getting in and out because the bow is so much higher than was the bow on the old dinghy.
Before we sign off to take showers and then dink over to the Dutch side to meet the Donaldsons for dinner, let me tell you about another, exciting purchase made today. Rojay and I went to the biggest Ace Hardware store you've ever seen. We bought up a storm but what I really want to tell you about and will report again on once I have an opportunity to use it, is our brand new and powerful Shop Vac. This will...I pray...be an extremely useful tool in the war against cat hair and litter dust which, in addition to the heat, is my nemesis.
Go to run. More anon.

Nadir

Roger here!
The last week has not been a fun one due to a complex of issues that are now solved. I'm hopeful that we will not have another stretch of bad time as low as this again.
Health: I'm blessed with usually being so darned healthy that when I get sick I really feel it. I whacked my head on a low passing eave (actually I passed the eave; well almost got past it) and got a headache which I feared might be a subdural hematoma. This caused a visit to the local hospital but the CT scanner was in a separate clinic and by the time they reopened two days after the incident, I had taken a Sudafed and felt a lot better. The visit to the ER cost a bit under 30 Euros; amazing! But I also had severe shaking from chills on the first night and this was followed by five days of very strong diarrhea, which are fortunately past us now.
Water: We make our own, six or twelve gallons per day, which is more than enough for us. But we have been inside Simpson's Bay Lagoon for about ten days and we can't make water when we are in a body of dirty water because it strains our filtration and reverse osmosis system too much. Of course we used much less water by taking our showers at the marina (1 Euro per token) but we still we ran out. What to do? Lene took our three one-gallon fresh water jugs to the marina, filled them and upon returning to the boat, emptied them into the ship's water tank. She makes four trips ashore in one day with the result that we had twelve gallons of water in our tank. This is more than enough.
Sewage: I brought a head (toilet) repair kit with me plus two extra "choker" or "joker" valves. This is the valve that opens just enough when material is pumped against it to let the material pass, and then closes to prevent the material from flowing back. I have only had one head that needed to be fixed in the past 20 years so I thought that the idea of both failing at once was quite remote. But lightning did strike twice in the same boat and the repair kit had only one set of the parts needed. I got some help from Reiner, a native German with 20 years in So. Africa who lives on his boat, 30 yards from ours. He was hit by a bigger boat that broke loose in a hurricane and caused his boat a lot of damage. He said he had 40 years experience as a shipwright (one who can do most anything to fix a boat except engines) and asked for $30 per hour and was hired immediately. I would not have known which part (a flapper valve and spring) needed to be replaced, but having seen him do the job on our forward head, I will now be able to do it myself on the aft head when the now missing parts arrive via Fedex from the states mid next week. Most of the three hours he worked were spent on tearing out remaining hosing from the former Lectrasan system -- I took out some pieces and he took out others. All told we removed more than 20 feet of 1 1/4 inch diameter thick heavy black hosing and one three way valve, thereby simplifying greatly the path that sewage will follow in getting from the head to the sea. And as a shipwright I figured he might be able to put to good use the hose, eight hose clamps and the valve, which he took with him, simplifying our garbage disposal system. It is good to have my hands out of sewage again after the last few days.
Bright Notes: Our new AB brand inflatable with an aluminum rigid bottom and a rather deep "V" hull and big fat pontoons is FUN! With its 9.8 HP Toihatsu outboard (vs 4 hp on our old engine) it can go up on plane and makes about 25 to 30 knots! First the front rises up and then the back rises up and then we are going really fast. We have also had a lot of fun with the Donaldsons, who we met in Maine in September 2008. So not all has been bad. Soon I will report, with photos, on our visit to the Fort.

Amazing Update!

Not much to write about today. Roger and Reiner (a friendly "boatwright" who is living on his VERY beat up looking, non sail-able sailboat which is moored near our boat) are working on fixing our heads. I am staying away from the boat until such work is complete. Its not pretty to say the very least!
However, last night when we returned to ILENE after another delicious meal at my favorite restaurant (escargot to die for, and then sea bass sauteed in garlic, butter and lemon. I thought I was eating what they must serve in heaven) we saw a sight that we'd never seen before and, frankly, were very happy never to have seen it. And that was Whitty sitting on top of the bimini. This was always the sole provence of Alpha Girl. Whitty was my safe and secure and non risk taking cat. He didn't go too close to the edge of the boat, and he certainly isn't the jumper she is. But that is all over now. He was up on top as long as I allowed them to be out last night, and he was back up there this AM. In addition to my increased nervousness that he (or she) will fall off, there is no way this canvas is going to last much longer. Whitty is a big cat. The picture above is of AG on top of the bimini just so you know what I'm talking about. I don't yet have a pic of him up there but I'm sure that will be coming soon. Oh well, there is no stopping progress.
Thats all for now. I think we'll be leaving St. Martin soon...as soon as the heads are fixed. You will be kept in the loop, I promise.

Catch Up

Its been a while, friends, but not much good has happened. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been horrible BUT....life during the past few days has been trying.
After that wonderful meal we spoke about on Saturday night, Roger awoke at 3 AM with nausea, a terrible headache and chills. The boat was so warm and I had to put 2 blankets over him just to get him comfortable. Anyone who knows Rojay understands that complaining is the LAST thing he will do. It was scary! He woke up on Sunday feeling weak and tired, but the chills were gone and the headache had abated. But, he was going to the bathroom about every hour and eliminating solid waste that wasn't so solid. (its hard to figure out how to write about such a subject and not be totally gross)
The 24 hours of Sunday were spent on the boat. Roger slept and went to the bathroom. That was his life and I'm sharing it with him, and with all of you. His headache came and went and he had chills again but they only lasted only a short while. We are very grateful that one of our friends here, Bill Donaldson of "Lucille" is a retired physician and was so helpful and comforting. Bill assured us that the medical care here on the French side is excellent so on Monday we went to the ER of the local hospital. We waited more than 3 hours to be seen and the doctor, whose English was OK but not great, gave Roger some medicine for his stomach and a prescription for a cat scan the next day at another facility. The bill for all of this, btw, was 27 euros. Can you imagine what it would be in the states? Roger has medicare but his coverage does not extend out of the US.
We got back to the boat Monday at about 7 PM. I ate (Roger is looking as thin as he must have looked when he was a kid) some dinner and we were asleep by 9 PM. That, btw, isn't unusual. I think they call it "Sailors Midnight" which means asleep at dusk and up at dawn which is what our usual routine is. It is rare for me to be asleep past 6 AM and I am usually up before then. Whitty and Alpha Girl must be fed! They demand it in many noisy ways.
So, the end of the saga is that Roger did not go for the cat scan. His headache is gone but he does continue to be in the bathroom frequently. The BIG problem now is that neither of our heads are working. So, as I write this update sitting at a cafe still in Port Royale on St. Martin, Roger is back on the boat doing some awfully dirty and smelly work!
Yesterday, Tuesday, was a good day as we went over to the Dutch side and picked up our new and beautiful dinghy and engine. You might grasp by the previous paragraph that I took the dinghy to shore by myself!
We had lunch yesterday with Bill & Sandy from "Lucille" while we waited for the dinghy to be inflated and got some insight into our future destinations. Roger will fill you in on those.
Love to all, Ilene

New Friends and Old

We had a great day yesterday. Our new friends, Lorraine and Bob from "Scaramouche", a custom designed 58' Tayana, came to our boat for apple cinnamon pancakes (which they appropriately appreciated) at about 10. They drove a rental car to the dock and I picked them up by dinghy. (alone! I am getting much better at handling the dinghy and outboard and feel confident without Roger to save me if something goes wrong.)
Our friends from Maine, Sandy and Bill of "Lucille", another 43' Saga didn't receive all of our emails and so got to our boat closer to noon. We had more pancakes than we could handle. So, after hanging out for a couple of hours, Lorraine, Bob, Roger and I went in the rental car and toured some of the island.
It was another beautiful day with the breezes necessary so as not to be feeling the heat, and we stopped at three places. One is Grand Case, which is a beautiful bay more on the northern part of the island and then Anse Marcel, which is a really small bay on which the beautiful and elegant Radisson resort is located. We sat at the beach side restaurant there and enjoyed iced teas. We will sail there when we leave Marigot, about six miles, anchor in their bay, swim ashore with a credit card, and enjoy the restaurant -- without paying $560/day for their smallest room -- this makes Roger very happy.
We were chauffeured by our friends to Budget Marine where, at their advice, we made a significant purchase. We bought a new dinghy with a hard aluminum bottom, larger diameter hypalon tubes at the sides and a 9.8 HP outboard. We currently have a soft bottom dinghy and a 4 HP engine. The new items will make us much more self reliant and comfortable in the strong Caribbean Seas, and twice as fast. Down here the dinghy is your car and we use it A LOT! We will pick up the new dinghy on Monday and we're both very excited about using it. And, we definitely got a better deal down here than we would have back in the states.
Today is another great weather day. We'll be leaving the marina by foot and head into the main section of Marigot. We will climb the hill to see Fort Louis and the view from there. Then we'll head for an art gallery tour. We hope tonight we will get to see our friends, Bill & Sandy who couldn't come with us yesterday on the island tour.
I ate frogs legs last night at a little hole on the alley wall restaurant with Bob and Loraine. I've never enjoyed food as much! I had two left over and brought them back for the furry felines. Don't know if they enjoyed them as much as I did, but they ate most of it, garlic and all. Roger ate the biggest artichoke I've ever seen and then veal kidneys in mustard sauce. Not my favorite dish but he enjoyed thoroughly. I see no reason to go to another restaurant. I want to eat there every night!!!

Rainy Day in Paradise

Good morning. Last night was a...I hope...once in a lifetime experience. We took our dinghy across the very large Simpson Bay Lagoon from the French side, where we are at Port Royale, to the Dutch side. It was about a 25 minute ride. When we returned in the dark at about 7 PM the rains came. And I don't mean the rains...I mean THE RAINS! It was torrential! The wet was bad enough, but driving through the rain creates a very real sensation of being stung by tiny pellets anywhere you are not covered. And, in this heat we had very little skin covered. What a relief to finally reach ILENE. The irony is, of course, as soon as we got back to the boat the rain ceased. Another adventure on the high seas.
This morning we decided to do a bit of cleaning. Everyone gets assigned their chores. Whitty and AG's job is obviously to look cute.
Roger just left to take a walk to visit the local museum in town. I chose to be up in the marina office in air conditioning and work on the computer. Our strenuous plan today is to enjoy an early dinner at a restaurant a few feet away from the marina office which others have raved about called Tropicana. On their website, when it shows the white railing leading up to the right, the marina office where I'm typing this is across the water -- the octagon shaped building, and our boat is just to the right of the right side of the picture.
If our plans tomorrow come off we will be having a "game afternoon" on ILENE with two other cruising couples. One we met yesterday because they dinked to our boat after hearing Roger talk on the VHF radio. Every morning on channel 14 at 07:30 there is a broadcast of cruisers who are in St. Martin (French side) or Sint Maarten (Dutch Side). There is a sharing of information like weather and special events... a buy and sell and swap period where people can offer merchandise they want to be rid of, or one can ask if anyone listening has an extra widget for their boat. They also ask for people new to the island to introduce themselves and we did, and because this couple, Bob & Lorraine Morecraft, are familiar with the Saga sailing craft (which is what ILENE is) and had seen us, they came over to introduce themselves. They are sailing (and living for the past 3+ years) on their 58' Tayana. The other couple is Bill and Sandy Donaldson on LUCILLE, another Saga 43 who we met in Maine in 2008. Both Roger & I really enjoyed meeting them and we hung out with them on several occasions in Maine. They are fun! Bill is the one person who sold me on doing this trip with his infectious enthusiasm. So tomorrow should be a fun day. I am fairly new to this cruising life and it is interesting to realize what a small and friendly community it really is. Dick & Elle on Summer Wind...you are right!

Cats Getting Comfortable in St. Martin

Hi everyone. Today is our 2nd full day here and it's getting kind of "cool". Not comfortable cool, but "cool". I know enough not to complain to my buddies in NY about the weather here as I sit in a waterfront internet cafe and all of the beautiful french men and women walk by, oh so chic...and it is about 80 degrees and we're all in "T" shirts and shorts and sandals.
Yesterday we spent the afternoon in the air conditioned marina office typing yesterday's blog and ventured out about 5:15. The air was so balmy and comfortable and the light so beautiful. The waterfront around where the boat is moored (fore and aft mooring balls, pictured above) is like a little French village filled with bistros and stores, both local and places such as Cartier and Mont Blanc and any other high end store that can be found on Fifth Avenue. Roger says this scene reminds him of the inner harbor of Nice except these are pleasure boats instead of fishing boats.
While I type this, Roger is off running some errands and when he returns we will have some lunch and then head over to the Dutch side in our dink. The dink is our car and will be for the forseeable future. I'm seeing how important it is to have a dink with a hard bottom (our dink's bottom is soft and won't handle the rough water, when it happens, as well as one would with a rigid bottom) and a more powerful engine. Maybe I'll make a placement and buy us a present. We shall see...
I've posted some pictures of Alpha Girl & Whitty and can hopefully fill in some details surrounding the pictures...so, here goes.
One of the uppermost pictures is of my Whitty's tush. He is digging between the pillows for one of his favorite toys which is a sparkly red ball that he chases and which sheds little sparkly red threads all over. I wouldn't change having them aboard but there is definitely a price to be paid in having their hair...their litter dust and their toys as constant companions. The picture of Whitty up near the bowsprit is about as close as he gets to the edge. He is a cautious cat for which I am grateful because I don't think my heart could stand having another wild and crazy cat in addition to Alpha Girl who fears nothing! Why stay on the edge if you can tiptoe out right onto the bowsprit and straddle it?
The other picture at the top may not have been taken on this voyage but rest assured the top of the bimini is one of Alpha Girl's favorite perches. Whitty NEVER dares to go up there! Actually, AG moves way above the bimini. She frequently ventures onto the boom, which is of course even higher. In fact she will...if another boat is close enough, leap across the water to jump on the boat. She's a fun girl to have around but quite the troublemaker. The picture of us moored shows us close to the boats on either side but too far for her to make the leap.
About 4-5 days ago when Roger & I returned to the boat we noticed a pool of water on the table below one of the open hatches as well as on the cabin sole floor. Had it rained? There wasn't water below any of the other open hatches so how could this be? What happened? The answer came in the appearance of Alpha Girl from the aft cabin and while she was mostly dried off it was clear she had been submerged in water...like she'd had a bath, or like she'd fallen into the great blue sea. This will never be fully explained (without an on board video camera) but we can assume that she had her first fall into the water and she had gotten herself back on the boat!
In the last picture, if you look closely at the bottom right corner of the rear swim platform, you can see the braided line that Roger fashioned for the cats to use to climb on board if they fall in while at anchor or on a mooring.
On the overnight trip, the cats presented another aspect of the challenges of sailing with them: We were life jacketed, harnessed and tethered to a line that runs around the cockpit floor, to prevent falling off and with lights and whistles we can use to signal if we somehow did fall off. But not the cats. But they wanted out and not just to stay in the cockpit. Eventually we collared and leashed them and let them roam, but only in the cockpit.
We seem to have the picture problem solved so keep coming back and we will give you more.

St. Martin

Hi, whew! Another overnight for Ilene the sailor. We left Roadtown, Tortola at 3 PM on Sunday which is a day earlier than planned. The forecast called for mild winds from the northeast and the Captain predicted a more comfortable sail for his crew (me). As it turned out the wind was mild but from the east south east and so since it was on our nose and light, we motored the whole way. As we left the BVIs, passing between ginger Island and Round Rock, we entered the Caribbean at last. The line of islands from Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Virgins mark the border between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic to the north, and the Caribbean to the south. Roger was so excited to be going where he had never sailed before.
It turned darkish by 6 PM and Roger and I...as is our new custom, showered in the cockpit. It is one of my favorite activities as it keeps the cabin cleaner and an out door shower is something I've always enjoyed.
We had the auto pilot on the whole way and we arrived in Marigot Bay on St. Martin at about 7:30 the following morning. It is really dark out in the ocean at night, particularly after the moon set at about midnight. Our watch schedule was pretty haphazard. Roger tried to sleep after dinner (pan fried steak & onions with toasted cheese bread all cooked by moi on a gimbled stove and oven) at about 8 but I woke him up for some reason at about 10:30. He then continued to take cat naps of an hour or so every so often and I kept watch in those intervals. I tried not to let my mind freak me out by thoughts of how little we are in this vast ocean and how if something went wrong I would die. I don't understand the morbidity of those thoughts and the good news is that I was able to comfort myself by remembering how confident Roger is in his abilities and how much I trust him and how safe he makes me feel. I played music in the cockpit during my watches and it really makes the time go faster for me. No-one can hear me sing, not even Roger as the noise of the engine muffles any sound I make.!
Shortly before dawn as we were within 10-15 miles of our destination, the traffic picked up. Before that time we saw the lights of only 3 other ships throughout the many dark hours. But in that last couple of hours we saw the very bright and large lit silhouette of what were obviously cruise ships very slowly making their way to the same island. One of the ships, Ventura, was so close to us that Roger got on the VHF and said "Cruiseship heading for Marigot Bay this is the sailing vessel Ilene two miles off your bow, over." At two miles off, at night, all lighted up, he looked even bigger than he was. He identified himself and said he was actually on his way to the Dutch- side port of Philipsburg, and turned to the right to pass behind us. Roger thanked him.
So, after anchoring in the bay outside town we ate a hearty breakfast and napped. The breakfast was good but the nap delicious. Roger and I then headed by dink at about 2:30 to check into immigration...we bought a new sim card for local phone, and we walked around Marigot getting a bit familiar with the town. We investigated a luxury marina called Port Louis and then walked to Simpson Lagoon and found Port Royale Marina where we moved to today. We are on a fore and aft mooring and have showers, laundry and internet access for 40 euros for the week. Pretty cheap!
I should mention that this overnight was a first for Whitty & Alpha Girl. They love it at night! All they wanted was to be out of the cabin and moving about the ship. I understand that they see better at night, but I don't! They would sit at the top of the companionway and either meow or, their new and destructive trick: scratch at the screen on the cafe doors and have so far ruined one of the four panels. Why do I think they are so damn cute! We had on life jackets, harnesses and tethers which were attached to a line secured in the cockpit and could yell if we fell over. They did not have such gear on and so in the end I relented, put on their collars and leashes and gave them rein of the cockpit, but not the rest of the boat. To say they don't like leashes would be an understatement. We have to go now but we are really getting closer to posting photos. Come back tomorrow and you will see!

Of f to St. Martin This Afternoon

The weather report suggests that we make the 95 mile overnight passage today, while the winds are light and from the northeast. If we leave this afternoon, after checking out in customs, in daylight, we should get in tomorrow, also in daylight. The night passage will make viewing other boats (the only "obstacles" we should see between here and there) easier than by day and the NE winds will let us go straight SE, rather than have to tack back and forth, which would add at least another 1/3 to the mileage required. The light winds will mean motoring, but that will be more pleasant for Lene than beating into big waves.
Friday I had a glorious solo sail from the Bight on Norman Island to North Cove on Virgin Gorda, to pick up Ilene from the hotel there. The wind was strong but from the SE so I was able to do the whole passage under small jib and reefed mainsail on a starboard tack, with no tacking, at speeds of up to 8.1 knots, and averaging about 6.5. I saw a squall coming, so hauled in the jib until it passed and then flew it again. On our trip to North Cove together we had passed west of the dogs, a group of islands in the middle, and this time I passed to the east of them.
I picked up the mooring in North Cove on the fourth try, cleaned up the boat a bit for Lene's benefit and then dinked in to get her and her luggage. The wifi signal from the hotel reached the moored boat so I wrote a book report to my Book Group on Edward Said's Out of Place, before leaving for the night's destination: Marina Cay. On the way we passed between The Dogs, on a single port tack, making for the trifecta of every way to get around or through these craggy islands. Marina Cay is a tiny island with a small hotel and Pussers' restaurant, which has a long reef protruding west on its south side. The reef does not cut the wind but keeps waves out of the anchorage where we joined September Song and About Time for another overpriced dinner out. The mooring field was less than 1/2 filled in contrast to other years when it would have been hard to find an emty one at that time of day. So business here is suffering along with the rest of the world.
Saturday the Harlem boys all came over for cinnamon sauteed apple filled pancakes, coffee and juice, and they brought their leftover foodstuffs so we have a lot less food to buy for a while.
We sailed to The Baths, an unusual rock formation of huge boulders at waters edge on the west (sheltered) side of the south tip of Virgin Gorda. We took a mooring for an hour, snorkeled, I went ashore to rock scramble through the boulders, showered, and then set sail for Road Town. So obviously, I am very pleased to report, Lene's sun poisoning is much better; her remaining pimples are smaller and less itchy. On the sail over I found a corner of the cockpit sheltered from the sun by the bimini cover and used a big towel for her legs.
On the sail back, the winds got so light, an unusual occurence for these parts, that we motored, filled up with diesel for the passage to St. Martin, took a Conch Charter mooring, and dined with the six Harlem guys at the Dove, an expensive restaurant, but worth it, with fine dining in an unusual setting. During our walk back to Conch we said our goodbyes to them until our return in May.

Catch Up

Here I sit in a lovely room at the Saba Rock Resort on Virgin Gorda while Roger is off sailing with his buddies from the Harlem Yacht Club. I thought about coming home to recuperate from this sun poisoning but checking into a hotel seemed a lot easier. The rash is definitely getting better and I am less itchy. Roger will come for me on Friday or Saturday and hopefully the rash will be mostly gone and won't come back. In 1993 I spent a week in the Bahamas and this same thing happened. I need to make sure I stay very protected from the sun because this has not been fun!
So, where were we? I have the computer here in the hotel room and Roger asked me to post about our activities during the last few days IN HIS STYLE which means in great detail. I'm afraid I have neither the talent nor inclination. Sorry, honey. I'll do my best to at least give you a summary.

On Thursday of last week we were still sailing around St. John, USVI. To be anywhere on St. John is to love the island. It is truly gorgeous. We spent Thursday night on a mooring in Leinster Bay. We went for a hike and snorkeled and ate dinner on board. A beautiful and tranquil day, and I am still feeling fine!
Friday had us sailing just a few miles before we turned into Maho Bay. Roger brought me a tee shirt from here when he last sailed these islands. There is a resort here unlike any I have ever known or seen. Maho Bay is large and, again, plenty of moorings for which you pay $15 through an honor system by dropping your cash or credit card special form in a lock box located on a raft in the middle of the bay. You find a wooden staircase in the middle of the beach and you climb and you climb and you climb. I think it is about 200 steps up to the communal restaurant. Friday night is Prime Rib night and the food was excellent. You go up to the bar, place your order and pay. They call your name when the food is ready and you go and get it. While you are waiting for your name to be called, you help yourself to the fresh salad bar. The views are beautiful as they are all over St. John. We met a woman who was vacationing by herself and she joined us. There are lean-to's all over the mountain with screened in walls, a small refrigerator, a bed or two and a small terrace. We learned from our table mate that price to stay in this paradise is $60 per night for a single and $80 for a double. Amazing! If you love the beach and hanging out this is a great place to go.
We left Maho early on Saturday and we went back to Sopers Hole to check back into the BVI. I did a laundry and Roger did some blogging. We then sailed to Roadtown to meet up with the HYC contingent. On Sunday we all sailed to Cooper Island. This is yet another pristine island where all one has to do is pick up a mooring and don a bathing suit and jump in...which I did. We all ate together (there are 14 of us now!) at the restaurant on shore. This place was elegant and the food was really good! I had had a very bad night on Saturday night with the itching on my legs. Sunday night was even worse so when we awoke on Monday, Roger and I sailed back to Roadtown and I went to a clinic. The local doctor told me I should get off of the boat for two weeks and give myself a chance to heal from this rash. He gave me a strong cortisone cream and some benedryl. We took a taxi back to where we had left the boat and sailed to North Cove (right where I am now) to meet up with the rest of the crew. I felt rather hopeless and didn't know what to do. Tuesday AM dawned and I told Roger I thought I should head home and give myself a chance to heal. We looked into what that would take....sailing back to Roadtown, taxis, ferries and planes. It all felt overwhelming! An alternative plan is what we are trying and that is me staying at this hotel and it seems to be working. The rash is much less inflamed...fainter and less itchy. We both slept in the hotel room on Tuesday night and he left with his buddies (Bennett, a HYC member down here with the charter crew sailed with him).
Here I wait for Rojay to come and get me either tomorrow or Saturday. I am grateful that he is having fun sailing with his friends. frankly, it would not be fun to be cooped up in this room (which is lovely with beautiful views of the Bay. My room is one of the windows on the upper floor on the right side of the hotel) with anyone!
So, friends, that is the story so far. The one thing I forgot to take with me for this sojourn at the hotel is the camera as I could have uploaded some photos. Sorry, and thanks for reading and following our adventure.

Photos and Observations

Roger here. with some photos. I'm not sure whether when published, the arrangement of text and photos will change. The photo of the two instruments, each saying Raytheon in the upper left, shows the following: In the top instrument the arrow pointing from the center, downward shows the direction of the wind -- from straight behind us. The little window in the lower part of that instrument shows that at the moment the wind was 19.5 knots (a knot is about 1.2 miles per hour). there is a little black square dot in the lower right corner of the 19.5 which shows this is true wind, rather than relative wind. In other words, the computer detects apparent wind and factors in the boat's speed and direction to give us the true wind speed and direction. The bottom instrument says "SOG KTS 9.9". This means that as measured by the GPS, the boat's speed over the surface of the earth (or in this case the water) was 9.9 knots. With 20 knots of wind pushing us but the boat going away from the wind at effectively 10 knots, the apparent wind was only about ten knots of force. The engine that created this factual scenario is the sail configuration, shown below.

Before we get there, however, the video, which I got to load, but not to play, shows the waves pushing at the back of our boat propelling us forward. These were not the biggest we had but pretty big. the camera was held stationary on the back of the boat. I hope you can get the video to play because as a still photo it shows nothing.

The photo of the two headsails shows how we achieved such speeds. The jib is shown flying off to the left in the picture, the starboard side of the boat. The other sail is the partially furled genoa, a much bigger jib which is mounted forward of the first sail, on its own roller, and in this photo is shown partially furled. Both sails front edges, their "luffs" to sailors, are in the middle of the photo, the vertical line. these luffs are about six inches one behind the other at the top of the mast and about 18 inches apart at the deck. so there is a slot between them, through which some of the air escapes. The boom is the aluminum pole that runs from the mast at the bottom of the picture, aft to the right side of the picture, and atop it is the stack pack -- the bag that holds the main sail when it is not in use as shown in the photo.

Some observations about what was unexpected or unusual to me about the ocean passage:
From New York to Tortola we were underway 260 hours; this is considerably more hours than we usually sail in an entire summer, and the hours especially in big seas and big winds, take their toll on the boat's equipment -- lines chafed, pins coming undone, blocks breaking, etc. Also, a knot of wind in the ocean is "stronger" than a knot of wind in Long Island Sound. Why? Because the wind is measured by instruments at the top of the mast, which measure the force of the wind up there, but often there is much less force against the lower part of the sails, where they are biggest; but in the ocean, the wind is just as strong at the bottom as at the top.
Following winds and big seas cause the boat to roll back and forth from leaning to one side to leaning to the other side. This is much more uncomfortable than heeling, which is what I was used to. In heeling, the boat leans one way, maybe a big more and then a bit less, but one way. We slept with "lee cloths"; canvas strips perhaps two feet high, that are screwed into the base upon which one's bed lies, and tied to the top of the cabin by ropes. They keep a person from rolling out of bed when the boat heels. I added a lee cloth to the big pullman berth that Lene and I usually sleep in. It worked great for heeling, but in rolling, I found that the whole mattress with me on it, slid about six inches back and forth when the boat rolled from side to side. Another thing about lee cloths: The beds are also the seats we sit on when in the cabin -- but with lee cloths up, these seats were unavailable; there was no indoor seating but rather one had the choice to stand or to lie down.
My prior ocean voyage had been from Bermuda to New York in July. There were rough days but no one got seasick and we had nice meals with wine each night. But this trip was in November and the seas were a lot rougher and so a lot of the food and drink remained unconsumed at voyage end. Summer is calmer, punctuated by violent hurricanes; winter is hurricane free but stormier overall.
We saw other boats much better at night than by day. At night the boats had red, green and white lights mounted at their mast heads. These we looked for to be aware of other boats in the vicinity.

Virgin Gorda (or fat virgin as a literal translation)

Hi all,
I am sitting in the restaurant at the Bitter End Yacht Club on this island of the BVI's. The view, as all views from almost anywhere on these islands, is spectacular. I am sorely disappointed we haven't been posting any photos and I really, really hope to correct that very soon. Rogers buddies from the HYC came down on Saturday and we met up with them in Roadtown, Tortola on Saturday night. Then on Sunday we (now there are 4 boats...ours and three charters) we left for a short sail to Cooper Island. Each place is a postcard but I'm going to try and not talk so much about the beauty of the islands since I can't show you what I'm seeing. I can tell you that I am seriously disappointed by my health right now. A few days ago I noticed a few red dots on and under my skin, particularly on my legs and though I was being bitten by mosquitoes and these other tiny nuisance flying insects called "noseeums". But it has become apparent that I have developed sun poisoning and have been very, very uncomfortable for the past 3 days and nights, with the nights being absolutely the worst!
I went to a local doctor yesterday who gave me a strong topical cortisone cream and strong benedryl and told me to get off the boat for a couple of weeks.
Sailing around with other boats and hiking and snorkeling and eating together could be so much fun but I am not capable of having any real fun because I am either terribly itchy or groggy from the benedryl. Being unable to participate in these activities makes me feel really sad.
So, today I'll be checking into the hotel and staying until Friday or Saturday. I will rest and write and read and wait for Roger and the kittens to come back and get me on Friday or Saturday or Sunday and I am very hopeful that by then I will be better.
They told me the tropical sun is different from the sun up north and I used sunblock all the time but if given another chance to feel healthy and stay down here, I will be super vigilant about protecting myself from the sun.

New Friends and Goodby to St. John

It is Saturday morning, and we are back in Sopers Hole BVI, having cleared in through customs. Lene is at a laundromat 10 minutes walk away, so we will have all clean clothing, sheets, etc.
When last I left you, dear readers, it was on Wednesday, to get the bus back from Cruz Bay to Coral Bay where ILENE was on anchor. But the bus was more than two hours late and during that time we made a new friend, a nice lady who asked if she could share my shady park bench. Her name is Judita Hruza. She and her husband live in West Milford N.J. in the summer and built a house here 18 years ago. She is a holocaust survivor who participated in the death march from the Hungarian border to Mauthausen concentration camp and witnessed the incident in which the guards suddenly shot several hundred of the marchers (in addition to anyone who was to tired, cold, underfed, and sick to keep up the pace. She has written several published articles about the holocaust. We bonded. She is a retired psychiatrist and pediatricia and her husband a retired pathologist. I invited them for a sail, which meant we spent another night in Coral Bay.
They were early at the dinghy dock and we headed southeast to south of Norman Island before returning on the reciprocal course, a sail of about two hours. The only problem was difficulty in getting the anchor up; it tripped and I reset the circuit breaker twice under too heavy a load because it had become caught. I told Lene to go into forward gear and give the boat some fuel, which broke the anchor's hold on the bottom after which the windlass had no trouble pulling it up. When we got back into the bay the Hruska's served us a delicious lunch in the cockpit and took our garbage with them in a big black plastic bag. Then the difficulty at the end of this sail occured: Dzenek, Judita's husband, stumbled on the wobbly floating wooden dinghy dock after alighting from the dinghy and fell into the water. It was not deep and I rigged a foot strap and got him out. He lost a sandal but it was an old one and he was fortunately not hurt. We hope to get the Adult Education Committee of our Temple to invite Judita to speak, but thats not till the spring.
We next completed the circumnavigation of St. John, heading for Maho Bay, which I had visited during my first charter in these enchanted islands. But when Lene saw Leinster Bay, with 21 Natl. Park Svc. moorings and room for 100 other boats to anchor, and only two of them in use, we stopped in Leinster instead of Maho. There are zero services here and we ate the delicious food that Lene cooked and had our most peaceful (no rocking) night on St. John. In the morning we hiked on NPS trails, up hill half way back to Coral where we got some good photos of Cacti and jungle plants growing together, ruins, and trails, and of our boat from above (by this time the two other boats had left leaving the entire bay to us.) Returning to the beach where our dinghy was, we walked the other way, along the coast of the bay to the former Annaberg sugar plantation, now a NPS site. We saw pelicans diving nearby on the way. The mill was atop a hill close to the bay because the windmill (now ruins) drove the rollers that crushed the cane to release its juice. When the wind did not blow horses walked in endless circles to crush the cane. the juice was concentrated into molasses and then either brown sugar or rum, on site. On the way out we met a NPS employee who showed and explained to us the NPS garden containing cane, bananas, bay leaves, cotton, yucca, and several other plants. He gave us some twigs of bay leaves, the odor much more intense than the dried ones in bottles in stores.
After lunch and snorkeling for an hour we motored the two miles to Maho Bay and took another NPS mooring. During our walk I had learned that the senior citizen rate is half of the $15/night we had been paying (a slip with credit card info in an envelope stuffed into a metal box floating on a platform) so we did not pay in Maho. We did dine at the Maho Bay Camp, which is a series of canvas covered cabins, open to the air via screens on all sides.
Ilene here...one day soon we WILL publish pictures to go along with the words. I have been acclimating better than I expected. We are having a lovely time. Weather and surroundings more beautiful than I could have imagined.
Love you!

Cruz Bay to Coral Bay

Roger here; Lene shopping (for provisions)! I'm at the same internet cafe; our communications back to the US have not been as good as we had hoped/expected.
We tried to take a round trip public bus tour to Coral Bay and back, yesterday, but we heard three different opinions as to schedule and missed the bus, which frustrated Lene (see I'm puting her emotions in for her!). So we hiked back to the beach, with a detour to the scenic lookout (climbing) and found our dinghy, talked to tourists, got back aboard ate lunch and sailed half way around the island, counterclockwise, eastbound along the south shore, to Coral Bay. On the south side we were indeed in the Caribbean Sea at last. It was a beat and we had up the small jib and single reefed main. The big ocean swells slowed us to about 5 knots on the eastern tacks but we made over seven when we headed north and put the swells at our side. We passed inside a charted but unmarked reef (I would not do this without chart plotter) and then tacked outside an island. Coral Bay is supposed to be a artists and hippies center, though we have seen little of that. It is a big beautiful bay with many boats anchored, all at safe distances from each other. We are anchored in about 25 feet of water with snubber and during the night some breeze came up which gave us some roll, but it was smoother than at Caneel Bay. This is because the winds are not due east yet, but more northeast, providing better shelter in the south facing bays. And our rent last night was free. We dinked ashore and met some former US people and expats who meet at a Moravian church and then went for the famous burgers at Skinny Legs, a bar with lots of caribbean character, but the burgers were not as good as advertized.
This morning we took the public bus ride from Coral to Cruz and will go back soon. Some breathtaking views on the water facing side, but much view obscured by brush. This island is steep, I don't think the bus gets out of second gear. The bus stopped at a further point which is a snorkeling favorite and at the hospital on the way here to Cruz Bay. We see tropical vegetation and cacti; I need a botanist to explauin that one. and goats roam free many places.
When we get back to Coral, we hope to complete the circumnavigation of St. John, stopping in Maho Bay for the next couple of nights I have been there before and want lene to experience it. There is a point for the pickup of volunteers who want to help the Natl. Park Svc. maintain the hiking trails (which we hope was identified accurately for us) then the next day, snorkeling and hiking. We expect to have no internet access until Saturday or Sunday.