Necky's Big Adventure

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ok, so... whats the best way to get a sailboat with no mast from St. Thomas and Antigua back to the the Chesapeake Bay? Put them on a ship? Fix them and sail them back up? or fly down and motor them back... well, i can tell you now that all options were expensive, but the one we took was silly expensive and slow! but what a time we had, we went through a couple of crew, added a mast (sort of) went through some weather, almost blew the boat up. Lost the dinghy in 12' seas at night with out a spot light, found it, lost it, found it... hooked it, lost it, hooked it, secured it... that dinghy has its own story, it was the only one we could find, it cost nine thousand dollars (try to get nine thousand dollars out of a bank in another country... the guy accepted Pay Pal... wtf... we wavered on buying it as it was only running on one cylinder, but we had two sailboats with no masts to bring back and had to have a dinghy so... after some deliberation it was secured in spite of cutting into the owner's "Pu$$y time" direct quote... so that's the name of the dinghy. it tried to kill us every chance it got! 3 of us were on it while being towed at night in 10-12' following seas, it shot a 1/2" stainless shackle back at the helmsman just missing skin by about an inch, after it straightened the shackle out... anyway, its a great dinghy, but i hated it, i haven't been awake for 24 hours since college and this trip started with a 35hr straight no sleep, and several more as we fought our way home.

now, the trip was to take 2 weeks... ha! i knew that was bs but i figured 3 to be safe, 6+ weeks later and i got off in Florida and my friend motored up to Charleston where the boat sits now waiting for us to come get it and bring it back to Deltaville. originally there were two boats to pick up, one in St. Thomas, the one in the photos and nice 44' Island Packet which sustained one large puncture under the water line and two small ones above and was demasted while on the hard during a hurricane. the second one was in Antigua, the aft quarter of the hull about 3' was busted off and was also demasted while at dock. it was a 47' Beneatau that was my boat, but once in Antigua we fixed the hull, but couldn't get the boat back in the water it was stacked behind 24 other boats... so there it sits ready to go... also all the flights were full for 3 weeks coming in and the tropical waves were picking up from Africa so we cut and ran. the first crew jumped ship in Antigua not 6 days into the trip, he had come down early to repair the Island Packet but the ride from St Thomas and almost blowing up the boat at the first Anchorage in St. Bart did him in, good enough he was being such an a$$ we wanted to keel haul him anyway.

so just the two of us set out to home. first night out the dinghy decided it had had enough and tried to kill us and run away! by the time we made it to St. Croix we had had enough of being slammed around and had to do something about a mast... we had a friend on the island that house sits a fantastic summer home for some lovely people who let us stay while we rigged up the boat. the house was crazy nice built around a sugar mill on top of a mountain over looking the sea, with a pool! it was a desperately needed respite. the accommodations were so nice we maybe hung out a few days more than we maybe really really had to... shhh don't tell the girls! so we found a mast, literally pulled it and some rigging out of the jungle, found some sails on the porch of an abandoned house (ok, so the host new the guy who owned the house, but it was abandoned) the fit the silly little mast quite well! mast and sails worked well, i had to go up a few times to add things we just knew we wouldn't need like another block, or split back stays or new main schrods... kinda like just knowing we had no mast so no reason to take the bosowns chair or my sail knife or the spot light that every boat has... we took on a friend of mine for crew, poor fellow, hes one of the fall motorcycle ride crew, never been out of site of land, and never been over night on a boat... he wasn't very happy :sick: and he jumped ship in the Dominican Republic, which was a fantastic place!

Dominican was awesome, once we figured out beer want $400.00 ea... (no sleep tends to suppress the obvious...) we stayed at Ocean World, (google it its crazy) took in a show, ate Very well for a few us dollars, met some great and not so great people and handed out more tips (bribes) than you would in New York City, we were there for almost a week waiting for a break in the weather. the day came for the best window off we went straight into squalls and thunderstorms and high seas... par for the course, but going back to DR meant more $$$ and more customs BS so on we went zig zagging through the mess while learning the radar which was being sent to a 32 inch tv... don't ask.. lol but made it great to see even if it killed night vision.

once through the storms we landed in the Turks had to clear customs and immigration (give them $$$) just to refuel. we anchored in the only spot since the 1700's that there has been shark attacks... and saw sharks... go figure... ran aground outside the marina... first time though!
we left the Turks on to the Bahamas.

Bahamas were wonderfully hot... we got behind the banks for some calm water, but the shallow water easily raise the temp 10 deg, but it also kept out the thunder heads... decent trade i guess. the little sail rig and diesel pushing us along at a steady 5-6 kts we had a nice trip. we stopped at Stanel where Thunderball was filmed! had a fantastic breakfast... missed dinner due to OCD anchoring... after breakfast, we spun around in the dinghy saw the swimming pigs (crazy funny!) and cleaned the prop and bottom of the boat before heading off to Andros to spend the night with my uncle. it was great to catch up with family, but the bugs there, more mosquitoes than ever!

we left Andros and went straight thorough to Fort Pierce Fl.

all and all it was awesome, torturous, exhilarating, frightening, maddening, frustrating, and just plane fun! i feel at home on the ocean, and dearly loved the majority of it, coming into sight of land was on occasion most depressing... my friend and i are still friends, you never really know someone till you have lived with them in a bathtub for 6 weeks with out separation... we had our disagreements but people are how they are and that's just how it is. we both got under each others skin, but worked through it.

leaving DC sunrise at 512mph... yeah i turned on my navionics! lol
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my little hose is right down there :wave:
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Bahamas!
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our ride on St Thomas, one of our friends loaned it to us, at different pressures of the brake the wheels would lock individually... lol
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Kinja the first boat, Island Packet 44
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and were off!
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St. Martain, did not stop, looks like fun much more attractive than St. Thomas
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coming into St. Barts, lots of shipping traffic... everywhere
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St. Barts was really nice looking compared to St. Thomas
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our dinner about a 5 lb steak... ended up covered in fire extinguisher powder... note to self, when someone says bypass the gas regulator... lock that person up till the end of the trip...
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not much to do most of the time... unless all hell is breaking loose!
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wrist shot!
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Antigua
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Carnaval last night when we arrived, and (followed all rules and regulations about entering the country :roll: )
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our cab driver, well a lady and her friend in a family mini van, coming back from dinner skidded to a stop, both she and her friend jumped out, ran down the road and cought their own dinner...
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the only shot i have of the marina where the second boat was, and where the other crew left that was being an ass, he made it so miserable i didnt have the energy to take photos. we were so elated to leave that place in spite of the lovely people on the island.
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Antigua to Nevis hell night with the killer dinghy, this was such a welcome site at dawn!
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shackle i spoke about on hell night
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Coming into St. Kits
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the most fantastic sunsets, more to come.
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crazy beach bar is the start of a super yacht harbor...at least that was the story, but for 40 bucks for two gin tonic i guess they will get there.
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St. Kits
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i forget the name of this place but it had a fuel storage station, and was guarded by an unmarked warship.
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my fav, Saba, just the Caldera sticking out of the sea with a road going straight up to the rim and around, most of the time the top was covered by clouds. just a really surreal looking place. but a totally **** anchorage, 25' off the rock the depth was over 70', 45' the depth was over 600', made it difficult to anchor, luckily we found a mooring ball that wasn't in use.
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coming into St. Croix, a lovely sight after another long and ****ty night and day in rough water, bummed when we moored not 100 yards from 10 bars and found the past two days had broken the dinghy battery loose flipped it upside down in the saltwater and had eaten off the terminals... so no dinner ashore that night...
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my buddy at a yard where we put the mast on.
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hotel in the middle of Christanstead bay
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to be continued...