To return to our adventurous shakedown voyage...

By July 17 we had both engines in and running so we left for Saba, a lovely Dutch island south of the Virgin Islands. An hour and a half later we returned to St. Thomas with no generator, no autopilot, one bilge pump down and a leak in the hose to the hot water heater. Called Don who would come the next day to sort out all the problems.

The next day at 12:30 PM we left St. Thomas with all problems fixed. An hour later we returned to St. Thomas with a salt water leak in the starboard engine. Don fixed the leak and flushed the engine. At 3 PM we left again. At 4PM the AC input on the generator burnt up so its engine was running but no AC power was being produced. Despite this problem we headed for Tortola where we arrived at 8PM hoping to get the generator fixed the next day. Without the generator we have no air-conditioning and no 40-gallon-an-hour watermaker to produce fresh water.

The following day we went into a marina so the cats have air-conditioning once again and we arranged to have a new generator motor shipped for arrival the next day. To forget our troubles for a moment Charlie and I took a long walk around the bay to the Moorings complex of charter sailboats. The complex was impressive with many boats at the dock and several large buildings for customers and staff.

As promised the motor was delivered the next day, July 20, but too late to complete installation that day so we hung out in the bar/restaurant next to the dock and heard some good blues from a one-man band. The following day after we completed the motor installation, we toured the island with a taxi driver who had lived in New York City, my home town, for 10 years and had owned a nightclub on Tortola after that. We agreed that the north shore of the island was much prettier than the Roadtown side where we were.

On July 22 we left Tortola only to return with a non-functioning autopilot. It finally engages so we leave Tortola again for Saba.

To be continued...