Dec 21-22 St. Thomas

Second Post on December Cruise:
On Wednesday 12/21, after a sleepless night, Emily and I left Coral Harbor for Christmas Cove and then moved on to Charlotte Amalie. Coral Harbor was an overcrowded anchorage, with all boats on anchors with different scope and dubious tackle, and with very strong gusts from almost every direction and noone watching.  It would have been imprudent to go ashore with noone aboard.  See ya. Got to go. We were just glad that our anchor wasn’t below another boat when it came time for us to boogie.

With just the jib, we ran back down the south coast of St. John, passing all the wonderful anchorages that we plan to come back to some day. Saltpond Bay is reported to be wonderful, with hikes up the hills.  We stopped for lunch at Christmas Cove on Great St. James Island, but the place was packed with boats and so had to anchor out. With the strong Christmas Winds and northerly swell, it was an uncharacteristically nasty place. So we moved on to gain the protection of Charlotte Amalie, the capital of St. Thomas and the home of ginormous cruise ships. True –Charlotte Amalie is surrounded by land and there is plenty of room to anchor –but the wind was blasting over 40 knots at times, making it exciting to walk up up to the bow to check the anchor, which held well. The sea was 80F, the air was 85F. When a strong breeze blew, it was still warm. What a strange place. I knew I wasn’t in Kansas any more when the Disney cruise ship left the dock, blowing its horn to the tune of “When You Wish Upon A Star”. Ohhhh-Kayyyy.

Aside about anchoring: In 18’ of water, I put out the 55 lb. delta plus100 ft. of 3/8” chain plus another 10’ of the 250’ of 5/8” megaplait self-flaking braid that is attached to the chain, plus a 35’ 5/8” 3-strand chain snubber. This primary ground tackle is used by Scott Piper, J/160 Pipe Dream, now on his fifth circumnavigation. When rarely needed, he puts a second anchor in tandem with the first, separated by 10’ of chain. That’s my plan too. The Vesper AIS has a fantastic anchor watch on its display that consumes almost no power (a few hundred milliamps as I recall). It beeps me awake when the boat moves out of a circle of a configurable radius centered on the anchor; I use 110 ft. In the past I used the anchor watch on my Raymarine RL80CRC chartplotter with the Raymarine GPS on Seatalk. This works great but this combination consumes something like 5-6 amps –way too much. I’ve n-e-v-e-r d-r-a-g-g-e-d with Heron, but there will be a first time.

On Thursday 12/22, Emily and I awoke in Charlotte Amalie to continued strong winds. It was the beginning of a day that would deplete our adrenal glands. My daughter Julia (12), my brother Andrew and my sister-in-law Jamie, and their two daughters Leigh (16) and Kelsey (15), were scheduled to fly in to join Heron for our remaining week of vacation from the cold.  Four teenage girls together on a boat for a week should spell trouble. But these girls have been thriving together on boats for many years, not only making it easier on parents, but providing one of the biggest reasons that we go boating.  Crown Bay Marina offers a short five minute ride from the airport, a high quality market to provision the boat, fresh water, shore power, and Tickles –an open air restaurant that offers great food, drink and atmosphere. So that's where we were headed.  The only problem is, it’s a total bitch to get into a slip there when the wind is howling. It’s so tight in any condition that you have to get cleared in and out by their traffic controller.

Scene one: We waited until 11 am, when the dive boat captain said the wind was expected to ease. We called ahead and changed to a leeward slip assignment and lined up some dock hands to help us. We set our lines and fenders and rehearsed diagrams on paper as to how we would enter, back in, and secure the boat. I had an extra cup of coffee. But it still howled. As we entered the marina, the wind was still in the mid-20s with stronger gusts. After two power-on attempts to line up on the slip, with the bow anchor poised dangerously at the belly of a 120’ power yacht, I bailed. In reverse, my 3-blad Maxprop pulls the stern to port, rotating the bow to starboard --the same direction the wind was pushing it --not in the direction we wanted. I didn’t have enough room to gain way for the rudder to do it’s job. Ain’t got no shtinkin bow thruster on this performance cruiser... but I sure wish I had one this time.

Scene two: Back out into Crown Bay, our plan is to collect ourselves by picking up a mooring (any mooring) until the wind abates. The plane lands in an hour, but they’ll have to suffer at Tickles until we’re ready for a second landing. It’s blowing so hard, Emily and I have to punt on our first attempt to pick up a mooring. We land on a second mooring with a pulse rate that I don’t get to in the gym. A very nice guy with a santa beard passes by on his dinghy saying that we’re on a very strong mooring and they probably won’t be back for a few days, and that we should call him on VHF66 if we need anything. I’m feeling relieved. When I come back to the cockpit, Emily casually mentions that “The water tanks are making a funny noise.” That’s weird. When I go below, I hear the electric bilge pump running and the distinctly horrifying sound of rushing water. Bing. The adrenalin pump goes to full max. Floor board up; water 4” below the floor; engine compartment door open; stuffing box flooding; towel wrapped on stuffing box; Emily manning one manual bilge pump; I pump the other. Holy kripes. We’re sinking. I get on VHF66.  Santa says he’ll be right over, but advises us to call a towing company as they carry pumps. With a pump handle in one hand and the cellphone in the other, I called Tow Boat US (per my subscription). After reporting my position and situation to the dispatcher (somewhere in the US), he replied that they don’t have any facilities in the Virgin Islands. Not good. Meanwhile, there is now a dinghy arriving to my stern with another a few minutes away. I thank the dispatcher and hang up. Approaching the fellow in the dinghy, I get an earful about how I’m on his mooring and that his boat will be returning..... blah blah blah... to which I responded that “I’m sinking and sure could use your help if you are willing to come aboard.” His affect flipped 180 degrees.  He was a professional boat mechanic and knew exactly what to do!  Dinghy two arrived with santa from VHF66, who was a friend of the first guy, so we were ready to party.

Within 5 minutes, the leak was stopped. He jumped into his RIB and ran off to the chandlery at Cruz Bay Marina to buy parts to improve the design, returned to install them, and departed with a heavy tip and a few bottles of my good wine. He was a guardian angel, arriving within minutes of the crisis. If he hadn’t arrived at that time, it would have taken me seemingly forever to calm down enough to repair it.  Emily is always calm and would have been the tool gopher, but I was a wreck.  It turns out he was a retired long-line fisherman out of New Bedford then Boston, fishing on the Grand Banks and Flemish Cap –perfect storm territory. He (who’s name I can’t recall) also spent time with Linda Greenlaw and passed hydraulic fluid to the Andrea Gail, the ill-fated ship in the book. We must be in some kind of movie.  Anyway, somewhere along this timeline I’m hearing the US Coast Guard out of San Juan Puerto Rico repeatedly calling a vessel that sounds like Heron.... Highreon or something. After a classically repetitive conversation, they get the idea that I’m the guy they are looking for and that we are no longer in danger.   Tow Boat US had notified the coast guard of my position and my identity, using information from my subscription. Later I found voicemail messages on my cellphone from both Boat US and from the USCG San Juan –which I returned and closed their incident reports. Whew. It’s a good thing I didn’t hit the SOS button on the SPOT, or the GPIRBs, or call mayday on the VHF or SSB, or call 911 on the cellphone, or....

Aside on the stuffing box failure: The stuffing box is a PSS (Packless Seal System) Shaftseal dripless stuffing box from PYI. It was completely replaced for purely preventative reasons by New England Boatworks at my request, 10 months ago, in preparation for this trip. It worked flawlessly all summer. The old one was 10 years or 900 hours of engine use old, and looked fine. Evidently the allen head set screws that hold the new stainless steel collar to the shaft had loosened. While attempting to dock at Crown Bay, a burst of reverse probably caused water to extend the bellows and to push the s.s. collar forward on the shaft. Subsequently there was a gap between the s.s. collar and the carbon ring that is attached to the bellow and the stern tube. It’s shocking how fast the water came in. The guardian angel mechanic who fixed it has installed several on his boats, but now prefers the old fashioned packing type. But for the PSS design, he enhanced safety beyond the installation instructions in three ways: (1) replace the allen set screws with long 5/8” hex head bolts, with nuts to lock them against the s.s. collar. (2) use Loctite on the bolts. (3) put a zinc anode donut or ring on the shaft inside the boat, tightened against the s.s. steel collar. The amount the bellow is compressed beyond the “neutral” position is important, as I’ll report in a subsequent scene of this drama.

Scene three: OK. We’re not sinking, the wind is down to 13, the gang is waiting at the marina, and Emily and I are ready for more action. Our plan is to land on the marina fuel dock (infinitely easier), refuel (since we’re there), get my brother aboard (who is good at this stuff), and make another attempt to get into our slip. After kisses and hugs, we try three more attempts to back in. No go. Ain’t gonna happen. So I go in bow-first in one shot and before we know it we’re all hooked up with every last inch of our power cord. So I’ve learned something about my boat: It’s always more maneuverable in reverse –except in tight spaces where prop walk dominates over rudder flow and where pulling the stern to port defeats the plan. It’s time for dinner and drinks at Tickles followed by star gazing in the cockpit!

Jay