S/Y IRONY

BACK TO IRONY

Irony — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:05:10 +0000

Just arrived back to Irony in St Maarten after a fantastic visit to see Chrissy in Uruguay. We will shortly be heading west towards Cuba.

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WARM WELCOME BACK FOR LAURA

Irony — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:08:03 +0000

The Dutch bridge opened specially at 3pm yesterday to welcome back 16 year old Laura Dekker from her year-long circumnavigation. She motored into the lagoon and docked at the Yacht Club to a noisy and colourful reception of cheering crowds and sounding fog horns from the multitude of superyachts here. We were amongst the dozens of dinghies and boats that the water-bound police boat was trying to keep under control! Pretty and petite Laura was surrounded by the press as she received accolades by local dignitaries and greeted by the children from the local sailing school. Although the youngest solo sailor to make it around the world, her achievement is not being officially recognised to discourage others from similar risks. Laura fought and won a case in the Dutch courts to allow her to leave and embark on her adventure.

INTO CLEAR WATER

Irony — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:37:32 +0000

We left Antigua before dawn to arrive in St Barts before dark but Irony sped along between 8 and 9 knots and we anchored in Baie Columbier just after 3pm. It was wonderful to be in crystal clear water again and a pleasure to jump in the water and swim. Windy and rainy weather has made all the anchorages in Antigua very murky.

In a search for some internet, we had a picturesque walk over to Baie de Flamands. With the promise of wifi, we stopped at the Tawana Hotel and order a couple of beers which proved to be possibly the most expensive in the Caribbean at 20 euros! And the wifi didn’t work!

Very high gusty winds and torrential rain delayed our departure for St Maarten until Thursday. Typically, we ended up motoring the whole way across in dead calm conditions – very frustrating. We are now anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon and attempting to tick off some items on our repair list.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

Irony — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:03:37 +0000

Our preparations for Christmas were stymied by the weather. With Nic’s youngest sister, Anabel, and her partner, Steve, meeting us in Antigua on Christmas Eve we had a challenging few days battling against strong headwinds and rather large waves after leaving Martinique. Not to be thwarted by Aeolus, we sailed into Falmouth Harbour on 24th December about an hour after their planed touched down. No Christmas decorations and a very salty boat but it wasn’t too long before they were onboard and we were cracking open a chilled bottle of champagne.

After the Christmas Day party in Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour, we headed north up the island. Sadly the continuing high winds and endless rain showers made the usually clear turquoise waters around Antigua very murky for snorkeling. It was impossible to see anything but the very top of the wreck in Deep Bay looming out the depths. We did have a fantastic BBQ on Barbuda’s beautiful pink sand beach with some delicious lobsters caught that morning.

We were back in Falmouth Harbour for New Year and sailed around to Green Isle for Anabel and Steve’s last couple of days, waving a tearful farewell after a delicious lunch at Harmony Hall. We are now sailing to St Barts and on to St Martin.

SURPRISING ST LUCIA

Irony — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:02:29 +0000

Light winds from the northeast had us motoring up the coast of Grenada, past Carriacou to pretty Chatham Bay on Union Island in the Grenadines. It was wonderful to be able to swim again in clear water. Next we sailed up to St Lucia, anchoring in Rodney Bay. It feels very much like our home turf after arriving there from our Atlantic crossing and many stops there for Nic’s excellent dentist, Dr Glace. Filled with boats from the ARC, the marina and waterfront was bustling and lively. We were surprised at how much development there has been over the last 2 year. The place is transformed since our first visit and building appears to be continuing with little sign of a worldwide recession.
We had a very early, sleepy start on Thursday morning after a fun night listening to excellent live jazz in the marina and a visit to our favourite rum shack, Andy’s, in Gros Islet. Now anchored in Le Marin, Martinique we are re-provisioning the boat (with delicious smelly cheeses and some nice Bordeaux wines in particular) and also trying to sort out our continuing problems with the new Victron chargers which are not working properly with our generator. Nic also discovered a hole in our port engine exhaust bend which is off being welded although the welder made the hole larger on his first attempt at repair.

IN GRENADA

Irony — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:53:44 +0000

We left Scotland Bay early Thursday morning and arrived in St George’s, Grenada about 8pm. It is such a relief to have finally put Trinidad and our haul out behind us. The weather is already better here and the whole atmosphere more relaxed and chilled. We are now waiting for some favourable winds to head to St Lucia and then on to Martinique.

BACK IN THE WATER!

Irony — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:52:18 +0000

I am happy to report that we splashed on Friday. Since then we have been anchored in Scotland Bay trying to get the boat ready to sail north. The days have not been without their disasters. We put a scratch on the stern while winching our heavy 40hp outboard on to the dinghy – the new paintwork had not been in the water 24 hours! Then, on returning from a trip back around to Chaguaramas, the very same motor flew off the back of the dinghy and sank in 30 metres of muddy water. It was a nearly new purchase in February so very sad it’s gone but I am incredibly grateful that it didnt’ do any damage to us or the dinghy as it parted company still running. Visions of what could have happened are still going through my mnd. So we’re hoping our luck improves and we manage to start heading north tomorrow.

TERRIBLE TRAGEDY

Irony — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 20:46:27 +0000

As we were sitting in the saloon, we heard a massive crash and Nic saw a big flash. We looked out to see the mizzen mast, from a neighbouring Brazilian boat, Faleeiro, had fallen over and crashed onto the high voltage power lines behind us. We rushed out to hear a woman screaming. I headed off on our bike to the security gate to summon help while Nic went to the boat, quickly joined by others who had heard the commotion. From what we know, the woman was up on deck as the mast fell and her husband was below the boat. He had rushed to the ladder and, as he grabbed it, he was suffered a massive electrical shock (6900 volts) and was thrown backward onto the ground. Everyone reacted quickly and he was bundled into the back of a car and driven to the coastguard hospital, a few minutes away from the boatyard. Nic said he sat up briefly but his face had turned blue by the time he was in the car. Meanwhile his wife was in shock and hysterical on deck. A Portuguese-speaking cruiser tried to calm her down and keep her in place. The boat was still live with an enormous amount of voltage; a large plank gave a cruiser a bad shock when he touched the hull with it. In the end a tarpaulin had to be held below for her to jump into and she was driven off to hospital by some helpful sailors. It took time for the electricity company to arrive and turn off the power and there were fears that a fire would start onboard the boat. The mast was finally winched off the power lines and secured. In a tragic end to a terrible story we have very sadly heard that the man has died. His wife is in hospital being treated for electrical and mental shock. They were a young couple in their early thirties and had put all their savings into the boat. It is hard to believe how fast our lives can be changed and our dreams shattered.

There are, of course, many issues and questions arising from this tragedy. Why had they unbolted the mast without securing it? Why didn’t the high voltage lines trip and shut of the power rather than remain live for at least 45 minutes? Peakes Boatyard is likely to get bad publicity out of this incident through no apparent fault on their part. The battles over liability will be complicated and it will be held up as another reason to prevent cruisers working on their boats.

IT’S A HARD LIFE!

Irony — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:24:24 +0000

Working in 37°C and high humidity is no fun, it’s a hard life on the hard. There is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel; hopefully not the train coming the other way! The barnacles are all off and in between torrential rain showers and storms we have got a tie coat of paint on and 2 coats of antifouling. There’s still one more full coat of antifouling to do and a fourth strip at the waterline. The shrink-wrap should be coming off tomorrow and on Monday we’ll have our supports moved so we can get those patches painted.
The faulty Victron inverter/charger has proved more of a challenge. The power board was faulty which necessitated a new unit and unfortunately, as our 2 matching units are run in tandem, both had to be replaced because the software of a new one would not be compatible with our old one (which is still working perfectly). The last 2 weeks have been spent in a nightmare communications vacuum between Victron Holland, Victron US and their representative here but the shipment finally arrived in Trinidad today and we’re waiting for it to clear customs. Frustrating that an eye-watering amount has gone out on the new chargers + shipping and we’ll see no benefit when the new ones are installed.
All the other ongoing jobs are unexciting and too numerous to mention here. Our splash date keeps getting postponed but we are now scheduled for next Friday. Fingers crossed that all goes to plan and we get in the water soon, leave life on the hard behind and these posts get more interesting!

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SOME PROGRESS

Irony — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:45:12 +0000

Another week has gone by and we have made some progress…the liferaft is off being serviced, our fire extinguishers have been checked and approved, a crack in the stern winch has been welded and Irony has new names on the hull. I’ve been working on sewing jobs (new winch covers etc) and Nic is scraping barnacles off the bottom. Unfortunately, after sanding, we are still left with calcium deposits which have eaten through several layers of paint; the only solution is to tackle them one by one. Very tedious and time-consuming. We also have a problem with our Victron inverter/chargers. One has been going into overload and is off being looked at. It’s looking like it’s going to be an expensive fix, if not full replacement, not good news.