Sail to the Saints
06 05, 17
The sail started out normal with E winds gusting to 18kts. Then, in the lee of Guadeloupe, the winds went West at 10kts. Seas were calm and we tacked over. This was the situation for about 2 hours. Ahead of us there were white caps and a sail boat a few miles ahead was on a different tack and heeled over hard. So as we exited the lee of the big mountains, the wind clocked to the East and began blowing at 24 to 30kts from the East. We were ready and had a really fun ride with a reefed main and staysail going 6.5+kts. One problem, the wind is East and we need to go South East. No problem, I just kept sail south-south-east until I lined up the the Big Island of the Saints. Then tack east and head into the Saints (another 5 or 6 miles). Tacking didn't work so well we were pinching the wind, there is a strong current and the waves were bashing us. (I'm not a good tactician, I'm getting better) Rather than beat everyone up (after all this is retirement) I turned the key or the Yanmar "sail" and we bashed into the waves for about 2 hours to make just 6 miles to the Saints. We are now on a mooring, anchors are not allowed here and in the morning we are going to explore Ilet a Cabrit. There are old Napoleonic ruins on this spot.
After catching the mooring single handed and securing the boat, I opened a bottle of Guadeloupe Rum. It is not as good as I hoped (no wonder why the French kept losing wars to the Brits)
Near disaster at Sea. The two stainless tangs that support the center of my radar pole broke at sea. Snapped right off. The only thing holding here in place is the 1/2inch stainless U-bold that ties to the steel that Kato added. I won't be able to get this repaired in the Saints, I'll have to go to Dominica to get this done. Hopefully I can get someone to repair the tangs and add 4 SS bars between the pole and the plate, or just go without the tangs and compensate for the side to side forces with one or two through bolts. I'm preparing to take down the wind generator using the topping lift and some other lines.
I heard and unusual bang noise at sea, but didn't realize until I was away from the boat that the radar and wind generator were not well. I thought it was the outboard motor banding the rail.
After catching the mooring single handed and securing the boat, I opened a bottle of Guadeloupe Rum. It is not as good as I hoped (no wonder why the French kept losing wars to the Brits)
Near disaster at Sea. The two stainless tangs that support the center of my radar pole broke at sea. Snapped right off. The only thing holding here in place is the 1/2inch stainless U-bold that ties to the steel that Kato added. I won't be able to get this repaired in the Saints, I'll have to go to Dominica to get this done. Hopefully I can get someone to repair the tangs and add 4 SS bars between the pole and the plate, or just go without the tangs and compensate for the side to side forces with one or two through bolts. I'm preparing to take down the wind generator using the topping lift and some other lines.
I heard and unusual bang noise at sea, but didn't realize until I was away from the boat that the radar and wind generator were not well. I thought it was the outboard motor banding the rail.