April 29, 2008
Pitch black skies tucked us into bed. We were able to observe several constellations through the clear skies. We anticipated being able to leave the hatches open but boy were we wrong! Early in the morning it just poured, and poured and poured. By 7AM we had easily an inch or more of rain in the bottom of the dinghy.
Once done the rain left perfectly clear skies and maybe 10-12 knots of wind, perfect for the downwind sail to Cruz Bay to clear into Customs.
All last night Sheri, Kelly, and I talked about the situation with the batteries and decided an additional day to work on them would be the best plan so jump starting the batteries again we headed away from Norman Island, through Thatch Cut and then on to Cruz Bay. If I could start the engines, we’d leave them running and clear in at Cruz Bay; if not we’d continue to St. Thomas and have a cab drop us at Customs and clear in that way. Just before the cut by Caneel Bay, the magic time appeared and the engine started without a jump! We hooked up to a mooring ball ½ a mile away and took the dinghy to US Customs. They were wonderful, even wondering “where’s your wife?” I guess I’ll hear about that later.
After clearing Customs we took the dinghy back to Dad’s Dream and motored the remaining seven miles to VIP. I presented VIP with a page long “laundry list” of things to be corrected. We’ll next see the boat on May 2nd, just one day before the departure to Savannah, Georgia.
