For more of Bob n Gina's new life in St. Thomas

You can follow their new adventures here...

New Adventures of the Mary E

Also we'd like to thank all our friends and family for supporting us. And a very special thanks to Gary Sullivan, Kemuel, Coral and Myrna Morales, Roger Casellas, Tom Fantasia, My wife Beth, Bobby Walsh, George from Knot Tonight and Chet.

Trip Statistics

Boat...

2002 Silverton 42 Convertible, Powerplants, 450 Cummins



Distances in Nautical Miles.

1. Minots Light to Canal... 34
   
2. Canal to Huntington, L.I.... 136
   
3. Huntington to Ocean City, Md.... 198
   
4. Ocean City to Coinjock, N.C.... 174
5. Coinjock to Beaufort, N.C.... 135
6. Beaufort to Charleston, S.C.... 202
7. Charleston to Port Royal, S.C.... 62
8. Port Royal to St. Augustine, Fl.... 139
9. St. Augustine to Pt. St. Lucie, Fl.... 177
10. Pt. St. Lucie to Hillsboro Inlet, Fl.... 56
11. Hillsboro to Bimini, Bh... 60
12. Bimini to Nassau, Bh... 110
13. Nassau to Staniel Cay, Bh ...67
14. Staniel Cay to Clarence, Bh... 109
15. Clarence to Turks and Caicos... 167
16. Turks to Oceanworld, D.R.... 174
17. Oceanworld to Punta Cana, D.R.... 169
18. Punta Cana to San Juan, P.R.... 127
19. San Juan to St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.... 74
20. Misc harbors etc.... 80

Total Nautical Miles from Marina Bay, Quincy, Ma. to Sag Haven Marina, St Thomas, U.S.V.I. ... 2,450nm

Fuel... 4,314 gallons

Engine run hours... 154

Total turns of the propellers assuming 80% effeciency... 7,443,100 revolutions

Total Cost... $23,670

Albatrosses and Rainbows

Yesterday, we didn't have time to get a little fuel for insurance so we had to wait until the marina opened and they could get the fuel cart down to us. A very long wait later we took on some fuel and Bobby cleared his tab. Off to sea again, our final destination some 74 miles away. A short jaunt compared to what we became used to.
July 11, 722 hours, 9:10 AM. Exactly one month from the day we set out.
We cast our lines and once again head for sea. The channel leading out of San Juan from Club Nautico is quite long so Bobby decided to check the engine room one more time before we get to the open ocean. Bobby comes back to the bridge, "Big problem, the bottom of the exhaust hose must be split and water is running into the bilge like a river." He decides he can fix it by drying it and wrapping it with duct tape and then running a clamp over it. I’m running the boat in big slow circles in the harbor when Bobby returns to the bridge and tells me good news. The exhaust hose isn’t split, just the bottom of it slipped off the nipple from the muffler. He’s going to loosen the clamps and slide it back on. The muffler must have turned a bit in the heavy seas causing the separation but on the other hand the nipple shouldn’t have been designed so short as to barely offer a connection with the hose. Anyway, Bobby struggled with trying to slide the hose but he couldn’t budge it so he asked me to give it a try. Down in the bilge goes Bilge Gorilla Gary. Yeah, I don’t fit in those spaces as nicely as Bilge Monkey Bobby. There is no choice either we turn back or I move it. Struggling with everything I’ve got I’m able to move it and slide it down a 1/2”, just enough to get it on the nipple and get at least one clamp on it. I head back to bridge and Bobby heads back down to reattach the clamps. He finishes and we give it a try. No good still leaking badly. Bobby finds that when I slid it I also twisted it and the cut out that allows the hose to move further on the nipple without interfering with the bend is out of position. I have to twist it back and push it on further. After struggling a bit I’m finally able to move it into position. Bobby tightens the clamps and we give it another try. Success, just a tiny drip remains, he’ll put a strap wrench on it and fix that once we’re in St. Thomas. Not wanting to risk separating the hose from the muffler because of banging in the sea conditions, we proceed at trawler speed, around 1700 RPM and 12 knots. This is a great speed to cut the waves without banging and still have plenty of time to travel the 70 nautical miles.

So we mosey along feeling somewhat confident that we’ll reach our destination when suddenly I noticed my RPMs dropping and I have to keep giving the engines more fuel to just to maintain speed. At first I think it is a result of the sea conditions but then I notice the throttle on the synched engines is more than ¾ forward and I only have 1450 RPMs. Bobby back to the bilge. He checks it out and tells me the Air Sep on the starboard engine is in the red. It’s almost completely clogged again. Probably from the running when the muffler hose slipped off. I shut down the sync and put the starboard engine in neutral. I can’t hold position with only one engine in this wind and waves and we’re near shore so drifting that way is not an option. We can’t shut down the engine and clean the filter and we don’t dare run without one. Thinking for a bit we decide to try brushing the outside of the filter with a toothbrush. Great that works, not perfect but at least we can get some RPM back. We have about twenty miles to go before we enter the lee of the barrier islands ahead. I’m running the engines out of sync one around 1900 and one around 1500 but at least we’re making progress. About every twenty minutes or so Bobby has to go down and brush the filter. The timing of his bilge visits keeps getting shorter as time goes on and the result continually grows poorer. Reaching the lee, we have to make a drastic decision as brushing is no longer working. Can I hold course on one engine now while he removes the filter and cleans it in a bucket of Joy. Before shutting down the starboard, I shift it to neutral and give it a try. Yes, I can now hold a course on one engine. I shut down the starboard and Bobby removes the filter to give it a good washing in the bucket. He dries it the best he can and reinstalls it. I restart the starboard engine reengage the synch and bring the throttle up. Everything is perfect, we’ve got our speed back and we can see the diesel burning much cleaner. We’ve got about 40 miles left to go. Back at trawler speed our journey continues and we finally spot St. Thomas thru the haze. We’re almost there ! Bobby and I, as we talked later, had a real bad feeling in our stomachs now that we were so close that something catastrophic had to happen considering how much bad luck we’ve had on this trip. Fortunately, we were completely wrong. As a matter of fact, about two miles out of port this albatross suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started flying about 10 feet off our front deck. Not only did one albatross appear but another joined and flew in tandem. Occasionally they would take a dive toward a fish only to take flight over our bow again. They followed us all the way in till we turned for the entrance buoys to the harbor. Now I don’t know if you’re familiar with albatrosses and boats, maybe made famous by Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, but an albatross following a boat is an omen of good luck. Hopefully, an albatross dropping his duty on the deck is an even bigger omen of good luck because the Mary E can use all she can get.

We followed the entrance buoys in, met Ken at the dock and tied up the Mary E safe and sound. It is 5:20 PM with 732 hours on the engines as we shut them down for the last time in this journey. We made a few phone calls to let people know we’re home and then opened that long awaited bottle of Champagne that Chet gave to us to toast our safe Passage to Paradise. We drank our toasts and then back on the bridge a rainbow greeted our arrival. The Mary E has found the end of the rainbow.

So long long ago.....


Bobby working on the exhaust hose.


Bilge Gorilla Gary doesn't fit into these spaces so easily.
It has to move ! Never say quit.

Air Sep cleaning



Back on the road !

Bobby couldn't be happier !

Palm Tree bondage ! A four way tie, now that pesky palm can't jump ship !

Sighting St. Thomas !!!!
First Albatross..

Second Albatross !!

Albatross good luck parting gift..

We didn't need it !


Champagne Toast ..
Captain deserves it !
Our rainbow.
Bob and Gina finally stocked the Mary E with rum !

Back to the U.S. ! Yippee !

July 9, 712 hours, 8:15 AM

We leave the Dominican Republic and head for the good ‘ol U.S. of A.

San Juan, Puerto Rico our next destination 130 miles due east. Of course none of our trips can be smooth sailing as y’all are hoping for us and this is no exception. Leaving Punta Cana we have to cross the edge of the “hourglass shoals”. Now this shoal is not something you would normally think of as being a shoal. The shallowest spot is 40 feet deep and much of it is around 100 to 140 feet. The problem is the surrounding area is 400 feet or deeper with heavy undersea currents. There is a warning on all the charts that says “Tide rips and heavy swells may be encountered along the edge of this bank at anytime.” Well the chart makers didn’t put that on the chart to fill up space, it definitely lived up to its’ reputation for the 30 miles we traveled to traverse the bank. We encountered many steep sided twelve foot waves and even a few times a breaking 8 footer on our bow. Not for the timid but not nearly as bad as our passage from Turks. Just prior to leaving Punta Cana we had tied the palm with a three way tie in an effort to keep it from tipping over again. But in these seas, it was futile effort.

After we cleared the bank, we had a relatively nice uneventful ride for the next 30 or so miles. However when we reached the west end of Puerto Rico the waves bounced back up to the 6 to 8 foot range for the next 70 miles and we had to slow our speed once again. At one point I ducked down into the cabin to try and call the Club Nautico Marina we were going to but I couldn’t get thru and when I finally did I was getting Spanish. The noise of the boat made carrying on a phone conversation extremely difficult so I decided to call Coral and see if she could get thru to the marina to tell them we would be late getting in. She reached Roger who made the call for us and so all I had to do was call the marina for a slip assignment when we got into calmer water. Around 6 PM we entered the outer harbor of San Juan, called Israel at the marina and received our instructions. We docked and after a bunch of phone calls with Coral, Roger and Kemuel we finally got a number to call for customs and immigration to come and clear us back into the U.S. In the meantime, Bobby checked the engine room and to his and our astonishment we had a foot of water over the floor boards ! A few quick checks and we found the bilge pumps mid and aft weren’t working automatically. Only the front bilge was working automatically, we pumped out the bilge with the manual switches for nearly 20 minutes and decided tomorrow we’d lay up in port to check things out, again. We finally got customs down on the boat and Alphonso quickly and professionally cleared us back to the U.S. Not wanting to leave the boat because we were so tired and sweaty, we looked around for what food we had and found some pasta along with a packet of Knor Pesto and some dry packaged bacon. What a feast. No, really ;)

The next morning was the usual, our good old trusty coffeemaker purred up a nice hot pot of coffee while we sat and pondered the cause of the water in the bilge. It must have come from the constant river of water that was flowing down our gunwales. We couldn't find any other cause. Satisfied with our conclusion I decided to hop into the shower since one of our biggest helpers and champion in these parts, Kemuel was coming into port to meet us. I stood in the shower soaping up and after a few minutes the water started to drizzle out of the head. I thought Gina must be doing dishes or something. Then all of a sudden it stopped. No more water. and I was full of soap, I tried shutting it off and turning it back on but to no avail. I hollered out to Bobby my predicament and he checked a few things but told me the water pump was now terminally ill. Great. I asked him to hand me the hose thru the port window so I could rinse off .

Bobby headed down to the bilge, again, to find and cure the cause. Around this time, Coral and Myrna, Kemuel's daughter and wife showed up to greet us. They wanted to take all of us to lunch. I suspected this wasn't going to happen knowing what Bobby was going thru right then but I asked anyway and he emerged hot and sweaty from the bilge to greet our guests. I asked Bobby if he would mind if I went to lunch with Myrna and Coral and he graciously said" Of course not, I have to check things out here but you go ahead."

I normally wouldn't abandon Bobby but in this circumstance off I went with them to a fabulous lunch in Old San Juan. I will have to make it a point to come back and visit when I have time. Meanwhile the bilge monkey was hard at work finding out that the water pump burnt out from being underwater. So, he absconded the raw water pump and jury rigged it into the fresh water system. Meanwhile I returned and we all met Kemuel and his good friend Roger. We have many thanks for their help and guidance. We offered Kemuel to come to dinner but he declined and it might have been a good thing because the only thing we could find near the marina in walking distance was a Sizzler. Yeah, we didn't realize it till after but it is the same chain found on the mainland. Some of our food was pretty good but the wine was horrible. Oh well, off to our final destination tomorrow.

Here I am practicing my best Germaine imitation to serve drinks to Gina..


Bidding goodbyes to customs, navy, security and dockhand
Leaving Punta Cana. On the left side is the developed part on the right side is all new buildings going up and we couldn't find many people occupying what was already built. Strange. Sorry for the dirty lenses, gonna have to sparrow cap'n Gina.



Yet another mess from the rough seas..
Palm tree didn't survive on a three way tie.

Saved by the Bell, Bobby Bell that is.

With a bit of trepidation, we started the diesels, cast our lines and headed for the most easterly coast of the Dominican Republic at Punta Cana, 169 miles away.

July 7, 7 AM, 704 hours.

The wind was still blowing as hard as it was for the past three days but we had to go. Exiting the marina we were back in 6 to 8 footers in our face and we knew from weather reports that the waves should calm down just a bit about 70 or so miles down the coast. As our luck would have it, just as the waves started to diminish to 3 to 5 footers the starboard engine quit. What now? Bad diesel fuel? Did we run over something? What? We tried to start the engine but it wouldn’t turn over. Noticing that the voltage was very low again on the starboard engine we pushed the parallel switch and the engine sprung to life. Still not quite grasping what was happening yet, we tentatively pushed the shifter into gear and accelerated to 1800 RPM. Everything seemed fine for another half hour when suddenly the engine quit again. We tried to restart it, nothing doing. Pushed the parallel switch, nothing doing. What now. The voltage was still low but reading around 10 volts. Bobby and I discussed our options. Should we start the converter and charge the batteries risking damaging the only good alternator? Bobby had taken all the batteries out the day before and cleaned all the connections before reseating them. Obviously the alternator that he removed from the circuit wasn’t the cause of losing power. Could we have a shorted battery dragging the others down? Well there was only one way to find out. Bobby back to the very sweaty, very dirty bilge while rolling about in a sea that I struggled against wind and wave to keep on our bow with the single engine. Bobby disconnected all the batteries and checked each voltage. Back on the bridge he had good news and bad news. They were all reading around 10 volts but none was shorted or dragging the others down as we expected. What else, it must be that the converter which he had to replace earlier in the trip wasn’t fully charging the batteries. Bobby fortunately remembered he had a jumper cable still on the boat that our dear friend Howie had brought to the boat when we needed it one morning to get the genny running before we went out fishing. Maybe we could use that to jump from the genny battery and get the engine started. Bobby reconnected the batteries and we tried the engine but that didn’t work either. Next we said ok we obviously don’t have enough power to crank over that diesel. We’ll just have to jump from the other bank of batteries. Bobby connected the jumper to the other bank and I tried the starter. A little better but as soon as it turned a little it would just click. Thinking about it a bit, we decided that the jumper cable was not sufficient to carry the amperage that would be needed to start the engine. Here’s what we need to do. Bobby disconnected the bank of batteries from the engine and house and attached the jumper cable from the port bank of batteries to the starboard bank of batteries so that the alternator could charge the run down batteries. For the next two hours we ran on one engine while the batteries were hopefully charging. Watching our fuel deplete I asked Bobby if he had a fuel transfer switch or a manual switch in the bilge. He had neither, great, we needed to calculate if we have enough fuel in just the port tank to get us to Punta Cana. If we did have enough we would be going in on fumes. There was only one port that might have fuel between here and there but it was risky as it was also quite a bit out of the way. Well, we decided if we can’t get the other engine started we’ll just have to find a way to transfer fuel form the starboard tank to the port tank. The idea of not getting into port until after midnight was not very appealing at all.

After two hours of letting the batteries charge we decided to try it. We’ll reconnect the batteries to the engine but totally remove them from the house circuit. We tried the engine again and this time it sprang to life in a heartbeat. Yeah ! We left things exactly as they were and headed to port at a decent speed. Much to our amazement, although we did not want to jinx ourselves by acknowledging it, the batteries did not lose their charge for the rest of the trip and in fact the voltage never went below the point that it was at when we finished charging them. Obviously keeping the house circuit off was key to keeping up the batteries although we could not see and still cannot see any current being demanded by the house when everything is off. Perhaps if the alternator was working this wouldn’t be an issue.

Well we finally made port that evening but we were too late to have the dockmaster unlock power so they let us run the genny all night. We checked in with customs and had a bite to eat at the restaurant at the stern of our boat.

The next morning we had much to do so we decided to stay in port since we couldn’t get an early start. We gave the boat it’s first bath since Boston. Bobby checked a few things in the bilge and found that the water tank shifted again but not as bad so he repositioned and refastened that as well as tighten a small oil leak and a small exhaust leak that he had noticed the day before. We had dinner at the restaurant again, and since we were the only customers at this very nice restaurant we got into a great conversation about life for the people who reside in the Dominican Republic. We learned some very interesting things that I won’t go into here, but let me tell you that their life is hard and their wages are extremely low. Ask me sometime and you might be amazed at what you hear.

Restaurant
Conversation with our waiter..


This is only one tiny area of this very big place but no people !

Regroup

The next two days we laid up in port at Oceanworld in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. The first day to cure our wounds and the second to cure Mary E’s. We were all beat and really needed rest. The constant salt spray from the day before must have done something to my left eye because everything was a big blur all day. I had a scrape that was burning on my knuckle from catching the fishing rod that was overhead before it fell on us. My palms on both hands were swollen from the pounding on the helm and sore to the touch. I had a blister on the skin between my thumb and index finger from constantly forcing the helm over that was very tender. I forgot about it for a moment and when I went to shake hands with someone I almost when to my knees in pain.

All of us wandering as if in a daze went to the Oceanworld park where we sat, ate a marginally ok lunch while emotionlessly watching a parrot and a seal show.

A few hours passed and we were ready to leave. On our way out, what appeared to be a park representative noticed our wrist bands indicating that we were in the marina. He told us his boss wanted him to show people around the facilities so that we would be aware of what they offered. We told him we were tired and wanted to go back to the boat but he insisted saying he would drive us around in the golf cart. Since we didn’t have to walk we said what the heck, let’s go. What started out as a tour wound up being a coverup for a high pressure sales pitch to buy timeshare property. He tried to make nicey nice conversation with us but none of us were interested and gave him short quick answers. Finally, I was annoyed enough that I point blank told him to forget it, we were brought here under false pretenses and there was no way any of us were interested. Gina put the final kibosh on it when she stood up and said let’s go. He desperately tried one last attempt but to no avail, we wanted out. At least we did get a few free bottles of Mamajuana for our trouble. Bob and I googled what this Mamajuana stuff was, when we found out Cap’n Gina confiscated our bottles and said we couldn’t have any till we reached St. Thomas !

When we got back to the boat Gary Sullivan called us and asked us if we would like him to buy us a lobster dinner. I laughed and said “Sure, when will you be here?” I thought he was kidding but he was serious. He had looked up Oceanworld on the net, reviewed the menu at the Poseidon restaurant and because he felt very bad about our hardship the previous day he wanted to purchase our dinner that evening as a consolation. He called them and made arrangements for us to have dinner at 7 PM. Thank you again Gary but I’m not removing your pictures!

We had a little bit of time so we went for a swim in their big beautiful swimming pool before going up for dinner. After dinner we had a nitecap at the bar where the drinks were unbelievably inexpensive.

The next morning we all felt a bit recuperated and started to assess and repair the damage we had sustained. The kitchen counter cracked and broke on one end. The water tank on the starboard side snapped the holding strap and slid back into the muffler. The whole bank of batteries on the starboard side snapped their hold downs and shifted. Since we lost all power on the starboard side and weren’t exactly sure what was causing it we decided to repower the RayNav and the VHF to the port side. This turned out to be a very good decision. We also thought that the alternator which wasn’t working anymore on the starboard side must have been draining those batteries so we decided that it was necessary to remove the electrical connection from the system. Bilge Monkey Bobby went to work making the necessary repairs and I finished plotting the rest of the courses we would need to make St. Thomas.

Oceanworld Marina
Mary E in Oceanworld

Counter crack
Googling Mama who?

Oh gee, I got a dirty spot.
Bilge Monkey Bobby going after the batteries and alternator.
Thanks Gary S!
Gina's grouper ala something..
Bobby's lobster tail
My churrasco
Octopussy Bar
This place is over the top..

Pictures from Terror on the High Seas

Guide boat leading us out the channel from Turtle Cove Marina in Caicos.



Here is the guide boat going exactly between the two buoys that we had gone thru and touched bottom 9 days before. Do you think we had that awful feeling when we went between them again? They must have gone out there and corrected the buoys.
Guide boat returning to the marina.
The calm before the scary stuff.

We don't have any pictures of the real nasty waves because it was just to darn nasty but here are some shots of the mess in the boat when we got into port. Everything fell out of one refrigerator and not pictured is the loam all over the back deck from the palm tree falling over.