LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 16:
February 11, 2000

0130 Strong rain/wind squall presses boat down to starboard..0200 Squall ends.
The boat is almost 2 NM right of track and headed 45 degrees right of course.
The wind has veered substantially from about ENE to ESE and gone light. I sheet the
sails in close-hauled. There is a loom of light on the horizon ahead that would be
coming from the Island of Barbados some 24 NM ahead.  Forward speed is less than
3 kts. I start the engine to push her along. With the engine set at 1500 rpm her forward
speed improves to 5 kts. If the wind does not pick up I expect I shall be running the
engine for a few hours. There are 18 gallons of fuel in the main tank and two full deck
jugs with 6 gallons each. I still have a gallon or two of diesel in one of the other deck jugs,
which I pour into the main tank. I take the opportunity to do this because the seas are
 substantially reduced from previously.  Due to the lightness of the wind I switch over to
 autopilot steering control.0245 The wind picks up again in strength but remains out of
the ESE. With the boat heeled over in 20 kts of wind, the engine alarm sounds. I secure
the engine.

0300 I am getting repeated "rudder response failure" alarms from the autopilot, although
the autopilot seems to reset on pressing the "auto" button. This "rudder response failure"
seems to be an intermittent problem. I still do not know how to evaluate it yet.

0330 Switched back to wind vane steering.

0500 Sighted lights ashore on Barbados.

0545 Sighted the island land mass.

0623 Sunrise.

0715 Lord's Prayer is in the lee of the northern end of Barbados. As a result the sea is
much flatter and the boat no longer has that uncomfortable jerky motion. The wind is
ESE 15-17 kts. There is chatter on VHF channel 16 & 12 between various ships preparing
to get underway and a land based station, which calls itself "signal station". The sun is rising
over Barbados. There is mist in the air over the land; it reflects the brilliance of the sun.
Although the shore is only two miles to weather it is not possible to make out much detail
along the shore.

0738 A pair of fishing vessels is sighted about a mile to leeward. Lord's Prayer
 remains under partial jib, staysail and double-reefed mainsail; she moves ahead
 at about 4.5 kts.

0817 A fisherman in a boat to my leeward waves me around to his leeward, as he is hauling
in his gillnet. I bear off and run under his lee. I exchange a friendly wave.

0830 I call "signal station" on VHF channel 12 to receive instructions for clearing customs
(I have two guidebooks; they give conflicting procedures) and I am told to enter the commercial
port where the cruise liners tie up and call again upon entry. I start preparing the boat for entering
harbor. I decide to start the engine early just in case the warning light problem reoccurs. Before
it has a chance to reoccur I discover that the alternator is not charging. I shut the engine down.
A quick peek at the forward end of the engine reveals that the alternator belt is broken. I heave
the boat to. I dig out a replacement belt and some wrenches and install the new one. I restart the
engine and all is working fine.

0945 Entering the commercial harbor, I call "signal station" and receive instructions to tie up
alongside an unused part of the cruise ship wharf, which I do very carefully. The wind is howling
and the only way of laying her alongside and being reasonably close to some bollards is to put
her up against a single cruise ship bumper. It has a huge plastic surface maybe 10' x 10' and it is
held approximately 3-4' out from the stone bulkhead with rubber-like shock absorbers behind
 it. There is a ladder recessed into the bulkhead but it is too far away to reach. The only way of
getting off the boat is to climb up over the bumper, which I do - once to finish tying the boat
up - and then again after collecting my passport and the boat's papers. I hunt around to find the
customs man. He processes me and relieves me of $25.00 - a boat fee. I do not have departure
clearance papers from the US and that clearly bothers the customs man. I show him my cruising
permit, which I obtained from US customs. He had not seen one of these before but he decides
to accept it and then sends me off to see a health guy, who has me fill out some similar papers.
He, in turn, sends me to the immigration lady, who tells me that I was supposed to see her first.
I fill out more of the same stuff for her. She stamps my passport and tells me that when departing
I must first see the port authority, then customs, and last I see her. I skip health on the way out.
I asked what I'd be doing at the port authority. She said, "That is where you pay the port stamps".
Looks like they are going to knick me coming and going at Barbados. She signs my papers and
sends me on my way.

1145 I cast off the lines and clamor aboard. I start the engine and then motor around first to the
careenage and then to the fishermen's harbor looking for diesel fuel and water. I find the fuel in the
fishermen's harbor and top off the main diesel tank and the empty deck jugs. There is no water
available at the fuel pier. Since I still have at least 50 percent of the fresh water onboard I postpone
that until I have been able to investigate the available sources. I take the boat over to the anchorage
in Carlisle Bay.

1400 Lord's Prayer is anchored Bridgetown, Barbados. Position: 13-05N 059-37W.

1500 Went overboard for a swim with snorkel gear to inspect zincs and the waterline. The zinc on
the prop is still intact, although it won't last much longer because it is losing material around the three
bolts that hold it in place. It is in better condition than I expected, though. The new large zinc, which is
attached to the shaft brush, shows what I would call normal deterioration. This zinc may have helped
extend the life of the prop zinc. But it is hard to be sure because while the boat has been in the water
 now for about as long as the zincs were lasting last summer, the water has been somewhat cooler. 
Along the water line some of the bottom paint is chipped off - probably from the abrasion of pushing
the boat through the ice on the 23 of January. There is no apparent chipping aft of the beamiest section
of the boat though. Also there is no sign anywhere of any abrasion to the gel coat or to the boot top
that might be attributed to pushing her through the salt-ice.

1600 I checked out the pressure water wash-down system and found it not working, as I had previously
noted on the 26th of January, after hauling up the anchor at Hampton Roads. I removed and inspected some components including the check valve to make sure it was not stuck. This did not solve the problem so
I opened up the impeller section of the pump. I did not see anything there that looked like it might be
causing the problem. However that action resulted in a minor flow of water. I removed and replaced the
screw opposite the pressure sensor to see what it does. Afterward I found the system to be developing
full pressure - better than it did all last summer. I gave the boat a good wash-down to get rid of the
caked salt.

1803 Sunset.

END OF LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 16
Note: this will be the last log-part transmitted until I am underway again; that
 may be as late as the middle of next week.


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