It’s so worth it!

So, we’re settling in on the Island of St. Thomas here in the Caribbean Sea on what is commonly known as the US Virgin Islands. Dena has set her mind to doing a job for the company she works for and I (James) have dedicated myself to getting the boat ready for a run at the Northwest Passage as soon as we can make that happen financially, psychologically and physically.

The yacht management company that Dena works for has given us a mooring (as a perk?) very close to her office so the commute is as simple a row as we’ve ever had. As a matter of fact we’ve never had a row in from a mooring field or anchorage that has been as easy on us as this one, no matter the weather.

Now granted, we’ve had better looking neighborhoods than the one we’re in today but it’s so calm back up in Vessup Bay that it will give me the opportunity to get all the work done that needs doing on S/VSN-E Cetacea.

The first order of business is aesthetics. Our working systems like the sailing rig, the electric propulsion system, the pumps, cooking and lighting systems are all in good working order so getting the boat looking good gives me a chance to get a much closer look at every inch of the vessel while at the same time making her look and feel ship-shape and ready to go.

The scum-line around the entire boat between the bottom and the rub-strake was a serious eyesore after our voyage from the Canary Islands to Africa’s Cabo Verde Islands. The reason it got so bad was because of all the travel we did in the shipping lanes.

When sailing amongst the big ocean going freighters and tankers on the seas a tiny sailboat tends to pick up a lot of the slime and waist that those giants tend to dump into the water while they are underway. Once a ship is more than 12 miles from any landmass international law doesn’t prohibit the dumping of anything but plastics and petroleum products. Everything else can go straight into the ocean, untreated. That’s the law. Now, that’s not saying they don’t dump plastics and used oil overboard: all I’m saying is that it’s illegal. But who’s going to police that shit…the answer, is no one!

The above is the placard that you must have for Coast Guard compliance before you go off shore but when at sea the “No-Cop-No-Law” rule totally applies.

So, while my partner is diligently ordering parts for a Catamoron fleet in paradise I get to go to work on that scum-line with a vengeance…and that means, a full body suit, some toxic chemistry and a whole lot of elbow grease.

Now that aforementioned ‘toxic chemistry’ I used has been totally approved by the (pre-trump) chemical regulations authorities for use in inland waters as biodegradable so I didn’t feel all that bad using it on our topsides way back up in Vessup Bay with all the sunken boats and hippy-ship-shit. The fishies didn’t seem to mind and the bats and the pelicans continued to hunt (like they do) while I scrubbed and scrubbed and (fucking wow) scrubbed our little Cetacea to perfection.

…and let me tell you my friends, this boat looks amazing!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like it’s ever really ugly here in paradise but way back up in this totally protected bay I wouldn’t even think about swimming or (Gato forbid) making, reverse osmosis, water! So we’ve dedicated ourselves to going out once a week on Dena’s days off for sailing and/or water making. Plus it gives us the opportunity to use the systems aboard the way they were meant to be used.

The water in the outer bay of Red Hook off the island of St. Thomas is so perfectly clean and clear that you can see a good 30 feet under the boat, so anchoring out in this beautiful place is a wonderful reprieve from the “neighborhood’ we’re now, very much, a part of back in Vessup Bay.

So, we’ll continue to provision and repair our broke shit as necessary all the while living in a place that is truly an incredible example of a paradise on Earth.