Getting the boat ready for 2007/2008 season
Monday September 24th, 2007
1st Log s/v Mustang Sally
2000 Voyage 440 catamaran
Captain Dirty Doug
First Mate Wicked Wendy
We are so excited. This is the first entry of many to come into Mustang Sally’s log. For those of you who faithfully followed our adventures on L’Attitude, you will continue to enjoy reading along and sharing our adventures with us. We know there will be even more great stories to tell and pics to share. Please feel free to pass on the blog and website address to any friends you think may be interested. We have also enjoyed your comments and observations. We love to hear from you and your emails make us feel like you are right here with us.
Just a quick up date on what we have been up to since our last log on L’Attitude came out. We sailed L’Attitude to Connecticut from Tortola arriving at the end of May and she was sold to another Canadian couple who were actually from our home town. They are planning on sailing to the Caribbean on L’Attitude and we know that she will take good care of them as she did for us. In fact, we will probably see her “down island”.
We spent June, July and August visiting with family and friends. It was good to see everyone and we look forward to seeing a lot of them again this winter when they come to visit us on Mustang Sally. Many thanks to Jeff and Jo for letting us stay the entire summer at their beautiful new ski chalet and for all the fun weekends at the cottage. .
In late March, Doug and another fellow, Mike, sailed Mustang Sally from Tortola to the dual nation island (French West Indies/ Dutch Netherland Antilles) of St Martin to be hauled and tied down on the French side near the main town of Marigot for the upcoming hurricane season. We needed to start our journey north with L’Attitude so that she could be sold, as well as get out of the hurricane belt, as the season was fast approaching (June 1 – November 1, with some lingering storms thru to the end of November) and we needed to get a lot further north to be out of the belt.
We arrived 2 weeks ago to Mustang Sally and. she is just as beautiful as we remembered and we were both very eager to get to work as we have big plans for Mustang Sally. We have decided to enter into the hard working but very rewarding life of a charter yacht, so that we can share our love of the sea and sailing with others and make tons of new friends. We are limiting our number of charters to 10 weeks a year only though, as we still want to continue to explore the Caribbean and relax LOTS!
After a very long day of flying with American Airlines, (a real milk run, 15 hours of traveling as there are no direct flight because it is not “season” yet.) the taxi cab driver took us to our hotel for the nite. We had no intention of heading straight to Mustang Sally yet, as it was 1 a.m., and we didn’t feel like showing up to the cat in the pitch black boatyard and trying to pull out the mainsail, jib and kayaks etc., that were stuffed inside of her while she was being stored “on the hard”. We were all exhausted, our two little dogs, Willis and Rollie too, as they had just spent 15 hours in cargo. Even though I was exhausted I could still smell the lush warm tropical nite air and hear the nite birds calling to each other as the cabbie followed the winding road around the Caribbean’s biggest natural lagoon. I put my head back on the seat, closed my eyes and breathed deep. We were back.
We hit that hotel bed like a sac of rocks and never woke up until 9 a.m. the next morning. We opened our hotel room door to a spectacular view of a white sandy beach and lagoon on one side and the ocean on the other with brilliant Flamboyance trees, with their bright pink blooms flourishing everywhere. We enjoyed a French breakfast on the beach before, sadly, we had to leave this lovely spot and head to the boatyard. Unfortunately for us, no cabbies would pick us up at the hotel and drive us to the boatyard as the trip was too short. The front desk clerk told us in her lilting French accent that the walk was only 2 kms. So off we went with two dogs in tow. Well, this was a very bad idea. Neither one of is acclimatized to the heat yet, not too mention two 15 year old dogs I am dragging along. By the time we arrived at the boatyard we were soaked in sweat and I thought I might lose my one dog, Willis, due to heat exhaustion. I ended up taking the two dogs and myself into the only shower at the boatyard so that we could all cool down. Hindsight is 20/20, and I am not sure why we didn’t rent a car but you can bet we did right away after that…. a car with air conditioning!
The first day was spent obtaining said rental car, and then getting the sails and kayaks out of the main cabin so that we could get our bags in. Did I mention that we were lugging around 4 large hockey bags stuffed with pillows, blankets, clothes and numerous other items? Pretty much the entire contents of our lives, stuff that we had been unable to ship from L’Attitude to Mustang Sally back in May.
Since that first day, we purchased a brand new 12’AB dinghy and 18 hp Tohatsu motor that has become our “car” and we handed the rental car back in. We occasionally need to rent a car, about once a week (costs only $20 U.S. per day!), to get inland to the hardware store, and the electronics store but most of that has been bought now that we have been here 2 weeks. We also bought a new T.V. with a DVD player, so at nite we can watch movies, which is great as the sun sets here early at around 7 p.m.
Mustang Sally’s canvas was weathered after 7years in the hot Caribbean sun and needed to be replaced and we wanted new cockpit cushions made and interior salon cushions as well. So, we have the local sail maker and canvas company getting all that done for us, as well, as taking a good look at our almost brand new main sail for any necessary repairs or weak points. Our jib is getting a new UV strip to protect it from the harsh sun which can rot the stitching. A new bimini and spray hood is being installed today and we are also having a large sun shade made to protect the cockpit and us from the sun.
Doug has been busy installing 4 new toilets in each head and installing new port lights in the large front windows, which did not open, to give us more ventilation while at anchor (wish this worked while on land!!). Doug has numerous other jobs on the go such as installing another VHF radio, so we have one outside and inside, new CD/MP3 stereo (so we can let the tunes wail!!), a boom derrick/gantry to hoist our new dinghy and tons of other electronic goodies.
We met a real interesting local character, a past biker, (seems to be a lot of these down here), who owns a very famous restaurant called Uncle Harry’s and has the freshest lobster on the island, plus real Angus beef, filet mignon or porterhouse steaks. It is very difficult to get your hands on a good grade of beef down here so his restaurant is quite popular. He owns a boatyard and a company that will soda blast (baking soda!) the anti fouling on our boat tomorrow. It’s a new process down here and it is fast, effective, doesn’t affect the gel coat and it environmentally friendly, plus it’s a LOT less $$ than having the local boat yard boys take 2 weeks to get it done.
Everything seems to be coming along with no major hiccups as yet. The only problem that we are experiencing is the extreme heat and life in a boatyard. The temperatures are close to 35* C and as we are in rainy season it rains….a LOT. That means mud…. everywhere…. all the time, but the rain does not cool anything down, it just becomes more hot and humid, sending the humidex to probably 40*C. I don’t know how high for sure as they do not have a humidex indicator down here. It is taking me, especially, some getting used to and we both have found that we can not move at our usual pace. Everything is happening slower and we are taking more breaks and drinking lots of water and cold beer. It will be so much better when the cat is in the water and sailing or resting at anchor so the wind can blow threw her. The other boats in the boatyard are packed in so close and any chance of a breeze is lost as they are all blocking any wind to us.
On a happier note, we went exploring one afternoon in our new dinghy and found a secluded beach that no on can get to by land due to the craggy cliffs surrounding the beach. We were able to take our dinghy up on shore and all of us happily spent the afternoon frolicking nude in the surf. We have decided we will pack a picnic lunch and a few coldies go there every Sunday afternoon. It is really nice to look forward at least until the time when all our work is done and we are in the water. We are currently planning on launching October 3rd, or so.
Until next time!!
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