OH, HOW TIME FLIES ....................

March madness and another ST. PATRICK'S DAY weekend is to be celebrated ....... We have about as much in common with a four-leaf clover as my son's Range Rover ....... Still there's no need not to participate on board the Irish Flagship "KUHELA" in Culebra, where Harry and Linda do it in style ....... Delightful couple .....Great hosts too ..... Always have been, always will be ......



Days are spent somewhere near the bilge on "SOUTHERN COMFORT" replacing bits and pieces, like the pump room floor ...... And getting ready for the arrival of our washer/dryer, which will radically change our lives ....... Finding a laundry on shore and getting the washing done has always been a 'challenge' because the Caribbean islands have normally a very limited water supply ..... We have suddenly realized that exactly a year ago we were in ANTIGUA and Barbuda, and life was very different .............



The "Queen of Florida" is now a grandmother, and I'm officially a senior citizen ......... We need to pass over these facts real quick ........



ANTIGUA was beautiful and the anchorages all round the island were perfect ..... We will never forget that 11 miles of pink sandy beach on BARBUDA with barely a footprint on it, nor the majestic remains of the colonial era in English Harbour ....



Memories abound in that realm of " The beauty of it all " .........



We stayed on to see the Classic Yacht Regatta and were joined by many of our friends like Mark and Willie from the Yacht "LIAHONA" ..... That Regatta was a World-class event with spectacular entries ....... Elegance of a past era 'On Parade' ......



We met Bev and John on the schooner "AMOEBA" who had lost an engine and spent worrying days importing a new one from the States ....... And therein lies the challenge that we all face .... We may be in Paradise, but when it goes wrong, it normally goes drastically wrong ...... Anything that we can fix ourselves would not be called 'wrong' ...... That would be called 'normal' .... And like champions, John and Bev overcame those difficulties and sailed away eventually to Nova Scotia, CANADA ........ That night shot of English Harbour is sort of "borrowed" .......



Now this is at the other end of what might be called ...."challenges" ........ The yacht hit a well marked reef in Virgin Gorda where we worked on "SOUTHERN COMFORT", and sank instantly ...... Rescue salvage arrived within hours and had her re-floated and lifted out of the water .....



The forty-something ketch was dried out right alongside our new yacht in the boatyard, and we watched in sheer amazement when sometime later a couple of guys slapped on fibreglass and filler despite the lead keel hanging out of the bottom, and in four days flat she was re-launched, sold and towed away ...... The new owners bought her for $US 20.00, being equal to the stamp duty on the contract ..... The 'meter is running' when you have a boat on-the-hard in a boat yard, and letting it go for 'ziltch' is a much better option than to procrastinate over an action plan....... Challenges alright ......



Which brings us full circle to our buddy TIMO, back in Curacao for whom the 'challenge' is all in a day's work ...... The hull is now completed and coated in epoxy resin ...... She is now towed back to his floating workshop by hand ...... After all, the water there is only about four feet deep ...... Now that's what's called "cost-effective" transport ....... Check out TIMO's tow-line ......



He really is incredible if you look back to the days of that simple flotation platform, or even further back when he told us of his plan to replace the lost yacht "Blue Marlin" ..... For most of us this would be an extreme 'challenge' and for TIMO it's just 'a piece of cake' .........



So sticking with this "CHALLENGE" thing, here's a wooden sloop on the left that needs absolutely nothing ....... While on the right, we saw the schooner "ASTOR" in Antigua which had split its mizzen mast ........ That's the same as splitting a sizable bank roll ....... Hurts real bad ....... "ASTOR" was built in 1923 in Scotland, and is 86 feet long ......



So you see, our own 'challenges' back in CULEBRA, are really nothing to speak of ..... We have arranged for SEARS to deliver the newly purchased washer/dryer to the ferry terminal in FAJARDO on the mainland of PUERTO RICO between 10.30 and 12.00 ....... Well anyway it arrives at 1.30 .. No big deal ...... We wheel it onto the ferry and off at the other end in CULEBRA and then to the dinghy dock .........



Hoist it up with the mizzen boom and the mizzen sheet on "SOUTHERN COMFORT"....... A couple of friends stop by to give a helping hand, and in no time at all we are all several sheets to the wind ...... You see what we mean by the "challenges" .......




The plan is simple ...... Cut a hole in the cockpit floor ..... Cut the side of the bunk beneath it, and hinge it ........ Cut the wall of the middle cabin's head out, together with its door ....... Those spots in the photo are pieces of flying sawdust ..... Then go on deck and separate the washer from the dryer ....... Drop each unit down separately, put them back together again, and "Bob's your Uncle" ...........



"O.K. ...... So far so good!" ........




Now having re-assembled both pieces in no space at all, I need to get out from behind it and that becomes the 'challenge' ....... Even after taking the top off the washer there is just not enough space ...... Like a dying rat behind a wall, I will eventually get thin, I guess ..... As you can see I did get out ..... My heart was racing so fast it clear burst out of my T-shirt .......



And " VOILA " ...... We have a washer/dryer in place and the wall with the door will go back into place .... When the door is open the dryer door will open easily ...... Now here is something that our beautiful "ARITA" never had ..... A LAUNDRY CENTRE ..... Though she does have a very warm lounge ...... That means 'saloon' for you nautical types .......



Hard to part with, our awesome Classic ketch, but hopefully a new owner will love her as much as we do ...... That's ARITA's galley and head ......



That's the passage on ARITA from the front cabin, past the head, the hanging closet, the middle cabin and the galley, to the lounge ...... And so we've come full circle back to KUHELA, where young Harry prepares 'Mimosas and eggs Benedict' in honour of young Linda's birthday ........ In all of that Harry was not 'challenged' at all ....He's a natural in the galley .......



O.K. ....... That's enough about "challenges" ...... Here are some mango flowers trying to become baby mangoes ........ These are about the size of golf balls .....



Not hard to tell who the birthday girl is, is it now? ........ On an entirely different note,..... Does it not seem strange to you the length some people go to in order to cut the slightest bit of mold off a piece of cheese, only to then go out and buy a pound of 'blue' cheese ...... Or this handle I picked up going round and round on the luggage carousel at the airport ...... Just the handle by itself ....... Really does make you laugh at life on the planet .......

THAT HUGE SCARY LEAP FORWARD ...................

So came the day when we were more or less done in the boatyard in VIRGIN GORDA and we needed to put "SOUTHERN COMFORT" in the water, having left "ARITA" safely tied to a mooring back in CULEBRA, P.R. ....... Four or five skin fittings had been changed and all of them checked ........ "SC" has 26 through-hull fittings ..... That's enough to scare anybody .......The travel-lift arrived and gently lowered her in to the salt water with some excited yelling from me " Get her up, get her up!" ....... The stern-gland was leaking like a fire-hose and one fitting weeping nicely ...... An hour later, we were good to go and in the morning made the epic journey of 100 yards from the drop-in spot to the dock ......



This part was the nervous part, when you suddenly realize how big "SOUTHERN COMFORT" really is .............



And then she touches the water ........... Notice the swim platform that we have made while in the boat-yard .... All made from a South American hardwood called 'Purple-heart' ..... Or at least the pieces came from Guyana in South America .......



Yes, we've made the break from land ..... We're floating and on the water .....



A week later we let the dock lines go and we sailed back to PUERTO RICO, a distance of about 80 miles, and not without its moments, but by late afternoon with only the genoa up, we sail into the safe bay at CULEBRA .....



The "Queen of Florida" is now in her element ....... Great views, nice seat, easy motion, wind on the quarter ...... Doesn't get any better than that ........ The seat's too high and the step stool has to go ...... We'll take care of that later .....



We pass 'Sail Rock' and hit the Virgin Channel that separates the Spanish Virgins from the U.S. Virgins ..... A stretch of turbulent water with criss-crossing waves and things go flying, as they always do ........ The big dinghy that comes with "SC" suddenly makes "ARITA's" beemer look pathetically small .....



Being back in CULEBRA we raft up to ARITA and go ashore to be once again face to face with bougainvillea everywhere and in all colours ........ Wonderful to be back on "ARITA" too, with all the finished home comforts ...... She really is beautiful, cozy and so homey .... Perhaps one day "SOUTHERN COMFORT" will be the same ......



Now, whereas we should have updated the blog at that point, we got stuck into the work program immediately ......... Firstly, go to town with the new workboat and start bringing all the 'goodies' out of the crate that we had shipped from Florida ...... It takes four trips to get it all, including the solar panels and the new Yanmar generator ......



Somewhere in the island crossing, the old Northern Lights generator had slid off its platform and ended up in the bottom of the lazarette (the aft compartment) and in removing it we had to separate it into three separate parts, then haul it out using the mizzen boom and take it to town in the dinghy ....... Clean the room out, put in a new fibre-glassed base and spray the whole room in sound-reducing foam ...... A whole new chamber and un-recognizable from the past .... Laurie and I dropped the new 9KVA Yanmar generator into place with silky smoothness .... Awesome .....



We get word that there's a yacht "JOANA" in the anchorage, with two ladies on board who do TIG welding ....... By morning they have brought their steel yacht alongside, ready to transfer their welding gear on board ....... We have about a dozen broken stainless steel welds that definitely need attention ...... Mostly on the stanchion bases ....... That's "LIAHONA", our sister-ship in the background, with Mark and Willie who have arrived and immediately jumped in to help us ....... Champions, that couple .....



The swim platform again comes into its own, and by now we have removed the satellite phone dome and mounted the new solar panels ....... Talk about wonderful free power from the sun .......... 45amps when we first switched it on ..... You probably remember that 'paper-clip' that we had made in CURACAO that is now part of the support frame for the solar panels ......



With the construction project now in full swing, we make numerous trips to town to get the small stuff ........ Hard to resist a photo of a baby iguana climbing the bamboo fence ....... Or the flowers for that matter, and the new work-horse even gets a topside coat of vinyl dinghy paint to hide all the patches ....... With the 30HP motor it has become the perfect fast-dinghy for this stage of re-construction ..... But way too big to lift or to tow ...... That cloth I'm holding prevents the wind from blowing the inert gas away while Marie does the welding ...... Now who would have thought you could get such specialized welding done in a remote place like CULEBRA and on the water too ....... Miracles never cease .... Try to get that done in Ft. Lauderdale without tearing your hair out .....



The CULEBRA anchorage is great ...... A perfect place to do this renovation ..... Town is a mere 10 minute dinghy ride away with small restaurants including this one called "Dinghy Dock" ......... And 'Big Town'(SAN JUAN) on the big island is a ferry ride and a car rental away, but necessary for the 'Home Depot' stuff .......



Still, in between the massive work-load now in front of us, we do just great with the local economy ....... Every Friday there's a fresh vegetable truck that comes from the mainland and there's a couple of supermarkets on the island that cater to everything from chewing gum to fiber-glass resin .....



Photos will follow of all the jobs completed ...... Work before pictures (WBP)..... But here's a whole new bank of golf-cart batteries and the hot water tank is being replaced with new instant tankless hotwater heaters ..... All the deck fittings have been installed ...... We'll just show you later ....... But this you've got to see .....



The black unit, the 'OUTBACK', is the MPPT controller, which converts the 130 volt input from the four solar panels and converts it into 12v DC at whatever amps are required to keep the battery bank full ...... The blue ones are the two 'Victron' inverters, that turn the 12v DC battery power into 110v AC to power all the outlets on board so that microwave, coffeemaker, the future watermaker , future washer/dryer and all my power tools, like the circular saw and grinder, work flawlessly ...... Now, should the batteries ever reach a low point of 11.9v DC, the diesel generator automatically switches on, and the inverters now become battery chargers ....... The good news is that the solar panels normally keep things full with the batteries at 13.6 volts .... That's 13.6 volts and that, folks, is the ultimate ...... More later ....... Later, meaning after I get through sorting out the wiring problems on board "SOUTHERN COMFORT"..... At the moment, the navigation lights come on when I connect the anchor windlass ..... We'll take care of that in due course ..... But if truth be told, and I mean the real truth, I can only describe it like this ......... "I'm like a kid in a sand-box" ..... And lovin it. " ..... Just don't tell Mc Donalds .....