Departure from BVI and move to St. Martin

With all the repairs finally completed successfully we left Nanny Cay and had a fantastic upwind sail in 20+ knots of wind to get us to north Sound in Virgin Gorda. We arrived late in the afternoon and found a nice spot in 12 feet of water with a sand bottom – PERFECT!   Did I say the repairs were all done? I should NEVER say that because as soon as I do, something new pops up just screaming to be added to my to do list! This time it is the windlass …. Turns as it should but the clutch will not disengage – result the chain neither goes down nor up! Last I checked, up and down were windlass requirements. Quickly make up a plan B – motored to an available mooring, Maryse secured us and I went for the tool box AGAIN!

I keep all the manuals for all Ambition’s equipment on my laptop – find Maxwell Windlass and get to work. Disassembled the entire upper unit and found nothing broken or out of place which is very good. Dig out the windlass grease and lubricate everything that is “greasable” and put all the pieces back together. Test …..All is good and no parts left over – we are back in business. Drop the mooring ball and head back to our little sandy spot for the night. Life is all good again.

The next day we moved Ambition to Leverick Bay mooring field. This resort really does a great job catering to boaters. They offer super laundry facilities, a great resto and bar and they offer 100 gallons of water free with a one night mooring ball rental – considering we have paid as much as $0.70 a gallon this is a bargain!

A Sun Reef 80 .... for Chelle! 

They also offer a Happy Hour with live music – Michael Bean – we first saw him at Marina Cay more than 10 years ago – as an indication that nothing changes much in the islands – his 3 hour show is almost identical to the show from Marina Cay.  The beer case with a microphone inside under his feet is the percussion section! The conch blowing contest from the bar patrons – I sure hope it is a new conch! Reminds me of Steve’s attempt many years ago in the competition – he didn’t finish at all near the top – I would describe the sound it made but this is a family blog!

Thursday morning we skiffed over to the Customs office in Gun Creek to clear out of the BVI – small fee of $5 to get the official documents stamped and signed so that we can clear into St. Martin. At 4PM we left Leverick Bay for an overnight trip to St. Martin. The last week the winds have been blowing 25 to 30 knots directly from where we want to get from so now that the winds have dropped to less than 5 knots we will go even though it will be only a motoring trip.

As we left Virgin Gorda, we passed Necker Island – a private island owned by Richard Branson of Virgin Everything . It comes complete with it’s own marina, fleet of little catamarans, and a sandy palm tree island! 

The Main House 

My guess ... Yoga suites LOL

A Fleet of Hobie Cats....

Three Palm Tree Island! 

The ride to St. Martin was uneventful other than the cruise ship traffic and occasional tanker. We arrived a little too early in St. Martin and needed to wait for sunrise to drop anchor in Marigot Bay. The bridge to get into the lagoon in Simpson Bay opens only at 9AM so we relaxed and caught a little nap. 

The little canal to get to the lift bridge and enter the lagoon is super narrow but we made it through with no issues.

 

Parade to the bridge...

Once inside we wiggled our way through some VERY thin water to find a spot where we can anchor.  Only dragged the keel in the sand once – cut a corner a little too tight. Hook down – time for a better nap!

This place is such a confusion of two worlds – we are surrounded with old abandoned boats barely afloat, sunk commercial ships, cruising sailboats and multi million dollar super yachts.

Me no fish no more......

A little buffing and we are good to go...

Just need the stick thing now!

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Hate to even ask the price one of these

This is a favourite of the Quebec construction industry

Randy - The two extremes 

Our dear friends Eric and Annie invited us by on Galatee for afternoon of catch-up and a few beers before heading out to the Dinghy Dock on the Dutch side for dinner and beers. SO good to meet back up with good friends that we haven’t seen in a couple of years.

Because it is such a small world, we crossed paths with Coral Beauty, friends from our marina in Plattsburgh! We hopped a ride with them for the 7 mile run to L’Anse Martin for a late lunch on Saturday – WOW the restaurants so a great job of serving amazing dishes on the French side of the island.

Our social calendar now takes on a land expedition with Eric and Annie to Orient Beach for a late lunch. This beach is a clothing optional beach – interestingly enough the folks that take advantage of the clothing option feature SHOULD NOT and those that should don’t! I think this is the same scenario that those who wear spandex clothing shouldn’t and those that can don’t! Anyway the food was great and the company excellent!

We need a day off to rest now!

All pretty again.......

We we launched Ambition back into the water again on Friday and my my my does she look a LOT prettier than when we took her out!

The bottom has been painted, the hull washed and polished. What a difference a bunch of cash can make! AWESOME.

She is looking good!

So much better than the grass skirt of a few days ago!

Quite the reflection!

Once we were back in water we motored over to the Bight at Normans Island - CLEARLY we have entered high season in the charter business - at 2PM there was barely a mooring ball available! The late arrivers motored around aimlessly expecting an empty mooring ball to pop up from the bottom! Eternal optimists - having hope is good even if fruitless!

I connected the new keel coolers once we got back in the water as per the instructions, with eternal optimism - oh foolish me! OH CRAP ... with the new keep coolers installed and me staring at the digital thermometers - the temperature of both the fridge and the freezer got warmer and warmer ... not a good indication of success! Even when I looked away for 20 minutes the temperature still got warmer! I called the manufacturer in the US and was told that either I connected it incorrectly or "something else went wrong!" No S&%t Sherlock. They did provide the name of their rep here in Tortola which just by coincidence was the same folks that installed the keel coolers.

Fridge Compressor 

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Freezer connections

Keel Cooler through hull fitting. 

A few emails later and we have an appointment back at Nanny Cay on Sunday to have the technician look at the system and provide a solution - my guess is that the freon charge in the keel coolers was missing and once connected there was not sufficient freon for the system to function properly - we will see Sunday! In the mean time we have reverted back to ice blocks! yes indeed - Old School but it does keep the beers cold!


The two days were not a complete waste of time however, as I did knock off one MAJOR job that I have been avoiding for too long .... I disassembled all 8 winches on board, cleaned them with gasoline and greased and oiled all the little parts - amazing what a little lubrication can do to the performance of metal parts! All are so much smoother now! CHECK another thing off the To Do list ..... now if I could just stop adding stuff at a greater speed than I knock them off .... life would be wonderful and I could sit back and swim and sunbath! No I am not complaining - winter here sure beats winter at home!

Travels All Around

We left Ambition at Nanny Cay in BVI on Dec 19^th and flew back home to be with our family for the holidays. We took a taxi from Nanny Cay to Sopers Hole – West End of BVI. From their we took the ferry to Charlotte Amalie – about a 45 minute ride. Another taxi to the airport at St Thomas US Virgin Islands. Almost the equivalent of Trains Plains and Automobiles! A classic film!

We arrived in Montreal late evening and the welcoming temperature was -22c – Maryse asked me if it was too late to change our plans! It was FREEZING COLD!!!

Back in the house we were a little lost – there is more space in one room than the whole boat! “Where are you?” was a common heard call!

Our living room looked like an Amazon warehouse with cardboard boxes piled up everywhere – Christmas gifts mixed with boat parts! Maryse set to work wrapping the gifts for the kids and grand kids. We bought the Christmas tree and set it all up with decorations. Maryse also got so busy shopping as we had dinners and brunch’s planned for family. Oh my it was so hectic in comparison to our slow island time lifestyle onboard Ambition.

Maryse was sent on a treasure hunt Christmas eve – after a hunt through the house she ended up back where she started – SHE SAID YES when I asked her to marry me! Both very very happy!

Santa Claus made his first appearance on Christmas morning with Cedrick and Clara – it seams that Santa had forgotten a few gifts when he passed during the night. The chocolate cupcakes and milk were delicious!

Santa made another surprise visit to the Mant family Christmas party and succeeded in making ALL the little girls cry! Good thing Cedrick was rock solid! Great Grandma was also good!

Clara and Cedrick are doing great....

Eliane is not to sure of Santa yet ....

Abigale is not comfortable either....

Madison is in starfish - get me out of here mode

Great Grandma seems ok with the whole Santa thing....

Both Maryse and I ended up with wicked colds or maybe it was allergies to being in cold weather – slowed us down a little in our social visits but we felt hat all would be good when we got back to hot humid and salt air!

After freezing rain, rain and snow it was time get back south and back on board Ambition. It was a repeat in reverse of the trip north. A few shots from St Thomas and the US Virgin Islands. 

The Disney Cruise Ship

St Thomas

The Homestead in USVI

St Thomas

Ferry Selfies.....

We were back on the boat before darkness set in – soooo good to be back on board.

Being back on board was not with out its issues ..... check out these photos...... the bottom had no growth when we left - look wa=hat 3 weeks in the warm wares with minimal bottom paint looks like....

This is gross.....

The green beard is not cool.....

I think we are becoming a reef!

I think we are raising little fish in there......

Ok this is down right embarrassing

We were hauled out of the water on Jan 10^th to have the bottom cleaned and repainted. The REALLY UGLY side of sailing stuff.....

Attractive no?

Salad fixings.....

All the Green Hair gone! YYYEEESSSS

Ok now we are ready to make Ambition pretty again.....

I had brought the paint with me from the US. After discussing with the folks down here I told them that I had the Petit Hydrocoat water based paint for the bottom. Well …… I thing their comments was Hydrocoat is like offering up chicken wings to the barnacles and grass! They love eating that stuff! Rather humiliating experience when your choices are laughed at but I have a thick skin and was ok with the challenge. So if I forget my $125 per gallon Hydrocoat what it the paint that will really fight back against the beasts of the Caribbean??? Turns out it is SeaHawk Island 44 with tin which has been outlawed by the EPA in the US for years. To boot they sell a tin booster for the paint! Ok so now I was planning to use 2 gallons of my cheap chicken wing paint – now with the high performance stuff I am up to 5 gallons at $375 per gallon!!! This better be good!!!

Once it was painted it does look good and time will tell how well it performs over the long run – we should be good for more than two years.

While Ambition was out of the water we installed two keel coolers to help the refrigeration systems be more efficient and use less battery power.

As a last minute decision we opted to have the hall washed and polished – wow it looks fantastic! We ended up paying here $550 for exactly the same work that was done in Canada but cost $2500. Who says the Caribbean is expensive!

Friday is launch day and we will head out of the marina immediately – we really need to get out and find an anchorage in a quiet bay as we await the next weather window to sail from BVI to St Martin. The challenge is that our course is almost due east and the prevailing winds are also east! To add to that there is a 1 to 1.5 knot current that runs east to west as part of the Gulf Stream to contend with. Anyway it is only an 80 mile ride and we will find the right time to do that in the next week or so.