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Puerto Rico to STT to BVIs

We arrived in Puerto Rico on Dec 3, 2017 to begin the preparation for launch and for motoring our boat over to St. Thomas for shipping back to Florida for our repairs and mast replacement. Today, it is Dec 31, 2017, Happy New Year as we are sitting off of Foxy’s at Jost van Dyke. We have been dealing with many situations few weeks and add in the fact that our ship has been delayed one month really threw us off our plan. But, as with most cruising situations, you need to learn to monitor and adjust and deal with whatever is handed to you as you cruise.  After busting our tails to launch, and prep the boat for travel, we found out the day we arrived at the shipping dock that our ship was delayed one month because none of the other 22 yachts could make it on time,. We were the only yacht ready for shipping, so they delayed the ship. At first, we were really frustrated and we wanted to cancel our deal. Guess what? You can’t, all you can do is wait for the ship. So, after a few seconds of disappointment we realized HEY, we are “Stuck” in the United States Virgin Islands, the USVI, and that is really not so bad. So we began our partial commissioning of our boat making it livable for the next month. This required getting a dinghy launched and rigged so we could get off the $100/day dock. Then we added canvas and the enclosure for shade and rain protection. Then we moved off the dock and anchored out in St. Thomas. NOW WHAT? Live the Island Life, that’s what.

What a life it has been. First off our buddy boats are here so we all gathered up for a swim off Honeymoon Beach, the site of our first Caribbean swim last year when we arrived. Next, we moved into town and dropped the hook right off the cruise ship docks because the Christmas Winds were kicking in at 25 knots, gusting 30. The great aspect of being on anchor in the Caribbean Sea is that the Tradewinds are ALWAYS from the East or NE or SE, always, always EAST. The fronts and squalls are always from the East. There are no fronts that spin you around to the SE, S, SW, W, NW, N and then NE like in the entire East Coast and the Bahamas. WOW, what a joy to be on anchor here in the Caribbean.  So the stage was set, we will stay here in STT, St. Thomas until the winds die down and enjoy Christmas on the hook and tour town and the island with our buddies. That is exactly what we did and it was wonderful.

When the winds calmed down, we made a motor run out to Buck Island and then to St. James Island to Christmas Cove where the famous Pizza Pi Boat serves great homemade pizza for $20.  We took the $1 bus (was actually $2) to Red Hook to see Island Yacht Charters and Skip and Andrea, the Island Packet Dealer. Their fleet of 15 Island Packet Yachts all have damages with 5 needing new masts and with every boat in need of fiberglass hull repair. They have full support from the Island Packet Yachts factory who will be sending a team of 3 people down from Largo, Florida to repair all the yachts. It will take most of the season to make repairs and they hope to have their fleet back up and running by April/May timeframe. This was difficult to see as we toured the area and saw just how destructive the hurricane was to so many places. This makes our damages very minor as we still have a boat that floats and we still have a full mast, just with damages. We are so lucky.

Now, after a few weeks in STT, we have cleared into the British Virgin Islands, the BVIs as we all call them. We motored over to Jost van Dyke where we cleared into the country and we are on a mooring ball off the world famous FOXYS where we will take in the wild fun New Year’s Eve party. We hear it is THE PLACE to be. As the new year begins, we will motor up to Leverick Bay in North Sound and reconnect with Michael Beans and his fun Pirate Show. We have helped him with some website work and we want to see the area and maybe even the Bitter End Yacht Club.

As for our nonprofit work, we have been giving away LUCI solar lights to many people in Puerto Rico who are without power. We have 5 left and we plan to give them away here on Jost. We can see so much damage to the structures and the landscaping, and we see yachts up on the rocks and beaches. These storms IRMA and MARIA have done so much damage, but the people are so strong and so positive that we are reminded of just how kind and wonderful the people of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are. They are rebuilding and they are survivors and the tourists are coming back. It will simply take years to rebuild all that was damaged.

Enjoy this photo essay of our time from Puerto Rico to BVIs.
CLICK IMAGE for screen size image.
Happy New Year Everyone!

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Our Mast Repair Decision

Our bimini frame blew apart, all antennas were broken, and the solar panels were ripped off by the 200 mph winds.

Radeen and I are soon heading back to Puerto Rico to begin the process of launching and working on mast repair of our Island Packet 35, Island Spirit. In May 2017, we stored the boat at Marina Puerto Del Rey, in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. This location on the eastern end of the island was only about 20 miles from where Hurricane Marina came ashore. We were first told that we had minor damages to the bimini frame, the solar panels and all antennas. We felt very lucky.

Looks like a small issue, but the spar company says it can not be repaired and it cannot be sailed due to the dent and damages!

When talking with Colin Mack at the Annapolis Boat Show, he wisely advised that we have a full rig inspection. On October 20, we received the report of mast damage at the port spreader, a crack in the mast at the masthead port side, and damaged standing rigging. Evidently, when the building behind us blew apart during the storm, the temporary sheet metal roofing flew off which hit our port side rigging and spreader so hard that it separated and broke the welded-on spreader base. The force pushed on the port side rigging enough to flex the upper shroud into the masthead slot, causing a crack the top of the mast.

Post-hurricane photo. The sheet metal roofing blew into our mast and did all the damage. This roof mentioned as a concern of mine before Hurricane Irma, but…

The estimate to repair these damages, along with the bimini, antennas, and rigging was estimated at $29,136. In any named storm, our deductible is raised to 10% so with our policy of $125,000 value that means the company subtracts $12,500 from the damage estimate. This left an insurance settlement of $16,636 to fix our boat. Now the challenges are how and where do we fix the boat? Hurricane Maria will cost us a minimum of this deductible and most likely much more.

As shown in our previous video, we looked at 4 options:

#1. Pull the mast, patch it, replace the standing rigging in Puerto Rico, and sail to Florida or to Antigua and replace the mast there.
#2. Order a new mast and rigging and ship it in to Puerto Rico.
#3. Launch the boat “as is” and motor it 1,000 nm NW to Florida or 238 nm ESE to Antigua to replace the mast.
#4. Ship the boat to Florida and have it repaired at Mack Sails in Stuart, Florida.

Each of these options was fully explored and evaluated.
Here are the numbers and the facts.

#1. Patching the mast and sailing under jury rig would NOT be covered by our insurance for any rig failure if a failure occurred. The cost to patch $2,000, the cost of new rigging $3,000, shipping rigging $500, total $5,500 to sail to a new location and then start over and rebuild. Because our mast is not made anymore, we would have the need to order NEW standing rigging again to match the new mast. We finally decided we will not sail uninsured.

#2. Shipping a mast into Puerto Rico costs $7,500 plus trucking of another $1,000, making this option $8,500. Shipping new OEM Seco South rigging into Puerto Rico was a cost of $500. So, just the shipping in of the parts needed equaled $9,000.  The timeframe would be 12 to 14 weeks due to FEMA using all the shipping capacity. No one could give us a definite timeframe to receive a mast. This option would have us repaired and sailing, at best, in mid March/April. And, the ultimate “what if?” is…. what if June 1 comes and we are still without a mast? We would have wasted a winter of sailing and be facing another hurricane season in Puerto Rico! Add in the cost of dockage at $1,200/month, plus a rental car, and this option was not looking good.

#3. Launch the boat and motor NW 1,000 nm to Florida or SE 238 nm to Antigua. (Note: Motoring without sails is not comfortable.) If we went to Antigua, we still have the shipping issue of getting a mast and rigging in a timely way, so motoring to Florida seemed to be the only choice. Our fuel range is 500 nm, so we would pull in and fuel up.   Fuel cost to Florida would be 1,000 nm at 5.5 knots equals 182 hours motoring. Our burn rate is 0.75 gal/hr, so 182 x 0.75 equals  135.75 gallons. Diesel fuel costs about $4.00/gal, so 135.75 x $4 equals $543 dollars of fuel. This is by far the most cost-effective way to go. However, we still did not want to risk an uninsured rig failure, so we eliminated this option.

#4 Shipping the boat back to Florida is a cost of $10,800! YIKES, that sounds crazy and we did not seriously consider it at first. However, when we compared this option to shipping the new mast and rigging to Puerto Rico at a cost of $9,000, we realized that $1,800 is the true net cost to put Island Spirit on a ship and send her back to Florida.

Since we do not want to have an uninsured rig failure, going to sea really was not a choice. This left us with two options. Stay in Puerto Rico and wait 12 to 14 weeks or longer for a mast OR spend $1,800 more and ship the boat to Florida.

This is the type of ship used by Sevenstar Yacht Transportation. Boats are lifted up with a crane and placed on the deck of the ship. Transit time between St. Thomas and  Florida is only3 days! Click the image to see the Sevenstar company website.

Our Decision to Ship

After much deliberation, we have decided to ship the boat and to work with our trusted friends and the quality team at Mack Sails. We know their work, we know they know the job. We have zero concerns about the quality of the materials and the work, so to us, this was the best option. Yes, it will cost us $1,800 more, but the extra cost is worth it to us. The only downside is that after the mast is replaced, we have to bash our way back down The Thorny Path 1,000 nm into the wind AGAIN. We did it once and we were not planning on doing it ever again. We figure that by the first of February Mack Sails will have  Island Spirit ready to sail. This is the fastest way to repair our boat, with the least amount of uncertainty and potential frustration.

So, stay tuned, we hope to take drone photos of Island Spirit on the ship! We will motor 44 miles to St. Thomas where we will meet the ship between December 10-20, the timeframe given by the shipping company. Once off-loaded in West Palm Beach, we will motor north to our favorite town in the USA, Stuart, Florida. We are looking forward to seeing many friends while at Sunset Bay Marina. And that will be the silver lining to our cloud!

Island Spirit’s wild ride will continue….

NOTE 1:
If all goes as planned, we should be repaired by February 1 at the latest. We hope to blast back to USVI and BVIs ASAP. There we will resume our planned project to help those in need. We hope to help at Foxy’s on Jost Van Dyke and at Cane Garden Bay on Tortola and in Virgin Gorda in March. Then we will move south as we plan to store in Grenada by the end of May.

Note 2:
Dec 2, 2017: Mack Sails HAS OUR MAST! See what I am talking about. Colin Mack placed out order immediately with Spar Craft, Charleston, SC as he wanted to get ahead of all the spar orders coming in from the Caribbean hurricane damages. These spar companies are backed up. Here we are, Colin Mack, has it, and now all we need to do is GET THERE, and we WILL.

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Mustang in Puerto Rico

While working on our first week of boat repairs after Hurricane Maria, Hertz gave us this 2017 Ford Mustang because they ran out of “normal” cars. Fine with us, we will take it! With 1,200 miles on it, very low cowlings and only getting 13 miles per gallon, this might not have been the best car for driving on an island with roads in truly terrible shape. But, we made the best of it! Please enjoy our two-minute video.

If you enjoyed that video, maybe you want to watch our other videos. We even have some SAILING videos! Imagine that. Check out all our videos here….

https://www.youtube.com/user/IslandSpirit35/videos

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Nonprofit Logo

Radeen and I are very excited to announce that our new nonprofit logo has been completed. Following the advice of another IPYOA member, we used the website Hatchwise.com and entered our logo ideas into their service. We elected the least expensive option and quickly received many renditions of our ideas.  We continued with one designer who eventually understood our goals. It became clear we were working with someone who did not speak English fluently. Explaining the idea of stick figures and also the words “Can Help” turned out to be a big challenge. The designer turned our ideas into this great logo and we are happy with it.

We have built our nonprofit idea a new website of its own. It has grown quickly and we felt it might get lost or confused in our sailing blog, svIslandSpirit.com. The new nonprofit website is hosted on our own server here:

http://EveryoneCanHelpSomeone.com

We have completed nonprofit corporation filing and have been awarded an EIN, a federal tax number. We have opened a business checking account and a business PayPal account. All the donations received have been transferred to the new bank account or new PayPal account. Our Patreon account is also connected to the nonprofit. Every dollar donated goes directly to the nonprofit corporation and is fully tax-deductible. All donations and purchases are listed here:

http://EveryoneCanHelpSomeone.com/donations

Thank you to all who have already donated, we really appreciate your support.

On December 3, we will return to Puerto Rico, taking with us 30 Luci Solar Lights to give to people who still do not have power in their homes. Our goal is to simply help one person at a time and so these 30 lights will help 30 people and their families. We are doing what we can with your help. As we sail into the USVI’s and the BVI’s and further south this winter, we will continue to help people affected by the hurricanes. As our logo presents:  Everyone = a family. Can Help = hammering, shoveling, painting. Someone = giving a simple gift. That is what our mission is all about. Helping One Person at a Time.

 

 

 

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2018 IPYOA Calendar Released

Today we have released our 15th annual Island Packet Yacht Owners Association Calendar. The diversity of the photos are interesting and the images are beautiful. This project takes me 3 days to create and about 20 hours of work and Radeen and I are really proud of this edition. The calendar is created and sold via our simple online store at www.Cafepress.com/IPphotos The calendar has a margin of $5 and this is used to offset the costs and the software subscriptions paid to run the serves at www.IPYOA.com. Our Island Packet Yacht Owners Association website is very active with nearly 3,000 members and the site serves nearly 20,000 web pages a month! Enjoy the site and enjoy the calendar.

Here are the images for this 2018 IPYOA Calendar

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Video: Our 2017 Goal

We created this intro video on our YouTube channel outlining the launch of svIslandSpirit and our plan to raise funds via Patreon. All the funds raised are NOT for us! We will be using the money to help people in need after the hurricanes in Puerto Rico, USVI and the BVIs. We hope we can help someone. That is our goal this 2017-2018 cruising season. Enjoy this 2-minute into., and please become a Patron and make a small donation. Thank you

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svIslandSpirit is Launched

Radeen and I have redesigned our ten-year blogger site and imported all the content into a our new WordPress site located on my own server at www.svIslandSpirit.com. Then we reworked our Twitter account and our Instagram account to reflect this new svIslandSpirit design. Next, we create a Facebook page for svIslandSpirit and published this with the same banner and profile picture. Our final step was to build a Patreon donation page where our followers can contribute to help us meet our new goals.The goal is to raise funds via our blogging, photo essays, and YouTube videos. Each time we produce new content, the Patreon members will make a contribution of their selection being $1, $2, $5, $10. As these funds build up, we will present a balance sheet under the donation menu link. The money raised is NOT for us. We will be giving away all the money to people and families and organizations that we discover who really need help after the destructive hurricanes of IRMA and MARIA. We are hoping to organize hundreds of our subscribers under Patreon generating funds to donate to those in need.

We hope you like our idea and we know people have enjoyed our blog for many years, now we are hoping to put this to work to help those in need.  Thank you for joining our team. Please look over all the new social media links above and Like and FOLLOW our accounts. We will do our best.