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I have been a bit too busy to make time to post (and a bit too lazy, to be honest!). We spent almost all the time since our last posting in Martinique. Which we loved. We’d probably love it even MORE if either of us spoke French. Martinique is officially categorized as an “Overseas Department of France” In France, a “Department” is roughly the equivalent of a US state. In my thinking, Martinique is MORE French that Puerto Rico is American, but a little LESS French that Hawaii is American.

But no matter the finer political divisions, the markets are loaded with delicious French food. Prices are very reasonable. The island is an agricultural powerhouse. Most of the vegetables in the local supermarket are grown on the island. Bananas and sugar cane (exclusively for rum) at the largest crops, at least of the acreage we saw. Supplies of all things European are available. For us, as visitors, the local cost of living is quite low. For the locals, saddled with the very high French taxes, the standard of living would not be very high.

The local rum is a bit different. “Normal” rum is made from molasses, a by product of making sugar. The local rum is called “Rhum Agricole” and is made from raw sugar cane juice. In multiple tastings we found it nasty, with a very off putting taste and aroma. But the locals seem to like it.

The big attraction for us was the service center that Amel Yachts maintains here. Having our boat attended to by people who are “factory trained” was a delight. They understand the systems and the way everything was designed to work. Every single part of the boat they touched they made BETTER than new because they incorporated the designed changes and ideas that have been worked out over the last 25 years. If you have an Amel, in the western hemisphere, you need to get here and turn your boat over to Alban LeRoy and his crew. It will come back to you better than you imagined it could be, and at very reasonable rates. The marina is cheap, and the skilled labor rates are the lowest we have found yet.

When we left Martinique, we sailed 18 hours south to the island of Bequia. It is a beautiful and funky place. With none of the sophistication of the French islands. We had planned to spend a week or so here exploring, but the weather has brought us up short.

We will definitely be back here, there is a lot of fun to be had.

You have to love a place that sells fuel priced in Eastern Caribbean Dollars per Imperial Gallon. Where else in the WORLD do they still use imperial gallons??? For those of you who have never run into them, an imperial gallon is 5 quarts, not 4 quarts like the US gallon. Proof that the British empire is not quite dead….yet. The Eastern Caribbean Dollar (also used in Grenada) has a fixed exchange rate with the US Dollar. One EC$ ==US$0.37 What were they thinking??? Could they POSSIBLY have chosen a less convenient exchange rate to use?

Right now there is a “tropical wave” in the middle of the Atlantic that is currently expected to become a tropical depression by the time it reaches the eastern Caribbean. Nothing particularly dangerous, but potentially very uncomfortable. Because of that, we have cut our sightseeing short, and after 24 hours we have checked back OUT of the country of “Saint Vincent and the Grenadines” and early tomorrow morning will be headed straight to the marina in Grenada that will be our home for the summer.

When visiting San Salvador, Bahamas, Karen fell in love with the marina’s fuel truck. “Rusted out” is a polite description. Purchased second hand, it began life delivering Aviation Gasoline at an airport, somewhere. Built “sometime in the 1970’s”, it has sat in the open, mere feet from the ocean for most of 50 years. Never garaged! And, yes, it still runs!

Shawn, the caretaker of the International, told me the marina/resort had purchased a replacement a few years ago, but that it didn’t work well, and was too hard to keep running. The old truck’s pumps run on compressed air, and has been easier to maintain then the more “modern” hydraulic systems..

Check out the “safety bars” where the doors used to be!

While we were there, the truck drove to the Government Dock, picked up a load of 2,000 gallons of diesel, and came back to the marina. It has 3 tanks of 1,000 gallons each, but one has rusted out!

Karen just fell in love with this truck!

San Salvador, Bahamas, International, Harmonie,

We arrived at the harbor in Culebra this morning without further drama.

It’s been about 4 years (and one major hurricane!) since we were last here. From the water, the town looks pretty much as we last saw it. Most structures and businesses are in good shape. The anchorage is busy, but not full.

We had planned on staying here for a few days at least, but we are making changes on the fly. We are going to head over to the main island of Puerto Rico and a marina slip where we can take care of some logistical issues with parts and packages, and also meet up with some friends. It will also be better provisioning at the local Walmart Supercenter than we can do out here.

600 miles upwind reminded us why we really, really avoid bashing into the wind as much as we can! The good news is the roughest part of the upwind work across the Caribbean is behind us. We can now do short day hops from one island to another. For example, from here we can see St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.

Current Location: 20 25.7N 66 17.8W
Distance from San Salvador: 507 NM.
Distance from Culebra: 142 NM
Local time: 11:28
Weather: Sunny, Wind 15ENE, Seas 8 feet

We were frustrated in our hunt for the weather buoy. We know it is there, because we can see the data it reports in our weather information, but in the waves, and diminishing light of dusk we couldn’t find it. From past experience we know that these buoys have a pretty small radar signature, and it was lost in the random returns from the waves. After a short search pattern, we surrendered to the increasing darkness. Oh well. Onward!

At 2AM (everything happens at 2AM!) Karen was on watch, and heard a loud noise, and quickly realized that something was wrong with the genoa, the largest of our sails on the front of the boat. It was no longer attached near the top of the mast. We quickly rolled it up so we were not left with a huge pile of canvas on deck. We do have a small extra jib we could use, unfortunately, the swivel that the sail attaches to was stuck at the top of the headstay. When the connection between the sail and the swivel breaks, the stretch and tension in the halyard snaps the swivel upward, when it reaches the limit of its travel, it gets stuck. Until we can get it down, we can’t put the spare sail up. In short, until we can get to a point I can climb the mast, we are without a usable jib on the front of the boat.

In a real emergency, we could get the original sail down, and hoist the spare as a non-furling sail. We decided against that for now.

Now an Amel Super Maramu without a genoa is not much of a sailboat. It is slow and cumbersome. In ocean waves it is also a pretty poor motorboat. But… under power with the mainsail set, we can motor sail quite effectively. We are currently motor sailing at 6 to 7 knots. We have enough fuel to reach our destination. So all is good. Not great, but good.

In the next couple of hours we’ll be crossing the Puerto Rican Trench, at close to 5 miles from surface to bottom it is some of the deepest ocean water in the world.

Current Location: 24 19.41N 68 33.20W
Distance from San Salvador: 328 NM.
Distance from Culebra: 407NM
Local time: 12:30
Weather: Overcast, widely scattered showers, Wind 4NNW, Seas 2 feet

About dusk last night we lost our race against the patch of windless weather that had been following us. A short period of drenching rain was followed by a few hours of winds from the NW, but that pretty quickly faded to “light and variable.” Our trusty Volvo diesel has been moving us along while we wait for the easterly trade winds to fill back in.

Normally when we are in winds this light, the waves calm down quick quickly. This is a bit of an exception. Even though right here, right now, the winds are very light, only a couple dozen miles in any direction the wind is blowing. Because of this we are in what is normally described as a “confused” sea. There are large, widely spaced, waves coming from the southeast, and smaller waves, closer together, from the northwest and from the northeast. The resulting jumble is chaotic. It leads to a boat motion that is not violent, or extreme, but unpredictable, especially without the steady pressure of wind in the sails.

We have a local destination we are hoping to pause at this afternoon: “ODAS 41046” This is part of the “Offshore Data Acquisition System” or, in words not invented by someone working in a government office, a weather buoy. This one is (somehow!) tethered in 18,000 feet of water! If you have followed any of our fishing posts, you will be aware that anything floating in the otherwise featureless open water will attract and hold large number of fish. Tuna, mahi-mahi, jacks, wahoo, and endless numbers of small baitfish. I am hopeful that the weather will allow us a hour or two of catching before dark.

One possibility is that the buoy charted not actually there. Buoys, especially those anchored in such deep water have a tendency to go walkabout in storms. They can also be a bit harder to find than you might think. Even if the anchor was dropped EXACTLY at the charted point (unlikely!) It probably didn’t go straight down for 3 miles(!). Then the cable that secures it is longer than the depth of the water, so it has a large swinging circle, and finally, has the anchor stayed in exactly the same spot as it was when deployed? This one is just a few miles from our planned course, so is worth the effort to detour and see what we can find. These data sources are important to forecasting, especially during hurricane season and tend to be well maintained. We are hopeful that it is there and we can find it!

Current Location: 25 37.74N 70 44.84W
Distance from San Salvador: 227 NM.
Distance from Culebra: 536NM
Local time: 09:34
Weather: Partly cloudy, Wind 17SSE, Seas 5-6 feet

About 24 hours after the forecast predicted the wind FINALLY switched to the South, quite suddenly. This gave us a chance to make ground to the east. About 6 hours later, it switched back again. Sigh… But, once again, we are on a perfect course just a bit south of east, and sailing at 7 to 8 knots. The nearest land to our current position in the Turks and Caicos, about 200 to the southwest.

We are in a race. Our objective is to get far enough east that when the wind changes back to coming FROM the east, we will be in a position we can point the boat at our final destination and be on a reasonably comfortable reach. If we can hold this course and speed for another 48 hours, we should be in a good spot. If I believe the models (Ha!), just 20 to 50 miles to our west, and overtaking us, is a large patch of very calm winds. Our strategy, if and when that reaches us is to motor to the east to continue to try to put us in the best possible location for the return of the east blowing trade winds.

Other than our frustrations with the weather, it has been a very uneventful passage so far. A bit rough and bumpy, but that was expected. It has been too rough to get any fishing done, and this part of the ocean is pretty thick with Sargasso weed, so fishing would be a challenge anyway. Not much in the way of creatures to see, and most of the time no ship traffic on the screen at all.

Current Location: 25 09.3N 73 04.7W
Distance from San Salvador: 103 NM.
Distance from Culebra: 600NM
Local time: 08:39
Weather: Cloudy, Wind 18E, Seas 5-6 feet

I believe I talked bout how we were going to have a pretty easy trip of it, IF the forecasts were right. Well, the forecasts have been from the beginning, consistent between models, very favorable, and very WRONG.

From the southeast they say. Swinging to the south. Perfect for making your way east. HA! Since we rounded the northern end of San Salvador we have been close hauled sailing hard into a wind within a few degrees of due east. The forecasts keep promising a 90 degree shift, and it just doesn’t happen.

Nothing much else to say! The boat is sailing well in it’s own happy groove. The weather is gray, with scattered squalls. Other than a couple of cargo ships going by, nothing much to see.