Soper’s Hole

After a great day and night in the Bight, we call David to schedule our freezer repair. He has Alfred lined up to meet us at Soper’s Hole at 2pm. This should work great, giving us a chance to stop and snorkel at the Indians on the way over.  Only one problem. Now the stbd engine will not start. Battery is charged everything looks good, but it just doesn’t do anything when we hit the switch. Back on the phone to David to let him know we’ll need more service at Soper's.

We had a nice snorkel stop at the Indians. It was a little tricky maneuvering into the ball between the other boats and the reef with one engine. But we managed to get tied up. All of us quickly put on our gear and jump in. The chop on the water wasn’t bad, but it was completely overcast and again we were missing out on all the great colors of the reef. We will have go back again later, as I remember this as one of the best sites I had ever been to. I’m sure it will be better in the sun when its a little warmer.

Leaving with one engine is again a bit dicey. Boats on both sides of us and the reef directly behind. With one engine, the boat wants to spin until it gets a little forward momentum. Luckily we do not make the Boat Channel Comedy hour, and pull out cleanly.

With the Jib unrolled, we are slipping along at 6 knots heading west towards the cut between St. John and Tortola. The wind is funneling through the cut, so we roll up the sail and motor around Frenchman’s Key and into Soper’s Hole. By now its a little after noon, and the harbor is pretty crowded. Soper’s is mostly a lunch stop with a Pusser’s restaurant and lots of shops. We find an open ball and tie up to wait for repairs.

Noah and I hop in the dinghy to check out the marina in case we need to go to a dock. There’s space, but no need to go in unless we have to. Noah needs some fishing gear, but we have no luck finding any. Back at the boat, Delaina is excited that she saw a dolphin swimming in the harbor. We watch for a while, but don’t see him again.

There’s a nice a market here, so I run in to grab some more food. When I reach the dock, Alfred the refrigeration guy is there waiting – good timing. Market will have to wait. Unfortunately, the compressor appears to be bad, so he has to take the unit out an back to his shop for the full repair. Luckily its all self contained and comes out easily. It would be nice to have the DC, as it would minimize the amount of time we need to run the engine to keep the freezer cold, but its not that big a deal. Hopefully it will be fixed and we can have it put back in by early next week before we head to St. Martin.

David arrives and finds a bad relay in the starter circuit. The terminals are corroded and a wire has broken off. Getting the wire on gets us running, but the relay still is a little fluky. About one time in 3 it doesn’t start.  A few taps on the relay, and then it starts again. He’ll have to get a new relay tomorrow.  By this time is way too late to try to go anywhere else for the night, so we will just hang out here a while longer. There’s no beach, so not a great place for the kids, but we’ll be able to go in and have a nice dinner at Pusser’s.