2023-05-05 Antigua Sailing Week Day 5

Morning

Antigua Sailing Week Day 5 – the penultimate day of the regatta.  Just as in the days before, we all met at 08:00 and got our provisions aboard. Myron had left the day before, and Geoff was feeling under the weather and wasn’t able to join us, so we were a bit short-handed going into the final day.  Once again we were last to depart due to our inside position, and the waves outside of the harbour were the highest, and steepest, of any day before. It promised to be a day of fast racing for the fleets.

On Station 09:00

Our mooring ball had disappeared during the night. The working assumption is that someone stole it; that was a very large and expensive fender.  But the support vessel had gone out before us and dropped a new motor block with attached line and buoy.  They were hovering around and waiting for us, and the foredeck crew snagged the buoy, attached the two lines and signaled thumbs up in record time. Even the professional fisherman on the support boat applauded their efficient work.

I had been keeping position during the mooring process using the engines and rudder but right at the end an alarm went off on the port engine. It was overheating (again). I shut it off and looked into the compartment to find that the replacement belt had broken. It had only lasted 2 days.

And now we had about 2 knots of current going against the prevailing wind and waves. This made for some steep, and occasionally breaking, waves. And it put our committee catamaran squarely sideways to the waves; the windage on the hull balancing the opposing current. With just one engine I couldn’t spin the boat around, and we didn’t have enough cordage to rig a side bridle.

Dishes and pots flew about and standing/walking on the decks was treacherous, to say the least. 

10:00 Starts

The first starts were difficult, the sight line for Alec and Neil was straight down the side of the catamaran, sometimes the start pin was blocked by the superstructure and boom. Nevertheless we managed to get the boats started and all of us hoped that the miserable current would finally switch back to normal. 

It didn’t. As today is a full moon, that has probably shifted the pattern back in the day. This has happened before, the morning current sets to the east and sometime in the morning it shifts and sets to the west.

Noon

Our provisions were barely touched by lunchtime, a marked difference to the days before. Could it be the waves? Antigua Sailing Week Day 5 wasn’t progressing as we’d expected.

The second and last set of races had to be postponed because of  wind shifts and the angle of our catamaran. Once the resetting was complete we went into the start sequence. The angle between the orange flag and start buoy was square and true. But the catamaran was pointing the wrong way. But we improvised on the fly and shifted our flag positions around in time to get a good line on the start. I was doing double duty, helping Alec spot boats OCS (On Course Side (over the line before the start)) and raising the appropriate flag. I got to do some flag work. The competitors misjudged the strong countercurrent and let themselves be pushed over the line early. 

Our competitive class, CSA 2 had too many boats over the line to identify. So Alec called an “AP” to cancel the start and get them all back for another attempt. He once again it decided to fly the “black flag” which meant that anyone over the line was automatically disqualified. Despite this, and Neil informing the racers of the strong current and admonishing them to caution, we had 2 boats that were over early and thus disqualified. They weren’t happy about this (which is understandable) and went to protest after the race; but they had no chance of success.

Afternoon

After the second set of starts, I went into the port engine compartment, which had cooled off sufficiently now. The old alternator belt was shredded and I tried to force the spare belt on without removing anything, but it was too tight. I then tried to loosen the alternator, which was held on by 2 bolts. The top bolt was easy to remove, but we didn’t have the correctly sized ratchet for the bottom one. This is because the toolkit on board is small and missing about a 1/5 of the pieces. The required 17mm attachment had already gone walkabout. And we had no adjustable spanner, or even a set of pliers. I had to give up after an hour below and was happy to get some fresh air after being rolled about in the engine compartment.

Back at the docks

Thankfully Neil allowed us to return earlier than the previous days. I suspect that he, too, was getting tired of being thrown about in the boisterous conditions on our mooring. 

We got under way with one engine after casting off our lines. At first I was worried that I couldn’t get back on just one engine. I had full rudder to starboard but the cat was still steering to port. But once we had a bit of speed I got steerage and the situation got better. About 1/4 rudder was sufficient to counteract the asymmetric thrust of one engine.

My plan was to use one engine until I was about to dock. Docking on the inside means avoiding an electric lift mechanism jutting out from the dock, which means going to the dock at about a 20-30 degree angle. This isn’t difficult to do, but just before hitting the dock, I would use the port engine in reverse to swivel the cat parallel to the dock. Then momentum would have the cat kiss the dock lightly and simultaneously both fore and aft.

My plan was to start the port engine just a couple of seconds before I needed it for reverse thrust, then to shut it off immediately once we were attached to the dock. Much to my surprise, everything went according to plan. But the success was due to the crew and their excellent line handling. It did help that this was the 4th time we’d gotten to practice the same maneuver.

That first cold Carib beer tasted sooo good!

Afternoon

Because the committee boats had to leave the dock at 07:00 the next morning in order to be returned on time, we still had work to do.  All of us worked at removing all of the race appendages and equipment on aboard. We soon had the boxes packed, the flags and poles removed, and personal items retrieved from every nook and cranny. Then we were free to melt in the heat of the cockpit area.

We had contacted race management via WhatsApp about our engine woes, asking them to relay to the charter company as we were very busy. I was given to understand that several attempts had been made and they were unsuccessful. So I was somewhat terse and unfriendly when I got in contact with the base manager. He said he would get a technician with tools aboard either that afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Stefan came about around 17:00 to check on the engine and the heads. He had a full toolkit along and soon had the second alternator bolt loosened. But it seems that the replacement belt is just a tad shorter than the original and it would not fit.

I wouldn’t have a had a chance of replacing it at sea. I said I could probably do 3 knots under one engine if they couldn’t find a correctly sized spare. In the end, after he’d discussed the situation with the base, he said he try to get a spare and replace it either later that night or before our scheduled departure at 07:00 the next morning.