DATE _12/29/05___    TIME ___12:00 PM START PORT _Christmas Cove__ END PORT _Jost Van Dyke______

 

START MILES___3353__  END MILES __3362____  LEG MILES __9______ TOTAL MILES ___3362______

 

START HOURS  _603___   END HOURS __606_____ LEG HOURS __3______TOTAL HOURS ____606______

 

START FUEL ___1791____  END FUEL ___1791__  LEG FUEL __6_______ TOTAL FUEL  __361_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.0____   REMAINING RANGE __1170-_____    GEN FUEL EST. 2143/2616/591Gal

 

END PRT _240_______  END STRBD  __285______  END SPLY  __60_____  FUEL BALANCE ___585_ Gal

 

SEA STATE___________________  WIND DIRECTION___________________________________________

 

12/29/05 After DeeDee’s Mom left we cruised to Jost Van Dyke to spend New Years Eve at Foxys.  Although we did not have a baby sitter and would have to be back to the boat early, we still thought it would be fun.  During the day, a friend of ours, Tim and his family spent the day with us.  He has a home in St. Thomas and took his little boat out to see us.  It was great for Isabella as Tim’s kids and his nephew spent New Years Eve night with us and slept over.  Isabella had a blast with them and they were really great to Isabella.  New Years Eve is our wedding anniversary and although we have been together over ten years, this was only our second anniversary.

 

01/01/06  Today we cruised to Tortola and went into the Village Cay Marina.  We will spend the week here getting the generator warranty work done and cleaning the boat.  It is much easier to clean the boat when you are at dock because you of-course have the dock but also have great water pressure and very calm water.

 

01/05/05 We took Isabella to swim with the dolphins today.  They are amazing animals but to me it is so sad to see them in the wild all the time and then see them in captivity like this.

 

01/06/06 We finished most of the warranty work and headed off to St. Thomas with two things outstanding.  They need to replace the starter and have not done that yet.  Also, they replaced some of the light bulbs in the generator gauges with 12 volt bulbs instead of the proper 24 volt bulbs.  This melted the gauges and now I need to get those gauges replaced.  We will try and spend another day in Road Harbor next week to finish this off.

 

 

DATE _12/14/05___    TIME ___12:00 PM START PORT _Jost Van Dyke___ END PORT _St. Thomas_________

 

START MILES___----__  END MILES __----____  LEG MILES __---____ TOTAL MILES ___----______

 

START HOURS  _---___   END HOURS __---_____ LEG HOURS __--_____TOTAL HOURS ____---______

 

START FUEL ___----____  END FUEL ___----__  LEG FUEL __---_____ TOTAL FUEL  __---_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __---____   REMAINING RANGE __-----_____    GEN FUEL EST. ----/----/---Gal

 

END PRT _---_______  END STRBD  __---______  END SPLY  __--_____  FUEL BALANCE ___---_ Gal

 

SEA STATE___________________  WIND DIRECTION___________________________________________

 

12/15/05 We cruised to St. Thomas today as Jason had to catch his plane back to the states.  It was a good week of kite boarding but we only got one week out of three of wind.  Larry was able to go both ways by the last day but very shaky.  DeeDee did not get a chance to try to get up on the board and spent her time dragging with the kite to improve her kite control skills.  Jason must leave today but we hope he can make it back in the next few months. 

 

We will use this coning week to do some boat maintenance and get ready for DeeDee’s Mom to come  in on December 22^nd  and Larry’s Sister comes in on January 7^th. .  While we are doing our boat maintenance stuff we will probably stay in the main anchorage of St. Thomas.

 

12/25/05  We had Christmas on the boat in the morning with Isabella opening her gifts from Santa.  Later we went to the Ritz and had Christmas dinner with DeeDee’s mom.

 

 

DATE _11/30/05___    TIME ___12:00 PM START PORT ___Bonaire_______ END PORT _Jost Van Dyke - BVI

 

START MILES___2822__  END MILES __3269____  LEG MILES __447____ TOTAL MILES ___3269______

 

START HOURS  _517___   END HOURS __587_____ LEG HOURS __70_____TOTAL HOURS ____587______

 

START FUEL ___1511____  END FUEL ___1742__  LEG FUEL __231_____ TOTAL FUEL  __355_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __1.9____   REMAINING RANGE __1,600_____    GEN FUEL EST. 2143/2430/287Gal

 

END PRT _350_______  END STRBD  __400______  END SPLY  __70_____  FUEL BALANCE ___820_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____1 – 3 & 3 - 5__  WIND DIRECTION________ North East________________________

 

11/30/05 We left for St. Thomas today at 11:30 AM.  We should arrive in St. Thomas sometime on Saturday morning.  We left today for three reasons.  First, there was no wind in Bonaire to kite board and none forecasted for the near future.  Second, it is rare that we get a multi day weather window to travel against the wind.  Third, we have Jason with us so we can have much easier shifts driving the boat.

 

Jason has never crewed on a boat before and this will be his first time.  Because one leg from Bonaire to St. Thomas is 435 miles with no turns, it will be a little easier to get him to do his watches.  All he needs to do is look at the GPS and confirm that we are on course and keep on eye out to the sea and on the radar to be sure we are not on any collision course with other boats.  There is also the responsibility of keeping an eye on all the instruments to be sure things like engine temperature and pressure are all steady.

 

One additional thing we do when cruising for safety is to do an engine room check every three hours.  The person on watch will check the RPM, Engine Temp., Oil Pressure, Voltage, Burn rate of gallons per hour, Stabilizer oil temperature, Stabilizer oil pressure, Fuel Filter, Engine Room Temperature, Amount of fuel remaining, stuffing box packing, see that the bilge is clear of oil, check for leaks, bilge pump filter, and make a note of our position.  This will reveal any trends that we should be aware of such as a rising oil temperature or pressure allowing us to address it before there is a catastrophic failure.  It also provides us a record of our position in case we lose our instrumentation we can navigate from our last position.

 

The seas our first day out are not big but because we are going head into them it is a little rough.  When it is rough like this, most everyone takes turns sleeping in the Salon.  It is to the back of the boat and has the least amount of movement.  DeeDee and Isabella usually sleep together on the floor.  Isabella loves it because it is special night that she is not sleeping in her bed and gets to stay up and also sleep with Mommy. 

 

DeeDee does not get sea sick but the first day or two she gets very sleepy.  Larry and Jason took the shifts at night and let DeeDee sleep the first night out.  DeeDee also puts Isabella to bed and gets her up in the morning so we try and accommodate her shifts around that.

 

12/1/05 The seas are a bit rougher today.  Again, they are not big but we are going right into them.  We have been cruising for 24 hours now.  They say it takes three days to get into the “routine” of cruising when the motion is not noticeable anymore.  We are only cruising for three days so will probably not experience that.

 

Nothing notable regarding the boat except a warning alarm going off to notify us there was water in the fuel.  Water sinks to the bottom of a fuel tank so the correction is simply to open the valve at the bottom of the tank and drain the water.  Water comes from condensation but more often it comes from a bad source of fuel.  In this case I am sure it is from our last fill in Venezuela.  The dingy has had some problems running under load lately.  We thought it was something wrong with the motor but have spoken with other cruisers and have found that they are all experiencing the same problem.  We are told that although I have 95 octane gas, the refining process is not as good as in other countries and therefore the combustion of the fuel is not as strong.

 

Again I am going to compliment Nordhavn.  They have such a great design on the fuel tanks.  There are two large tanks of about 700 gallons each and a supply tank of 70 gallons.  The supply tank supplies fuel to the engine and the generator.  The two larger tanks are plumbed from the bottom and run into the supply tank.  Any combination of both tanks or one tank can be selected to fill the supply tank.  The valve can simply be opened to one of the large tanks or the fuel can be pumped through a “fuel polishing” system to fill the supply tank. 

 

The number one problem in power boats is bad fuel.  Either contaminated with dirt or water.  The Nordhavn design allows the two larger tanks to fill the supply tank from the bottom. Usually, the tanks have a feed line going to about one inch from the bottom of the tank.  The typical system allows bad fuel and water to gather at the bottom of the tank with no way to remove it.  The Nordhavn system has the two larger tanks feeding the supply tank from the bottom and therefore all the bad fuel and/or water goes into the supply tank.  The supply tank in turn has a drain on the bottom of it to bleed off the water and/or contaminated fuel.  The supply tank also has a water alarm to alert if there is water in the bottom of the tank.

 

One additional design is having a separate tank for the wing engine.  This provides protected fuel which is isolated from the larger tank.  To put fuel into the wing engine day tank it must be polished through the filters to guarantee good fuel is being given to the emergency engine.

 

We are cruising at 1,800 RPM at about 6.8 knots.  This gives us about 2 miles to the gallon. At this RPM the engine is only working at a 50% load.  We could easily go up to a 70% load and still not be working the engine too hard but it would then be burning at a rate that would only give us about 1.2 miles to the gallon.  Just one or two knots makes a huge difference in fuel burn.  If we were going across an ocean we would probably slow down to about 1,500 RPM which would be at about 5.8 knots and get 3 miles to the gallon.  That would give us a 4,500 mile range.

 

It is just great to have a boat that is reliable like this.  The only problem we have had since leaving Venezuela has been a control pad for the stereo has gone out.  (Remember we said we over engineered the media system)

 

12/2/05 Last night Jason took the 6 PM to 9 PM shift and DeeDee took the 9 PM to 12 AM shift.  Larry took the 12 AM to 3 AM shift but when he went to wake up Jason, he was still very sleepy.  Larry did a double shift from 12 AM to 6:30 AM.  This is normal to change like this depending who was able to sleep and who was not.  The previous night Jason was on the 12 AM to 3 AM shift but stayed longer to about 4:30 AM because he was not tired.  Some cruisers believe that shifts should be kept no matter who got sleep and who did not so the crew is acclimated to the schedule.  We believe this is not the best way especially when you have a four year old child on board which causes DeeDee’s schedule to change all the time.

 

The seas are very calm today.  The wind is under 12 knots and the seas are only 1 – 3 feet.  We could not ask for anything better.  It was so calm today that Larry went up on the dinghy deck and washed the dinghy.

 

We are going to try and go directly to the British Virgin Islands.  We have learned that the kite boarding appears to be in the sound at Virgin Gorda which is in the east end of the British Virgin Islands.  Technically, we have cleared out of Bonaire to the U.S. Virgin Islands.  However, we will attempt to enter directly into the BVIs.  If they do not permit us to do so, it is about a three hour cruise over to the U.S. Virgin Islands to clear in there.

 

We have had a favorable current behind us and we will probably need to slow down tonight to allow us to arrive in daylight.  The computer shows us arriving at 4:45 and sunrise is not until 6:40 today.

 

12/03/05 We arrived this morning at Jost Van Dyke in the BVIs.  We simply cleared in and continued on to Virgin Gorda.  Our homework has shown that Virgin Gorda is the place to kite board in the Virgin Islands.  We have stayed here in Virgin Gorda before.  There is a resort close by to where we anchor by the name of Bitter End.  It does not have much but does have a few restaurants and a little store to get some essentials.  One cool thing for Isabella is that they show a kid’s movie every night at an outside movie theater.

 

Jason and Larry went over to see the kite boarding outlet on the island.  The guy was very nice and even lent us a beginner’s board for Larry to use. 

 

12/04/05 First day of kite boarding!  Larry went first and was able to drag in the water with the 9 meter kite. That was after putting the kite into the trees one time.  Larry crashed the kite and popped the bladder in the kite so unfortunately DeeDee was not able to get a turn today.

 

12/05/05 DeeDee got her chance to go today.  She was dragging in the water quite well.  These kites are so powerful if you do not gently dip them into the wind they will take you right out of the water.  Take a look at the photos to see DeeDee in mid air on a few tries.  Larry got up on the board for the first time.  He was only able to go one way and will need to learn the opposite direction as well.

 

When Larry goes he can still only go in one direction.  That is, with the wind.  Jason gets in the dingy with the kite launched and they drive to the one side of the water.  At the one end, Jason hands the kite to Larry and he then boards to the other side.  When Larry gets to a point where he can go no further, Jason jumps back in the water and takes the kite from Larry.  Larry then swims back to the dinghy and drives the dingy close to Jason.  Jason amazingly then lies on his back and puts his legs over the side of the dinghy from the water.  He then powers up the kite by dipping it into the wind and drags himself into the dingy.  They then drive the dingy back to the one side to start all over again.

 

Jason is just off the charts for kite boarding.  Again, see the pictures.  He regularly gets 30 feet off the water.  He is awesome to watch.

 

12/07/05  While Jason is here and we have wind, we are spending everyday kiteboarding.  Today the winds are blowing at 20 to 25 knots.  DeeDee went back to the trainer kite to drag because the wind is so strong even the smallest kite we have, (9 meters) is too powerful and therefore too dangerous.  Larry dropped down to the smallest kite today.  He had a rough day.  On one of his runs he lost his board and it flew up and split open the front of his head.  Not a terrible injury but he probably should have had stitches.

 

The winds are supposed to be really really strong over the next few days.  It will be interesting to see how we do in such strong winds.

 

 

DATE _11/11/05___    TIME ___6:00 AM  START PORT ___Aves__________ END PORT _Bonaire________

 

START MILES___2764___  END MILES __2822____  LEG MILES ___58____ TOTAL MILES ___2833______

 

START HOURS  _508___   END HOURS __517_____ LEG HOURS ___9_____TOTAL HOURS __517________

 

START FUEL ___1483____  END FUEL ___1511__  LEG FUEL __28______ TOTAL FUEL  ____124_______

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.07____   REMAINING RANGE ___3000_____    GEN FUEL EST. 2143/2219/76_Gal

 

END PRT __full_ Gal   END STRBD  __full_Gal   END SPLY  _full_Gal  FUEL BALANCE __full_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____1 – 3__________  WIND DIRECTION________ East______________________________

 

 

11/11/05 What a great cruise.  Perfectly flat seas and just sunny as can be.  Slo Dancin took this leg with us as well.  We are now able to define the perfect Caribbean island.  Bonaire is it! 

 

The water is a clear as we have ever seen even in the Bahamas.  There are literally hundreds of dives off the islands.  The street names are named for the dive.  For example, if you walk to the beach from any street, you will have a dive at the end of the street.  It is amazing.  At the back of our boat is the best snorkeling we have ever seen.  There are six foot fish swimming by on a regular basis.  We are in 30 feet of water and within a short distance the depth drops to over 1,000 feet.  One additional thing that makes the perfect Caribbean island is just enough civilization to get dinner and a little bit of night life.  Also, the food is great and the people are friendly and peaceful.  There is absolutely no negative attitude. This island has only 11,000 inhabitants and I would say is the perfect island.  If you would like to see a view of the island go to bonairewebcam.com.

 

I am not exaggerating when I tell you that you could take the dinghy around the island and every few hundred yards there is another great dive or snorkel.   This island does everything the right way.  The natural resources are much protected.  75% of your mooring fees go to protect the local environment.  The brochures will tell you that once you arrive, you are considered part of the family.  That includes the responsibility of protecting the local resources.  I must tell you that this strategy of inclusion is not just words; you can really sense it when you are here.  The local people truly welcome you versus many other islands which view the tourist, as a necessary evil.  We have only been here two days and are already in love with this island.

 

We have met a family on the boat Patagonia.  They are originally from Argentina but then moved to California.  They are Ricardo, Gloria, and a four year old girl by the name of Tatiana. (sp?)   They had the same plans as us to head for the Virgin Island for the Holidays but love it here so much they are staying for a full three months.  We are excited about the opportunity for Isabella to have a playmate her own age for awhile.

 

11/16/05  We met a family on a boat by the name of Endorfin.  The Dad is from Canada and the wife is from Singapore.  They have a daughter who is six.  They came over and spent the afternoon along with the family from Patagonia.  Just a great day of snorkeling and hanging out behind the boat.

 

Ricardo from Patagonia is quite a good free diver.  Larry spent the afternoon trying to improve his free diving with him.  He reached his personal best of just over 50 feet.  It is amazing that the world champions dive hundreds of feet.  50 feet seems like there is absolutely no air in your lungs and to try and imagine going hundreds of feet is just incomprehensible.  Although it is just going down to the bottom and coming back up, improving the ability to go deep also improves the ability to stay down at the lesser depths.  This is a big deal when spear fishing.    When you spearfish, you need to hover over the reefs to find the fish hiding in the holes.  Then you need to have enough air to find the fish in the reef and shoot the spear and then retrieve the fish which was hopefully speared.  The better the ability to stay down the better chance of getting bigger fish.

 

11/17/05  This is the first time we have had this much rain since leaving Florida.  It must have rained 8 inches.  This gave Larry the day to do boat maintenance and service.  It was the time to change the oil and fuel filters on the main engine and the generator.  It is so great how easy it is to change the oil and fuel filters on the boat.  First of all, Nordhavn does such a great job of providing access to the engine.  You can walk around the entire engine standing up.  Also, the main engine, the main engine transmission, the wing engine and the generator all are connected to an automatic oil change pump.  To change the oil in the main engine, all that needs to be done is open the valve to the main engine oil sump and drain the used oil out.  Then change the oil filter and refill the motor with new oil by simply pushing the fill switch on the oil change system.   In our old boat the access to the oil filters were on the outside of the motor and there were two on each motor.  You had to crawl to the outside of the motor to get the oil filters off and it took literally hours of being bent like a pretzel.  To change the oil on both engines in our old boat took 6 to 8 hours. In the Nordhavn it takes less than an hour.

 

One additional advantage of the newer 47 Nordhavns is that the Lugger motors utilize electronic fuel injection.  On our boat, it extends the oil change from 200 hours out to 500 hours.   The main motor has just reached 500 hours.  What is amazing is that the generator is already over 2,200 hours.  What is interesting is that Nordhavns on the west coast put more hours on the main motor and Nordhavns in the Caribbean put more hours on the generator.  This is due to much longer cruising distances on the west coast versus the closeness of the islands in the Caribbean.  It is also because the high temperature of the Caribbean causes the fridge and freezers to work more so in turn the battery charge dies quicker and again in turn one must run the generator more to charge the batteries.  One last obvious thing is that the high temperatures require more use of air conditioners which again requires running the generator.  Williwaw has been cruising three years and started on the west coast.  Their generator has just passed more hours than their main engine this past month.

 

11/18/05 It is rare for the wind to be out of the west in Bonaire.  When the wind comes out of the west or south west that is the time to snorkel and/or dive some of the dive spots on Klein Bonaire which is an island just to the west of Bonaire.  We went with Patagonia, Slo Dancin, Williwaw and Endorfin.  We were not able to get our dive equipment in time so we both just snorkeled and used the snuba line.  The snuba line is a 60 foot air hose that attaches to a dive tank which is left in the dingy.  It offers a very simple way to dive down deep on the reef without the need to wear all the dive gear. 

 

We spent a few hours diving on the reef and it was just amazing sea life.  Also there was great energy created by so many people and all the kids. (Casey – 6 yrs, Tatiana - 4 yrs, Isabella – 4 yrs, Jason – 13 yrs, and Jesse – 10 yrs)  We are still trying to get Isabella to snorkel and today she just went bananas when we tried.  She is seeing all the other kids do it so we are hoping she will take that next step soon.

 

11/19/05 Today DeeDee spent the afternoon in an art class and Larry went diving with Williwaw.  We took advantage of the VERY rare opportunity to have a baby sitter for Isabella.  Larry went diving with Keith and Jason from Williwaw and got to see an eel and the biggest parrot fish he had ever seen.  The dive was right outside of the Marina entrance and the schools of fish were as good as you could find anywhere in the world. 

 

Our guests Howard and Denise were due in a few days ago and still have not made it.  She had a meeting for her bathing suit business that delayed her and he also had to close a business deal before he could leave so it will probably be a delay of a week or so before they actually get here. 

 

11/22/05 We were both able to dive today while Isabella stayed on the boat Endorfin to play with her new friend Casey.  It was an incredible dive.  We dove with Slo Dancin, Ednorfin, and Patagonia came as well and they just used snorkels.  We went down to as deep as 100 feet but usually hovered about 60 feet.  This will sound like a fish story but we saw two lobsters and one of them was easily over 25 pounds.  No one in the group had ever seen a lobster that large.  We also saw two sea turtles and the highlight of the dive was a spotted eagle ray.  In addition to all this we saw the largest variety of fish in one place we had ever seen and just spectacular coral. 

 

The weather here has been just perfect.  The locals tell us the wind has not been down like this in a dozen years.  The winds have been less than five miles per hour for over two weeks.  This island is usually known for the steady trade winds.  The lack of trade winds could cause a problem for our kite boarding if they don’t pick up by the 27^th when our friend Jason comes in to teach us how to kite board.

 

11/24/05 Thanksgiving in Bonaire.  How great!  We started the morning with a group snorkel where almost all the boats got together and did a family type snorkel.  This allows all the kids to get in the water and play together.  It is really great.

 

At 4:00 We had drinks on our boat before we all went to dinner.  Attending were Endorfin, Pizazz, Midwatch, Patagonia, Always Saturday, Williwaw, Slo Dancin and of-course Howard and Denise who are still visiting with us.   It was a great sunset and we have some great picture under the Bonaire section of the sunset.  It was a PERFECT sundowner. 

 

After drinks most of us cruised over to the Lion’s Den Restaurant to have Thanksgiving dinner.  The kids (Tatiana, Casey and Isabella) just danced all night.  The adults did the typical stuff yourself Thanksgiving tradition.  The food was really great which is sometimes difficult to find in the islands.

 

Everyone is away from their families and it is really neat how all the boats come together to enjoy holidays together as a family away from home.

 

11/25/05 Everyday is a diving day here.  The crew all went again today.  This was another day where all the kids came as well.  You will see in the pictures under Bonaire the herd of dinghies cruising to the dive sites.  Today Jesse from Williwaw was diving with us.  She is only 10 years old and just got certified to dive.  What a life for kids!  She was as good as anyone else as if she had been doing it for years.  How cool is it to be 10 years old and under the water with a scuba tank and checking out the sea life.

 

In the afternoon Williwaw rafted their boat next to ours and we filled their tank with fresh water.  They are waiting on a part for the watermaker and it was not in yet.  They hold 400 gallons and we gave them about 300 gallons.  The water down here costs $0.14 per gallon so it is important you have a watermaker.

 

Of-course this rafting supported an impromptu cocktail party.  We spent a few hours passing stories with Williwaw, Endorfin and Howard and Denise.  We also celebrated Jesse graduation from the diving class.

 

11/26/05  Today we rented a pickup truck and toured the island with Howard and Denise.  We started with the protected park.  It was about a two hour four wheel drive trip around the park.  It was a rough ride through more cacti and lizards that we have ever seen.  Believe it or not, this is an arid island.  Much like a desert.  Bonaire is famous for being a nesting site of flamingos and we saw hundreds of them.  There are also many dive sites in the park which are some of the best on the island.

 

After the park we drove to the only other real city on the island, Rincon.  It was a very small town and only one place to eat.  The menu included lizard stew and goat stew.  We passed and had the beef stew.  There were large parrots in cages at the restaurant and Isabella stuck her finger in the cage and got bitten.  It was not bad but did break the skin.  Isabella started crying and the freaking bird started to mimic her crying exactly.  Then Howard went over to the cage and the bird started cussing him out many times.  It was a strange lunch.  We are sure Isabella will heal fine.

 

We went on to Lac bay which is the big windsurfing place on the island.  The area is very cool with beach bars lined up on the bay and just dozens of people windsurfing out on the bay.  It looked like a scene on a California beach from one of the old Gidget movies.  It is so great to have a bar and restaurant right on the beach.  The beach to hang out on and the bay to windsurf on.  Just great.

 

We went on then to the southern part of the island where the salt flats are.  The southern section of the island has just miles of solar salt flats evaporating water from the salt.  It was very pretty as each flat has a different color depending on how evaporated they are.  This island has profited from salt for many years.  We even went to visit the slave huts that were right next to the flats and used by the slaves.

 

These salt flats are one of the things that make the island so great for kiteboarding.  The wind blows across the land with no obstruction so you have great wind to kiteboard.  Also, the land blocks the waves from developing so you have flat water.  The perfect kiteboarding environment is lots of wind and very little waves.  Unless you are an expert, then you want big waves and big wind.

 

11/28.05 A friend of ours has come in to kiteboard with us.  Unfortunately, the wind here is non existent.  Usually, that it great, but not when you are trying to kiteboard.  Bonaire is famous for having steady trade winds but there have been none for weeks.  The people here tell us they have not seen it this calm for years.

 

With no wind the best thing to do here is dive.  Jason and Larry went to snorkel and use the 60 foot snuba line.  Jason had never used a snuba line before and was able to stay 50 or 60 feet down for 40 minutes or so.  DeeDee stayed back because she had a wicked case of water in her sinuses.  She has been getting deeper and deeper free diving and her ears have been getting filled with water.

 

11/29/05 With so little wind everyone seems to be getting ready to go.  Williwaw has left to cruise through the Panama Canal and return to Alaska.  They are in their last year of cruising and will settle in somewhere in California.  We will probably not see them again for at least a year and they will probably be done cruising by then.  It is so sad to us.  Midwatch left for the San Blas islands to catch up with Mandolin and Good Hope.  Endorfin is leaving the boat in Bonaire and heading to their home in Singapore where their daughter Casey will re-enter school.  Patagonia will remain in Bonaire for their full 90 day allowable stay and Slo Dancin will leave their boat in the Marina while they fly back to the states for the Holidays.

 

We are not sure when we will see any of these new friends again.  I am sure we have made life long friends with many of them.

 

The wind is just dead here.  We have made a decision to leave tomorrow for the Virgin Islands.  It is about a 435 mile trip to St. Thomas and that will take about 72 hours. 

 

 

DATE _11/9/05____    TIME ___6:00 AM  START PORT Los Roques_______ END PORT _Aves______________

 

START MILES___2726___  END MILES __2764____  LEG MILES ___38____ TOTAL MILES ___2764______

 

START HOURS  _502___   END HOURS __508_____ LEG HOURS ___6_____TOTAL HOURS __508________

 

START FUEL ___1464____  END FUEL ___1483__  LEG FUEL __19______ TOTAL FUEL  ____96________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.00____   REMAINING RANGE ___3000_____    GEN FUEL EST. 2143/2204/61_Gal

 

END PRT __500__ Gal   END STRBD  __520__Gal   END SPLY  __70__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE __1090_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____1 – 3__________  WIND DIRECTION________ East______________________________

 

11/9/05 This was just an easy cruise.  It is always great when we get calm seas like this and the sun is doing it Caribbean thing.  Slo Dancin cruised with us to the Aves.  We pulled into a great little anchorage where there are thousands and thousands of birds.  We are not bird watchers but this is supposed to be one of the great bird watching islands.  We were advised by Fred on Slo Dancin to keep our eyes out for a red footed booby bird and we did find some in the mangrove trees.

 

It is so sad that Venezuela does not have the government to support tourism here.  These islands are just spectacular and pristine.  From where we are a reef runs for about five miles to the north.  The entire reef is healthy and full of fish.  The beaches on the island are perfect white sand and the visibility has got to be 100 feet.  We took the dinghy and just ran up the reef.  It is just amazing.

 

The weather is perfect for cruising to Bonaire.  The wind is down and the seas are dead flat.  Off to Bonaire we go.

 

 

 

DATE _11/1/05____    TIME ___6:00 AM  START PORT PuertoLa Cruz____ END PORT _Los Roques _____

 

START MILES___2544___  END MILES __2717____  LEG MILES ___173___ TOTAL MILES ___2717______

 

START HOURS  _472___   END HOURS __500_____ LEG HOURS ___28____TOTAL HOURS __500________

 

START FUEL ___1382____  END FUEL ___1459__  LEG FUEL __77______ TOTAL FUEL  ____77)_______

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.24____   REMAINING RANGE ___3000_____    GEN FUEL EST. 2143/2149/6__Gal

 

END PRT __full_ Gal   END STRBD  __full_Gal   END SPLY  __full Gal  FUEL BALANCE __full_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____6-8_________________  WIND DIRECTION________ East______________________________

 

11/1/05 We are cruising again and on our way to Bonaire from Puerto La Cruz.  We filled up with fuel for the last time of getting 7 cents per gallon fuel.  The next time we get fuel it will probably be 500 times more expensive.  What does that tell you about what a scam the inflated fuel prices are?

 

The seas were a little rough (6 - 8 feet) but they were behind us so it was not too bad.  It was a 28 hour leg all together and we arrived first thing in the morning. 

 

While we were in Puerto La Cruz, we were able to get our wind scoops made.  You can view them in the new photo page titled NEXUS BOAT PICTURES ONLY.   It is under the main PHOTO section.  They came out great.  The scoops are very solid and because they are framed with aluminum tubing we can probably use them while cruising for when the wind is very light.

 

We also had the air conditioning vents modified in the salon.   On the older 47s the vents came out of the corners of each the galley and the Salon.  In our boat, they moved the vents to the ceiling.  This caused a few problems.  First of all the runs for the air ducts were too long and there was air leaking out of the joints.  Also, when the starboard one blew out the air, it went forward right into the pilothouse.  Now they blow out directly into the main rooms.  The galley one is really great because it blows right on DeeDee when she is cooking.

 

These boat Air Conditioning units are horrible technology.  I thought we just had a problem but almost all the other 47 Nordhavns report the same problems.  We have five units that total 60,000 BTUs of air conditioning.  If we had that in a home, we could keep meat frozen.  However, these units are so inefficient.  They use the sea water to cool them and never get the boat more than about 10 to maybe a max of 15 degrees cooler than outside temperature.  When it is 95 outside that means it is still 80 to 85 degrees inside.  We have a friend that ripped out 35,000 BTUs of marine air conditioning and installed one 12,000 BTU standard house unit and it works better than the original.  We also posted pictures of the new vents in the boat photo section.

 

We stayed an extra few days in Puerto La Cruz so we could take Isabella to the Halloween party.  It was great fun and she just danced for hours and hours.  Again we notice how cruisers have the ability to “party” as a family.  I have never seen this anywhere else.  All the kids and parents go to the same party.  Although they each hang with their own, there is a lot of interaction between the kids and the adults.  Partying while cruising is less about status and more about letting your hair down.  As an American, I believe we have lost our ability to let our hair down.  As with everyone, our greatest asset is usually also our greatest liability.  As Americans, we are surely the best at productivity in the world.  We are so performance driven that recreation is not the priority anymore.   The famous saying about us is true. We live to work while most of the world works to live.  After observing multiple nationalities cruising, I would agree with that.  For example, most foreigners we have met will take a certain amount of money and apply it towards cruising.  When the money is gone, they will stop cruising and return to work.  Most, if not all Americans, will not go to their last dollar cruising.  I’m not sure what it is for us, maybe fear, but we have difficulty doing that.  My personal opinion is that it is because we have lost the ability to apply value to recreation and only apply value to performance.

 

Los Roques is very much like the Bahamas.  Great beaches, perfectly clear water, and low lying islands.  The islands are spread out and we have anchored in the western side.  The main island, Gran Roques, is in the north eastern part of the group.  However, we are trying to stay away from that as we technically have cleared out of Venezuela and are heading to Bonaire. 

 

When boats leave Puerto La Cruz on there way to Bonaire, they typically clear immigration out of Venezuela. When a boat does this, they are technically then required to leave Venezuelan waters.  However, between the approximately 270 miles from Puerto La Cruz and Bonaire, Venezuela has some great island chains.  The islands are Tortuga, Los Roques and the Aves.  Therefore what cruisers typically do is check out of Venezuela in Puerto la Cruz and “sneak” to the islands on the way to Bonaire.  The islands are pretty vast and it is possible to stay away from the coast guard as you cruise to Bonaire.  If they do come and check your papers, they you must leave at that time.  The proper way to visit the Venezuelan islands is to come and visit and then return to the main land of Venezuela to clear immigration out to Bonaire.  However, doing this requires a multi day cruise back to the mainland and of-course re-tracking your path back to Bonaire.    It literally adds 3 to 5 days of cruising to accomplish this.

 

The next trick is clearing into Bonaire.  If Bonaire immigration sees that you have cleared out of Venezuela weeks ago and are just arriving, they may not allow you into the country.  They will have a problem with the large amount of “undeclared” time cruising between countries.  Cruisers have also learned how to get over this.  We make sure we are clearing customs and immigration in Bonaire after hours or on the weekend.  This then has you clear via the police station instead of the customs and immigration office.  The police are not trained immigration people and just have you fill out the paper work without interviewing you.

 

Slo Dancin, the 40 foot Nordhavn owned by Fred and Gloria just pulled into the anchorage.  They have become Isabella’s adopted grand parents while cruising.

 

11/3/05 (From DeeDee’s Journal)  We have finally left the marina in Venezuela and are in Los Roques.  I am glad to be out of the city and away from the marina and traveling again on our own schedule, truly free; however, I miss so many people and do not know when we will see them again, if ever.  I miss Jim and Tammy very much.  They are truly silly and don’t take too much too seriously.  That’s why I like them so much.  They know how to have fun and they truly are good people.  I will miss Doug and Lisa from Highland Light.  I don’t think our paths are going to cross anytime soon, though, and that makes me sad.  They, too, like Jim and Tammy, captured my heart and my funny bone.  I could just look at either one of them and start laughing. I will miss them so much, as well as Ken and Joanne from Rusty Bucket.  I will also miss Patty and Jerry from La Ventura, however, I think we will be joining them in the U.S. Virgins around Christmas. 

 

All in all it has been a good experience hanging out in Venezuela.  I learned a lot about the different types of cruisers and why they’re all cruising.  Each new place we stop at teaches me something about how to look at things in a different manner.  You can learn a lot from people and I know that I have much to learn about the world. I want to instill in Isabella the love of life and the joy of relationships with people from every corner, nook and cranny of the world.  People make a difference in your life.  Having good friends to laugh with is essential for a healthy outlook on life.  I’m glad I’ve met the people I’ve met, even if I didn’t get to spend much time with them getting to know them.  I feel I will cross paths with them at some point in time again and I feel that even just a glimpse of them in my life has and will make a difference. 

 

11/5/05 (From DeeDee’s Journal)  On the way to Los Roques we had some tough seas too.  The wind was out of the East, 10-15 knots, seas were 4-6 with some 7-8 footers in there.  Isabella got sick at first, but after she threw up once she seemed to be better.  It’s just a matter of getting the right food in her in plenty of time.  Our new scoops worked out really well, at least the port and starboard scoops did.  We had them up the whole time we were under way and it really has made a difference in the temperature of the salon, which is always the hottest room on the boat.  The other great thing that Larry did which turned out great was that he had two holes cut into the wall of the salon and the galley, which opened up the air vents that for some reason Nordhavn changed in the newer models.  Now, when I’m cooking, I don’t get hot, if the generator is on, and it is actually about 10 degrees cooler than it used to be.  I actually get cold in the galley and now the pilot house is hotter than the salon. 

 

Another small, seemingly insignificant change we made is that we got a toaster oven.  I know it’s silly, but it has made a huge difference in the choices we have for lunch, snacks and dinner as well, without starting the generator for baking, broiling, etc.  I can have pizza, toasted cheese sandwiches, tuna melts, frozen foods are a snap and I can now make cinnamon toast the proper way.  So, all in all, three changes were made and it has made an improvement in our cruising life.  The scoop we added to the hatch on the bow didn’t make a big difference in our room.  It didn’t really force more wind far enough into our room, the mid-stateroom.  But, we came across another plan.  We start the generator around 5 or 6 p.m., cool off the boat, cook, do laundry, whatever is needed for the day, like charging batteries also.  We keep it running until about 10 or 11 p.m., long enough to really cool off the boat.  Then we shut it off, keep the windows, hatches and doors closed and just run fans.  Believe it or not this actually keeps us cool enough until it’s time to open up in the morning.  Larry usually starts the generator again at about 7 a.m. and runs it long enough to top off the batteries for the day, which us usually only an hour or two and then we shut it off for the rest of the day until 5 or 6 p.m.  We knew we had to start making adjustments because of the unexpected and unbudgeted increase in the price of fuel.  Down here in Venezuela it’s very cheap and it doesn’t matter how much we have to run the generator at $.07 a gallon.  But as soon as we get to Bonaire and further up the chain, it gets really expensive and we’ll have to make these adjustments if we don’t want to go broke sooner.  Plus, running the generator less means that Larry doesn’t have to change the oil, oil and fuel filters as much.  I’ve been asking him to teach me how to do it and I’ve only had one training session, but it’s not as difficult as I thought and I actually enjoy doing it.  It’s a break from cooking and cleaning.  I’m sure sooner or latter it’ll become just another chore to do, but I don’t like that Larry’s the only one that does it, especially when you consider that the reason he runs the generator so much is because I can’t stand the humidity and need a break more than he does. 

 

 

DATE _10/5/05____    TIME ___6:00 AM  START PORT Tortuga_________ END PORT _Puerto La Cruz_____

 

START MILES___2471___  END MILES __2541____  LEG MILES ___70____ TOTAL MILES ___2541______

 

START HOURS  _458___   END HOURS __469_____ LEG HOURS ___11____TOTAL HOURS __469________

 

START FUEL ___1338____  END FUEL ___1380__  LEG FUEL __42______ TOTAL FUEL  ____188_______

 

AVERAGE MPGs __1.66____   REMAINING RANGE ___1809_____    GEN FUEL EST. 1825/2116/291Gal

 

END PRT __500__ Gal   END STRBD  __520__Gal   END SPLY  __70__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE __1090_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____1 – 3__________  WIND DIRECTION________ East______________________________

 

 

DATE _9/26/05____    TIME ___6:00 AM  START PORT Puerto La Cruz__ END PORT _Tortuga____________

 

START MILES___2397___  END MILES __2471____  LEG MILES ___74____ TOTAL MILES ___2471______

 

START HOURS  _445___   END HOURS __458_____ LEG HOURS ___13.3__TOTAL HOURS __458________

 

START FUEL ___1300____  END FUEL ___1338____  LEG FUEL __38______ TOTAL FUEL  ____146_______

 

AVERAGE MPGs __1.94____   REMAINING RANGE ___2287_____    GEN FUEL EST. 1825/2009/175Gal

 

END PRT __full_ Gal   END STRBD  __full_Gal   END SPLY  __full Gal  FUEL BALANCE __full_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____1 – 3__________  WIND DIRECTION________ East______________________________

 

9/26/05 As we could not do our trip to the Andes, we headed back to Tortuga.  We stopped overnight at an island named La Borracha.  We are cruising with friends of ours, Patty and Jerry on the catamaran La Ventura.  They are a really neat couple.  She was an actress and he had a company who produced commercials.   They are a really fun and grounded couple.  They are coming with us to Tortuga and then will continue on to Los Roques, the Aves, and return to Puerto la Cruz in about a month.

 

9/27/05  First day here and into the engine room to work.  The sea water pump on the generator failed and was leaking seawater.  Fortunately we had a spare although it was no easy task to change.  Although it should have been simple, it never is.  We had the spare pump, but it was driven by a direct gear and the gear had to be taken off the old one and installed on the new one.  The gear did not want to come off and it took the use of an impellor puller to finally get it off.  We were told that this generator would have failures on the sea water pump.  The good news is that it is inexpensive to replace.  We already have over 2,000 hours on the generator.  These generators usually give you between 10,000 hours and 20,000 hours before they need a major overhaul. 

 

The island is perfect again.  The wind is about 15 knots, the water is crystal clear, the beach is perfect white sand, and the stars are so unbelievable.  Unfortunately, pictures can never do justice to the places we are at.  It is always disappointing to see the pictures we put on the website because they fall so short of reflecting what we are experiencing.

 

This following section is a list of equipment and systems we put on NEXUS.  Most people will find this a little boring but many have asked for this information so here it is.

 

NORDHAVN PROVIDED UPGRADES

 

• Flybridge
• Two Todd helm chairs in flybridge
• Double Stateroom
• 16 KW Generator
• 60,000 BTU Air Conditioner
• Lugger Wing Engine
• Bow Thruster
• TRAC Stabilizers
• Dual flopper stopper systems (port and starboard)
• Non battleship type steering in pilothouse
• Engine Room Fire Suppression
• Lazerette Fire Suppression
• Oil Change Pump System
• 400 feet of 3/8^th chain
• Chain Stopper
• 1,300 lbs Davit
• Bow Tow Ring
• FRP Dry Stack with dual radar arms
• Lightning grounding system
• 4 Extra Domestic Batteries (total 8)
• 12 Volt Outlets
• Hatch in Master stateroom
• Boarding door off pilothouse level
• Halogen Light on Deck
• Halogen Light over flybridge
• Three LPG bottles
• Cockpit station
• Barbeque grill,   Refrigerator,   Hot/cold sink,   Storage Cabinet,  110 volt outlet
• Hot/Cold Cockpit shower
• Salt Water Deck Washdown
• Bow,   Cockpit
• Fresh Water Deck Washdown
• Bow,   Cockpit,    Flybridge deck,    Engine room
• Door to engine room teak
• Ultraleather
• Asko Washer and Dryer
• Selectable overboard switch on galley sink
• Closet above stove in Galley
• Raised counter at sink
• Additional lighting over galley stove
• Additional lighting over galley counter
• Dimmers for salon lights
• Braun Garbage compactor
• Meile dishwasher

 

OWNER PROVIDED UPGRADES

 

• DINGHY
• Lifting strap for Novurania Dinghy
• Lifting Strap for outboard motor
• Removable chocks for dinghy storage
• 11.4 ‘ Avon Dinghy
• 15 hp Yamaha Outboard
• Canvas cover for outboard
• 6 gallon dinghy gas tank
• Mounting for Avon dinghy/gas Tank/Outboard motor
• Novurania Dinghy
• Dual Batteries
• Full canvas sunshade
• Depth meter
• Stainless rail package
• Dual Battery Charger
• Anchor with chain
• Bottom Paint
• Suicide knob
• Equipment holders
• Dinghy boat cover
• Stainless steel tie down straps
• Steel cable with padlock

 

• FLYBRIDGE
• Retractable canvas awning in flybridge
• Red and White LED lighting in Flybridge

 

• PILOTHOUSE
• Stidd Helm Chair
• Battery powered lights installed in breaker panel
• Custom desk in pilothouse
• Customized laptop installation
• Custom recessed bridge panels
• Custom stereo component cabinet and bookshelf
• Snap on window covers for Flybridge
• Snap on window screens for Flybridge and aft door

 

• EQUIPMENT and FIXTURES
• Village Marine Watermaker
• 800 gallon per day
• Remote control panel
• Fresh water flush
• Custom Padeyes installed
• Engine room,   Dinghy Deck,   Bow,   Lazerette,   Anchor compartment
• Custom Stainless Hand Rails

·       Portuguese bridge,   Port and Starboard doors,   Starboard stairway,

Starboard at pilothouse level,   Starboard at salon level,   Port and            Starboard swim platform,   Port and Starboard chin-up bars in cockpit, Port over salon windows,   Port in cockpit

• Storm windows
• MasterVolt  220 Volt 60/50 Hz  2^nd battery charger
• Battery Monitoring system
• 70 gallon dinghy gas storage
• Electric gas pump
• Delta Anchor
• Anchor securing cable
• 2^nd Fluke Anchor
• Jabsco Sensor Max water pump
• In-line plumbed backup Jabsco Sensor Max water pump
• Stainless steel 5 point mounting post at top of FRP Stack
• 6 man life raft
• Custom stainless life raft rack attached to FRP stack
• Dinghy Cleats on swim platform
• Mounted Gaffing Hook
• 5 - 5 gallon use oil storage containers
• Three additional large zincs
• Line holders in anchor compartment
• Teak table and six chairs on deck
• Canvas cover for teak chairs
• Signage on transom and flybridge
• 30 Amp Power Cord
• 50 Amp Power Cord (2)
• 7/8” Dock lines
• 75’ Garden Hose
• 50” Garden Hose
• Quick release hose connections
• Long 1” Snubber line
• Short 7/8” Snubber line
• 8 Sets of keys
• Life Vests
• Two life rings

 

• INTERIOR
• Custom Marine mattresses for all beds
• Enclosed dust buster
• Enclosed cat litter room with cat door
• Honeywell 110 Volt Turbo fans (4)
• 24 Volt fans throughout boat
• Mirror behind Master Bed
• Mirror on wall of Master Stateroom
• Clothing and Towel hooks installed
• Disappearing cellular blinds in Salon
• Bar type floors installed in lower storage bins
• Additional 110 outlets
• Shade/Screen covers over hatches
• Master Stateroom
• Forward Head
• Port Guest Stateroom
• Starboard Guest Stateroom
• LOOSE EQUIPMENT
• Night Vision Goggles
• Cannon Stabilized binoculars
• Standard binoculars
• Dinghy binoculars
• Underwater Camera
• Three piece Underwater viewer
• Three handheld VHF Radios
• 8 Sets of Snorkels/Fins/Masks
• Two sets diving weights
• Air tank with 60 ‘ Scuba hose and regulator
• Manual Garbage Compactor
• Four water ski lifejackets
• Three Child lifejackets
• Two high folding beach chairs
• Two low folding beach chairs
• Two beach tents
• Cat beach tent
• Two Hammocks
• Wakeboard
• Trainer Kite
• Six Fishing Spears
• Four inflatable rafts
• One sport tube
• Paper Charts
• Guide Books
• 12V/175watt inverter
• Boat washing poles and brushes
• Cleaning suction cup
• 8 folding crates
• Folding shopping cart
• Air compressor
• Magic air pump
• Wet Vac
• Dumbbell weights
• Two 110 Volt portable halogen lights
• 110 Volt Battery Charger
• 12 Volt Battery charger
• Cooler
• Video Camera
• Picture Camera (2)

 

NAVIGATION EQUIPMENT

 

• PILOTHOUSE

• ICOM 502 VHF Radio with dedicated antenna

• Remote VHF speaker in Salon
• Remote VHF Command Mic in Master Stateroom

·       Radar – Simrad RA43C 6kw 10” with 4’ Open Array antenna wand

·       Backup Radar – Northstar 4kw 3.5’ Open Array antenna wand

·       Chart plotter – Northstar 6000i 10” GPS/WAAS 

·       Secondary Chart plotter –Nobeltec via Samsung 17” display

·       Third Backup Chart plotter – Northstar 952

·       Autopilot – Simrad AP22 with RPU300&J300X-40 Autopilot

·       Backup Autopilot - Simrad AP22 with RPU300&J300X-40 Autopilot

·       Furuno RD-30 display unit

o      Ground speed

o      GPS Speed

o      Water Temperature

o      Depth

·       Depth – Furuno FCV600L Color LCD Echo Sounder

·       Wind – Simrad IS12 Wind system

·       SSB – Furuno FS1503 SSB Transceiver

·       Samsung 17” Multi-function LCD display with picture in picture

o      Northstar Chart plotter

o      Northstar Radar

o      Nobeltec Navigation

o      UHF/VHF Television

o      Sat Television

o      DVD Player

o      VHS Player

o      Remote mounted Camera

·       HP V-40 Officejet printer

·       Sony Vaio laptop Station

• Richie Compass

·       Remote spotlight

·       GPS selector system

·       Display screen selector system

·       Loud buzzer

 

·       FLYBRIDGE

• ICOM m402 VHF with dedicated antenna
• Chart plotter – Northstar 6000i 10” GPS/WAAS 
• Radar – Northstar 4kw 3.5’ Station
• Autopilot – Simrad AP22 station
• Richie Compass
• Remote spotlight station
• Furuno RD-30 display unit
• Ground speed
• GPS Speed
• Water Temperature
• Depth
• MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS
• KVH TracPhone Fleet 33 system
• Shakespeare cordless Cell Phone Amplifier
• Panasonic 2.4 gig 2-line cordless telephone
• KVH TracVision DVB Sat TV System
• Yamaha MusicCast System
• Sony RDR-GX7 DVD Burner/Recorder/Player
• Sony SLV-960HF VHF Recorder/Player
• 2- Sony DSS  Receivers
• 2- Hughes DSS Receivers
• Glomex V9150 VHF/UHF antenna
• Sharp 30” Widescreen LCD Television (Salon)
• Sharp 20” LCD Television (master Stateroom)
• Sharp 15” LCD Television (Port Stateroom)
• Sharp 15” LCD Television (Starboard Stateroom)
• Denon A/V Surround Receiver
• XM Radio Receiver
• B&K ST55.2 Stereo Amplifier
• 5 ¼ Kevlar speaker pair (8 sets)
• 2 x Home Theater MX800 Remote Controls
• Niles Volume control (Cockpit)
• Niles Volume control (Master Stateroom)
• Xantech Waterproof Keypad System (Pilothouse)
• Xantech Waterproof Keypad System (Flybridge)

 

 

DATE _9/21/05___TIME __6:00 AM  START PORT Tortuga_______ END PORT _Puerto La Cruz_____

 

START MILES___2325___  END MILES __2397____  LEG MILES ___72____ TOTAL MILES __2397_______

 

START HOURS  _434___   END HOURS _445______ LEG HOURS ___11____TOTAL HOURS ___445_______

 

START FUEL ___1225____  END FUEL __1300_____  LEG FUEL ___75_____ TOTAL FUEL  __108_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __.96_____   REMAINING RANGE ___3,000_____    GEN FUEL EST. 1825/1976/151 Gal

 

END PRT __full_ Gal   END STRBD  __full_Gal   END SPLY  __full Gal  FUEL BALANCE __full_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____1 – 3__________  WIND DIRECTION___South East______________________________

 

9/21/05 We are back in Puerto La Cruz.  I think I learned something on the way back from Tortuga.  The boat typically does 7 knots at 1,800 rpm in completely flat seas.  When I was cruising at 1,800 RPM, in three foot seas at our nose, I was losing about 1 ½ knots cruising at only 5.5 knots and burning 3.5 gallons per hour.  The pitching up and down of the bow was causing us to lose about 1.5 knots of speed.  I increased the boat RPM to 2,000 to test the speed.  The normal speed of the boat a 2,000 RPM in completely flat water is 7.7 knots using 4.5 gallons per hour.  However, the boat only lost ½ knot at the faster speed.  That means at 1,800 rpm and 5.5 knots, I was getting 1.6 miles per gallon.  At 2,000 rpm and 7.2 knots, I was getting the same 1.6 miles per gallon.  This means I was getting the same efficiency at a faster rpm and faster speed.  Not to mention a more comfortable ride from less pitching.  The engine at 1,800 rpm is at 50% load and at 2,000 rpm is at 70% load.  Still within reasonable load levels.

 

I will try this in other sea conditions to determine if the boat constantly performs like this.  My hunch is that various conditions require various strategies.

 

One other thing I have addressed before was how the temperature in the salon gets so hot when at anchor.  This boat has a pilothouse in front and the salon is at a lower level in the aft.  When we anchor, the nose of the boat is always into the wind.  The salon in the aft never gets any wind.  We tried an experiment in Tortuga that worked very well.  We attached a rope at the rear of the boat to the anchor line so the boat would stay turned sideways into the wind.  Allowing the wind into the boat dropped the inside temperature by 10 degrees.  Not to mention the breeze feels great.  The problem with this is that turning the boat sideways typically also turns the boat sideways to the seas.  This is not comfortable when at anchor.

 

To get wind into the salon, we are going to fabricate wind scoops that can be attached to the side windows.  These scoops will catch the wind and force it into the salon.  They will be about 30 inches wide and made from clear plastic and sunbrella canvas so we can still see out the window.  We should be able to install these at anchor to get some wind forced into the salon.

 

If we can get wind into the boat via the scoops to cool things down then we only need the generator for the heavy electrical load things. That means we can only run the generator four to six hours per day and use the batteries the rest of the day.  We need the generator to charge the batteries, use the outside barbeque grill, use the oven, make water, run the dishwasher, and run the washer and dryer.

 

Our strategy will be to run off the batteries most of the time.  We will start the generator at about 6:00 pm for about four hours.  At this time, we can turn on the Air Conditioners and cook on the grill for dinner.  We can also charge the batteries and make water during this time.  We can also use the washer and dryer at this time if we need it.  At about 10:00 PM we will shut down the generator and run off the batteries until 6:00 pm the next day.

 

Historically, we just turned on the air conditioners to cool things off.  However, this requires the generator to run.  With the fuel prices getting so out of control, we will need to limit the generator use.  The generator uses 1.5 gallons per hour.  If fuel reaches $3.50 on land, it will probably be $5.00 on the water.  That means it will cost us $7.50 per hour to run the generator.  This equates to $180 per 24 our day.  This is just too much.

 

9/23/05  Well, another day in Venezuela.  When we first were on our way to Maremares marina, we had to delay our trip because President Chaves was having a big meeting of president from other countries.  Even Fidel Castro was here.  No boats were allowed at the Maremares marina while the big shots were here.  Some of the dock employees had their picture taken with Fidel.  (by the way, Ms. Astor, the boat which was in Tortuga, has two cats.  One named Hugo (for Hugo Chavez) and one named Fidel)

 

We were told the big shots were coming again on 9/28 for a week.  Because we have to move our boat out of the marina we had to cancel our trip to the Andes Mountains.  After we were told they were coming on 9/28, we were then told they were not coming until October 6^th.  Then after a few more days, we were told they were canceling the conference completely.  This really sucks because we canceled the trip to the Andes and now are just sitting in the marina.  We will probably just go back to Tortuga for a week or so as we have to leave for the United States on October the 10^th.  This is typical Venezuelan planning.

 

 

DATE _9/13/05____    TIME ___3:00 PM  START PORT Puerto La Cruz__ END PORT _Tortuga____________

 

START MILES___2248___  END MILES __2325____  LEG MILES ___77____ TOTAL MILES __2325_______

 

START HOURS  _422___   END HOURS _434______ LEG HOURS ___12____TOTAL HOURS ___434_______

 

START FUEL ___1255____  END FUEL __1258_____  LEG FUEL ___33_____ TOTAL FUEL  __33__________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.33____   REMAINING RANGE ___3,200_____    GEN FUEL EST. 1825/1878/53 Gal

 

END PRT __full_ Gal   END STRBD  __full_Gal   END SPLY  __full Gal  FUEL BALANCE __full_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____1 – 3__________  WIND DIRECTION________ East______________________________

 

9/13/05 We were getting stir crazy sitting in the marina so we went out to an island about 60 miles north off of the Venezuelan coast.  The island is called Tortuga.  We left in the evening and anchored at a close island by the name of Chimana Segunda.  We just anchored for the night and took off at 6 am the next morning.  It is about 60 miles to the island but about another seven miles to go around to the north side of the island for a good anchorage.  This ended up being about an 11 hour day at 6 knots.

 

The anchorage is just like the Bahamas.  It is a cay off the north side of Tortuga which is white sand, clear water, and lots of snorkeling.  The beach is about one mile long.  There are no services here although there are some shacks that the fishermen use when they are here. 

 

A boat by the name of Ms. Astor is here anchored.  The owner’s name is Mary and we know her from the Maremares marina.  She is a women single handing her trawler.  We are just amazed how a single woman takes off by herself in a boat and cruises on and on.  This year she is cruising through the islands and continuing west to Bonaire and onwards.  She is going to stay down this way as the fuel and cost of living provides for her to cruise endlessly.  Last year she actually had battery problems and got caught at this island when hurricane Ivan came through this way.  It is quite a story with the Venezuelan National Guard coming out with some new batteries to help her. 

 

9/15/05  Today we took a long cruise on the dinghy trying to reach a lagoon which is at the other end of the island.  We cruised along the north end of the island with the wind being blocked by the island of Tortuga.  However, when we hit the end of the island and tried to go around it, the wind was too strong and we could not make our way the last three miles to the lagoon.  Too bad because it is supposed to be great and we traveled a total of 20 miles to try and get to it. (40 miles round trip)  This is a long way in a 14 foot dinghy.

 

Just off the north coast of Tortuga, just a few miles east of us, there are large reefs which you can anchor next to and snorkel and dive.  There is no land, just reefs which are sufficient to break the sea.  You can easily anchor behind the reef out in the sea.  It is quite amazing.

 

9/18/05  This week has been just a lot of hanging out on the beach, hunting shells with Isabella, and having cocktails with Ms. Astor and Tothill, another boat (trawler) which we also know from MareMares.  Actually, Glenn and Eddie on Tothill were the ones who got us to come down to Venezuela.  We met them at the Fort Lauderdale boat show.  I also remember how amazed we were that they cruised down to Venezuela from Florida and were down there for years.  At that time, we could not have imagined what it was like to cruise all the way down to South America.  Now we are here right next to them.  This is truly an amazing life.

 

One of the things we have been missing on the boat is sports.  We have always snowboarded, water-skied, biked, wrestled, ran, etc.  We are learning to kite board and this island is perfect for it.  We have what is called a kite board trainer kite.  It is three meters large versus the nine meters typically used for kite boarding.  This kite is meant to be used to teach how to control the kite before you actually get up on a board to kite board properly.  This small three meter kite will pick you up right off the ground if you have a good wind and know how to use it.  We have been getting pretty good at it. 

 

Step two to learn how to kite board is to go in the water with the kite but no board and have it drag you in the water.  This by itself is GREAT fun.  The kite drags you through the water and with the right wind will pick you up right out of the water.

 

We have a friend Jason who is a world class kite boarder.  He just took second at a tournament in China.  We are hoping he will come down for the month of November and really get us to the next step of kite boarding.  We want to be able to kite board by ourselves anywhere.

 

We both are now good enough to launch the kite, control it, drag through the water, and land the kite.  We were doing this all week in Tortuga.  It is tremendous fun.  Larry even had Isabella fly it.  He held on to it and it lifted her right off the ground a few feet.

 

9/20/05  We are heading back to Puerto La Cruz tomorrow.  We have a trip planned to go up to the Andes Mountains for ten days and leave on this coming weekend.  It is a 21 hour bus trip to the mountains.  The busses are very nice and they show movies on the bus with English subtitles.  It is of-course cold in the altitudes and it will be quite a change for us.

 

 

DATE _7/8/05____    TIME ___11:30 PM  START PORT Margarita, Venz- END PORT _Puerto La Cruz_____

 

START MILES___2163___  END MILES __2236____  LEG MILES ___73____ TOTAL MILES __2236_______

 

START HOURS  _406___   END HOURS _418______ LEG HOURS ___12____TOTAL HOURS ___418_______

 

START FUEL ___1185____  END FUEL __1218_____  LEG FUEL ___33_____ TOTAL FUEL  __373_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.20____   REMAINING RANGE ___475_______    GEN FUEL EST. 743/1759/1007 Gal

 

END PRT __115__ Gal   END STRBD  __50___Gal   END SPLY  __50__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE __215__ Gal

 

SEA STATE____mostly calm____  WIND DIRECTION___South East______________________________

 

7/8/05  Great cruise with almost flat seas.  We had 6 or so dolphins swimming with us for OVER two hours.  DeeDee was quite mad when Larry woke her up at 2:00 AM to see the dolphins.  It was so incredible to just watch them turn sideways so they can see you.  They were also swimming through the phosphorus in the water and they would light it up as they swam. 

 

We got into Puerto La Cruz at about 10:00 am.  Keith from Williwaw and Jim from Class Act came out in their dinghies to help us navigate in to the marina.  We were spent from not sleeping but everyone got together that night for dinner and amazingly we stayed awake for it.  We also met some new cruisers.  At dinner were Suzanne and Paul from Trio who we had not met before, Rusty Bucket, Class Act, Williwaw, and also Randal and Cindy from Duchess who we also had not met. 

 

7/13/05  If you want to live like a millionaire, this is the place.  We can get fuel for about 10 cents a gallon and a case of beer for about $4.  A brand new Condo on the waterway WITH a boat slip is about $100,000.  Everything is very inexpensive unless you are trying to bring it in from the states.  There is a 40% tariff on everything you bring in the country.  This is going to cost us mucho!  Our lovely cat spilled a glass of water all over our television in the salon. It’s toast.  When we bought the TV it was about $5,000.  I’m sure they are half of that by now, but we probably can not get it down here.  Unfortunately, I need the exact same television or I need to make some very difficult modifications.

 

As amazing as this is, we are preparing for hurricane Emily.  Venezuela never gets hit with a hurricane but up until last year neither did Grenada.  Emily is projected to go 30 miles SOUTH of Grenada.  If that happens we will definitely get some very strong winds and if she goes further south, it could be bad.  It is unlikely she will hit us as it is predicted to turn north a little over the next day.  However, they did close the port of Puerto La Cruz today.

 

For the first time since leaving the states I see a lot of power boats.  I assume that is because the fuel is so inexpensive and we are on a mainland instead of an island.  This is like being in the states and going to the Bahamas.  There are tons of islands within close range of us and boats stay in the marina and go out to the islands for a month or two at a time.

 

This will sound a little like bragging, but we are always the boat to be seen in the anchorage or marina.  Nordhavn has really developed a good reputation and there is a keen awareness of this boat.  To my complete surprise, I see very few trawlers out here and almost no Nordhavns.  I saw one 35 footer in the Bahamas, Slo Dancin is a 40 footer, Williwaw is a 47 also, and us.

 

Some of the advantages we have over other boats are comfort and some are just a great quality boat.  The general benefits of this boat include a dry exhaust.  That means we never have to worry about sea water coming in or having a problem with sea water cooling.  Also, the exhaust is always sent out about 30 feet high so we never smell it.  That sounds like a small thing but when you are only going six knots, any wind more than six knots coming from behind is going to blow the exhaust in your face.  We also have a Lugger motor rated for continuous use.  It is only 175 horse power but when we are cruising at 7 knots it is only at 50% load. 

 

Here are some numbers that may be of interest.

• At 9 knots we get 1 mile to the gallon and have a 1,400 mile range
• At 8 knots we get 1.1 miles to the gallon and have a 1,600 mile range
• At 7 knots we get 2 miles to the gallon and have a 3,000 mile range
• At 6 knots we get 3.1 miles to the gallon and have a 4,500 mile range
• At 5 knots we get 3.5 miles to the gallon and have a 5,000 mile range
• At 4.5 knots we get 5 miles to the gallon and have a 7,500 mile range

 

As we are in the islands, we have not really had very long cruises.  Our longest one was 3.5 days but we could have stopped at islands on the way, we just chose not to.  As we get further west, we will have much longer legs and on the west coast some very long legs.  What is interesting, if you take a look at our numbers in the beginning of each section, you will see that since we filled with fuel we have used about 373 gallons for cruising and about 1,000 gallons for our generator.   The generator is rated to use about 1.5 gallons an hour but it only seems to use about 1 gallon per hour.  We are putting tremendous hours on the generator and are already up to 1,700 hours.  We started using the generator about 12 hours a day because it was so hot.  We would turn it on at about 6 pm and leave it running until about 6 am.  We figure that we will put about 5,000 hours on the generator per year.  That means we will need to replace it sometime before our 5 year plan is over.

 

Most of the time when you buy something you will have some regrets…….  I should have added this, gotten a different that, etc., etc.  One thing we are very grateful for is that there is very little we would have changed if we did this boat over again.  One reason is that we thought it out well.  Another reason is we had a Great commissioning manager in John Hoffman at Nordhavn.  If anything was missed at the factory when the boat was getting built, John typically caught it when the boat was here.  If anything, we overdid things.  We spent money on a Sat television system which only works on the coast of the USA.  I would not have gotten this for two reasons…. It is better not to have TV on the boat, and we are going to be away from the states most of the time.   We also got SAT radio which only works 400 to 600 miles offshore of the states and that can not be used out here either.  I could have spent that money on getting new DVDs each time a new movie was released instead.

 

The big job here in Venezuela is hauling the boat and getting all the “yard’ work done.  We are a heavy boat and need a large travel lift to get us out of the water.  Only a few yards can haul us here.  Just for fun, (most of you don’t care but some do) here is what we will need to do while we are here:

 

• Replace generator water temp sensor
• Replace generator oil pressure gauge
• Repair generator fuel leak
• Water line
• Repair blisters at water line
• Bring bottom paint up higher and repaint stripe
• Move thru hulls higher (maybe)
• Davit
• Replace control box on Davit
• Davit swings to left and right when not in use
• Diagnose hump in cockpit floor
• Replace stabilizer hose
• Repair leaks at Actuator
• Check for vibration in shaft.  Is the shaft aligned properly?  Is the cutlass bearing good?
• Check gravely feel in steering and losing pressure.
• Repair stain at pilothouse bed
• Check why windless does not stay tight
• Improve engine room temperature.  Upgrade blower fans?
• Re-prop wing engine.
• Engine room creaks
• Repair windshield wipers
• Inspect fiberglass yellowing
• Paint bottom
• Check/replace zincs
• Hull
• Main Prop Shaft
• Wing Prop Shaft
• Gori Prop
• Bow Thruster
• Stabilizer front blades
• Stabilizer inside zincs
• Keel Cooler
• Check condition of spur line cutters
• Repair anchor post cable and put wire on anchor hardware
• Inspect fuel tanks
• Remove Davit bearing trim ring and grease seal
• Replace Generator Coolant
• Replace Wing Engine Coolant
• Check impellor on Air Conditioning
• Rudder Post lubrication
• Rudder Post shaft packing replaced or checked for leaking

 

8/12/05  We have spent the last three weeks back in the states.  The first week was in Ft. Lauderdale, then in Phoenix, then in Dallas.  Being in the states is great for convenience.  We simply have a very high quality of life.  Anything you need or want is easily available.  We enjoyed the ability to see a movie and most of all eat at all of our old favorite restaurants. 

 

I have a wide spectrum of views after being on the boat for seven months and then jumping back into civilization.  The most striking is how everything in the states is wrapped around work and/or career.  In the other places we have been, recreation seems to be first and work is simply a means to the end.  I think this is for a combination of reasons but mostly because of the huge opportunity to earn a lot of money is always there in the states.  In the other countries even if you wanted to earn a lot, there is simply not enough population to buy enough product of anything to be tremendously successful.

 

At this point our thought is to head out of Puerto La Cruz sometime in September and cruise the islands off the coast of Venezuela or to do some inland trips to the Andes Mountains.  We would get back to Puerto La Cruz by the first of October and we need to be back in the states again in mid October for DeeDee’s sister’s wedding.  After that our current plan (always changing) is to head back north thru the Caribbean again starting November 1^st and end up in Florida by the summer of 06.  Maybe even head north to New England for the 06 hurricane season.

 

Another option we are considering is to cruise through the Caribbean and be back to Florida by April.  In April we would ship the boat on a large freighter to Vancouver, Canada.  These huge ships actually lower in the water and you drive your boat right into the ship.  After all the boats are loaded, then the ship rises up and all the boats are delivered dry on deck.  If you want to check it out go to Dockwise.com.

 

The reason this option may work is because it gets us to Alaska in the summer which is the season you want to be there.  Also, the prevailing winds and seas are against you heading all the way from the Panama Canal to Alaska.  (A long way) This strategy would allow us to visit Alaska and then head south with the prevailing wind and seas behind us.  Another benefit is if we do decide to go to the South Pacific, it gives us the time to spend a few years there.  One more advantage is that we will be on the west coast during snowboarding season.  This is something we miss very much on the boat.  If we were on the west coast in the winter, we could easily get to the snowboarding spots.

 

The most important ingredient of this plan for DeeDee is that we will be close to her family for an extended period of time.  She really misses her family and would get to see them quite often as they live in Phoenix.  It would be much easier for her family to visit us and for us to visit them.

 

There is one big negative which might not allow this strategy to be an option.  It is VERY expensive.  We need to review our five year budget and see if it can be done. 

 

8/22/05 Today is DeeDee’s birthday.  She turns the big 40.  We had a small party on the dock for her and lots of our new friends came.  It is very impressive how a group gets so close in such a short time of knowing each other when everyone has the same interests. (See pics)

 

8/29/05  We have shared how the costs of some things here in Venezuela are so inexpensive.  However, there is another side to that.  We are in Venezuela and most people know about Chavez and his problems with the United States.  We are here as guests and don’t really get to know how the common people judge him because we are in a resort area.   As a guest, we are not real fans of how we are treated here.  It does not matter what the laws or rules are because the local police, local port authority, or local National Guard will dictate what the rules are.  It seems that we targeted because we are Americans.  Not because the people dislike Americans, because they know Americans vacationing here have money.

 

For example.   We are at a marina and there is a canal system which is similar to Fort Lauderdale.  Many many American boaters have been pulled over by the National Guard and forced to pay fines.  They will first say you were speeding, if you were not, they will then ask for your boat papers, if they are in order, they will ask for your written permission to cruise on the waterway and so on.  They will continue until they have a made up rule that they can get you to pay a fine for.  They have even asked boaters for their “dinghy drivers license” which of course does not exist.

 

I don’t know the real reason for all the hassle but it has been told to me that the reason for all this seems to be that the police, National Guard, etc., don’t make a lot of money and this is a way of supplementing their income.   The problem is that you will see blatant infractions by the locals and the police will not make any effort to address it.  I had a conversation with a young couple here who said they don’t even drive a car anymore because if you have a nice car it is a guarantee you will be pulled over and fined on a regular basis by the police.

 

Another example of this is in trying to bring repair parts in to the country.  The law says if you are a boat in transit, there should not be duties on the parts being shipped in.  However, although the law states that, in practice it is all but impossible to get that fee waived.  When the parts are inspected at the airport or at the shipping facility, they will not be released unless the fees are paid.

 

It seems like the laws and rules are just guidelines to go by.  The person in authority can truly set the rules and it appears there is no recourse.

 

Having said all this, the people who are the local people, at least here in Puerto La Cruz, have been fantastic.  They have all gone out of their way to be helpful and even when we struggle with the Spanish language they make every effort to help.  When shopping for groceries or in stores, the service is excellent and attentive.  It reminds me of when I was a little kid and my grandmother would go to all the local stores in the Italian neighborhood.  One for bread, one for meat, one for fruit, etc.   We as Americans certainly don’t seem to be as patient nor as helpful with those who do not speak our language.

 

8/30/05  We took the boat and filled up with fuel today.  It is ONLY 8 cents a gallon here and it will be quite a change when filling up in the Caribbean.  Fuel is always quite a bit more expensive on the water than at the gas station.  When we filled up last time it St. Thomas I think it was $3.65 per gallon and oil was at about $30 something a barrel.  With the oil at $70 per barrel we are probably going to see fuel in the Caribbean at $6.00 per gallon.

 

This has a big impact on our budget.  If the fuel does go up that high, and we run the generator 12 hours a day and use about 15 gallons of fuel, that would be about $90 per day in fuel costs not including the cost of fuel for trips.  Hopefully something will get the oil prices back down.  If not, we will be scheduling our cruising in cooler climates so we don’t have to run the generator for twelve hours a day.  If we are not using the air conditioning, we would only run the generator a maximum 4 to 6 hours per day just to charge the batteries and run the watermaker.

 

After we filled up with fuel today, (1,400 gallons) we took the boat for a “three hour cruise”.  Tammy and Jim from Class Act came with us to help get fuel and we just ran the boat for awhile because she was sitting for a couple of months.  It really makes one eager to cruise again.  Can’t wait until the hurricanes get past us.  Katrina just hit New Orleans, Biloxi and Mobile a few days ago. It is just so sad.  We are lucky to not have to worry about hurricanes down here.

 

8/31/05 Today is Isabella’s birthday.  I can not believe she is FOUR years old.  We have two other friends who have a birthday today as well.  Tina on Mandolin and Geoff on Sangala.  We had a party for all three in the hotel.  The staff at the marina got a cake and put together the party for her.  It was really generous and special.  Isabella ended up playing with all the other kids all night.  That is one of her favorite things to do and she had a great night.

 

 

DATE _7/7/05____    TIME ___7:00 PM  START PORT Prickly Bay, Grenada END PORT _Margarita

 

START MILES___2024___  END MILES __2163____  LEG MILES ___139___ TOTAL MILES __2163_______

 

START HOURS  _388___   END HOURS _406______ LEG HOURS ___18____TOTAL HOURS ___406_______

 

START FUEL ___1127____  END FUEL __1185_____  LEG FUEL ___58_____ TOTAL FUEL  __340_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.40____   REMAINING RANGE ___696________    GEN FUEL EST. 743/1732/989 Gal

 

END PRT __120__ Gal   END STRBD  _110___Gal   END SPLY  __60__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE __290__ Gal

 

SEA STATE____mostly calm____  WIND DIRECTION___South East______________________________

 

We cruised with the Sail Boat Excalibur and arrived in Margarita the next day about 2:00 pm.  We caught a nap and then left for Puerto La Cruz.

 

 

DATE _6/26/05___    TIME ___7:30 AM   START PORT _Union Island______ END PORT _Prickly Bay, Grenada

 

START MILES___1984___  END MILES __2024____  LEG MILES ____40___ TOTAL MILES __2024_______

 

START HOURS  _381___   END HOURS _388______ LEG HOURS ___7_____TOTAL HOURS ___388_______

 

START FUEL ___1108____  END FUEL __1127_____  LEG FUEL ___19_____ TOTAL FUEL  __282________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.10____   REMAINING RANGE __1071________    GEN FUEL EST. 743/1561/818 Gal

 

END PRT __250__ Gal   END STRBD  _190___Gal   END SPLY  __70__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE __540__ Gal

 

SEA STATE____mostly calm____  WIND DIRECTION___South East______________________________

 

6/26/05 We cruised to Cariacou from Union Island yesterday.  We just dropped an anchor and put out the Q flag and stayed for the night.  Cariacou is the first landfall and part of Grenada but we took off first thing this morning to Prickly Bay, Grenada and will clear customs and immigration there.  The seas were as calm as could be asked for.  We left a day or two early because some weather was coming in and although we wanted to stay to catch up with some cruising friends, we also did not want to get caught in Union Island for another week.  We want to do a few things in Grenada and also there is a Northern Light dealer there so we will try and have them look at our wing engine.

 

We anchored in Prickly Bay which is more like a suburb than a town.  It has a few hangouts on the water such as the bar at the Prickly Bay marina and the Big Fish restaurant.  When we use words like restaurant and Marina, most Americans will have a certain thought in mind.  However, for example, the marina here is one dock where you can med moor.  That means there are no finger docks and you just back into the dock.  Before you back in, you drop your anchor and the anchor holds the front of the boat and then you back up close enough to the dock to tie up at the back.  Not like backing into a slip in a typical U.S. Marina.  Today is Sunday so we will just wait until the morning to clear in.

 

6/28/05 Tonight we pulled quite a few boats together and went to dinner at a great restaurant by the name of the Red Crab.  We were with Navy Blue, Slo Dancin, Cheshire II, Luana, La Ventura, and more.  It was fun and great food.

 

6/30/05 We had plans of going to do a hike or a tour today but the Lugger guys were on board for the wing engine longer then we expected.   The conclusion is that the motor is running normal and the engine is just over propped.  Remember, the wing engine is only 40 horse power.  The top RPM is 2,800 but I am only reaching 2,200.  That means that I am probably only getting 25 horse power or so pushing a 55 ton boat.  That just won’t work.  The bad news is now I have to figure out how to get the boat re-propped on the wing engine.  That will not be easy out of the U.S.

 

After the guys left, we went to the big beach here called Grand Angst beach.  It was huge and we thought we would only stay for an hour or so but spent the whole day there. Many of the folks on the beach were from the Medical College here.  Lots of U.S. students come to medical school here.  Hanging out at the beach has not gotten old yet and still is just a great day.

 

As we were getting ready to leave we saw Sangala, Good Hope, and Mandolin cruising into St. Georges.  We took the dinghy over and said hello.  It is such a small cruising world to be at the beach and see some of our cruising buddies come in from another country.

 

7/1/05 Today we took a tour of the island.  I usually don’t write about the history of each island because that is something that can be found in any guidebook.  As boring as it may be, we prefer to just note what we are doing each day recreationally.  The history can be learned from many sources. Of-course the U.S. came in with military forces years ago when the government here was getting too cozy with Fidel in Cuba and the local government was toppled.  The local people are still thankful for the U.S. coming to their aid then.  Even some graffiti written on buildings says “Thank You USA for our Freedom”  This is unusual because we have been very aware how much America is hated.  I think it is the worse I have ever seen it and in the French Islands it is just blatant hate for us and they make no effort to cover it up.

 

Most of today was sitting in the bus and taking a driven tour of the island.  It was interesting from a number of points including the fresh look at the island after Ivan wiped out this country last year.  90% of the homes were damaged and 90% of the churches were damaged.  However, only 5% of the Rum shops were damaged.  Figure that? 

 

As we drove through the hills, the island at first glance did not look that bad.  That is because now that the trees are barren, it has allowed a fast growing native vine to grow all over the island.  It covers up the barren trees and therefore looks green from a distance.  But as you get close, you can see the trees are toppled and the ones still standing are barren.  It will be many years from now before all gets back to normal.  The fishing industry is back to about 50% but for example, 95% of the nutmeg trees (a major revenue source) were destroyed.  They take 5 years for a Nutmeg tree to start producing nutmeg again and 10 years to mature.

 

We did go to a water fall and it was so refreshing as the water is s much cooler than the sea.  This waterfall had a safe and high place to jump.  It had a depth of 18 feet so we could jump off from pretty high up.  On the way back, we went to the local chocolate factory.  It is amazing how these businesses are profitable without automation and still using hand labor.  One mistake was going to the chocolate factory before our late lunch.

 

We are both “doers” more than “observers.” Therefore, when we take a tour, we prefer to include hikes and visits to things like waterfalls etc.  One of the things we would really like to do is learn how to Kite board.  Being on the boat offers many opportunities to have good wind and calm water.  We are going to make more of a dedicated effort to do this once we are in Venezuela.

 

7/03/05 Today we had a wave come through and had a lot of rain so we took advantage of being at an island which has a movie theater and caught the batman movie.

 

7/4/05 I caught the NYC weather and it was 82 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.  This is one of those rare times when it is pouring rain here and sunny somewhere else.

 

The weather did not stop us from having one hell of a party for the fourth of July.  We broke a record on how many people were on the boat. Over 30!  I wish I would have gotten a picture of all the dinghies tied to the back of our boat.  Many boats joined the party including Highland Lights, Mandolin, Good Hope, Excalibur, Sangala, Navy Blue, Midwatch, Blue Moon, Hogfish Maximus, Badger Set, La Ventura, and Trixler.  It started out as a cookout and ended with many hours of everyone singing songs from the 60s, 70s and 80s.  It was great fun and lots and lots of laughs.  I’m sure some folks will feel the result in the morning.  It was a late night for cruisers.

 

7/6/05  Lots of boats left today at sunset.  It must have been over a dozen.  It is just a special scene to see boats take off at sunset like that.  The reason they leave in the evening is because you want to come in to unfamiliar ports in daylight.  If you left in the morning, it would be too far to reach landfall when the sun was still up.  It is also usually calmer at night.

 

Most are off to Venezuela but some off to Trinidad.  Folks are getting nervous because we have already had four named storms.  That is more named storms by this stage of the hurricane season then ever before in history.  We would have been leaving with the group today but are waiting on some parts for our generator and wing engine.  It is better for us to wait another day anyway because we are a powerboat.  For us the seas are getting even calmer but for a sailboat it would be too calm with no wind to sail with.  Today the wind is already almost completely calm.

 

The cruise to Venezuela goes first to Los Testigos.  That is about a 90 mile overnight cruise from Grenada.  Then it is another 50 miles or so to Margarita then about 70 miles more to Puerto La Cruz.  The trip to Puerto La Cruz can be cut down some by going to the west end of Margarita and staging from there which will then make the trip to Puerto La Cruz about 50 miles which is a nice day trip.

 

 

DATE _6/7/05___    TIME ___6:00 AM   START PORT _Roseau, Dominica__ END PORT __Bequia, Grenadines

 

START MILES___1788___  END MILES __1932____  LEG MILES ____144__ TOTAL MILES __1932_______

 

START HOURS  _347___   END HOURS _370______ LEG HOURS __23_____TOTAL HOURS ___370_______

 

START FUEL ___1012____  END FUEL __1080_____  LEG FUEL ___68_____ TOTAL FUEL  __263_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __2.11____   REMAINING RANGE __1567________    GEN FUEL EST. 743/1317/574 Gal

 

END PRT __335__ Gal   END STRBD  _335___Gal   END SPLY  __70__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE __740__ Gal

 

SEA STATE____mostly calm____  WIND DIRECTION___East____________________________________

 

6/7/05 We are almost to 2,000 miles of cruising since we left Florida.  At an average of 6 knots, it has taken about 10 times as long to travel then it would take in a car. 

 

We went from La Saints, Guadeloupe to Roseau, Dominica and anchored for the night.  Then we planned on our next leg to be Martinique, but the weather was so good, we skipped Martinique, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and went 24 hours not stop to Bequia.  This caused a slight problem in Bequia because our departure papers from Guadeloupe said our next port of entry would be Dominica.  Also, when Jimmy and Jessica left from Guadeloupe, the immigration people in Guadeloupe should have put the fact that they exited on our departure papers.  The officials let us in but not until after we were formally informed they could not “accept” our departure documents from Guadeloupe.

 

The community is here again.   Cheshire II is here and we see Good Hope, a boat we have spoken to while cruising but never met.  We know they are from New Rochelle and a young couple doing this for a few years. Also Caliente, a couple from Florida who we have also heard on the radio but not yet met.

 

Bequia is just gorgeous from the water.  Green mountains with beautiful homes built sparsely throughout.  This is an English speaking island which is always great for us single language guys.  We are going to try and catch up on some sleep today and get into the local scene tomorrow. We expect to spend a good amount of time in the Grenadines and then head to Grenada and from there, off to Venezuela for the hurricane season.

 

Some have asked why our updates are so late sometimes.  It is because we can only download the big stuff when we get to a land internet connection.  It is too expensive and too slow to do it over the satellite.

 

6/10/05 The beach here has restaurant after restaurant.  But we tend to be the delicate power boaters and go to the air conditioned ones.  We like one hear called the salty dog.  Larry got on the internet today and got his big downloads and stuff done.  We got our canvas for the flybridge fixed which the wind tore on our cruise down here.  Then we just walked around the town for quite some time until it started getting close to Isabella’s nap time.  It is easy to tell when her nap time is close; she will get testy real quick.

 

The highlight of today was taking Cosmo the cat for a swim.  He just loved it. (Yeah)  Larry put on the life jacket and let Cosmo just perch on his chest as they floated around.  Actually he hates it, but he does not freak out like most cats would.  We put him in the water and let him swim to cool him off and also let him figure out how to get back to the boat if he falls in.  It is great to see him swim into shore and ride the waves as he gets close.  We will try to get some photos of this and post them if we remember.

 

After the cat swim, Larry and DeeDee both went to work out.  We seem to do it less and less often as it gets hotter.  Larry went to run bleachers in the cricket stadium and swam to shore and back.   DeeDee did her weights.  We are trying to get as many workouts in as we can, but the heat is really tough.  If you look closely at the pictures of the boat, you can see that we put chin-up bars in the aft cockpit.  These are great for chin-up, ab work, and even gravity boots.  We also have a set of dumbbells on the boat that fit into each other and they don’t take up much space.  Larry tries to get a weight workout in the morning and then cardio 3 or 4 nights a week by running.  One day it is back and bicep which consists of various forms of chin-up and dumbbell curls.  Day two is chest and triceps which consist of pushups and dips off of the counter and the third day is shoulders and legs which is dumbbell work and squats and lunges.  DeeDee has some videos that she uses as well as doing dumbbell work.  She also runs as often as possible and even will run in the water with resistance sometimes if there is not a good or safe road to run on.

 

6/11/05 We took the dinghy out today and cruised most of the island.  We ended up at an island off of Bequia called Petit Nevis.  It is just a very small island and only has the ruins of the whaling processing stuff.  It has the big boiling cauldrons and cemented paths for the animal to be carted.  It is always amazing how everything is left one day and the process just stops.  Everything is still in its place. 

 

Isabella is growing like a weed and today she actually did some basic rock climbing up Petit Nevis.  Is there anything kids like better than climbing rocks?  Just this week she also went under the water by herself and now most of the time, when she gets knocked underwater by a wave she does not freak out.  We call Isabella our little Wednesday.  (from the Adams family)  She loves crawly creatures.  She will pick up crabs, shrimp, fish, squid, anything.  One of her favorite gifts was a bug catching kit.  The parents are just the opposite.  Larry won’t even fish unless someone goes with him to clean the fish they catch.  He will only spear fish and won’t even pick up a rod and reel.

 

Tomorrow we will go over to Mustique. 

 

6/12/05 We are in Mustique.  A 12 mile cruise from Bequia.  Probably only 7 miles as the crow flies but we had to go around the island and clear some reefs.  This is called Billionaire Island because so many wealthy people have come here and purchased property.  There is a single management group that seems to control most of the property here on the island.  About half of the homes here are rented out when not in use.  This island has a cotton plantation that was turned into a hotel and is supposedly one of the, if not the most exclusive hotel in the Caribbean.

 

We rented a motorized mule and cruised the island.  This island reminds me of a combination of Fisher Island in Miami and the Hamptons in Long Island.  Privately owned like Fisher Island and the geography of the Hamptons.  What I always found fantastic about the Hamptons is that you have trees and even woods, then sand dunes, then the beach. It is really pretty.  Here it is deep vegetation and white sand beaches and the vegetation is just brilliant.  It is very unusual to see such wealth and immaculate landscaping in the Caribbean.  The homes are just spectacular.  Most of the homes are hidden behind dense vegetation with a long drive to the actual home.    We took Isabella to the playground here and it was also modern and in excellent condition. 

 

We have found most of the Caribbean locals to be courteous but they clearly communicate to us tourists that we are a necessary evil.  In certain places they cross the line and are rude.  The most offensive is when they approach you and demand work because you are in their country.  We respond politely that although we may not use their services, we spend a lot of money in their country at restaurants and boat services.  If they persist then we just get more firm and it is usually not a problem.  However, here we were greeted in a very friendly way and even the restaurant help shook our hands and introduced themselves.  Maybe this is a direct result of a wealthy island, but none-the-less, it was very nice.

 

Mustique has some great beaches and one is called the lagoon beach. Of-course it is next to a lagoon and there is a nature trail we hiked which goes around the entire lagoon.  We were the only people on the beach except for one couple.  This beach was also great because the palm trees offer shade to cool off or you can be out in the sun and water.

 

6/15/05 Today we cruised down to Tobago Cays which are just east of Mayreau.  This is the mother load of paradise.  We are anchored behind a horseshoe reef and there are multiple white sand and palm tree islands all around us.  It is just incredible.  We again see many familiar boats.  Class Act, Good Hope, Mandolin, Highland Light and more.

 

We got in around lunch time so we took the dinghy over to Salt Whistle bay at Mayreau.  It is a half moon white sand beach and the perfect Caribbean beach.  There was a restaurant on the beach with tables made out of stone.  The food was surprisingly really good.  After we ate, we stayed and played in the water and met another family from the boat La Boheme (sp?)  Isabella is so excited to see other kids and even more excited to find out what kind of toys other kids have on there boat. 

 

Isabella is getting so close to snorkeling.  She puts her face in the water without the mask but won’t do it with the mask.  I can’t tell you how great it is to have her LOVE the beach so much.  Once she is there, like all kids I guess, she never wants to leave.

 

6/16/05 The water here is just pristine.  The visibility is unlimited.  We have seen so many turtles around the boat and a family of puffer fish is just hanging around the boat.   This morning Good Hope and Mandolin came over for coffee and fresh bread DeeDee made.  Then we went over to visit La Boheme on their boat at Mayreau.

 

This evening was a great cruiser night.  We had a lot of people on the boat from Good Hope, Highland Light, Class Act, Mandolin, and Luana.  We invited them over at 5:30 for drinks and most stayed until almost midnight listening to music and just getting to know each other.  Anytime a group of cruisers get together the conversation goes towards boat repairs, cruising experience, or more often how insane it is to work 50 weeks a year and only take off two for vacation.  From his group there was a CEO, doctor, nuclear plant inspector, commercial fisherman, marketing consultant, investment banker, bartender, auto engineer, production manager, and more.   It is SO fascinating to hear how people put careers on hold, completely dial out, or work for awhile and then cruise for awhile.

 

6/17/05 Today we did some superb snorkeling.  We went with a group and some of us were scuba diving and some were snorkeling.  This is the best snorkeling we have done since we have left.  Larry was able to free dive down to 50 feet today.  That was a personal best.  DeeDee got to spend some extended time snorkeling which is unusual because Isabella is usually too demanding of her time.    We spent many hours in the sun today and came back just drained.  After snorkeling we packed nine of us into our dinghy and cruised over to Salt Whistle bay for lunch.  It was a great hamburger and we were in bed by 7:30.  Yes, 7:30.  These days in the sun take a lot out of you.

 

6/19/05 We spent the night yesterday back at Salt Whistle Bay.  We had a tropical wave coming through and it was supposed to blow up to 30 knots.  Well it came through and it blew over 50 knots.  It was a very miserable sleeping night. Today we move the boat to a bay further south called Saline Bay and it was much better protected.  We will get a good night sleep tonight.

 

6/20/05 Last night was windy again but we were well protected in the bay.  Today we moved to Union Island which is about three miles away.  The anchorage there is behind a horseshoe reef right off the town of Clifton.  This is the last island in the St. Vincent Grenadines and we will clear out of here.  Today is Monday and we will be here until at least Thursday or Friday as we have a UPS package coming in with all of our mail for the last few months.  I hate getting the mail package because it always has something in it that needs to be “addressed”.  Something unpaid, something which needs renewal, etc.  It always brings work which if we were in the states would be easy, but with only a sat phone and being many miles away, the simple task back in the states is a federal project out here.  Especially because all businesses now use voice prompt systems and want to get back with you.  We have no way of working with that system.

 

This island looks like it can be fun.  It has lots of good hiking and the town of Clifton looks quaint. 

 

6/22/05 I don’t remember if I wrote about boat boys before or not, but there are many here.  The boat boys come out to your boat as soon as you pull into the harbor.  They will guide you to an anchorage spot and than seek a fee for guiding you in.  They really don’t offer a service unless you are using a mooring, but it is their way of trying to make money.  They can be valuable when you pull in to a new place because they have local knowledge and they can also supply fresh fish, get groceries, bread, beer etc.  However, they can also be unreasonable.  They will often ask for a fee every time you bring your dinghy to shore.  They will insist they tie you up and get a fee.  If you bring garbage in they will insist you pay them to put it into the garbage bin.  Most cruisers just succumb to this and pay for these non-services.  Larry does not do well with this type of deal.  He believes we should pay a fee for a real service and even overpay for real services to help out the locals.  However, it is not right to pay for non-services.

 

Today when Larry went ashore, he took the garbage himself and they confronted him and said he needed to share the wealth or there would be problems.  What they do is threaten in a casual way. When the guy said that Larry may have a problem, Larry got aggressive and said if there is a problem it needs to be taken care of now. He approached him and suggested the problem be addressed immediately.  He told them that he buys services in restaurants, buys goods in stores, and does use boat boys when there is a need, but he is not going to be threatened or blackmailed to pay someone for something he does for himself.  Hopefully we won’t find our dinghy stolen in the morning.

 

6/23/05 It has been really windy here this last week with a lot of rain.  With all the sun and heat we have had, it is a nice change.  We are anchored behind a big reef here in Union Island so we get the full brunt of the wind but the water is not too rough.  We think we are going to stay here a few more days and probably take off towards Grenada Monday or so.  We have some friends on Good Hope who are celebrating their one year anniversary on Sunday night so we will probably stick around for that.  We need to get moving a little as we would really like to be in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela by July 15^th.

 

 

DATE _6/6/05___    TIME __11:00 AM   START PORT _La Saints_________ END PORT __Roseau, Dominica

 

START MILES___1748___  END MILES __1788____  LEG MILES ____41___ TOTAL MILES __1788_______

 

START HOURS  _340___   END HOURS _347______ LEG HOURS ___7_____TOTAL HOURS ___347_______

 

START FUEL ___990_____  END FUEL __1012_____  LEG FUEL ___22_____ TOTAL FUEL  __195_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __1.86____   REMAINING RANGE __1581________    GEN FUEL EST. 743/1292/548 Gal

 

END PRT __420__ Gal   END STRBD  _360___Gal   END SPLY  __70__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE __850__ Gal

 

SEA STATE____4’ – 5’_________  WIND DIRECTION___ESE_____________________________________

 

We just stopped for the night at Roseau to anchor.  

 

 

DATE _5/30/05__    TIME ___9:00 AM   START PORT _English Habour____ END PORT __Guadeloupe____

 

START MILES___1627___  END MILES __1682____  LEG MILES ____55___ TOTAL MILES __1682_______

 

START HOURS  _318___   END HOURS _328______ LEG HOURS __10_____TOTAL HOURS ___328_______

 

START FUEL ___916_____  END FUEL __949______  LEG FUEL ___33_____ TOTAL FUEL  __173_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __1.66____   REMAINING RANGE __1651________    GEN FUEL EST. 743/1191/448 Gal

 

END PRT __450__ Gal   END STRBD  _475___Gal   END SPLY  __70__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE __995__ Gal

 

SEA STATE____5’ – 6’_________  WIND DIRECTION___ESE_____________________________________

 

5/30/05 We took off for Basse Terre in some pretty rough seas.  The wind was off our Port quarter and almost our port beam.  This boat has great TRAC stabilizers and if there is rough weather I prefer the seas to be right on the beam.  It is still rough but the boat takes these seas the best.  We can typically run 7 knots at 1800 rpm in calm weather.  However, the boat slows down by 1 to 1.5 knots in rough seas.  Even as much as 2 to 2.5 knots in rough head seas. Getting a late start and slowing down like this was going to put us into Basse Terre after dark.  We chose to anchor in a little harbour named Les Trois Tortues about six miles north of Basse Terre for the night and then go clear in the morning.

 

5/31/05 The next morning we cruised down to Bases Terre and anchored out.  We went in to clear but the officers were not in their office.  We were told by some locals that it was a 50/50 chance of catching them.  As a result, we went back to the boat and cruised down to “Le Saints”  This is a group of islands that is part of Guadeloupe and just south of the main island.  It was another couple of hours to get there and when we arrived we anchored in the main anchorage off of Terre de Haut.

 

As we always do when we arrive we went to lower the dinghy.  Halfway down the davit just stopped working.  As many of you may remember, we just repaired the unit.  A VERY LONG diagnostic story made short there ended up being a bad solder on a computer board in the control box.  Larry took out the board, re-soldered it, re-installed it, and the davit worked fine.  We suspect this was the cause to all the other davit failures we had before.  The process went into the evening hours so we never got to shore to clear.  While Larry was filthy and in a work mode, he changed the generator oil and oil filters, fuel filters, air filter, and checked the condition of the impellor.

 

6/1/05 The Saints are a gorgeous place.  From the water it looks similar to St. Barth’s but once on shore it is no where near as pristine and clean.  Once again, the first thing we do is clear and the second thing we do is go to the tourism office.  Since Jimmy and Jessica were visiting, we thought the best thing would be to hang out at a great beach.  We set off to find a great beach.  Unfortunately, the weatherman was right, the big winds came.  We tried to go to the bigger beaches by dinghy but the wind was so strong we just turned around and stayed in the lee of the island.  We ended up finding a little beach in front of a great little hotel but it was not great sand and the water was good, but not the typically crystal clear water we were accustomed to.  We still had a great time playing in the water and letting the sun just kick our butts.

 

6/2/05 The winds were still strong and we all wanted to take a hike to see the waterfalls and the rainforest so we cruised up to Port A Pette.  This would be a good place to take the tour from and it was also close to the Airport for Jimmy and Jessica, very protected from the wind, and it has an immigration office to clear out of.  We were up by 5:30 am and cruising by 6:00 am so we did not lose another day to cruising.  We were anchored and ready to go by noon.  We packed up the dinghy and cruised about three miles to a great island by the name of Islet de Gosier.  It was very wooded with a cool little light house on it.  It had a great beach and although it had the “state park” feel to it, it was lovely and fairly isolated.  We just enjoyed the water and the sun.  That evening we went into the Marina area and had some ice cream.  The marina, Bas du Fort Marina, has about 1,000 slips and about a dozen restaurants on the water.  It was a great day.

 

Boat stuff…………  As we got back to the boat, Larry started the generator but each time he put a load on the generator, it would die out.  It ended up being a fuel problem. The fuel had grown some algae and it had clogged the filters.  We saw this the other day when Larry changed the filters so he had put in biocide fuel treatment. Although it kills the algae, the algae will still clog the filters.  Larry changed the fuel filters and after spending an hour or so bleeding the fuel system, the generator started up and ran fine from there on.

 

After days like this the typical night is putting in a DVD movie and falling asleep watching it.  This evening, we chose to watch the “Everybody Loves Raymond” shows.  We have to be up early for the waterfalls tour tomorrow.

 

6/3/05 In most of these islands the Taxi drivers double as tour guides.  We got a fellow who was very knowledgeable about the island and extremely knowledgeable about the vegetation on the island.  We started out the morning with a drive around the island. Actually, Guadeloupe is two islands which are very different.  One Grande Terre is a limestone island and is flat with black beaches and the other, Basse Terre, is mountains and jungle like with typical tan sand beaches.

 

There is a very large waterfall on the island (actually the largest in the Caribbean) but it was closed off because mud slides had made it dangerous.  We went to another one which was fantastic in its own way.  It was on a river which had great boulders and rocks.  Isabella spent a lot of time being a kid and climbing the rocks.  The waterfall itself was about 30 to 40 feet high and had a great place to jump from.  Unfortunately, the landing was only about 6’ to 8’ and it had to be hit on the bull’s eye so we passed o jumping.  One of the things we need to be conscious of out here is that there are no hospitals or poor hospitals.  The islands are not a place you want to get hurt. Since we started cruising in the islands 9 years ago we have been around a number of people who have died.  When someone is hurt in the islands, the VHF radio becomes the main emergency communication and a call goes out to everyone asking if anyone has any medical expertise.  Although we can not say for sure, listening to the radio it sounded like a few of the people could have been saved if an ambulance and modern hospital were available. We have actually been considering putting a defibulator (sp?) on board.

 

After the waterfalls we went on to a hike in the National park.  The trees and vegetation were just amazing.  Take a look at the photos under the Guadeloupe heading.

 

An interesting aspect of this island is that there are no critters in the jungles.  No snakes and very few bugs.  This is very unusual in such thick vegetation.  We were told that the only animals on the island are ones that were brought on for food or service.  There is livestock all over.  It is a cruel system here.  The owner of an animal is responsible for any damage is causes including a car hitting it.  Therefore, all the animals are kept on a chain which is staked to the ground.  Even in Texas where most of the cattle are headed for slaughter, they get to roam free until there day of reckoning.

To finish off their vacation, we took Jimmy and Jessica wakeboarding.  Jimmy wanted to go all week but the wind was blowing most of the time.   Jessica passed on the opportunity to wakeboard after seeing Jimmy take some nice face planters.

 

6/4/05 Jimmy and Jessica took off for the states today.  I think they enjoyed their time here. 

 

6/5/05 Today we cruised down to Le Saints which are the islands part of Guadeloupe but to the south.  We need to make some cruising decisions for the next 6 weeks.  We have to be back in the states by late July for DeeDee’s medical checkups and Larry has to attend to some business.  We also really need to be out of the hurricane belt by mid July.  Lastly, there is simply not enough time to see everything left in just six weeks.  Although we are dedicated to not having a plan, we think we are going to head back thru the Caribbean islands South to North after this hurricane season.  Therefore we think we are going to make a few long runs and get down to the Grenadines fairly quickly skipping long visits in Dominica and Martinique.  This is a shame because Dominica has some great inland sights including many rivers and waterfalls.  However, we figure that if we do not come back this way for some reason, what do we want to see the most.  That would be the Grenadines.  Maybe we can squeeze Dominica.  We will see.

 

 

DATE _5/13/05__    TIME _10:00 AM   START PORT _Nevis_____________ END PORT __Antigua__________

 

START MILES___1528___  END MILES __1576____  LEG MILES ____48___ TOTAL MILES __1576________

 

START HOURS  _300___   END HOURS _308______ LEG HOURS __8______TOTAL HOURS ___308_______

 

START FUEL ___858_____  END FUEL __889______  LEG FUEL ___31_____ TOTAL FUEL  __140_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __1.5_____   REMAINING RANGE __1780________    GEN FUEL EST. 1040 Hrs - 198 gal.

 

END PRT __530__ Gal   END STRBD  _550___Gal   END SPLY  __70__ Gal  FUEL BALANCE _1150__ Gal

 

SEA STATE____3’ – 4’_________  WIND DIRECTION___SE______________________________________

 

5/13/05 The seas going to Antigua from Nevis were not big but were rough because we were heading directly into the trade winds.  We got going late and were running out of light so we decided to drop anchor in Five Islands harbor.  This was an unexpected pleasure.  We anchored out in dead calm water with probably a mile of open water around all sides of us and only one boat within sight along a beach off in the distance.  It was GREAT to have a calm night of sleeping.  The roll in Nevis was getting so bad it was really uncomfortable. 

 

Antigua is famous for a few things.  One of them is that Admiral Nelson from English history made this island one of  his strong holds and based the English Navy from this Island.   English harbor was our next stop and where we would clear.  It is where Nelson’s Dockyard is and it is now a protected museum.  As we came in once again we saw Williwaw anchored in the harbor.  English Harbor is a very well protected harbor and was used as a hurricane hole for Nelson’s fleet. In the Caribbean, it is rare to see a typical dock like in the United States.  It is usually a Med mooring against a seawall and that is what is offered here although we always choose to anchor if we can.

 

We cleared and spent some time in the dockyard.  As Keith from Williwaw said, “it is like being in a Horatio Hornblower movie.”  It was VERY cool and has a great history.

 

We took another hike here and Isabella was not as keen on this one.  This means that Larry carries her most of the way.  Take a look at the pictures of the Harbor from the hike.  It gives a good view of the protected harbor.   

 

We have seen a boat by the name of Nelson’s Lady for years now in the Bahamas.  We have anchored next to them in the Bahamas many times and have seen them at Staniel Cay as well.  We have also seen this boat all the way down here in many places since we left the Bahamas.  We saw it moored against the wall when we were in town and went to say hello.  They remembered our old boat and we ended up inviting them over to Williwaw that evening for drinks.  The  boat was a trawler from the 80s but was just the greatest looking boat.  It had been completely refit in 2000 and she had twin engines with two generators and was 44’ long.  The owner was English and his girlfriend was Israeli.  They were quite the couple and had great humor.  They were shipping their boat to the Med in two days time.  We ended up having dinner with them the next night and committed to stay in touch. 

 

We also met a couple from Attitude on Williwaw that night who were also heading south.  They were great people as well and like us really did not have a definitive plan.  I am sure we will see more of them down the line.

 

05/18/05  Today we took the dinghy out again in search of beaches. Another thing Antigua is famous for is having 365 beaches, one for every day of the year.  We had a great find today on a beach named half moon beach (or bay)  We were told it was constantly in the top 10 beaches in the world.  It was a huge beach, very protected, with great snorkeling which you could swim to right from the beach.  Isabella was in her life jacket just letting the waves take her in and out.  It was great.  On the way back to the boat we stopped in a place by the name of the St. James club to have lunch.  We think it was a private club but they served us.  Just another place in paradise.

 

One thing we love about this island is that you can be in a social environment or there are enough harbors that you can be alone or close to alone if you choose to.  Also, this island is very conscious of its eco systems and the island, including TV messages, are constantly educating its population including kids of the value of the eco system.

 

05/19/05  Again we see the Nordhavn – “Slow Dancin” come in as we are going out  We will get with them sooner or later.  We also met by radio “Class Act” which is a sailboat which cruised with Arwenstar and know Williwaw, Bananas, Alibi, and many of the boats we also have met. Today we are taking the boat to Jolly Harbor marina to leave the boat for a few days. We will fly back to Dallas on the 21^st to attend Larry’s  daughter’s ( Lindsey) high school graduation and return to the boat on the 25^th.  Then on the 28^th Larry’s nephew and his girlfriend Jessica will be flying in to meet us.

 

5/28/05 Larry’s nephew Jimmy and his girlfriend Jessica are coming in today.   We just got back from Dallas and it was great to see everyone.  Flying a 12 hour trip with a 3 ½ year old is not easy.  However the visit with friends and family was great.  DeeDee’s Mom came in town and Larry’s daugher’s graduation was fun.

 

While we were in the Marina Larry got to take Isabella to the beach by himself and left DeeDee to have some quiet time. Well, her quiet time is running 3 or 4 miles in 90 degree heat.  None-the-less, time to herself is a rarity and she does embrace it.

 

Boat Stuff……..  The marina only was delivering 90 VAC to the boat.  One of the cool features of the Inverter we have is that you can set it to accept low voltage or to not invert unless the VAC is over a certain level.  However, we are not “electrically savvy” enough to know if the low voltage is damaging to the appliances and electrical motors on the boat.

 

A second cool feature of the boat is that we can dedicate the shore power to the house needs or the Air Conditioner or have a separate 50 amp connection going to each.  We only had one 50 amp connection so we let the shore power run only the Air Conditioner and ran all the other appliances and AC needs off of the inverter.  Then we would run the generator a few hours each day to recharge the house batteries.

 

When we left Jolley Harbour, we took the boat up to Deep Harbour and anchored out.  It is a great little beach on the west coast of Antigua.  We were the only boat in the anchorage and it even has a sunken wreck right in the middle of the harbour which can be snorkeled. Jimmy and Jessica came in and the first thing we did was snorkel the wreck.

 

5/29/05 Today we cruised back to English Harbour and anchored there.  It is a good place to clear out of and the weather is saying it is going to get very windy.  While we were at English Harbour we all went to Nelson’s Dockyard. 

 

Another selfish thing we take advantage of when guests are on the boat is babysitting time.  We were able to go run trails while Jimmy and Jessica watched Isabella.  In the evening Larry took Jimmy and Jessica to dinner at Calabash on the beach.  We were planning to spend another day in English Harbour and cruise to Guadeloupe overnight but the winds were really picking up so we decided to take off Monday morning.

 

 

DATE _5/8/05___    TIME _9:00 PM__  START PORT _St. Martin________ END PORT __Nevis____________

 

START MILES___1464___  END MILES __1528____  LEG MILES ____64___ TOTAL MILES __1528________

 

START HOURS  _290___   END HOURS _300______ LEG HOURS __10_____TOTAL HOURS ___300_______

 

START FUEL ___823_____  END FUEL __858______  LEG FUEL ___35_____ TOTAL FUEL  __109_________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __________   REMAINING RANGE ______________    GEN FUEL EST. 1000 Hrs. – 158 Gal.

 

END PRT __FULL_ Gal   END STRBD  _FULL_ Gal   END SPLY  __FULL Gal  FUEL BALANCE _>1300_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____3’ – 4’_________  WIND DIRECTION___SE______________________________________

 

5.8/05 We chose to skip St. Kitts.  Although we had heard that it was a really beautiful place, we are running out of time before hurricane season and need to make some choices on what we are going to see.  We went right to Nevis on an overnight trip.   Arriving was just fantastic at sunrise with the clouds covering the top of the peak on Nevis.  The anchorage was along a great beach were the Four Seasons Hotel resort was located.  This was one of those beaches that you see in advertisements.  It was very long and was just covered with tall Palm Trees.  Once again we meet up with Williwaw who was anchored along the beach.  Larry pulled up very close to them (at 6 AM) and yelled hello.  It is always great to see them and we already know they will be lifetime friends no matter where they or we are.  We always share and compare cruising and life perspectives.  It is interesting that they prefer to move every few days and we prefer to anchor and stay in one place for a period of time.

 

We went to have breakfast with Williwaw on their boat and spend a few hours catching up.  Isabella got to play with what she calls “the Williwaw kids”.  They really are great kids.  They are much older than Isabella and it is the highlight of Isabella’s life to get to play with the big kids.  This is one of the great things about cruising.  Most kids that are much older would never give Isabella the time of  day. These kids not only play with her, they make her feel like she is one of their best buddies.  We are so grateful for the way they both treat Isabella. 

 

After having breakfast, we went into clear and check out the town.  The first thing you always check is the tourist office and right after that you check out the supermarkets.  Larry was ready to get a nap as he only slept an hour or two on the overnight cruise.  The rest of the day was a long nap.  Thank God for the generator and air conditioning on a day like this.

 

The next day we did the dinghy ride around most of the island.  It is a volcanic and elevated island.  Not anywhere on the entire island is there a harbor.  It is all exposed.  The north shore was just miles and miles of coral reef.  I know this has been said before, but the most frustrating thing is to tour the island and find all these little “neighborhoods” that have there own charm and not have the time to explore them.  On Nevis there is a marine biologist who will show you the sea life.  There is a Palm Tree lined beach with a restaurant and beach where you could spend weeks on.  There are mountains to hike and great wildlife to see. There are many stables to ride horses on the beach or in the mountains. You have to pick what is best on the island.

 

We decided to take a hike to the top of the rain forest.  We were told monkey and mongoose could be seen often.  We took a taxi ride up top the Golden Rock Inn.  It was at the edge of the rain forest.  We started with a short hike and we actually got to see Monkeys playing in the trees.  They came so close and I could swear they were messing with us.  We were thirsty after the hike and grabbed a table outside at the Inn.  The view was incredible.  We could see everything.  It was so peaceful and gorgeous.  We got to meet the lady who ran the Inn and she was from the original family when it was built around 1800.  She was telling us how the monkeys actually come around the inn when the sun goes down.  What a fabulous place.  Isabella enjoyed the hike (which she usually does not) and wanted to do it again so we did. 

 

Once we drop anchor, we don’t like to pick it up until we are ready to go to the next island.  Other cruisers will pick up and move every day or so to a new port so they can see as much as possible.  We made a decision when we had our last boat that if we did cruise like this we would get a big dinghy so we could stay in one place and see the island using the dinghy versus moving the big boat all the time. Our dinghy is one of the biggest if not the biggest we have seen among the cruiser community.  It was the best decision we made when buying and commissioning Nexus.  However, another reason you move the boat is to stay in the lee of the island so the anchorage is calm.  We are frankly lazy about that and sometimes pay the price.  We enjoyed Nevis immensely but the wind turned and caused a very big roll in the anchorage.  Everyday we said we should pick up anchor and move but after five days of saying it we still had not moved.  Eventually because of the very uncomfortable roll and possibly the fist tropical storm of the season coming in, we decided to move on to Antigua where we knew there were much protected anchorages.

 

 

DATE _4/30/05__    TIME _8:30__AM   START PORT _St. Barths_______ END PORT __St.Martin ______

 

START MILES___1417___  END MILES __1449____  LEG MILES ____32___ TOTAL MILES __1449________

 

START HOURS  _283___   END HOURS _287______ LEG HOURS __4______TOTAL HOURS ___287_______

 

START FUEL ___806_____  END FUEL __817______  LEG FUEL ___11_____ TOTAL FUEL  __74__________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __-_______   REMAINING RANGE __>2500_______    GEN FUEL EST. 923 Hrs. 81 Gallons

 

END PRT __FULL_ Gal   END STRBD  _FULL_ Gal   END SPLY  __FULL Gal  FUEL BALANCE _>1400_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____Calm_________  WIND DIRECTION___NE______________________________________

 

4/30/05 We cleared in on the French side.  It was very simple to clear in and free as well.  As we came in we saw Cheshire II which is a steel trawler we have cruised with before.  We have seen them from Luperon to here and have yet to get to spend any time with them.  It seems two boats, Cheshire II and another Nordhavn, Slow Dancin, seem to be leaving as we come in.

 

When we are cruising you would think that we are on a non stop vacation.  However, what most people do not realize, is the amount of work on a boat. We have separated chores into separate areas like the families of the 1950s.  It is old fashion but especially on the boat it seems to work best for us.  Larry is better at mechanical stuff and DeeDee is better at the domestic stuff and takes on the load of home schooling Isabella. The work load is large.  First of all, we have a child who still requires most of our time.  DeeDee needs to make three meals a day most of the time and clean up after the meals.  Larry is in a constant maintenance mode on the boat. 

 

The boat maintenance is simply non-stop.  To wash the boat takes almost eight hours.  Yes, eight hours.  The surface area of the boat is just unbelievable.  We also wax 1/3^rd of the boat every month so the boat is completely waxed every three months.  The bottom needs to be cleaned at least once a month, and usually more often.  That is a 3 hour job and requires a combination of snorkeling under the boat and using the dive tank for most of it.  The waterline of the boat needs to be cleaned every week.  Because the dinghy is left in the water, it needs to be washed and bottom cleaned about every two weeks.  The dinghy engine oil needs to be changed every 100 hours as well as the lower unit oil.  The spark plugs and other items every 200 hours.  The generator oil and filters are changed every 200 hours.  The generator fuel filters are changed every 400 hours.  The main engine oil, filters and fuel filters are changed every 250 hours.  Other maintenance includes greasing the windless, cleaning the air conditioner filters, cleaning the seacock filters, changing the watermaker oil, changing the watermaker filters, cleaning the grey water tanks, etc. etc.  Now all of this is on top of what typical house chores one would  have such as cleaning the house and bathrooms and windows and dusting, etc. etc.  All of this takes many many hours.

 

The point of all this is that every once in awhile we take a week and dedicate it to cleaning and maintenance.  We try to do this in a modern port so we can find the parts we might need for repairs.  This week in St. Martin was a good week to do this.  Larry has a friend coming in for a few days and after that we will get to the maintenance and cleaning.  Larry Smith Electronics are sending two guys out this week to make all the repairs on the Audio Visual and Navigation equipment and the watermaker guy, who is actually becoming friend he has been out so often,  is also coming so it seemed a perfect week to do it.  Isabella loves when John, the watermaker guy, comes out because he has a niece about her age and he is good at playing with her at her level.  She always seems to get the 220 pound guy on the floor playing with her dinosaurs.

 

Larry’s friend, Carmen, came in and we picked him up at the Ferry dock on the French side.  The next day we picked up anchor and moved to Simpson Bay on the Dutch side.  Although this is one island, it is controlled by two countries.  When we moved over to the Dutch side we once again had to clear customs and immigration. 

 

In St. Martin there is a huge lagoon in the middle of the island.  It is much protected and very calm.  We chose to stay outside in the harbor for a number of reasons.   The water was much cleaner outside so you could swim and make water.  Also, staying inside meant you could only leave two times a day because the bridge is only opened at pre-scheduled times.  This was a good decision for the first few days but then the wind changed and it was really rolley.

 

Two things we do very often on the boat are to take a dinghy ride to check out the island and take the dinghy in search of new beaches.  With Carmen in town we first took a dinghy ride to check out the island.   It was a great way to learn about the island and also a great way to find all the restaurants on the water.  The best was when we took Carmen out to a beach and we found a great one.  It was isolated and the water was perfectly clear.  It also had a little cave at one end that we were able to get shade in when we wanted to cool off.  Also, it had a steep sand dune down to the water and Isabella just loved sliding down it.  This was the first time Isabella was able to lay in the waves and just let them push her around without her being fearful.

 

The rest of our time in St. Martin was really uneventful because it was dedicated to picking up spare

parts, making minor repairs, and cleaning and maintaining the boat.

 

 

DATE _4/24/05__    TIME _10:30 AM   START PORT _St. Thomas________ END PORT __St. Barth’s______

 

START MILES___1255___  END MILES __1417____  LEG MILES ____162__ TOTAL MILES __1417________

 

START HOURS  _262___   END HOURS _283______ LEG HOURS __21_____TOTAL HOURS ___283_______

 

START FUEL ___743 FILL  END FUEL __806______  LEG FUEL ___63_____ TOTAL FUEL  __63__________

 

AVERAGE MPGs __1.9_____   REMAINING RANGE __2660________    GEN FUEL EST. 842FILL/874/48 gal.

 

END PRT __FULL_ Gal   END STRBD  _FULL_ Gal   END SPLY  __FULL Gal  FUEL BALANCE _>1400_ Gal

 

SEA STATE____3’ – 4’_________  WIND DIRECTION___SE______________________________________

 

4/24/05 We decided to go past St. Martin and go directly to St. Barth’s first and then come back to St. Martin next week where I am meeting a lifetime friend. (Since kindergarten)  As boating goes, I also have the electronics guys and watermaker guy to come do warranty work.

 

St. Barth's is simply the absolute best place we have visited so far.  We cruised overnight with seas that started a little rough but were calm by the last 1/3^rd of our leg.  Larry did his leg on the flybridge from 12 midnight to 4 AM.  The moon was incredible and it was like cruising in daylight.  It was one of those magical nights.   It is just a miracle that we can travel from country to country via our boat with all of our belongings.  (and toys)

 

We arrived at 7 AM into an incredible island.  There are a dozen great beaches which we could see on our approach and the island is green and elevated.  The island has a really cool mix of tropical and desert.  There are cacti all over but the island is very green.  There is not a Marina on the island (which keeps this place so great) and you must anchor outside the main harbor or go stern-to the wall inside the main harbor. We anchored in the outside harbor and the water was perfectly clear. This island is just unbelievable.  It reminds me of Aspen with all the shops in alcoves and the buildings are immaculate.  This little island of 6,000 residents can support four annual glossy magazines.  It truly is a place to see and be seen and the prices are very high.  We had bread and jam with two orange juices and a coffee on our first day and that cost $40. 

 

The first day we just walked around the town. It is very hilly and just gorgeous.  Of-course we are in a French island so the food is fantastic.  We had crepes for lunch and Isabella had a chocolate and banana crepe that was delicious.  It is great to run out and pick up fresh bread and cheese anytime.  This may sound weird but Larry felt like he was a giant on the island.  All the cars are mini something or other.  Many Susukis and a lot of the mini Smart cars.  Also scooters all over the place.  It is also cool to see women in high heels and dressed pull up their scooter and jump out to go to work or go to a restaurant.  On this island it is not a mode of transportation limited to the young or the grunge crowd.

 

The next day we took a hike up to the top of an elevated point.  Williwaw came in from St. Martin and we met up with them again and they joined us on the hike.  We could see St. Martin, Saba, and Statia from the island and from this elevation it almost looked like they were only a few miles away.  It was an easy hike but very steep and Larry was carrying Isabella on his shoulders the whole way.  The views were amazing.  At the end of the day we went to Shell Beach so the kids could hunt shells and the adults could have cocktails at the bar on the beach while the sun set.  It was great.

 

We rented a car and dedicated a day to exploring the island.  We usually do not rent cars but this island really warranted such a tour.  We drove around the island completely twice and saw every beach on the island.  On the north side there are little surfing areas.  In St. Jean the beach is great and even Nikki Beach from Miami opened up an establishment here.  We went to Saline beach which was just incredible and was the end of what was originally salt flats.  Every beach had its own flavor and every beach was spotless as were the buildings surrounding them.  Here is another place we could spend months at.

 

We decided to make the best of these incredible beaches.  We packed a lunch and headed to the beach.  We brought a day tent with us to get out of the sun once in awhile while so we could spend most of the day.  Larry played with Isabella while DeeDee snorkeled and visa versa.  After hours of being in the water, we just opened the cooler and pulled out the French bread and cheese and butter.  It was great.

One of the things that happen when you are cruising is that you start to wake up with the sun and go to bed when the sun goes down. Not literally, but close to it.  After being in the sun all day, it takes a lot out of you and it usually ends up being dinner and retiring early.  This was one of those days.

 

St. Barth's is the best so far.  It is so clean that even the fuel depot is painted with fresh paint and is also spotless.  I wish I had the time and money to shop here.  The goods and clothes are really fantastic.  The feel of the island is small but civilized.  It is mostly French in style and truly caters to the rich and famous.  Again, that is one of the great things about cruising, you can come to an island like this and drop and anchor for free or close to free and enjoy it more than the people who jet in for a quick vacation.  We can spend extended time and stay as long as we like.  We need to go back to St. Martin but will for sure return here and experience more fully what the island has to offer.

 

 

DATE _3/28/05__    TIME _10:30 AM   START PORT _BVI Jost Van Dyke_