Monday 19/11/18; Rodney Bay, St Lucia
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| The amazingly great fortune of being here. |
The sail from Bequia to St Lucia via the windward side of St
Vincent took us back into the Atlantic Ocean, as big and bold and boisterous as
ever. The compass course was mostly 60 degrees, the wind mostly 90 deg, when it
was not dead ahead. The seas were a
lumpy 2-3 metres with an agitated cross pattern on top; all of which conspired
to stop Shanti dead in her tracks, wallowing up and down, going more sideways
than forwards.
The 60 nautical mile passage took 11 hours, not too bad,
considering some of it saw SOG (speed over ground) of only 1-2 knots against
current. Arriving just on sunset, worn and weary, I made an uncommon mistake –
I forgot to turn off the engine salt water intake valve. It was a very rolly poly night with catabatic
gusts reaching 40 knots; ideal conditions for syphoning water up into the
engine. (I do believe the anti-syphon valve is supposed to prevent this, but
after fitting two new ones to no avail, I suspect the height above water level
is an issue).
Anyway, sure enough, the next morning when I opened the
engine cover to turn the water on and discovered it still on, I knew that spelt
trouble. Trouble with a capital T.
This is how it goes – put gear lever in neutral, full
throttle; turn key to the reassuring shrill shriek of the oil pressure alarm;
push start button; and “clunk”. Nothing. Or at least nothing that’s supposed to
happen. Not the sweet grumble rumble of cold metal turning over; just the hard
jarring thud of metal cogs refusing to mesh.
I have heard this before, several years ago when I didn’t
know what it was, when the original anti-syphon valve had a small chock of wood
plugging it, and I ignorantly kept on trying until I had torn all the teeth out
of the starter motor. Not a good place to do that here in the undeveloped small
bay at the south end of St Lucia where there are no other boats.
Now this is the good fortune in the bad, where something is
learned (and remembered) from previous breakdowns. It is also extremely fortunate that “Janis”
the 3GM30 Yanmar diesel has 3 decompression levers on top, which when flicked
up, allow a water-logged engine to turn over without firing, and gradually
expel all the water from the cylinders.
Yay!! On the move again.
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| The wondrously grreat fortune of seeing sunsets like this most evenings. |
The next exciting challenge had far more good fortune within
the bad, which could have ended disastrously.
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| The magnificent Pitons. |
It is not possible to anchor in the marine reserve of the
Pitons, where the water close to the shore is around 40 metres deep There are 16
white plastic moorings available, at the cost of about $50 a night and young
locals come out in dinghies to help pick up the ropes for a $5 fee. On top of
this there’s a $35 marine reserve permit, so a couple of nights in this
majestic spot is not cheap, but well worth it. The locals say the Pitons are
the breasts of St Lucia that the town is nestled between.
The wind funnels fiercely down the buxom breasts and there’s
a strong current swirling through the bay, so boats are often facing in all
different directions. After one uncomfortable night I decided to move in closer
to shore, so started up the engine, released the mooring, and backed away from
it slowly.
About half way in toward the new mooring the engine suddenly
stopped dead. I tried restarting it but got nothing. The gear lever was jammed
tight and wouldn’t budge.
My mind was racing as we drifted powerlessly at the mercy of
wind and tide. Wolfgang was nearby in his dinghy and called out to me to turn
toward another free mooring that was downwind. He lined himself up there ready
to catch us. Shanti was still moving at about 1 knot and I wondered if he’d be
able to stop her. He did. And the second bit of good luck was I had had two
lines set up at the bow, so he could grab one and quickly attach it to the
heavy mooring rope before I sailed on by toward the rocks.
My other line had blown off the deck as I reversed away from
the first mooring, gone overboard and gotten wrapped around the propeller. I
try not to beat myself up too much over this stupid mistake that could have
cost me the boat.
Later that day, the third musketeer of our impromptu band, Hurgen,
arrived in “Morwenna”, with his engine failed.
It's fantastically good fortune the way cruisers all help each other.
It was impossible to sail into the bay with the wind coming from all
directions, so he had to be towed in by the young locals, who charged him $100
for the pleasure. Wolfgang also helped, but the 16 ton steel ketch put a hefty
strain on his outboard, so I was lucky to have had its aid while it was still
healthy. Later we had to help Wolfgang retrieve his dink when it somehow untied itself (must have used a "Jacquie knot") and went out to sea unattended.
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| Morwenna being towed into a mooring. |
All of the towns on each of the Caribbean islands are completely different from one another, with the one common feature being the lavish use of colour.
The next stop after the Pitons was Anse la
Raye, a quaint village with many small houses that are just like a child would
draw, with pitched roof and two windows each side of a door.
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| The village Council Office in Anse La Raye. |
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| Not at all like the shacks only a few miles south of here. Where does all the money come from? |
The shopping malls are glossy and full of everything except
customers (waiting for the tourist season). There is a well-stocked Island
Water World chandlery, which is good news for me. Over the past few anchorages
my anchor winch has been struggling to lift anything heavier than a walnut and
I decided a new motor might not be a bad idea before it ground to a halt
completely. Luckily the very helpful store manager tracked one down for me in the
USA, which should get Fed Ex’d here in a couple of days.
If you take your ship’s papers and customs documents with
you the prices are ex VAT, so I did that this morning, once again with the help
of Wolfgang’s bigger dinghy and now temperamental outboard.
The not so good
luck was we both took a tumble into the drink as he was stepping aboard, I with
my backpack on my back with all my documents, passports, money, phone, etc. I
even took the two bags of shopping with me as I went, just as something to hang
onto.
Wolfgang didn’t see the funny side
of it, but I couldn’t stop laughing.
Back on board Shanti, everything is spread to dry and the waterproof
case on my iPhone seems to have done its job. Good luck hey!!
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| Very lucky to have good cruising buddies: Hurgen & Wolfgang. |
I wonder whether any solo sailer has completed the round-the-world journey without ANY mishap?
ReplyDeleteHighly unlikely
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