Event-filled Passage to Martinique

We had a full day today on our passage from Iles des Saintes past Dominica to St. Pierre, Martinique – about 75 nautical miles away. We had mechanical problems, a great sail, saw whales, raced another boat, helped another boater, and had a nice dinner. Lots more details in the write-up below. Here is a map of the journey (which you can download in Google Earth as well).

View Passage to Martinique in a larger map
Here’s a detailed version of the story of our eventful day from my journal:

• Got up at 5 AM to prep for departure. Made a blog post and checked the latest weather forecast.
• Got Karen up and we lifted the dinghy and weighed anchor. Started motoring out. I noticed the engine was still not charging the battery system – there’s a fuse hiding somewhere I haven’t found. We can still charge with the generator though.
• The sun was rising at the same time as a squall was hitting the main island slightly behind us. We got a touch of the rain. The dawn was beautiful and the sun was rising behind the little islands south and we some pictures. We also took pictures of the wind generators on the south of the westward island.
• We finally got past the south islands and went to raise the mainsail. But, we had left the double-reef in before. We should have just left the reef in. We finally raised the full sails before we ran into the islands (just kidding) and then the squall fringes hit us with 25 knots of wind (we were seeing 30+ aapparent). We thought about going upwind to lower the main to reef, but that was too much so we started to fall off. The wind gusted and the force on the jib sheet actually lifted the track on the starboard jib attachment at the end of the track! I wasn’t happy about that! We quickly fell off and put away the jib. I was cursing. I moved the track forward to look, but fortunately I saw no major damage except the track slide holding part was cracked (an easily replaced item). We then reefed the main and resume our way confident we wouldn’t have more trouble with the jib track.
• Whew, that was enough excitement, time to get on with our sail! So, I went to start the generator so we could start making water and charge the batteries. Only, the generator immediately stopped with an error about raw water. This was a big concern since our engines weren’t charging the batteries. Got me a bit worried for a moment.
• First assumption: maybe the raw water intake was blocked. The raw water filter was mostly empty of debris. After checking it over for a few minutes I realized the intake was not blocked. So, the next assumption was either raw water pump, or the impeller. I checked the manual and it recommends changing the impeller every 500 hours. We had 498.5 hours on the generator. Hmm…good chance its the impeller. So, I got out one of our two impeller spares and went to work. Meanwhile, Karen was enjoying a nice sail where we were going 8-9 knots.
• It took me a few minutes to read the generator manual and then find the right location on our model and a good way to work on that part of the engine. Got the right tools and lighting and started disassembling. It didn’t take long, and I was relieved to find the old impeller was deteriorated. So, that was the problem!
• I got the new impeller put in the pump, but getting it back on was a pain. It took at least 30 minutes before I got it all put back on right. I had a bit of concern I may have put the impeller in backwards, but decided to try turning it on. After getting the intake thruhull turned back on, it worked like a charm! Yay! Total time was about 2 hours to diagnose, learn what to do, install, test, and clean up. Not bad! Next time will be quicker.
• Meanwhile Tahina had just reached the lee of Dominica and we needed to start motoring. I was bummed, because sailing is my favorite part. Karen had enjoyed a nice sail going 8-9 knots the whole way with a single reef. I did notice our single reef line had nearly chafed through though, so we would have to fix that later.
• Karen went to take a nap. About an hour later, we picked up some wind. So, I got us sailing again. About an hour after that (as we were passing near Rosseau, I saw a catamaran turn around near a motor boat that was just sitting out at sea. I thought, maybe its a whale – but, I didn’t see anything. (There are whales known to hang out on the west coast of Dominica). The catamaran appeared to talk to the other boat, but turned again and then continued northward. As we sailed in the same area I was looking at the motor boat to see what they were doing. They just seemed to be watching. All the sudden I saw a pod of dolphin come from their direction towards us. Leaping in the air. At the same time, I saw whales! They were just drifting near the top, not surfacing or sinking much. I was so busy trying to get pictures of the whales (there were at least 3 or 4), I didn’t notice the dolphins had started jumping in the air around us. I missed getting a picture after the last loud *plop* right next to the boat! The dolphins seemed to be coming over to get our attention for the whales or something. Very interesting behavior. Suddenly we saw two more whales. Then the dolphins went back to the motor boat and were jumping in the air over there. Very entertaining. We meanwhile passed the entire seen sailing along.
• We continued sailing and managed to sail all the way through the wind shadows of the taller mountains on the south of Dominica. There was a mono hull skirting near the shore motoring at about the same speed I had noticed. I kept trying to pass him via our sailing, but the wind shadow kept slowing us down. By the time we got to the end of the island he had at least 5 miles of windward advantage. He started sailing as soon as he could and the race was on! I tried cutting in closer to lessen his windard advantage, and by the time we got to martinique I probably got it down to a mile. But, he managed to stay ahead the whole way. I was impressed a mono-hull could do that even with the windward advantage. Of course, we also had the disadvantage that cats don’t do as well on a close reach.
• Because I was racing, I tried constantly tweaking the sails and we lowered and raised reefing at least twice due to squalls and wind shifts. We were having to only use double-reef because the single reef line we used in the morning got chafed almost all the way through. The reefing probably cost us from gaining the lead. At the end he was only 0.25 nm ahead of us when we both had to drop sails in the lee of Martinique. But, it wasn’t a race. Riiiighhht.

• We arrived in St. Pierre at just past 4:30 after 78 nm. Most of it sailing. We had run the generator (and water maker) most of the way (except for the couple hours with figuring out and replacing the impeller). Tweeted our arrival.
• We noticed the boat NorthFork – with the couple we met in Iles des Saintes was anchored nearby. We also saw a Gunboat 62 arrive near sunset.
• Karen and I put the dinghy in the water, and went over to say “Ahoy” to NorthFork. They popped out when they heard us and we said hellos. They indicated they were working on a problem with the engine. And asked my opinion. Fortunately, I was able to give them some useful advice and they were able to quickly fix their problem. Since they were now free, we asked Mark and Dana if they’d like to go to dinner. We had a nice dinner at La Tamaya – a french restaurant just a few blocks away. While at dinner we met a US crew from Annapolis in the restaurant as well.
• What a full day!