Virgin Islands Christmas Present to Haiti with Michael Beans, Yachts Sophisticated Lady and Fairwinds and the Tortola Rotary Club.

This story started for me, when I noticed this bulletin pinned up outside Bobby's supermarket a week or two before Xmas. It could have been this one, or one similar... (My words are in bold throughout, and Ricks not)

***

If any of you that are local have heard of the Virgin Island Christmas Present to Haiti through the media, 'Sophisticated Lady' is one of the two boats that has volunteered to deliver the present to the Haitians that are in need of these supplies. We are trying to round up as much support as we can to assist with this delivery as the expenses are escalating quickly as we try and get the boats ready for the trip. It has been a very last minute effort as the Rotary Club just announced they had 12 outboard engines to donate, and just needed a way to get them there. They couldn't be shipped because anyone who knows Haiti knows they would never reach their intended recipients.

We have been getting great support from the local community... Riteway is giving us discounted provisions, Moorings is helping us by covering part of our diesel requirements, Parts & Power is providing service and maintenance parts for our onboard diesels, and we are just on our way right now to Road Town to fill up with donated food, clothing, school supplies, etc, to take with us to Haiti.

We need as much help as we can get, and if there is one thing that could really help make a difference, would be if someone local knows someone who might consider loaning us a satellite phone just for the duration of our trip so that we may stay in touch and send back email updates while we're underway. We have accomplished some of our goal, but due to how fast this has all come up, we've literally only had a few short days to try and put this all together, and we're scheduled to leave tomorrow! It doesn't matter if donations come in before we leave, as we are planning on heading out tomorrow sometime. We just hope enough help comes in while we're away so it doesn't cost us much in the end... none of us has much expendable cash right now... but we do have the time.

Here is a letter I sent out a couple days ago that better describes our effort:

My name is Rick Moore, and I am captain of the charter sailboat ‘Sophisticated Lady’ here in the British Virgin Islands. I am contacting you regarding a charitable event that we are trying to assist with, but we ourselves require assistance in order to make it happen.

I’ve been working closely with a good friend of mine, Michael Beans, for over a year now on some projects we’ve been filming in the islands that were going to be produced to support an organization he formed in the island of Haiti. If you are not familiar with Michael, he is the local entertainer that performs every night at the Rob White bar on Marina Cay. Many years ago Michael formed “The Good Samaritan Foundation” to help the kids of Haiti that without some sort of outside help did not have much chance of surviving due to lack of good food and water supplies, let alone getting any kind of formal education.

Last May, Michael’s efforts attracted the notice of the Tortola Rotary Club, and he was asked to do a formal presentation to them regarding his charity and what it was all about. Rotary Club has since decided to adopt his cause and put their local resources to work. The biggest issues in Haiti were the lack of proper schools and teachers to care for the students, and the problem that our changing climate has driven their local fish supply into deeper water that is further offshore, and without any modern technologies available, they lack the ability to catch the fish and return them to shore before the fish are spoiled.

Tortola Rotary has already raised over $60,000US to build the needed school, and also the additional funds to pay the teachers salary for this next year. In addition, they have gathered local support for the cause and are in possession of 12 outboard motors to be used by the fisherman in Haiti, that will help them with their efforts to feed their communities. Other supporters of Michael’s cause have also raised a full load of foods and supplies to assist those in Haiti. The entire project is being heralded by the Rotary Club as “The Virgin Islands Christmas Gift to Haiti”. Now all we need to do is get it there.

We have been requested to take ‘Sophisticated Lady’ in tandem with another similar sailboat, and personally escort and deliver the present. We have been documenting everything since the project started, including Michael’s initial presentation to the Tortola Rotary Club last May. We have been asked to continue documenting everything, right up to delivery of the present, and return with footage showing the current conditions in Haiti. This whole thing has come on us very suddenly... Rotary just advised last week that they had everything ready to deliver, now just needed to find a way to get it there. It was decided that the present really needed to be delivered personally to avoid being intercepted by corruption in the area, hence the request for our two sailboats to take them there personally.

We personally have no idea what to expect sailing into Haitian waters with all this cargo onboard, but understand there are certain risks we may encounter along the way. Apparently, we will be entering the territory under a diplomatic umbrella, and it is my understanding we will be greeted and escorted through the waters by an armed Haitian policing boat. Michael retains a diplomatic status of the highest regard in Haiti, and he will be onboard ‘Sophisticated Lady’ with us through the entire trip... Hopefully that will all be enough to keep us all out of harms way.

We are more than happy to provide our time and our boat in support of this effort. What we don’t have is the finances to pull this off without outside support. This is only a 1200 mile trip there and back, but the return trip will be very hard on the boats as we pound our way upwind to make it back in time for our Christmas charter. The boat needs some projects attended to asap, and expenses like fuel, water, and provisions covered to make it possible for us to take on this challenge at this time.

I have estimated that approximately $5,000US is needed to accomplish this task. We are not looking to make anything for ourselves in this venture, only to have it not cost us anything. If we find more support in this than we need, any monies over and above our necessary expenses will go directly to the Good Samaritan Foundation in further support of the children of Haiti.

If you are able to assist with any or all of what is needed, it would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions you may have regarding this request. If you would like a bit more background, we had just written an introduction to this whole event in our last log update that was sent out, that actually resulted in our being requested to be the support boat. You can find that page on our website at www.WindInMySails.com/michaelbeans

I’m sure you will hear more about this Christmas Gift via the local media if you haven’t already. We would really like to help see this project through to completion and would appreciate any help in accomplishing that goal.

Thank you in advance for any consideration, and we’ll look forward to hearing back from you.

Hi Guys!

Thanks so much for the great pledges of support! Sorry I haven't replied until now, we've been unbelievably busy with getting the boats outfitted and ready to go. We arrived in Village Cay Marina this afternoon just after posting this topic, and then the carloads of supplies started showing up... we literally filled an entire cabin full of food, clothing, school supplies, and even brand new uniforms for the kids when they attend their brand new school!

I talked to Michael, but his PayPal goes directly to Haiti so doesn't help recoup our costs. He is putting up all the funds for everything, and that's what we're trying to replace. I know nothing of Paypal myself, but If anyone knows how to do an email transfer through Paypal or something similar, we can try that, or just send a check to my attention at:

Rick Moore

Wind In My Sails Inc.

attn: Haiti Fund

360 Coxmill Rd

Barrie, Ontario, Canada

L4N 7S8

That should be there by the time we get back which would be great.

We're trying to get everything wrapped up tonight, then heading over to Soper's Hole for final touches tomorrow, and hoping to leave by sunset.

By the way, thought you might like to know that not only is The Moorings helping with some fuel costs, they've also fully provisioned our boats for 8 people for 16 days, that was very nice of them, and we can't tell you how much we appreciate it!

Still no word on a SatPhone yet, that is the one thing could really help out right now, in case anyone knows of someplace local we might be able to rent or borrow one for the trip.

Thanks again for your support, every little bit helps! We'll check back in again later

Still trying to get my boatcam working again... had it working today for a bit, and it works on my PC based laptop, but the web software is on my Mac, and the Mac won't recognize it anymore for some reason. Can understand if it was completely dead from being soaked, but why would it work on one computer and not the other? Hopefully I can get something rigged by tomorrow... thought it would be cool to have it running when we sail down to Soper's Hole, and when we set sail for Haiti.

I just can't believe the energy surrounding this whole project, it just feels like the whole town is involved and everyone is working quickly at getting us everything we need before departure time. We are still in Village Cay waiting on another load of supplies, and our provisions that should be arriving momentarily.

***

Hi Everyone!

Happy to report that we arrived safely in Haiti yesterday at around 1pm... had a great welcoming by some of the local sloops around Ile la Vache, picked up Jean-Felix Joseph, the local missionary man that works directly with Michael and the Foundation. It has been such an extraordinary experience, I can't even begin to describe... internet is next to non-existent here, and the charger for my laptop went down, but we'll try and get an update of the trip out later tonight as we are scheduled for departure tomorrow morning after receiving our fuel drop. Hopefully can get it together for you and send some pics... unbelievable experience, can't imagine the appreciation from the locals here, they are putting on a surprise ceremony for us later this afternoon. Hope all are well, will send update as soon as possible!

Hopefully there are no big cooking pots... I sent my crew on horseback as ambassadors as I had to stay back and catch up on some work!

So anyway, we had a great trip here, mostly downwind, and sometimes a little more challenging than the crew would have preferred! Onboard for the trip we had Michael, Kira, myself, Karen, and Ian who is a friend of mine who produces films for one of the local TV stations on Tortola, and has been working with me to document this entire project on video.

We ended up with a big front coming down on us and blowing huge winds out of the NE for almost 24 hours, which wouldn't have been a problem except the autopilot packed it in so Michael and I had to give everyone a crash course in hand-steering downwind in heavy seas... there's a fun night!

After many hours of troubleshooting the autopilot and attempting repairs, I finally figured out that the main drive belt on the electric ram had stripped out due to a problem with the main cylinder binding... not much chance of fixing that out here! We were getting slapped pretty hard by some quartering waves that kept flooding us in the cockpit... made for a very wet night! We made it through the night with everyone's spirits still intact... a little wet and tired, but still in high gear about completing our mission. Ian was doing some filming the next day, and even though the waves had dissipated and we hadn't seen a big one for quite some time, one hit us out of nowhere and sent spray everywhere, even where he was hiding with the camera to avoid any such potential incident... not fun... now we're down one high-def camcorder so the other one was immediately put into watertight storage for the duration of the trip. All things considered we did fairly well, but unfortunately we've suffered Ian's damaged video camera, a ripped mainsail, and a broken autopilot... all things that we can't permanently remedy until we reach the BVI's again.

We finished the trip motorsailing in fairly calm conditions, and I must say, our approach to Haiti was unlike any other I've made in the past... it was a mixture of fear, joy, apprehension, amazement... and many other emotions. Our last night at sea was spent watching every light on the horizon, and there was a couple that turned towards us that put us on high alert. Everything turned out fine in the end, and we were rewarded with a very heart-warming welcome on arrival.

Now with our mission completed, the challenge will be to get everyone home safe given that we have a 4-5 day upwind sail ahead of us and we have to hand-steer the entire way! We've patched the main as best we can, so hopefully it will see us through... no such thing as a repair shop here in Ile La Vache!

This is a very condensed version of what we've experienced on this adventure so far, but we should be able to post a full log with more pics when we get back to the BVI's. This film should make for a very interesting watch, and is planned to be part of the next fundraiser with Tortola Rotary to support the cause.

Thanks for all your support in this cause, and anyone else wishing to help can email directly through our email address charter@windinmysails.com on www.paypal.com

Thanks again for your help everyone, we really couldn't have done this without your support, and you can only imagine how great it felt to be on the front lines of this wonderful event... the locals all thanked us for helping them.. something that had never been done for them before... ever. We all made a difference. Now let's just pray for 5 days of North wind!

It's very hard to pick just a few pics from the hundreds of photos we've taken already, but here's some for you.

Some of our welcoming committee showing up in dugout canoes

Looking over the side of Sophisticated Lady at a Haitian sloop full of our precious cargo

Sophisticated Lady in the background as we head to shore in a Haitian sloop to offload cargo

The locals of the fishing village at La Hatte, with Kira and Karen in the foreground, Michael in the back with red shirt

The Haitian fishing village of La Hatte on Ile La Vache

Sophisticated Lady sitting at anchor with the La Hatte fishing boats

We just spent the morning doing engine maintenance and discovered our alternator bracket has broken in half. We managed to 'scotch-tape' it back together in the hopes it will work for most of the trip, but looks like we'll probably be without power at some point, and no possibility of fixing it here. We'll be heading off in less than an hour and hope to make it back in 5-6 days max. Weather looks pretty strong coming into Virgins around Thursday, so we'll see how we make out. Have everything battened down, and just preparing forward hatches for submarine mode.

***

First of all, Merry Christmas to you all.

Secondly, I wish I had better news, but we've encountered major trauma. We are back in Haiti after having spent the past day and a half adrift with no motor or sails. We are safe in harbor as of late last night, but we arrived under a jury rigged motor with a boat full of exhaust fumes as the water lift muffler is literally melted after something happened to the sea water cooling system. We limped in at idle speed, as that is all we could get out of the motor. The water cooling sytem still ceases to function, but I managed to use one of the shower sump pumps to replace the non-functioning impeller system, and that managed to run enough water through the engine to keep it running. Unfortunately, even though we had done our best to patch with muffler, it still leaked exhaust and water badly and we were depending on the bilge pumps to keep pumping the cooling water out of the boat which was so full of exhaust fumes it was unbelievable, but we had no choice but to try and make the cut at Ile La Vache or we would have continued to drift along and our next stop would be Jamaica.

It was quite an amazing experience actually, I can't begin to tell you how impressed I was with the girls... they held up amazingly and stood watches while hand-steering the entire trip. Ian and I took to trying to repair the onboard systems and getting us back under control and underway. I have actually been through much worse conditions before, but what we experienced was like a chain reaction that just kept going. We had a 3am rescue of the dinghy in storm conditions after the boat got hit so hard on the beam it literally jarred the dinghy and broke one of its mounts clean off. Then something hit the wind generator and broke one of the blades which threw it out of balance. Before we could even get it tied out of the wind a strong gust spun around the side of the boat and spun up the remaining blades which caused it to self-destruct. Then we realized that the engine would run, but there was no cooling water and the boat quickly filled up with exhaust fumes so we had to shut down. After that we got spun downwing in a gust I can only estimate at around 70knots since our wind indicator was already malfunctioning, and that pushed our double reefed main so hard it snapped the reef line and broke the battens against the stays, and completely stressed the sail to the point it is pulling apart into strands everywhere. The jib simultaneously split open in the same gust, even though we only had a very small section of it still out to maintain steerage.

We ended up putting out a distress call on our SSB radio, and after 3-4 hours finally raised someone in the US who patched us through to Southbound 2 in my hometown in Toronto, Canada. Herb immediately put us on a check-in schedule and notified the coast guard that while we were in clear and present danger, it was currently non life threatening. We were taking on water, but had limited the inflow and the bilge pumps were keeping up with it.

I could go on and on, but the net result is we are back in Haiti, and although we are now safely in harbor, we are literally stranded here with no support facilities for parts or repair. Amazingly enough, when we entered the channel into Ile La Vache, we heard a call from our other delivery boat, 'Fair Winds'. He reported the same conditions and had lost his mainsail, his engine was still out, and his dinghy washed overboard in the storm. Somehow he made it all the way here with no power, and then arrived within 3 miles of us on the same night after all we'd been through! He is now safely anchored in the same bay we are behind Ile La Vache.

We are currently weighing our options, but we will definitely require outside assistance before we can get back underway. Somehow we have to find a mainsail, and a water-lift muffler, those are our main issues right now, the rest we are trying to deal with ourselves.

Anyway, sorry for the bad news, but wanted to post an update to notify everyone we were still ok, but very disabled. Everyone's spirits were still amazingly upbeat, and within one hour of arriving at anchor we actually sat down to a delicious Christmas Eve dinner that Kira had prepared so quickly, none of us knew how she'd even done it!

Today will be spent just notifying everyone that we are still ok, but are way off course and schedule right now. Hope everyone is well out there, and we'll check back in later once we have a chance to try and figure out our next step.

***

Today was a different day altogether... it's becoming very apparent we are not going to get out of here based on any schedule. Today we spent going to the mainland to get food, source water, fuel, etc... It is unbelievable here, we actually felt like we were in a war zone, the buildings are virtually completely destroyed... people live in the streets and buy and sell whatever they can... I'm not even going to go in to the conditions we experienced today, but I am quickly figuring out that we have not managed to sail out as fast as we wanted to for a reason. There is much more here than meets the eye. The locals have done a complete turnaround upon discovering that we are not tourists, and the amount of compassion they have offered us in the wake of knowing we are trapped here just as they are has become almost overwhelming. I wish I could describe better, but we are about to lose internet again tonight due to prime tourist season at the hotel. Will try and post more tomorrow.

I've just been checking the latest weather forecasts... I need someone to verify and confirm what is expected for our area between here and Dominican Republic. According to what I see, it looks like we have a clear forecast for light winds below 10-12 knots which tells me that if I can get this mainsail back up with strong enough patches in effect, and the motor running on any kind of reliable basis, we can get our butts out of here and make our way to Santo Domingo in about 48-60 hours of motorsailing upwind. It's a big gamble, but I have about 4 of these PAR pumps onboard that could potentially cool the engine for 12 hours or so each before burning out, and that could at least put us in a place we could receive parts and service much more easily than where we are. Anyone with good access to weather forecasting, or Chris Parkers forum, or Herb on Southbound II, that could do a little research for us in the meantime and report back before we regain internet access tomorrow could be a huge help. If I knew we had a good weather window, we could potentially rig the engine and exhaust to maintain a certain speed, and don't laugh, but we have just enough duct tape onboard that we could patch the mainsail together above the 2nd reef that may just allow us to gain that 250-300 miles to windward. Any help with the weather forecasting would be greatly appreciated... both Herb and Chris Parker are aware of our situation, but our access is limited here... thanks in advance for any help. Will check for replies tomorrow. Thanks everyone.

***

Hi Everyone, sorry for slow response, as you can imagine, everything happens very slowly here. We have internet access at the local hotel, but their only connection source is satellite and they are limited to a specific number of kilobytes per day and once that has been surpassed they shut down... makes it hard right now as the hotel is full so there are many tourists using the bandwith simultaneously.

Just receive all your emails and messages, thanks so much for so many offers of help... all are appreciated and will become of great assistance I'm sure. GlennA, that muffler could be worth gold to us right now... we have a Vetus but will weigh all options and see what can work best. Have taken many pictures of damage, but will also take a picture of current muffler so we can see if it is a close match. Kerry and Jo, both of you could become invaluable right now as our hands are tied behind Haitian lines. It is such an unbelievable contrast in our lives right now, we are in one of the most beautiful tropical paradises that I have seen in the Caribbean, it is completely unspoiled and full of some of the friendliest people you will find anywhere. Two days ago we were struggling just to not get lost at sea. I can't even describe the mixture of feelings we have all experienced through the course of this whole adventure... I do know this much, everyone onboard has said this will be one Christmas that they will never forget.

Contacting Parts & Power and Moorings are top on our list, they were both sponsors for us in getting here, and hopefully we will find help from them so we can get home. We have well established that shipping is going to be a problem, anything sent here can be tied up indefinitely in customs and could either disappear or be taxed to death... that is the reason we were asked to deliver these gifts in the first place, corruption abounds here and that means things get 'intercepted' routinely.

Ian's girlfriend Karen is onboard as crew with us, and she is a lawyer from Tortola. Karen has come up with the possibility that if we can find all our parts in Tortola, she may be able to have them packaged as a diplomatic delivery through the help of some contacts in Tortola... that would mean they could come right through customs and arrive within days, instead of the weeks that customs could potentially tie them up for. We will hopefully find out much more of what we need to know by later today and tomorrow.

We just finished with the offloading of all the outboard engines that 'Fairwinds' was carrying for the local fisherman. Felix is with us now and is trying to help us find a way to get things to the island with as little trouble as possible. Somehow we will get through this, but our next major obstacle is definitely the mainsail, we surveyed it this afternoon and there is no way it will survive another gail if we encounter one... hopefully we can find something of use through the Moorings as 'Sophisticated Lady' is an ex-Moorings boat, and they have many boats the same size that they would carry spare parts for. They could definitely be our biggest saving grace.

Thanks so much everyone, all your efforts are greatly appreciated... can't tell you how much. I'm sure you wouldn't be sympathetic if you saw where we're sitting, but the fact still remains that we are trapped here. Our next charter is scheduled for Jan 8th and if we miss that one it's game over for us.

I've received everyone's emails, and apologize for not being able to respond to every one individually... problem is that the internet here is measured by the kilobyte on a daily basis, and when their limit is reached the satellite shuts off access and doesn't reset until the next day. I managed to upload a few small pictures today that I will post here and will hopefully work.

***

We have been in touch with Parts & Power and they have been great in working with us to try and match up the parts we need. It feels like support is building in Tortola and everyone is rallying to help us find a way to get home. Our biggest obstacle by far is the sails... I'll be sorry to see 'Sophisticated Lady's' sails go, she had a nice set of heavy duty mylar offshore sails that were over $7000 each, but now we'll be happy to get whatever we can that gets us home. Apparently the Moorings doesn't have any sails for a 50 footer in their inventory, but they are trying to help in contacting some of the other companies and see who has what. No idea what they will want for the sails, but hopefully we can find enough funds before then as I'm sure most of you are aware how challenging the charter business has been this year with economic conditions, and new sails were not part of 'Sophisticated Lady's' budget for this year.

Parts & Power thinks they may have the exact muffler we need, but still waiting to hear back... also trying to find a replacement for our dripless stuffing box as it would be better called a streaming stuffing box now... managed to get it under control by putting a large hose clamp around it, but I'm sure that will only aggravate the problem in the near future and a small leak will quickly become a big leak. Most other things we can deal with via things I keep onboard, but those are our major issues right now.

Anyway, here's a few pictures hopefully, and we'll update as often as possible. Thanks again for all support and ideas, and Bill, the idea of Visar's plane could be an outstanding option. Another great idea is if anyone knows of a sea-plane that could land right here in Ile la Vache... not sure of the logistics there, but would certainly get things here the fastest if we gave them a waypoint of the bay we're anchored in.

The Haitian sloops offloading the outboard engines from 'Fair Wind'

Helping offload the engines

'Sophisticated Lady's' battered mainsail and stackpack... notice the remains of the wind generator in the background

The view of our aft cabin when the engine is running to keep systems up

The shower sump pump I used to jury rig the engine cooling system that helped us limp in at idle speed

Our towel wrapped and duct-taped muffler... notice Ian added a band-aid on top for good luck!

An example of the damage to our sails

Our poor melted muffler

***

Hi everyone, thanks for all the suggestions... trying to find out as much as possible today, but of course everyone is on holidays so making it difficult.

We just got back from inspecting the sails, had some local guys working on them that were just trying to help, and certainly respect and appreciate their efforts, but if we head out with these sails we'll end up right back here before you know it. They don't have any equipment here, and the patches they used are more canvas than sail material... I literally pulled gently on one of the new patches and it ripped like butter in my hand... not good for the kind of sailing we'll be doing.

Appreciate the sail offers, that's what we're looking for but the priority is to find something in good enough shape and strong enough for a 600 mile battle to windward. Sounds like most engine parts have been sourced by Tom at Parts & Power, he has been great and thinks he may even have the exact replacement sea-water pump that we need to replace the one that won't work. We've already replaced the impellor with new spares from onboard, but it just won't draw water for some reason and nobody has been able to help us figure out why. I can only guess that there must be a leak in the housing that is preventing it from creating vacuum.

Once we get things operational again, we have adjusted our tactics for our next attempt to sail out of here. This time we'll be sailing as close to a SE course as possible to head as far out to sea as possible to stay clear of the southern cape of Haiti, that is what trapped us last time and took almost 48 hours to cover 80 miles due to the local currents and eddies in the area. We'll head SE about 15 miles under motor sail to stay as high on the wind as possible, then tack in towards Dominican Republic with the idea that we can re-fuel in Santo Domingo if necessary as we'll have used half our supply already if we've had to motor sail the entire way. From there we'll repeat the same manoeuvre with the hopes of ending up at the SE corner of Puerto Rico, then motor the remaining 80 miles through the Virgin Islands to Tortola. The first two tacks should take 2-2.5 days each, and with a day for the final stretch we should be able to make the trip in 5-6 days... works on paper anyway, now just have to check with weather probabilities to see if a departure on Thursday works if we can get everything here in time by Wednesday. Really pushing it, but that's the only way we can possibly make our next charter.

Internet about to cut out again, limit has been reached for the day, will have to check in tomorrow.

***

Hi Everyone, sorry for lack of communication today, internet has been down all day and just turned on an hour ago.

Thanks for support everyone, and appreciate all the ideas too, have tried everything recommended... handy having everyone pointing out some things I may have missed... almost feeling to close to it now and not thinking as clearly about it. Didn't get to pull out on this weather window yet, talked to Parts & Power and if I rigged the engine the way I wanted to would have melted my exhaust tube, so still working on other ideas.

Here's a few pictures, and will send more later.

Pulling down the mainsail and rigging

The local guys trying to repair our mainsail with cloth patches

Karen helping a local boy with a bad burn

Everyone has been asking about Lucky... don't worry, she's doing very well, and really entertaining the locals with her antics!

Have a good New Year everyone, will talk again real soon!

***

Hi Guys, sorry for no contact again, entire satellite system here got blocked for almost 2 solid days around the holiday due to high usage. Very frustrating when everything we need to do is online to coordinate our parts and delivery. Luckily we were able to receive phone calls through the main office, so we've all been hovering around waiting for the phone to ring.

Parts & Power sent out our parts today so they should hopefully arrive next tuesday/wednesday. Tortola Rotary has been absolutely pivotal in getting everything arranged and managing communications between us and everyone else in lieu of poor email access. They have also established connection with Haiti Rotary who is now our delivery address for the parts so they can make sure the package arrives and makes it safely through customs. Doyle Sails has found a mainsail off a Beneteau 50 that they can loan us while they work on a proper replacement for us that we can pick up once we've arrived back in BVI.

Everyone here is doing fine, but feeling rather helpless, especially when we can't even just get in touch to help get things happening. Satellite uplink went down completely yesterday, but the owners of the Port Morgan hotel gave me access to the system in case I could help because they knew nothing about it and there was nobody to call during the holidays here. Luckily I was able to troubleshoot it and get it re-established earlier, but bandwidth was still almost non-existant. Seems to be coming back up now, but they are getting ready to close the office during the dinner hours, so have to shut down again.

The second boat, 'Fairwind' is with us also in the anchorage here, and they are safe and sound. They came in with blown mainsail and broken down motor too after being blown down-wind in the same gale we hit going upwind. Looks like his motor is toast, but his mainsail only needed one big rip stitched up, and his is dacron which made it easier to repair than our mylar. 'Fairwind' is planning on setting sail for Jamaica this weekend, he didn't want to challenge the upwind return trip with his motor not functioning, and felt Jamaica was a better place to have the boat hauled and install a new motor as his is quite old and he doesn't want to fix it again.

Just received a note from the office that Michael Beans is going to be calling for us this evening, so we'll find out a little more about what's been happening then. Thanks again everyone, we're still hanging in here, just trying to get things ready in anticipation of our parts arriving, but so far it looks like we'll be stranded here for another week before we can make another attempt at the return trip home.

***

Food is holding out but starting to dwindle, that's why we went to Les Cays earlier this week... but wow, what an experience! Now the locals have been coming by with fresh fruits and vegetables for very reasonable prices to help out. I remember when we were getting provisioned in the BVI's prior to departure, someone delivered about 100 of those little noodle packs, and about 6 cases of canned soup... I thought, what are we going to do with all that?... Now it makes perfect sense, that is what we're going to live on for the trip home!

Water was a big concern, we were almost out and there is no place to refill, even the hotel had to put guests on rations because their watermaker was down and it has only rained once since we've been here. Again the locals came through for us and actually delivered about 120 gallons in individual bottles and poured them individually into our tanks to hold us over. It's been an amazing experience actually... if we weren't actually stranded here it would be a lot more enjoyable! Now at least we know there are some parts on their way, so hopefully they get here on time and we can get back to work. Looks like we're going to miss our charter though, that's going to be the only real detrimental effect of the whole thing. One way or another we'll find a way to solve that problem, just don't know what it will be yet. Trying to delay start date, but don't know if it's possible yet.

***

Just got off phone with Michael, and between he and Rotary they offered to fly us back for the charter, round up a boat for us to use for the charter, and fly us back... unbelievable offer and hard to imagine someone even thinking of helping to that extent, but unfortunately, leaving 'Sophisticated Lady' unattended here for 2-3 weeks could prove very detrimental to her health... especially since she's still leaking water and the bilge pump runs way too frequently to think about leaving her alone.

Will try and post another update tomorrow, if the internet gods allow!

***

Yesterday was spent working on the engine again, trying to revive it after it spattered to a halt several days ago. We figured out that the intake was plugged solid from inhaling all the exhaust fumes that were leaking from the melted muffler. We managed to clean the filter screen well enough with a screwdriver, toothbrush, and some gasoline as cleaner, then we moved on the ongoing muffler problem. Knowing that the muffler was going to have to come out entirely anyway, we disconnected and removed it from the boat. After scouring the local area for anything we could substitute for 2 feet of exhaust tubing, we came up empty handed so went back to the boat to try something else. We broke out some more soup cans that were very close to the diameter of the hose... had soup for lunch, then duct-taped 4 cans together in a chain with the tops and bottoms cut off... put it in place and clamped it in, and voila... we have engine with no water leaking into bilge, and no cabin full of smoke! The only thing we have to be very careful of is that prior to shutting down the engine, it is imperative to uncouple one end of the bypass so the cooling water in the tube drains into the bilge, and cannot run back down the tube and into our exhaust manifold which would effectively water-lock our engine. It is working at least, and now we have electrics and our fridge back! It was so nice to be able to offer a cold beer to some of our local friends who've been helping us last night!

Anyway, things always feel better when something gets fixed, especially the engine, even if it is only temporary. Kira has been feeling a little down the past few days... it's starting to get to her that we are stuck here so long and not able to get back to work for some time yet. We're definitely going to lose this next charter now, so that's going to hurt a lot. Now that we at least have electrics back, we treated her to a double-feature movie last night in the salon and she was very happy!

Ian and Karen have developed some kind of stomach bug... karen is laid out in bed and hoping to feel better today... Ian isn't as bad and took Kira on a filming expedition today with Phelix to meet some of the local children as they attend church this morning.

I've been working on some of our pictures in the hopes we'll be able to upload some again soon, and it sounds like Harry is planning on sailing 'Fairwind' out of here this afternoon after his ships papers are returned from Les Cayes. His engine is still seized, so I'm going to pull him out to open water with the dinghy so he can pick up the wind, and from there he'll set sail for Jamaica where he's arranged haulout and service in Port Antonio.

Rotary is trying to raise funds to help us pay for all the parts and sails we broke on our way home. I can't tell you how humbling this is, not even being in a position to fix your own boat when something like this happens, but it is just too major for us at a time when business is down like with so many others.

It sounds like the engine parts were going to be approximately $2000, and TTOL has already helped us raise almost that much, so thank you so much everyone, it's really making a difference. The mainsail will be the next major issue, Doyle has quoted about $4000 to make us a suitable replacement in a new sail for our return, and is loaning us a Beneteau 50 sail to sail home with. We should have some money of our own to put towards the new sail, depending on what happens with this charter we have to miss. The rest hopefully we'll find before that time. The jib will have to wait until we return, we probably won't need much from it as we are going to attempt to motor-sail upwind with the mainsail alone in order to get back as fast as possible and not miss any more work. The jib should be good enough to act as backup should we experience any engine troubles again, and Doyle has also included some big patches of sail repair material in our parts shipment that we can re-inforce the damaged area with.