Back with Indigo Lady in St. Kitt’s

We arrived in St. Kitt’s on January 4th 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 8th 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 11th. 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 11th 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 13th, 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!

Our New England cruising season is a wrap!

I’m posting a week later than planned. Once I’m on land I get right back into my land life and lose the desire to blog about cruising. (Note: The picture at the top of this post is of Whaleback Light with Wood Island Life Saving Station behind.)

We did, in fact, start our return trip to our home mooring on Sunday 8/27. It was a gorgeous day, both atmospherically and on the seas. It was sunny and warm with a light breeze and almost glassy seas and a gentle, long-period swell. We’d planned to stop at Damariscove for the night if it wasn’t too crowded. It was too crowded. We decided to see if any of the four mooring balls at Seguin Island, 7nm further south and within site, were open. (No anchoring allowed at Sequin.) With the binoculars, we could see there were two open balls, but it was such a calm, gorgeous day to be cruising, that we decided to just keep going. We eventually dropped anchor in Harpswell Harbor in time for afternoon drinks. It was about a 50nm day.

Monday morning we hauled anchor after an early breakfast and had another lovely cruise to Saco, ME and picked up one of the town moorings up the river. It was almost lunch time, so we splashed dinghy and headed up river to the public town boat launch/dock, tied up, and walked to Run of the Mill for lunch. Yummy! We walked about town a bit afterward and stopped for ice cream at The Saco Scoop before returning to Dumbledore.

We were treated to a third consecutive lovely cruising day on Tuesday, leaving Saco at 8:00am and arriving at our home mooring by 1:30pm. We popped up to our friend Mike’s dock that afternoon for drinks and conversation, then returned to Dumbledore for a late lunch. We decided to stay aboard at our mooring (which is a floating dock in the middle of Back Channel) until Friday as consolation for having to end our cruise early. 

Wednesday was overcast and rained off and on until late afternoon. We spent the day reading and chasing leak paths. Dave recorded 11 different leak paths. Oh goody. Our boating club dinner & meeting were that night, so we dinghied to Mike’s house to hitch a ride to the restaurant. The meeting followed at his house, and we dinghied back to Dumbledore afterward. 

Thursday was bright, sunny, and windy. The seas were going to be up, so we decided to cruise up the Cocheco River to Dover. We invited my folks to come along. Dad couldn’t make it, but Mom joined us. We rode the tide up the Piscataqua River to the Cocheco. We had our engines set for 7 knots, but at one point the tide & current had us going almost 12 knots- wahoo! It was VERY windy, the hold-on-to-your-hat kind of windy! There is a marina near the part of the Cocheco River that enters the town of Dover that used to have a dock for day visitors. It’s still there, but it’s smaller than it used to be and there were already two day boats tied up. So we turned around and dropped the anchor out of the channel about 0.5 mile down river and ate lunch aboard before returning to our mooring. We got to ride the outgoing tide, although it wasn’t as fast-flowing as the trip up. It was also less windy on the return trip. When we got to our mooring, we returned Mom to the boat launch where Dad picked her up, and Dave & I returned to Dumbledore for our final night aboard. 

My dad came to collect us Friday morning (thanks again, Dad!) and brought us to our house where we picked up our car and returned to Kittery to unload a good portion of our stuff off Dumbledore. We would complete the rest of the unloading another day. We’ve been on land since September 1st. We’ve done some boat work since, and by “we” I mean mostly Dave. I’ll tell you about that another time. I need fodder for additional blogs.

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

We made it as far as Rockland, ME!

With our alternator finally sorted and our electrical gremlins somewhat under control (though still not completely eradicated), we set off again on August 15th to cruise up the coast of Maine. To ensure the alternator was charging the batteries and not overworking itself, we made only a short hop to the Isles of Shoals that first night. It performed admirably and has continued to so throughout this trip. Yay!

Our first two nights at anchor were rolly. Gosport Harbor at the Isles of Shoals is only exposed to the NE and that was the direction of the fairly short-period swells that first night. Our second stop was at Cliff Island, about ½ mile NE of Jewell Island. There was plenty of room to anchor at Jewell, but we wanted to try a new spot. It was nice and calm until high tide around 6pm. At high tide, the exposed ledge that breaks the incoming swells is under water and not breaking anything. We rolled quite a bit for about 4 or 5 hours. Mid-tide falling to mid-tide rising is the sweet spot at this anchorage. Fortunately that encompassed enough of the night to get some sleep at least. 

The following day we set out for Greenleaf Cove in Muscongus Bay to visit with my cousins, Richard & Sharon in Bremen, ME. The day we travelled to Cliff had been overcast and cool. This travel day was overcast and misty when we woke up in the morning and it didn’t get any nicer. We donned our foul weather gear to keep our butts dry driving from the wet seats up on the fly bridge, and to keep warm. Eventually it started to rain lightly. The rain stopped just before we rounded Pemaquid Point, but then there was fog. Fortunately the fog still allowed for about ½+ nm visibility. The middle part of the ride was also bumpier than we’d expected, but not too bad. We made it to Greenleaf Cove in front of my cousin’s house around 3pm and settled onto one of their neighbor’s moorings. Then we dinghied ashore for some visiting and a yummy, warm soup that was perfect for that day’s weather. 

We spent four nights in Greenleaf Cove, sleeping onboard Dumbledore and visiting with my cousins during parts of the day/evening. Friday was another overcast, showery day that started with me reading and Dave doing some boat tasks before we popped ashore after lunch. We ended up going to an art show and then out to dinner with my cousins and had a really good time. Saturday, Dave & I borrowed my cousins’ car so we could go to Dave’s family reunion in Greene, ME. It was a cozy group of 10 and we enjoyed several hours of conversation and food before heading back to Bremen. We arrived back to find that my parents had arrived. We shared another dinner ashore, courtesy of Sharon. Then my folks stayed at their house while Dave & I returned to Dumbledore for bed. Just after noon on Sunday, everyone packed up lunch and piled onto Dumbledore for a trip 7nm south to Harbor Island for the afternoon. We anchored before 2pm and ate lunch. Then Richard, Sharon, Dave and I went ashore to walk the public trail that the very kind owners of the island maintain. It’s lovely that so many private owners of Maine islands allow public access. If you ever have occasion to visit such an island, please respect the rules and privacy of the owners. We returned to the house for another shared dinner, this one courtesy of my folks. Then they returned to Dumbledore with me and Dave for the night, because we were heading off the following day. 

Just after breakfast this past Monday, Dave and Richard drove to Rockland to park my folks’ car, then returned in Richard’s car. This allowed us to spend a couple of nights with my folks without having to retrace our steps back to Greenleaf Cove. We spent Monday night in Tenants Harbor, going for a short walk about town after lunch (and buying delicious muffins at the general store). The next day, Tuesday, we headed over to Warren Island State Park and spent a night on a mooring there. Warren Island is the only ME State Park designed specifically for boaters. The only way to access the island is by boat; there is no public transportation (ferry) there. We went for a walk ashore, but we had to rush it because we forgot our insect repellent and those mosquitoes were voracious! It is a lovely island that Dave & I hope to return to one day, better prepared for the insects. (The picture at the top of this post is looking from Warren Island to Dumbledore in the mooring field.)

Wednesday morning we set off for Rockland Harbor to drop off my folks so they could head back home to NH. We enjoyed a lovely lunch ashore together before they set off. Dave and I have been here since. Over two days we visited the Lighthouse Museum, the Sail, Power and Steam Museum, and the Coastal Maine Islands National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. All were wonderful and we highly recommend all of them! We enjoyed another lunch ashore and a walk along the water on the Harbor Trail. 

This trip started with several overcast, and lightly showery days (although Saturday’s rain was brief and we did have sun). Then we had a nice run of three sunny, warm (but not hot) days. Yesterday we had hoped to set off for the west side of Vinalhaven to ride out some predicted bigger winds. It was drizzly when we got up, but we donned our foul weather gear after breakfast, headed over to Journey’s End Marina for fuel and water, then headed out of the harbor. That didn’t last long. Although the harbor was calm, the exposed part of Penobscot Bay was not, and it was full on raining. So, we turned around and re-anchored, spending the day inside and closed up, chasing the numerous leaks that reveal themselves when it rains all day. (I’ll gripe about that in another post.)

It’s now Saturday, and though the day started gray, overcast and cool, around 3pm the skies became about half cloudy, half clear and the sun is out. Wonderful, right? Well, it is, but we still are likely to start our 3-day trek back to home port tomorrow morning, earlier than planned. Why? Tropical Storm/Hurricane Franklin will be passing between the US East Coast and Bermuda impacting our area mid-week. Don’t panic! the hurricane is not going to hit us. But a hurricane out at sea sends out swells and sometimes higher waves, and those could impede our progress home if we wait too long. It’s still not certain what the effect of Franklin will be, but we can’t afford to wait until the last minute. If it turns out that Franklin doesn’t raise the seas much, we can always dub around our home waters before returning to our dock and land home. 

That’s my update. Given the timing of our return home and the holiday weekend, I will probably post again the weekend after Labor Day and let you know how the end of our trip panned out. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!  

We are not in Penobscot Bay

Not only are we not in Penobscot Bay, we’re not even on Dumbledore. We are still land bound.

We took Dumbledore and his new alternator for a test run up to Little Bay (near Durham, NH) on Thursday and spent the night on a mooring up there. The alternator performed admirably. So why are we not out on Dumbledore? We were having electrical issues. These manifested in two ways. First, the old microwave that came with the boat had stopped heating things, at least not consistently. We figured it was old and wanted to replace it with a microwave/convection oven anyway, which we did. Dave installed it several days ago and used the microwave feature successfully. On our alternator test run trip on Thursday, the microwave did not heat his lunch, nor did it heat something I tried to warm later in the day. Yet that night the air fryer function cooked our sweet potato fries perfectly. Hmmm. Friday morning I tried to turn on the solenoid switch that turns the propane to the stove on & off. It worked fine the six days we were onboard in July, but Friday morning the switch wouldn’t even turn on (you turn it on, then push the gas button to turn on the flow). What the heck??

Long story short, Dave didn’t think it was a good idea to set off up the coast of Maine with wonky electricity, a sentiment with which I agree. He has never been pleased with the haphazard mishmash of wiring on Dumbledore anyway. He describes the wiring as abysmal; sometimes he calls it a “rat’s nest.” The picture above is only the wiring that’s not in the engine room. The wiring down there isn’t much better. Bottom line, for now he has ordered what he needs to create a monitored bus bar distribution system. It won’t solve all our electrical issues, but it will be an improvement that also provides data that will allow him to suss out additional problems, and it will be significantly safer. 

Looks like we won’t get our extended cruise up the coast of Maine this year, but we’ll eek out some time once this piece is taken care of, which he’ll tend to as soon as all the parts arrive this week.

I will keep you all posted. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

We interrupt this Maine cruise…

On Friday, July 21st, we set out on Dumbledore for a 6-week cruise up the Maine coast, heading for Penobscot Bay. We enjoyed a lovely couple of nights on a town mooring in the Saco River (picture at top of post), then a night at Jewell Island. We backtracked a bit and spent a night on a friend’s mooring at Cousins Island so we could visit our friends at Greene Marine, the boatyard that helped us convert Indigo Lady to solar electric, and who have become lasting friends. From there we were heading to Damariscove, but the seas were uncomfortable, so we bailed and went up the New Meadows River to one of our favorite Midcoast stops- The Basin. We hiked the Micah Trail that afternoon, which turned into a foraging expedition because we found a bunch of black trumpet mushrooms- score! Dave also found a handful of yellow-foot chanterelles, which he ate for breakfast the next day. He dried the black trumpets.

Thursday morning was a lovely, calm day. So, we set out to meet up with friends at Damariscove. One mile out of The Basin, our alternator stopped working. Uh oh! Can’t cool the engine if the alternator isn’t spinning that belt. Fortunately, the New Meadows River was calm, and it is wide and we were in a channel between the rows of lobster pots. I kept watch above while Dave did some troubleshooting. He was able to get the alternator running, but it needed repair or replacement right away. We were only 8 hours cruising from our home dock, so we decided to take the risk and head there. Worst case scenario, if the alternator stopped, we’d call for a tow. If we got lucky, we’d make it all the way home before sunset and not have to pay for a marina or rent a car while we sorted our alternator (it is a model that is difficult to find). 

We got lucky. We were docked by 6:30pm, and my cousin, Bob, was there at the dock (having been working on his boat) to help with the lines. We all had some drinks and dinner aboard Dumbledore. Bob went home and Dave & I stayed onboard for the night. After breakfast the next morning, Dave called the alternator repair guy whose voicemail indicated that he was at his daughter’s wedding that day and heading off for vacation the following week. Yikes! He’d be in the shop Friday. So Dave left a message, removed the alternator, and we crossed our fingers that the guy would get back to us Friday. Fearing we would be homebound for over a week, we packed up stuff we didn’t want to leave aboard and met my Dad at the boat launch so he could drive us home. (Thanks, Dad!)

We got lucky again. The alternator guy called back that very afternoon (daughter’s wedding was in the morning) and told Dave that if he could get the alternator to him, he’d fix it Friday. Dave left immediately. Friday morning, alternator guy called around 9:30am to say the alternator was done. Woo hoo! Again, Dave left immediately.

As I type this today, Saturday, Dave is out at Dumbledore installing the repaired alternator and doing a couple of other boat things. We decided not to give ourselves whiplash and head back out on our trip right away. We’re taking this weekend and at least Monday to tend to a few things locally, then we’ll restart our trip Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ll probably even still make it up to Penobscot Bay.

I will try to continue to post weekly for the duration of our cruise. Hopefully next time I’ll be writing to you from Penobscot Bay. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

Meet Dumbledore (our boat, not the Hogwarts headmaster)

We finally made it out on Dumbledore! We set out yesterday from our mooring in Back Channel and picked up a town mooring in the Saco River last night. We will spend the next 5-6 weeks cruising the coast of Maine up to and around Penobscot Bay, then back home. Since we just started this trip, I don’t have much to write about. Then I remembered we haven’t told you all much about Dumbledore. So, to help you get acquainted, here’s a video tour. Enjoy!

(The feature photo at top of the post is from when Dumbledore was put on the hard for this past winter. I was just having a little fun with the orange cones and Dumbledore’s speed bulb.)

Caribbean Cruising Season 2023 Recap

We’re back in NH. We rolled into our driveway around 2:30am last Saturday, the 17th. Our New England boat, Dumbledore, has been launched. We’re working on getting him ready for a 4-6 week cruise along the coast of Maine starting sometime in July. Until then, we’re visiting family and friends, and getting in a bunch of appointments.

Between January and mid-June, we put on a lot of miles and visited a lot of islands. Here’s a recap.

  • Miles traveled (nm):   ~1300
  • Countries visited:        9
  • Nights at anchor:        89
  • Nights on mooring:     42
  • Nights in marinas:       16
  • Nights under way:      5
  • Nights ashore:             7

We started in the Berry Islands, Bahamas, on January 8th. After that we went to Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Martin (both the French and Danish sides), St. Bart’s, and ended at St. Kitt’s. We stayed in 46 different anchorages, 6 different mooring fields and 6 different marinas. We took road trips with friends to Santo Domingo, DR and Old San Juan, PR. We made overnight passages from Rum Cay to Mayaguana; from Turks & Caicos to Luperón; from Luperón to Rio San Juan; from Escondido to Puerto Real, PR; and from the USVI to St. Martin.

We did a lot more “making miles” than I would have liked, but we did finally get to the actual Caribbean Sea, which was our target this year. Next season we plan to confine our travels to the area between St. Kitt’s and the Spanish Virgin islands. It will be lovely to spend multiple weeks in each country next.

Thanks for following my adventures. I will post about our coast of Maine travels this summer, but perhaps not as frequently as I typically do.

Stay safe and take care of each other!

Wrapping up in St. Kitt’s

St. Kitt’s is our final stop this cruising season. We arrived on Monday, June 5th after a long, slow, bumpy ride from St. Bart’s. We wanted to stop at St. Kitt’s Marine Works to arrange a haul out date for Indigo Lady and clear into the country. Fortunately, Customs & Immigration are right there. We’d arrived too late to clear in that night, which was fine by us. All we had energy for was slinging the hammocks and we had no need to go ashore; we could wait until morning. 

Here’s a little information about St. Kitt’s Marine Works. Most importantly, they certainly seem to know what they’re doing with respect to long term storage and, from Dave’s perusal of the yard, with respect to repair work. That’s good. Indigo Lady is probably in good hands here for the next 6 months. Their approximately 200’ x 400’ “harbor” is human made with two retaining walls of large boulders separating it from the open ocean. It contains a cement slip from which their travel lift hauls boats weighing up to 150 tons. There is also a smaller, wooden dock with several small, local fishing boats tied up to it, and a handful of mooring balls near the smaller retaining wall, near the harbor entrance. They are not a marina and there are no real amenities, although the boat yard does have a toilet and a shower. Boat owners can do their own work without any fee charged, which is kind of rare, and they can live aboard their boat while on the hard. One can also hire the Marine Works to do work to one’s boat and their fees are very reasonable. 

The Marine Works allowed us to tie up to the outside of their travel lift dock the night we arrived at St. Kitt’s, and the following one as well. The prevailing sea conditions would have made it incredibly uncomfortable to anchor in any of the nearby, open roadstead anchorages. (For those unfamiliar with the term, it’s merely a spot off land that is shallow enough to drop an anchor, but there is nothing between you and the open ocean, except more ocean.) We would have had to travel another 3+ bumpy hours to get to a protected anchorage, which would have had us anchoring after sunset. Then we would have had to backtrack the next day to clear in and talk to the Marine Works folks. So we stayed on the Marine Works dock. We spent most of our time in the hammocks reading and napping. Long, bumpy cruises are exhausting. We cleared in the next morning. Dave talked to the boat yard manager to arrange the haul out and some work we wanted done to the boat. We arranged to be hauled out on Monday, June 12th. So what to do with the interceding five days?

At the end of the past two cruising seasons, we’ve done as much cleanup and hurricane storage prep as possible while at anchor. This ensures we’re always nose into the wind to keep us cool while we work, and we can also swim and cool off. So, on Wednesday morning we cruised about 12 nm down to the southeast peninsula of St. Kitt’s to the White House anchorage. It’s a quiet, lovely spot and we’d read there was decent snorkeling along the rocky shore. Each day we were there we would work from mid-morning until about 3pm, then we’d go for a snorkel, then swing in the hammocks reading and napping until dinner, followed by a movie before going to bed. We gave the boat a deep clean- airing out the mattress toppers and mattresses, vacuuming every nook and cranny, washing the walls with a vinegar solution, cleaning out every food storage location and inventorying what we have left for non-perishables. Dave has his own separate list of boat stuff that needs doing and started on that as well. I prepped our final meals so that when we were working on Lady in the boat yard, all we’d have to do was microwave lunch and dinner. It was tiring but rewarding. Then on Sunday afternoon, we hauled anchor and went back to the Marine Works to tie up to their cement dock again in preparation for being hauled out the next morning.

The travel lift came for us at 11am Monday morning. We stayed onboard while they lifted us out of the water, which is a strange feeling, being suspended in the air. They paused near the diesel pump so we could top off our tank. Then they drove us up into the yard where they power washed our hulls of the accumulated sea life that had grown there. They did a marvelous job! Then they brought us over to our storage spot in the field, lined us up, brought over the backhoe to finalize the dug trenches in which Lady’s keels would sit atop old tires, then they finally set us down. All told, we were suspended in Lady about four hours. I got a lot of organizing and packing done during that time. We were finally able to check into the guest house we had rented for our final few days buttoning up Lady while on the hard. Thankfully it’s only 0.1 mile from our boat’s location, because it took us two trips to bring everything we needed to have up there. We were beat! We hadn’t done much work that day, but the prior five days of work, plus the underlying stress of knowing the boat was going to be hauled onto land got to us. We were a waste of space after we settled in at the guest house. We were in bed by 8:00pm and sound asleep by 8:05!  

Over the next two days we spent long hours finishing our boat closeup tasks. For Dave, that was a lot of time working in the blazing heat and sun on, in, and under Indigo Lady. I spent a lot of time doing laundry up at the guest house, interspersed with stowing our clothes, bedding, etc., onboard. A big downside of St. Kitt’s is that they burn trash on the island. St. Kitt’s Marine Works is downwind of this. It also hasn’t rained much here, so everything is dry and brown, and the persistent trade winds blow dirt and dust around. This complicated the cleaning and closing process. It would have been impossible to do the necessary work without having the hatches and portholes open. Sadly, it didn’t take long for the dirt and dust to find its way inside, despite all our screens, and onto every surface. So much for all that deep cleaning we’d done earlier. We did what we could to rectify it. It was hot, sweaty work, but we made good time. By Thursday, we had only about an hour’s worth of stuff to do, mostly stowing final items, and retrieving others we needed to bring home with us. Friday morning required only a quick trip to Lady to return stuff we had used while at the guesthouse. Then we locked her up and bid her farewell until January.

Although we had almost all of Thursday to ourselves with no work to do, we lacked the energy to explore the island. It is horrendously hot and humid down here and it is horribly uncomfortable to be out of the breeze for more than 5 minutes. It takes less time than that to start sweating. I would sweat standing at the sink in front of the open window while washing dishes! Rather than exhaust ourselves tramping around the area in the heat, we holed up in the guest house with a fan pointing at each of us. I won’t lie, I was a bit bored, but that was preferable to being outside. Hopefully January will be a bit cooler, and we can take a few days to explore on land. 

I’m writing this on Thursday from the guest house. Friday we should have flown from St. Kitt’s to San Juan, then from San Juan to Boston. From there taken the bus to the C&J Trailways station where we picked up our car, which my folks had delivered there for us, and driven home. We should have been in our own bed by 2:00am. That was the plan, at least. Next time, I’ll let you know how it went. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

St. Bart’s

The three buddy boats had a fair cruise to St. Bart’s on May 26th. We had somewhat confused seas but managed to make about 4.5 kts. We caught the lee of St. Bart’s for the final 45 minutes of the trip, so that was nice, and we were anchored in Gustavia Harbor by 1:30pm. It is a crowded and deep anchorage; we were in 40’ of water and had to put out 160’ of chain!

The boys dinghied into Customs to clear us all into the country and were back by 2:30pm. We stayed aboard until 5:00pm when we all went ashore to walk around and find dinner. If St. Martin is the “friendly island” (it was), St. Bart’s is the expensive one. Aye caramba! The entire waterfront area was filled with high end boutique shops and pricey restaurants. Our “inexpensive” dinner- two mahi burgers with crappy French fries, two beers and a bottle of water (tap water not served)- ended up costing us over $60! We returned to our boats for the worst night ever in an anchorage! There were 3-4’ waves rolling in all night long, tossing us around and slamming our hulls as if we were underway on a bad travel day. None of us slept much and we got to *pay* for the privilege, 20€ a night! The next morning, we hauled anchor and hauled ass out of Gustavia Harbor and headed a few miles north to the much calmer Columbier Bay, arriving by 10:00am. This is part of the marine park and has a couple dozen mooring balls one can pick up for all of 4€/night. You can also anchor in the middle of the bay for the same price, but why anchor when you can pick up a ball?

We were in our final two days with our buddy boats. Come Monday morning we would be parting ways as they continued their journey toward Grenada for hurricane season and we moved to St. Kitt’s to be hauled out. So we snorkeled together a couple of times, walked the beach and part of a trail toward another town, had a pot luck dinner on Indigo Lady Saturday night, and on Sunday a final round of afternoon of drinks and camaraderie. Victoria wrote us a poem that made the three ladies teary-eyed. Eventually, we couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer. It was time to part. We bid farewell to Andrea, Barry, Mike, Victoria and Ocean with hugs and tears 😥. The only slight consolation is that we plan to meet up in St. Bart’s or St. Martin next winter. It didn’t make it any less gut-wrenching to say goodbye, though. We had spent almost every day together since we met in Luperon the first week of April (it may have actually been the final days of March). The bonds of friendship form quickly when spending that much time together. We are so glad to have made new life-long friends! 

Monday morning dawned and Caretta and Wild Horses were no longer in the mooring field. They had set off for Antigua at 4:00am. It felt a little lonely. Actually, mostly I felt exhausted and feverish. It took almost 3.5 years, but COVID finally found me in St. Bart’s. 😠  When I went to bed Sunday night, I had a slight fever, which got higher (100.6) as the night progressed, and I had the chills. So at 11:30pm Sunday, I pulled out one of the COVID test kits we had brought with us. Took all of 30 seconds to show positive. Damn! I texted our buddy boats so they could watch for symptoms. Despite the six of us having gone everywhere together for the preceding week, thankfully I was the only one to get sick. The first morning, Dave set up the spare cabin and he used that and the associated head while I stayed in ours. The trade winds blow constantly, so we have complete air exchange through the boat all day and night, not that we spend much time inside other than when we’re sleeping. So even Dave managed to avoid contracting the Vid. Phew! My fever only lasted three days, though not as high as the first night. Otherwise I felt like I had a mild cold. I was completely exhausted for one day. It was the kind of exhaustion where standing up takes too much energy, but thankfully that didn’t last. 

Since we didn’t know whether or not Dave would develop symptoms, we decided to stay put in St. Bart’s until I felt better and we knew Dave’s status. We were also better positioned for medical help, should either of us need it, which we thankfully did not. I laid low for a few days, spending most of my time in my hammock reading. I did a little laundry, with Dave’s help. By Thursday I felt well enough to snorkel. We took Indigo Lady a couple of miles north to the Ile Forchue anchorage, also part of the marine park, where we snorkeled for about 30 minutes before returning to our hammocks. We popped back over to the Columbier anchorage for the night, though. On Saturday we dinghied ashore and walked about 30 minutes across the island toward Flamands Beach. We stopped at Petit Anse, a tiny, rocky beach about ½ mile from Flamands, to cool our tootsies in the water, then we walked back to Columbier Beach. 

I was feeling better, though still had the annoying post-nasal drip, so we could move on to St. Kitt’s when the weather allowed and it looked like Monday, June 5th would be that day. In the late morning of Sunday we dinghied the 2.5 miles to the town of Gustavia to clear out of the country. It was a very bumpy dinghy ride over big waves. It was worse going in than returning. On the return we got to surf the waves. Fortunately, Dave is very good at reading the seas, so he got us there and back safely. 

We dropped the mooring ball at 7:00am Monday morning and made the 35 nm trek to St. Kitt’s. It was a long, slow, bumpy ride all the way for 9 hours at only about 3.75 kts. Fortunately, we arrived safely. St. Kitt’s is where I will pick up next time. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other.

P.S.- I wrote this in St. Kitt’s. I still have the annoying post-nasal drip and still tested positive for COVID after 10 full days. Otherwise, I’m feeling fine. Indigo Lady will be hauled out Monday, June 12th and we fly home Friday the 16th. My next post will either be this Wednesday, or after we get home to NH.

We fell in love with St. Martin!

The three buddy boats departed the USVI at 10am on Tuesday, May 16, for the 95 nm run to St. Martin, our last overnight passage this season. It was a bit bumpy for a while once we cleared the protection of the BVI land masses. There wasn’t a lot of slamming, fortunately, just rolling in confused seas. Those eventually settled to the wind and a single wave set, on our nose, of course. From there on out the trip was uneventful, and though our bows got an occasional light splash, we never buried them. We averaged just over 4 kts while we were in the current, over 5 kts when not in the current, and only dropping to 4 kts when we had to clear our propellers of sargassum. Making a night passage with buddy boats is wonderful! It’s nice to know there’s company, or help in a pinch, but it’s also just fun to enjoy a little radio chatter on those long, dark night watches 😊. 

We were all anchored in Marigot Bay, on the French side of St. Martin, by 7am. We couldn’t check into the country until 8am, so we had a little time to tidy up, run up our Q-flags, and rest. St. Martin is the smallest, two-nation island. Two-thirds of it is French and the other third is Dutch. For cruisers, checking in on the French side is easy and free, so that’s what we did. Once cleared in, one is free to cross between the French and Dutch sides by land or by dinghy at no cost and without needing to present a passport. So, at 8am we loaded into our dinghies and went to Ile Marine, a local marine store, to use their check-in computer. Once we figured out the non-qwerty keyboard and the French names for countries and anchorages, with the help of the nice man behind the counter, we were in! We continued into town for a walk about and breakfast. We found a lovely restaurant that specializes in eggs benedict, but I opted for the French breakfast of half baguette with butter and jam, croissant, fruit juice and tea. Welcome to St. Martin! Then we did walk about a bit so Caretta and Wild Horses could buy local cell plans before returning to our boats to rest after the long passage.

We spent seven nights at anchor in Marigot Bay, off the town of Marigot. It provides very easy access to restaurants, shops, groceries, and more, all within easy walking distance. It is also a short dinghy ride through an interior lagoon to get to the Dutch side. We filled our days with boat chores, rest, socializing & trip planning on Indigo Lady, and trips ashore for fun, food and provisions. Dave and Barry assisted Mike on Wild Horses in diagnosing some ongoing electrical issues he’d been having. They put their heads together, and after a couple of marathon sessions, were finally rewarded with solutions. Mike and Victoria took everyone out for breakfast one morning as a thank you. So sweet! I indulged in too many croissants and baguettes during our stay, but oh were they good! We went ashore after dinner one night for drinks (and for some of us, dessert) and live music at a restaurant Mike & Victoria had found. It was two guys, one on harmonica and one on electric guitar, doing an amazing job covering a bunch of familiar American tunes, as well as some French ones we did not know. They were full of energy and we enjoyed ourselves very much! We dinghied to the Dutch side to a couple of marine stores one time. Another time we took our dinghies through the lagoon to the Dutch side and out into the open ocean on the south side of the island. We were hoping to land at a beach bar where folks watched people line up at the end of the airport runway and get blown around by the engines when the jets took off. We braved the big waves only to find there was no safe way to land on the beach. Oops! So back we went through the big waves and into the lagoon. At that point we really needed drinks, so we stopped at the Dinghy Dock Bar & Restaurant for snacks and libations. Fun place!

Perhaps the most fun activity we engaged in was an escape room. I discovered that there is one on the Dutch side of the island, housed at the Dutch Blonde Beach Bar. When I ran the idea past our buddy boats they were all in! So I set it up (once I learned they allowed dogs). The real trick was getting there, because we couldn’t take the big boats and it was too far to dinghy or even to dinghy part way and then walk. So I called Dutch Blonde and got the owner, Sunil, and asked if he had any ideas. When I told him we were concerned about public transit with a big dog, he offered to drive us for only $40 round trip for our whole crew plus Ocean. Sweet! Sunil met us in Marigot with his 9-passenger van on a Saturday afternoon. What a great guy! Between the trip there and back he gave us a narrated tour, plus history and politics of the Dutch side. He even stopped at a scenic vista so we could take pictures. He also told us the story of how he ended up in St. Maarten (spelling for the Dutch side) owning a brewery (with no past experience) and opening a restaurant/bar with escape rooms. He knows how to tell a good story.

The escape room was awesome! We were captives on a pirate ship and had one chance to escape while the pirates were ashore plundering and pillaging. We did not succeed in escaping (we got close), but we had a blast trying! This one was challenging. There were three rooms to get through with lots of locked things to open and fun puzzles to solve. Only Victoria and I had ever done an escape room before; the rest were newbies but got right into it. It was fun to see how everyone gravitated to certain tasks. We had so much fun, we were barely bummed that we didn’t successfully complete it. At the end, the guy who resets the rooms let us ask questions about the parts we didn’t finish so we could see the whole picture. I look forward to coming back next season to try another room!

After the escape room, we stayed for drinks and an early dinner. They make amazing, Thai-inspired tacos that we all enjoyed. I had a pina colada, but everyone else enjoyed the locally brewed beer. Sunil chatted with us for a bit, and even shared a shot with us of some yummy, fruity thing his bartender concocted for us- on the house! Then it was time for Sunil to bring us back to Marigot. We left him with hugs and much thanks.

Before departing St. Martin, we wanted to sample another anchorage for a couple of nights, but there was nowhere to clear out of the country from our intended anchorage. We inquired at Ile Marine about clearing out a couple of days early with post-dated departure papers. They said it was no problem. So after a delicious lunch ashore on Wednesday, May 24th, we went back to Ile Marine to clear out and get our papers post-dated for the 26th, our intended departure date. Then we all hauled anchor and headed north to Grand Case Bay. The next day, everyone climbed aboard Indigo Lady and we cruised a little over a mile to a dive mooring at Creole Rock for lunch and a snorkel. There were lots of rocks, very few sponges or corals, but tons of schooling sargent majors! Dave & I saw one sea turtle. Andrea and Barry saw a spotted eagle ray. Mike, Victoria, Andrea and Barry saw an octopus that Barry noticed. Bummed I missed that one! 

We wrapped up our stay at St. Martin with drinks on Indigo Lady followed by a final dinner ashore for some great barbecue. We had only sampled what St. Martin has to offer, and we know there is so much more to enjoy next season. For now, this would have to do. The next day, we would all depart for St. Barthélemy (St. Bart’s), which is where I will pick up next time. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!