Refit, Refit and Work on the Boat

 

Martinique still has a few pirate ghosts around to harass Maria.

The St. Pierre, Martinique Zoo was an unexpected delight.  In all these years visiting St. Pierre it took us so long to discover this amazing place with crumbling colonial ruins and lots of animals.

Walking among flamingos at the St. Pierre, Martinique Zoo.

 

 A kind of stationary animal at the St. Pierre, Martinique Zoo.

Now we know where Castro escaped to – Gros Ilet, St. Lucia.

Our friend Gaza in St. Lucia waiting for some wind to blow his paddle board to the next boat job in the Marina.

Another Island Packet owner we met up with.  Tom on Ad Astra in St. Lucia.

Sailing off Fort de France, Martinique.  Our friends on White Pearl snapped this picture of us.

Our new Hydrovane self-steering gear mounts firmly in place on the stern of Savannah Sky.  This intense job only took two days and a lot of lost sleep worrying about everything.

S/Y Savannah Sky – March 2, 2026 – Log #26

Savannah Sky Position: 14 degrees 04’ N, 60 degrees 57’ W

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia Caribbean

 

Refit, Refit and Work on the Boat

 

As I said in the last missive – The work isn’t finished yet on Savannah Sky.

 

Exiting through the Dutch Side bridge on Sint Maarten brought back bad memories of our Covid Days imprisoned on that rock.

 

Dutch soldiers patrolled the entire island and no one was allowed on the streets or anywhere outside their homes.  It was like a futuristic movie gone bad at that time.

 

It took us over three months to get permission to convince the authorities to allow us to exit this same bridge we were now motoring under.  Three months that seemed like an eternity and paying nearly $1,000 USD for an agent to arrange for our escape.

 

Unfortunately, the agent did little more than hand us a piece of paper as he took our money.  The agent was supposed to arrange for the bridge tender to open the bridge so we could sail away, but that never happened.

 

Luckily, I saw the bridge tender at the Coast Guard dock as we motored around the Lagoon and asked him to open the bridge for us.  He only said yes because he recognized us, luckily.

 

This time was different at the bridge exit from Sint Maarten’s Lagoon.  Mega Yachts were lined up behind us as traffic was halted for the bridge opening.

 

Off we sailed south, past St. Barths, Statia, St. Kitts, Nevis and even beyond Guadeloupe to Portsmouth, Dominica.  It was an overnight sail beneath a large bright moon to guide the way.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that when we exited the bridge on Sint Maarten our engine alternator decided not to charge the batteries.  Sint Maarten didn’t want us to leave once again.

 

Luckily, Maria and I know the drill about sailing with limited battery power – hope for sunshine to power our solar panels and wind to turn the wind generator for energy.

 

At daybreak the next day our batteries were low but not low enough to force us to stop yet.

 

We pressed forever onward, beating into Prince Rupert Bay, Portsmouth, Dominica.

 

An old friend and boat boy, Bounty, came out to greet us and he said he had a mooring ball we could use in order to make repairs to our charging system.  Yea Bounty!

 

At least it wasn’t quite dark yet as we tied to Bounty’s mooring ball.

 

However, four sweaty, dirty and bloody hours later our spare alternator was cranking out amps once again.  Why do they make boats so unfriendly to fix?  Oh well, a day in the life of sailors is what it is all about.

 

We yellow flagged our stay in Dominica for one overnight on the mooring ball.  Dawn saw us motoring out of the bay headed to St. Pierre Martinique.  Ah the French!

 

We had an appointment in St. Lucia to get to the Marina so a Hydrovane self-steering device could be installed.

 

It was a quick trip from Sint Maarten to St. Lucia via Martinique this time.  We’ll take a more leisurely pace when we sail back north in about a month.

 

But for now, we had a brutal Hydrovane installation waiting for us at St. Lucia.  Brutal???  Oh yes.  I detest and fear drilling holes in our boat or any boat for that matter.

 

After two days of sweating and lost sleep worrying about the installation, our local friend Robin and myself successfully drilled holes in Savannah Sky and bolted three large support brackets onto the stern.

 

Maria, who was supervising the installation activity, quickly realized that our dingy could not occupy the same space on the back of Savannah Sky at the Hydrovane. 

 

Luckily, I was able to dismantle the Hydrovane and store it safely down below, until it is time to cross another ocean.

 

Sail on, sail on Savannah Sky…

 

Steve and Maria

PS - 

1.     You can follow Savannah Sky’s route here, once we leave the dock: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SY_SavannahSky/

2.     Or here: https://share.garmin.com/SYSavannahSky

3.     www.savannah-sky.com for more news about The Longue Route 2027 voyage visit this website