Back
in our sanctuary harbour. So peaceful, so protected, water so clear.
We checked into the BVI at Road Town, went to a Yamaha outboard
dealer to get parts for the outboard, and did a minor provisioning
so we could get out of town. We are extremely proud of having repaired
the outboard. The bracket that held the engine up was bent out
of shape, but it turns out that we never had all the parts of the
mechanism for tilting and lowering the engine. The bent part was
$65, so we managed to hammer it back into shape, and bought 7 parts,
several smaller than your finger tip, that were needed to put the
whole thing back together. Lance and the parts guy, loooked at
the parts diagram on the computer, and kept identifying parts we
needed. We kept running outside and looking at the engine on the
dinghy, and then studying one that was in for repair to see what
was supposed to be there. The hardest part was figuring out what
order to put things on, and what direction the springs should be
oriented.
We also repaired the dinghy leak again
on the beach at St. John, left it overnight on the beach deflated,
but it still leaks a little. We tried really hard to do it right
this time, and we have definitely slowed it down. Not sure why
it didn't take, we bought new glue and patches. Live and learn,
constant motto here. One cruiser we met said, you do ten things
to your boat and 7 of them will be great and two will be disappointing,
and one will be all wrong, you'll end up redoing or getting rid
of it or whatever.
We sailed around to the south coast of St. John, where
you use National Park Service mooring, no anchoring allowed. These bays are quite
lovely, and not a lot of people come over to them because they are a longer sail
from civilization and have no stores or restaurants or anything. People |
enjoying
land vacations drive over to the beaches. We were the only boat in Little Lameshur Bay one night, but moved back to
Great Lameshur which is slightly more protected. Then we moved over
to Salt Pond Bay, thinking it would have a telephone because there
is an eco-resort in view, but no luck. While wandering
on the land, we walked around the Salt Pond, to the beach on the
other side of the Peninsula. There, somebody or bodies had created
figures of humans and animals all over the beach and rocks, made
from coral, rocks, shoes, and other flotsam. Shades of Tom Hanks
in Cast Away there -- had a kind of Twilight Zone spookiness to
it.
Here in Little Harbour, we had anchored with
a stern tie to the old dock, so we had a place to work on the dinghy
engine. A big Catamaran full of middle-aged Italian men pulled in
beside us and tied up to the dock. They were way too close, and the
whole bay was empty. As we drifted to within 4 feet of them, I called
out to one, and there was a lot of Italian chatting, and they pulled
their line in so they were more firmly tied. But we continued to
drift so that the boats were often 5 feet apart. Lance was unable
to leave the cockpit, and kept calling out "Too close" to
them, and they would nod and mumble in Italian. We had already re-anchored
once, and I was pretty sure they would move after lunch, but being
Italian, they had a long and elaborate midday meal before they finally
departed.
The water here is so clear, that I just leaned
over the boat and took a few pictures to see how they come out. Check
the photo gallery.
There is also a shot of me up the mast. Lance
leaned out from under the bimini and caught
one picture. Most of
the time he was too busy hauling me up.
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