Back with Indigo Lady in St. Kitt’s

We arrived in St. Kitt’s on January 4^th to find that Indigo Lady survived hurricane season very nicely at St. Kitt’s Marine Works. She had been moved just that day from her hurricane storage spot to the work portion of the boat yard, and a hard-working boat yard employee had just that day started on the list of work that needed to be done to her. We had expected the work to be done before Christmas, but that’s island time for you. So much for being launched on the 8^th as we’d hoped.

We had incurred a small hole, above the water line, on the outside of her port sugar scoop last year in the Bahamas, but Kyle had also noticed water dripping from the starboard bow, where he discovered a crack. Thank goodness Kyle is observant! He repaired both nicely. He also painted on a new boot stripe (that marks the water line of the boat), buffed her entire hull and cabin exteriors, sanded her bottom paint to expose the copper (though not as much as Dave had hoped), and gave her a thorough external wash. Then we just had to wait for the travel lift to be repaired (again) so they could put her in the water. That finally happened on January 11^th. That’s only three days later than we’d hoped, so not too bad. What was bad was the bill for the work Kyle did. We obviously misunderstood the fee structure for work in the boatyard and the bill ended up being triple what we’d expected- yikes! Lesson learned, get estimates and yard rates in writing!

Other than a slight launch delay and a bigger than expected bill, that part went okay. Also, when we first opened her up, Lady had no mold. Amen to that! Being a dusty, dry boat yard, she did have a layer of grit over everything that I couldn’t even consider cleaning until she was back in the water and away from the source of the grit. That was a bit frustrating for me because it meant I couldn’t do much unpacking and setting up. Holding pattern. The cabins themselves seemed to have little to no gritty covering, so I was able to clean our cabin and unpack and stow our clothing properly. Otherwise, I spent my time inventorying the food and other personal items left onboard so I could create this season’s provisioning list, and I tended to our “tech stuff,” like activating our IridiumGo (satellite phone) and conducting an SOS test, and upgrading our weather routing package. 

While I tended to that stuff, Dave tended to our frustrating battery systems. Our lithium batteries run the motors and charge our 12V battery system. They have been losing capacity since we installed them in 2020. In case you don’t know or recall, these batteries are replacements for the original set installed in 2017. We’re replacing them again this year, only Dave will be building the batteries himself this time from cells that are awaiting us in the USVI. For now, he had to get these to play nice, and they were resisting! It took five days of near constant monitoring, plus an independent battery charger to get all eight of the lithiums fully charged and balanced. 

The 12V system runs our “house load” – fridge, freezer, lights, communications, etc. They’re kind of important. They appeared to be flat and not charging, but since Dave’s good multimeter had died, he was diagnosing blindly. Thinking the batteries needed replacing, Dave went into town (with Kyle driving) and bought replacements and a new multimeter (though not as good as its predecessor). Replacing the batteries did not solve the issue, although the act of replacing them seemed to have some positive effect, leaving Dave guessing that the issue might have to do with a specific wire or connection. At any rate, they worked well enough, but occasionally there’s a glitch.

Moving on from system woes…

St. Kitt’s Marine Works is not within walking distance of any food source. After checking into the guest house (that abuts the boat yard) and checking on Lady after our arrival, we needed to sort out dinner plus the next day’s breakfast and lunch. So we ventured to take the bus. The “buses” down her are 15-passenger vans with license plates that start with H or HA. There are a few bus stops, but mostly one stands on the side of the road and flags one down when it comes. Doing this for the first time in the dark of night is challenging, but we had at least learned about the license plate to look for. We got a bus fairly quickly on the way to the Ram’s Supermarket in Buckley, but getting one to come back took about 30 minutes and the kindness of a local man who flagged one for us successfully. Riding these buses, by the way, is like riding the Knight Bus in the third Harry Potter Movie. Yowza! Still, the fare up to Basseterre (the capital) is only $3 EC (Eastern Caribbean Dollar) or a smidge over $1 US each way per person, so it’s more economical than taxis. We feel like old pros taking the bus now. 

Between the two of us, we made several trips into town over the week that we waited for Lady to be launched. Mostly it was running errands for things we needed, like the batteries, and a couple week’s worth of food (after that first night’s excursion to the market). One day, Dave and I went into Basseterre for lunch and a walk about (and a little reconnaissance before provisioning). That was a lovely afternoon.

We launched too late on the 11^th to leave the boat yard’s little harbor, so we stayed tied up there for the night. The water in there was squirrely! Our six lines and four fenders creaked and groaned all night! There was not much sleeping. Next morning we set out around 9am to head the 8 nm south to the Basseterre anchorage. We went ashore for lunch, a few more groceries, and a SIM card for more data. It sure was nice to be at anchor again. There was a gentle roll to rock our tired minds and bodies to sleep that night. Even the music ashore couldn’t keep us awake.

The morning of Saturday, the 13^th, we headed another 5 nm south to Ballast Bay, right next to White House Bay where we had anchored for several days at the end of last season before having Lady hauled out. The water is calm here despite the wind, and it’s peaceful. It’s a nice respite from all the frustration of the start of the trip. There are still gremlins in our systems that occasionally poke at us, but everything is working well enough, and when it doesn’t we know the work arounds. We are waiting for a good weather window to cross to St. Martin. Until then, we will bop around this little section of St. Kitt’s.

Until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!