Monday, May 19, 2025

Idril's Winter Haulout, 2024 to 2025

Idril was hauled out for the winter in Portland, Maine, at the Maine Yacht Center. We had an enormous amount of work done on the boat. Here’s the list. Warning: this post is long, technical and frankly pretty boring, so if you're just here for sailing, you might want to skip it.

Propulsion

The Volvo D2-75 diesel engine was thoroughly overhauled (with about 2400 hours on the clock). Parts replaced included:

  • heat exchanger (found to have cracks)

  • starter motor

  • seawater pump


The alternator was cleaned and checked, and reinstalling it was a source of frustration for the yard. They left out a crucial bushing that isolates the alternator case from the engine block, causing a negative side electrical leak that took forever to find.


The mechanically-shifted gearbox (a ZF MS25A-A) was replaced with a hydraulically shifted gearbox (ZF 25A), and a shaft lock installed. We are hopeful that this will eliminate our frequent gearbox failures.



All three fuel tanks were drained and cleaned, and the remaining fuel polished before being returned to the tanks.

Electrical

All of the lead acid batteries in the boat were replaced. The 12V house bank is now a pair of Relion RB100 lithium batteries; I tweaked the output voltage of the 48V-to-12V converters to 3.75V to keep those new batteries fully charged.


I replaced the old Sterling 12V-to-24V battery charger with a Victron charger, which can be remotely controlled (by both Bluetooth and wire).


We added a battery balancer to ensure that all 4 batteries in the 24V bank (which powers our windlass, bow thruster, winches and capstan) remain healthy.


I ran monitoring and control wiring to the nav desk so that we can easily select how the 24V bank is charged, and monitor the balancer.


I replaced the Integrel SoC monitor for the 24V bank with a Victron shunt. If this works out well, we may eventually replace all of the Integrel SoC monitors (except on the 48V bank) with Victron shunts and add a Victron monitor and display.


We put in a switch to control the ventilation fan for the cockpit chart plotter. We added that fan after losing a chart plotter to excessive heat, but the fan makes just enough noise to be annoying, and we don’t need the fan unless we are in tropical waters. So now we can turn it off if it isn’t needed.


The MPPT solar charge controller failed last fall. Victron replaced it under warranty.


When the mast was removed, we discovered that the rats nest of wiring at the base of the mast wasn’t labeled; we fixed that. We also added a compact connector for the RADAR 10-conductor cable, so that it no longer has to be cut and respliced (yes, that’s right…) when the mast is removed.


Both compass lights had failed. Rather than continue replacing them with very expensive parts from Plastimo that don’t seem to last, I made up replacements with LEDs, twisted wire and sockets from Digikey for much less money. If the LEDs fail, I can now just plug in a new one.

Heating

We added a heater that uses waste heat from the engine to warm air in the saloon. We got this idea from other Garcia owners (hi, Brett and Nina!); it’s a great way to warm the interior of the boat without running the Webasto.


Speaking of the Webasto: I think I found the source of the undervoltage fault that bedeviled us last fall. The wiring I installed for the fuses was too small (AWG 12), resulting in a substantial voltage drop at 25A (which is what the Webasto draws at startup). The fuse was also a 20A fuse; while it wasn’t blowing, it was probably another source of resistance. I reran the wiring, shortening the runs by about half, increased the wire gauge to AWG 8, and put in a 40A fuse. This cuts the voltage drop substantially (though the wiring from the fuse block to the Webasto itself still seems undersized).


We fear that either the combustion fan or circulation pump may be failing, as we get scary sounds at startup, which disappear once the unit is warmed up. Time will, unfortunately, tell.

Anchoring

We replaced our 120 meters of galvanized chain with 100 meters of stainless steel (Cromox CXI-10 318LN, 10mm, ISO 4565, 30mm pitch) and 50 meters of nylon braid.  The old chain was in pretty bad shape after 4 years of heavy use.


Since having stainless steel in contact with the aluminum chain locker could cause galvanic corrosion, we lined the chain locker with heavy rubber sheeting. We also had a tube welded into the top of the locker to direct the chain to the middle of the locker, which will hopefully reduce the tendency of the chain to pyramid and collapse, trapping the chain and making it impossible to feed.


The pulpit had a very inconveniently-placed front crossbar that made access to the bowsprit (for anchoring operations or rigging the gennaker) difficult, so we had it cut off and replaced with a much lower crosspiece. 


We also had a bracket made for our stern anchor, and had it fitted to the port side of the pushpit. This will let us keep that anchor ready to go, and therefore much more likely to be used. We haven’t used it once in our first 4 years of sailing, entirely because it’s just so much work to deploy it. The bracket fixes that. 


To make that anchor easier to deploy by dinghy, we got 50 feet of high strength, lightweight G70 chain, with another 50 feet of nylon braid, to serve as the rode for the stern anchor.


The seal around the capstan had failed, which was probably a major source of the dampness we were experiencing in the sail locker. The motor housing was badly corroded (though still functional). The motor was replaced, and the capstan rebedded.

Rigging

This is the first time we’ve had the mast off the boat since the boat was launched in June 2020. This allowed a thorough inspection of the standing rigging. We had a rigger in Annapolis look at the rig (by going up the mast) in the spring of 2024, and he had some concerns, all of which turned out to be unfounded. The wire, turnbuckles, chain plates and other parts of the standing rigging are in good shape.


We did have some problems with halyard sheaves, and wound up having them all replaced with stronger sheaves.


All of the sails were taken off the boat to be cleaned and serviced. The sailmaker added some additional chafe protection to the mainsail to hopefully eliminate some wear spots that showed up. We’d love to replace the mainsail with a lighter, more modern fabric than the reliable-but-heavy Dacron, but that’s a project for another year.


We replaced nearly all of the running rigging, due to combinations of chafe, UV degradation, and just poor fitness to purpose (a bad choice of lines). Some of the attachments were altered to use soft shackles rather than simple knots; this makes it much easier to remove lines and get them back in exactly the same place later on. 


Two years ago we replaced the Facnor furler for the solent with a Schaefer furler, which has worked much better; we did the same this year for the staysail furler.


We had a storm jib fabricated by Onesail North Atlantic, on a continuous line furler, that we can rig using one of the spinnaker pole lines if we are expecting big wind. Katy made a new bag for it (similar to the bags she made for the gennaker and spinnaker). The torsion rod for the furler was unfortunately the wrong length; it’s being remade (in Italy…) and we will pick it up when we get to St. Peter’s in Cape Breton.


 We worked out a new scheme for putting reef 4 in the mainsail if necessary. There are several times when we’ve been in gale-to-storm force winds when we’ve really wanted reef 4.


There are now clutches on the side decks for our preventer lines. Up until now, the active preventer line was either cleat hitched to our aft docking cleat or (very rarely) left on a winch to be adjustable. Since the preventer is on the working (leeward) side of the boat, both winches were usually in use. This made properly tensioning the preventer very difficult. With the new clutches, we can temporarily take a sheet off a winch, put the preventer on the winch, tension it properly, then clutch it and put the sheet back on the winch.


To help with that, we had the Lewmar jammer clutches replaced with better quality Harken clutches, so that we can actually use the jammer to briefly hold a foresail sheet.


We’ve long wished that we had heavy duty, line-friendly toerails with lashing points (an option we didn’t realize we wanted until we started sailing the boat). We couldn’t get that after launch, but we could get a few strategically placed toerail pieces welded (forward and amidship)  to the decks. This was difficult and expensive, but we’re expecting it to be very worthwhile when using barber haulers and flying the spinnaker.


We had antifriction rings added to the lines for our courtesy flags and pennants to make them easier to change.

Hull and superstructure

The hull paint was stripped down to the base epoxy layers and recoated with Hempel Silic One, a non-toxic paint that works by making the hull simply too slippery for marine critters to attach to. We’ll see…


All of the anodes were replaced.


The centerboard was removed and all of the hardware (lines, bushings, blocks and spacers) were replaced. One of the lines had (unknown to us) failed, as had one of the bushings. It turned out that the replacement blocks we got from Garcia at launch were not the right size; MYC had to take the old hardware apart and rebuild it with new sheaves and axial center bolt. The good side of this is that the blocks are now serviceable, instead of having to be outright replaced. Garcia agreed to refund the money we spent on the original (wrong sized) spares.


The forward scan SONAR transducer was removed, and a blanking plug inserted. We never found the system to be very helpful, and it is a point of vulnerability for drying out the boat, or when traveling through ice. We also removed the electronics box that interfaced it to the chart plotter, cutting a small amount of power consumption out of the navigation network.


Our dorades have leaked since shortly after launch. It turns out that the sealing mechanism wasn’t very robust, and the cap that is supposed to seal the downtube was just tack welded at three points, making it easy to break if overtightened (which we did to one of the dorades). MYC rebuilt them, using stronger welds and adding a thicker rubber gasket.


The bottom edges of the bimini enclosure are attached to little plastic buttons that are screwed into the aluminum cockpit coaming. Garcia used aluminum screws (to avoid corrosion), but aluminum screws are prone to breaking under load (and many had). We replaced all of these screws with stainless steel screws, using Tef-Gel to prevent corrosion from dissimilar metals.

Lifelines, jacklines and handholds

We considered replacing our wire lifelines with dyneema, but ran out of time and money. We’d still like to do that in the future. We did make some changes to the rigid lifeline (rails, really) at the bow (as noted above), making it easier to work at the bowsprit without having to climb over a high lifeline.


We removed the long jacklines that ran from the bow to the stern on the side decks; since we added the coach roof jacklines, we basically never used them (and considered them unsafe). After cutting them down in length, we reran one at the bow on starboard to provide safety when moving forward of the mast. 


We had new anchor points added near the transom to make it easier to rig jacklines in the cockpit when foul weather is expected, and to set up a safety net at the transom for fishing.


We also had a grab rail welded to the stern just starboard of center to make it easier to catch the stern when approaching by dinghy.

Cushions, carpets and canvas

We had new cockpit cushions made by Brunswick Cushions, with stiffer foam and a more neutral color, and a slightly different design that we hope will make it easier to access the line pockets without damaging the cushions. 


S&S Fabric restuffed all the saloon cushions with stiffer foam to make them more comfortable. They did the same job 2 years ago when we were in Newport, but the foam they used just didn’t last. They graciously did the job over this winter for just the cost of the (newer, stiffer) foam.


All of the carpets and throw cushions went out to Bone Dry Carpets for cleaning; they really needed it.


The bimini and associated enclosure pieces (“the tent”) all went out for cleaning (to Sailmaking Support Systems) and repairs (to Hallett Canvas and Sails). The vinyl windows in the front three pieces of the dodger were replaced; they were very cloudy. Katy made replacements for all of the support straps for the bimini frame.

Safety equipment

Our primary EPIRB was due for service, so we took it to LRSE and had that done.


We replaced all the deployment mechanisms in our inflatable PFDs. They were ALL out of date - bad on us! We checked the dates on all the personal AIS beacons in our PFDs and made sure that they are good for a few more years.


Our throwable “horseshoe” float was somewhat UV degraded, so we replaced it. The vinyl bag on the Life Sling was also pretty badly worn, so we replaced it with a new canvas bag from Standout Yacht Fittings (which we treated with fabric protectant to hopefully increase its lifetime).


We got a new Garmin InReach Messenger (Iridium tracker and communicator) to allow us to put our trusty InReach Explorer Plus in the ditch bag. The Explorer Plus (sadly discontinued) is an absolutely ideal emergency communicator; it has a built-in GPS and does NOT need to be paired with a phone to send and receive messages. The Messenger is smaller, but has to be paired with a phone to be very useful. The Messenger will now be our in-cockpit tracker. IMO, it’s just criminal that Garmin dropped the Explorer Plus.

Plumbing

The aft black water tank had developed cracks (luckily on the TOP of the tank…), so we had it cut out of the boat and replaced with a new custom built and much sturdier tank, with a better shape. The plumbing from the aft head to the tank was rerouted such that we should no longer have sludge accumulating in the hose from the macerator to the “Y” connector just above the outgoing through-hull. The tank level sender was replaced; the original was hopelessly corroded.


The watermaker high pressure fittings (which had a slow leak in the feedwater side) were replaced, and we now have spares. We also replaced the chlorine flush water filter (which was a Jabsco “Aqua Filta”) with a standard 9.75” filter housing and carbon block filter cartridge. The proprietary Aqua Filta cartridges, while ubiquitous in Europe, are essentially unobtainium in the U.S.


Both fresh water tanks were steam cleaned.


We replaced the “curlycue” hose for the anchor washdown with a flat hose that should be a lot easier to handle.

Electronics

We removed the SSB transceiver from the boat, since we never used it. The space it took up at the nav station is now filled by a small Raspberry Pi and touchscreen, connected to our NMEA2000 instrumentation network. My hope is that I can spend some time writing code to extract useful information from the network that we just can’t get from our off-the-shelf chart plotters. We’ll see if I can actually make that happen/


Also in that space is a set of status lights for the Sonihull antifouling system, a warning light for the battery balancer, and a switch for selecting the charge source for the bow thruster batteries.


We replaced the VHF antenna with a Morad 159MHz VHF/AIS antenna, which is specifically designed to work well with both marine VHF channels and AIS. We switched the antenna cable from the RG-58 that Garcia insisted on using to LMR-400, which has much less signal loss.


The temperature portion of the Airmar speed/depth/temperature “triducer” had failed (a long time ago) so we replaced the whole unit. The new one has Bluetooth connectivity (FWIW...).


The button on the control knob of the AP44 autopilot controller at the starboard helm had become very difficult to press. I took the unit apart and cleaned it; it now works fine.

Other

Katy made MANY improvements to our storage spaces. The dropdown box under the cockpit (where we store our major first aid kit and some charts) was very heavy; Katy rebuilt it and made it lighter. She built custom inserts for many drawers, replaced many of our ad hoc storage boxes with more consistent boxes that use the space better and stack more securely, added hooks at several places, and more. 


Together we went through nearly all of the clothing, tools, spare parts, kitchen gadgets, books, etc. and eliminated redundant or simply unused stuff. We decided to stop carrying a paddleboard, as we rarely used it; this freed up a lot of space in the sail locker.  The boat is a little less full than when we unloaded it last November.


We finally put quick disconnects on all of the fans to make them easier to clean. The connectors I bought several years ago for this turned out to be easy to work with once I had access to a high quality soldering iron and “third hand” back at the Cape house.


The plush covers on our fenders were very worn, so we had new ones made by S&S.


The Velcro that attaches our bug screens to the window frames was fraying and starting to pull off, so we replaced it where necessary. We had a metal half-round installed at the base of the companionway that the magnets at the bottom of the doorway bug screen will stick to, giving us a better seal.


Katy made nonskid mats for surfaces all over the boat, including the cockpit table (which she also applied many coats of oil to).


I had all the boat documentation from Garcia scanned, and I put together a nice bound book containing all the electronic, rigging and other diagrams. The originals are now safely stored in Falmouth, and the bound replacement (with much better protection for the paper) now lives on the boat.


We updated all the Navionics chart plotter memory cards with the latest charts.


The welding and other work required the removal of a lot of ceiling panels. When we put them back up, we replaced some of the hidden screws (which were a royal pain) with attractive externally removable screws and washers.


WHEW!








Friday, January 26, 2024

Diving in Culebra, Puerto Rico

Quick catch-up: Idril arrived in the Caribbean in mid-October, 2023, with the Salty Dawg rally from Newport, RI.


 We spend most of a week on a dock in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua, getting the boat cleaned after her passage south and prepared to be left alone for a month.

Idril surrounded by super yachts in Falmouth, Antigua
 

We then flew to Boston to help Katy's father, Bob, during his recovery from knee surgery. We spent a lovely Thanksgiving in Vermont at Alison's parents home, then got to join Dan and Sue in Acton for their annual veggie Thanksgiving party. 

After that, we stayed at Bob's apartment in Canton. Aside from an outing to the Revels dress rehearsal, we didn't get to see very many friends while there; we were pretty consumed with Bob. But we did get to spend Christmas at the Cape with much of the Petersen clan.

Christmas eve


Christmas dawn

We flew back to Antigua after Christmas and were relieved to find that the Idril was fine after her longer-than-expected abandonment. She had grown a serious beard of barnacles and green slime; we had divers clean her up before we got underway again.

To get back in the groove, we sailed clockwise about halfway around Antigua, with a stop at St. Johns for reprovisioning, then hopped north to Barbuda. 


 

There we got in a bit of snorkeling, a visit to the frigate bird nesting ground, and a hot, dusty walk to the amazing Darby sinkhole. 

 


We also stripped and lubricated our main winches, a long-overdue piece of maintenance.

Katy cleaning winch parts

Next stop: St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. We passed a pleasant week snorkeling in the familiar reefs around the island. From there we headed south to Frederiksted, on the west coast of St. Croix, for a week of diving with Nep2une Divers. Then: on to Culebra, in the so-called "Spanish Virgin Islands" (actually part of Puerto Rico).

Now that we're caught up, I'll get to the heart of this posting.

We did three dives with Culebra Divers, a small, family-run dive shop on Culebra.The first dive was nice, but due to the high winds we've been having, suffered from limited visibility. But the next two dives were fantastic! The reef on the west side of Culebra is one of the healthiest, prettiest reefs I've ever seen. And the dive leaders, Trevor and Meg, took some wonderful pictures. We don't have an underwater camera, so I've never been able to share just why we are so enthusiastic about diving and snorkeling.

Here we go.

Queen Triggerfish

Southern stingray

Green sea turtle

Trumpetfish 

a very large French angelfish

Giant anemone with two squat anemone shrimp

Spotted Moray eel

Sennett (I think...)

There are some more pictures in this album.

Besides doing some great diving, we both did the online and practical training to become certified to use "Nitrox", an air mixture that enables divers to stay longer at depths that would otherwise risk decompression illness ("the bends"). We don't know when we'll use that, but it's now in our quiver if we need it.

-- Jerry


Sunday, December 25, 2022

Using CBP ROAM to enter the U.S. by boat

Katy and I just re-entered the U.S (well, Puerto Rico, which has an unusual status, but basically counts...), and in doing so learned a few things about the process.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has an app to simplify arrival of pleasure boats into the U.S (and territories, such as Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands): CBP ROAM. It requires:

  • a cell phone or tablet running Android or iOS
  • an account at login.gov
  • for vessels over 30 feet in length, a current DTOPS decal

You will also want some means of setting up 2 factor authentication: a text message to your phone, an authentication app, etc.

Start by getting a DTOPS decal (if your boat is big enough to need one). These have to be delivered to a physical mail address, but you can use the receipt number generated by the DTOPS web site temporarily until the decal arrives. In theory, you need to carry the decal on your boat; in fact, just having the decal number lets you register with CBP ROAM.

Next, set up the account at login.gov. If you are a member of a "trusted traveler" program (such as Global Entry or TSA Pre) you probably already have one.

Once you have done that, download the CBP ROAM app for your device and create an account. This entails setting up profiles for each vessel (including the name, registration, year, make and model, length, DTOPS decal number, flag) and each crew member (name, birth date, passport details, etc.).

Having all this set up, you are now prepared for a streamlined arrival process into the U.S.

  • Open the CBP ROAM app, log in, and click the "Report Arrival" button.
  • Select your "Mode of Travel" (put a check next to the boat you're on, and click continue).
  • Wait while the app uses your devices location services to figure out where you are (more on this later).
  • Enter the "Arrival Details" (where you're arriving, where you're coming from, and various declarations) and click continue.
  • Select a boat "Master" from the people whose details you have set up, and click continue.
  • Select crew in the same manner, and click continue.
  • Review the information, and click submit.

You'll get an "arrival number", and after an indeterminate interval, your arrival will either be rejected (you'll get email telling you this) or you'll get a phone call from a pleasant CBP official. You'll be asked to confirm the information you provided via the app, and, assuming all is well, be told that -- you're in! It's great - there's no need to actually show up with passports at the CBP office.

HOWEVER - important detail. You must not submit an arrival request until you are "close" to your port of entry. I don't know how "close" is defined, but I do know that when I submitted a request for Culebra (in Puerto Rico) from just west of St. Thomas (about 15NM from Culebra), we were "too far" away. I tried again when we were entering the channel into Ensenada Honda (about 2.5NM from Culebra) and was successful.

This is way better than taking your boat papers, passports, and crew to an actual CBP office. Thank you, CBP!

UPDATE, September 2023

The app has recently stopped working on Android; there are many complaints on the Google Play store about this. For our most recent entry into the U.S., I had to download the app onto my iPad and us it from there. This meant re-entering all the vessel and passenger data, as it's stored on the device, not the CBP servers. Once I did that, I could create an arrival as before. 

 On the plus side - we were able to enter (from Canada) at Chatham, Massachusetts, which is NOT an official port of entry. Your mileage may vary...

Monday, July 25, 2022

Hmm - are the tabloids turning on Trump?!?

 Seen today in the checkout line:




Thursday, January 6, 2022

Welcome to the western hemisphere

Katy, Idril and I arrived in Guadeloupe on January 2, 2022. We're currently (as of January 6th) in Marina Bas-Du-Fort on Guadeloupe. More once we have gotten a bit more settled. 

 And here's the promised update (January 16, 2022). 

 We left Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands on Saturday, December 11, 2021, around 11AM. The boat was loaded with fresh fruits and veggies, lots of UHT milk and gobs of other dry goods. The sturdier perishables were stowed in mesh nets under the arch at the stern.

We began by sailing southwest along the coast of Tenerife, giving us one last view of the mountainous interior.


El Teide

Our track out of Santa Cruz

 We had fairly light winds for most of the trip, allowing us to use our Oxley Levante spinnaker for days at a time. We had tried to use this sail a few times before this crossing, with less than wonderful results; we were having a bit of buyer's regret about it. But it proved its worth on this passage! We could keep sailing essentially dead downwind in as little as 7 knots of wind, and we felt comfortable keeping it flying in up to about 18 knots. It took us a while to get it dialed in, but it was certainly worth the effort.

Notice our courtesy flags dangling limply on the starboard spreader...

The other sails we used a lot on the crossing were our main (prevented out, at angles between perhaps 135 and 165 degrees off the wind) and our trusty gennaker.

Sunset and gennaker

We didn't see as much sea life as we had hoped to on the crossing. In the first week, near the Canary Islands and Capo Verde, we had a few dolphin escorts. But our ever present companions were the flying fish -- the centerpiece of the burgee of the Ocean Cruising Club. They would burst from the surface, alone or in schools (flocks?), day and night. Some inevitably, and sadly wound up on our decks, especially at night, and we would find them in the morning, well and truly dead. :-(

Our constant reward for the passage was the skies - gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, and day after day of puffy white clouds surrounded by deep blue. The nights brought stars, moonlight on the water, and the Geminid meteor shower.

It was a long trip: 22 days, and, according to our chart plotter's log, close to 3000 nautical miles (over 5550 kilometers, or about 3450 statute miles). 


 

By the time we made landfall in Guadeloupe, we were both ready for it.

 

Land ho! La Desirade in the early morning light.

Unfortunately, Guadeloupe wasn't quite ready for us. We had made a reservation at the marina in St. Francois, on the eastern end of Grande-Terre, for "early January." Well, we arrived on Sunday, January 2 -- and the marina staff were all out on vacation. We had no idea where to park the boat, and as we approached the marina, our gearbox went wonky on us, as it has been doing for a few months -- always at inopportune moments. "Wonky" here means "sometimes doesn't go into forward gear on the first, or second, or perhaps third try." This is, er, a complication when attempting to maneuver in a tight marina in high winds. After several rather anxiety-filled minutes, we wound up squatting in a slip that belonged to a "day party" boat which we hoped would not return until the late afternoon.

SO - we spent a few hours cleaning the boat (it was thoroughly salt-encrusted after 3 weeks at sea), then cast off our lines and headed for the anchorage just outside the marina.

The anchorage was incredibly crowded, and we just could not get our anchor to set. On our fifth try, it held -- but we settled squarely into the entrance channel to the marina. When Katy attempted to raise the anchor, the windlass jammed. So here we were, stuck smack in the middle of a narrow, active channel, with an inoperative windlass.

I went below to the chain locker, and discovered that the chain had piled up into a pyramid sometime prior to the crossing, and then collapsed sometime during the passage, trapping the chain. I was able to just pull the chain out of the locker and pile it on the floor of the forward head until the chain was clear. Katy then got the chain back into the windlass's gypsy, and we were able to move again.

By this time, it was late afternoon, and we were just not in the mood to try this anchorage again, so we sailed about 8 nautical miles further west to Anse de Sainte Anne, a blessedly almost-empty anchorage, where our anchor held on the first try. We set the anchor, shut down the engine -- and then sat on the swim platform, dangling our tootsies in the warm Caribbean waters for the first time (at least aboard Idril). Relief!

The view from the swim platform

We stayed on anchor for 2 nights, getting a lot of sleep and enjoying sharing a bed again; while on passage, someone has to be on watch at all times, so we sleep alone.

On Tuesday morning (January 4th) we set off west again, bound for Marina Bas-Du-Fort in the middle of the butterfly that is Guadeloupe. 

Katy, with the southern coast of Grand-Terre behind her.

And here we are. 

Our course across the Atlantic

 

There's more to report, but this will do for now. Happy 2022 to all!

(More pictures, mostly of skies, here.)