Marlow Cup, 2nd overall in the end

Today we (me with crew Pieter and Paul Soons) sailed 4 races 1,2,1,2 so we ended up 2nd in total, behind Frits Bus (with Rien Korteknie and Garth). I only managed to end up 1 race in front of him, so he was better.. We sailed 9 races yesterday, 4 today, rotating the boats.. every race in an other boat, so all had the same material to deal with.. Roel ten Hoope and Anne Roos were still in front of us yesterday, but dropped a place to 3rd, 4rth last years winners Jolyon Ferron (with Rhone and Stephen), 5th Karl from Antigua and 6th Robbie Ferron him self..  etcetc.. see score sheet

On the Lagoon in St Maarten, next to the runway of the airport (only few planes, nice view, no bother to us).. 9 boats, up, down, up, down, up finish, start=finish line in the middle and Robbie Ferrons catamaran next to the start/finish boat with a 'dock' on the side where crew/boat changes were quickly executed between every race, and the crews not sailing that race stayed at the catamaran having perfect view on the other race with abundant cool drinks and baguettes ham/cheese etc..

several boats had to be repaired some times, and the crews unable to compete for that reason got average points, last day a centerboard broke of.. so we had one boat less the last few races.

Weather was perfect, sun and some clouds, 4-5 bfrd 'stable' wind, sailing in 20ft LSR Jeanneau boat just with jib and mainsail

TeamHan XXL weighed in at 112.8+95.5+101.7=310kg, I thought we would be to heavy but it turned out there was enough wind to be competitive. Only one race we had a bad start and every choice after that was wrong that race..7th, all other 12 races were very enjoyable.....

1st Rien, Garth and Frits

2nd Paul, me and Pieter

3rd Roel, Anne and ..

4rth Stephen, Rhone and Jolyon..  and 6th Robbie, u see him in every picture with his white hat presenting the prices..

1st race of sunday, we were free and watching race relaxed from trampoline on the catamaran/change over/bar and restaurant boat..

Centreboard broken of on one boat..

Robbie in the lead pasing the cameraman on the second beat..

Marlow cup, 3rd after day 1

 

Just some pics..

 Cleaning the dinghy's bottom, to much things living there makes dinghy slow and using gas..

sailing LSR with Jolyon Ferron...  Just enough wind and no first but was good and nice sailing.

 And we were fighting with Jolyon's dad Robby several times of course..

 Orange shirt for football and Olympics..

 Happy Hour at Lagoonies, nice and quiet now everybody has gone for the Hurricane season which officially started 1st of June, but should be safe here until en of July and then head south again to Bequia, Tobago Cays and Grenada, maybe later to Bonaire, time will tell..

 Jirja leaving for 'holliday' at home in Holland..

 David helps with elctronic problems..

 At en Dia vertrekken vrijdag 1 juni om 1500 dan vanuit St Maarten dus naar de Azoren

Troubles, troubles

 Joop and his Razzle Dazzle leaving for Bonaire with Paul Stbk as crew, ahh, interesting comby, argue wise

 Gluing the kitchen sink drainage back together did not work btw..

01.34
Mercedes engine is running, but according to the battery monitor only charging 2.6amps, but have to add Icebox (4.5) and compu/inverter (5) so 12amp loading. 12.56V on house batteries, but 12.37V and not loading the start battery.. I have a system what should load the start battery (55amp) first and when that is finished/full start loading the house battery(900amp)..

So shit not working.

If I run the generator .. it does not want to charge at all, nothing, but all components should be ok.

During the day on solar and wind energy I see input of 15-20 amps, sometimes shortly even 30 amps,
meaning that then batteries are being charged normally.

I cannot load the batteries, so checked them out around 12.2V, load tested them and the meter showed above weak, meaning they have had their best time but..
Generator should still be able to put some in,someone suggested that my not even 2 year old Trojans T105 (6V Cart batteries, tested them individually .. load test 5sec 6.2V goes to 6V, on of the 8 batteries went to 5.8V, and that was only battery that did NOT need water added..
OK, but still tested just above weak, so system should still at least work..

I've not found a way to solve these problems
So I have power problems,
Making the Icebox empty, today finished the pizza, chocolate ice cream and chicken meat..
Tomorrow finish rest and shut down cooling..
Ai..  me not like.

Also the drainage of kitchen sink has fatal injuries, so have to work withe bucket or something and clime out with it and throw waste water over board manually.... oempf

Hard times here,

most people have left,
Heaveyly roling from left to right and back all day, outside in the Simpson bay there are only the Passaat and Boyo and me left and 3 other boats..
Everybody gone for the Hurricane season, but I can not leave anyhow like this, planning to stay until problems sorted and papers for the Condor updated, also real effort here for some reason for me unknown still..
Depth meter wind meters and diesel tank meter also seem to have issues, same as water tank, but that is manageable.

All other plans are on hold.
Saturday somebody was supposed to come for the electrics but did not show up. I could have done some sailing, but cancelled.. for nothing, arrg

The sea water is nice turquoise blue/green, sun and clouds are ok, need bit more wind to get trough night power wise..

Also 6 month ago, halve a year, that ..


ah, maybe later


 cheers

nb I still have some Southern Comfort, and I need it. Also have to hold the bottle or it flies of the table... Was just in time..

(btw batteries down to 12.14V, have to shut down power on compu and wait for the sun and solar power.. me not happy)

Snorkeling around Simpson Bay

Found this fish in a cave here in Simpson Bay St Maarten , I think it is the 'imported' fish ruining the ecology around here, but not sure this is it. Who knows?  http://www.meetcuracao.com/2010/01/12/de-lionfish-nu-echt-op-curacao-opeten-die-vis/ 
De Lionfish is een prachtige vis. Het zijn dan ook gewilde aquarium vissen en het verhaal gaat dat tijdens een orkaan (1992) een aquarium werd verwoest in Florida en 6 vissen in zee zijn beland. Want de Lionfish komt normaal helemaal niet voor in de Caribische wateren. Ze komen oorspronkelijk uit de South Pacific en de Indische Oceaan.
Wat is er nou vervelend aan de Lionfish:
- het is 1 van de meest giftige vissen in de oceaan
- een steek bij een mens zorgt voor flink wat pijn, overgeven en moeite met ademen (over het algemeen niet dodelijk)
- ze planten zich voort als konijnen
- ze eten bijna alles dat in hun mond past (dus ook andere vissen)
- ze zijn nieuwkomers rondom Curacao dus andere vissen hebben geen idee dat de vis gevaarlijk is
- ze hebben geen echte natuurlijke vijanden

El Barra (cuda) was also present again

 Connected Maarten van der Steen to Pim, so he came over to help Pim sail the Linea to the Azores and then Portugal. They sail Friday..

Al met al, niet iets om blij van te worden. Ik hou in het water altijd rekening met de zee-egel, de schorpioenvis en kwallen, maar nu dus nog 1 erbij. Al met al erg voor onze riffen, misschien nog wel erger dan de plastic cups, onoplettende duikers en blikjes polar Wat zijn de oplossingen dan? Er zijn er verschillende met als meest ludieke manier op de Bahama’s waar ze haaien leren om te jagen op de Lionfish. Overigens zijn er Groupers gevonden met Lionfish in hun maag, dus misschien moeten we die maar niet meer eten op Curaçao.
De belangrijkste oplossing is dat we de vis gewoonweg opeten. De vis smaakt heerlijk en wordt al door veel restaurants op Curacao aangeboden. Dus: probeer het eens want van vraag komt aanbod en dus gaan ook meer lokale vissers de Lionfish vangen.

 Lionfish Elimination Team
Op Curaçao hebben we inmiddels het Lionfish Elimination Team (volg ze op Facebook!). Dagelijks gaan een groep duikers erop uit die grote aantallen vangen van soms wel meer dan 200 per dag. Echter is dit lang niet genoeg. Blijkbaar kunnen sommige vrouwtjes (Super Breeders) wel meer dan 2 miljoen eitjes per jaar leggen. Met andere woorden, ze zijn niet te stoppen tenzij er een natuurlijke vijand opstaat. Het enige dat LET kan doen is de groei van de populatie naar beneden krijgen door ze te vangen.
Wat doen ze met de vangst? Ten eerste worden ze verkocht aan restaurants. Mochten er een aantal niet verkopen, dan worden ze schoongemaakt en ingevroren om zelf op te eten. Ze worden in ieder geval niet weggegooid.
Dus: hoe meer Lionfish er wordt gegeten in de restaurants, hoe meer LET kan verkopen en hoe meer ze gevangen worden en dus het koraalrif gered wordt!