158. Sea Shepherds

On Thursday I filled up water, gasoline and diesel, and sailed to George Town. It was a beautiful day, my new Garmin GPS was amazing; a massive upgrade from my last one. 

Seven Mile Beach

When I got to North West Point, the wind dropped and the waves got very messy, so I tried to motor through it. Just like last time, I got engine warning lights and alarms. I shut off the engine and just drifted while I fixed the problem: my fan belt had snapped. Also the winch I didn’t service, seized up. I need to service it. When I finally got to George Town all the buoys were taken.

Sea Shepherds were in town; now on their way to Panama on an anti shark-finning mission. I met some of the crew; very cool. It’s very tempting to follow them and go through the Panama Canal.

http://www.seashepherd.org

I plan to leave after breakfast on Saturday, hopefully arriving in Little Cayman for breakfast on Sunday. On Friday the wind shifts slightly to the south, exactly what I was hoping for. I’m also hoping it shifts back to the east for the sail to Jamaica.

157. Ready To Go, Nearly

For the last couple of nights, on my way home, the moon hasn’t risen, so it’s pitch black, and my dinghy outboard leaves a bright green trail of bio luminescence. I went round in circles, dipped my hand in and watched the amazing bright green sparkles.

On Monday I had to clean my propeller so I jumped into Lime Tree Bay. Big mistake. I wore a long sleeved shirt, which helped (it was covered in shrimp when I got out), but I scraped off a whole load of crap and got attacked and stung/bitten by something all over my neck. Maybe jelly fish, or sea lice. So very itchy.

I borrowed a pair of bolt cutters and trimmed my anchor chain. The rust was worse than I thought; I cut sixty feet off one end, and another sixty feet off the other. I only have thirty feet of good chain left. I’ve attached that to the anchor with a new shackle, and at the other end I’ve got one hundred feet of nylon rode, eye spliced over a thimble and another new shackle. It means a new (much lighter) way of anchoring for me, that I’m going to try.

My Garmin chart plotter arrived and is now installed. I was hoping it would be an easy swap, but none of the cables, or fittings were the same as my old one. I had to do rewiring, and then mount it in my cockpit. I’ll be ready to sail round to George Town in a couple of days.