compass rose

 Accidental Cruiser in the West Indies

 
Boat repair philosophy and anchoring in LIttle Harbour, Peter Island
This journal is a log of all the messages from Susie & Lance. For pictures, please see the Gallery.
Friday, March 14, 2003
    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
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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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