Tuesday
15 March 2016
Left
Ponce Marina with all p/ps working with new float switches, missing
overboard discharge temp into cockpit and working ok. 104.6 to Destn.
Noon
Position 17°54.56'
N 066°36.23'
W. 103.5nm to Destn speed 5.1 knts, wind East 10-15 knts, achieved
600 nm through the water at 0000hrs. Very good sailing conditions,
not too much wind and not a big swell. Boat going great, but more
than normal amount of water coming in.
Wednesday
16th
Noon Posn. 18°04.52'
N 065°31.83'
W. 652.0 nm through the water 450 nm over the ground towards Destn.
Yesterday and today it became obvious that a serious amount of extra
water was coming into the boat, hadn't really noticed that before
because of the bilge problems that made me stop in Ponce. At Ponce
the boat was normal with no extra at all. P/p repositioning is a
success but much to much water coming in. did an investigation and
found ALL deck level mast chocks had fallen out and mast not
supported at deck level ! They had obviously fallen out with all the
pounding I was getting in the bad winds and seas. This was causing
the frames on both sides of the mast to flex, and now the caulking
had worked loose between the frames, again on both sides. You can not
fix that underway or even heaved too. So again looked for a safe
haven to stop and fix, I was now tacking along the coast of the next
island east called Isla Vieques having left Puerto Rico behind. I
found a promising bay called Esperanza and decided to check it out,
took me an hour or so to get there, dropped sail and motored in. I
very slowly edged my way into the anchourage and saw a boat that
looked very familiar, as I got closer I could tell it was Susie's
Boat 'Spirited Lady' ! She spotted me and got very excited and
jumped in the dingy with her new crew member. To say hello, then very
kindly they both helped me to a mooring. What a lovely surprise
though, what are the chances of going or stopping somewhere you
hadn't planed on, I mean I was sailing past and had no intention of
stopping, then meeting up with a friend you didn't think you would
see again? Well its either fate that's written down in the stars, or
as I believe, the only way is to be a traveller yourself, if you stay
in one place you only meet the people that pass your way.
So
Posn. Today is 18°05.51'
N 065°28.42'
W on a mooring ball in Esperanza, Isla Vieques, Puerto Rico, still
with 36.8 Nm to go to Destn. ! Didn't want to unship the dingy, so
Susie and Moty invited me ashore for drinky poos at the many beach
bars in her dingy, of course had to celebrate a bit didn't
I..........
Roy
Thursday
17th
March 2016 @ Esperanza, St Patrick's day.
Well
I got up 0500hrs and got stuck in right away, lifted the floors and
located all 11 mast wedges in various places around the bilges, and
left them in the cockpit to dry out a bit, then all the rig was
undone running and standing, with boom in its crutch. This allows me
to move the mast to get the wedges back in, a beautiful dawn arrived
at 0630hrs it will be a nice day today.
Susie
promised to come and help with the wedges, as it will take more than
one person to achieve, She duly arrived and after approx an hour all
wedges were in place and the standing rig hardened up. I then
finished off by locking all the bottle screws again, and putting all
the halyards back. I made lunch then I just had to have a kip.
Decided
to temp repair the seams tomorrow, and as Susie had an electrical
problem I went over to help find it, found one part, but still need
to find the next bit, it got dark so we went ashore for a local
restaurant fish meal, back early and straight to bed zonked out.
Roy
Friday
18th
March, @ Eaperanza,
Got
up a 0500hrs again, and have written this blog post first, have to go
ashore and post it today some time.................
