Still at Norman Island. Fixed solar power connector as it was feeling hot to the touch wire at connector had turned black and had some green stuff on it, cut a piece off and cleaned contacts. The panels (140 watts total) are putting out 6 to 9 amps from 9 am to about 5 pm. It has not rained for almost 4 weeks here so the panels are working nonstop.
Tied my iPod to the main sail halyard and set it to take pictures every 10 seconds liked this one the best. Tried to duck under the bimini but did'nt make it.
Chinook you described the guy I meet and there was older classic looking sailboats there. Almost all boats here are big cats or newer 40 to 50 footers monohulls.
Cool that you met up with Kevin. Too bad you didn't have more of a chance to talk with him. I'm sure he's accumulated some great sea stories since 2011. His boat was white, with red trim. He's a great fisherman and spear hunter. He gave us a video of him single handing his boat while playing and gaffing a big mahi mahi. Quite an accomplishment. I hope you catch up with him again down there.
Making my way back at Salinas PR a anchorage where many cruises stop and stay for years.
After leaving the BVI's sailed most of the way to Culebra PR stayed 2 days left Sunday for Patillas and was sailing along nicely then the rain clouds started to form and the first one took us by surprise the wind picked up a lot the and the boat rounded up, then the autopilot said drive failure, so I put it on standby but could only turn wheel one way, went down to check the block of wood I used for the Raymarine tiller broke and was preventing the linkage from moving. Rolled up the jib and stared the engine to get us back on track. The next rain came a couple hours later and I had already fixed the autopilot so when it got close we rolled in the jib and steered manually this time the wind got stronger and sailed faster on a beam reach instead than downwind. Next rain came an hour later and we got soaked the time but was gone in 20 minutes. had to bail water out of the dinghy that was on deck. After that motored fast 8-9 knots to Patillas and dropped anchor.
The next day no rain and nice sun and wind.
Got back Tuesday motored wind only 6 kts.
Total:
Days 24
Nautical Miles 460
Rained 1 day
Windy Until I started to head back
Days spent cleaning up after getting back 2
Things that worked:
Airhead
Raymarine Autopilot
Extra Solar Panel (140 watts Total)
Omnia stove top oven
New Dinghy & Torqeedo motor
InReach
Already made a list of things to fix/improve for next time.
The Cabo Rojo lighthouse on the southwest corner of the island.
Jimmy glad all went well. Thanks for posting. To someone who has yet to take a trip your posts are an inspiration to get the work done and take the boat out.
