Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Category: Cruiser Connections

  • Old friends

    Solved my internet problems.  Now I’m left wondering how it ever worked in the first place.  I’m actually better off than before by which I mean I don’t have to open the box to reset things whenever they don’t go my way.

    Now I’m less grumpy I can mention yesterday’s highlight.  I was able to meet up with John, Ziggy and family aboard Windancer IV who were flying through St Martin on their way to the Virgins.  They have completed their Atlantic circuit – all kudos to them all.  Blog readers may remember I crewed aboard Windancer IV earlier this year crossing the Atlantic from Bermuda to the Azores.  They will be spending Xmas and January in the Virgins and will head down the islands starting Feb.  With a bit of luck we’ll meet up again on some nice beach.  It was great to see them all again settled into their current lifestyle.

  • Merry Xmas

    Merry Xmas everyone.  I’m sending this from Bees Knees as our internet gear has decided to throw some anomalous behavior which is driving me mad.  I’ve been fiddling all day to no avail.

    Good news is that we’ve heard from the boys and all planes have been met, boarded and taken off on time.  We’ve been able to track them and be reassured they’ll all arrive in Antigua on time.  Once there they have four hours to get the plane to St Martin.  All very doable.  We should see them around 9pm tonight.  Very much looking forward to this.

    The weather here is extremely windy and has been raining a lot.  We have decided to taxi the kids round to the nearby hotel and run the dinghy a short distance to the boat so they don’t get soaked.  Logistically we’ll be assisted by Jim from Bees Knees.  It’s going to be an interesting time.

  • Shopping / evening out on Godiva

    Yesterday was another big shopping day. First off was a trip to the other side of the lagoon to drop off the propane for a refill. Next it was into town to talk to the local Beneteau rep to arrange for the install of the new parts for Dignity. They knew Eddie well and arranged for him to be the tech. As he is now familiar with the boat, this makes thinks easier. Then it was off to Grande Marche to do the big food shop and bring in the turkey for Xmas.

    Eddie showed up after lunch and we made plans for the radar install as well as the cabling for the SSB power. He left me to pick up the parts from Budget Marine which I combined with collecting the filled propane tank.

    Then it was off to Godiva for evening snacks and the usual liquids. David and Marcie were great hosts. We met them at the cruiser meets on Wednesdays. Jim and Anne from Bees Knees were there too so it made for a great evening. Both David and Jim play guitars so there was music. David dropped an all too subtle hint which resulted in him bringing out his saxaphone which he’s learning to play. David and Marci have also begun hosting on their boat. You can see their website here.

    While dinghying back we were hit by a brief but intense rain shower that soaked us through.  We hope Jim’s guitar survived the trip.

    Back to today I will be running cables around the boat this morning ready for Eddie who should show this afternoon to install the radar.

    Windancer IV, the boat I crewed across the Atlantic, is in the lagoon today.  Somehow I hope we can meet up.  We both have busy schedules but we should work something out.  I wasn’t able to pick up filters for the watermaker yesterday so given the shop and Windancer are both that end of the bay, it should be possible to squeeze in a visit.

  • Settled for Xmas

    We’ve settled in to our Xmas anchorage. Near to the airport so we can pick up the kids regardless of the weather. Nice enough in case we are marooned here for a bit. We’re also next to Bees Knees and Desue so we have good company. Here are some pics of our surroundings.

    The rest of Sunday was just nice and slow. We dinghied ashore and walked around to see what the neighbourhood had to offer. We walked back along the beach looking at all the hotels and apartments which are far from busy right now. In the evening Anne and Jim visited for a little lubrication. Helen and I polished off the evening with a game of Trivial Pursuits.

  • Feelin’ good

    Dominoes was called off on Tuesday due to choppy conditions. Always another day and that day is today. That meant Helen and I had a quiet evening on Tuesday.

    Yesterday was a shopping day. It was a bit cloudy so progress on the battery front was small but there none-the-less. Yesterday evening we headed off to the Turtle Beach bar for the weekly cruisers get together at happy hour. We stayed quite a while with nibbles and extra drinks laid on by the house. More people turned up this week and some brought food too. As we’re around next week we must do this too. Latter half of evening was all karaoke. Very enjoyable. Early on Jim from Bees Knees gave me some spare copper foil to help improve my SSB setup. That put me on the path for what was accomplished today.

    Today we scored some results. I went back to troubleshooting the interference from the SSB. I had been told that a good (but non-durable) ground plane could be made by using tin foil and tossing it overboard into the sea. To test the hypothesis the interference was caused by a lousy ground I made a tin foil ground plane. It made no difference. That left me with only one other suggestion to follow up on. That was that somewhere on the boat there was a bad negative connection. That is a daunting task to track down.

    Nevertheless I thought I’d double check connections on the transceiver – the box that does all the radio work. It all looked ok but a subsequent test showed the interference to have gone. Really gone. I was suddenly sending and receiving emails at high speed on bands previously causing all sorts of flashing lights (a little exaggeration). Not a blip wrong. So what had changed? Only that the transeiver had been in contact with the metal foil covering the A/C duct. This may just fit the ‘bad negative’ connection described as being probable cause. Now with everything put back where it was except for the transceiver all is good.

    Also – today was a blue sky day. That meant good progress on raising acidity of house bank.

    Tonight it’s dominoes which also means snacks and beer. Life is good.