Week 2 in Jamaica

It's easy to see how people sail into a port and never leave. We are now into our second week at Port Antonio, Jamaica. Richard, our other crew member left us last week. We all agreed it wasn't working out, so it was sad that he didn't get to see through the adventure he was looking for, but, as they say, that's sailing.

We have sorted out the problem with our HF radio, with the help of a local guy, Richard. Seems the antenna connections were so corroded, we couldn't receive anything. Now we can receive and transmit! Our chartplotter started mysteriously playing up a few days ago, but i think we've sorted that out now too - probably a dodgy adapted card that the microSD card sits in. In the meantime......

......we spent a couple of hours one day on a bamboo raft going down the Rio Grande. Our rafting guide, Keith, was very happy for Ivan to 'take the helm' from time to time......

......we went swimming in the Blue Lagoon - made famous by the movie of the same name - with our fellow boaty friends Ed and Martha........the lagoon is nice to swim in because it has a layer of cool freshwater on top and warm saltwater below. This is because it is fed by some freshwater springs. There is one right next to the lagoon where you can rinse the saltwater off after a swim...very civilised!

We've been checking out the sights, sounds and tastes of the town......the market in any place is always a fun experience

Jamaican apples

me holding the freshly baked bread and a breadfruit


.....and Ed, who has made a science of bread-making, showed me his no-knead method of making bread. although it took up a good part of the day because we were fitting a lot of other chores around it, the bread was my best effort yet in the oven. The secret ingredient was the air-conditioning as  without it the cabin would has been tooooo hot to do anything in. We decided to purchase a small air-conditioner that we can use while in port, so we can get a decent night's sleep. It is soooo good.


Happy to be in Jamaica

Day 2 in Jamaica after a 10 day non-stop trip from Florida.

We left Stuart in Florida on 3 June, with Rose and Phil on the dock waving us goodbye and safe travels.
 It was a pleasant couple of hours down the canal to the St Lucie Inlet which was our entree to the ocean. Having heard all sorts of stories about the shifting sands at the inlet and the importance of local knowledge to ensure a safe crossing of the inlet, we found our way easily and were quickly in the deep blue heading south down the coast. Our plan was to stay close to the coast of florida to avoid the strong currents of the Gulf Stream and then cross the Gulf Stream way down south somewhere in order to get across to the Bahamas. Of course we are sailing, so nothing goes according to plan. It all seems long ago now so it's hard to remember the detail, but we didn't end up going to the Bahamas beacause the winds and seas were against us. Instead we kept going south into the sea north of Cuba and then travelled southeast along the coast of Cuba, finally making it to the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti and then across to Jamaica. Sounds quick and easy as I write it now, but it was a slog. Even Ivan said it was some of the worst sailing he has experienced.

We seemed to either have wind on the nose or no wind at all. It was pretty tense going through the channel north of Cuba. We spent a lot of time motor sailing there to get us through the channel as quickly as possible as the weather looked like it was going to get stormy. Fortunately there were no storms. We did 2 hour shifts at the helm each night and the self-steering and the chartplotter were good companions here. (Hey Tuckker it's quite fun checking out the size and speed of ships on the AIS as they are bearing down on you!) Some days there was no wind which was very frustrating and some days the wind and current were such that we were nearly going backwards. We spent about 3 days trying to get past Cuba.

the view...mostly

So my introduction to passage sailing was pretty ugly - fear, nerves, anxiety, stress, sleeplessness, salt and sweat saturated clothes and bed, preparing food at a 45 degree angle....oh and i almost forgot the first 2 days of seasickness. But at least it wasn't rough and stormy weather.

Don't look Mum, that's me up the mast



Asymetrical spinnaker



Although we had intended to sail direct to Panama from Florida, by day 9 we were all exhausted and sick of being on a slow boat to nowhere, so Skipper Ivan suggested we pull in at Port Antonio on the north side of Jamaica. It would also be a chance to get some more fuel as we had used us most of what we had by then. It was with great relief that we pulled into the Errol Flynn Marina at Port Antonio at about 8.30am on Monday 13 June.

Waiting for lunch

We have explored the town a little and all had a big sleep last night despite the party raging on the boat alongside us. The people are really friendly and relaxed and the marina is in a lovely spot. The heat is intense, but the marina bar and pool make up for it somewhat. we will spend a few days here doing some minor repairs and hopefully see some sights. Tomorrow Ivan and I are going to go on some sort of rafting trip in the mountains.(Perhaps the holiday is beginning!)

Leaving Indiantown

Thanks all for your lovely words of faith and encouragement after my last post. I didn't think i would be posting again quite so soon.

After a false start, we have made it out of the Indiantown Marina and are now at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart. Our first attempt to leave Indiantown last Tuesday was thwarted by the boat engine. While it had been running fine after Ivan and Jack first fixed it up, it decided to give us grief the day we wanted to leave. We said our farewells to all of the wonderful people we had made friends with in the boatyard and to the fantastic staff at the marina and went to cast off from the floating jetty. With the engine still running at this point, we were only slightly delayed by having to forward and back to free the boat from the sticky muddy bottom that it had been resting on due to the unseasonably low level of water in the marina. Then the engine conked out! After checking for air in hoses, tightening everything and getting various bits of advice from a number of people, we made it out of the marina into the canal, thinking all was fine when the engine conked out again. To cut a very long story short, we spent the next 4 hours in the canal trying to get the engine to run for more than 10 minutes before conking out.  Finally we conceded defeat and turned back to Indiantown Marina ( we had only travelled about 500m up the canal). Even getting back was a challenge as the outboard motor decided to play up. Fortunately the hastily rigged staysail didn't let us down and the boat engine actually continued running for the whole journey back. It was an exercise in perserverance and frustration for Ivan and I think I developed a few more grey hairs. The only slightly tricky bit in getting back was making sure we could time our arrival at the railway bridge so that it was up to let us pass under.

Going through the open Indiantown Railway bridge

The next morning Graeme from the marina and Ivan set to work to try to find out what the problem with the engine was. The outboard problem turned out to be easily fixed. The boat engine problem was more of a mystery. Again, to cut a long story short, it took all day, changing over hoses, tightening and re-tightening things, bleeding lines, looking for air bubbles and then finally they worked out that a tap that was in the 'on' position should have been in the 'off' position. So some buckets of sweat, curses and hundreds of dollars later, once again we were able to leave the marina. We left at about 5pm and motored successfully down to the St Lucie Lock where we had to stay the night as the lock was not due to open again until 9am the next day. It was a 2hr trip down the canal.

Richard and Ivan are happy chappies now we are underway.

Thursday morning we were up early waiting for the

Lock to open. A catamaran had also stayed the night near us and a couple of motor cruisers came up the canal that morning to go through the Lock too. We were travelling east and the west travelling boats came through the Lock first so it took some time before we were through. By about 10.30am we were once again on our way motoring up the canal towards Stuart. There wasn't much to see in the canal other than the back gardens of some swish, but sterile houses which reminded us at times of the canals in Paynesville. We arrived at Stuart and picked up our mooring at about midday.

Today we are having our 'Mack Pack' fitted and rigging checked. We will do some final provisioning here before leaving for the Bahamas. Still not entirely sure when we will depart as it depends on what needs to be done in regard to the rigging. The clock is ticking and, much as we like the very good meals at the restaurant near the Marina we are very keen to get away.

Nearly Ready to Leave

Two months after we arrived at the Marina, we are nearly ready to leave. We hope to travel down the canal to Stuart on Tuesday or Wednesday, spend a couple of days there finalising the boat and then it's off to the Bahamas to start out journey home. This may be my last post for some time.

Still in Indiantown

It's been a while since my last post, partly because I couldn't access the site for a couple of days. So since i last wrote the big news is that we have made it out of the workyard and into the water at the marina!



Brio touches the water again after being on land for the last 2 years



It's been a while since my last post, partly because I couldn't access the site for a couple of days. So since I last wrote the big news is that we bade farewell to our fellow "dirt rats" and made it out of the workyard and into the water at the marina!

"dirt rat" Clyde

 





Fellow "dirt rats" Craig and Andy on Orion

Over the past couple of weeks we have been invaded by love bugs. These are small flying insects that are joined at the abdomen  - hence the name. When I say fly, it's more of a spiralling any which way they can as they go through their superglue mating routine. While they thankfully don't bite, they are a nuisance, especially when you are trying to paint or use epoxy, as they inevitably land in it and stay there! 

The results of a love bug swarm on fresh epoxy



Brio is looking almost ready to go - we now have a wind generator and solar panel installed, liferaft aboard, operational chartplotter and other things electronic, nearly completely painted deck, new hatch (after I broke one just opening it), so many other things I can't think of right now. Every day is busy, busy, busy.

The name goes on the bow

and home port goes on the stern

Even though we feel like we are nearly ready to sail , we still seem to be buying lots of necessary things - and some comforts like a bbq. Today our 'dirt rat" friend John  drove us to Stewart so we could buy a secondhand dinghy. The one that came with Brio, although not an old one, had obviously spent too much time in the Florida sun and humidity. No matter what we did to fix each leak, new ones would appear and usually on the seam so impossibly hard to fix. After many attempts and a whole lot of glues and solutions to remedy the problem, we finally decided it was a lost cause, and started looking for another dinghy. we now have an 8ft Walker Bay hard dinghy (so at least we wont have to patch it!)



Ivan, Laura, Tuckker and Louise

We spent a great evening with Tuckker and Laura at their house not far from Indiantown. Tuckker made the best fresh tuna sashimi and Laura cooked mahi-mahi (our first taste of the fish everyone seems to talk about around here). Tuckker works at the marine store where we buy most of our supplies from and has helped us so much with getting our boat ready, including connecting all of the electronic equipment. I'm sure he didn't expect to be spending quite as much time in the bowels of our boat as he has. We came to have dinner at Tuckker and Laura's place  because Ivan - who has more front that Myers- said to Tuckker he wouldn't have felt like he had visited Florida unless he had been invited to a local person's home!

  

Week Five





Here's an example of a huge trailer just for you Helen



Ok, so it's the beginning of week 5 for us at Indiantown Marina and the work continues. Someone did say to me the other day it's like Hotel California here.....for those of you who aren't Eagles fans - "you can check out, but you can never leave". Please let that not be us! Richard has got right into working on the boat as well as checking out the ones in the yard that he'd like to buy. Hopefully the third pair of hands means we will at least be in the water soon. 



Richard sitting down on the job on his first day



Michael and Robert  - welder men

 We had to get the welder men back for some more advice on the keel and a couple more small jobs. Michael and Robert are really nice guys with great southern accents.  Thanks guys for helping us out.



John, Ivan and Craig enjoying a beer on Brio



John who has a yacht in the yard near us is an invaluable source

 of information and knows his way around the sailing

sites like no one else. He put us onto someone who was selling a secondhand series drogue and liked ours so much he's gone and bought one himself!

Ros and Rob were also near neighbours of ours for a while, but have now returned home to Canada after a marathon 5 months in the workyard. They'll be back to finish working on their yacht and then they hope to go sailing!

Our mate Jack has also returned home to Canada. He helped us immensely with sorting out our engine.



Jack on board the Daniel B



Rob and Ros with Sarah being moved



Another hot day dawns

Richard, our friend and neighbour from Nungurner and third crew member arrives today. Hope he's not too jet lagged because Ivan has all sorts of jobs lined up for him :)

The Garmin chartplotter is being installed today - i think Richard and I are expected to become experts in how to use it. Our emergency watermaker,  to supplement our water tanks which we don't think are quite adequate, has arrived. At least it will be good exercise as it is hand operated and 1 hour pumping gives you one gallon of water.

We picked up the new stove yesterday - very bright and shiny. The old one was a shocker with rust dropping off it constantly. Just ordered a pressure cooker from Amazon. I'll be a sea-going domestic goddess before you know it.