{"id":12438,"date":"2022-03-20T13:15:50","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T18:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=12438"},"modified":"2022-03-20T13:15:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T18:15:50","slug":"chillin-in-marigot-bay-st-lucia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=12438","title":{"rendered":"Chillin in Marigot Bay, St Lucia"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s hard to believe that our winter of cruising the Caribbean is almost over.\u00a0 \u00a0I will admit that Brenda has a somewhat different view of this than I do and is a lot more excited about our flight to the US on April 10th from Antigua.<\/p>\n

I like to begin a post with an image that is sort of reflective of what’s going on so here you go.\u00a0 It’s been hard…chillin.\"\"We are spending about two weeks here at the Marigot Bay Resort, tied up at the dock, AC cranking away while we waste water with, sort of, long showers aboard.\u00a0 Actually, compared to folks on shore, our normal water consumption aboard Pandora is about 15 gallons per day and now on the dock a whopping 30 gallons per day, I’d guess.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it’s a nice cushy change of pace. \"\"The view from our cockpit is, well, tropical.\"\"And while we are spending about $70\/day on the dock, the visitors in the hotel are paying about $500\/night.\u00a0 \u00a0Such a deal! \"\"To be able to enjoy the pool while paying about the same cost as a mooring in Martha’s Vineyard is pretty appealing.\u00a0 \u00a0Brenda has actually been doing a bit of weaving poolside. \"\"Not a bad spot to spend an afternoon. \"\"We have met some really interesting folks here including the crew of a nearby mega yacht, a huge catamaran, the third largest in the world.\u00a0 \"\"We have enjoyed some fun evenings aboard Pandora and their digs. How about a singalong?\u00a0 Her cockpit is wider than Pandora is long.\u00a0 Big frigging boat. \"\"Other “local color” includes a little bird that visits us most days for a snack of banana.\u00a0 Brenda tells me he\/she is a Lesser Antillean Bull Finch.<\/span>\"\"Just to prove that the visitor is really aboard Pandora with our dink “HOPE” in the background, a sort of “proof of life” shot. \"\"No wait, this is even better.\u00a0 He made himself at home in our cabin.\u00a0 Brenda wasn’t happy about that.\u00a0 Alas, gone pre-poop.\u00a0 \u00a0GO AWAY! This is just so BULLFINCH.\u00a0\"\"The harbor is a very popular spot for party boats to tour.\u00a0 They come in with music blaring and well lubricated passengers.\u00a0 I wonder if they have enough life jackets aboard.\u00a0 Hmm…\"\"In the interest of full reporting, chill though I may be, life aboard Pandora here isn’t without it’s mishaps.\u00a0 The most recent “insult” was compliments of some sloppy docking by a 40′ Sunsail charter boat that tied up near us for one night.\u00a0 He did a pretty good job of coming in but his inexperience showed when he left and clipped one of my stanchions with his grill.\u00a0 \u00a0 Fortunately, the damage was limited to the single one.\u00a0 I was able to bend it, sort of, back in place but it’s clear I’ll need to source a new one when I get home as the top is a full 2″ out of plumb.\u00a0 And, it should be fun to find a part that was sourced in Finland in 2006 or so.<\/p>\n

I have the contact info from the skipper, from the UK who says he will pay for a new one.\u00a0 \u00a0I know what you are thinking.\u00a0 “Good luck with that Bob!”\u00a0 \u00a0Yup, we will see how that goes.\u00a0 At least he didn’t scratch the paint.\u00a0 No wait, that’s already been done by someone else.\u00a0 \u00a0 Oh, the bliss of the cruising life and yet another reason to love the charter set.\u00a0 \u00a0At least we aren’t in the BVI where they are EVERYWHERE!\"\"When I return home I will only be there for about three weeks before I head back to Antigua with my friend Craig.\u00a0 We will spend about ten days working our way north to the USVI and then will join the Salty Dawg Homeward Bound rally to the US and make landfall in VA where she will receive her lithium battery., house bank, upgrade.<\/p>\n

I have mentioned in past posts that one of her three fuel tanks has a leak so I will be down about 1\/3 of her fuel for the run home.\u00a0 With that in mind, I am considering purchasing a collapsible fuel bladder that holds 52 gallons.<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0This will more than make up for the missing fuel from the leaking tank and when empty, it rolls up into a small package.\u00a0 It isn’t cheap but being able to avoid another half dozen yellow 5 gallon jugs that sit in the locker empty much of the time, taking up lots of space, is very appealing.<\/p>\n

Additionally, once I have that leaking tank back in service again, the bladder will give me additional capacity to make long runs without worrying so much about running out of fuel.\u00a0 \u00a0It is larger than it looks but full of fuel it will fit it into one of my vented cockpit lockers.\u00a0 I can also strap it on the deck under the dink if I choose.\u00a0 \u00a0I was told about the use of bladders by the captain of a megayacht who told me that big yachts use this approach to carry more fuel when they have to make long runs that go beyond their fuel limit. \"\"One issue, if I put it in the cockpit locker, is how I will transfer the fuel, up hill, into my fuel tanks.\u00a0 If it’s on deck, gravity will do the trick but below I will need a pump.\u00a0 After checking a number of sources, this lithium powered pump seems like a good option.<\/a>\u00a0 It’s not very expensive, pumps 15 gallons a minute and the battery will last about a half hour between charges.\u00a0 \u00a0I am also going to look into a 110v option as that might make the most sense so I won’t have to worry about recharging or the battery going flat between uses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I always worry about running out of fuel on a l0ng run as it seems that the wind is often light and from an unfavorable direction.\u00a0 \u00a0With 25% more fuel I can, in theory, run the engine faster and still have enough fuel to get there in less time.<\/p>\n

And finally, in keeping with my “hey, join us for some fun” attitude, I have organized a happy hour at one of the local watering holes for tonight and invited everyone in the marina, cruisers and the crews of some mega-yachts to join us.<\/p>\n

It will be fun with a nice mix of folks to meet.\u00a0 \u00a0I guess that’s all for now.\u00a0 So, as our season cruising in the Caribbean moves to a close, coming to you from St Lucia, just chillin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s hard to believe that our winter of cruising the Caribbean is almost over.\u00a0 \u00a0I will admit that Brenda has a somewhat different view of this than I do and is a lot more excited about our flight to the US on April 10th from Antigua. I like to begin a post with an image […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12458,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12438\/revisions\/12458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}