8 March 2012 Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
It’s Glenys’s birthday today and I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t get her anything at all – not even a box of chocolates. Surprisingly, she doesn’t seem that bothered.
I started to install the pump out facility for the front toilet holding tank, but the pipe fittings and valve that I’d bought yesterday are very large and wouldn’t fit into the space available. I redesigned what I had to do and scooted off to Budget Marine to change some bits. I called in at Electec and they hope to have someone out to look at our generator tomorrow. When I arrived back, Glenys went to buy a second hand pilot book for the Virgin Islands.
By lunchtime, I’d fitted most of the pipework and, after measuring the position five times, took a deep breath and drilled a two inch hole in the deck for a new deck outlet fitting. Fortunately, it was in the correct place, so I dug out ½” of the foam from the middle of the deck sandwich and squeezed in some thick epoxy to make it watertight in case the deck fitting leaks at some point in the future. I should be able to finish the job tomorrow after the epoxy hardens.
Glenys went off to do some shopping in the afternoon with Sunny from “Notre Vie”, while I ripped the cooker apart and replaced the temperature sensor which has been stopping the oven from working. It wasn’t a particularly easy job as I had to dismantle quite a bit of the cooker to get at everything – very annoying considering that it was an expensive cooker and hasn’t worked properly since it was new.
We went to the Yacht Club for Happy Hour and then went for a Birthday meal with Kent and Dawn from “Kristy”.
9 March 2012 Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
Glenys went to the French side of the island to find the Volvo dealer and buy a gasket for the exhaust elbow, but unfortunately, they say that there are none available in the Caribbean and that Volvo are not going to manufacture any more. I don’t believe this so I’m going to try to get the UK dealer to send one out to Virgin Gorda.
Communications is a problem for us here in the Lagoon; our UK phone SIM cards don’t allow outgoing calls and we’re not able to pick up any internet access while at anchor. Apparently, there is so much interference from the large power boats that internet wireless signals can’t get through. I’m amazed that no one has got it working in this very busy anchorage.
We’ve not had any email for a few days, so Glenys sneaked into a big hotel and sat in the foyer to get our mail. Unfortunately, she found out that our bank has suspended our Internet banking because I tried to transfer a large sum of money to another savings account – we need to ring their security team. This is a nightmare with no mobile phone access and no internet to Skype.
I finished off the holding tank plumbing in the morning and tried to get the electrician out to look at our generator – maybe tomorrow morning… In the afternoon, I refitted the cooker in place and the oven appears to work correctly now, thank goodness.
I then spent a couple of hours working out how to fit a soft start controller to my dive compressor motor. I’ve had this device on board for nearly a year and haven’t fitted it because the compressor has been working OK. The soft starter is supposed to reduce the starting current on an electric motor, so I’m hoping that I can get the compressor running without doing any major work on the generator and more importantly without having to wait here in St Maarten for spare parts to be flown in.
During the day, I managed to kick one of the shrouds as I was walking past in my bare feet. I’ve ripped the skin from two toes and somehow sprained my little toe which is now bruising up nicely. I spent most of the day limping about and protecting my poor foot. This is an occupational hazard because we spent all of our time on the boat with bare feet and there are lots of sharp, hard things sticking out of the deck. Touch wood and whistle; we’ve been pretty lucky so far.
We had a quiet night in for a change.
10 March 2012 Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
Amazingly the electrician turned up at nine o’clock. He ran some tests and found that the Voltage Control System circuit board is not working. He tested the dc motor and the large capacitors which are working fine – the circuit board is simply not sending any signals to the dc motor. He reckons that if they order a new circuit board on Monday we should be up and running by the end of next week – bummer, looks like another week in St Maarten. I’ll go into Electec on Monday morning and get them to give me a quote and confirm the delivery date. I scooted off to buy some electrical bits to fit the soft starter – if I can get my dive compressor running with the generator in its current state, then I might leave the VCS system locked off until we get hauled out in the States in October.
We have an EPIRB, which is an essential safety device. When it's activated, it alerts the Search & Rescue authorities that we have a problem. It has worldwide coverage and tells the authorities our exact position using a network of satellites. If we sink in the middle of the ocean and have to get into our life-raft then we’ll activate the EPIRB and the Search & Rescue can then send out a helicopter or divert a ship to come and rescue us. I tested our EPIRB a few days ago and it failed it’s self-test. I’ve tried to get someone local to change the battery, but the guy never came back to me. The EPIRB is fourteen years old and it may not be possible to service it, so I bit the bullet and bought a nice shiny new one for $600US – somehow, I now feel a lot safer.
After lunch, Glenys went off to Business Point to pay for access to the Internet. Unfortunately, she was unable to get a good enough connection to talk to our bank using Skype – we’ll try again tomorrow. Meanwhile, I tidied up the mess left by doing jobs for three days and then worked on rewiring the dive compressor motor. I just about finished by sunset, but I’m waiting until tomorrow to try it. I don’t want to blow up my dive compressor…
While gazing across the anchorage as the sun went down, I pondered about the bizarre set up of St Maarten with the small island being split into a Dutch side and a French side. We’re anchored in the Dutch side of the lagoon and have to pay $30US per week to stay here. The French border is only one hundred metres away and they only have to pay $15 to clear in, consequently the French side is very crowded with yachts avoiding paying the additional fees. We should have made the effort to clear into the French side, but when we arrived, we didn’t realise the difference in the cost. Now that we’re settled, I can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of checking out of the Dutch side and into the French side. Hopefully we’ll only be here another week.
11 March 2012 Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Maarten
It's Sunday, so we declared today a holiday, but I couldn’t resist trying my dive compressor. I was a little nervous after my extensive rewiring yesterday, so I checked everything and amazingly it started. This is good news because we now don’t need to wait for a replacement Voltage Control System circuit board.
We went to the Business Point office to sort out our bank account. Again we couldn’t talk to them using Skype, so we had to use a land line which cost us £8, but at least we have internet banking again. While we had Internet access, we registered our new EPIRB with the US authorities, so that if we have to activate the device they will know who to look for. I also arranged for a new engine exhaust gasket to be sent out from the UK to the BVI - hopefully they'll provide the correct one this time.
After lunch, we went over to the French side and wandered around a while, walked up to the fort then went to a supermarket to buy some French food. In the evening, we went to Happy Hour at the Yacht Club and carried onto a Mexican restaurant.