What a busy ten days we’ve had; full of so many “firsts” with this boat!

Our First Guest

We had a friend from Savannah fly in for 9 days – he was officially our first guest on board Luna Sea.  Man, nothing gets a boat cleaned up from boat projects quite like having an overnight guest.

Our guest, Lyon, is trying to decide if he wants to give this crazy Catamaran Life thing a go – so what better way than to come hang out for several days and see what it’s like?

Right off the bat we took off for some provisioning.  Not one, but TWO grocery stores to load up for food for the following days.  Because, well, that’s normal.  We often can’t get everything we need at one store. In fact, about every two weeks I go on a route that takes me to four different stores in one morning.  And of course we all carried the food back to the dinghy in our backpacks.  That may’ve had the boys rethinking their decision to by a case of beer each…

After provisioning, we were on a mission to pick up our dive tanks.  What’s a visit to the USVI’s without a SCUBA trip!?! Mark dropped them off sometime before Christmas and they were finally ready.  Theoretically, at least.  

We motored east into chop to an anchorage near the east end of St. Thomas, and after almost losing the dinghy (we blame it on the new guy, obvs – but one of the boys forgot to tie off the dinghy when they lowered it from the davits…) they zipped over to Caribbean Inflatables to pick up the tanks. I mean, ya know, after Mark swam after and rescued the dinghy.  #therealboatlife

After a 1/4 mile hike each way, and while carrying dive tanks on the return leg, the guys realized the tanks were actually empty…  

Turns out that when you get your bottles hyrdrostated at Caribbean Inflatables, they do not feel the need to actually do the VIP nor put air in them.  Who knew?  So yeah.  We waited two months to get back empty tanks. And so we plotted a course for the next dive shop!  

After grabbing the last ball available in Christmas Cove (it’s really packed down here, y’all!) they again zipped off – this time for a shop in Red Hook. Unfortunately, the owner was on the dive boat, heading out of the marina as they guys walked up.  And the person at the desk refused to let them leave the tanks there to be filled.  Weird.  But no worries!  Just try again in the morning.  

After a crazy lighting show (not my favorite thing on a boat with a mast) and a decent night’s sleep, they tried again.  Alas, the dive boat was pulling out again on arrival.  And so, again, we changed course.  Off to St. John!

Third time is certainly the charm, as we dropped the bottles, grabbed a super delicious lunch at Greengos (you should totally eat here!) and stopped back at Low Key Watersports.  They were able to do the VIP and actually put air in the tanks. And, sure, the tanks weren’t actually full of air – but there was plenty for the boys to dive a really cool rock off of Salt Pond.

While this seems like (and is) a long, drawn out process just to get air in dive tanks, it is a pretty realistic view of what it frequently takes to get things done in the islands.  Pretty much everything takes three times as long here as it does on the mainland.  But you just roll with the punches.

Our First Anchorage

We recently made a few fabulous upgrades to Luna Sea.  Ok, who am I kidding?  We have made several fabulous upgrades to Luna Sea.  One of those (three of those?) is the new 65lb Mantus M2 anchor, 250′ of new chain and a fancy schmancy new anchor chain hook. (The anchor and hook are from Mantus and the chain is from Lighthouse Marine here on St. Thomas)

When we hit the cove where we tried to lose the dinghy, we were able to drop that big beautiful anchor into a gorgeous patch of turquoise water.  It  grabbed right away.  And even though we were only there for a short time, I decided to give the chain hook a go as well.  Practice makes perfect, and all of that nonsense.

We went with the M2 version this go round (we had a 45lb M1 on the monohull along with their original chain hook and bridle) because I didn’t want to run the risk of the roll bar hitting the hull of the boat. I found out the hard way that shipping a giant anchor to the islands is not cheap – and I didn’t want to need to return it and ship another anchor if the roll bar didn’t work on the catamaran.

It fits great – but turns out the shank tries to bash into the hull if it’s not pulled up crazy tight.  Mark added a strip of Starboard with some longer bolts, and it seems to be doing the job of protecting our girl from any ugly gel coat damage.  

The new chain hook is pretty cool.  It’s very hefty. I am a little concerned that it’s stainless while our anchor and chain are galvanized, but it is not like it will be sitting on the same chain link for extended periods of time.  Well, not currently anyway.  So I will keep an eye on it.  And the new design combined with the stretchy strap is a big improvement on the plastic latch on the previous design.  That plastic eventually just gets brittle down here in the tropics.  But I will keep an eye on this new style strap and make sure nothing janky happens with it.

Reefing

And speaking of sailing: we finally figured out how to reef the main!  Well, sort of.  We did not do it 100% correctly this first time, as we haven’t figured out exactly where the block comes into play…  But we’ll get there.  We had a safe work-around that kept our main reefed nicely for the 25+ knots we were seeing.

Our First Easting in the Cat

I don’t like easting in the cat.  There.  I’ve said it. I for sure don’t like easting in a monohull either, but it seems to cut through the water differently and, well, after six years on LS1 it’s what I’m used to.  That being said, the boat handled it beautifully.  Not nearly so much bashing as I expected after all of the horror stories people like to share about the ride quality of a “small” cat. (Remember a few years ago when 38′ was “typical” and 50′ was insane? 😏)  So that’s cool.  I am sure I will get used to how this baby rides after a while, as I did in the monohull.  But let’s just face it – easting into heavy seas and high winds is really not fun in any boat.  

Downwinding

Ok, now this is fun! We spent the last full day of Lyon’s trip heading west from Salt Pond Bay all the way back to Elephant Bay.  It was fabulous.  I can totally get used to this ride.  Downwind in the Beneteau 393? Never been more seasick.  But downwind in the Leoopard 38? Glorious.  I was READING MY KINDLE.  Seriously.  If you’re not a seasick sort of person (lucky!) then you may not get it.  But to be able to just chill and read while underway, particularly downwind, for me was a miracle of miracles.  

Our First Sailing Schedule

Annnnd speaking of sailing in 25+ knots.  Well, that is just not our typical day of sailing.  We’re happiest in the 15 knot range.  Gentle seas under 5′? Yes, please.  But, for pretty much our first time ever, we were sailing to a schedule.  We really wanted to show some of our favorites spots to our First Guest, as well as hit some we hadn’t yet explored by boat.  And there was a time frame to stay within.  This time frame just happened to coincide with some crazy winds and seas in the area.  Nothing unsafe, mind you.  Just not exactly pleasant.  So at a time where we would typically sit still and chill, we were out exploring.  And testing the new boat.  And I’m happy to say she passed with flying colors.  

Soon Come

In other boat news, our batteries and inverter have been released from Customs Jail! That means that Mark will soon jump in and get all of that installed and set up. And what does this mean for the boat?  We will have faster charging batteries (Lifepo) the ability to use our outlets when the inverter is on (pretty much always, I’m guessing) the ability to run the watermaker via the inverter vs the generator (ahhhh, so much quieter!) – so many things.  I am particularly excited about the inverter, as it is strong enough to push my Nutribullet, rice cooker, immersion blender, and the list goes on.  

And this will wrap up all of the currently planned major upgrades. Which is truly exciting!

What’s left?  I’m waiting on some more Sunbrella from Sailrite so that I can sew a new sail bag/stack pack.  And I’ve been eyeballing some kitchen upgrades – perhaps replacing the Force 10 that can’t seem to stay lit to save it’s life (I’ve been tempted to toss it in the sea more than once) and maybe a few smaller things.  But let’s just say that this little boat is getting mighty cozy.  It’s almost time to decide what happens next!  North or South…?  Only time and weather can determine that, I suppose.  

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