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May 8, 2009 (Update June 6 2009) (Update June 15. 2009) (Update August 9, 2009) [ Editor's note: If you are wondering how Veleda got from Grenada to Eleuthra, I have to tell you there are a number of missing logs - my fault. I shall be updating the logs shortly and bringing the cruise back into sync.] Hi Folks, Judy broke her leg (April 21)! We were on a motor scooter in the Bahamas, on Eleuthra, and just turning into the driveway to return it when it slipped and toppled on some gravel. Judy and I fell on our left sides giving us a few scratches and bruises, but Judy's leg was caught beneath the machine and she was in agony when she tried to stand. We took her to a medical clinic in Rock Sound where the doctor thought it was just a bad sprain, gave her some medication and asked her to return the next week. We took an efficiency cabin with Sammy's Bar and Restaurant where she remained bedridden for the week. On our return to the doctor, he was surprised that she was not walking and indicated there was something more serious and it should be checked out with X-rays. We returned to Toronto next day and the following day took her to the Emergency room at the Toronto East General Hospital, where she underwent X-rays, CT scan and Doppler ultrasound to identify it was a complex fracture of the upper plateau of the tibia. She was kept in the hospital and two days later (May 2) surgery was successfully performed with no complications, and she was home two days later (May 4). She is still quite uncomfortable and not sleeping well, in spite of the medications she is on. We are in the family home, but no one else is here now that her dad passed away, and so I am taking care of her. She is on a foam mattress on a couch, moved into the dining room where she can access a bathroom and the kitchen on the same level. I have been sleeping on the floor on a foam mattress beside her to help her if she has to go to the bathroom in the night. I am OK, but have a stiff left knee which aches and pains a bit (bruising or old age?). This is the first communication I have made since we were in Santiago de Cuba in late February, when we came back for a week for her father's funeral. His death was not unexpected and Judy had been back to Toronto for several months last year to care for him. Upon our return to Cuba in early April, we continued sailing around the coast up to Vita where we departed for the Bahamas, and worked our way up the Jumentos, over to Long Island where we checked in with the officials, over to Georgetown and then up to Eleuthra. I will write up more detailed logs of these travels later. I had to leave Veleda at anchor off Rock Sound near the Four Points Restaurant in a large sheltered bay on the southwest coast of Eleuthra to bring Judy back to Toronto, and will go down again in a week or two to take it to a marina on the US coast where I will leave it for the rest of the year, possibly until June or July of next year. I put out a second anchor and the holding is excellent. The main anchor is a 45 pound claw with 60 feet of chain, and the secondary anchor is a 45 pound CQR with 40 feet of chain and ten feet of rope, in ten feet of water. I still feel uneasy at leaving it unattended. We called the restaurant today to be assured that Veleda was still floating at anchor 200 yards offshore. Judy will have to have the splint on for several weeks and will not be able to put any weight on her left leg for up to another five weeks, and then 3 to 4 months before a full recovery. So she would not be able to rejoin Veleda before October, the time we had originally planned to have Veleda back in Toronto for the winter. So we will be at the family home at the address above for most of the next 14 months, and our time back home is just moved up by four months. More later when I get around to updating my logs from Cuba. All the best, Aubrey PS - Since we will be at the address above for most of the year, may I suggest that Judy would appreciate any "snail mail" get well cards or letters as well as any E-mails you wish to send. She has a phone by her bed and the number is 416 421 2668. Contact with others cheer her up. Thanks, Aubrey Update: June 6, 2009  For
her first outing since returning to Toronto, Judy attended her
Squadron's
AGM at the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club. Still wearing a bulky leg brace,
Judy chose to rest on a handy couch with her leg up.Aubrey, meanwhile, recruited 3 crew members and set off the following week for Eleuthra in order to bring Veleda back to the mainland. Veleda's problems continued as Aubrey relates in the following update. Update June 15, 2009 Enroute from St Lucie Inlet, Florida, to Charleston, N.C. Hi Folks, It has been a hectic two months since Judy's accident on April 23 in Eleuthera. Judy is still bed ridden with her left leg in a splint. The surgery was successful, and she should regain full use of her legs, but will have to keep the splint on for another few weeks, then another three months before full use. She is still on the foam mattress on a couch in the living room, and unfortunately is home alone, as I am in the process of bringing Veleda back to Toronto. I went down to Rock Sound Eleuthera on June 1st with four volunteers to sail Veleda back. The original plan was a straight 1000 mile passage direct to New York City, then another 300 miles up the Hudson River into the Erie Canal to Oswego N.Y., then 125 miles across Lake Ontario to Toronto. However, the boom snapped at the main sheet blocks on a controlled jibe at Current Cut on Eleuthera. We anchored there for a couple of nights while I considered my options, called Judy, and cleared away the main sail (which did not rip) and secured the two pieces of the boom. The boom was weakened by corrosion of the dissimilar metals attaching the blocks to the boom. It was an accident waiting to happen. Judy identified a dealer in Florida who might have a used or replacement boom, and so we set off for West Palm Beach, 200 miles northwest. We had a good sail with the wind astern, allowing us to fly both the genoa wung out with a whisker pole on one side, and our spinnaker/drifter on the other side. We made good time and sailed most of the way to anchor in West Palm Beach. We checked in with Customs and Immigration, getting a one year cruising permit for $19.00, the only fee paid. After some frustrating and expensive mobile phone calls, we identified a company up in St Lucie Inlet at Stuart that might have a spar. Then the next problem occurred in that the gearshift on the handle of the mariner broke, and stuck in forward gear. The throttle is also on the handle and could not be used. So, I had to leave the cowling off, start the dinghy in gear, and manually move the throttle linkage to speed up or slow down, and could stop only by hitting the kill switch turning off the engine. Lots of fun! In West Palm beach we had a raging thunder storm late each afternoon for an hour or two. We got caught out in the dinghy in one of them and were soaked to the skin as we made our way back to Veleda with me manually adjusting the throttle through heavy winds and waves with the five of us on board. Because of US regulations, We put Veleda's registration numbers with a black felt tipped pen on the blue dinghy cover, and were legal in that we all had life jackets on. The 38 mile trip outside up to Stuart allowed us to again fly both the drifter and the genoa. We had entry charts on our Computer mapping system to get us in to Lucie Inlet, but nothing for the ICW or other bays. We went down Manatee Cut of the ICW looking for this company, but found ourselves going farther and farther south, out of the built up area. We anchored off the channel at one point and dinghied around to ask where Max Sails was. There were many wealthy homes along the water's edge, but not a human being outside. However we did see Jack and Shaun on Paddy ...? who were in West Palm, and came up the ICW. They told us of an anchorage a mile further down to which we went. However ... As we saw three boats anchored in a large cove, we grounded as we tried to leave the channel for their location. Then when I tried to start the dinghy to pull us off, the outboard wouldn't start. After I had pulled my guts out trying to start the engine (in gear of course) the afternoon deluge hit. We were pushed even more onto the shallows in the raging winds and torrential rain for a half hour. After the squall passed, I put out a request for assistance, and King's Ransom, a 25 foot McGregor with an 85 horsepower outboard and a two foot draft came over and after several attempts got us off and led us into the anchorage (a direct line from marker 19 to a range marker near shore), but the water was so muddy, no bottom could be seen. Next day King's Ransom led us out and back to Stuart and down the proper Manatee Pocket where we went over to Port Salerno Marine, a DIY boatyard recommended by King's Ransom. However, on the way, the throttle lever snapped, and I had to use vice grip pliers to increase or decrease the throttle. Because of its proximity to the magnetic compass, that in turn was thrown off. We grounded a few feet from the floating dock but finally winched ourselves alongside. Jack Sharp the manager was quite co-operative, and put me in touch with Mac Sails and mobile Marine for the outboard. Kim a worker there lent us his car to go shopping and took me over to Mac Sails regarding the boom. Mac Sails did not have a suitable used boom, but could prepare a new one for me next day at a reasonable price of $650.00 US. OK. Next day the repair mechanic for the outboard came and took it to his shop, and returned an hour later with the starting and the gtear shift/throttle repaired. The boom was not ready but promised again for 0900 next day. There is an artists area next to the marina where we could access free Wi Fi. The cost of using the mobile phone was ridiculous, as local calls involved expensive roaming charges and I had to pay for incoming long distance calls as well. Once I got the laptop at the artists' area, I was able to use Skype to call Judy and make further arrangements for veleda's passages north. The third day I went over to Mac sails where they were just finishing the boom at 1030, paid for it and an hour pof installation time. Ha! The mechanic came with the boom and found the existing fitting too small, and so he cut off a portion of the new gooseneck to fit. However it too was a fraction too large and so he tapped with a steel hammer on the lower fitting to spread it a bit, AND IT BROKE!!! The tide was falling and if we did not get off within the hour we would be stranded for another day, and so we left with both the new and the old booms strapped on deck! Aarrgghhh! Our sail towards Charleston went well, with the genoa wung out, and making good time in the 4 to 5 knot Gulf Stream. However each night we had a horrible lightning and thunder storm with fluky winds, and a little rain for a two to three hour period. However, the second day out of the 360 mile passage, when we were motor sailing through light breezes, the propulsion system stopped working. Sandor went in the water to verify the prop was still there. We removed the compass from the binnacle to check the linkage, and found it was OK, as when looking at the transmission, it went into forward neutral and reverse. Then we found the culprit. The shaft itself had fractured immediately behind the coupling aft of the transmission. We removed the coupling, hoping we could insert and attach the shaft to the coupling. No go! We had no propulsion! There was no wind and we were becalmed for another two hours. Major problem! We had no choice but to continue sailing towards Charleston still 165 miles away. The wind came up later that evening and we sailed until midnight when another thunder and lightning storm hit. We could not motor through the wind shifts and the long periods of no wind. Poor Veleda just rolled with the dinghy tow slamming all over the stern in the sloppy windless waves. The same thing happened again the third night with over a three hour period of lightning, thunder and sloppy waves with little wind to allow Veleda to steer into the morass of five foot swells coming from every direction. At one time I had to put out a Pan Pan Pan call on the VHF, and we were manouevering around to keep the light changing breezes in our Genoa which was still wung out with the whisker pole, but a container ship was approaching within a half mile, and I though it didn't see us, as it was coming closer and closer. I finally got on channel 16 and requested the ship at such and such a latitude to give us room as we were not under command and were manouevering to keep wind in the one sail we had available. It then moved off. This fluky weather lasted for over three hours from 2330 to 0330, pounding Veleda and our dinghy mercilessly, and I was helpless to do anything about it. I didn't dare express the thought that what would happen of we got struck by lightning. Those were two long nights. The breeze came up each day and we made our way to the entrance to Charleston under sail, but had to face entry into this large channel and estuary of three river systems. We thought of using the dinghy to tow Veleda in, but the wind and waves suggested such would be impossible and dangerous. I contacted the US Coast Guard to inform them of our restrictions, and finally had to accept an expensive tow ($675.00 US) in to an expensive marina ($2.50 per foot) marina, making an entrance in another thunderstorm on Saturday June 13. The fates are against us and Veleda on this passage home. I hope to get the shaft fixed and on our way with a new crew to New York City by Tuesday. I hate to think of what else may go wrong! More when I get to New York or even all the way to Toronto. Aubrey Update #3 Aug. 9, 2009 Hi Folks, Here is another update of our saga with Judy’s broken leg and the major repairs for Veleda. We are currently staying in the family cottage on Lake Chemong, just north of Peterborough and Bridgenorth, but will be leaving on the 11th for Charleston SC, where we will pick up Veleda which is finally repaired. Let me give you the chronology of events since my last update. We did not get out of Charleston with Veleda. June 12, after the expensive tow into Charleston City Marina, we had a crew change, where the four with me from Eleuthra returned to Toronto in my VW Golf when David and Barry arrived to help me intending to sail to New York City. We had a mechanic work on the shaft using a new coupling that was fabricated, but we were delayed another two days as the machinists initially just copied the original rather than making it two inches longer to compensate for the shorter shaft (broken off inside the original coupling). However the mechanic replaced the throttle cable which was corroded, and we replaced the throttle arm which had broken. We spent a week at this expensive marina ($70.00 US a day) while these repairs were under way. I toured the USS Yorktown, a historic WW II aircraft carrier, a submarine, a destroyer, and a Coast Guard cutter that were part of a naval museum next to the marina. Barry and I toured downtown Charleston, and David spent a day kayaking the lowland marshes nearby. Finally on June 19th, after the second coupling and shaft had been installed by the mechanic, he left and we were getting ready to get under way to catch the end of the ebb tide. But ... as soon as I put the engine in gear the shaft broke loose from the coupling again, almost flooding the boat. The mechanic came back, reconnected the shaft, and the same thing happened when the engine was put in gear. He said there was something out of line causing the shaft to wobble badly. So next day we caught the flood tide and towed Veleda 10 miles upstream with our 10 horsepower dinghy to a boat yard where we left it, returning to Toronto for a month’s rest before trying again. The fates were definitely against me! Terry Lowe, a friend from our sailng club in Toronto, drove David’s SUV down from Toronto to pick us up, and June 21 we left Veleda in the hands of the Charleston City Boatyard. It was a marathon drive back, as we drove straight through the Saturday night 12 hours to New York City where we loaded up David’s kayak (from the marina where he had left it after kayaking from Toronto to the Grand River into Lake Erie, to Buffalo, and down the Erie Barge Canal to New York, after which he came to join me for the ocean passage from Charleston to New York). We then drove to Toronto, arriving after 21 hours of driving. When we contacted the boatyard we were told the shaft was out of line, the external strut was bent, and the bushings were worn. OK, fix it. I had hoped it would be ready by July 21, a month after we left it in the Charleston Boat Yard. However ... we got the bad news that those repairs were not enough, as the transmission had to be rebuilt and the rear engine seal was leaking. Did we want to have the engine rebuilt as they had most of it opened up? No thanks, to our knowledge the engine is fine. The transmission had to be sent out to another shop and so we had to wait another two weeks. So here it is now, the second week of August and we have just been
informed that Veleda is finally repaired and ready for sea. Judy’s leg has
improved to the point that she can get around with just the use of a cane,
and for short distances she does not even need that, so she will be coming
to Veleda with me. We plan to drive down with Terry Lowe on August 10, and
hope to leave Charleston on the 12th or 13th, taking our time coming up
the ICW and the Chesapeake, up the Hudson River and Erie Barge Canal to
Oswego NY on Lake Ontario and then the final 125 miles over to our sailing
club (THSC) in Toronto by the beginning of October. Terry will drive our
Yukon back and leave it at THSC for us. Thanks Terry!
Oh yes, the Yukon. Our plans for land cruising have changed. Originally we were going to buy a class C motor home, and tow our VW behind it (after Judy vetoed the original idea of using a motor scooter as our short-range transportation). However we changed our minds and bought a trailer instead. So we had to get a larger vehicle to tow it, and thus a large GMC Yukon, bigger even than a standard SUV. I am intimidated by its size, but we were advised to get a long wheel-based vehicle with a powerful V-8 engine for towing. As we plan this winter to go down to Florida, over to Louisiana, Texas, and Arizona and next year to go up to the Yukon Territories, we need a reliable vehicle, and thus our purchase of this 2006 Yukon. I am sending this update before we go down to Veleda, hoping the bad luck and problems are now behind us. Our plans are to return with Veleda to Toronto by October, and leave it on the hard at our boat club for the winter while we do some land cruising. We plan to return to Toronto in April, launch Veleda and after attending a few anniversaries in Canada in June, depart in early July out the St. Lawrence River to explore Quebec, the Maritimes, Maine, and down the east coast, to... we don’t know yet. Our plans are to alternate between Veleda and our trailer for the next few years. I hope to attach a few pictures of the trailer and our Yukon. After living in a 32 foot boat for 11 years, the trailer is quite spacious, and now that the family home (Judy’s family) is sold, the trailer will be our home when back on land. I may get back to my regular logs once back on Veleda. I realize that I have not written one since we were in Cuba in March. I hope my next log or update is problem free and I can share with you our enjoyable travels. All the best, Aubrey |
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