We started The Great Adventure II ( TGA II) only to have the auto pilot go on the fritz 5 miles from the start. So, we turned tail and went West to Sunbay Marina in Fajardo for repairs. It turned out to be fortuitous in that we sold on eBay our old Volvo Penta engines to a guy in Florida. Getting them there is turning into another story because the shipper has classified them as dangerous/hazardous cargo: diesel and oil, ya know. We're working our way thru this and hopefully they'll wend their way to FL next week.
We spent New Years in Culebra (we took the ferry over from Fajardo: as "seniors" it's $2 round trip each!) with fellow cruisers Roni and James Redman on their catamaran Harlequinn on a ball behind the reef at Dakity. We went to Susie's for a lovely dinner together with another cruising Australian couple, Bruce and Gina on Wyuna, and then toured downtown Dewey with at least 2,000+\- Puerto Ricans who came over for the week. Loud, loud, loud... I guess we are getting too old to appreciate the pressing crowds and blaring music. We took the fast ferry at 1 pm back to Sunbay to do the final prep for our departure.
January 2, 2014, 3 pm marks the real beginning of TGA II when we pulled out of the Sunbay slip, having said our "Adios" to Doña Olga, and headed SW for Curaçao 420 nm and, as it turned out, 60 hours away. We motored to the entrance of Roosevelt Roads, turned into the wind (25 kts) in 4 ft seas, put the main up bumping up and down, turned to course 206 ( SW) and out ran the wind within a half hour. We poked along as the sun set in the West, chasing a rain squall that came off Viegues. The wind finally picked up towards morning along with the seas. They remained generally 20-25 kts and 6-8 ft with spurts up to 35 kts and down to 6 kts (infrequently, I might add). It was a lumpy, bumpy sail most of the way.
Sailing at night with no moon is a little spooky and tricky when all you can see is the bow and the stars. We run the radar sweep at 36 miles and the AIS (Automatic Ident. System) which tracks ships (required if over 100 tons) that have it. Linda likes to sit at the helm watching the read-outs: radar, AIS, course, boat speed, and wind speed. There is a possibility she'll see lights, but not likely. My watch consists of checking everything, then setting the kitchen (galley) timer for 30 minutes and then snoozing on the settee sitting up. When the timer goes off, I come back to the helm, chech everything to include a look for lights and sail trim, then back down again for another 30 minutes.
Two days in and the starboard (right) rudder worked its way out of alignment. What this meant is that when the wind gusted Kuhela would turn East into the wind and stall. What I did was to run the port engine to pusher around and back onto course. This along with reefing the jib (rolling it in a foot or so) and letting the main out helped to keep us going more or less on our track. At 2 am we saw the light from Bonaire and at 3 am the smaller light on our port side from Oostpunt, the Eastern point of Curaçao. We took down the sails and motored into the sunrise (good timing, what!) for Spanish Waters and Southern Comfort who had left a week before us). An armada of boats was coming at us, so much so that we turned away from the coast to get out of the partyrush eastwards. Unbeknownst to us there was a First Sunday on the New Year jamboree at Fulkbaai (bay) where most Curasaowins hang out drinking in the shallows, listening to two rated bands, and just having a goot time. Most of the boats were quite small (under 20 ft) stuffed with people all dressed in bright red life jackets. There couldn't have been 4" of freeboard. In fact we saw one boat swamped when a large trawler hammered them with its prodigious wake. Just like PR, and the US, few "sailors" have any sailing knowledge or training. The partygoers were all fine.
We motored in the narrow changed flonked by a large, squat restore with a pier along the short on one side and a brown and bushy hill on the other. The streaming of boats never diminished as they went around us and the Antillean Coast Guard boat skulking in mid channel. Hard to starboard at the head of the channel, and there was Southern Comfort hailing us on the VHF (radio)! Pulled in close by on Rob's advise and splashed 125 ft of anchor rhode in 30 ft of water. Backed down hard to set the anchor for the prevailing winds (gusting to 35 kts) and "Bob's your uncle": end of leg one.
Monday morning with Rob and Lauren as guides - they had spent a Huricane Season here two years ago - we boarded the 9 am bus for Willemstaad and Customs and Irritation which went smoothly but slowly: now we're legal, but must check out with both when we leave.
Speaking of leaving, seems when our generator was put in an anti-siphon loop wasn't installed. So, when I cranked the engine two weeks ago and it didn't start I sucked salt water into the cylinders. Kaput! We'll be here two more weeks to have the engine repaired at $55/hr. Rob and Lauren will leave Saturday night for Aruba to stage for Cartegna.
On the plus side of the ledger, we repaired the chain stripper on the anchor windlass, repaired the sat phone antenna lead, re-wired the A/C side of the panel (new buss bars for positive, neutral, and ground), had the generator motor repaired and a new solenoid attached, and re-fueled. Did I say we live in a caustic environment? But, we do get to make these repairs in exotic places at exotic prices!
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