M/Y Mary Ann

We’re doing pretty well, so far. The storage area and vee bunk leaks have been stopped by inserting wine bottle corks into the chain locker drain holes and a pesky leak in the watermaker fresh water rinse filter connection has been corrected. Aubrey figured out that when I changed the filter element I reinstalled it with two gaskets instead of one and for that reason it could not be adequately tightened. Even in America more is not always better, it seems.

An all night 28 hour run from Grand Turk put us in Mona Passage between the islands of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic) and Puerto Rico by mid afternoon yesterday, looking for a place to anchor out of the prevailing SE winds that had been belting us in the teeth for the entire voyage, throwing spray everywhere and generally annoying Isabel that the boat was again getting covered with salt after her nice wash job.

Good things happen in twos it seems. Aubrey caught two mackerel off the coast of Puerto Rico as were leaving the island. It was a bing bang thing. He boated the first fish, expertly, so he claims, “because it put up a whale of a struggle”. He had barely gotten his line back into the sea when another fish struck again at the black and pink feathered lure which has become such a favorite with Atlantic fish. The second mackerel, a King and much larger, did not put up much of a fight.

It is raining a cloudburst right now, but the doors and windows are closed and it doesn’t seem to be raining inside. A nice rain deluge is always welcome as a labor free boat wash so no one is complaining as it is still a pleasant and balmy 80 degrees outside. The wind is a constant SEly at 5-15 knots, as it has been pretty much ever since we left Florida, putting the seas right on our nose on the run here from Grand Turk and chasing my fuel consumption at 1400 RPM up from 22 gph to 32 gph.

Last night we shared a last candle light dinner on the aft deck with the Verstegens who have been such great guests. We shall miss their company. We shall also miss their constant scrubbing down of the boat. We will now have to resume paying strong backed grunts to do this chore.

We came across the waters today with a new man at the helm, Captain John Cronkite. Captain John served as navigator. I do believe that all went well though I couldn’t say for sure as I was on the aft deck with the rest of our crew . . . attempting to keep the boat supplied with fresh fish. I can report that during “The Cronks” initiation to the wheel we on the back felt no sudden lurches, came to no falling into the rail stops, and noted that our fishing lines stayed straight behind us. Very good!

It’s morning now, a full 15 hours after we finished installing the new raw water pump and heat exchanger and the stbd generator has been running constantly without a whimper or mew. No leaks, no hiccups, and running at the proper temperature. The only issues I can see with it is that the temperature continually fluctuates between 195 and 203 degrees, rather than sitting at 198 degrees as it formerly did. Also, the generator exhaust port at the stern of the vessel is not discharging used raw water with the exhaust.

We weighed anchor shortly after breakfast and slowly fished our way over to our present position in this north harbor off Peter Island. Nothing caught. Jack saw some action using the black and pink lure that the mackerel and tuna have been finding so attractive. But in the battle between man and fish, the fish won out and is swimming around the ocean with our hook in its mouth. At least it didn’t get the black and pink lure . Not all of it anyway. Still it’s a shame. The lure doesn’t look nearly so attractive in the chewed up condition it is now in.

Unfortunately, because we have not yet cleared the British Virgin Island Customs, the restaurant and small resort on Peter Island did not get our business. We dared not set a foot ashore. Too bad. It looked like an absolutely charming place to dine. But then I have heard no complaints about the fare aboard the Mary Ann. Isabel is a marvelous cook and her meal preparation is equal or superior to every restaurant that we have tried.

Now this is truly a heck of a spot. We are totally sheltered from the prevailing SE breeze and anchored in 40’ in this large enclosed sound, the most protected anchorage in the BVI, so the guidebooks say. At anchor here with us is a powerboat in the 75-90’ range, two large two masted motor sailors, and a very large motoryacht, the Princess Mariana, that will be on the next Power and Motoryacht list of the 100 largest yachts in the world. You can sort of distinguish the really big boats here as those that carry helicopters. I have long since gotten over thinking that our 90’ boat is big.