Goodbye Grenada, Hello Caribbean Sea

Anchored outside St. Georges Harbor, Grenada

Had a very successful 15nm sail this morning west along the south coast, and then up the west coast of the island. All systems are G. The weather looks good for my 4 to 5 day run to St Thomas. The wind is forecast to be light at only 10 to 14 knots at the most. So Christa and I could be setting the drifter and wallowing on an oily sea. A potential hurricane is forming in the SW Caribbean, but steering currents forecast does not hint at a easterly move. Plenty of breathing room with that system.

Today has been a busy one with the early morning move, checking out with Customs, provisioning and now taking care of last minute computer work. I predict a very deep sleep tonight followed by a few days of great sailing. Wish me luck!

Capt Chris

Splash Splash!

On a Mooring St Davids Grenada

 Christa splashed this afternoon with little fanfare, but much joy for the skipper. All seems well with the boat. It is always somewhat nerve wracking to skedaddle below to make sure nothing is leaking to badly when she first immerses. The shaft packing gland was leaking, but is to be expected and should soak up water and swell up before two long. I did quick turn around the anchorage to make sure the engine was running in tip top form, and it was. So I snatched up a mooring. I am really pleased with how nice the hull came out with the acid wash, compound and wax job. Coupled with the new lettering, she really looks nice. I am very happy to be out of the yard. The mosquitos are unbelievable. If anyone would like to know my experiences with Grenada Marine and how that aspect played out, please email me and we can take if from there. No reason to bore everyone with those details.

Tomorrow I hope to make the short sail over to St Georges and raise sail, test the Monitor Wind Vane gear, navigation systems and all the other systems. Then if all goes well and I can get my shopping done and check out with Customs, I'll strive to leave on Wedsday. But not sure if I can scrunch all that in in one day. In terms of a weather window, the next week looks to be light winds, but enough to keep Christa moving along. In fact we've had a long stretch of light winds and this bodes well for a calm sea. The only thing to keep a weather eye for is possible hurricane activity in the far SW Caribbean, near Panama. Things are heating up a bit down that way, but in any event it doesn't look as if any storm would form and then swing back toward the Virgin Island. Although any hurricane in my hemisphere makes me nervous!

Hope all hands are well back home! More as it comes.

Capt Chris

PS: Apparently I may have some color blindness. A number of people have corrected me that the background color is actually orange! Looks tan to me!

Yard Period in Grenada Going Well

Up on the Hard Grenada Marine, South Coast of Grenada
Number of times up and down the ladder: 500 at least

The passed two days the weather had much improved with little to no rain, but still blazing hot. I've had to stay ontop of the yard folks to make sure we have no communications snafu's. I've rigged the sails, sanded the bottom, cleaned and greased all sea cocks, checked out all my electronics, re-filled water tanks, re-commissioned  the main engine, had the yard fix/tune up "big red" the little generator and mounted the new lettering for Christa.

All that is really left is for the yard to compound and wax out the hull and for me to apply the anti-fouling bottom paint on Christa bottom, and lets not forget, pay the bill. Moving right along, I have been keeping tabs on the weather and thus far everything is looking good for a departure next week sometime. The GFS tropical model keeps hinting at a possible tropical low somewhere in the central Caribbean next week and pulling it northeast, Omar/Lenny style. Chances are very low that this will occur and by Monday things will be much clearer. Even though it has been a dud of an Atlantic h-season, November hurricanes are highly irregular in all aspects. Just something to watch.

I snapped this pic on my way to dinner this evening. Enjoy!

Capt Chris

PS: Looking for feedback on the tan background color on the blog. I think on some computer monitors it can be fatiguing to the eye's.

Grenada

Up on the Hard, Grenada Marine, St Davids Grenada

 Three words, hot, humid and bugs. Has my ability to bear the discomforts of boat-life waned during my summer stay in plush accomadations? Maybe, not really sure, but anyone who endures a boatyard, in a jungle while tropical waves pass without complaint, is someone who I have not met yet. It's brutal, trying to get work done. But that is the deal!

I rolled out of bed at 3am Monday morning and my Dad had me to Tampa airport with plenty O time to spare, which is how I like to roll. Onward to San Juan, where I had a very long, 8 hour layover, but boarded my flight to Grenada with out incident and landed in Grenada tired, but unscathed. I got all jacked up at Customs as I had boat parts and who knows what else, that the folks wanted an import tax on. Not stoked about taxes. I turned up the charm to warp speed, difficult given my sleep deprivation and revulsion for taxes, but received my stamps after some friendly bartering. Cuthbert my Grenadian taxi driver was waiting, a real relief when landing in a 3rd world country at night. I arrived back aboard Christa at about 10 pm.

A mixed sense of relief to see Christa is fine, but terribly dirty and dread as it's dark and steamy hot. You see, where Christa is there is no lights at all. To get aboard you need a ladder, so I had to forage around the yard in the pitch black to swipe a ladder from another boat, and hope no one is aboard. An unsuspecting person could wake up in the night and need to use the bathroom, with no way to get off the boat. But I had no choice. Once aboard, I was surprised to see the batteries totally dead. I thought they would hold some charge and maybe there is some current draw I'm not aware of. So now I had to string power to the boat which was another Special Forces operation to get that taken care of. So I finally got things situated. It was a long day.

I'm cranking away at the worklist. Not on the agenda is the chainplate replacement project. My man Devon works in the yard and has been a great help. I don't understand much that he says, but his speech is peppered with alot of "yeah Mon" and "we cool like dat mon" He is always looking for extra work and is really mellow.

So today, within less than five minutes, my galley whale-gusher broke, the lawn mower type pull chord for the Honda Generator snapped (completly hosing things up), the power to the boat tripped, it down poured on my new paint job and the ladder fell over. I thought, what have I done to anger Neptune and then remembered this is a bit extreme, but really this is what boat life is like. The highs are very high and lows can can scrape Satins underbelly.

All in all everything is fine. The varnish is failing in all spots, but this is what happens in the tropical sun, so the boat looks like hell. But that is the way it goes. I'll work on it!

The above picture is for all the ladies. The kid cica 1969

Capt Chris

Camera Upgrade

Enroute to Grenada Via Plane

I've found I enjoy taking pictures so much that the usefulness of my Fujifilm A800 is waning. It surely takes nice pictures under the right circumstances, however, it just can't compete with my new Canon G11. Very excited and please stay tuned for some nice pics!

.

Capt Chris

My General Track To Florida

On Assignment in Central Florida
1 day until Grenada
8 days until Christa's scheduled re-launch

 Plans are always set in jello. My first leg is from Grenada to St Thomas, just shy of 500 nautical miles. For planning purposes I use a speed of five knots of advance, so about 120nm every 24 hours. Should be a wonderful passage and I hope to bug out from Grenada soon after launch.

 I likely will pre-stage from St Thomas to Culebra, just 25 nm west of STT. Then another 3 to 5 day passage to either the Turks & Caicos or the southern Bahamas. Once in the Bahamas, I'll hop from island to island to Miami and then down the Keys. From the Keys it's a 90nm sail to Naples, where I'll base out of for the winter.


View Grenada to Florida in a larger map


Capt Chris

Hurricane Season

On Assignment Central Florida
3 Days until I bug out for Grenada

While I am a rookie at cruising, especially during hurricane season, I have concluded that it remains such a crap-shoot and risky. The forecasters have many tools and work very hard at forecasting, but it seems to my eye's it is so unpredictable.

After last years experience in Puerto Rico, I simply did not want to have to worry about, not only getting whacked by a hurricane, I didn't want to deal with a "minor blow" of a tropical storm, nor the violent squalls that occur with a near by tropical system.

So this year, as some of you know I hauled Christa out of the water in Grenada and placed her in a hurricane cradle. My anti worry program has worked out swimmingly.

However, it does not escape me that I have been paying $700 a month to have Christa sit in a hurricane cradle, in a location that is officially out of the hurricane belt, in a year that has seen little hurricane activity, at least in the Atlantic. What can you do? This year has seen two hurricanes form in the Atlantic, both of which spun out to sea, deep in the Atlantic. Now compare this year to last. Below is a time lapse video of the 2008 season. Picture yourself in the bulls eye sitting in Puerto Rico. The question still remains, how is one to know?

I do recognize that we still have a month and change left in the present season and there could be a spasm of activity, but I predict not. I'll cling to that like I cling to my good looks.



Capt Chris

New York City Video

On Assignment in Central Florida
5 Days until Grenada
11 Days until Christa's re-launch

Shot with the Flip and edited with Apple iMovie09

Tell me what you think!




Capt Chris

Florida and Beyond

Summerfield Florida
7 days until Grenada

I had another successful, if not uneventful 21 hour train ride from New York's Penn Station to Deland Florida. My Dad was awaiting for further transport to Summerfield where my parents live.

I'm really excited about heading back to Christa. Awaiting me in Florida was some boat parts. As I had mentioned in my Hurricane Cradle Video I've developed some concerns about Christa's chainplates. I believe the existing chainplates may be the originals from 1975. I called Bud Taplin, the Westsail guru at Worldcruising Yachts to discuss the situation. Before I left Grenada, I polished the old suckers and checked with a magnifying glass to detect hairline cracks. I didn't see cracks, but one plate has rust on stainless steel near one of the lowest holes on the forward shroud side. Bud did indicate it is likely nothing to get to uptight about, as there are four bolts holding each chainplate to the hull. The rust that is dripping down the hull is not abnormal and derives from the bolts holding the chainplate on, and not a an indicator of the health of the actual chainplate. However it is highly recommended to change them out as they are of an unknown age.

With that knowledge I forked over the boat dollars and had six brand new shiny chainplates fabricated and shipped out to my folks house. Pictured below is the starboard side plate that connects the upper shroud. Now my program will be another accessment of the existing chainplates once I return and if I feel comfortable I will wait to replace the old with the new when I return back to Florida. Replacement of the chainplates is a fairly decent sized undertaking that I don't want to do in Grenada if I can help it. This is simply one of the many risk assessment calls sailors have to make all the time. Check out the new shiny part below and notice the jealous gecko looking on.

I am also excited to report that I spoke with the boat yard at Grenada Marine and have a scheduled launch date of November 2nd. This gives me just shy of a week to prep Christa before she is waterborne. I had the hull acid washed, compounded and then waxed. The acid wash is supposed to really strip the hull, including the lack luster painted on "Christa" and "San Francisco." I have high hopes that Christa's original shine will be shone again. So with that, I purchased new stickers for the hull pictured below. Check it out!

So, I have a fair amount of work ahead of me upon return to Christa. First of which, I can see myself returning late at night, foraging around the yard looking for a ladder to climb aboard and then getting some electricity up and running. Day two.....well I don't know. More later!

Capt Chris

PS: Don't forget to subscribe to my RSS Feed. Google Reader is my preferred reader.

Madison Ave in Crocs

On Assignment East Village NYC
13 days until Grenada
3 days until southbound for Florida


I've tackled the urban jungle with gusto. I love coming to New York City to visit my brother and his family. Granted, NYC is not for everyone, but in small doses I simply love it. If I were on a bigger budget, a much longer stay would be more feasible. The moment I leave my brothers apartment on East 10 street the wallet hemorrhage begins.

Since I've been coming to New York now for several years I am much more adept at getting around, which has only served to make my visits more enjoyable. I tackle a day in the city much as I do an upcoming passage. I start out with advise from locals (brother, sister in-law), head to a local coffee shop, ingest maximum brew and shape a plan. We have weather and navigational issues to consider, as a subway trip and copious time on foot is required.

Yesterday, I lit out with Joyce, my sister in-law, to Times Square where she works. After Joyce cast me

adrift I meandered throughout Times Square, passing Ed Sullivan Theater, pretty much all the required sights. Not my first visit to the square, but each time I notice more or different things. My intention was to head for The Metropolitan Museum of Art on the east-side of the park at 81st. I hit my first shoal, when I happened upon police barricade's signaling something was in the offing. Turns out the Italian Parade was ramping up, set to march down the east-side of the park. I re-routed which dumped me onto Madison Ave. I'd never been on Madison before. Quite the fashion scene with chicks galore. Of course I was highly amused to be in my unfashionable, but very comfortable Crocs, dodging the fashion over function crowd. I used to be very anti-Crocs right until I actually tried a pair on. I'm a utilitarian in this regard.

The Met is just magnificent. This is one of the tastier aspects of aging. You simply start to appreciate things that were positively boring in youth. Back in the day I would have much rather slugged it out on a bar stool than skulk through a museum, even though each activity is full of pontificating. This is my second journey to The Met. The first time around the Sir Ernest Shackleton exhibit was on display. That was awesome, but I spent so much time with Ernie, I failed to leave any energy to check anything else out. Besides, who wants to look at paintings when you just checked out the actual James Caird life-boat.

And so it was, I took an artsy fartsy posture and checked out Rodin sculptures, including the famous Thinker sculpture, Roman Empire artifacts and incredible paintings. The highlight was the Robert Frank photography exibit. With Mr. Frank's photo's astern of me, I headed back down Madison, to Columbus Circle, named after our good friend and sailing mentor, to the foot of Trump Towers and hopped on the A train downtown to West 4th St and Washington Square Park. I was back in the neighborhood.

Not sure what else I'll tackle while in NYC, but word around the subway steam grate is that the Titanic Artifact exibit is in town. May have to check that out, so I can keep in touch with my nautical roots.

Capt Chris

PS: Don't forget to leave comments! Love those comments and of course I am updating my photo album all the time. Check it out!