Day 102, Year 6 Water, Water
Date: Thursday, February 3, 2011
Weather: Rainy Until Late Afternoon
Location: James Bay, St. Helena Island

It seemed everything we did today had to do with water. It rained on us all day while we did the two ferry runs to bring jerry jugs of water to the boat. We took showers and I washed the cockpit cushions in the wash tubs on the pier. So we were just wet all morning. The new plastic jerry jugs hold 25 liters of water which means that each jug weighs 55 pounds. Getting those on the little ferry boat that is swished this way and that by the undulating waves that reach the shore is also a wet job. By the time we did the second load, it was high tide and the waves washed over the concrete pier, over our feet, and all around the jerry jugs. By the time we got them on the constantly moving ferry, everything was wet. So it was just a wet kind of day.

Dominque and Dominque of Kea arrived around noon today. They had very little wind all the way from Namibia, so it took them ten days. Like us, they had totally overcast skies all the way. People here are saying that having this much rain and overcast weather is quite unusual for here. It should be bright and sunny, but it certainly is not. So it goes. But back to Kea. When we were doing our second water run, we had the ferry pick up the Doms, and while Mark filled the jerry jugs, I went with them to Customs and got them started on the check-in process. Robert, the tour guide we went with yesterday, was on the waterfront when we went ashore, so we were able to arrange for a tour for Kea tomorrow. Mark met me in town at the bank as we needed money to pay for the diesel jerry jugs that the ferry man picked up off our boat, went to get them filled, and returned them all while we were on shore. The charge for having this done for you is so minimal that we were willing to pay the little extra instead of trying to lug more heavy jugs in and out of taxi and onto the ferry. So all fuel tanks are full and all diesel jerry cans on deck are full. We have two more water runs to do tomorrow to fill the one empty water tank and will then have four jerry jugs of water on deck as well. Once that is done, we will spend the afternoon in town making Skype calls to our kids, and then tomorrow night there is a cruiser organized dinner at Anne’s Place. On Saturday morning we still plan to leave here if the weather is okay. We’ll check that tonight when we send the log.

In between all the runs to town, Mark has managed to get almost all of the South Africa photos uploaded to the internet and now just has to link them to the website. Mark also went up the mast to attach a Spectra line to our first set of spreaders and then bring the line down to the deck level to secure it to the chain plate of the aft port lower stay. He did this because there are now several broken strands in that stay. The hope is that if the stay should break, the Spectra line will support the mast at the lower spreaders. At this point, there is nothing else that we can do except hope the stay doesn’t break. And if it does, we only hope the Spectra line will do its job. Between this and the watermaker that is not working, we are feeling a little “broken” at the start of this up-coming passage. So we’re hoping the weather will give us a little break and that we will have smooth sailing. One can always hope.

110203 Day 102 St. Helena–Evening at Anne's Place