Sint Maarten Outbound Day 1

Hi everyone,

We departed Simpson Bay and Sint Maarten at 1600 yesterday.  Our friends from OCC sv Metzi and Zora waved us through the bridge from the yacht club.  Our stay in Sint Maarten was busy but fun.  We're now bound towards Panama, a roughly 1100nm passage.  Should take 8-10 days.

Departing Simpson Bay

sv Metzi photo

At noon today we were at 17 33N 064 35W steering 230M, sailing under 2 reefs and 2 furls at 5 knots.  The wind was 17G23 from the ENE.  Our log is fouled, probably due to the dirty water in Simpson Lagoon, so we'll use distance over the ground,  In the 20 hours to noon today we covered 120nm.

Our departure from Sint Maarten was straight forward.  We were the first vessel through the bridge.  A few minutes later we set sail and off we sailed.  The night brought good sailing, with a 5/8th moon appearing around 2200.  Very bright.  Nice to see the southern cross.

Sayonara Sint Maarten

Today we passed close to the US Virgin Islands island of St Croix.  We went within a few miles to get our Starlink working for the passage.  I had forgotten to turn on Priority Data which enables use at sea.  By going close to the island the system worked and we could turn Priority Data on.

Passing St Croix

Today we've had variable conditions.  One wave dumped itself in the cockpit, giving me a good salt water wash.  Later a rain storm came over and Nic got a fresh water wash.  But now skies are mostly blue and all's well aboard.

Trust all's well where you are!

Sint Maarten Fun!

Hi everyone,

We didn't spend our entire month here in SXM working.  While Zen Again was on the hard we stayed in a small local hotel then an AirBnB.  It was nice to sleep in a real bed and have showers!  For the second half of our stay we were at anchor in the lagoon and joined by OCC friends on sv Metzi, Zora and CrazyB.  While here we also met the OCC sv Paper Moon crew and various other cruisers.

Dinghying home
sv CrazyB photo

Our two favourite haunts are Lagoonies and the Soggy Dollar Bar.  Lagoonies is a short walk from Bobby's Megayard so we were there most days while Zen Again was on the hard.  We also arranged a get-together there.

Get-Together at Lagoonies

Lunch at Lagoonies

Throughout our stay at SXM the weather was windy and showery.  We frequently had gusts over 30 knots in the lagoon.  But at least the water was flat.

Not all sunshine!

Metzi arrival

We did a day trip to Marigot on the French side of the island to show the sv Metzis around.  They took us there in their dinghy which was much faster and easier than the bus.  We revisited our favourite bakery and shops.

In Marigot

Bakery

Colourful murals

Another day we had tapas at the St Maarten YC with the Metzis.  The YC has a dinghy dock and is alongside the lifting bridge.  Great tapas and spectacular boats coming into the lagoon.

A group of four OCC yacht crews took the bus to Maho Beach.  This is the famous spot where one can stand very near the runway threshold to experience airliners passing close above you on landing or blasting you with jet-wash on take-off.  A great fun experience.

OCC group at Maho Beach restaurant 

OCC group at Maho Beach

At Maho Beach

Ready for take-off

From Maho Beach we of course retired to the Soggy Dollar Bar

Last night the Metzis treated us to a farewell dinner aboard their boat.  We contributed wine and dessert.  Dessert was our last 2024 Christmas pudding which we flambeed quite successfully.  Great meal.  Great company.

Preparing our last 2024 Christmas pudding for consumption

Zen Again in Simpson Bay Lagoon

We plan to depart SXM tomorrow towards the San Blas in Panama.  It's a 1000nm passage so should take us about 8 days.

Trust all well where you are.

Sint Maarten Part 2

Hi everyone,

Since relaunching we've been flat-out working on above the water-line jobs.  The key jobs were fixing the leaking dorade air vents and swapping out our two 12 year old 120W solar panels for two new 200W panels.  With the help of OCC sv Metzi we also constructed a dinghy cover, mini-bimini and sun shade.  And countless other small jobs were completed.

SXM sunset over our new solar panels

The two dorade boxes were fibre-glassed onto the coach roof, each located with six screws fastened from below.  After 39 years some of the screws had rusted and one was clearly leaking, allowing water into the head compartment and saloon.  The boxes were cut off using a MultiTool.

Multitool (here fitted for sanding)

Dorade boxes removed

Dorade boxes underside

We removed for forward headliner panel in the saloon to access the underside of the dorade vents.  We had previously removed the built-in headlining in the head compartment to identify the source of the leak.  In both compartments we removed the rusty mounting screws then filled the holes with filler from below and epoxy resin from above.

Dorade vent in saloon

Sanding the head compartment deck head for painting

The cause of the leak

Dorade base holes opened up for resin insertion

Preparing epoxy resin for filling

Down below we sealed the gaps between head and saloon compartments.  And we painted the head compartment deck-head with epoxy primer.

Head to saloon gap sealed in saloon

And also sealed in head

Painting the deck head in the head compartment

Painting kit

With the mounting holes filled and interior painting done we could re-assemble the head compartment's trim and cable runs.  And with the exterior dorade bases filled, sanded and epoxy primed we could refit the likewise-treated dorade boxes.  For this we used West System Six10, a thickened epoxy resin adhesive.  It has a gel consistency and comes in a multi-use tube with single-use mixing spouts.  Great product.  We strapped the boxes down due to the windy conditions.

Preparing to refit the boxes

Starboard side box

Port side box

With the boxes mounted we sanded them ready for epoxy primer.  The latter will have to wait for our next stop.  But we should now have a leak-free deck!

We took the opportunity to swap out our two main solar panels.  We had two Renogy panels shipped in from the US using The Business Point here in Cole Bay.  The old panels were degraded due to their age, and nearly twice their original power is now available in the same size.  So we could increase our total (including our two 100W 'wing' panels from 400W to 600W.  This would allow freer use of our electric kettle, induction hob and our Starlink unit.

The old panels came off easily and with help from sv Metzi's larger dinghy we took them ashore.  Happily some locals offered to take them to Bequia where they'll be put to good use.  Much better than them going into the skip.

Canvas rain-catcher and old panels off

We fitted the new panels with shims outboard but not inboard.  This allows us to grip the s/s rail around the outside and also - we hope - direct more water into the canvas water-catcher which fits below them.

New panels

The mechanical install took a day to complete.  Next we wired-in the panels, making changes to optimise performance.  Key to the latter was moving the MPPT Solar Controller from the NavStation to the saloon pedestal.  This reduced the cable run to the batteries from about 4m to 0.2m.  This was a huge improvement, reducing IR drops in the cables.  We now have a redundant pair of Solar Controllers fitted.

MPPT Solar Controllers in new location

The controller has a Bluetooth interface for configuration and monitoring.  It clearly shows the improvement from the new panels.  The bar graph in the screenshot below shows the power generated over the last 30 days.  The average has increased from 1.5kWh to 2.5kWh.  The peak power we've seen is 550W which is pretty good from a 600W array.

MPPT Solar Controller Status/History

We'll describe the new canvas in a future post since they're still work in progress today.  They're going to be great too.  And the new thru-hulls and sea-cocks are dry!

Trust all's well where you are.