We were ready to leave Venezuela and begin heading back north. The constant need to be wary in Venezuela was getting old and the time to move north was prime. If we were to wait too much later in the year it would be much harder to find a good weather window. As winter comes on the winds pick up and so do the seas. We really wanted a good passage so we were a bit antsy to get going early.

The distance from Porlamar, Margarita to St. Croix is a bit over 400nm and we expected to be underway for about 3 to 3 1/2 days. We left with a good forecast for winds just north of east, so it would be off the beam, and mild seas. We left the anchorage at Porlamar around 2 in the afternoon and headed around the eastern end of Margarita in light winds. We were motoring at first then the wind came up a bit and we were able to sail. This was about 2 hours after leaving.

When we have been motoring and shift to sail, I let the engine run at idle until it cools before shutting it off. While it was at idle I noticed the temperature had gone up, not down. I looked at the stern and there was no water coming out the exhaust (boats use water in the exhaust for cooling). This was not good. I immediately shut off the engine and we headed back to Porlamar under sail.

Coming in to anchor under sail is not unheard-of but it's not common either. TechTalk One reason is that after getting the anchor down, we generally use the motor to pull back on it to "set" it. With no motor we could not do this. We had help from some friends in the anchorage, though. Tom from Miss P came over and pushed us back with his dinghy to set the anchor. After getting the anchor set, since it was almost sunset, we went about fixing dinner. I'd take a look at the problem with the engine in the morning.

About 8pm the wind kicked up a bit, maybe to 18 knots. I stuck my head up to check on things and noticed we had dragged anchor about 50 yards and were now right next to another boat. I called him on the VHF and told him we could not move immediately but I would work on the engine right then and move ASAP.

I was pretty sure I knew what the problem with the engine was. TechTalk I expected to see that the vanes on the impeller in the raw water pump (for the engine cooling water) had broken off. This is not uncommon and we always carry a spare impeller for this reason. When I got the pump apart, it was not broken vanes but the whole impeller had separated from its hub. Unusual. I replaced the impeller on the water pump, put the pump back on the engine and we were in business. We re-anchored and the rest of the night was uneventful.

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We still had a good weather forecast, maybe better than for our first attempt. We set out again and this time got past the eastern end of Margarita with no problem. The winds was just forward of the beam (good sailing) and the seas were mild. We got a call from our friends on Talisman who said they were leaving then and would be right behind us. A few hours later we could see them gaining on us. They have a much larger boat and are faster so we were not surprised the were catching us. We were going good though, around 7 knots. They told us later they used their motor to catch up.

We sailed in sight of them for that evening but they got farther ahead and, as the night wore on, we lost sight of them and never saw them again. We talked on the radio a couple of times a day, which is very nice. When you're out there it's nice to know a friend is nearby. Part of the reason we never saw them again was they decided to head for Puerto Rico, a little further west, but the main reason is they are faster (even without the motor).

All that afternoon and night were made very good time with good winds. We covered 158 nautical miles in 24 hours, our best average ever. That's an average of 6.6 knots!

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We still had very good winds and were making good time but we started getting some rain showers come through. They were not serious but did make the wind unpredictable. As one approached the wind would die until the shower got very close. Then the wind would kick up to about 20 knots. We made a lot of sail changes that day and that night.  TechTalk We put the second reef in the main and adjusted the roller-furling jib to match the wind conditions. We generally shorten sail at night because it often picks up then and it's much more difficult to make sail changes in the dark. Also, reefing takes two and at night one of us is always asleep. Making a sail change would mean waking that person out of their precious off time  Still, we made good time. We covered 142 miles in 24 hours and 300 since leaving Porlamar. That's an average of 6.25 knots. This is very good for us.


Here's an excerpt from the Email I sent that day updating our progress:

It feels good to be on passage again. Most of what we have been doing recently is short hops. We're looking forward to St. Croix. In Venezuela one always has to be looking over one's shoulder. It got to us.

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The showers persisted and we had shortened sail much of the day. We spent a lot of time in our rain gear. To this point though, since the wind had picked up off of Margarita, we had not needed to run the engine except to charge the batteries. The wind held up and we were very glad of that.

The showers were mainly bothersome in that we never knew what the wind speed would be 15 minutes in advance.

Covered 135nm and our average was 6.04 knots for the first 435 miles.

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At dawn we were approaching the large reef that extends east from St. Croix. We made a wide turn around it and covered the last 10 miles or so to get into the harbor. Since it is US territory, the entrance is well marked. This is such a contrast to the rest of the Caribbean, with the exception of the French Islands. They have good markings as well.

We anchored in what is called Gallows Bay, near St. Croix Marine. The holding is very good in sand and there was only one other boat there.

The trip total was 443nm in 73 hours 46 minutes for an average of 6.0 knots. That's from anchor up to anchor down. Not bad. We ran the engine for a total of only 5 hours. That's sailing!

We checked in with customs and walked around the area near the marina. This is not downtown Christiansted but an area of shops and other businesses. We were looking for a place to buy some food for Sam. We had run out of his canned food and there was none to be had in Venezuela. We found some food (yes, we went over 400 miles just to get Sam some canned food) and went back to the boat to rest.

For two weeks in St. Croix the winds were out of the northeast and around 20 knots everyday. The anchorage was not well protected for wind from that direction so we bounced the whole time we were there. It's better than rolling though.

We met some friends of Miss P, Dave and Kirsten and they were very kind giving us rides to stores and helping us find what we needed. They are great people and are going to go cruising in a few years. Dave is rebuilding a Morgan 42 (not an Out Island) that he picked up for a song. Dave is also a US Marshall and the tales he told us of the crime gangs in St. Croix made us glad somebody's keeping an eye on these guys.

While in St. Croix we also met Lou who runs the Caribbean Maritime Mobile Net for Hams. This net is a way for Hams on boats to contact each other and also to get the weather. George, another Ham on St. John, is something of an amateur weather man and reads the NWS forecasts on the radio everyday at 7:15am during the net. Lou runs the net and coordinates the people that call in. It's a daily ritual in the eastern Caribbean. (Boaters all say "George said...")

Lou took us out to his usual lunch spot and there were several other Hams there, some of which I had heard on the air. There were 10 people around the table and only 2 did not have Ham licenses. We had a good time meeting them all.

Downtown Christiansted has fine colonial style architecture. It is well preserved and a delight to walk around (although petty theft is common. Even so we felt safer here than in Venezuela). It is loaded with jewelry shops and other gift shops typical of ports where cruise ships call. However, cruise ships in general don't come to St. Croix except to get fuel. The biggest oil refinery in the western hemisphere is on the south side of St. Croix and the diesel fuel the ships use is cheap.

So why are the shops there in Christiansted? The cruise ships came here in times past and, the locals believe, will come again. Plus, there are many land-based resorts and shopping is always a popular activity when on vacation. Even we did some Christmas shopping while there.

Overall we really enjoyed St. Croix. The people are friendly and laid-back and it is very scenic, in town and out.

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