BVI 2008 – Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Waterfalls, Sulphur and Provisioning – a day out with friends

steve — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:27:41 +0000

Yesterday was our car hire day. Jo and George from Sutton Ho had agreed to go in with us so we had good company throughout the day.

We left the boat just before 8 and picked up Jo and George. We dinghied ashore to await the car hire chap who was supposed to drop of the car at the dock at 8am. I guess 8:20 is close enough – particularly island time. Contrary to expectations set we had to go into the office and do some paperwork which slowed us down a bit more. His printer wasn’t working so to prevent him having to hand write the forms I fixed it for him.

Soon we were off. Our first stop was Emerald Pool which we reached with just the one wrong turn. Emerald Pool is one of the national park locations and as with most, it is quite accessible and part of the tourist route. We arrived just after a coach load of cruise ship folks. Knowing that they would be rushed in and out we took our time and soon had the area to ourselves. It was about a 15 minute walk to the waterfalls / pool. The water was cool but very refreshing to dip into. The guides always tell visitors that dipping in these pools takes 10 years off you. Jo, who has been cruising for a few years, has heard this and done this a number of times so she’s pretty close to being reborn.

The path back to the car led us to a couple of view points one of which we could see out to the Atlantic Ocean.

Next we headed in the direction of Trafalgar Falls near Roseau. On the map it showed there were some sulphur springs nearby and on the internet I had found you could visit a number of them if you visited a place/resort called the Rainforest Shangri-La. We also figured we’d look for a lunch spot around there.

Again, it took only one wrong turn to find our way to the vicinity. We found the Rainforest Shangri-La first and decided to go in. The place was a little mountain retreat with a few bamboo huts, a yoga area, a massage hut and a number of hot tubs fed by water heated by geothermal activities. They offered tours of the grounds where we got to see a number of bubbling pools, steaming caves and sulphurous exhalations. We quite enjoyed this as we really had no expectations on this.

We found a delightful place to eat but unfortunately this required reservations. Nearer to the falls themselves we stopped off at another place which was almost as nice and had lunch.

Trafalgar Falls were quite impressive and had a surprise. There are actually two falls which meet shortly after their respective bases. There are no pools to swim in but the real surprise was a hot spring which ran through sevaral pools in which you could sit. Not having had a bath for over three months I was keen to dip myself in.

We did have the possibility lined up of a third set of falls but by then we didn’t have the time so we headed into Roseau for a big provisioning. In under two weeks we’ll be meeting our friends in Martinique. The strike is still on there and while we are hearing that food can be bought in the towns away from the capital we are taking no chances. Having the hire car was an execellent opportunity to buy in a lot of food that will keep. The freezer and cupboards are now pretty full. Now all we need to do is top off what we have in preparation for our friends visit.

Back at the boats and having dropped everything off we popped round to Sutton Ho for evening tipples before heading back to Dignity to have our dinner and fall asleep. All in all a good day made all the better for the company we had.

I’ll leave you with a video montage and the inevitable pictures.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjVfwCRJG8Y[/youtube]

Lulip

steve — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:29:11 +0000

Day 2 of the carnival wasn’t a great deal to write about. We went along to see things in Portsmouth around 3pm and found it much the same as before. We stayed in for the evening.

Today we went to customs to extend our stay and then took a walk around Ross University, an American Medical University. We had lunch at some small snack huts there. This evening we had George and Jo aboard for drinks. They were one of the couples we met on the island tour. They will join us tomorrow as we go to visit some falls in a hire car. Should be fun.

I’ve just got in from spying Comet Lulip in my binoculars. Lovely clear night and the heavens are shining. Lulip is at closest approach. You can see it as a smudge with the naked eye and can see a nucleus and a bit of a tail in the binoculars.

Off to Blighty

steve — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:39:29 +0000

The clock is counting down to our trip to the Uk this evening. We have a few last things to sort out before we go but this should be manageable. We’re meeting Ben and Sam before we leave. Ben will come with us to the airport and take the van back to look after for the two and a bit weeks we’re away.

We’ve already lined up a number of visits to family and friends and still have a few more to sort out. Helen has her Birthday on Sunday so we’ll have some family together for that. And we’ll have a good old British Curry. Mmmmmmm.

On the boat front we have finally ordered the head sail (a Code Zero) from Florida and a watermaker (we went for the Catalina 300) out of St Martin.

I’ve often read the blogs of folks in their pre cruise departure phase. One of the common themes is the list of things to do that never gets any shorter. You can now add us to the list of folks who have lists that don’t get shorter.

WFR Training Complete

steve — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:43:18 +0000

The training is complete but it’s not yet over. Today, all we have left is our 100 question multiple choice exam to take as well as a practical test involving a mock patient. Last night we all spent time revising our materials before going out for a curry. After dinner we packed our rucksacks ready for our canyon hike which begins early tomorrow morning. Once it is all finished today we’ll be heading straight up to the canyon. We’ll spend tonight on the rim before heading down very early in the morning.

In the meantime, here is a video of our CPR training early in the course to the sounds of “Another One Bites the Dust”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0HNYmWLqdc[/youtube]

First Video from February Trip

steve — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:28:17 +0000

I haven’t been able to organize photo / video media yet nor have we reviewed our blogs for missing items. However, here is one video that stands on it’s own. We filmed this while Helen and I were snorkeling off Loblolly Bay, Anegada.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFketX0hiDA[/youtube]

Dignity Critique

steve — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:39:21 +0000

We’ve been asked by a few folks for a critique of the boat. So here I go with what we liked and what we didn’t. The context of this critique is our needs for our boat. Those with different requirements will have to take this into account. It’s personal. So before we get to my pros and cons I want to recap what we were looking for in a boat.

First and foremost, our boat will be our home. We wanted a boat we would be comfortable living in at anchor, on a mooring and occasionally in dock. Second, while we originally weren’t thinking about an ecological boat, the Lagoon 420 appealed to us in a very big way with it’s great potential for regeneration and platform for solar power. Third came performance. It doesn’t matter too much to us as when we finally move aboard, time will not be our problem. We’ll be in no rush. But to be fair, nor do we want a bus.

So what did we like:

Spaciousness & layout. This is the first thing that hits you and it all works very well. The galley, being in the cabin and facing out to the back complete with sliding window as well as the helm being close to the living space keeps everyone together and social. The boat feels very roomy and light. Not only is there a lot of space, it feels bigger than it’s size. The right-angle seating works very well allowing all sorts of seating positions depending on sun direction and whim. Living in the owners cabin exceeded our imaginations. The ventilation was excellent. Waking up seeing where you are through the big side windows you get on Lagoon’s is priceless. While feeling quite cosy in the bunk, seeing the whole length of the hull stretch out ahead provides an amazing sense of space. The guest suites were well laid out and while not coming close to the space of the owners hull they still had the benefits of visibility, ventilation and comfort.
Single handed helm. This works very well. The arrangement of lines is very important as if not carefully thought out they could easily get tangled. Hats off to the folks at CatCo who had left the lines organized very well. On the first day I managed to tangle up the lines on the winches a couple of times but that soon stopped. It was just a matter of learning the right direction to pull from and once learned it became subconcious very quickly. What was nice was that although it was set up very well for single handing, two could work the lines when tacking and gybing very well without being crowded. As mentioned above, the fact that the helm is in the cabin is a big plus for us. Keeps us together.
Sailing performance. This was a big surprise. Reading the (perhaps third hand) accounts on the web I expected a slow boat. She wasn’t a racer but she certainly flew. We didn’t get a chance to sail her in light winds which I don’t expect her to do well. The wind speeds during our trip were typically in the 16-22 knot range and only dropped below when we had a wind shadow from a nearby island. We typically managed just below half the wind speed and that was including the speed loss due to regeneration.
Regeneration. Another surprise. Had expected the output to be fairly low – again based on indirect accounts. For example, on one day we were on a reach in 18 knots of wind making a smidge over 8 knots through the water making 12A at 72V on each engine. That’s practically 1.5kW of power. Now I fully expect losses to erode this but I am now fully convinced of this boats regeneration capabilities on longer sails. I’m quite excited by the prospect of longer crossings without having to run stinky engines to get the power to run fridges, autopilots, etc. Once we put on solar cells we’ll be able to survive the windless days too. The one downside to the regeneration is it is a bit tricky to tune. One has to find the sweet spot on the throttle where regeneration is maximized. That can be hard to find and it has to be adjusted from time to time as conditions change.
Stability. Dignity was remarkably stable. That being said I never motor anything but the shortest distances without putting sail up and would never motor directly into wind which always causes problems. With these habits embedded we never really had a bad time. We had been told that the week we were there was one of the worst they had in while but we never noticed – in fact we had a whale of a time (that is a funny expression – I’ll have to look it up). We were allowed to develop bad habits of leaving things around and they stay where you left them even when you’re going over the bumps. Speaking of which, the forward nacelle seems to do a very good job of dampening the odd occasion when we had hull slaps. Much less of a boom than our previous experiences on cats.
Quiet running. Our ears were blessed. Even when the genset kicks in it’s hard to hear. Nice.
Hatches. I was really impressed with the low profile hatches. Significantly reduced chance of stubbed toes. As mentioned previously they are well positioned allowing plenty of ventilation. We simply had no need to run the aircon anywhere bar the marina which was chosen for it’s lack of wind. And even then it was not that necessary.

So what didn’t we like

Coming home. By my reckoning the trip was about 9 years and 51 weeks too short. This can and will be fixed. Having said that it was nice to come home and see the boys even with the mess and mysteries presented.
Setting anchor. This is a real case of a plus being a minus. When setting anchor I am used to using the engines to drive the anchor into the sand and test it. Typically this is done by keeping an eye on the engine revs and an ear to the sound of the engine so that the power applied is right. So on Dignity with no rev meters and no noise from the motors bar the swish of water the old techniques can’t be used. This may just be a matter of getting used to new signals. If there’s a chance of getting a reading of revs up to the helm I may look into this too.
Duration motoring on batteries. This was not as good as it should be. We know the G2 upgrade is coming along which sets very clear expectations on this. No specific dates on when this upgrade gets put in but the month of June is being mentioned.
Space at stern for dinghy. To improve interior space, the Lagoon 420s have steep sugar scoops (stairs) at the stern of each hull. This reduces the distance between the rear of the saloon and the dock. Turns out this doesn’t leave enough room to leave the dinghy up on the davits when docking at Nanny Cay as the power tower is in the way. This is likely to be the case elsewhere too. This adds an additional activity when docking – ie, lowering the dinghy so it sits between the hulls. I am sure this will just become habit and a non issue in time.
Sugar scoop railing. A rail on the side of the sugar scoops would be very useful as an additional dinghy attachment point as well as helping people in an out of the dinghy. We had little problems without this but I’m thinking of visitors less used to the water environment and, I confess, the nights when our own legs are less stable.
Sailcars. Just like our monohull, assistance at the mast is required getting the mainsail down. I have been on boats where the mainsail drops without assistance which I find a pleasure. Requiring one less person to do any task is a plus. Chances are this may just be a matter of applying a little lubricant to the track.
Lighting oven. This turned out to be a bit of a pain with matches. Maybe we’re just being softy land-lubbers. Going to bring along one of those oven lighters next time.

Surprises. I thought I’d mentioned a few surprises. Expectations certainly get set by what one hears and reads so I think it’s worth pointing out what surprised us.

Sailing performance. According to many the boat is slow. As far as we are concerned and certainly as far as our needs go, she flew.
Wet vessel. Had heard she was a wet vessel. We had plenty of rain and I now have no idea what people are talking about. Everything inside stayed dry during and after rain. When I sailed when it was raining I got wet. Not sure I see anything wrong with this picture.

That’s it for now. I think you can tell we are more than pleased with Dignity. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything where my expectations were exceeded multiple times. We took a big leap of faith when we bought the boat off spec. The first pics in August 2006 were a delight. Seeing a 420 at the boat shows in 2006 and 2007 was again a very pleasant surprise. Spending a week on Dignity upped the experience again.

Next ….

Back Home

steve — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:17:28 +0000

We’re back home now after an uneventful journey home. Blogs will be brought up to date shortly. I also intend to review the blogs already made, fill in the gaps, add pics and make corrections. Watch out for changes.

Day 8 – Going Home

steve — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:00:45 +0000

No rush to get up this morning. Eventually we picked ourselves out of bed and picked off some of the remaining food. John and I took the dinghy round to The Caves to get some last minute wet time. The fish were abundant and we even bumped into Bert the Barracuda who is a pretty big guy and known to frequent the area.

As we arrived back at Dignity Bonnie and Brian showed up so we were happy to again show people around Dignity including opening up covers to show motors, electrics, etc.

We then set sail to cross the channel back to Nanny Cay where we docked at the fuel dock and then again at her resting place. The fun thing about docking in a marina is you always get an audience. When docking in our final berth we had the CatCo and another set of guest all watching. The guests made a point of letting us know they were watching just to add to the pressure – all part of the fun. No bumps fortunately.

We had lunch at the cafe in Nanny Cay and then showers in the hotel. Eventually it was time to leave which was sad. The taxi ride back to the airport follows the coast so you get to see the islands recently visited but now receding. We checked in quickly and had just enough time to visit Trellis Bay for 10 mins before boarding.

The flight home was uneventful. New Jersey was cold.

Upon arriving home we were presented with a few mysteries. Why was the pipe wrench in the kitchen? Why were the plants moved? Why was our older son’s Carmen Electra poster under our bed? Simple answer. We are now back to life on land.

Day 8 Google Earth Track

Day 7 – Norman Island – Part II

steve — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:59:15 +0000

We all headed off to Pirates for dinner. Appetizers was a round of Painkillers. Do we sound like a stuck record? We had a perfect seat facing the bay which we put down to an early booking. The food was good and I seem to remember ordering another round of appetizers.

After dinner we went back to the boat to share a bottle of wine and stargaze. The sky was magnificent.

Anne and John were a little tired so they left Helen and I to head off to Willy T’s to join the crowd. Upon arrival we found Bonnie and Brian, the owners of Radio Flyer, sitting in the very same bar seats we found them in when we last went to Willy T’s. (Note – they have repeatedly since claimed they don’t go to Willy T’s that often). They’re a fascinating couple. They live half the time in Canada and half the time on their boat in the BVIs. He spent 22 years in the Canadian Mounties and since moved onto other projects. They spent many years in Costa Rica helping build a new hotel. Their story in Costa Rica is reminiscent of “Don’t Stop the Carnival” by Herman Wauk. Only on a bigger scale. He is now writing a book about the experience which I’m looking forward to reading. We spent most of the evening chatting with Brian and Bonnie and vowed to stay in touch.

Day 7 – Norman Island

steve — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:27:19 +0000

I woke up this morning looking out of my window at the beach. I’m going to miss this.

We got up very slowly this morning. We didn’t set sail until 10am. I was keen to get over the channel as it looked like rain was coming in. We did indeed miss it and as we looked behind we saw the rain tip down where we were once just anchored.

Our first stop was The Indians where John and I snorkeled around the rocks. We took plenty of photos / videos including several of us swimming through a rock tunnel. In time I’ll be posting more of these pics and videos.

After The Indians we planned to head over to The Caves for some more snorkeling but on the way we changed our mind and decided to go and moor in The Bight, Norman Island as it looked like it was already filling up and this was where we were planning to spend the evening.

Lunch was a BBQ of the remaining burgers with Tuna & Cucumber sarnies. With a couple of beers each we all fell asleep. I woke first and decided to trim my nails. While sitting on the port transom the dinghy, which was tied to the starboard transom, decided to untie itself and float off. Of all the times this happened just at the time I was looking. It was therefore fairly simple for me to go inside, get the key, check my pockets and dive in and give chase. Having woken up and got wet I decided to use the this as an opportunity to flood and clear the dingy of the sand we collected when landing on Sandy Cay what seems a long time ago. This was my big adventure of the day.

Tonight we’re going to eat at Pirates in The Bight then head over to Willy T’s for dancing. More, perhaps, later.

Day 7 Google Earth Track