Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Westward Ho! ... A Teeny Bit

We returned to St. Thomas with a short list of items to complete at the dock and with today we saw the last check-mark on the list:

  • Replaced our "borrowed" batteries with new ones and added one more for additional capacity. We now have four AGM batteries for a total of 500 amp hours in our house bank.
  • Repaired the sticky throttle on our port engine. This turned out to be a easy one as the arm that connects the cable to the engine had been bent. A little straightening and all is moving fine now.
  • Resoldered a corroded connection on our VHF radio so it now works better than our handheld radio and added the GPS linkage so that we can hit the Distress button on the radio and it will actually transmit our location with the distress call.
  • While we were on the dock I pulled out the sewing machine and made a windshield for our helm. As an added bonus it helps to extend a bit more shade over anyone seated there, and with a velcro'd isinglass screen it will provide additional protection when there is rain or spray.
Looking back at photos on my camera, I had taken a few of the full cruise ship terminal at Yacht Haven Grande as we returned to Charlotte Amalie. Back to the hustle & bustle of St. Thomas!
Look carefully and you'll see the first boat is moving. The just radioed out that they are dropping their lines and leaving. Let's get out of the way!


So, now that all that has been completed and we said our goodbyes to all the good folks in Frenchtown, we headed round the corner to the Crown Bay fuel dock to fill up our main tank and jerry cans. Crown Bay was definitely a busy spot this afternoon with two cruiseships lined up beside each other and all sorts of other private and commercial traffic. Even the local ferry had to wait for us to finish at the dock before they could come in for room.


Given that it was almost 2pm by the time we finally set off, we decided that we wouldn't make it to Culebra before dark so we puttered around the end of the airport and into Brewer's Bay where we dropped anchor. We've now added a good dose of water to our tanks by running the water maker this afternoon and enjoyed the westward views as the sun set over Culebra and Vieques - our destinations for tomorrow.

Our destination for the evening, right under the flight path to STT airport.
Delta incoming.
As seen through our rigging.
Rewarded with a beautiful sunset.
Followed up by the sliver of the moon setting as well.