Life in the Marina

Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay

Now we've been on board for almost four weeks and are slowly settling in. The accent here is on slowly, as we have adapted to island time almost right away.

There is plenty of work to be done on the boat, but as usual I have no idea how to go about it or even just where to start. On top of that, prices, duty and taxes are exorbitant which means that we have decided to have all the work except for the really essential parts done elsewhere. The chandleries don't stock much at all which I find rather surprising with the number of boats on the island.

Early in the afternoon all the mooring balls are taken - forget about getting a slip in a marina - and there are no places to drop the anchor either. For us it doesn't matter as we have a long-term slip at the dock, but I'd hate to be on one of the charter boats. And at US$25 a pop the moorings aren't exactly for free either, especially when you consider that you have to pay for every single night.

Still, we are snug and we are enjoying ourselves. When we have finished tightening belts, tracing electrical wiring and repairing numerous small problems for the day, we go for dinghy rides or meet with a few likeminded people at around sunset and chat for a while.

Our propeller shaft has arrived by now and we are waiting for a place on "the railroad" as the locals call the slip in the boatyard. Our brand-new water-tanks have completely disappeared somewhere on the way down here, so that I don't dare to order anything else any more. I paid for them already, you see. All that ordering stuff will have to wait until Fajardo, Puerto Rico or even until Chaguaramas, Trinidad.

Plans are slightly unclear as to how we will proceed, as we have to have our saildrive fixed first. And although we got a visa-extension until Valentine's Day, we still have to wait for all the stuff we had shipped from Taiwan. Even airmail from Germany doesn't seem to get here in a reasonable time-period. At the same time we have to arrive in Trinidad before April Fool's Day or Liping's visa will expire.

Right now I am looking forward to another night with the silvery moon shining down on the calm waters, sliding down the palm-fronds to illuminate the water as only the moon can do it. And when I sit there contemplating the scene, I think that we are perhaps not 100% crazy to go for a boat and another sailing voyage yet again. Sometimes, it really does have its moments.

Aurora Ulani, Liping & Holger Jacobsen on SY DHARMA BUM III

Now where was I supposed to go to get Diesel fuel?

 

Now whose party is this? Sydney (left, in white) is turning 60! 

Back on the boat, finally!

Traveling with about 140 kg of luggage wasn't as bad as we had feared. We were quite glad that we had booked the hotel in New York in advance though. And when the customs inspector here asked us whether we were moving here, I could barely manage to keep a straight face and answer in the negative.

So, back on the boat we are. One of the first things we found out was that the new water tanks hadn't been put in yet and that one of the saildrives still had water in the oil. Not good that. Then the air-conditioning died...

I have since replaced the submersible 110V seawater pump and now it is working again. Let's see what happens next. Apart from the usual technical details the weather is very nice with about 29°C. Humidity is extremely high and this early morning we are having our first few drops of rain.

While our fridge was in good shape, we had apparently forgotten to open the freezer door with the result that alien life-forms mutated in there. The most impressive one was a jellyfish-size amoeba-like lump of mold which floated on the remains of an exploded Coke can. It didn't get us first and so we murdered it on the spot.

Right now we are waiting for the shop to open at 8:00 so that we can have a proper breakfast with whole-wheat baguette, brie, salami and so on accompanied by two mugs of ice-coffee. :-)

Dharma Bum III (Bird's Eye View)

That red dot represents DHARMA BUM III :-)))

Here you can find the current position of DHARMA BUM III:

 

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=KE6PIB (Radio Amateur Callsign)

 

(GPS-Receiver --> Computer --> eMail --> Radio-Modem --> HF-Radio --> YOTREPS-Server --> Map in Browser)

 

http://www.wownet.net/~holger/blog/voyage.html

 

http://mail.im.tku.edu.tw/~jacobsen/blog/voyage.html 

Liping & Aurora Ulani on DHARMA BUM III

The First Few Weeks On DHARMA BUM III

I arrived in Tortola on a Sunday and bought DHARMA BUM III the next day. The next morning the former owner departed and I was alone with my new boat and home. We had gone sailing for a few hours the day before, but that was going to be all the sailing I was going to do this time around.

 

Instead I hitchhiked into Road Town almost daily. I like hitchhiking, but here an added reason were the outrageous prices for the taxis. More often than not the very first car stopped right away and I got into an interesting conversation with the driver.

 

After a few trips into town it became increasingly clear that it wasn't only the taxis that were out of line pricewise. I got a quote to replace my standing rigging - $13,520! And so it went pretty much with all the work I wanted done on the boat. Also, I finally really understood the meaning of "bareboat". There's nothing on it. Not even a bucket or a sailbag. Everything was reduced to the absolute minimum, which gave me some pause initially.

 

The next discovery was that apparently quite a few charter guests do absolutely everything wrong that one can do wrong. Lack of experience and sheer carelessness cause a myriad of small problems. And some not so small ones.

 

One fine day the big motor cruiser "Virgin Dancer" from "Virgin Traders" rammed my boat. He then proceeded to hit two more boats in the immediate vicinity. My stern crashed into the dock and fiberglass emanating a nasty smell flew in all directions. I was not pleased, especially as it reminded me of a similar accident at the San Diego Yacht Club in 1994. This time I didn't even get an apology. Nothing at all, in fact.

 

For the last two weeks my wife Liping and our daughter Aurora Ulani joined us on the boat. As Aurora is just one and a half years old, I watched her with some trepidation. I needn't have worried. After just a couple of days she navigated the steep steps down into the main hulls without having fallen down once. When she found all the wonderful switches for pumps, the inverter, lights and so on, I reassessed the situation. Maybe better to hoist her up to the masttop or something....

 

Since I started with serious sailing in 1987, this was only the second time I had been in a marina. I soon made friends with people on boats next to mine, with the operators and their employees and pretty much all the cool people in the vicinity. Instead of a sundowner on the boat, I headed for the marina office, where everybody met for beers and a chat. Very pleasant indeed.

 

Right next to the boat there were tarpon and mahi mahi swimming around, sometimes a pair of dolphins came by and our "favorite" pastime became the chasing away of pelicans. When sailing I had seen a big turtle, too.

 

Most of the people I met, were either directly or indirectly in the charter business or having their boats in the BVI more or less permanently. Not many real yachties seem to make it up there. Jean-Pierre Cauvy-Zaehringer had been all over French Polynesia, Brian had sailed his tiny Wharram catamaran all the way from South Africa and John had spent years and years cruising in the South Pacific.

 

All to soon my four weeks were up and to my dismay I realized that I hadn't gotten done anything. Most of that will have to wait until the next trip when we plan on sailing DHARMA BUM III down to Trinidad, where things like that are supposed to be cheaper. Before I go there, I will have to have my transmission fixed and my alternator replaced though. Ah, well... Boat-life, here we go again.

eMail / Blogs

For people who prefer eMail, there are a couple of groups they can subscribe to:

Leute, die eMail bevorzugen, koennen sich hier einschreiben:

 

Web: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/DharmaBum 

eMail: DharmaBum@googlegroups.com

 

Web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DharmaBum/ 

eMail: DharmaBum@yahoogroups.com

 

Web: http://groups.msn.com/DharmaBumIII/ 

eMail: DharmaBumIII@groups.msn.com

 

For people who prefer the web, there are a couple of blogs they can check out:

Leute, die das WWW bevorzugen, koennen sich diese Blogs anschauen:

 

http://www.wownet.net/~holger/blog/voyage.html or

http://mail.im.tku.edu.tw/~jacobsen/blog/voyage.html

 

http://www.wownet.net/~holger/blog/reise.html bzw.

http://mail.im.tku.edu.tw/~jacobsen/blog/reise.html 

 

Holger Jacobsen  S.V. DHARMA BUM III

Buying Our Future Home

On Saturday, 25 June 2005, I will fly to Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  I want to buy a Privilege 39 catamaran and start a circumnavigation as soon as the hurricane season is over.  I've been looking for more than two years for "my" boat and I have been living on land for almost 10 years.  I am very excited and wonder how it will turn out...

The Voyage of the DHARMA BUM III

Here I will post articles about the voyage with my Privilege 39 catamaran DHARMA BUM III.