Perigee Sailboat

Skipper's Log  >>> Friday 05-Sep'18   Google image of moorings Kralendijk, Bonaire  We went for a supervised shore dive with Pamela, an Instructor from Dive Buddy Resort. While underwater, the skies unexpectedly darken, and the seas get lit up like giant flash-bulbs - lightning somewhere nearby, which was not in the forecast. Sensing more than hearing deep rumbles all around, we could then see rain pelting the surface above, wind rippling across in waves. My only thought was "I hope Perigee is OK by herself".   We got back to PERIGEE as soon as possible afterwards, and the wind has swung SouthWest, which was pushing PERIGEE towards shore. Any further westerly swing, and we would be touching bottom in the shallow mooring field. There was no choice to be made - we must go!!!   As Dave was holding Perigee's stern off with the dinghy revving full out in the growing winds, Leanne made Perigee ready for sea. (We keep he

It's time to put new anti-fouling paint on Perigee, so we arranged to be hauled out of the water at Curacao Marine. The process will take about a week. Out on Monday morning and 'splash' back on Friday afternoon. We've arrived early and are having a couple of days on the dock for some minor boat projects - like fixing the air-conditioning. Here is the view from the cockpit. Our water hose runs all the way to the pedestal circled in red. Approximately 20 meters to the bow of the boat and the power cable runs to the pedestal circled in yellow to the stern of the boat. We feed the water hose in through the galley porthole (kitchen window) and use the sun heated water for our dishes. This saves us from having to run the water-maker in the marina. Generally the sea water quality is pretty poor in marinas and Curacao Marine is no different. Being in a Marina means not facing into the wind and not having those lovely over the water cooling breezes, however it does mean th

  Willemstad Harbour The flag I have always been fascinated by flags and try to recognise as many as I can. It is useful as boats are required to fly their National Ensign / flag of registration. Often cruisers will fly a small country flag on the port flag halyard indicating their nationality if it is not the same as the place the boat is registered. So for example you could have a Swiss guy married to a Belgium living on a Panamanian registered vessel with guests from England and France. They would fly the Panamanian flag at the stern and could fly a Swiss, Belgian, UK (or English) & French flag on the port flag halyard. The starboard flag halyard is reserved for the country courtesy flag. Flag flying on boats is steeped in history, tradition and maritime law. Knowing the meaning of a flag is not only interesting but it helps me to recongnise it too. The Curaçaoan flag is blue with a horizontal yellow stripe slightly below the midline and two white, five-pointed stars .

Harry Honda is our trusty electric start 9.9 hp, 4 stroke outboard motor. We bought Harry in Newport, Rhode Island shortly after we bought Perigee (October '16) and while we were not looking for a 4 stroke electric start motor, Harry had been abandoned by his previous owner after just 20 hours of use and was available at the right price. Dave wanted a 2 stroke 15 hp motor but 2 stroke motors are no longer available in the US. I was not disappointed with Harry, he is a quiet running, sweet smelling, push to start motor in an attractive silver colour that matched the dinghy. Not that colour matters. We take delivery of Harry and the dinghy Nov '16 In April 2017 while in Bequia, St Vincent & the Grenadines we decided to get protective chaps made for our dinghy. So that Harry did not feel left out we had a little coat made for him too. Doesn't he look smart in blue? Maybe colour does matter! New look Harry in blue. Harry has been running pretty much trouble fr

A day in the life I was chatting to a friend on Messenger a week or so back and she asked “So what do you do all day besides clean?” A very good question I thought. Granted there is a lot of cleaning involved but much else happens. Thanks Cath for the question. I thought I’d share a couple of examples. There is no typical day on board. It really depends what ‘mode’ we’re in. Boat project mode, on the dock mode, on anchor mode, on holiday (need more of this), provisioning, planning etc etc etc. One thing I hadn’t expected was just how social every day would be. Wherever we go we have friends, whether we’ve met them yet or not. We belong to the Amel community . Amel owners are generally very friendly and helpful. We all love our boats and our boats are very similar. There were not so many changes made in the 480 hulls that where made. We belong to the Ocean Crusing Club (OCC) and can recognize each other by the burgee (flag) with the flying fish which w

What kinds of things do we do when we stop-over in port for a service stop? Well, after any necessary repairs, we start with changing the fluids and filters for the Onan generator, the Yanmar engine and the Hurth ZF gearbox. We also replace the coolant, and inspect the impellers for the raw-water pumps. After attending to any other items of routine periodic maintenance that are due, or nearly so, we look to upgrades and improvements. Onan gets a makeover Here, we see the newly installed stop-cock (red handle, bottom), on the sea-water intake for the Onan generator, with a see-through strainer (center) to catch any blades that may break off the impeller. It's important to know if the impeller is damaged, and makes it much easier the retrieve any broken bits than if they are allowed to escape downstream in the cooling circuit. We want to try this On Sunday we join some other cruisers for a drive up the Atlantic coast of Martinique. The trade-wi