Sapphire Sailing Adventures

Vessel Name: Sapphire
Vessel Make/Model: Bristol 41
Hailing Port: Rochester, NY
Crew: Moby & Caroline Burton
17 April 2019 | Laying out 200' of chain on deck
16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
13 April 2019 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
12 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, teaching William about reading music
11 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia
10 April 2019 | Pink Sunset off Bequia
10 April 2019 | Papa's Restaurant overlooking Admiralty Bay, Bequia
09 April 2019 | Winfield applying coat #6 of Epiphane Varnish to Sapphire's coaming
08 April 2019 | Tennis Court behind the Gingerbread House, Bequia
04 April 2019 | Floating Beach Bar
04 April 2019 | Bequia
03 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia
03 April 2019 | Center Hatch on Sapphire
02 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia, The Grenadines
02 April 2019 | Sailing past St Lucia across from the Pitons
28 March 2019 | Anse de Salines, Martinique
28 March 2019
28 March 2019 | Sapphire's Cockpit
24 March 2019
Recent Blog Posts
17 April 2019 | Laying out 200' of chain on deck

Haul Out Day

"I always feel like The Ghost from Christmas Past when we do this exercise of hauling the heavy chain out on our side deck to rinse it and let it dry." On our primary alone, we have 200' of chain and 120' of rope. Then our secondary anchor has 200' of rope and 30' of chain.

16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada

Getting Ready to be Hauled Out

We enjoyed a lovely leisurely couple of days sailing down to Grenada from Bequia, arriving on Palm Sunday.

16 April 2019 | Prickly Bay, Grenada

Grenada's Cruiser's Net

The cruiser’s net in Grenada is always very lively. On Safety and Security this morning we heard that a sailboat coming up from Trinidad had a boatful of eight ‘Venezuelan looking’ men trying to overtake them. The sailboat was able to get away,. but the hull is riddled with bullet holes. They [...]

13 April 2019 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou

New Way to Clear into Customs

How do you clear in to Customs, when you arrive at a port and don’t feel like blowing up your dinghy?

12 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, teaching William about reading music

Teaching William some Notes

I realized that if I set up my piano early in the morning, then I can play before there is too much sun in the cockpit.

11 April 2019 | Admiralty Bay, Bequia

Paddling around Bequia

As my buddy Joan Dwyer would say, “the goal in paddle boarding is to avoid looking like a little old lady pushing a Wegman’s cart.” Actually, I’ll be doing that soon enough as we are heading home in a week.

Replacing Sapphire Piece by Piece

11 May 2012 | Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Caroline & Moby
Caroline: I left Moby in the torrential rains on Thursday morning to deal with a six hour single-handed sail back up to Rodney Bay, followed by 2 full days of dealing with a hot water heater replacement. He had to extract the old heater from a place too small for any human being to squeeze into, and then install a new water heater into the same space, located just behind the engine. It would, no doubt, entail every impossible yoga posture ever invented, and many expletives that no one would be around to hear.

Moby: I knew we had a minor water leak but over the past month it was getting worse. Since water is our most scarce commodity, I knew it had to be fixed. Unfortunately, the leak was in the worst place – the hot water heater. While in Rodney Bay St. Lucia, the local chandlery, Island Water Works, told me they could have one shipped in by Fed Ex from Miami. I ordered the water heater and then delivered Caroline to Vieux Fort so she could fly to California for Tyler’s graduation. Upon my return to Rodney Bay, I picked up the hot water heater which cost about 3 times what a water heater for a house costs (plus $300 shipping, plus $75 customs fee, plus $50 credit card fee).
The hot water heater is located behind the engine and under the steering station. In order to change out the heater, I had to clear out the “garage”. This is a storage area behind the aft stateroom where we store all the stuff we will never need again – 4 five gallon jerry cans, a styrofoam cooler, 5 blankets, a Christmas tree, Christmas wrapping paper, etc, etc. Then I had to remove the shore powered refrigeration system and remove the panels between the storage compartment and the engine room. It took me a whole day to get access to the water heater and remove it. It then took the entire next day – including 3 trips to the chandlery – to install the new one. The following day I restored order to the “garage” and took a hot shower.
Now, all is well with Sapphire until the next boat part fails.





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