15 May It's a winner

This morning we waved the magic wand and in one flash solved the problem of failed house batteries. 

Only 2 and a half years since we bought them from Budget Marine in Grenada and the Trojans aren't delivering. We replaced one inAntigua last month and now another one has failed.  How much life do the other six have?

The previous set of Trojan lead acid batteries which we bought in Malaysia gave very good service for 5 and a half years. David is so frustrated with the poor quality that he wants to ditch the current set and replace them with AGM no maintenance batteries. 

Within a 5 minute walk of the our dock there are 5 well stocked chandlers and three of those have AGMs in stock. It is so refreshing to ask 'do you have in stock?' and get a positive response. One shop had 5 Victron Energy 115Ah and another shop 2 good and 1 poor of the same brand. We need eight (on a 24v system that's 4 pairs of two). Then the last shop we visited had nine brand new French brand EZA 100Ahs ready for adoption. One wave of the universal tool, aka as a credit card, and we have a fix for our stored energy problem fitted within an hour. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Or really, it was sushi dinner to celebrate.

Hello AGMs

goodbye lead acid

11 May First week in Marina Bas du Fort

Week one of our one month stay at Marina Bas du Fort in Pointe-a-Pitre and we're well into the to do lists. Fridge and freezer freshly defrosted, caught up on laundry, croissants, pain, vin et fromage and new friends made. This time it's Irish Noel on a Super Maramu called Oya. A lovely fella with a couple of friends on board helping to sail Oya to Europe via Bermuda and the Azores. David was able to help him with some Maramu specific questions and in return Noel generously gifted us a pair of quick release locks for the drop down companion door. When we open and close that door it will be a forever reminder of Noel and Oya. Pay it forward at it's kindest.

our gift from Oya

4 May From Antigua to Guadeloupe

The day after we fitted the new battery we departed Antigua bound for Guadeloupe. Starting in light winds initial progress was slow but then the wind filled in and we were away, flying along in flat seas and clear skies until a heavy squall just north of Guadeloupe over filled the sails and removed all salt from the rails. For the night we anchored in a spot new to us, Bouillante, a bay with a thermal energy plant and a natural hot water spring. It was charming. The hot water must come from the dormant volcano and where it emerges there are clouds of steam.

Just one night and then a long motor all the way to the marina in Pointe-a-Pitre. The last ten miles were not nice. We got hammered in torrential rain. Visibility was reduced to meters and we were aware fast ferries without AIS, speed boats and other yachts could be in the same bit of sea. While the storm may have lasted for only an hour, it was a stressful hour. We later learned the island had been hit by a tornado within the storm at a point 4 miles north from where we were.

Before the sunset we were safely med moored in the marina, hooked up to shore power and a 'we're here g&t' in hand. Bonsoir.

1 May Replacement battery arrives at the wrong shop

 After waiting 6 weeks for delivery our new Trojan battery from the US to arrive Budget Marine advise it's cleared Customs and ready for delivery. However, there's no driver available today to bring it to the shop today and we'll get it tomorrow. Tomorrow arrives and Budget Marine tell us it is there in the shop. However. It is in the shop in Falmouth, not in the BM in Jolly Harbour as we had requested and where we are waiting. However, this time there is a driver available and he'll whizz it across for us to collect.

Finally we have 8 house batteries....however, in the time we've been waiting another one went tits up. Back to running on six 115Ah house batteries instead of the ideal eight.

restored to 8 batteries

24 April Touch 'n' go Falmouth Harbour

Things to do and best done in Falmouth Harbour so we popped around the corner from Jolly to do a laundry run, pop into the wine shop and a couple of dinners out. At the Yacht Club we had exclusive service due to lack of other customers. In the short time we've been away from Falmouth the super yachts and snow birds have departed for points east and north ahead of the upcoming hurricane season, ergo no problem getting a table. At Pillars restaurant in historic Nelson's Dockyard last night we had a romantic shore side table and excellent food and service.

This afternoon the breeze grew into a wind and when we began to hear the anchor chain uncomfortably grating on old coral / rocks and the bow snatching we looked at each other and said 'time to leave'. Anchor up and a short trip 'round the corner to sandy Jolly Harbour.

19 April Last wind day

One month ago due to the constraints of wind direction changes we were only able to stay in Barbuda overnight. We promised that next time we would stay longer. We've now been here10 days anchored off Princess Diana beach, 5 miles of golden sand, clean water and some delightful sunsets but it is time to go back to Antigua. We've eaten all the fresh produce and the forecasts suggests this will be the last day of usable wind for a week or more. We've been out in the kayak, walked along the beach, watched another F1 Grand Prix; a fine time.

The journey back to Jolly Harbour was good: we sailed all the way back only using the engine to lift anchor and to motor to our new anchor spot. Once again...relax.

14 April Bow thruster

 What do you do when anchored off one of the prettiest beaches in paradise? Boat jobs. Yes, Jackster is no respecter of time or place. If something needs fixing you put the swimming and sunbathing aside and get on with it.

For a couple of days David has been working on a problem we have with the bow thruster. No problem when you are sailing or anchoring, sorely missed when manoeuvring in a marina. The problem began with intermittent loss of thrust and developed into total loss which David says is easier to trace than an intermittent loss. The thruster could be lowered and raised without issue so he began investigating the electrickery.

Amel bow thrusters have two stages; stage one, lowering and raising, stage 2 spinning the propeller for lateral movement. This was the intermittent problem. He checked power feed to all the switches, power cables and connections and found all was good. This left the mysterious black box with printed circuit board looking like the culprit. Delving inside, the problem appeared to be that some of the printed circuit tracks had lifted away from the board and disintegrated. Without an Amel repair facility anchored next to us island David fired up the soldering iron and soldered in short cables to bridge the affected contacts. With the circuit board reassembled, refitted and tested we tried again. Voila! Success! Our bow thruster is working once more!

do you see the broken contact?

electrickery to me

10 April Barbuda

In preparation for yesterdays sail to Barbuda, when we were still anchored at Jolly, I went for a swim and cleaned the waterline. There must have been some nasties in the water because today I woke up with horrible sore, red, gluey conjunctivitis in both eyes. We have a broad range antibiotic which I'll take combined with steroid eye drops hoping we won't have to go back to Antigua to see a doctor.

The meds and resting out of the sun has worked – next day my eyes were clear and no longer sore.

a sight for better eyes

7 April Bobbing around

 After David had fixed our generator we were able to move to the cleaner, less busy waters of Jolly Harbour. There's no hurry to be anywhere at the moment so we've been chilling. I've been out in the kayak exploring and getting some exercise.

David's ordered an Onan water pump and head gasket from Amazon which are going to be valuable spares to have to hand. We'll get these when our friend arrives from the States.

This weekend we have watched the Japanese Grand Prix c/o our French Digicel unlimited data and Nord VPN.

Today, Monday, we hired a car. We have a couple of gas bottles and a couple of Sodastream cartridges to refill and it's possible to do this yourself; drop them off in the morning and collect in the afternoon. Quicker and 60% cheaper than having an agent do it for you. With the flexibility of the car we can also visit the car supply shops which carry a wider selection of diesel engine oils and coolants than a chandlers.

21 March Fixed generator

David has been working very hard and has successfully fixed our generator using the new epoxy steel weld. The portable genny is back in the garage after doing a good job of keeping the batteries charged.

Sourcing a replacement thermostat housing for the Onan generator has been tricky. Of course the part is never going to be in stock in the Caribbean so our task was to find who has stock, who can ship internationally and will take a non US credit card. The last point of using a non US credit card and shipping to a US address is not possible from the original manufacturer, Cummins Onan. If the billing address is not in the US the computer says 'no'. We contacted them to ask for a work around and they still said 'no'.

Why a US address? A good, very generous American friend is returning to his boat in Antigua soon and has said 'yes' to bringing the part for us.

We did find the correct part for our model from a supplier in Sydney, the last one in stock, and they will accept a UK credit card and express ship to the US for a mere $20. Shipping took 4 days! Wow!    

fixed thermostat housing