We’re off just around 8 am to try and be at the gas dock early. There’s a few boats ahead of us going in and we hope they are also not going to the gas dock.
They are.
We have to slow down and make a 180 or two to wait our turn, eventually it comes. They have water also here so the diesel fill and two tanks of water (only EUR14 for the water) take quite a while. Long enough for Christy to return a rubber mooring line spring and get another with plenty of time to spare, even though she doesn’t have the proper receipt and has to wait for them to find the transaction. Water tank filling is slow. Unfortunately, the water hose they have is just a cut off hose so I can’t add my water filter to it but this is Martinique, the water should be good. ‘
We’re finally done, probably an hour on the dock, we’re not underway towards St. Lucia until 10:36 am!
Motor out of Le Marin, out the main channel, then through the anchor field away from the reefs (reefs are bad) and head towards St. Lucia. Put up the sails just after we pass Saline Bay and point Milu about 5 miles east of our target (Rodney Bay) to account for what I read was about 1 knot current through the channel.
It’s a glorious sail, we manage to tweak the sails just about right to stop the boat from diving to windward or drifting to leeward and at the same time make good speed. The wind drops down to < 14 kts pretty quickly so the best we can do is about 4.5 kts but still it is a very pleasant trip. No arguments either!
We try fishing, catch nothing but sargasso so gave it up. Was hoping for a sun shot but we got busy at noon and I missed it.
Anchor down in Rodney Bay at 4:20 pm, too late to hit Customs so we go in for an ice cream and walk around. Spaghetti on board!
The Bay is VERY quiet, not many boats at all. Lots of room at the dinghy dock.
After dinner, I do the job I have been procrastinating about and try to snake out the aft head sump pump line. I thought the sump went right out the starboard side of the boat where there is a drain hole but I feed what seems to be miles of snake in and it never comes out. I go out in the dinghy and eventually discover that drain is just for the black water tank overflow. So where does this sump line go? No other option but that it connects to the other grey water system on the port side. There is a 4 hose connector there and it must go there. 1=forward head, 2=bilge, 3=fridge pumpout, 4=aft head. That would explain why I fed miles of snake through but I am unable to trace HOW that hose gets over there after it leaves the aft head. I know it goes behind the electrical wall but that’s it. It doesn’t seem to go through the bilge (that would be logical) and I can see that it enters the connector area from above. Must actually go up through the ceiling and back down, but no easy way to test that theory.
The snake came to a full stop and I couldn’t get it to go any further so I figure it must have hit the T and stopped. I ran it though twice, maybe it cleared whatever was blocking the line? One way to find out – reconnect everything and try. OM goodness it works. Water in the sump and it comes out the back. Will the float switch work? C’mon! It does.
Side note – the salon is in complete upheaval at this point as I have been digging under floorboards and under the sectional looking for hoses. Also had to clean up two sets of wire connectors that corroded and didn’t work and a blown fuse on the aft head Whale Gulper. But now everything is fine. That is a big relief.
Put it all back together and clean up.