we got under way by around 8am and by noon we where dropping anchor in culebra. the anchorage was wide open as the few local boats with crew had gone into the mangroves. i was much happier with no boats around and a 75 lb cr with a hundred meters of chain than in with a bunch of boats as was tom.
we spent the afternoon huracaining ourselves. we both got extra anchors rigged in case we dragged in the wind shift i got everything inside including the sup and the surf board.
i even got the massive gerry jugs secured in the forward head. finally i got my bed set up where i was prepared to stay up all night watching the gps display for winds and any sign of dragging.
once all was set up tom and i decided to head to shore for a beer as the forecast arrival time was midnight. we found an open bar and within minutes of sitting down discovered the latest update was gonzalas was veering east away from us and towards st martin. we would find out later st martin lost 30+ boats and person. primarily because they only predicated the hurricane at noon the day of and by then it was too late for any one to do anything.
we had seen 4 helos buz the harbor just before we came in and we learned this was the governor arriving to officially declare a state of emergency and shut down the bars and everything else. this ironically went into effect at 5pm and then at 6pm everything was canceled based on the latest update.
we had a few beers and then headed home. we both slept blissfully through the night getting a nice fresh water washdown. the next day i again made bfast, seems like my job these days. and then tom convinced me we should take advantage of the weather and take down and repair his head sail that the head had ripped out of.
this required me to go up the mast twice and jury rig a halyard to the head so we could pull up and down. the mast trip was not bad other than trusting all the lines on toms vintage boat. but what are friends for if not to risk their lives on the top of your mast, still safer than driving and crossing the st :)
once we got this in place we where able to lower the massive headsail onto the for-deck. at this point i looked at the sail and said lets head over to st thomas and take this thing to a loft. these where so many problems it was overwhelming. tom replied, i'm out of money we have to fix it. yikes. so that s what "we" did. tom did all the stitching
fortunately aimee had bought some 2 inch wide red webbing for sewing projects that was still on the boat. we got this and all our combined sewing gear together and tom went to work.
by 5pm it was pretty clear this was a two day job so at sunset we knocked off and headed into town for dinner. of course zacos was closed. i was the only one with money so i selected the Chinese place. tom got 4$ fried chicken and i got 8$ fried rice and pork & fries, everything comes with fries very authentic. my dinner lasted two days so it was a wash. i did have to kill a roach running across the bar but you cant have everything.
the next day tom was up at dawn sewing and at 9am i headed over for the next mast climb. i won't try to explain the system tom has but i had to install a block on top of the foil to compress the foil and pull the sail up. the halyard for this had to be secured to the roller furler before furling. if anyone can understand this i will buy you a beer.
needless to say this was painful. we ended up with the sail up flogging pinning tom between the rail and the sail holding the halyard. eventually the boat tacked its self and we got everything under control.
by this time it was noon so we decided to take advantage of the south winds to sail east something that almost never happens.
i must say it was an awesome sail for me back to st thomas and for tom back to cane in bvi. i tried to track down friends on star gazer but failed so went out for sushi on my own. i think it is the first on my own meal out i can remember. i splurged and got two spicy tuna rolls very good :)
cheers
roger
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