Forever sailing in the Caribbean.

Hi

My name is Hope Jack and I am John Dunckers niece.

I am sorry to post this but unfortunately John was found dead on his boat on the 18th August 2019.

Dizzy who has been a main feature of this blog is now with a lovely lady where he will spend the rest of his days on dry land.

John will now forever be sailing the Caribbean which is what he loved to do as we spread his ashes in the sea of the coast of Martinique.



RIP John you will be sorely missed.

Good news on the storm

I t looks like it is going more to the North and Antigua is getting worried.

HIP SURGERY ?

Looks like I am heading to the orthopedic clinic next week. What ever I have is crippling me and I can not risk any sort of passage at the moment. The good news is that if it is a hip joint problem the fix is a routine op and I will be up and walking in a day. Possibly out in three.

Kart racing climbing scuba skiing stockcar racing hang gliding sailing across oceans scrambling trials riding general looning about on all sorts of motorcycles have stressed my skeletal frame over the years. I count myself lucky to have made it this far with no joint replacements.

Why am I waiting well this is heading my way.

NOAA is up to 70% on it making to storm status.

Most of the tracks show it going North of us.

THE BEST LAID PLANS

I had planned to sail down to St Lucia from Marin in Martinique on Wednesday 24 th July. Went to lift the anchor but the windlass was dead.

IT IS A SOLDERED JOINT 3 DISSIMILAR METALS AT DECK LEVEL. I SLATHER IT WITH GOOP REALLY GOOD 3 M 4200 GOOP BUT AFTER A YEAR OR SO THE JOINTS TURN TO GREEN GOO AND STOP CONDUCTING.

i WILL TRY TO POT THE NEXT ONE IN EPOXY BEFORE I FIT IT.


ANYWAY Fixed that, topped off the tanks at the fuel dock and checked out at the same time. The French islands have this sorted with check in .out computers in docks and bars. Back at anchor and just thinking about lifting the dinghy when I was felled by a wild pain in my back.

Grrrrh A couple of hours later and it is mostly OK.

I will see how I feel in the morning.

THINGS THAT GO BANG IN THE AFTERNOON

Something went BANG close by rousing me out of my sleepy afternoon book.

A big ferry had broken loose and hit a boat near mine.

A French fire drill followed. The biggish local boat got itself tied alongside for a hip tow but managed to get a rope around it's prop. Someone on the ferry deployed a stern anchor but just upwind of an anchored boat.

By now we had a small squadron of dinghies full of arm waving shouty cruisers and locals. Random dinghy pushing resulted in the ferry drifting sown on the bowsprit of an adjacent boat.

This was followed by some sideways pushing random anchor deployments and lots more shouting. Finally someone official arrived issued instructions to tow the boat from the bow which worked.




Meanwhile I had prepared to drop my anchor and chain if it dragged down on me which looked pretty likely at one point. The chain was buoyed so I could retrieve it. My second anchor was as always ready to go with the rode flaked out on deck. Fortunately nothing was required and I could return to my adventures in time.

Going to treat myself to this shirt

THE TO DO LIST GETS A LITTLE SHORTER

The sink drain which is quite a complex affair as it takes the drains from the two kitchen sinks and the drain from the little wash hand basin in the small shower has been leaking. Rather reluctantly I took it apart being hopeful that nothing would break. I can remember having a major struggle some years back to find enough matching bits to do a total replacement some years back.This was in Grenada and they get most of their plumbing stuff from the USA and it is imperial. I am in Martinique and my chances of finding imperial plumbing fittings in the local bricolage is ZERO.

By lunchtime I felt I was getting somewhere.

The drains got fixed and no obvious leaks, more importantly the outlet is supported so if there is a failure it will not sink the boat.

New fan belt fitted, I watch the belt tension closely as it is a single belt system on a 100 amp alternator which is pushing it. If the belt is at all slack it slips if it slips it has to be replaced.

While I was doing this work I spotted 2 hose clips that needed replacing which I did.

Sealed the center board tube to deck fitting.

Sealed the leaking through deck fittings for mast shrouds.

Removed dismantled cleaned and crack tested my inner forestay deck fitting. Paying particular attention the eye fitting the blacksmith had worked on.

It maybe time for an afternoon snooze.

Sahara dust lots of it.

We are getting large amounts of Sahara dust.


Enough to drop the visibility and to give anybody with respiratory problems a hard time.


Also time to swab the decks me boy.