|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Larry's LogAfter dropping Jacqui off, Jim came back and gave me some hose adaptors I could use to hook up the Racor filter. Thanks again Jim. I had let the engine run at idle for 10 minutes as part of the break in procedure. Later in the day, after I installed the Racor again, I went around the anchorage visiting boats to see how the engine would behave. Although it smoked a bit, Jim had said that this was probably due to the amount of oil in the gas now. His didn't smoke much at all now but had when it was being broken in. The manual said to run the engine under half-throttle during the next 50 minutes of the break-in, so I just slowly went around. At one point though, I did bring it up to about 3000 rpm, or what looked to be 1/2 throttle. I had just inflated the dinghy some more that morning and the tubes were pretty hard. When I accelerated, the boat felt like it was taking off, even though I was still at just half throttle! Wow; I quickly slowed down since I wanted to make sure I was still in control. I could tell this was a POWERFUL engine. I continued to go around and stopped at Lady J. While I was talking to Jim, we saw that Piano was coming back to Ste. Anne. We waved and after I talked to Jim some more, I went over to say hi and show off my new engine. Jan and Ghislane had been in the marina for a while working on their generator and some other boat chores and then had been in the Marin anchorage for a bit. They were coming out to Ste. Anne for just a few days before they would start north for the States. They wanted to cruise the Chesapeake during the summer. I told them that I hoped we could get together before they had to leave. Back at the boat, I took a shower and we got ready to go over to Antara. We went over at about 5:30 and enjoyed a very nice evening. Anatara was a Passport 40; we had looked at several of these boats before deciding on our Nordic 44. The Passport was also a Bob Perry design but built in Taiwan and had some beautiful woodwork inside. We had decided against the Passport because most of them had teak decks, as did Antara. Teak decks were nice to look at and were great non-skid, but too much work to maintain and VERY expensive to replace. The next morning, Saturday, was overcast and windy. David Jones, the Caribbean weatherman, had said that a very unusual weather system was approaching the Eastern Caribbean. He said it was a low-pressure system that would be called a tropical wave if it occurred in the hurricane season. But since this was March 2, it was just referred to as a low. Anyway, he said that it would bring some strong gusty winds to the northern Leewards and big seas to go along with the winds. Where we were, in Martinique, it shouldn't be so bad since this was the Windward Islands here, but we were getting some effects. Diane wanted to go in for a walk and asked if I would drive her in but I said she should learn how to use the new engine. A few minutes later, Jacqui called to ask if Diane wanted to walk and she said sure. Diane would pick her up in a few minutes. I showed Diane how to start the engine, put it in gear (it was much easier since the gearshift was in the front rather than on the side) and stop it. So off she went to get Jacqui and maybe Dianne from Pearl. Diane came back around 1 and we had lunch and she got the dip ready that she wanted to bring over to Lady J later. Pete and Dianne from Pearl and we were going over there for a little reunion. Jim and Jacqui knew Pearl also and wanted to get together but since Pete and Dianne weren't going to stay too long, we figured we would all get together. We had a really nice time. The anchorage was getting a little crowded where we anchored since there were some local boats (called Yoles and Gommiers) going to race on Sunday. There was a notice posted on the town dock about it and they were requesting that the boats anchored in Ste. Anne move to make room for the racers. Unfortunately the instructions were very confusing, even though there was a map of the bay and where the races would be held. Of course, they were only in French and that also made it hard to understand. Pete was planning to move the next morning to Marin anyway but Jim wasn't sure what he would do. He was anchored well away from the town and the beach but might move anyway. As it turned out, he did have to move. Sunday morning, Jim moved Lady J to the north of us about 100 feet and Jan moved Piano right behind us. There was a boat asking people to move to make a path for the races and everyone moved either east or west (the anchorage is generally oriented that way) and there was a group that moved toward the Club Med beach (east) or the Caritan Hotel (west). We were on the eastern half already so we didn't have to move. Originally we weren't going to go to watch the races since I was a little concerned about the boats being so close and the wind being fairly high, but we saw that everyone was OK and not dragging so we decided to go. We went in and saw the start of the first race and it was really good. We watched it from our dinghy tied to a group of other dinghies and had a great view. After the start, we went back to the boat to get our cameras. I thought that it would have been too difficult to get any shots from the dinghy and I didn't want the camera to get wet but other people had brought theirs so we gave it a try. I got some great shots of the boats coming around the mark and then of the finish. After the last boat finished, we went back to Destiny to eat. There was going to be another race at 2 so we went back at around 1:45 but as we got to the beach they were just starting. We got a great view of the start but I had wanted to get a few pictures of the start. Well, at least we saw it. We tied up again and waited for the race to continue and I did get some more pictures of the boats rounding the mark just 20 yards from us and then finally finishing. It was really great. These boats have no ballast keel and depend on the crew going out on long poles to balance the boat and keep it from capsizing. In the strong gusty winds that day they weren't always successful. Several boats capsized right after the start and others out on the course. Overall, it was a great time. After the last race, we went back to the boat and got ready for Linda and Phil to come over later that evening. We also hoisted the dinghy. We do that so nothing has a chance to grow on the bottom. After we had done that, Piano called to say they were moving back to their old anchoring spot since it was so tight there. They also said that their anchor had caught a piece of coral but thought they could bring it up OK. As they brought up the anchor, we watched and as the anchor broke the surface we saw a huge piece of coral caught right on the tip. It was at least 3 feet by 4 feet long! Jan was understandably upset as he figured "How do I get rid of it?" I was just about to launch our dinghy to go help when Diane saw 3 other cruisers go out. They put a line from the crown of the anchor to the bow and lowered the chain until the anchor capsized and the coral fell off. I teased Jan on the radio that I was sure the French authorities appreciated his helping to clean up the anchorage but I'm not sure he appreciated the humor at that point! A bit later, Linda and Phil from Antara came over and we enjoyed their company for a few hours. We discovered that we knew many of the same people in Bermuda. After they left we had dinner of pasta with Brie. I was really getting my fill of Brie, since we wouldn't be able to get it after we left Martinique I made sure we had it as much as we could. |