Getting ahead in the Netherland Antilles

Date: May 31 2007
Location: FKG Rigging Dock, St. Maarten
Position: 18 02.06 N 63 05.13 W

We're in Sint Maarten. The island is half French and half Dutch, currently we are in the Dutch section. It's been hot and muggy, but when the breeze is blowing, it's not too bad. Our hosts have air conditioning and we've been using it liberally in the evenings. What a treat!

About s/v Liberty from her owners:
"She is a Whisstocks 55, although she is really 58' in length. She was designed by Steve Dalzell and built of aluminum in Woodbridge, England, in 1988. She is a cutter rig, and her beam is 15'1", draft 7'2", and the top of her mast is 75' off the water (so pray no one has to go up during the trip)."

Here's a link to some info about the designer:
http://www.landingschool.edu/news/bbs.pl?read=17

Our first impression of St. Maarten is that there's a lot of work to do <grin> and some of it is smelly (more on this below)! Our gracious hosts have been great. They have made us very welcome and are bending over backwards to make sure we are comfortable and have food/snacks that we will enjoy. In return we are trying to help them get all their "leaving the dock" jobs done. Mark has been helping getting stuff stowed, setting up the fishing pole, inspecting and fitting sails and running rigging, doing plumbing jobs, etc. Julie has been helping prepare meals and freezing, provisioning, laundry, running errands, etc.

It seems the price of a private cabin on Liberty can be steep. Yesterday Mark noticed a puddle of water on the head floor. Further inspection involving mirrors, flashlight, gymnastics, and the ALTK (appropriate language tool kit) yielded a leak in the waste pump.

Hosts: "Gosh. It wasn't leaking before."
Julie: The Look.
Mark: "It wasn't me!"
Julie: Another Look.
Mark: "Don't Look at me like that!"

Mark was "given the opportunity" to swap out the pump. A couple of hours later the new pump was installed, he was successfully disinfected, and we were back in business. What a way to "get ahead"!

We should be leaving the dock today, fueling up and sailing over to anchor on the French side to finish provisioning. We are planning on having a bit of a ramble around and hope to have lunch there, too, as French food should never be missed, if possible. If all goes well, and the weather gods are smiling, we plan to leave for the Azores on Saturday or Sunday, June 2nd or 3rd.

We'll try and get out another Khronicle before we leave, but don't hold your breath. There's a lot to do, and we may not have an internet connection after we leave the dock.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

http://svRachel.blogspot.com

Yawn

Date: May 28, 2007
Location: Somewhere above Virginia
Position: Sitting up, nodding off

We left St Mary's on Friday morning bound for the Yeocomico River. We had another lovely, relaxing sail across the Potomac River which is about 5 miles wide at this stretch. We were having so much fun we tacked back and forth across the river a couple of times criss crossing with our friends on their boat.

This was followed by the usual cruising routine: we found a nice anchorage and dinghied over for a little walk around the town of Kinsale. Like many other small towns on the bay it used to be a thriving hub linked to civilisation by ferries. When the ferry stops running the town sort of
fades away.

Unfortunatley the only restaurant in town was closed due to plumbing problems so our new dinghy got a workout and nicely transported all four of us up the river to another eatery and back. We spent an uneventful night on the hook, and in dead calm, motored back to the Coan on Saturday.

Sunday was spent packing, organizing, taking care of business, etc.

Now we're on our way to St. Maarten for our 'big adventure'. We got up at 2:00 this morning and our friends (proof positive of the friendship) dragged themselves out of bed to drive us to the airport in Richmond for our 6:00 am flight. Entirely too freaking early for civilized cruisers, we all agreed.

We left Rachel safely tucked in at the dock on the Coan River where our friends will keep an eye on her until they return to England later this month. We have spent a companionable month together and look forward to seeing them again in the fall.

We'll try and get out a few Khronicles while we're gone via the blog or email - we're not sure which will work best for us en route. Hopefully they will be more entertaining - it's just too darned early today to be witty. Yawn.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

St. Mary's

Date: 5/25/2007
Location: St. Mary's, MD
Position: 38 11.406 N 076 26.117 W

Finally!

We actually went sailing!

The anchor light works!

The engine starts reliably!

We're relaxing!

We sailed from the Coan River across the Potomac to the St. Mary's River yesterday in 5-10 knots of SE wind. A nice, slow, relaxing, and easy sail. We sailed into into the anchorage and dropped the anchor, pretty as you please, without running the engine.

St Mary's is a lovely spot with a college and a historical reconstruction area we had a walk around and then back to Rachel for dinner. It certainly is nice to be sleeping at anchor again with the gentle rolling of the boat.

More soon.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

http://svRachel.blogspot.com

Finally aloft

Date: May 22, 2007
Location: Coan River
Position: 37 56.657 N 076 28.891 W



The view is great!



We got a new bosun's chair before we left Deltaville and Mark finally made it up to the top of the mast. Twice, so far! We know many of you have been wondering if that would ever happen !! Actually he liked it so much he's thinking of building a nest up there and moving in with the resident bald eagle.






We've been having a bit of trouble with our anchor light, which is quite a necessity when you are anchoring out. Mark has narrowed down the problem and may only need to make 2 or 3 more trips up the mast to get it sorted out .



Julie is still too chicken to go all the way up, but we did hoist her about 1/2 way for practice. She doesn't have that "nesting" feeling yet, but we're going to work on that. We'll let you know how it goes.



We are no longer stuck in the mud. The water finally flowed back into the Coan and we are now afloat again. We've had fun investigating the little tributaries of the Coan in the dinghy and are happy to report it quite nicely transports 4 adults with no problems. Creatures we've seen aloft (other than Mark) are orioles, heron, osprey, geese, and the occasional bald eagle.



Mark has been helping our hosts at the Coan build steps, cut down trees and has even tried his hand at fishing from the dock! Julie has been working on her tan.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Sitting in the mud

Date: May 16th, 2007
Location: Coan River
Position: 37 56.657 N 076 28.891 W


We finally left Deltaville last Tuesday and had a lovely 2 day sail up the bay to the Coan River. Well, lovely other than some slight electrical problems causing the iron monster (the engine) to not start. More on that later.

Some friends have offered to let us keep Rachel at their dock while we're on our trip to the Azores. We're there now, checking it out to make sure she'll be safe while we're gone.

We arrived near high tide and could see a lot of barnacles exposed on the dock pilings (you don't usually see barnacles at high tide), but weren't concerned since our friends had assured us there was plenty of depth in the slip. We had barely squeezed in, however, when we felt Rachel touch bottom which is, luckily, just mud and sand. We gave our friends 'the eye'.

"Wow it's an unusually low high tide!" they said.

That evening at low tide we noticed that our waterline was higher than it usually is - we could see several extra inches of bottom paint in the stern. Walking around on deck did not produce the usual swaying that we love when living aboard. We gave our friends another 'eye'.

"We've never seen the river so low!!!" they insisted.

So here we lay - sitting in the mud waiting for the river to rise, doing boat jobs that didn't get done in Deltaville!!

Aaaahhhhh..... How sweet it is!

Date: May 13th, 2007
Location: Jackson Creek, Deltaville, VA
Position: 37 32.86N 076 19.78W

We haven't been keeping up with our news very well during the past week, mainly because (like almost the entire time since we left our jobs) it's been work, work, work. So here's a brief synopsis to catch you up:
We finally got Rachel into the water just over a week ago, May 4th. It's about time, eh? Until then, we had focused on all the "below the waterline"
jobs, so now it was time to get Rachel ship-shape above the waterline. We decided to take a slip at the marina for a week while we brought the various systems online, moved more stuff onto the boat, and continued sanding and painting the dinghy. On Friday morning (May 11th) we left the slip, moved about 100 yards to the anchorage in Jackson Creek, and dropped the hook - long trip, huh?
We are still surrounded by stuff that we need to find homes for, but, considering that we made a whirlwind trip down to Blacksburg last week and returned with another full van, we're not doing too badly. We can at least now sit down on the settee and find some of the things we look for. You can hear lots of "Hmm did I put it in this pile? Or is it in that locker behind the settee? Or maybe I put it down in the bilge?". One of our near-future projects is to do an inventory of all the lockers so we can find stuff when we need it.
We still have one coat of paint to put on the inside of the dinghy, hopefully this afternoon if the weather wizards are right. Then we just have to fit it out with various bits of hardware, etc. and we can start actually using it. About time!
It's been raining off and on since last night, so we're having a nice, relaxed morning doing some "inside" stuff that's been on hold while the weather was nice and relaxing a bit. Our hope is to leave Deltaville and actually start sailing in the next few days.
So we're sitting here, swinging on the hook, listening to the wind generator (we call her Wendy), charge our batteries, being quiet and domestic, gently rocking, and thinking "Aaaaahhh... how sweet it is."

Ready to launch

Date: 2 May, 2007
Location: Deltaville, VA
Position: 37 32.916N 076 19.765W - don't forget to check our position on Google Earth

We're officially living aboard Rachel now along with piles of our worldly
goods. We've spent our first k aboard working like dogs - again! Some of you know how much work is necessary to liveaboard, the rest of you just think we have an easy life lounging on deck, drinking margaritas and
watching the sunset!! Not so!! Hopefully at some point in the near future we will get to launch the boat and start having fun!! Although we hate to admit it, we are actually having fun getting our boat jobs done. We do seem to have a lot more achy joints and muscles than in our previous life, though!!

Check out the blog for pictures!! http://svRachel.blogspot.com/

Dinghy Progress:
Mark finally did the dirty deed. After we spent all winter building our new dinghy, Mark sawed it in half. We can hear you now - "What!?! No way!!!" Yep. It's a nesting dinghy and will fit inside itself on our foredeck (we
certainly hope so, anyway...) allowing us to have a larger dinghy than we would with a non-nesting variety.

Rachel Progress:
Mark is working on the through hulls and prop doing maintenance, continuing the dinghy project, and preparing Rachel's bottom for painting. Julie borrowed some scaffolding and has sanded one side of Rachel's teak and started refinishing it, in preparation for a new metal rub rail which will protect the woodwork.

Stowing Progress:
In between all our outside projects, we are also slowly finding homes for and stowing all of our belongings. And that's just the start - we have to make another trip to Blacksburg to pick up the rest of the stuff we couldn't fit in the van on the first trip! And it's not so easy living aboard when the boat is in the yard - getting on and off requires climbing the ladder to get up on deck.

Friendship and Fun Progress:
We are re-establishing our friendships with our Deltaville friends in the evenings at the marina and in the boatyard. We're hoping to launch in 8-10 days, then maybe we'll be able to kick back and sip a few of those margaritas...

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
http://svRachel.blogspot.com

Still on the hard

Date: 2 May, 2007
Location: Deltaville, VA
Position: 37 32.916N 076 19.765W - don't forget to check our position on Google Earth

We're officially living aboard Rachel now along with piles of our worldly goods. We've spent our first week aboard working like dogs - again! Some of you know how much work is necessary to liveaboard, the rest of you just think we have an easy life lounging on deck, drinking margaritas and watching the sunset!! Not so!! Hopefully at some point in the near future we will get to launch the boat and start having fun!! Although we hate to admit it, we are actually having fun getting our boat jobs done. We do seem to have a lot more achy joints and muscles than in our previous life, though!!

Dinghy Progress: Mark finally did the dirty deed. After we spent all winter building our new dinghy, Mark sawed it in half. We can hear you now - "What!?! No way!!!" Yep. It's a nesting dinghy and will fit inside itself on our foredeck (we certainly hope so, anyway...) allowing us to have a larger dinghy than we would with a non-nesting variety.

Rachel Progress: Mark is working on the through hulls and prop doing maintenance, continuing the dinghy project, and preparing Rachel's bottom for painting. Julie borrowed some scaffolding and has sanded one side of Rachel's teak and started refinishing it, in preparation for a new metal rub rail which will protect the woodwork.

Julie sanding Rachel's bottom

Mark paints the bottom, now we are ready to go in the water

Stowing Progress: In between all our outside projects, we are also slowly finding homes for and stowing all of our belongings. And that's just the start - we have to make another trip to Blacksburg to pick up the rest of the stuff we couldn't fit in the van on the first trip! And it's not so easy living aboard when the boat is in the yard - getting on and off requires climbing the ladder to get up on deck. Friendship and Fun Progress: We are re-establishing our friendships with our Deltaville friends in the evenings at the marina and in the boatyard. We're hoping to launch in 8-10 days, then maybe we'll be able to kick back and sip a few of those margaritas...