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Merry Xmas

by steve, on December 24th, 2008 (Bees Knees, St Martin)

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.

Category: Bees Knees, St Martin | Here is my comment

Shopping / evening out on Godiva

by steve, on December 23rd, 2008 (Bees Knees, Godiva, St Martin, Windancer IV)

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.

Category: Bees Knees, Godiva, St Martin, Windancer IV | One reader has left a comment, here is mine

Settled for Xmas

by steve, on December 22nd, 2008 (Bees Knees, St Martin)

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.

Category: Bees Knees, St Martin | Here is my comment

Island Time

by KC2RIY, on December 20th, 2008 (St Martin)

I had high hopes for today. I had hoped to put most of the major items behind us. The big one being the radar install. Our earlier saviour, Eddie, was supposed to come round today to help plan parts shopping and assist in the install of the radar. I’m sure he had good reason but he didn’t show.

I haven’t quite got in the groove yet so this resulted in my frustration rather than my relaxing. On the upside Helen and I working together managed to fish all the runs necessary for the radar install and the power lines for the SSB and leave bits of string permanently in place to pull wires through when we have them.

Internet has been up and down all day. Mostly down. We wanted to get our Xmas email out today but this has been nixed by the outage. As a result I’m sending this by shortwave (still running off spare battery). At least I can do that.

Replacement parts from Lagoon are making their way here via most continents. I have UPS tracking references so every now and then, when I can get on, I can see where they’ve ended up next. Not yet in St Martin.

Weather forecasts show increasing winds into next week. We’re going to shift the boat into the lagoon tomorrow morning and settle down for the week. Hopes for resolving our o/s issues during Xmas week are getting low. Not that I mind hanging around but I had hoped to do better for when the family were here. That being said, weather down here around Xmas is predicted to be aweful so perhaps the best place is to be stuck somewhere well resourced and close to friends.

I’ll go back to drinking my rum punch. Dignity back to one-four. Roger, Roger.

Category: St Martin | Here is my comment

Blogging via SSB

by KC2RIY, on December 19th, 2008 (St Martin)

It’s been a long time since I’ve tested this. I tried earlier and it failed. Took me a while to figure out what was wrong. Hopefully this blog will get out there. It means we can continue to share what we’re doing when we’re unable to access the internet. Fingers crossed.

The SSB setup has had a bit of a makeover. Jim kindly gave me some spare copper strip he had which I’ve used to create, hopefully, a better ground plane. I am still using the water cylinder but it’s now hooked up to the tuner via the copper ribbon rather than a wire. This is supposed to be better. We’ll soon see. Installing the copper ribbon was like working with razor wire. My hands are covered in little slices. I’m going to avoid after shave for a few days.

Today was very calm so it was shopping day. We first went to Island Water World who had agreed to raise the handle on our dinghy where the seat is supposed to sit. This will stop it falling out. While this was done we did some major provisioning of the liquid kind. This involved two treks to the cash and carry. Hopefully the boys won’t go dry at Xmas. We also bought a barbecue cover which Helen has adapted to fit over the grill my parents bought us. That’ll keep the elements off it.

It was overcast for much of today so the battle with the batteries didn’t last too long and a truce was declared.

Tomorrow Eddie should be here to install the radar. We bought the mount today. I need to measure it against the Garmin template. It’ll probably need some form of adapting plate made. At the same time we can run cables through to power the SSB off of the main batteries. That’ll reduce the wires that dangle around and annoy Helen.

The new parts from Lagoon, we now know, are on their way. The complication will be timing the install. The weather for next week forecasts strong winds – worse than we experienced when my parents were with us. This may make delivery more complicated as we want to duck into the Lagoon and get nearer the airport for when the kids arrive. We have a spot planned. This may also mean wet bums for the kids when we finally get them aboard the boat. All part of the fun.

Soon the chores will be done. The light at the end of the tunnel grows closer and larger. Then we’ll be off and hopefully getting some island time in.

FOOTNOTE: SSB sending still has an issue. All blog messages arrive pending when sent via SSB. Figured out how to solve it for other emails but not this one yet.
FOOTNOTE2: Now sorted.

Category: St Martin | Here is my comment
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