Wednesday, January 7. 2009
The Adventures of Charter Yacht Sophisticated Lady in Haiti...the saga continues...
Updated from Sophisticated Lady on Traveltalkonline today...the saga continues...
We're still here just prepping 'Sophisticated Lady' for sea... found out yesterday the parts were scanned in to DHL Haiti at about 4pm yesterday... Yahoo!! 6 minutes later they were re-scanned as clearance delayed... Guess now we've entered the realm of the Haitian waiting game. They arrived in the name of the head of the Haitian Rotary club, Dr Leger, so hopefully he'll be able to get in touch with customs and help the parts get through as quickly as possible.
Meantime, we've been busy cleaning and organizing and getting ready for our departure which will hopefully be before the weekend. They came with fuel this morning, had to come over in a little boat with 12 gallon drums and hand pump them in to the main tank... took a while, but we managed to get 72 gallons which topped up the main tank and filled all our jerry cans to the top... means that if we can sail at least 150 miles towards destination, we should have enough fuel to motor the rest of the way even after factoring going upwind against the current. If we have to motor the first half of the trip, then we'll probably stop in Santo Domingo first to top up again, just to be safe.
Some of the local guys have become good friends and are doing all they can to help. Yesterday they asked to borrow snorkel gear from us... two guys went down and scraped our hull and another one came back later with several lobsters and some fish. Then the guys started coming in dug out canoes with containers of water... anything they could find... buckets, empty bleach bottles, cooler bottles, etc... they started making trips and filling our tanks with water from a local cistern that recently filled up with fresh rain water from all the rain we had the other night... that's another story in itself... we weren't expecting rain as it hasn't rained since we've been here, but it came down in buckets, and we were off the boat and had left several hatches open... needless to say, we've been drying things out ever since!
After that they came back with a full basket of fresh fruits from the local village... including a kind of passion fruit we've never seen before... they are small and orange and are so light and feel like plastic, you'd swear they were ornamental... but you cut them open and pour the contents into a pitcher of water and stir and you an excellent juice! Apparently the locals say it makes an excellent drink when mixed with rum and a bit of sugar... have to try that one when we get back to Tortola! They also brought us lemons and limes, oranges, and the biggest papayas I've ever seen... as big as footballs!
We're trying to think of ways to look after these guys for helping us so much, they've been going to unbelievable lengths. Our cash supply is pretty much depleted, but we're thinking maybe we can leave them some of our snorkel gear and replace it when back in Tortola. They really enjoy using it, and seems to really help them with catching food.
We may leave some of our spare life jackets for the ferries as well... they pile so many people into these little boats powered by small outboards, and then head out across 5-6 miles of open ocean to the mainland... thinking we should bring them some safety gear for the boats next time! They know we don't have any cash, but I think we'll try and leave them whatever we can that we don't need, and try and replace it when we get back. One thing would be great to send them is a box of silicone caulking tubes so they can patch up their canoes and small boats... every boat leaks and they constantly have to bail while paddling around in them... I think a little silicone would go a long way here!
Anyway, managed to get a few more pictures uploaded, so here's a few recent ones...
One of the local sloops sending us off on our original departure
Life at sea before we got hit
'Sophisticated Lady' at anchor in Caye Cook Bay, Ile La Vache
Happily and safely back on land Christmas morning
A local missionary escorting us by dinghy across the channel to Les Cayes
One of the local ferries to the mainland
Downtown Les Cayes
the local market in Les Cayes
Locals at the market
More of the market
Filling up the water tanks onboard
We're still here just prepping 'Sophisticated Lady' for sea... found out yesterday the parts were scanned in to DHL Haiti at about 4pm yesterday... Yahoo!! 6 minutes later they were re-scanned as clearance delayed... Guess now we've entered the realm of the Haitian waiting game. They arrived in the name of the head of the Haitian Rotary club, Dr Leger, so hopefully he'll be able to get in touch with customs and help the parts get through as quickly as possible.
Meantime, we've been busy cleaning and organizing and getting ready for our departure which will hopefully be before the weekend. They came with fuel this morning, had to come over in a little boat with 12 gallon drums and hand pump them in to the main tank... took a while, but we managed to get 72 gallons which topped up the main tank and filled all our jerry cans to the top... means that if we can sail at least 150 miles towards destination, we should have enough fuel to motor the rest of the way even after factoring going upwind against the current. If we have to motor the first half of the trip, then we'll probably stop in Santo Domingo first to top up again, just to be safe.
Some of the local guys have become good friends and are doing all they can to help. Yesterday they asked to borrow snorkel gear from us... two guys went down and scraped our hull and another one came back later with several lobsters and some fish. Then the guys started coming in dug out canoes with containers of water... anything they could find... buckets, empty bleach bottles, cooler bottles, etc... they started making trips and filling our tanks with water from a local cistern that recently filled up with fresh rain water from all the rain we had the other night... that's another story in itself... we weren't expecting rain as it hasn't rained since we've been here, but it came down in buckets, and we were off the boat and had left several hatches open... needless to say, we've been drying things out ever since!
After that they came back with a full basket of fresh fruits from the local village... including a kind of passion fruit we've never seen before... they are small and orange and are so light and feel like plastic, you'd swear they were ornamental... but you cut them open and pour the contents into a pitcher of water and stir and you an excellent juice! Apparently the locals say it makes an excellent drink when mixed with rum and a bit of sugar... have to try that one when we get back to Tortola! They also brought us lemons and limes, oranges, and the biggest papayas I've ever seen... as big as footballs!
We're trying to think of ways to look after these guys for helping us so much, they've been going to unbelievable lengths. Our cash supply is pretty much depleted, but we're thinking maybe we can leave them some of our snorkel gear and replace it when back in Tortola. They really enjoy using it, and seems to really help them with catching food.
We may leave some of our spare life jackets for the ferries as well... they pile so many people into these little boats powered by small outboards, and then head out across 5-6 miles of open ocean to the mainland... thinking we should bring them some safety gear for the boats next time! They know we don't have any cash, but I think we'll try and leave them whatever we can that we don't need, and try and replace it when we get back. One thing would be great to send them is a box of silicone caulking tubes so they can patch up their canoes and small boats... every boat leaks and they constantly have to bail while paddling around in them... I think a little silicone would go a long way here!
Anyway, managed to get a few more pictures uploaded, so here's a few recent ones...
One of the local sloops sending us off on our original departure
Life at sea before we got hit
'Sophisticated Lady' at anchor in Caye Cook Bay, Ile La Vache
Happily and safely back on land Christmas morning
A local missionary escorting us by dinghy across the channel to Les Cayes
One of the local ferries to the mainland
Downtown Les Cayes
the local market in Les Cayes
Locals at the market
More of the market
Filling up the water tanks onboard
SCUBA Diving the RMS Rhone
We need to make longer days on charter sometimes! When you try and fit everything you do in a week into 3 days, the hours run out pretty quick! Most of my pictures today are diving pictures. The guys did Willy T's last night, and we were up and at the Caves for breakfast and snorkeling followed by a trip up to Salt Island to dive the RMS Rhone. I was not going in the water today, as I had a lot of work to do, but the current was running stronger then I had seen it for many years there and I quickly took the opportunity to split the group and take some of the divers in!
I am not sure whether we "saw" the wreck as opposed to "swept past the Rhone" in the current...
Could not even get on the wreck in spots, so we headed to the deep end down current (knowing that my husband had promised to pick us up in the dinghy)
We swept by the outside, turned around and came up the bow...(yes, the visibility was this clear, with all that current what do you suppose?)
We then thought that maybe we would find less current inside the wreck so in we went...
We spied a large turtle sitting in the back there with the bait fish... Was I ever glad I had brought my camera as I was not going to, as it was such a last minute dive, but Bazza got it together for me in 2 minutes I think!
Sharp crisp picture of a shell! Shame about the head!!!
Tried again, still no head! By this time he was past me!
BUT I turned around and kept shooting and I really like this shot!
Then he stayed inside and let us watch him, in fact we could have picked him up, he was so unscared!
We attempted to swim out of the boat where you normally do and turn around and take pictures again, but nope, the current was too strong!
We had to turn around and go back the way we came in and it was like an amusement ride, you just tried to steer as it whipped us right through and out!
The divers loved it, I loved the turtle, and the dinghy picked us up so it was perfect!
We had lunch underway to the Baths, did a tour of the Baths and were at Marina Cay and anchored by 430 for MIchael Beans HAPPPYYY AAAARRRRR show! I stayed on the boat where I could hear all the songs (and my mens voices) perfectly.
An early drop tomorrow and then an early pick up tomorrow afternoon, and off we go again.
I am not sure whether we "saw" the wreck as opposed to "swept past the Rhone" in the current...
Could not even get on the wreck in spots, so we headed to the deep end down current (knowing that my husband had promised to pick us up in the dinghy)
We swept by the outside, turned around and came up the bow...(yes, the visibility was this clear, with all that current what do you suppose?)
We then thought that maybe we would find less current inside the wreck so in we went...
We spied a large turtle sitting in the back there with the bait fish... Was I ever glad I had brought my camera as I was not going to, as it was such a last minute dive, but Bazza got it together for me in 2 minutes I think!
Sharp crisp picture of a shell! Shame about the head!!!
Tried again, still no head! By this time he was past me!
BUT I turned around and kept shooting and I really like this shot!
Then he stayed inside and let us watch him, in fact we could have picked him up, he was so unscared!
We attempted to swim out of the boat where you normally do and turn around and take pictures again, but nope, the current was too strong!
We had to turn around and go back the way we came in and it was like an amusement ride, you just tried to steer as it whipped us right through and out!
The divers loved it, I loved the turtle, and the dinghy picked us up so it was perfect!
We had lunch underway to the Baths, did a tour of the Baths and were at Marina Cay and anchored by 430 for MIchael Beans HAPPPYYY AAAARRRRR show! I stayed on the boat where I could hear all the songs (and my mens voices) perfectly.
An early drop tomorrow and then an early pick up tomorrow afternoon, and off we go again.
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