Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Francis Bay, St. John, USVI
18.21.859N
64.44.875W

Look at this!  We’re in St. John this evening. 

Anchored in St. John 

looking towards St Thomas

As the winds had died down, life in Charlotte Amalie was moving at a crawl, and we’re in a holding pattern until our batteries and mail arrive next week, we took the opportunity to move over to St. John for a change of scenery and to clean the bottom of our boats. 

Dale had started getting ready to get underway about 8am when he came in and said that the kellet line was gone.  That means that the kellet itself has either fallen off completely or is at the bottom of the anchor chain.  (Remember I said that he was exhausted when we first arrived?  I suspect that although he wrapped the line around the cleat, he didn’t secure it with a finishing tie—although he did remember closing the kellet lever around the anchor chain.)  Nothing to do about it now, we just have to wait to see what comes up with the anchor.  We send a message to Opal to let them know that we’ll be starting a little early because of the issue but no need to hurry on their part. 

About 8:45 we start the engines and slowly start moving up on the anchor.  Thankfully, the kellet was still attached to the chain but the rope that was supposed to hold it to the boat was twisted miserably around the kellet itself which had settled about 12’ from the anchor, which is exactly where it should have been.  Dale cleared as much as possible and then ended up cutting the last foot off to clear the kellet from the chain.  Dale tells me to move slowly as we have a hunk of mud attached to the anchor itself that needs to be washed off.  Not a problem; idle speed it is!

In the meantime, Gerry and Nicky start their preps to get underway about 9am.  Just about the time our anchor detaches, they radio that they’ve dropped their bridle in the drink (it acts as a snubber between the boat and the anchor chain and takes the load off the anchor windless (the winch that hoists/drops the anchor)).  Gerry now needs to don his dive gear to reach the bridle in 30’ of water.  I guide us to the unused cruise ship area and start doing slow circles.  Dale takes the opportunity to secure all of our stuff and by the time he’s done, Gerry has located the runaway bridle and they continue to up anchor. 

We make our way out of the harbor and turn east toward St. John.  We had hoped to sail but once again, the wind is on the nose and since we would have to head to St. Croix to get a good angle for the cut to St. John, we elect to just continue motoring.  We turn north toward Christmas Island and see Texas Crewed anchored there.  A quick radio communication tells us they will be joining us in Francis Bay later in the day. 

We navigate the narrow cut north and turn to hoist sails.  We turn back to our course and cut engines.  We’ve got 18 kts and expect to start flying but we don’t!  In fact, we have to put so much rudder in, that we end up turning the engines back on to keep our course.  We can’t believe the current through here.  Later, just as we turn towards where our anchorage lies, we get behind the island the speed picks up and the boom makes a loud popping sound.  Dale is on the helm, so I climb out to take a look.  One of the pullies that he and Gerry had to remove to run the main sheet through, has popped its rivets.  I’m afraid that it might fall off but Dale is confident that the way the pully is arranged on the line, it can’t.  We drop sails in any event and finish our journey into the anchorage under power.  Dale and Gerry both have rivets (that they picked up in their Home Depot run) so that it is not going to be an issue. 

We finally make it to Francis Bay and choose our mooring ball.  Gerry is on the next one over to our left and about 30 minutes later, Texas Crewed picks up the mooring ball to the left of Opal.  We all managed to pick up our moorings like we knew what we were doing although, I have to admit, Texas Crewed had a different method but one that certainly worked.  We all settle in making sure our mooring bridles are secure and evenly tied to keep from swinging madly. 

Dale starts forward to pull the hooka (a kind of dive apparatus) out of the lazarette and in doing so, finds a wet compartment.  When we first purchased this boat about 6 years ago, I had replaced the rubber gaskets on all of the front lazarettes as they were old and flat.  These appear to be in good condition but obviously they aren’t doing the job any longer.  At that time, 6 years ago, we also found another void underneath the lazarette that had a 9” access hole.  Opening the hole, Dale had found it full of water.  To make a long story short, we ended up having to purchase a special submersible pump that could be lowered to the depth necessary to pump it dry.  Today, we found the same thing.  Thank heavens we still had that pump and had it with us. 

Dale emptied out the lazarette and I spread everything out to dry.  Then he crawled back in and dropped the pump into the void.  I started it back up and held the hose for the next 30-40 minutes pumping out 75-100 gallons.  I’m surprised the boat could even move with that kind of weight in it.  I’m definitely going to make a trip to Home Depot with him when we get back.  I’ve lived with Dale long enough to know that if you have to replace one, you might as well replace them all and I think that they need to be replaced; and maybe some duck tape put over the lazarette opening; maybe we should just seal the entire hatch every time we get underway.  I don’t know.  It’s either that or dig everything out every time we get water over the bow to check that void. 

Needless to say, Dale was tired, so we sent messages to the others that we were going to shelter in place tonight and would catch up with everyone tomorrow. 

What can I say:  its all or nothing on a boat. 

One final bit of good news.  The little trickle of water that Dale was chasing yesterday, was stemmed with a small dab of (of all things) Flex Seal around what appears to be a leaking drain pipe between the engine base and the space where the sail drive comes up.  He’ll check the boot on the sail drive tomorrow when he dives down to clean the bottom.  For now, no water is coming inside of the boat.