Category Archives: Virgin Islands

BVI, Isla de Culebra, Puerto Rico, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, Virgin Gorda, Virgin Islands

Alive and Well Aboard Ma’alahi

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A question for you:

Which of the following excuses is the biggest reason we have not written in such a long time?

a) We’ve been too busy having fun
b) We’ve been too busy with boat projects
c) We’ve settled into such a routine that we just don’t think about it
d) I’m just too lazy
e) The computer has been broken
f) ALL OF THE ABOVE

(in my best gameshow host voice): Well, if you guessed “f, all of the above” then YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!!

Even though we’ve been in the Virgin Islands since mid-December, we’ve moved around a lot … never more than one week at any anchorage at one time. We’ve done two tours of St. Croix, spent lots of time in St. Thomas and explored parts of St. John that we’d missed before. We’ve spent big bucks fixing and replacing broken boat parts, including the transmission, dinghy, autopilot and refrigerator; discovered and hung out in our newest favorite St. John anchorage,P0001894 Hurricane Hole; got visits from friends Randy and Lonie, Mike and Cynthia, and my brother Gary and sister-in-law Vanessa, read lots of books and learned a lot more about the world of amateur radio.

And, yes, the computer was out of commission for awhile when the keyboard finally succumbed to corrosion from the marine environment. But after disabling the notebook’s keyboard and adding an external one, it’s working ALMOST normal again (I just have to choose whether I want to use the mouse or the keyboard). Anyway, this will be an attempt to bring you up-to-date with our goings-on.

P0001921The first thing you should know is that we left the Virgin Islands this past Friday when we sailed over to Isla de Culebra, one of Puerto Rico’s eastern islands. We hope to be here just long enough for a weather window to open up for us to make the 640 nautical mile passage up to San Salvador in the Bahamas. However, there is a very nasty low pressure system and gale centered just north of that location and it’s taking it’s sweet time moving on out. I’m downloading weather faxes and reports frequently looking for a break; hopefully we’ll get to leave here Wednesday morning and are looking forward to the 4 – 5 day passage out into the Atlantic.

Way, way back on the 3rd of March, Randy and Lonie came sailing in P0001867to St. Thomas on a cruise ship. We picked them up and went for a short sail before dropping anchor in Honeymoon Bay on Water Island where we managed to grab a table in the shade on the loveliest beach around just before the day-charter barge KON TIKI showed up, dropping off their 100 or so guests. After a late lunch back onboard Ma’alahi and the strange disappearance of a great number of bottles of beer, we managed to race back to Long Bay and deposit R & L on the cruise ship dock just in time for them to make the gangway before it was stowed.

P0001890A couple of weeks later Mike and Cynthia flew in for a week’s visit. We didn’t waste any time taking them to our newly discovered Hurricane Hole near Coral Bay, St. John. We swam and snorkeled and spotted many birds. Then we thought it would be good to take them to a favorite little funky bar-restaurant, Skinny Legs, for a quiet Sunday late-afternoon cheeseburger. WRONG DAY! We dinghyed over to the sounds of a BIG party going on. There was a live band and people jammed in every corner, both inside and out. I will not EVEN attempt to describe all the bizarre events of that evening but we think we remember that the cheeseburgers were excellent! We made a run to Virgin Gorda, via Peter Island where we enjoyed another exciting episode of “The Charterboat Anchoring Show” which consists of getting to a BVI anchorage that has no moorings early in the afternoon, getting something cold to drink and then watching the show as late-arriving bareboat charterers come in and go through hilarious gyrations in their attempts to set the hook! The next day we sailed on to The Baths at Virgin Gorda. We spent the afternoon with Mike and Cynthia, climbing the giant boulders and making our way to the fabulous Devil’s Bay Beach. Upon returning to the mother ship, we were shocked to discover that in our absence about 30 or more French bareboat charter boats had anchored closely around the frightened Ma’alahi. We quickly made our escape to the overnight anchorage at Spanish Town and next morning fled the BVI. It was a week that went by too fast.

However, two weeks later we swung right back into vacation-mode when Gary and Vanessa arrived for their visit. Things got off to a fast start as we sailed offshore from Water Island heading toward St. John and Gary caught the last two fish in the Virgin Islands. The first was a barracuda who got tossed back after we carefully removed the hooks without losing any fingers. The next one, though, was a definite keeper; a very nice-sized, two-dinners-for-four Wahoo! Actually, there must have been at least a couple more fish in the ocean because Gary almost caught them, too. Problem was, I had just replaced the rusty hooks on a couple of good lures but they turned out to be too puny and these sea monsters bent the hooks straight and slid off! Well, one morning we had an experience that would top any fish story. We were just coming out of the cut in the reef from Cane Garden Bay when Claudia let out a shriek, “Oh my humpback5gosh, it’s a wh-wh-whale!!!” Holy cow! Sure enough, there was a mama humpback and her calf swimming by very close to us and the shore. We turned the boat around and got even closer. Gary was at the bow snapping pictures like crazy and we were all treated to the sight of the adolescent humpback breaching and splashing several times only 150 ft. away! Don’t think we’ll ever top that! I think we came real close to talking G and V into staying with us and helping us sail back to the Bahamas and Florida, but in the end they flew home anyway (sigh).

Claudia has had a good time learning to play the piano. We bought an electronic piano keyboard back in January and she’s teaching herself how with the books we bought with it. It was slow going for awhile but she’s reading music now and readily picking out (guitar term) new songs. I play a little, too, but only by ear. It’s another reason why this email has been so long in coming. Since getting the HAM license I’ve also spent more time with the radio, both on the marine and ham frequencies. It still amazes me that with this little black box and wire antenna and a little power from our batteries that I can talk to so many people in so many far-away places from our little boat in the remotest of anchorages. I talked to a guy in Copenhagen, Denmark one evening, talked with Mary and Rick on TRANQUILITY while they were on passage from Panama to the Galapagos Islands, frequently talk to Andy and Diane on SPIRIT BORNE in Panama’s San Blas Islands, Rosie and Neil on DREAMCATCHER in Columbia and even had a good conversation with Liz on RUMPLETEASER the other night in New York City! I’ve talked to my dad in Texas from his friend’s HAM station a couple of times and have had a couple of really good, long conversations with my friend Elkin, up near Pittsburgh. So, HEY, get a radio and let’s talk!

When the wind and sea conditions finally improve we’ll take off from here and make way to San Salvador. We’ll spend two or three weeks visiting some of the islands in that area before heading over to George Town where our daughter Christina and her family will meet us for a visit before we head on to Florida. We’ll be in touch and start sending position reports along the way via email.

Regards,

David and Claudia
aboard MA’ALAHI

Dolphins, St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

Caribbean Update From Ma’alahi

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Hello everyone out there in email land!

David and Claudia are finally back online with a new email address: KD5MXA@winlink.org. This email address is a permanent replacement for the old SAILMAIL address. Like the old email account, this one is via the HAM radio and it makes use of the identical technology and software. So, it’s the same SLOW send and receive for us on this end, although we do have more stations and frequencies available to log on to. There is a real neat feature of this new setup. On the web, go to http://wl2k.org/arps.htm and enter KD5MXA in the call sign prompt and click “display”. This will take you to a series of maps that show our last reported position which gets updated each time we logon to email.

We really love it here in the Virgin Islands. Even though we’ll be heading to Florida in the coming months to setup a new home base, visit family and friends and go to W*RK for awhile, we think this would make an excellent home base, too, someday. We already know that when hurricane season arrives, we can be south to Venezuela’s out islands in 3 days and that is a perfect place to cruise during that time of year, and then return here at whatever pace that suits us. We sailed down to St. Croix around the middle of January (35 miles south of St. Thomas) in order to take the HAM tests, the passing of which has given us these new email privileges. On this trip we finally made it over to Buck Island, a small island-national park less than 5 miles from Christiansted harbor. What a great discovery this was! The west end of the island has a beautiful white sand beach lined with palm trees and the anchorage is in deep sand in about 10 feet of water just off this beach. There are fabulous coral reefs around the island that made for excellent snorkeling. When we go back we hope to lure some of those big lobsters outside of the park boundary and have them over for dinner. On the sail back to St. Thomas we had yet another encounter with a group of dolphins playing at the bow of our boat. It was especially fun to watch the m in the incredibly blue and clear water competing for position directly in front of the bow.

We’ve made extensive use of 1-800 numbers and the U.S. mail in St. Thomas; ordering new parts, returning broken ones for repair and getting them back in a reasonable period of time. We’ve been without the use of either of our depth sounders since the first day of October when our backup unit decided to take early retirement. Although we got real good at judging depth from the color of the water, it is very good indeed to have both of them repaired and back onboard again. The forward seal on our transmission took to leaking awhile back and we’re going to have that fixed next week. Since the parts are on order for that and will take a week or so to arrive, we sailed over to St. John to spend some good NO-SHOPPING time at some of our favorite anchorages. We’ll head back to St. Thomas early next week to make the transmission repair.

Well, that’s the news from the Virgin Islands. It’s good to be back online and will be even better when we hear from you!

David and Claudia
aboard Ma’alahi
Leinster Bay, St. John, USVI
February 10, 2001

St. Croix, St. John, Virgin Islands

Wintering in the Virgins

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Hello again and Holiday Greetings from the Virgin Islands!

Yes, we’re back in the USA … have been since the 4th of December when we dropped the hook in Christiansted, St. Croix, after a 51-hour, mostly-pleasant passage from Martinique. We had definitely been traveling hard to make good over 600 miles in less than 2 1/2 weeks, which included 6 days spent at Martinique and 5 days at Union Island waiting for weather. The trip from Los Testigos, Venezuela, to Union Island was slow. The west-setting current was so strong most of the way that we were steering a course of 46 degrees and when not running the engine making good 0 degrees! We persevered and finally made the Frigate Island anchorage at Union Island where RUNAL was waiting for us and guided us in, since it was long past dark. It was late and we were tired from our 38-hour marathon, but Al and Runa had dinner ready for us and with our second wind we stayed up even later comparing our exploits since we had parted ways last spring.

After a few days of relaxing and waiting for the weather opportunity we left Union for an overnight trip up to Martinique. However, RUNAL soon developed a problem with their alternator and it was decided to continue on but to put in at Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, where not only would parts and service be available but also the English language. By the time Al was making electricity again the wind and seas had begun building with the forecast for alot more of each. We all agreed that we’d much rather get stuck waiting for weather in Martinique than St. Lucia so we braved the 25 knot winds and 9 foot seas for the 20 miles north to Martinique. It was on this short passage that my worst fear was ALMOST met. About half way to our destination as we were just holding on and “enjoying” the ride I happened to look up straight ahead. There was no mistaking the broad black body that surfaced right in front of us, not even one boat length away. A whale! I held my breath and that must’ve worked because we didn’t crash into it. I wonder, how many close calls are had at night?

Well, true to the forecasts the wind and seas continued to rise over the next few days and we were all glad we’d made our escape to Martinique in time. We immediately got into the swing of things and spent the next six days enjoying all things French including breads, pastries, cheeses and wines. We rented a car one day and made two provisioning runs in order to take as much of France with us as possible. Once the wind and seas started to subside we knew it was time to leave; next stop, the Virgin Islands.

P0001821When we arrived at Christiansted we saw the boat FREE SPIRIT who we knew from our last visit. The next day we stopped by and John offered to take us on his special Cruzan tour in his 4-wheel drive Jeep. What a trip that turned out to be! We visited several ruins of the old sugar plantations including many of the islands windP0001819 mills. John knew the area well and he took several turns off the road to isolated places with fantastic views. Then we drove down a … well, more of a goat trail than a road, to a rocky beach. We walked along the rocks and came to a tidal pool where we cooled off with a swim. Wow! Not many people could even get to this place, even if they knew where it was!

After a few days we headed on up to St. Thomas. Al’s son and his family arrived last Saturday and they’ve been having a great time. We sailed over to Norman Island and then to Virgin Gorda in the BVI this week and met up with them for a couple of days. We’re now P0001842back at St. John and getting ready for a big Christmas dinner with Al and Runa on RUNAL and Tim and Leslie on FOLIE A DEUX. The six of us plan on spending Christmas day anchored over in, where else, Christmas Cove.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: We plan to change our email address after the end of this year. Our SAILMAIL account is an annual, calendar year thing and we’re going to let it expire this year. I’ve been studying for a HAM radio license which will give us access to email for FREE. Only problem is that the test won’t be given until around the middle of January so the only email we’ll have until then is via HOTMAIL. That address is: wcw5564@hotmail.com. When I get a HAM call sign I’ll email you all our new address. Please continue using this SAILMAIL account until the end of the year and then use HOTMAIL until further notice.

We want to wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

David and Claudia
12/21/2000

St. John, Virgin Islands

Heading Out to Bonaire

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Sunday, June 25
We’re leaving St. John, USVI, this morning for Bonaire. We’ve got a good window on the weather and plenty of time to get both south and west of the tropical depression way out in the Atlantic. The passage should take between 72 and 80 hours to make the 435 miles down to Bonaire so we hope to arrive sometime Wednesday. We’ll write again when we get there.

David and Claudia

St. Croix, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

Back in the Virgins

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Monday May 15, 2000
We are currently anchored in Salt River Bay, St. Croix, USVI. Columbus anchored here in 1493 in search of fresh water but didn’t stay long after his shore party was attacked by local Carib Indians. We’ve had a much friendlier reception, from a cruising family that LaunchDay_Nikki_Cyndi_Keith_Alyssawe met last year on the way down. We met Keith and Cyndi and their two daughters, Nikki and Alyssa ages 11 and 9, in Salinas, Puerto Rico. They were on their way to Virgin Gorda where Keith had decided to take a job building boats (he’s a shipwright by trade). Shortly after we bade them farewell in Virgin Gorda last June Keith found a much better opportunity building a 65 ft. luxury catamaran in St. Croix for a former client of his. The boat is near completion and the owners, financiers and Keith and Cyndi will be sailing it to Hawaii next month where it will go into the owners’ charter business which Keith will be managing. The girls will be flying to the U.S. to stay with their grandparents until joining their parents in Hawaii. Sounds like a pretty neat deal for them all. Anyway, they’ve been renting a house for the past month and they have a car. They had us over the other night and fixed a fantastic chicken fried steak dinner. How did they know I’d been craving that?! Today Cyndi is going to pick us up and take us to K-Mart (that’s what Claudia has been craving).

Our passage from Martinique was the best sailing passage we’ve made yet. We weighed anchor Wednesday morning in St. Pierre at the base of Mount Pelee with 15 knots of wind from the ENE and 3-4 ft. seas. The second night out, however, the wind died completely so we had to motor the last 16 hours into St. Croix. WeFort_Christiansvaern_1 spent the first 2 nights here anchored at Christiansted which is a very quaint and historic town. We took a bus to the large Plaza Xtra grocery store which is one of the best things about being back in the U.S. (American groceries, not buses).

We have to play the tides to get in and out of the Salt River anchorage so we plan to leave early in the morning for our day sail over to St. Thomas where we’ll be hanging out for awhile.

Tuesday May 23, 2000
Salt_River_Bay_1Okay, here’s what really happened. Instead of staying at Salt River for two days, we were there for a whole week. After we saw the yacht that Keith is building and they said it would be launched on Friday, we decided that we would definitely stay to witness that event, which we did. During the week we spent a lot of time with Cyndi and the girls, getting to do laundry for free at the house with their full size washer and dryer (it’s the simple things we find pleasure in these days), surfing the internet, swimming in the pool and going to K-Mart and the grocery stores. We even got to go to church with them on Sunday. It’s also pretty cool being adopted by a family that is moving to Hawaii. There was another thing that kept us very busy last week. There was another cruising boat at Salt River that we met last year, “Free Spirit” with John and Nadine on board. John is working for Keith building the catamaran. Claudia found out that Nadine has a large collection of old radio dramas on cassette and that Cyndi wanted to copy them. Well, we don’t have a way to copy from cassette tape to cassette tape but I did figure out a way to copy from cassette tape to our computer and then to CD and then from CD to cassette tape which is a very slow process but we got them done and now we have a fine collection of old radio dramas on CD!

When we arrived at Salt River we came in on a high tide at about 4:00 pm. However, during the week the tides went from two a day to only one and the high tide occurred in the middle of the night. Monday morning at first light we made our exit, clearing the bottom by the narrowest of margins (luckily the bottom is sand and we could have powered our way through except in the lowest of tides). We motor-sailed the 34 miles up to St. Thomas and dropped the hook in the clear, turquoise water at Honeymoon Bay, Water Island, St. Thomas, where we’ll do some much needed maintenance and repair, including finishing our paintjob that we started in Trinidad (it will be good to have both sides the same color again). In two weeks our friends Laddie and DJ will fly in from Houston to scope out the VI where they’ll bring their boat later this year to put into their new charter business. We’ll let them work for a couple of days and then we’ll get into vacation mode and check out all the fine anchorages in the area.

Till next time,
David and Claudia

Anegada Passage, BVI, St. Martin

Big Ocean, Small World

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Back in the summer of 1986, in the days of bigger house and smaller boat, we sailed our Catalina 27 from Houston to Port Isabelle (South Padre Island area) where we kept it as our floating condo for a year, traveling the 500 one way miles every chance we got; vacation weeks, long weekends, short weekends. We met a couple there that lived on their boat and cruised the islands whenever they got the chance. They were the first people we ever met who actually lived on their boat and, therefore, they quickly developed “hero” status with us and we became fast friends. The next summer when we had decided to sell the boat and the house in order to get a bigger boat and live on it, Doug and LuAnn gave us a wonderful sendoff with a grilled tuna dinner across the dock at their place. The next day when we sailed out of the marina for the brokerage docks back in Houston was the last time we saw them, although we’ve kept in touch over the years by infrequent mail.

While we were in the Virgin Islands, we became a “sponsoring vessel” by subscribing to David Jones’ Caribbean Weather Net based in Tortola. For $100 per year, we can check in with David Jones (the “Caribbean Weather Man”) via SSB radio to get weather information and forecasts for whatever area we happen to be in at the time. Since we’re well into hurricane season, trying to make our way south, we figured it was well worth it for the personal weather routing service.

Randy and Cheryl flew out of St. Thomas last Saturday morning. By noon we were heading back to Virgin Gorda where we would wait for weather to cross the Anegada Passage to St. Martin. We only made it to Peter Island due to the very strong easterly trade winds. The next day we made it on in to Virgin Gorda. I noticed that the alternator bracket that had broken and been welded together back in Apalachicola had broken again. Luckily, our friends Keith and Cindy on “Imua Kai”, who went to work for the shipyard on Virgin Gorda, were able to help me get it re-welded right away. Tuesday, we took the ferry over to Road Town, Tortola, to try to find, or have made, a new alternator bracket (the re-welded one would serve as a backup) and to meet David Jones and visit his Weather Center. We didn’t find a new bracket and the machine shop couldn’t make a new one right away, but we did visit the Weather Center, talked with David Jones and got a good weather window for St. Martin overnight.

We cleared out of the BVI, caught the last ferry back to Virgin Gorda, quickly got the boat ready to sail and had the anchor up by 1800, heading for St. Martin some 85 nautical miles away. David’s forecast of 15-20 knot easterlies and “bumpy” seas was right on. The sky was mostly clear and the full moon made for a delightful, although a little rough, crossing.

The next morning around 0730 and about 35 miles from St. Martin, the radio was calling our name.
“Ma’alahi Ma’alahi, Whisper.”
I glanced at Claudia and grabbed the mike.
“Whisper Whisper, Ma’alahi.”
“Ma’alahi, go to 6224.”
“Switching to 6224.”
“Ma’alahi, this is Whisper. Are you David and Claudia?”
“Are you LuAnn and Doug?”

Luann_DougSure enough, Doug and LuAnn Grant, aboard their recently acquired schooner “Whisper”, had heard us talking to David Jones a couple of days before and thought it might be us. I guaranteed them that we are definitely the only “Ma’alahi” on the high seas. Interestingly, they’ve been at St. Croix, USVI; the only Virgin Island we didn’t visit. But, they’re heading south, too, and we’ll surely meet up with one another somewhere down the line. Can’t wait.

By the way, we made it to Saint Martin. We’re currently anchored at Marigot on the French side. We took a bus over to Philipsburg, Sint Maarten, on the Dutch side of the island today. We survived another passing tropical wave and its associated strong winds and heavy rain last night. The next few days promise settled weather and we’ll leave in the morning (Saturday) for St. Barts. From there we’ll overnight to Guadeloupe where we’ll finally be below 16 degrees latitude and be within the requirements of our insurance once again.

Still lovin’ it,

David and Claudia

Miss Augie, Virgin Gorda

New Crew

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Dear Family and Friends,
We’d like to take this opportunity to announce the return of a former DrakeChannel_Augie_2crew member to “Ma’alahi”, Miss Augie. For those of you that we’ve met since our Texas departure, Miss Augie is Claudia’s 3 lb. Chihuahua who was left behind when we began our cruising life. She has returned to boat life after her 8 month absence by stowing away in our son’s (Randy) and daughter-in-law’s (Cheryl) bags when they came to the Virgin Islands for a visit. Since the hard part of our current journey is behind us and since we’ve met other boats cruising with pets with no problems and since most countries don’t care as long as they stay on the boat and since she quickly adjusted to taking her “walks” on the foredeck (the poop deck might sound more appropriate, but the logistics are better forward so we can just hose it down when she’s done) we decided to reenlist her as permanent crew.

We’re in the 3rd week of our vacation marathon. Our daughter, VirginGorda_TheBaths_Rick_Christina_ClaudiaChristina, and her husband, Rick, came for a week’s visit the first part of June. They got to see many of the hilights of both the US and British Virgin Islands (as much as one can in only one week) and had a really good time. Rick really took to snorkeling and Christina left with a little color in her cheeks (and shoulders, arms and legs). The day after their departure, Randy and Cheryl (and Augie) arrived. Since DrakeChannel_Cheryl_Randythey will be here until June 26, they’re getting the extended tour. In addition to sunny beaches, sparkling, turquoise water and superb snorkeling, they’ve experienced a tropical wave (packing 40 knot winds) and the only squalls we’ve had while under way our entire trip.

We’ve been trolling 2 fishing lines at all times and Randy has caught 3 fish…well, 4 if you count the fish head that was landed without a body attached. Looks like a shark got the best part. Today, Randy and I scuba dived the wreck of the “HMS Rhone”, a British mail steamer that went down here in a hurricane in October, 1867.

Vacationing is much busier and demanding than cruising but I think we will both make it to the finish. We won’t have much time to rest, though. We’ll be looking for weather to get south in a hurry, before one of these tropical waves turns into something much worse. We hope to sail from Virgin Gorda directly to Guadeloupe (215 miles) or Martinique (300 miles) in one hop, but that will, of course, depend on weather. We’ll be far enough south then to satisfy our insurance company but not completely out of the hurricane belt, so we’ll continue from there to St. Vincent, The Grenadines, Grenada and Trinidad where we plan to leave the boat for awhile and fly home for a visit (maybe September or October…no definite plans yet). We’ll write again once we’re on the move.

Take care,

David and Claudia (and Augie)

Virgin Islands

Cruising Update

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Hello, everyone.
StJohn_Rick_ChristinaYes, it has been awhile since our last update message. We’ve been in the Virgin Islands since the first week in May. We’ve gotten some much needed maintenance done while waiting for our daughter Christina and her husband Rick to come for their visit. The StJohn_Claudia_Cheryl_Randy_4day after they left here, our son Randy and his wife Cheryl arrived and are here now (“here” is Virgin Gorda, BVI).

One of the projects that kept us busy while awaiting our vacationers was “fixing” the watermaker. One morning it just stopped water-making. The high pressure pump wouldn’t make high pressure. I called the factory (still under warranty) and the first thing they did to amaze me was to tell me to hang up and call back collect! Then they proceeded to help me troubleshoot the symptoms. They decided that the quickest remedy would be to overnight a new high pressure pump to me. Since this was already a Friday evening and they’re located in Sausalito, CA, and the mail service in St. Thomas didn’t accept FedEx on Saturdays, it didn’t arrive until Monday.

Monday it came in and I proceeded to install it. However, the new pumps use new stainless steel fittings and I didn’t notice that the threads were different until after I stripped them on the high pressure hose. So, I called them and explained what I’d done and they overnighted a new high pressure hose along with new brass fittings like the ones I already had. The hose arrived next day and I finished the install of the new pump…with no results. Actually, I wasn’t surprised. While waiting for the new pump to arrive, I took the old one apart (at their suggestion) to see if there was anything obviously broken. There wasn’t and I discovered what a brilliantly simple design this high pressure pump was and that it probably COULDN’T break.

When I got it back together I was able to coax the watermaker into operation with a great deal of fiddling with it and a lot of luck. After calling the company again with the news that the new pump had no affect, they decided that it had to be the electric feed pump with an intermittent problem so they overnighted a new one. Next day I installed it with the same results…no high pressure. At this point I knew for sure that the problem was somewhere in the lines and not with the watermaker or any of its components (although I’d already cleaned and replaced the strainer and filters and made certain there were no blockages). I also remembered the email I got from you, Raf, about the problem you had with your refrigerator’s water pump, so I put my new theory to the test and determined that this is what had happened: The thru-hull for the watermaker is also used by our refrigerator’s water pump, although it’s an optional pump and we don’t even use it. However, when the strainer got dirty the watermaker pump sucked harder and sucked the water out of the fridge’s water line until it started sucking air. That’s when the watermaker quit.

I replaced the tee fitting with an elbow fitting (thereby disconnecting the fridge’s water pump completely) and we were making water again. I called the factory to let them know what I figured out and they were glad all was solved. They had already had me send back the old high pressure pump (FedEx freight collect) but told me to keep both the electric feed pumps so that I’d have a spare! Even though we wasted over a week messing with this problem, the time was all that it cost us. Obviously, I HIGHLY recommend the Spectra Watermaker to anyone in need of their products. Not only because it’s the best equipment, but you don’t get service like this from ANYONE I’ve ever dealt with before.

Randy and Cheryl will be with us until June 26, and then we’ll be looking to get south ASAP. We are planning to sail from here to Guadalupe in one hop, then on down to Trinidad as weather permits.

Stay tuned,

David and Claudia

Puerto Rico, St. John, Virgin Islands

Update

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Boqueron_Claudia_DJ_2We’ve been in Salinas, P.R. for the past week. We made the passage from Boqueron overnight in one leg. Our friends, Laddie and D.J. were here for the past 4 days and we toured the island in their rented car. We’ll leave here for Culebra in the next day or two, then it’s a short hop to St. Thomas and the USVI.
More later,
David and Claudia
5/5/99 0450 AST

It’s now later and here’s more:
We waited in Salinas for a warranty replacement part for the fridge to get shipped in. It arrived Thursday afternoon so we finished getting the boat ready for departure and upped anchor at 6:30 pm for an overnight motor-sail the 69.1 miles to Culebra. An uneventful (the best kind) passage in the forecasted light ESE winds found us near Isla de Culebra about 7:30 am. In typical Ma’alahian fashion, we discussed the fact that St. Thomas was a mere 20+ miles further east and, heck, a beautiful anchorage at St. John was only about 10 miles beyond that and, hey, it’s only 7:30 in the morning, we can be there by 2 or 3 this afternoon!

So, greetings from Francis Bay, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands!StJohn_CaneelBay_1
On our two previous trips to St. John, we’ve camped at Cinnamon Bay in the national park. We now have a view of that beautiful beach from the other side. Tomorrow, we’ll probably move around Mary’s Point to Leinster Bay and snorkel around Waterlemon Cay before moving to the SE side of the island in Coral Bay where we’ll hang around for several days doing some much needed boat maintenance.

We plan to stay in this area at least through June, cruising the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, revisiting favorite spots and discovering some new ones. With our arrival here, we’ve now logged over 2500 miles under our keel and with an average speed of under 6 knots we’re ready to sit still (sorta) for awhile. The sun set an hour ago, so it’s time for bed.

Later,

David and Claudia