Community is the Backbone

5/26/2023

Wild Horses is over 20 years old now and with constant moving (and bouncing through waves and swells), new problems seem to come out of the woodwork far too often. Most times these are small issues and quicky fixed. Other times, not so much. In St. Thomas, USVI, we took a mental inventory of the current woes of Wild Horses.

A dinghy motor with start-up gremlins
A defunct in-line engine blower (used to cool the engine room)
Some sea water found in our engine compartment
Our engine zinc depleting at a very advanced rate (a sign of stray electrical current somewhere in the boat)
Rainwater coming through the overhead hatch in our v-berth cabin (where we sleep)
An anchor light that blinks instead of being steadily bright

Yeesh. We knew some of these issues could only be fixed once we could get to a proper marine store in St. Martin. But, for many of the problems, we still had to troubleshoot the cause. Time to call in our boat buddies! Dave (Indigo Lady) is a retired physics teacher and Barry (Caretta) is an electrician by trade. Talk about a dream team! Slowly but surely Dave, Barry and Mike worked together to resolve most of our boat issues.

Their successes include:

While in St. John USVI, Dave traced our dinghy gremlins to a defunct fuel line ball. Barry had a spare one, so Mike and Dave were able to get the dinghy back up and running in no time
The rainwater coming through the hatch was simply a few screws that needed to be tightened. This was an easy diagnosis and fix for Mike
The seawater in our engine compartment was also an easy diagnosis, thanks to Dave. He methodically worked through the variables until, a-ha! It was a tiny crack in our engine muffler. Barry had some top-notch heavy-duty epoxy that would most certainly do the trick of sealing the crack. We will buy a spare muffler but, in the interim, this is a solid fix to a very salty problem!
And, while Dave expertly epoxied our muffler, Barry went ahead and installed our brand new in-line engine blower. Amazing!!

Dave, Mike and Barry (deep in the locker), working on fixing Wild Horses

Dave talking through the symptoms he was seeing

The cracked muffler

And after a day of fixing Wild Horses, everyone went out for a much needed drink

And great music

And yummy desserts!

The biggest issue, and the most challenging for our dream team, was finding the stray electrical current that was depleting our engine zinc. The solution to these types of issues is usually found using a process of elimination. With a multi-meter, you test wire after wire, connection after connection, until you finally find the stray current. Yikes! There are a lot of wires on Wild Horses – this could take awhile. Thankfully, Mike had a good starting point. We had been having a weird buzzing noise with our water temperature alarm since the Bahamas. Could that be part of the problem? The guys set to work, poring over the electrical schematic for Wild Horses and getting their hands into the circuitry with multi-meters and jumper cables. Watching these guys work the problem was incredible. And, after six hours + missing lunch + many litres of sweat (it was hot!) + a hundred or so engine tests, they found the problem. Let me yell that from the mountaintops - they found the problem! Or, rather, the TWO problems. Problem #1 was a faulty trip breaker and, very close beside it, was problem #2, a burnt connection wire. The burned wire was likely a second victim of our engine issue back in Canada. Wow. I mean, wow.

These guys are incredible and forever in our debt. While thanking them, their response was “but this is what boaters do, help each other” and it is true. Our community is always there for each other. Always. And that is what makes this community so special. We just happen to have a few of the star players in this community as great friends 😉.

And, yes, if you were keeping track, our anchor light issue remains unresolved, but we will get to it. It is just lower on the priority scale. Until fixed, we will just keep our eye on “blinky”.

Wiring schematic

Dave and Barry working the problem

Dave and Barry testing the bundles of wires

In the middle of it all we had a man overboard (that is cow in the water)

Mike to the rescue!

Even with all the boat fixes, we are still having a grand time and fitting in some pretty cool adventures. This past week, Lisa on Indigo Lady arranged for us to go to a pirate-themed Escape Room in Sint Maarten (Dutch side of St. Martin). Finding the activity was easy, but she also made sure that Ocean could come along. So cool!! This complicated things though – Lisa then also had to figure out how to get all of us plus Ocean from our anchorage in Marigot Bay to the Dutch Blonde Beach Bar (home of the Escape Room) in Philipsburg, a 20-minute drive by car, which we don’t have. Dog-less people have lots of options, of course. There are buses and taxis that run regularly between St. Martin and Sint Maarten. The solution for us? The owner of the Dutch Blond Beach Bar, Sunil Vaswani, offered his services! For just $40, he would come and pick us up (and Ocean) at Marigot Bay and return us at the end of our day. What??? I have to attribute this amazing opportunity to Lisa’s exceptional people skills converging with a restaurant owner who aimed to please. Incredible!

And the car ride to and from the Escape Room wasn’t just a car ride. No, it was a guided tour of Sint Maarten provided by Sunil himself. Not only did he point out various landmarks but we learned about the economy, culture, history and geography of the island. Oh, and then there was the Escape Room. This was a challenging puzzle for the six of us. The concept was that we were captured by Blackbeard and had to escape the room using only the clues around us, many of which were in secured boxes that we had to figure out how to unlock. It was a fun and exciting 60 minutes. We failed to escape but we were super close. Perhaps we would have been successful if Ocean had used her search and rescue talents instead of sleeping through the activity!

The whole crew on the way to Sint Maarten

Ocean watching the view from her back seat of the van

A beautiful (but stormy) view

The view from the Dutch Blond Beach Bar

Ocean waiting for the Escape Room to begin

Yummy tacos after our failed escape

Even better! Yummy shots after our failed escape

This week has been jam-packed and we have thoroughly enjoyed St. Martin. Still, we have to keep moving. A few days ago we decided to move along to the Grand Case anchorage, a little north of Marigot Bay. And today, Friday, we arrived at St. Barts, another French island. We are happy to be on the move!