Windward Passage Yacht Charters LLC s/v Mary Sunshine

10/04/2024

Last message from Duque today,
“USCBP does not require customs clearance from Puerto Rico to the mainland US. We made no stops so did not require clearance. US to Is though many miles in between”

10/04/2024

5 hours sleep and CBP (US Customs and Border Protection) refused us entry to the US last night. We all have to report to the nearest Customs office this morning.

10/04/2024

They made to the marina about 1 am with the help of two see tow boat . Thank you for all the prayers. I was very scared for Don and the crew . This is what he said, “ Wooden ships and iron men” is what they used to say. I missed all of you, my dear wife, my little Blanquita and look forward to returning to our little finca in the rainforest “

09/04/2024

Just got this message from :
Don Not us. We are just clearing Bimini and entering the Straits of Florida for a rough 10 hour passage to Fort Lauderdale. No main sail, no generator, no main engine, batteries are running down. But the jib works. Should be outside the entrance and plan to call SeaTow to tow us in. Tough duty here but crew is in good spirits.
Capt. Don

09/04/2024

Getting closer

04/09/2022

Brutal mensaje!!

09/05/2021

Happy Mother's Day to all those mothers out there who with their love and devotion guided us into and through our lives. I am blessed to live with one and have endeavored to make this day a special one for Marucha. We miss our children today but all called in to wish her warm regards. Marucha's mother, Dr. Fabery and her brother Jose joined us for a few quiet moments of reflection here in Palmas Del Mar, PR. Just sitting and enjoying the company and the environment makes it a special moment. Sometimes these quiet moments are the best.

19/04/2021

My friend, Marc, on the big catamaran (over 50 ft.), Mana, joined us aboard the Mary Sunshine while we were in Grenada, for a voyage planning session prior to sailing to Carriacou and near the underwater volcano, Kick'em Jenny. I hadn't realized he was making a video. Leszek, on the Silicon Valley cat from Palmas Del Mar, was also there. The first half covers an overview of the sail planning the night before casting off. Neither sailed with the Mary Sunshine, though.
The second half of the video is a nice overview of marina life and of sailing a big sailing cat with just Mark and with his wife, Nancy. A nice overview of the latest marine electronics onboard. Mark is a modest guy but he knows his sailing technical points and is building his seamanship and sailing skills well, a fine sailor. Good memories, thanks, Mark.
A safety note: Over a number of days I observed about half my fellow sailors out there in the Grenadan Grenadines not observing the volcano exclusion zone around Kick'em Jenny. Note that I said that this volcano had been quiet for 10 years, true at the time. Just a few nautical miles to the north is where the volcano on St. Vincent is erupting now. So you really never know.

When a cool fellow sailor prepares a passage and explains us the hazard on the way, like passing above an underwater volcano « Kick 'em Jenny »n the way from...

19/04/2021

A pretty video that highlights not only the musical traditions in Puerto Rico but its diversity and beautiful scenery. Reminds us why we call this island home. Nice also to see old guys still looking pretty good and having fun doing what they are passionate about.

Carlos Vives & Ricky Martin – Canción Bonita (Official Video)Music:Apple Music: https://SML.lnk.to/CancionBonita/Applemusic Spotify: https://SML.lnk.to/Canc...

12/04/2021

María and I finished our new cushion work for our nephew, Joshua, as he readies his new restaurant in Guaynabo for opening. We used marine grade materials and Marucha used her Sailrite professional sail sewing machine. A nice project that came out well.
We move on to our next upholstery project; cockpit and saloon cushions plus a navigator’s chair for a 44 ft. sloop. That will keep us busy through May.
Not too much new on the Mary Sunshine in Panama as she works through her bottom work there.
Our son, Adrian in Colorado, his fiancée, two small boys and 7 months old unborn child all reported with COVID-19 last week. They are in quarantine and all doing reasonably well in Fort Collins. Nobody has required hospitilazation so far. I worry about short term and long term effects for them but only time will tell. All looks promising right now. May the Great Eternal watch over this family in the weeks to come. Our prayers are with them.

23/03/2021

Ever wonder what an "External Lead Keel" looks like without gelcoat/moisture barrier covering it all up? 23,500 lbs. of external lead is easy to identify in this photo. It's shape on the bottom and leading edge of the keel also makes this what is called a "Shoaling Keel." Very nice for exploring those shallow anchorages off an island. That huge chunk of lead is about a third of the displacement of the 72,000 lbs. Mary Sunshine. This is an integral part of the sailing characteristics and sea motion for the Mary Sunshine. Her other secret is a 73 ft. mast which is not so tall for this class of sailing yacht. But her boom is quite long so this brings her total center of effort (TCE) for her combined sails down closer to the deck than most of her competitors. Her last secret is her cutter rig with a head stay and a moveable forestay. This allows a storm staysail to be hanked onto the forestay. This keeps this sail high enough to clear the big swells but close to the mast and relatively close to the deck. As the main is furled into its Hood in-mast furler, one has the ability to lower and center the TCE of the boat. This also minimizes the heel of the boat, important in heavy seas. When we were 9 days out of Bermuda heading to the Azores in JUN2016 a gale with 40-55 knots blew in for two and a half days. We had to sail. So managing our TCE and sail area relative to the wind was what we did with just the storm staysail and about 20-25% of the main. We kept decreasing main sail to keep her speed down to 7.5 knots, as fast as I wanted to go in those stormy seas. I did not want to drive her bow under as we accelerated down the back of those large swells to the trough between those swells. Do that deeply enough and you risk the boat's bow never coming back up, a sobering thought during your cold night watch in stormy seas on the North Atlantic. And this was in June. So Hinckley built and "Maine built" are two terms I am happy are a key part of the Mary Sunshine. The Hinckley supplied Lexan shields fitted over the large port lights in the coach roof were also a key part of our heavy weather strategy. Unprotected thin to medium plate glass on a forward or side facing weather deck port light really has no place in the North Atlantic.
The picture shows a key part of that Hinckley sailing strategy in a rare moment of exposure of that external but beautifully faired in lead keel. The plastic wrapping is to pull moisture out of the hull for 3-4 weeks with 8-10 dehumidifies. Then she gets her barrier coats and anti-fouling coats. About half way there now.

28/02/2021

We had planned a chinchorrero (restaurants along pretty roads, multiple stops). We stopped at El Riverside in Paraíso above Naguabo on the edge of the rainforest. So pretty and relaxing. Then on to El Flamboyan outside Fajardo via the country roads. I recall many years ago (near 40) stopping at these places with my good friend, Nelson, and enjoying our Viernes Social. Nelson and Irma, get your vacunas and then come stay with us so we can enjoy these spots together again. Maybe even find some new ones.

13/02/2021

I received my first Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine today at Walgreen’s in Humacao. I made my appointment through my Walgreen’s app online where new doses are released each day. No waiting at the store, there is a separate line at the store for this at the pharmacy. I finished registration at the pharmacy then they took me right in. Piece of cake, nice and easy and well organized. When I registered online I also scheduled my second shot in March. I was informed that the second shot may produce some mild symptoms including minor fever. This is an indication that my body is producing antibodies against the COVID-19. I have heard some distressing stories and silly tales about this process. The last time I received a vaccine against a plague was about 55 years ago for polio. A scary time, my best friend’s father was struck down, survived but put in a wheelchair for the rest of his reduced life. We were not given a choice if we wanted the vaccine. If we wanted to eliminate polio in the US everyone had to be vaccinated against it. We were and we did. It wasn’t just for you, you were protecting your fellow Americans. Still true today.

09/02/2021

Work on the Mary Sunshine continuing apace. Removing old anti-fouling paint and barrier coats. The next step is opening up the fiberglass layer.

04/02/2021

Enjoying Cabo Rojo, Boquerón and Combate on the SW corner of Puerto Rico with my First and Best Mate.

01/02/2021

01/02/2021

This post is intended for sailors and boat owners out there:
We have the hull work started in Panama. The bottom paint is being stripped down to bare fiberglass. Each blister will be opened up into the laminate and then the complete hull enclosed to dry for a month in low humidity. After that, each hole is filled with West System epoxy. Then sanded down, barrier coated twice and then anti-fouling paint.
It has been about 10 years since the Mary Sunshine has been taken back to bare glass on her bottom. That is about three years too long if she is in the warm Caribbean all year. Going back to glass and new barrier coats (2) ensures protection from water pe*******on. Also, too many coats of anti-fouling paint leads to less and less adhesion with each new coat. So stripping it down every 8 years addresses this issue also. If you are a seasonal boat and haul out for half the year, or if you are in the colder waters of the Northeast, for instance, that 8 years becomes longer. If you are like us and cruise over 50,000 nautical miles over 6 -8 years then you are going to need this type of bottom work to get to your barrier coats.
The West System claims that there are two types of blisters that one out of four boats has, or as Ken at Island Marine says, all will develop from long exposure in warm water. The most common are osmotic blisters in the gel coat to hull interface. On the Mary Sunshine these are dime size blisters. The second are more serious and larger, the hydrolysis blisters from entry of water into the laminate itself. We have not found any of these yet but the hull is getting a very thorough inspection and will be analyzed with a moisture meter. Hydrolysis blisters can sink you. It is very unlikely that osmotic gelcoat blisters would affect seaworthiness unless unattended for a long enough time to become hydrolysis blisters.
By the way, listening to the experts like The West System, moisture meters are good only for relative readings on your boat over a period of time (ex. You start with a reading of 20% in a spot in your hull and through work take it down to a stable 3%). That 3% is not comparable to another boat and is a relative value only for your boat. Another key learning point for me is that The West System claims that water pe*******on into the hull is very common from inside the boat, not just the external hull environment.
On the Mary Sunshine last year I discovered a large pocket in the keel that holds about 100 gallons. All my bilge pumps pump the bilge dry, but not this pocket. It is located under the oil containment tray in the engine room. Can't see into it, but I can run a hose down it. No evidence of any bilge hose ever going all the way down there. There is a b**g plug at the bottom of the keel that you can remove when the boat is on the hard. But that cannot be good having that much sea water in the keel when sailing. There is 23,500 lbs. of lead just outside of the fiberglass hull so another 800 lbs. of water can't make much ballast difference. My task is to get a bilge hose with screen all the way down there and install a strong enough supplemental bilge pump that it can pump it up about 8 ft. high to the main bilge pump. That work is ahead of me. I will go through the rest of the boat looking for any places that water can collect and does not flow smoothly to the bilge sump for pumping out. I want to ensure no internal water stress to the hull over the years.
Interesting to me also, anti-fouling paint provides really no barrier protection to water intrusion. It is your barrier coats under the anti-fouling and over your bare fiberglass hull that provides your barrier to water. For the barrier coat to live a long and successful life, the fiberglass must be a stable base for it. The barrier coat had better be a good barrier with continuing integrity or your boat will develop blisters. And again, the barrier coats have a finite life depending on how you use your boat but I will be thinking 7-10 years in the future. Rock scrapings and groundings impact this barrier negatively. Inspect for any damage to the barrier coat and underlying fiberglass.
This is a lot more than I really wanted to know about bottom work but I hope that it helps other sailors out there.