LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 26:
Saturday, February 26, 2000
0627 Sunrise
0930 I take laundry ashore to the "slipway" and find the launderette, which is not being used. Tokens cost me $10.00 (EC) each - one for the washer and one for the dryer. While I am waiting on the washer to do its thing, I check out the chandlery. It is a good one with an extensive amount of boat gear - the best I have yet seen in the Caribbean.
1230 Back aboard, I disassemble the compass in an attempt to see if I can fix an electric short that has made itself known within the last couple of days. I find that the wiring has burned itself up pretty badly. I pull out my tools and supplies. I do not have all that I would like to have but I manage to make do. The chandlery, of course, closed at noon today for the weekend! So what else
is new!
1530 The compass light is now working and my tools, etc. are all stowed.
1600 I go ashore briefly to make a phone call, check out the location of the Methodist Church, which I shall attend at 0700 tomorrow, and pick up some food supplies.
1730 Back onboard I start an engine oil change, a Racor fuel filter change, I clean the Groco water strainer, and I tighten the stuffing box. The engine log reads: 1488.3 hours.
1812 Sunset
2100 I make a light dinner and discover that the refrigerator has stopped working. The food in the freezer has all thawed. I pull everything out and inspect the control devise; it looks normal. I bail out the port seat locker and check the compressor. No obvious problem is evident here. I restow everything and turn it off at the control knob and at the circuit breaker. I let it sit for a while and then turn it back on. No joy!
Sunday, February 27, 2000
0626 Sunrise
0700 I attend services at the Baxter Memorial Methodist Church of English Harbor. The church building is one year old today and it is the 6th English Harbor Methodist Church building here since the church was first established at English Harbor in 1759. The Preacher Rev Keith B. Lewis, a circuit minister, delivered a lively sermon on repentance. As a visitor, I was asked to stand and
introduce myself. As I stood up, a cordless microphone was thrust into my hand Every day is a new experience! Nice folks in the church!
0930 Back at the boat I change into something a bit more casual, grab a couple of carrying bags and go find some ice for the refrigerator in hopes of saving some of the food. I pick up 4 bags for $20(EC) and lug them back aboard. I bail out the refrigerator and start dumping the ice in. After the third bag goes in, I notice some noises coming from the refrigerator. It has started working
again! Happiness! I am guessing that perhaps the temperature controller in the fridge was stuck and that the vibration of the ice being dumped in must have unstuck it.
1800 I spend the rest of the day tending to minor maintenance items and reshuffling gear on the boat so that there will be ample stowage available for Bob and Dawn when they arrive later on this evening.
1813 Sunset.
2030 Bob and Dawn arrive in a taxi and hail me from the shore. I putter ashore in the dinghy to pick them up. Dawn's bag is not with them. An aircraft overweight problem had dictated the off-loading of some bags before the last leg of their trip and hers was one of the ones taken off. Presumably all the offloaded bags will be arriving later tonight and the airline will deliver. We grab a bite to eat at the "Wardroom" restaurant at Nelsons Dockyard and then retire onboard.
Monday, February 28, 2000
0900 Bob and Dawn go ashore to check on the luggage, while I start processing mail, which they have brought to me. Dawn's missing bag shows up and Bob brings it aboard; he and Dawn then wander around the Dockyard while I continue processing the mail.
1400 After lunch we start planning for the next few days. We are going to depart for Nevis in the morning. We decide to clear out through Customs this afternoon so that we can make an Oh-Dark-Thirty departure tomorrow morning. It is 53 NM to Nevis (about a 10 hour trip) and we want to arrive there in plenty of time to clear in through customs there before the Nevis office closes at the published time of 1630. We all go ashore. We clear customs etc. and then wander through the Dockyard and have a look at the museum. The renovation of the dockyard is being nicely done. It is a work in progress; it makes for an enjoyable outing.
1600 We hike over to Falmouth Harbor and have a look at some of the fancy mega yachts. Almost every one of these floating palaces has a crew busy cleaning and polishing.
1730 We return to the dinghy and take a spin around English Harbor to look at some of the boats here.
1830 We do some more planning back onboard for the coming week and then step ashore for dinner.
2130 Back onboard we lift the outboard motor onto its rack and hoist the dinghy aboard; we secure it on the foredeck. The rest of the preparations for getting underway we will take care of in the morning.
Tuesday, February 29, 2000
0405 Lord's Prayer is underway from English Harbor bound for the island of Nevis..
0450 Hoisted mainsail, hauled out the jib & secured the engine. With a 10-11 kt northeast breeze we are making about 5 kts on a starboard beam reach.
0600 We slide along the southern coast of Antigua just outside a line of reefs that break the surface. The radar reveals the reefs but they elude the naked eye in the pale pre-dawn twilight.
0625 Sunrise.
0730 The wind abates some and we restart the engine in the interest of maintaining at least a 5.0 kt Speed of Advance (SOA).
0830 The wind freshens again and we secure the engine. We are still on a starboard beam reach moving along nicely. The Island of Montserrat is in clear view - its volcano topped with a cloud. A smaller island to the NW (Redonda) is also in sight. And the Island of Nevis is clearly seen ahead rising more than 3,000' from the sea.
0900 The wind comes around a little more abaft the beam and the jib is reluctant to fly with this angle. I go forward and rig a whisker pole to starboard, spreading the wings of the jib. Now with mainsail and dual-jib opened up, the boat is making close to her 7 kt hull speed as we cross between Antigua and Nevis.
0950 We spot some little "birds" flying low among the seas. As we watch, we come to realize that these are not birds; they are flying fish.
1000 The wind freshens to 15-17 kts and the boat is making hull speed.
1045 We spot a flock of birds circling and fishing off the port bow and wonder what type they are. As we draw near a couple of the birds fly our way. With the aid of a National Audubon Society Field guide, we are able to identify them as Brown Boobies.
1100 The wind freshens further to 18-22 kts. With Bob hand steering, Lord's Prayer is charging along with speeds regularly pushing over hull speed as we slid down the waves.
1125 The wind has come around more on the beam and this has caused the whisker pole to slide aft on the jib sheet. We head her off and I stow the pole. Before rounding her back up onto course again, I haul the weather jib sheet in to take out the slack, as experience has shown me with this dual jib arrangement, failure to do so will result in the weather jib going forward of the headstay and then behind the leeward jib. With the boat rounded up in this condition, it can become quite a difficult task to haul the weather jib back around the headstay. On the other hand, by taking the slack out of that sheet first and then rounding up to put the wind on the beam, the weather jib remains under control and gracefully assumes the desired position with it lying against the lee jib, whereupon the weather sheet may once again be eased just enough that the clews lie together.
1139 We sight the first sail we have seen today other than our own.
1150 As we draw close to Nevis we drink in the beauty of this ancient volcanic cone. The entire island seems to have a sweeping, curving profile from almost horizontal at sea level to about 40 degrees where the profile line approaches the peak. A lush rain forest occupies the sides of the cone from about midway upward. Below are cultivated fields (probably sugarcane) with homes intermixed
and dotting the landscape in the morning sun. On a hillside such as this, every home appears to have a magnificent view; in this case it is the beautiful blue Caribbean Sea with the islands of Redonda and Montserrat off in the distance. The island of Antigua, at our eye level aboard Lord's Prayer, is now sunk astern. We know not whether it can be seen from the hillsides ahead. This island of Nevis has some interesting history. There is a spring here that was once used by Nelson to fill the fresh water casks aboard his ships. Here Nelson met and married Fanny Nisbet who at the time was living on Nevis with her wealthy uncle. Nevis was the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. We understand there is a museum on the island to honor both Nelson and Hamilton and we look forward to visiting it. My
Great Grandfather Stark visited Nevis about 100 years ago and he made the following remarks about Alexander Hamilton in his book Stark's History and Guide to Barbados and the Caribbee Islands : "Nevis is the birth-place of one of the greatest men of the (American) Revolution; whom John Marshall ranks next to Washington, as having rendered more conspicuous service to the United States than any other man of his period. A great orator, a talented lawyer, a good soldier, "master of every field he entered," the ablest political teacher of his day, Alexander Hamilton was the deviser and establisher of the government of the United States; the precocious youth who framed the Constitution, who urged and secured its adoption by the original States at a time when but a rope of sand bound them together. He lived long enough to see the nation to which he gave political stability submitting itself in entire respect and confidence to the declarations contained in the most remarkable
document ever written, which, had it not been for his study and foreknowledge, would have taxed the skill of the wisest of all his contemporaries to formulate. Beyond question this native of Nevis was one of the greatest men who ever saw the light in the western hemisphere. What man ever addressed himself to a grander labor than the inventing of a form of government for an already great nation? What man ever brought to his self imposed task greater abilities and more remarkable talents: Is it any wonder then, that when Americans set foot on the shores of Nevis they are inspired with feelings of reverence. Alexander Hamilton was born of Scottish parentage on this island on January 11, 1757. His father died while he was yet a child; his mother did not long survive her husband, leaving her boy an orphan in indigent circumstances. In 1772 he bade a final adieu to Nevis and sailed for Boston where he arrived in October, thence he went to New York, where in his sixteenth year he entered King's, now Columbia, college. On the breaking out of the American rebellion he recruited a company of artillery under a commission from the State of New York; and in less than five years after his arrival in America he was a lieutenant-colonel on Washington's staff, being then only in his twentieth year. There is no need here to follow the career of this remarkable man up to the time of his untimely death at the hands of Aaron Burr. The honor and renown, which attach to his name, are as enduring as the grand mountain of his native island."
1315 We tack to head in to the anchorage at Charlestown. This is the port of entry at Nevis. When we tack, whisker pole comes flying down from its mast-stow position. I go forward, disentangle it and stow it on the lifeline chock. There is no apparent damage to the pole. It must have laid up against the mast in such a way as to cause the latch lever to open its lock and thereby drop the end
of the pole.
1325 We get sail off and start the engine.
1330 Lord's Prayer is anchored over a sand bottom in 15' of water on 75' of chain.
1340 We hoist the dinghy into the water and make preparations for going ashore to do the customs thing.
1430 I head for the shore with papers and passports. At the landing there is a monstrous surge and then the waves are breaking only moments later onto the shore. I watch it for a while and try to decide how I might get safely out of the dinghy and then tie it off in such a manner that it will not be damaged. There are 2 skiffs and a yacht dinghy tied off here. They are all using a stern anchor of sorts to hold them away from the concrete pier and a line from the bow to recover them at the pier. There is no room for any other boat to be tied off here, because there is a cruise-ship tender using the entire front face of the pier. From time to time as I watch I half expect the cruise ship tender to be
smashed as it comes and goes at the landing. I decide to go back to Lord's Prayer and get a stern anchor for the dinghy. Bob and I talk over the situation and he comes in with me to tend the dinghy, so that I can do customs. We drop the anchor - a 15 lb mushroom - and it seems to do a good job of holding us away from the pier. I climb out. Bob stays with the dinghy and I tie the bow to the pier. I go look for customs. A cabbie looking for a fare hails me and I explain I am looking for customs.  She tells me, "Oh, that is going to be a problem." She goes on to explain that the Customs Officer has a new routine; he is gone for the afternoon to another location. For $20 she will drive me to him, or I can wait till morning when he will be in Charlestown from 8-12 and I can see him then. Bob and I
regroup for a powwow. We decide to skip it this afternoon and return to the boat.
1600 We haul up the anchor and motor over to a beach area to investigate a reportedly excellent swimming beach. As we get closer we see that the beach and all the facilities on it are severely damaged - probably from the last hurricane that was here. The anchorage off the beach is very exposed to the NE wind that is whipping through it. We reluctantly decide to skip Nevis all together
because of the existing wind conditions and we head for Basseterre over on St. Kitts, just 12 nm away; it is currently in the lee of the island and well protected from this strong NE breeze.
1645 We haul out the Jib to give the boat a bit more speed.
1800 We arrive at the Port of Basseterre and investigate a major yacht/cruise ship facility that was started in 1995. The guidebook only tells us that it had been started and doesn't tell us much more. On a close up look, it is clear that a very major facility was either completed or nearly so but was then substantially damaged - probably by the last hurricane. We are directed to the commercial pier to find customs. We head the boat over there to anchor for the night where we will do the customs thing in the morning.
1813 Sunset
1840 Lord's Prayer is anchored at the port of Basseterre, St. Kitts. Position: 17-17N 062-43W.
END OF LORD'S PRAYER LOG, Part 26


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