Oyster Pond, St. Martin, Feb 1-5, 2006

Sailboat | Voyages | Log

Oyster Pond – Tranquility Combined with a Sinking Ship! Karen lowering Outboard with block and tackle I installed a special hoist from Kato Marine for raising and lowering the outboard to the dinghy Captain Oliver's Marina in Oyster Pond The north side is French, the south is Dutch Full Circle and Two Pi at dock Our dinghy is named Two Pi The output hose for pump with plug inserted After I discovered that if water can go out it can also come in Hoses with pump replaced Jerry at the helm - He's happy That the ship is no longer sinking We did make it to Oyster Pond on Wednesday Feb 1. It is now Sunday afternoon (2/5) four days later. Karen is reading and taking a nap, and I have finally found some timee to update the log. The sail over to Oyster Pond went smoothly, but when one sets out to sea, strange things can happen, as I will describe below. Our time has been spent rearranging the boat for living as opposed to ocean passage making. We have a awful lot ocean gear to deal with, including things like life rafts and storm sails. We are now officially an RV on the water with wind as our source of power. Full Circle is moored on a dock at Captain Oliver’s Marina in Oyster Pond. It is a quiet, serene location. We can even indulge in the comforts of AC power. We have a long shore power cord which connects us to 120 volt AC power. The biggest advantage to AC power is the ability to use the battery charger to charge the batteries, which allows us to run the refrigerator without turning on the engine. Nor do we have to obsess about turning lights off when not in use. I did get the refrigerator working. The fridge coolant pump was broken, causing the compressor to overheat and the circuit breaker to pop. The pump passes cool seawater through the compressor while it is running. The impeller shaft was corroded and seizing up. I took it apart, cleaned it, lubricated it, reassembled it, and voila, it worked, back in business. However, this little project led to a major scare and near disaster. On Friday, we took some friends, Claudia and Jerry Reynolds, for a day sail to the island of Tintamarre northeast of St. Martin. They coincidentally were staying at a time share resort on the opposite side of Oyster Pond where we were moored. It was a sunny, but blustery, Caribbean day with 20 knot winds. After about 45 minutes of sailing, I went below and noticed that the bilge pump light was on and not going off. Not a good thing. Lifting up the floor panel to the bilge, I found water sloshing around like a bathtub. It was full and nearly over the floor boards. The pump was on but not working; the water was rising. I activated the backup bilge pump and, to my great relief, the water started to subside. I was truly alarmed, not quite panicked, but not far from it. I wanted to shout out, “We’re sinking,” but in deference to our guests, I held back. This had to have something to do with our sailing or something I did, but what? We tacked from a starboard tack to a port tack. The water stopped coming in. Then it hit me. How stupid. I quickly tore the mattress off our berth and emptied the locker below it. There they were the exposed hoses from the fridge pump, which I had not yet replaced. I had already turned off the valve for the water intake, but I had not given any thought to the output side since it was above the water line, and no water was coming while we sat level at the dock. However, when we were healed over on a starboard tack, the output drain quickly became an input hole with no pump to stop it. I have a supply of wood plugs of various sizes for just situations, but never really expected to need one. Well, this was the time. I plugged the hose and secured it with a hose clamp, allowing us to continue on our way to a pleasant lunch and snorkel on Tintamarre. It did take me a while to decompress after my all too real learning experience. A side benefit is that I did get the bilge pump working again after cleaning out some debris. Such events continue to remind me how close one is to danger on a sailboat. One can never let their guard down. Other than our outing on Friday, which nearly ended in disaster, I have been busy fixing things. I put the coolant pump back in so the fridge is now working, and we won’t sink. I replaced the dome light in the forward head which had a rusted switch which was shorting out. Rewiring a fuse, fixed the fan in the forward berth. I installed two new solar cockpit lights. I removed debris from the fuel line for fuel tank one. While Ted and I were motor sailing from Simpson Bay to Marigot Bay, the engine started to shut down from a clogged fuel line, just as it had during our passage from Annapolis to Bermuda. I found debris in the same place as before. Cleaning debris out of pumps, hoses, and assorted gizmos is a continuing theme on a water based RV. I have a new filter to install in that fuel line but had been hoping that it would be unnecessary, no such luck. The wash down pump is now working. After removing it and fussing with it, more debris, it works fine. The stainless steel and fiberglass in the cockpit got a good cleaning and waxing. We installed some additional towel holders and new toilet paper holders. And, oh yes, I almost forgot. The galley table is reattached and serving us well. We will, however, restrict its use to at anchor or in port. Karen has the galley, our berth, and our head in ship shape condition. We had a bit of tug of war deciding who got what space, but that is all resolved, we can focus on enjoying our time in the Caribbean. Our first guests, Peter and Diane Kelly, arrive Wednesday, February 8. We plan to visit the islands of St. Barthelemy and Anguilla with them. Once they depart, we will head south to Antigua and Barbuda. Here is a tidbit for my ocean crew. On the trip from Bermuda to St. Martin, we used 48.7 engine hours and 38.9 gallons of fuel, giving a fuel consumption rate of .72 gallons per hour. I think that the low gallons per hour was due to the fact that we were motor sailing and placing a very light load on the engine. We are settling into a routine hear at Captain Oliver’s. The waitress now knows to prepare a “café au lait glace” when she sees Karen coming. There are six restaurants that we can walk to from our boat, so we are quite content to spend a few days here. We are now on island time. Previous | Next