St. Kitts to Nevis
It stormed all night and the rain was pouring down this morning when we got up. I looked out and we weren't where we anchored last night. Our anchor didn't hold and we dragged. We were very fortunate that we drifted back towards BasseTerre and not toward the reef that separates White House Bay from Ballast Bay. Had coffe and got underway. Just as we were passing Shitten Bay and Bugs Hole and were preparing to raise the mainsail, George noticed that the mainsail halyard had dropped down into the mast. Very bad. Apparently when we lowered the mainsail last night, we forgot to retie the figure 8 in the halyard and it worked its way into the mast.
So we turned around and headed back to Port Zante to see if we could get it fixed. Basil, one of the taxi drivers from yesterday, said that Percy was off island and recommended David at Indigo Yacht. After we arrived in Port Zante (fortunately not docking where we docked yesterday) and explained to about five million people what was wrong, we finally got hold of David, only to find out that he didn't do rigging. The situation is going from bad to worse. Without a main halyard, we'd be forced to motor until we could find someone to fix it. But, as Kent was finishing up the conversation, another guy wandered up. It turned out that he could fix the problem. Todd (from Wyoming) owns three catamarans for day excursion, the largest being 78 feet. His company is Leeward Islands Charters. Off he went to get his bosun's chair and the repair began. First, he had to be hauled up to the top of the mast, which disappointed Tom mightily, since he wanted to climb the mast (even though once he got there he would have no idea what to do). Then he fed the halyard down through the mast where Carlos (from Santa Dominga) tried to retrieve it through this little hole in the side of the mast. On the first try, no go. But he had this tiny flashlight that he attached to the halyard with duct tape and Todd threaded that down into the mast and they tried again. It took needle nose plier (aka cuticle scissors) to extract it from the mast, but it worked! When Todd went up the mast, the halyard got fouled in the lazy jacks, but that was easily fixed on the way down.
During the entire operation, both Todd and Carlos stayed calm, cool, and collected, while the rest of us were sometimes behaving as if we were in an opera buffa. I think there's a lesson to be learned from the calm, unhurried nature of the island folks. We gave Todd $40 for his trouble, of which he accepted half, and a Sprite. Carlos got the other $20 and a Carib. The dock master wanted a Carib, too, but Kent refused to give it to him because he chared us for a half day docking and wanted to charge $15 for disposing of one bag of trash.
The rain eventually cleared up. Apparently St. Martin and Anguilla got hit with flooding. We sailed down to Nevis and anchored off Pinney's Beach, which is where the Four Seasons Resort is. We dinghied in (couldn't pass up a shopping opportunity), talked to security to get cleared, then Tom and James dropped us off on the beach.
News flash--this just in! As I sit here in my cabin updating my journal (the others are enjoying Happy Hour in the cockpit), I hear Kent exclaim "The dinghy has floated away!" I dash up on deck and sure enough, the dinghy was about 100 feet of stern. Tom had just finished taking a shower and "dressing" for dinner. He did a quick change into his swimmin trunks, dove into the water and swam out to the dinghy and captured it. As he was rowing back, Kent took Gina's inner tube, tied a dock line to it with the the intent of tossing it to Tom and pulling him back to the boat so he wouldn't have to row the entire way. Well, the toss was more like a drop and the inner tube floated about 3 feet from the stern, just as Tom rowed up. He securely tied up the dinghy and came back on board...our hero!
Before we set out on this (mis)adventure, Tom made t-shirts for everyone with "Ship of Fools" on the back. Given the mishaps thus far, we truly are a ship of fools. The list of mishaps thus far:
Smashing into the dock at Port Zante
Dragging anchor at White House Bay
Losing the mainsail halyard in the mast at St. Kitts
Almost losing the dinghy at Nevis
Losing autopilot capability between St. Kitts and Nevis
End news flash
The resort was nice, as resorts go. The gift shop had flooded in all the rain, which seems strange for a swank resort. But they had some nice gifts; I picked up a bottle of Verna's Hot Sauce for Tom. We're always on the lookout for items made locally. We wandered over to the bar and got a drink then called for our water taxi (Tom and the dinghy).
I haven't been impressed with the quality of the beaches on this trip. I expected white sands and clear blue waters and haven't seen them so far. The sand at the resort was dark and oily and not very pleasant.
Tomorrow we sail for Antigua. Given our mishaps and the distance we have to travel, I'm a little nervous.
So we turned around and headed back to Port Zante to see if we could get it fixed. Basil, one of the taxi drivers from yesterday, said that Percy was off island and recommended David at Indigo Yacht. After we arrived in Port Zante (fortunately not docking where we docked yesterday) and explained to about five million people what was wrong, we finally got hold of David, only to find out that he didn't do rigging. The situation is going from bad to worse. Without a main halyard, we'd be forced to motor until we could find someone to fix it. But, as Kent was finishing up the conversation, another guy wandered up. It turned out that he could fix the problem. Todd (from Wyoming) owns three catamarans for day excursion, the largest being 78 feet. His company is Leeward Islands Charters. Off he went to get his bosun's chair and the repair began. First, he had to be hauled up to the top of the mast, which disappointed Tom mightily, since he wanted to climb the mast (even though once he got there he would have no idea what to do). Then he fed the halyard down through the mast where Carlos (from Santa Dominga) tried to retrieve it through this little hole in the side of the mast. On the first try, no go. But he had this tiny flashlight that he attached to the halyard with duct tape and Todd threaded that down into the mast and they tried again. It took needle nose plier (aka cuticle scissors) to extract it from the mast, but it worked! When Todd went up the mast, the halyard got fouled in the lazy jacks, but that was easily fixed on the way down.
During the entire operation, both Todd and Carlos stayed calm, cool, and collected, while the rest of us were sometimes behaving as if we were in an opera buffa. I think there's a lesson to be learned from the calm, unhurried nature of the island folks. We gave Todd $40 for his trouble, of which he accepted half, and a Sprite. Carlos got the other $20 and a Carib. The dock master wanted a Carib, too, but Kent refused to give it to him because he chared us for a half day docking and wanted to charge $15 for disposing of one bag of trash.
The rain eventually cleared up. Apparently St. Martin and Anguilla got hit with flooding. We sailed down to Nevis and anchored off Pinney's Beach, which is where the Four Seasons Resort is. We dinghied in (couldn't pass up a shopping opportunity), talked to security to get cleared, then Tom and James dropped us off on the beach.
News flash--this just in! As I sit here in my cabin updating my journal (the others are enjoying Happy Hour in the cockpit), I hear Kent exclaim "The dinghy has floated away!" I dash up on deck and sure enough, the dinghy was about 100 feet of stern. Tom had just finished taking a shower and "dressing" for dinner. He did a quick change into his swimmin trunks, dove into the water and swam out to the dinghy and captured it. As he was rowing back, Kent took Gina's inner tube, tied a dock line to it with the the intent of tossing it to Tom and pulling him back to the boat so he wouldn't have to row the entire way. Well, the toss was more like a drop and the inner tube floated about 3 feet from the stern, just as Tom rowed up. He securely tied up the dinghy and came back on board...our hero!
Before we set out on this (mis)adventure, Tom made t-shirts for everyone with "Ship of Fools" on the back. Given the mishaps thus far, we truly are a ship of fools. The list of mishaps thus far:
End news flash
The resort was nice, as resorts go. The gift shop had flooded in all the rain, which seems strange for a swank resort. But they had some nice gifts; I picked up a bottle of Verna's Hot Sauce for Tom. We're always on the lookout for items made locally. We wandered over to the bar and got a drink then called for our water taxi (Tom and the dinghy).
I haven't been impressed with the quality of the beaches on this trip. I expected white sands and clear blue waters and haven't seen them so far. The sand at the resort was dark and oily and not very pleasant.
Tomorrow we sail for Antigua. Given our mishaps and the distance we have to travel, I'm a little nervous.
posted by Teri S. at 12:35 PM
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