N. Atlantic: Anchor Down - San Juan, PR

I Had an early lunch at "Mamacita's" on the small island of Culebra then left for the north coast of Puerto Rico.

The winds and swell are strong Northerly, so it was a rough ride up to the pass.

But once I got around the top of the NE corner of Puerto Rico, I could head more Westerly and along the swell.

The wind was NE 20 knots and was on the beam most of the way which causes some uncomfortable heeling.

I averaged 7.5 knots and an at anchor right in front of the "Sizzler steak house" which is known for the terrific salad bar. Photos: Mike in Culebra.




Mike Harker
S/V Wanderlust3

North Atlantic: Antigua to St. Barts

Just at sunset I left English Harbor and sailed along the east coast of Antigua towards St. Barts. I should arrive mid morning.

I will meet with Richard Spindler (Publisher Latitude 38 Magazine) and stay one night in Gustava.

I got my impeller pump replaced but could NOT fix the F-P generator nor do I have a reserve alternator. Hunter sent a reserve alternator on Thursday 'overnight' but it will not arrive until Sat and they don't deliver until Monday.

I left without a replacement alternator and hope my provisional repair and re-wire holds until I get into Miami. I have only the Balmar alternator on the Yanmar engine to charge batteries, but I am confident in my own repair and trust it will hold.

I will keep a running log each day.

Mike
S/V Wanderlust 3
BOTY

Antigua: English Harbor - Anchor Down!

With 35 - 40 knots of wind, rain and lightning all around for 5 hours, I could not see land within 10 miles of Antigua.

5 miles from English Harbor, the sky turned blue and the sun came out! What a terrible welcome, storm and lightning windward of the French Islands of Martinique and Guadalupe.

I don't get along with the French anyway and a little storm and lightning won't change my appraisal of the French. All the better to be welcomed by sunshine and happy people.

The entrance to English Harbor was so dangerous that I went around the corner to Falmouth Harbor where all the 'Super-Yachts' park.

I will go back to English Harbor after the storm.


Tomorrow the Yanmar mechanic comes aboard with new parts and I will have internet to send out some photos.

Mike Harker
WanderLust 3
Hunter 49 BOTY

North Atlantic: Position Report

Wed 16 Jan 09:00 UT
10* 10' N X 47*10' W

I am 900 miles SE of Antigua and now that I am in the Trade Winds I am making better than expected progress.

The winds are weak, 10 -12 knots from the ENE, but I have the main up to second reef and the stay-sail down wind, but I have the Genoa out into the wind on the Selden Graphite pole giving me the "Wing-on-Wing" effect so that I can maintain 7 knots.

At this rate I will be at anchor in Antigua in 5 days. I may be just in time for the famous "Steel Band Sunday Afternoon Party" at Shirley Heights. At any rate I am ahead of schedule.

I only run the engine in neutral at idle, about 900 - 1000 rpms, just to top off the batteries for 3 hours a day. Because I do not have the use of my F-P generator, I can only charge the battery system with the engine alternator, and it is re-wired provisionally just to get me into port.

Needless to say, I am doing everything cautiously, I can not afford another breakdown, I have no reserves. But I am sailing well, fast and smooth.

The GRIB weather files show the wind and weather to be constant for the next week, typical trade winds, and I am happy to be in them.

Mike Harker
WanderLust 3
Hunter 49 "BOTY"

Atlantic: Crossing the Equator

00* 00' S/N Latitude, the Equator. This afternoon at 30* 00' W Longitude, I crossed the equator.

That ends 10 months of Southern Hemisphere cruising.

I originally crossed from N to S near Ecuador in South America. I then sailed in the South Pacific, Tasman Sea, Coral Sea, Timor Sea, Southern Indian Ocean, South Africa and finally the South Atlantic.

I am now back in the North Atlantic Ocean from where I started, March 15, in the Miami.

My next waypoint is 2200 miles in the Caribbean Sea, Antigua. I have sailed to Antigua 3 different times.

When I anchor in English Harbor again, I will have crossed my own route on the world map for my own personal circumnavigation!

That was half with the Hunter 46, 'WanderLust 2", and this half with the new Hunter 49, 'WanderLust 3'.

When I get the H-49 back to Miami in 3 weeks, We will both celebrate our "Around-the-Globe" circumnavigation!

I am making good time despite the fact that I am sailing and motoring VERY cautiously so as not to damage my provisional repairs.

In just under one week I made the 1100 mile voyage from Ascension to my waypoint on the equator, which keeps my yearly average above 1000 miles a sailing week.

6 - knots average speed
x 24 - hours in a day = (144 miles)
x 7 - days in a week = (1008 miles)

I have been averaging over 7 knots a week = (168 x 7 = 1176 miles)

I once averaged 1398 miles in a week = 200 miles a day!

The wind is a constant 8 - 12 knots from SE. I am sailing at 300 degrees NW, so that is exactly 'downwind'.

I have been sailing with the Parasailor for 4 straight days and nights, only adjusting to wind direction once or twice a day.

I expect -0- wind for a few hundred miles when I get into the "Doldrums".

They lie around 3 - 6 degrees N latitude, so I will run the engine and the main sail at second reef to keep the boat from rolling so much.

As a celebration when I crossed the equator, I showered on the stern step, then shaved my beard and head with the electric razor trimmer at position #1.

It will all grow back in a couple of weeks.

My schedule looks good. 2200 miles to Antigua puts me there 24 Jan, St Barts 28 Jan. 1200 miles to Miami puts me in Miami Feb 9 or 10. The boat show starts Feb 12.

Mike Harker
WanderLust 3
Hunter 49
www.H-TV.com

South Atlantic: Ascension Island

Jan 2, 2008 5 pm Ascension Island, South Atlantic

After getting 400 liters of diesel fuel at the military base on Ascension Island, I left after 4 hours for Antigua. Ascension was not really worth the stop! There is nothing here worth seeing, the facilities are terrible and the people are not even nice. And no working internet!

There are less than 1000 people here and over 90% are with the US or English military or their families. I do not recommend a stop for anything but fuel, and that is almost torture. You have to anchor way out and get down your own dingy, there are no ferry boats. The 'pier' is not protected from the swell and it was running 10 feet.

You have to time your landing with the up swell, grab a hanging rope and jump out of your dingy with the painter onto the piece of concrete slap. There are no taxis and the fuel station is 2 miles up in the hills. I have eight 20 liter jerry cans! I finally walked up into the 'Town' but it only has about a dozen buildings.

I was able to talk a young military guy with his pickup truck into taking me up to the fuel station. He was very nice and helpful, from Virginia! You can only imagine how difficult it was to get the 8 full jerry cans back into the dingy, with a 10 foot swell running, and that 3 different times!

Antigua is my next stop, about 3300 miles NNE. I am predicting about 3 weeks. I have to sail and motor cautiously because of the 3 temporary repairs I have done myself. The Yanmar engine has a leak in the salt water impeller pump I fixed with a screw and some 5200 sealant, the Balmar alternator had to be re-wired to by-pass the regulator, and the Fischer-Panda generator does not turn on power because I got some salt water on the mother board from the water leak.

When I cross the equator into the North Atlantic in 1000 miles, I expect to get into the "Doldrums", a band of weather 500 miles wide with NO WIND! I expect to motor sail. That is the reason I stopped inn Ascension, to fill up all my reserves of diesel fuel. It would be the only reason I would recommend stopping there to anyone else.

Mike Harker
s/v Wanderlust3

Atlantic: Water Leak

On his way to St. Helena, Mike ran into a bit of problem. Here is his story. --TSCtv.

I was really worried when the "High Water" alarm went off. I hurried down the stairs to look in the bilge and when I saw the water up to the floorboards, I shouted "Oh my God, I'm sinking!!!!"

The first thing I did was shut off the engine, then I went around to close ALL the through-hull seacocks. I went back to the manual bilge pump and started pumping out the sea water, but it was too slow. I then got out my hand pump and buckets and pumped the bilge water into the buckets and threw the water overboard. With most of the water overboard I went around looking for leaks.

When I lifted the engine cover, there was dried salt all around the alternator area and a water stream coming up into the alternator from somewhere under it. I took down the stairs and laid them in the forward cabin, then took off the engine cover to get to the alternator. After removing the alternator, I found the leak.

A steady stream about the force of a kid peeing was coming up out of the salt water impeller pump. Not from the two hose connections on the pump, but from the curve of the metal casing of the pump itself.

Now what do I do, I have to stop the leak? I got out the Yanmar book and found the page where it shows the impeller pump connection into the intercooler. I unscrewed the drain plug from the intercooler to drain all the water from above the pump, that stopped the water flowing from the leak. How do I plug or fill the hole?

I thought of screwing a stainless self-taping screw into the hole, then surrounding the screw with 5200 sealant. That seemed to work. I rinsed off most of the salt from the exterior of the engine around the leak area and got out my reserve spare Balmar alternator I bought just for such emergencies.

I pulled out the old alternator and laid it out on the floor with all wires showing. I put the new alternator next to it, then started exchanging wire connections. I could see the salt covering the interior of the old alternator. I put the new alternator on with a new drive belt and tried to start the engine. It would turn over but would NOT start. I ran the battery down trying, so I went to start the Fischer-Panda generator, but the remote switch would not even light.

I was in trouble! No engine, no generator, no wind to sail and a leak in my boat in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean a thousand miles from any land, half-way between Brazil and Africa. The only civilization was the island of St. Helena, about 500 miles north of me. That is where the British interned Napoleon after he lost at Waterloo. That was the most distant place from any other land on earth they could find.

I got out the SAT phone and called Hunter Customer Service. Then I called you (Greg Emerson of Hunter Marine). You were terrific. You got me in a conference call with your specialist, Joe Kerr, then with the Yanmar distributor and finally Fischer-Panda. Somehow, with about 300 minutes of SAT phone time, Karl from Yanmar finally found a way for me to start the engine after other attempts failed.

With the engine running, there was no charge power from the Balmar alternator. A SAT phone call to Dale English of Balmar in Texas got the right man. He talked me through re-wiring the alternator to by-pass the regulator and, with 2 pieces of wire and some crimp connections, I was able to use the internal regulator.

After 2 days of drifting in the South Atlantic, I finally had the leak fixed and the engine running. At just above idle, not to overwork the alternator, I was able to bring back charge to my depleted battery bank of 900 amps, down to only 110 amps left. I had to use my Honda generator to keep the start batteries charged, but that worked fine.

After 3 days of slow motoring, I was able to drop anchor in Jamestown Bay, St. Helena on the day before Christmas. I was relieved. "Ann's Place" offered all the sailing cruisers a get-together Christmas dinner for free, just bring your own booze. I brought the gallon jug of aged Panamanian rum a guest had left aboard to the party. That was a hit! I e-mailed all the contacts you gave me but I only got replies back saying "Closed for the holidays, will be back in the office after Jan 2."

Because St. Helena does NOT have an airport to fly parts into, I left yesterday for the island of Ascension, about 700 miles distant. There is a small contingent of US and English military communication experts there, but not much else. But Ascension does have an airport. If I think I need to stop and get a replacement impeller pump and alternator-regulator flown in, I will. That could take days, if not weeks. Remember the 3 week wait for a new alternator in Galapagos?

If my alternator keeps charging and the impeller pump leak I repaired still holds, I think I will continue to Antigua where they have both a Yanmar and Fischer-Panda mechanic and get all three repairs done professionally. However, that is over 4000 miles with no working generator, an amateur repair job on the pump leak and a re-wired provisional repair to the alternator/regulator. It will be a risk!But I really want to get to Miami for the Boat Show. A delay in Ascension waiting for parts would put a Miami arrival in time for the boat show out of reach.

Mike Harker

s/v Wanderlust3

Tuesday Jan 1 - Happy New Year!

I am 170 miles from Ascension, and will arrive at daybreak tomorrow. My primitive repairs are holding and working well. I will leave Ascension after getting fuel. It is 3300 miles to English Harbor Antigua. When I arrive in 3-4 weeks, it will be my personal circumnavigation. From there it should be less than 2 weeks to Miami by way of Tortola BVI and above Nassau. I am on schedule for an arrival on Feb 12 into Miami. Let's hope everything runs as well as it is.