Yes, you read it correctly on our ‘current location’ posting… we are still in St Martin and still dealing with our rudder issue! Last Friday, after a day of breakneck speed trying to get the new rudder mounted back on the boat and connected, and a quick coat of antifouling paint, we splashed in the water moments before the yard staff headed home for the weekend. I promised one of the employees, Melvin, a beer when we were all done. After all, he played the lead on this day to get the new rudder, complete with new bushings, rudder stop bar, and cabling, installed before 5pm, skipping his afternoon ‘tea’ break to make it happen. Hanging out on a floating boat, drinking beers with several of our friends, and knowing that we could now start on our trip again, it couldn’t get any sweeter then this! The next few days were supposed to be blustery and high swells beyond St Martin, so we chose a short hop to the neighboring harbor of Simpson Bay, still on the Dutch side. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. As we motored out of the Philipsburg harbor, I tried my best but could not ignore the fact that the boat was being pulled strongly to port as we motored. If I steered to port, she headed that way with ease; if I steered to starboard, I really needed to muscle the wheel over and hold it firmly. Something was clearly not right with the new rudder. I didn’t want to face any more bad news – denial seemed like a better plan – but when Karen took the wheel, she brought some reality to the scene and we agreed that it would be foolish to go on with a boat that couldn’t steer straight.
With spirits dashed, we headed back to the dock at Bobby’s Marina for what promised to be a long, lonely weekend. At various times, we each tried to boost the morale of the others, but Karen did the best job of bringing us out of our collective funk. She suggested we spend one night anchored out in the harbor away from the marina, feeling the cool, mosquito-free breezes and the peaceful lapping of the water on the hull. It was a moment’s glimpse back to the cruising world, a world that we had to remind ourselves we only left two weeks ago, but continued to stay out of our reach. In our excitement after the launching, we had radioed our rally friends, who were in various attractive destinations down island such as Nevis, Martinique and Dominica, and told them the good news that we were on our way to catch up to them. Now, it would be even longer before we caught up with them. It took all the strength we could muster to keep from dwelling on the negative. The kids were particularly upset, especially Zack. This was one of those challenging times as a parent, when you feel the same pain that your children feel, but you need to stand tall, ignore the feelings you might harbor inside, and be a good example to help them through it. We’ll need some more practice at this!
On Monday morning, I shared our situation with the yard manager, Graham. Thankfully, he reassured me that the yard would do whatever it took to correct the problem, at their expense. Once again, our boat was hauled out that morning. Sorry, I have no pictures of the haul out. We were too depressed to photograph the event! As soon as Thalia was clear of the water, a gaggle of marina staff gathered behind the rudder to inspect the situation. But, no committee was needed to determine the cause. The rudder was clearly misshaped, with a noticeable twist at the bottom. One side of the rudder was more flat then the other, which had the same hydrodynamic effect of an airplane wing, pulled the rudder strongly to one side. That was the technical aspect of the situation, but we had to endure a political aspect as well. Details on how the project had unfolded for the last two weeks became more evident. From the very beginning, Graham had a clear idea of how to build us a new rudder and it was part of the reason we had come to Bobby’s – he instilled considerable confidence in me as he discussed his approach to building a better rudder than the original. However, the head of the shipwright shop, Tim, where the work would actually be done, had a slightly different plan. Without going into great detail, Tim’s plan involved more injected foam and less framing. Graham and Tim had locked horns over their two approaches, but in the end Graham let Tim run with his idea. Adding more to the problem was the fact that Graham was out sick for several days afterwards. Having been a manager, I completely understood Graham’s predicament. From time to time, I had a different idea on how to do a project than one of my team leads, and I had to make a decision about how important it was to stand my ground. You walk a fine line as a manager because you don’t want to have to resort to the ‘command and control’ management style. It is much better to have a ‘collaborative’ style, where, if necessary, you guide your team to the best way of doing something. However, sometimes a lead has a strong opinion that differs from you, and you need to let nature takes it course. Sometimes they are on to something, sometimes not. This is what Graham told me he did, and I felt his pain. It was clearly evident Tim’s approach had not worked, but as his manager, Graham had ultimate responsibility and took the heat. Don’t think for a minute that being a manager is easy, with many leisurely afternoons on the golf course!
So, we have now been in the yard for another week, and Graham has taken complete control over our second new rudder. Even though he’s the yard manager, he’s been doing almost all of the construction of the new rudder himself. We may or may not be going in the water today, but either way, I know for sure that we’ll have a rudder that revivals a fine Swiss watch in it’s quality. If you are interested in some of the details of the rudder construction, here’s some pictures and commentary.
First, they started with a better metal framing than the original Jeanneau design. Shown above is the original round rudder post with a new grid work of stainless steel bars welded to the bottom of it. The original rudder had only three perpendicular bars and no grid structure. This new design was infinitely stronger than the original.
This was the first attempt at the rudder, using a wood mold to hold injected foam around the rudder post/grid. You can see in this picture that the mold is sagging, even before the foam was injected. I noticed this at the time, but thought they would grind and fill as needed afterwards to make the rudder straight. They did do a lot of grinding, but evidently the rudder was enough out of alignment that only so much of the shape could be corrected.
After much debate between Graham and the marina manager, Jeff, they decided it would be easiest to simply scrap the old rudder, except the rudder post/grid, and start anew. Graham first took two sheets of plywood and, after routing out space for the post and grid, sandwiched them around the metalwork with epoxy. Next, using cross-sections of the old rudder, seen on the floor, he epoxied sets of ribs on the flat plywood to get the correct curvature of the rudder. You can see the ribs in the picture above.
Once the right curvature was in place, Graham cut sheets of foam and laid them in between the ribs, and sanded them down to match the same shape. That is Graham wearing the respirator. I found out later that he was a surfer in his younger years, and also used to build small sailboats, so he was no stranger to foam and fiberglass construction.
While we awaited the ups and downs of the new rudder to play itself out, we scoured the guidebooks for what we might have missed on St Martin. Some, like the many cruise ship passengers, stay for just a day. Others might settle into a beach resort for a week. But, after settling into our third week here, we were beginning to feel more like residents than guests, after having ‘done’ most of what there was on the island. However, we did enjoy a good walk to two forts. The first was on the Dutch side called Fort Amsterdam, where we found a leftover machete. Could it have been left by Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean, perhaps?!
Next, we visited the French side again to see Fort Louis, on the bluff above the town of Marigot. Whereas you had to sneak through a private resort to get to Fort Amsterdam, Fort Louis was better preserved, documented and more scenic.
I was under the notion that the British were an affable gang of countrymen, but back in the 1780’s, right before Fort Louis was built, British privateers and pirates frequently landed on this part of St Martin to plunder and burn the inhabitant’s possessions. It wasn’t long before the residents found the incentive to build this fort as the start of a better defense. I picture them thinking they had found their own little version of utopia on this warm, tropical island, only to have those thoughts dashed by an aggressor from a distant land. More proof that any peaceful society needs some element of defense against the evils of mankind. With the temperate climate and stunning scenery, it is easy to be lulled into a state of naivety down here.
As we became more of a residential feature in the marina, others took pity on us and provided help as best they could. One helpful soul, Vijay, who had previously worked with me to repair the cockpit sole (floor) with additional fiberglassing, was a regular contributor of freshly-caught fish. Vijay could be found nearly every morning hanging out at the marina grocery store, at what appeared to be an informal ‘hiring’ location for the area. Leroy used Vijay to haul fish off of his boat every Friday when he arrived from Saba. Also, a captain at the marina hired him frequently to be the mate when he had cruise ship passengers onboard for a fishing charter. It was these occasions when he would insist that we take some fish that they caught, because the passengers weren’t allowed to take fish back aboard the cruise ship. Yesterday, we landed four nice fillets of Mahi Mahi, which ended up on the grill that evening with Karen’s tasty lime juice and capers dressing. It might be a muddy marina full of grinders and welders during the day and mosquitoes at night, but we were certainly eating well. In fact, we will need to get back to sailing soon so that we can work off some of the excesses that St Martin has bestowed on us!
Here’s a video of Vijay filleting the Mahi Mahi.
With the additional time on land in the last few weeks, we have all been making it through our reading inventory and one day we set out to replenish the boat library. What a difficult experience that was! Karen and I both remarked that we hadn’t seen a bookstore anywhere in our travels throughout the island, so I inquired at the marina office. I knew that when I asked “Do you know where I can find a bookstore?” and their reply was “What do you mean?”, this wasn’t going to be easy! I replied “I’m looking for a bookstore that sells, well, books.” The two individuals at the office conferred and then responded “What kind of books?” A little exacerbated, I replied, “Reading books, kids books, pleasure books, anything like that!” Frankly, I didn’t know how to answer their question. All I wanted was a simple bookstore! They scratched their heads and thought for a minute. Then one replied, “You know, we have a library in town. Have you tried there?” More than a bit surprised, and trying my best to be as polite as I could, I said “Yes, I’ve seen it, but I’m looking for books to buy, to take with us.” The reply came, “Have you thought about a book swap with other boaters? There might be one over in Simpson Bay.” At this point I was ready to give up, but they finally resorted to the phone book. They suggested three places – one was called ‘Family Bookstore’ which seemed promising, but ended up being a religious bookstore only. The second was a place called The Shipwreck Store, which in reality was a gift store full of nicks and nacks, and a little side display of books. I knew we wouldn’t find a Barnes and Noble down here, but I thought it would be easier then this! The third option seemed promising, a store called Arnia’s Bookstore. When I asked a second independent source in the marina, they mentioned Arnia’s as well, so we felt like our prospects were looking better. Arnia’s was a bus ride to the other side of Philipsburg, and when we arrived, I eagerly opened the door, only to find a room not much bigger then a closet, with religious-thymed books and a smattering of country flags! OK, we found a Spanish-English dictionary, but everything else was biblical in nature. I’m not saying religious bookstores are a bad thing, by no means. It just was not what we were looking for.
As it was, we ended up with a nice children’s bible of 365 stories, but our hunt continued. I think Karen flustered the proprietor when she asked in at least three different permutations, “Where can we find, you know, a ‘normal’ bookstore?” The proprietor was polite, but stumped. Her only suggestion was to try the local supermarket, Grand Marche. Now, this supermarket is one of the biggest we have seen down in the islands, and they in fact did have a portion of an aisle dedicated to books – well actually a few books from the bestseller list, a few more of those trashy paperback romance novels, and then a considerable collection of magazines. We took our sorrows on the bus and headed back home! How we missed the coastal towns of New England and Nova Scotia with their used or new bookstores. How I wish we stocked up more back then! What is it… does nobody read down here or what?!
So, how did I do in this week’s update? Did I keep up a positive attitude despite the negative gremlins fighting inside?! Once again, we find ourselves on a Friday when we hope to be in the water and underway soon. I’m feeling good about this Friday, though. Keep your fingers crossed!