Grand Case, St. Martin

Sunday was a great day with winds down to 15-20 knots, and since it was Sunday we did not fix or repair anything. Just stayed on the boat and read. Went for an afternoon swim and watched a great sunset overall it was a really laid back enjoyable day.

With winds forecast to be 10-15 knots for all the week we checked out with customs, immigration and the port authority. Try typing on a French computer keyboard! The letters are in different places and dates are days/months/ years. We headed out for our first sail in 5+ years. Talk about work! I’m the only deckhand with Ruth handling the engines, navigation and smarts. We put up the old sail - what a piece of junk. I had always planned to buy new sails but wanted to fool around with these for awhile. We had to tie in all of the reefs - 3 front and 3 aft. Whew, lots of climbing and pulling ropes. Luckily we didn’t break anything. Shortly thereafter the autopilot quit working. One thing that one does not want to do is hand steer this boat all day. Both steering stations are aft outboard and exposed to the full sun and wind. You will be burned to a crisp. It appears that the autopilot drive is shot and will not work. A short while later we discovered that both the refrigerator and freezer had quit working. I could not coax them back to life. They both seem to be totally out of Freon.

So we anchored in Grand Case St. Martin – about 5 miles up the coast. This is a delightful bay with many famous French restaurants overlooking the bay. Spent a nice night here, but unfortunately we must return to Marigot and get this damned boat repaired. They say that renaming a boat is bad luck. I am not superstitious, but maybe there is some truth in the renaming superstitions.

Ruth is still not 100% so she will see a doctor while we try getting things fixed.

Next day - Custom Fit Marine is a group of boaters that fix things for other boaters. David, an Electrical Engineer from Scotland whose background was keeping the London Underground running , came to fix our autopilot. He quickly found a bad electrical splice near the hydraulic pump. We now think the autopilot is working, but haven’t been out for sea test yet. Sure glad it was that easy! Michel, a Frenchman, came to work on the fridge and freezer. That took part of 2 days. He had to return with a powerful vacuum pump to evacuate one of the systems before adding Freon. Luckily we have a powerful diesel 220 V generator to power his pump. I have been looking for a job for this generator for some time. We use solar showers to heat shower water and the solar plates charge the batteries so don’t often use the generator.

Ruth saw a doctor yesterday and does not seem to have broken anything. The doctor suggested that maybe? we were getting a bit old for this tough lifestyle. With some medicine and exercises we think she is getting better. Will go out for another test sail this afternoon, and if all is OK, we will check out and head south.