Problems solved

OK, confidence in David has improved. He finally got the alternators swapped, the battery replaced and things are looking good. We still have no DC compressor for the freezer, but we knew we’d have to wait until next week for that.  With the charging problem solved, there is nothing that looks like it will slow us down for the next few days.

The rain continues, with a few flashes of lighting here and there. Forecast is for more rain tonight and tomorrow, then clearing up. It will be nice to be dry again, right now just about everything is a little wet.

After the repairs were done, we co0ked grouper on the grill – Great! Now to figure out what to do tomorrow.

A step backwards

Saturday 3/6/10

Last night I decided to run the port engine to make sure the freezer kept all our fish frozen, and the port engine would not start. The battery would not turn it over. Tried again in the morning, but still nothing. Checked all over for a bridge to the other batteries, but there was no way to connect them. Next step was to make sure that the starboard engine would run. Good news, it does, but bad news, after checking everything closely it is not charging the house batteries. To save the food, I moved the stbd battery over to the port side and started the engine. Close check of the voltage shows that its not charging either. I knew it was low yesterday, but chalked it up to the dry/dead battery. Now we appear to have problems with both charging systems. It doesn’t seem possible that both alternators went out at the same time, but they are not charging.

Had to call David, who was planning on getting a new battery any way, so now he’s getting an alternator as well. The only problem is that we have to sail back to Trellis Bay on Tortola so he can work on it. Of course its raining today, so we are going to get a little wet, but no big deal.

Now we are at Trellis Bay. David is still working on installing the new alternator. The first one didn’t fit, he got another one, and now several drill bits and files later he is still working. Not looking good, its almost 6 and will be dark soon. The house batteries are at about 60%, and of course there has been no sun to charge from the solar panels. Hopefully we don’t end up stuck in Trellis Bay for another day. Oh well, there are worse places to be.

On the bright side, we did have a nice sail back, and have spotted a large sea turtle cruising around here in the bay, as well as a big (4-5’) barracuda circling under the back of the boat.

Trellis Bay

Dawn came early on the boat, and I was up around 6:30 checking things out. Lowering the dinghy was a little noisy, but it  helped roust the rest of the crew. Boat is even better with the dinghy out of the way, as it clears the back swim deck and adds even more room to roam about. After breakfast we dive in for our first swim, taking the traditional lap around the boat. The water is about 16 feet deep, but we can clearly see all the way to the bottom.

More work checking out the systems confirms that the DC compressor for the fridge is not working. We need to run the port engine to keep it cool. Also notice that while running the engine the port battery doesn’t seem to be charging, dropping down to about 11 volts.  David shows up with our dinghy anchor, and checks the water level on the battery. Its low and he fills it, but believes it needs to be replaced. He’ll get us a new battery and have a fridge guy on the boat next week, so we need to schedule time back on Tortola to get that done.

Enough work, time to head in to shore and check things out. A nice stroll along the beach, climbing over rocks, finding shells and starfish, and then lunch at ‘Da Loose Mongoose’.  Delaina befriends a little dog that follows us the rest of the time on the beach until we get back in the dinghy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weather forecast is calling for thunderstorms on Saturday, so rather than be stuck here in Trellis Bay for a third or fourth day, we decide to head out and try Leverick Bay at the north end of Virgin Gorda. Drop off the ball around 2, and manage to get the sails up for the first time. Like the boat, the main sail is huge and is a lot of work to hoist. I miss our roller furling main on Island Sol. Sails are up, motor is off, life is good. There is a huge cruise ship anchored off of the south end of Virgin Gorda near the baths, so I’m glad we didn’t there today. On the way we think we spot a large sea turtle and pass by Maho Bay.

Not as lucky with the mooring balls at Leverick Bay, the sloop that motored past us as we cleared the reef went in and took the last ball. Fortunately there is a lot of room for anchoring, and gives us a good chance to figure out how to run the windless. Bit of a learning curve to get everything set, but no real problems. Noah and I dove on the anchor, but were a bit disappointed, the water was very murky and with the setting sun we couldn’t see anything. We backed down pretty hard, and are confident it is set. I guess we’ll know for sure later tonight.  

Sometime after dinner, I looked off the back of the boat and see what looks to be a beach house a couple hundreds yards away. This is a surprise because the nearest shore is probably a mile away. (at least it was when we set anchor). The beach house is actually a huge motor yacht. I can’t wait to see this in the daylight.

Day 2 – The Adventure Begins

Checking in was a stressful time. The boat had BVI inspections that lasted until after 1pm, and distracted the maintenance crew from completing a lot of tasks. We had all of our stuff to move onboard, the full pre-cruise inspection, inventory check, as well as following up on the work orders of items to be fixed. David, the guy in charge of the work was nice, but every time I asked if something was fixed I would just get a ‘oh dat, dat no problem. I checked it’.  So we really didn’t know what was and wasn’t done. Our food was delivered during the check in, adding to the hectic state. We had to wait for our cruising permits and propane tanks, and it was after 5 when we finally had things ready to go. The wind was still blowing on to the dock, but not as strong as the day before. The twin engines worked just like they are supposed to, and we were able to use an aft spring and spin right around to head off the dock and out around the moorings.  We headed our around Beef Island and toward Trellis Bay. Noah and Delaina (yes, even Delaina) ride on the trampolines the whole way and have a blast as the waves splash up. We  arrive about 6:20 with just enough light to see that there are a lot of boats in the bay. Against all odds, we spot the last mooring  ball, zip in and tie off without incident, just as the light was fading. Success! we are officially on our cruise. We settle for a quick hot dog dinner, as we sit and let the stress of the day slip away. Evening was spent laying on the trampoline looking at stars.

So far, most things on the boat are working. The freezer works while the port engine is running, but I don’t think David fixed the DC compressor as he was supposed to. Will need to check this in morning. Overall, the boat is great. Tons of room, and the layout is comfortable and easy to get around. 

Thursday Morning

Thursday 3/4/10

Sitting on the balcony of our Harbourview Hotel room. Great view of Fat Hog's bay, and of Seabbatical. The cleaning crew is on board now, and we should be able to start loading our stuff in a couple of hours. We walked up to the little market for breakfast foods, and chatted with Ron, who runs the marine store here. Got some fishing tips (don’t eat the barracuda) and some general things to watch out for, like always lock your dinghy. He said there has been a lot of problems with kids taking the dinghies for joy rides, and then just leaving them. (Seabbatical has a brand new dinghy and motor, so I’m wondering if the last charter lost one).

 

We stepped on the boat for a couple minutes, but didn’t want to get in there way during the cleaning, so no pictures yet. It looks great. Obviously, well weathered with spider cracks in the gel coat, but after seeing all the charter boats in the Bahamas, its about as good I could have expected. The glance inside at the salon looked good too.

Here’s the market. Noah is terrified – Nothing  but FRUIT!

Pool time

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We are here!

Weds. 3/3/10

After a very early start – leaving the house at 5am, we had a pretty uneventful trip. All flights were on time, with no last minute scrambling to get seats together. On the flight to San Juan, the kids got to sit in the cockpit – very cool. Amazingly all our luggage made it here as well, so all in all a perfect trip.

We made it to the Harbourview Hotel at about 7pm. Office was closed, but there was a note on the door for us telling us which room to go to.( I love the Caribbean!) After dragging all 200lbs of luggage up the stairs and figuring out how to turn on the A/C – Tracy was smart enough to look for a remote! – we headed down to the dock to check out Seabbatical. It was pretty dark, so no good pictures. Just a relief to see it sitting right where it was supposed to be. First impression: Its HUGE. Its as wide as our first boat was long. We had a strange wind from the west, pushing it on to the dock, and there is a very long power boat docked right in front. It could be a challenge to get away from the dock, so I’m hoping for a good wind change before we leave tomorrow.

For dinner we walked across the street to Emily’s Cantina. The Mexican food was good, but the chicken nuggets (big surprise, the kids ordered chicken nuggets) were horrible. To Noah’s credit, no big complaints, he just quietly dealt with it. Its late, and we are all exhausted, so as soon as dinner was over we headed back to room and crashed. Tomorrow the real fun begins.

On flight to SJ....

.....but the flight crew has me worried!

On board

Ok. First step complete. The limo picked us up on time, we made it to the airport and on the flight to Atlanta.