Waiting for Weather
The hike up to Shirley Heights, Antigua.
We head north to Antigua where we spend a month visiting with, and sadly saying farewell to friends. It is that time of year in the cruising calendar when folks part ways. Those leaving their boats in Trinidad or Grenada turn their bow south and work their way down the chain of islands ready for haul out in May and June. The rest of us are facing a big passage north. Maybe back to the US, or as in our case, starting another circuit of the North Atlantic.
What a good looking looking bunch we are! On left Brian, Nancy, Mike and Polly from Joli and Lost Loon. On the right Lori, Dan (from BeBe) and Dana from Pathfinder. The cruising lifestyle with sailing, swimming, hiking, lots of walking for groceries and other errands, truly is a very healthy way to exist. Rum punches and sundowners less so, but one needs a balance in life! We obviously love it. With these fine folk we explored some of Antigua’s best snorkeling sites and saw some amazing wildlife.
We did a number of projects to make sure Helacious is ready for the passage. Antigua is a nice spot for this, it has the support businesses of sail makers, rigging supplies and machine shops- and decent grocery stores for stocking up the ship supplies. There are a nice variety of pleasant anchorages that are all within easy reach, so the view out of the window never gets boring. The Rigging was checked back in Martinique, but an issue of the gooseneck having too much play was concerning to Brian. In Falmouth Bay we finally addressed this. The pin that passes through the stainless and cast aluminum parts of the gooseneck was a fraction too small, as a result there was some movement, which with time would wallow out the hole and exacerbate the problem. Fortunately we saw little evidence of damage to the two sections despite the wiggle. However to address it we had the stainless section bored out and a sacrificial bushing was inserted. A new pin, 50/1000” larger was made and now it all fits together quite snugly, very little movement.
Another home improvement project was refinishing the salon table. After over 8 years of use, the finish was breaking down. Brian had to scrape off the old varnish and reapply 5 new layers. It was an awkward week as we tried not to bump into the table as the varnish dried and cured, but the effort was so worth it. It looks BEAUTIFUL.
It is always a concern when heading offshore that something may get caught in the prop. A line from a crab or lobster pot or a discarded fishing net. You would not believe what is out there, hundreds of miles from land. In fact on our first Atlantic crossing while swimming in 25,000 ft while becalmed, we discovered some fishing line on the prop. Fortunately it had not wrapped around or fouled it, we could easily remove it. But what if….. We need to be totally self sufficient and able to deal with any eventuality. To that end we purchased this small tank of air. It is half the normal size, with enough air for about 20-30minutes of shallow diving. With a new backpack and borrowing the regulator from Helens diving BCD we now have a useful set up for Brian to be able to cut away line or inspect the hull from below while offshore. We will not use this for cleaning the bottom of the boat, we have a hookah set up for that. This is for emergencies only.
In the galley preparations are also underway. We prepared and cooked a number of meals that are easy to heat up and enjoy underway. We have meatballs, chilli, minestrone, breakfast burritos and chicken noodle soup waiting in the freezer.
It is now in the transition between dry and rainy season here in Antigua, and it is the latest we have been here. The foliage is different from previous years. The hillsides are brown, the plants are in a different part of their cycle. It is interesting.
As time passed and we waited for the weather in the North Atlantic to settle down, more jobs were tackled. We performed “surgery” on our Starlink antenna dish. The style we have has a small motor that keeps the dish orientated toward the closest satellite. It uses quite a bit of electricity, even when we are at anchor, with the constant movement of the boat. It is not just the electrical usage that made us want to perform this surgery. On our passage down to the Caribbean from the US we were in fairly rough seas. The motor could not keep up with the movement and eventually gave up the ghost, going into “storage mode”, and it would not restart until we had reached our destination and stopped moving around so much. This is not good when we have come to enjoy/rely on our fast internet speeds for downloading weather reports and planning our routing. The latest version of the dish that is sold does not have this motor, it presents a flat surface to the heavens and works fine. We therefore got the instructions from YouTube and pulled out the drill. First the dish had to be turned off at the point when the leg was in vertical position. The hole was drilled 5” in from the bottom and needlepoint pliers could reach in and pull the plug to disable the motor. Our embarrassingly large collection of wine corks came in handy to plug the hole, held in place with a dab of silicone caulk. And it works. Fingers crossed it continues to work the whole way across the Atlantic.
We sailed back to Falmouth on the southern coast of Antigua. On the way we passed a sperm whale. Apologies for the bad video, but a challenge to film, moving boat, large underwater beast. You get the drift. Still always a thrill to see them close. We saw it breach and flap its flippers… honest!
It was the Antigua Classic Race week. We were not around to watch the races themselves, but we saw the boats arriving and out practicing their skills. Stretching the sails. Just beautiful. I love the classic reef lines on the sails.
We cleaned the winches, removing old grease and replacing it with new grease. It is not the most pleasant job, but the satisfaction of getting it all back together and working is quite something.
We filled the fuel tanks to the brim. We hope not to motor too much on our passage, but you have to be prepared. The cost was in EC$ (Eastern Caribbean dollar, exchange rate 1US$=2.7EC$). Still a lot. We defrosted the fridge before restocking with passage goodies. While cleaning we started down that rabbit hole and replaced the seals on the refrigerator. Not a waste of time at all.
We changed the oil in the engine, replaced zincs on engine and generator and FINALLY, the blue box of electronics, that gave us grief all the way back in Nova Scotia is working! Brian simply would not give up. The wiring was fine it turns out, the issue was some hidden code in the settings that needed to be toggled to “OFF”. We can now charge our batteries from the generator at nearly double the speed.
Saharan dust makes the sunsets dusky.
We were all ready to go. The weather, however, had a different agenda. The North Atlantic had not settled in to its usual pattern. Just ask the sailors on the Golden Globe Race. The Azores High is all over the place, and stiff northerly winds, or no wind, were keeping us pinned down. Instead of moping around, we decided to distract ourselves with a side trip to our favorite beach, Eleven Mile Beach in Barbuda, about 35nm north of Antigua. We squeezed in a celebratory lunch at Barbuda Belle, a beautiful, though isolated resort on the north end of the island.
Beautiful isolation on Barbuda.
We had a delightful sail back to Antigua to finally stock up on fresh eggs and vegetables. It looked like we would be leaving in just a few of days. Once again Brian dives into the engine room. He had discovered a slow leak on the water pump was now a steady drip. He also tried to diagnose the rather worrisome intermittent starting of the engine. It appears to be an electrical contact, possibly loose or corroding. But where? We re still not sure, but thanks to Dana on Pathfinder, we have a work around we can use to start engine in an emergency.
The bottom was cleaned once again, prop blades tweaked and prop greased. There really is nothing else to do. We are ready to sail, and we will…… soon.
