Mar 11
This morning we had a visit from Jim, a local captain that runs a day-charter catamaran. We had met him at the bar and asked about their rates. We are thinking about doing a lunch charter with them when our friends are here instead of trying to do a day-sail on MoonSail with eight people. Jim gave us their brochure and visited a bit.
I spent a good part of the day writing the update to the website. Too bad I don't have some magic software where I could just think the stuff and it would type itself. Later in the afternoon, we went to the grocery store. It's been odd shopping this season, since we are right across the street from the store, and we apparently aren't going to be doing any long trips to islands without adequate groceries, we haven't stocked up big time like we have in the past. Also, with our plan being to only be on the boat until June, we don't want to have a bunch of stuff to leave or get rid of.
Late in the afternoon, I watched the first half of the NASCAR race from Las Vegas. By 17:00 though, I was getting frustrated that the feed kept hanging up, so we went on to happy hour instead of watching the rest of the race. Dinner was tilapia on the boat.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 12
The weather has calmed down significantly over the past few days. Throughout the whole Eastern Caribbean, the winds have been howling for several weeks, thus the seas have been quite large too. This has been keeping all but those with a deadline from transiting between islands. With the seas calming down, there were several boats that checked in underway on the Coconut Telegraph. Too bad we aren't ready yet to take advantage of this period of relative calm.
My project for today is to check out the outboard. A couple weeks ago I started the outboard while it was still mounted on the rail of the big boat. Even with the gadget the neighbor lent me to get cooling water to it, there was no water coming out of the tell-tale hole that is there specifically so you know you are circulating water. So, I want to actually put the outboard on the dinghy and check it out. The dinghy has been upside down on the dock since we cleaned it a couple weeks ago. So, we flipped it over and attached it to the davits and picked it up a bit. Next we moved the big boat away from the dock far enough to lower the dinghy behind it. We did this by slacking the stern lines to the dock, and taking up the bow and spring lines to the piling in front of us. We lowered the dinghy into the water from the davits. Next to remember the dance we do to get the outboard off the rail and lowered onto the dinghy transom. A few weeks ago, I had replaced the sling that goes around the outboard to hoist it with the pulley system. I took the lock off the clamps that secure the outboard to the dinghy or the rail with no trouble. We had friends who had to cut one of these locks off after a storage period, but ours put up no fight at all. I wish I could say the same for the motor clamps themselves. Neither one would budge. I went and got my large Vice-Grips and the WD-40. It took me a couple hours of WD-40, tapping, trying to turn, repeat, to finally get one of the clamps totally free, and the other loose enough to get the motor off the rail. It was a lot more work than I expected. I broke the handle off one of the clamps, so Vice-Grips will be required from now on to turn that one. Now three hours into this simple project, we lowered the outboard to the dinghy. This requires Barb to slowly release the line to the pulleys, while I stand in the dinghy guiding the outboard to the transom. Once there I tightened the one clamp that was free. That will be good enough for this test. I disconnected the hoisting line and hooked up the gas line. Since it started after a few pulls last time, I wasn't expecting a fight from it. But, after about twenty pulls, my arms were tired, and it hadn't started. Now, you should know that this outboard does have an electric starter. We do not have a good battery for it though, and I wasn't planning on getting one this year. Now I was reconsidering that plan. I walked over to Budget Marine to see if they had the right battery. The battery for the dinghy is a small battery like one that you would find in a motorcycle or jet ski. Budget did not have one of these batteries in stock, but Darius told me where I could get one in St. Johns. That won't help me today, so I walked back to the boat and gave the outboard a couple more pulls, and it started! I quickly looked around to the back side of it to see if there was water coming out, and there was! Success!. I untied the dinghy and was going to go for a test ride. Barb wisely suggested I take the oars, just in case. The throttle cable that was so crudded up still doesn't slide just right, but it works. I spent a little time varying my speed to get the hang of how the throttle reacted with the messed up cable. I went out past the boatyard, almost to the mooring field, and turned around. When I turned around, I opened it up and got up on a plane with no problem. This is a no-wake zone, so I quickly slowed back down. I was very happy that this turned out successful even if the clamp still needs some attention. We took the outboard back off the dinghy, hoisted it to the rail and secured it there. We then hoisted the dinghy up on the davits and pulled the big boat back to the dock where we can step on and off with ease. We then lowered the dinghy onto the dock, disconnected it, and flipped it over to store. No sense leaving it in the water again, and if it is hanging on the davits, getting on and off the boat is nearly impossible. Also, it is developed a fairly substantial water leak and it looks as though we can fix that while it is on the dock.
While I had been trying to get the dinghy clamps loose, William, the dockmaster had come by to read somebody's electric and water meters. He asked what I was doing, and we discussed a bit about how outboard clamps always seize up because the colt is stainless and it goes through the aluminum casting of the motor. Dissimilar metals corrode and seize up. He noticed our hailing port was from Texas, and he said the man who taught him how to sail as a young boy was from Texas. (William is probably in his fifties.) He then started telling me the story of John Caldwell. You can follow the link and learn more, but the short story is John Caldwell came to the islands in the 60's, did charters, built a resort, and planted coconut trees all over the place. What was really neat was how William lit up and spent fifteen minutes telling me about his time with Johnnie Coconut.
We had lunch at Peter's BBQ today. As usual, there were little birds flitting about. Some are Bananaquits, also known as sugar birds. We first became acquainted with Bananaquits in the Bahamas where you could feed them sugar from your hand. Since then we have seen them in many places, and have seen their ability to steal a sugar packet off a restaurant table, poke through the paper and eat the sugar. They are quite smart in that they won't steal an artificial sweetener. I don't know if they know the white packets vs. the colored packets, or if they read the labels. There are also lots of Finches. Today I saw a new behavior from several of the finches. There were three coconuts that had been opened and drained, sitting on top of the ice machine. These were young coconuts, which had been opened with a machete, similar to what you can see here. The meat inside a young coconut is a jelly-like substance. Unlike in the video link, the hole in the top of these coconuts was just about an inch diameter. The bird would sit at the edge of the hole, stick his head in and pull out a beak full of the jelly. I hadn't seen this before.
Several boats left the marina today, including our neighbors on Horizons. Laurie and Jack had come in almost two weeks ago, with Jack having a bad back. He has been to a doctor and is feeling much better, so they are headed to St. Thomas. Now we have our view of the fuel dock and boatyard back.
We did happy hour, and then had a big salad with spicy chicken breast from the Epicurean for dinner.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 13
We spoke to Lynn on Seabbatical this morning after the Coconut Telegraph. They are still in Martinique but will be moving north some in the next few days. Sounds like we won't hook up with them until some time in late April.
With the neighbors gone, we have our view of the haulout slip again. It's always entertaining watching the boats come and go from the fuel dock and the activity of boats being hauled or launched. Today we saw two boats get their masts pulled prior to haulout. I'm glad we won't be doing that again when we haul this summer.
As soon as I started enjoying having our view back, we got a new neighbor. Another Island Packet! The boat that left that slip yesterday was a Packet too. We have met several friends over the years with Island Packets, so I always look when I see one to see if it's somebody we know. So far they have all been new ones. Later in the day another Packet came in on the other side of us. We're surrounded!
We always keep our VHF radio on. It is like the local telephone, and a party line at that. We keep it on channel 68, which is the channel used locally for hailing boat-to-boat or to the marina. So, we always here as boats are coming to the marina when they call the dockmaster. Today, we had not one, but two boats who were obviously confused as to which island they were on. The first one hailed Crown Bay Marina a couple of times. Crown Bay Marina is in St. Thomas in the USVI. After the second time, the marina answered and politely asked if they wanted Jolly Harbor Marina. (This is the only marina within radio range of here.) A couple hours later a guy hailed Rodney Bay Marina. Rodney Bay is in St. Lucia, several islands south of here. When he got no response, he realized his mistake and hailed them correctly and made a joke of it.
Tonight is pizza night at Al Porto. We went at 18:00 after a short visit to WestPoint for happy hour. We saw Angie, the owner, and mentioned that we had sent in an entry for the pizza contest. She had not seen it, so I told her I would send it again. She was excited that we entered though, and said we were the first entry. The contest is April 14th, so we will definitely be here with our guests.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 14
We pretty much did nothing all day today. Some boats started arriving for the Russian regatta that will be happening this coming weekend. There were about ten boats from Sunsail and Dream Yacht Charters. They all had big stick-on numbers on the bow, so we are assuming they are part of the regatta. William and Sylvester the dockmaster will be busy.
At happy hour we met Nick & Wendy from the catamaran Knot in Vein. They will be leaving in the morning for six weeks, and leaving the boat in the marina. They came in a couple of days ago and we talked about the fun they had been having the past two days replacing their windlass. We lamented how whenever you replace something on a boat, the new one is never exactly the same size or mounting as the old one.
After happy hour, I went to the grocery store and Barb went to the boat to start dinner. I got a bottle of rum, a case of beer, and a baguette. (No, that isn't all we're having for dinner.) I got the checkout and placed the run and bread on the belt. The cases of beer are past the checkout, and you get them when you get to the front of the line. A teenaged or twenty-ish local girl with an older guy was in front on me in line. She grabbed my bottle of rum and said something which I though was just a friendly line like "looks like fun" or something. I smiled and laughed with her. She took it upon herself to slide my run and bread up the belt instead of just waiting for it to run. While these two were finishing their transaction, I went around them and grabbed my case of beer. I thought they were about to walk away, and I set the case of cans on the counter by the cashier. You have to take one can out of the wrap and let them scan it, rather than them simply know the codes. The cans are in a cardboard flat, and then wrapped in heavy plastic. I have learned that if you take a can from the side, or tear the side of the plastic, then you have compromised the structural integrity of the whole thing making it hard to carry. A cashier taught me to punch a hole in the middle of the plastic and pull a can from the middle, which preserves the ability to carry the case under your arm. Anyway, as soon as I put the case down, the girl starts to tear at the edge of the plastic. I thought she was trying to be helpful, but I didn't want the edge torn, so I pushed her hand away. I poked a hole in the middle and started to pull a can out and she started trying to take it from me. At this point I realized she was saying something like "one for me?". At that point I loudly said "NO", and pushed her hand away again. The cashier got this astonished look on her face and I think was about to call security, but the girl left with no further hassle. I had an eye open for her as I exited the store, but they were gone.
Back at the boat, Barb made penne pasta, with a tomato sauce and browned Italian sausage for dinner, along with the baguette.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 15
One area of the boat that is still a disaster area is my side of the main saloon. The panel at the nav station that has all the instruments in it has been open since we got here, pending the installation of the AIS and stereo. They are both in, and the only part of the AIS that isn't connected is the GPS antenna cable where I'm waiting for a connector, but that is outside this panel. There has been crap piled on the nav desk, the small table where I have the computer, and in a box on the chair across from where I sit. I started sorting through the stuff on the nav desk first. I made a big dent in that, getting rid of a bunch of obsolete magazines about what to do in Antigua from 2009. I started trying to get the instrument panel back in place, but there are so many wires behind it, that I couldn't get it all the way. Gonna have to do some organizing behind there.
We met our neighbors on one side today. They are from Scotland and on an Island Packet. I asked how long they were planning to stay in the marina and he said a few days. He explained that their daughter was coming to visit, and she was bringing her boyfriend, whom they have never met. He then explained that they are Scottish, and the boyfriend was from England. He definitely gave me the impression that was similar to if a white girl brought a black man home to meet Daddy in Alabama in the 50's. I wasn't sure how serious he was vs. making a joke.
Barb made her soon-to-be prize winning pizza for dinner again. It was even better this time than lsst time. I see fame in her future.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 16
I continued work on organizing my side of the main saloon today. First, I got a bunch of wire ties and tried to bunch up the wires behind the instrument panel. The problem is that there is this big wad of wiring, but there are things mounted in the panel, like the stereo and VHF radio, that have to able to go into this space at least six inches. So, I bundled excess wire and wire tied it to other original boat wiring that is attached to the hull itself. This will keep them out of the way when the panel slides in. I was able to get it in as good as it will go. It's not as flush as when it was originally built, but it's back where it has been since we've added all the stuff back there.
Now that the panel was in place, I was able to clean the nav desk off entirely. I opened the nav desk and found my old computer in there. This computer is the one I got in 2006. I had gotten a new one in late 2008, so this was the backup, and it had a bad spot in the display. That's why we never took it home in 2009. To my surprise, it actually still booted. But, since we have two new ones onboard, we don't need this one for a backup. Since the display is so messed up, it's not worth even giving away to someone locally. I was concerned of course with just throwing it away without wiping the hard drive somehow. Just deleting files isn't good enough if a smart person wants to try and recover them. I did some research into how to accomplish this, and even downloaded something which resulted in some malware installing on my real computer. But I got frustrated and resorted to getting rid of the data via the physical destruction of the hard drive method. I took the hard drive out, and pried it open a little bit. Then I jammed a screwdriver inside it and pried hard. The actual disk broke in several pieces. That ought to do it.
I continued sorting through paperwork and stuff that had be piled about, and got everything sorted out. A lot of the papers that were out were the things relative to our taxes. I had figured the taxes all out a couple weeks ago, but didn't plan to file until mid-April since I'll be paying. But, I found that with Turbo Tax, I can e-file now and schedule the payment to come out of the bank account whenever I want. So, I did that and scheduled the payments for April 13th. I know I could have gotten a few more days out of it, but in case something goes wrong with the debits, I wanted a cushion. So, that is all taken care of now. I got all the papers sorted and put away.
The last piece of my cleaning/organizing of the desk and table was to organize all the receipts from all the work we have had done and the parts I have purchased. For some masochistic reason, I have every receipt for anything large or small that I have purchased for the boat. I have kept a spreadsheet of all these expenses, breaking them down by "improvements" vs. "maintenance". I don't really know why I wanted to know this, but I was able to quantify that we have spent about $30K since we've been back. A lot of that was planned and expected, but a lot wasn't. Good thing we did that extra work at the end of the year.
We went to lunch at Peter's BBQ today. Friday's lunch special is always fish and chips, and it's pretty good. We got up there a few minutes after noon, which is when they officially open for lunch, but we didn't see any of the regular staff. We also noticed the grill wasn't on. After about ten minutes, we were wondering if something was wrong. Finally, Annie, one of the regular waitresses came out and apologized for the delay. The owner, and a couple of the other staff had gone shopping and were just getting back, later than expected, so they were running behind. No worries. We just had more time to relax, enjoy a cold beer, and watch the world go by. We also got a kick out of watching the cats. I mentioned a few days ago that there are two distinct cat families around here. There is the black cat family, and the tabby cat family. Well, I think one of the black cats is in heat, and one of the tabby cats has taken a liking to her. We have seen them together several times over the past few days. Today they were sleeping in the grass right next to our table. Since there was none of the usual begging for food, I'm guessing they are tuckered out from some activities. We discussed how once the kittens arrive, the tabby will probably go back to the other side of the marina and leave her to fend for herself.
The boats with the big numbers on them that came in a couple days ago have disappeared. In their place, there are about twenty-five Sunsail and Dream Yacht Charters boats here that have been brought in by delivery crews. These are apparently for the Russians. We have learned that the other boats with numbers and sponsor stickers that we saw earlier in the week were a whole different regatta passing through.
As we walked to happy hour at 17:00, we passed a young couple walking the other way. As they passed us they were saying "that the club scene doesn't start until 21:00". We joked that our "club scene" starts at 17:00 and is over by 18:30. At happy hour, we noticed that it was quite busy and there were many people we didn't recognize. There was also a noticeable amount of vodka being poured that is not customary. Russians?
Dinner was leftover pasta from a couple days ago.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 17
I spent a good part of the day catching up on writing. By happy hour time, the bulk of the Russian's had arrived for their regatta. Apparently a bunch came on the British Airways flight this afternoon. There are several hundred people here for this event, either on boats or in villas. I hope somebody warned the grocery store they were coming, because cart after cart of groceries were being taken down the docks and loaded on the boats. After happy hour, I went to the grocery for a bag of ice, and it was still quite busy. I didn't walk through the whole store, but the bread aisle that I could see from the checkout was bare.
We noticed about five of the boats here for the regatta are MarineMax sailboats. MarineMax is a huge powerboat dealer in the States, and the logo looked the same, but I had no idea they had anything to do with sailboats. I looked it up, and sure enough, it is the same company and they have recently gotten into the boat chartering business in the BVI. Puzzles me why somebody would go into a business where there are already a lot of players, and a clear leader amongst those, and why do it in a place where the market is saturated, in a time when business is slow due the general economy? Hope they have a business planner more astute than me behind them.
There are competing bands tonight to entertain the Russians. One is at Dogwatch Tavern, right at the head of our dock, and the other is at WestPoint, just a couple of hundred feet away. Rather than go to bed and be annoyed at the noise, we watched several episodes of NCIS and The Good Wife until midnight. The bands were still playing when we went to bed, but by then we were tired enough that we went to sleep.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 18
I planned to watch the NASCAR from Bristol, TN today, but I'm not having much luck with the feed. The place I have watched the past couple weeks has been shutdown. The new one I found was not giving me a steady stream and was quite frustrating. I did find a stream that was not jerky, but the audio was in German, which didn't help me much. About mid-way through the race, Jon from Wicked Good came by with his girlfriend Gail. She had just gotten here for a week's visit. Jon brought a six-pack of Corona and a lime, so the race was turned off and we had a nice visit with them.
Up at the head of our dock is a large lawn. Several days ago a crew setup strings of wiring with light bulbs for an event related to the regatta. Turns out the event is tonight. I think it is sponsored by the local real estate companies, trying to sell properties here. Today a crew has been busy setting up tables and chairs, a stage, and several booths for food and drinks. Late in the afternoon, we heard a single electric guitar doing a few licks for a sound check. The speakers are a few hundred feet from us, but it sounds like it will be another late night of music. It occurred to me, given that the sound check was just one guitar, wouldn't it be cool if the entertainment was Eric Clapton? He has a home here and a rehab center. That would be worth staying up late for.
We went to happy hour just as the sound check had ended. I looked over at the stage to see who was playing the guitar. From a distance, I thought maybe I had guessed right, but as we got closer I saw it was not Eric Clapton. Maybe later. At happy hour we took a picture with Fred, our favorite bartender. Fred is a local guy who has worked at a couple of the local high-end resorts. He always sees us coming down the dock and has our drinks ready for us when we get to the bar. Gordon from Calmos III joined us at the bar. Somehow the conversation turned to food, and Barb was telling Gordon about the jambalaya she makes frequently. This originated with our friend Pege in Texas, and once again, we passed the recipe along. Barb even promised Gordon some leftovers.
We were back at the boat when the music started. The first half hour was a live band playing, and it not only wasn't Eric Clapton, I never heard a lead guitar stand out. The music turned out to not be bad. It was loud, but not obnoxious. I went to bed at 21:30 and went right to sleep.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 19
Today, I (Chris) celebrate another trip around the sun. This will be last one of my 50's. How the heck did that happen?
In the morning we went over to the grocery store. They are still fairly well picked through with the Russian invasion, so we will have to come back in a couple days after they restock. As we were checking out, I saw The Observer, the local daily paper, at the checkout stand. I have mentioned to Barb before that I wanted to pick one up because it's fun to read the local news. The headline today was Liat rescues REDjet. Liat is the inter-island airline that is based here in Antigua, heavily subsidized by the island governments that flies old de Havilland Dash-8s . REDjet, based in Barbados, was a startup in 2011, using three MD-82s that they got from American Airlines. REDjet was an attempt to have a low-cost alternative to Liat. Apparently they didn't take the economics course that says even if you want to be "low-cost", you have to charge enough to cover your expenses. They stopped all service Friday, March 16, due to lack of operational funds. The headline about Liat "rescuing" REDjet, was misleading. I thought it meant they were going to buy them, but instead it meant they were offering their stranded customers "discounted" travel. Not honoring REDjet tickets. As an aside, we were familiar with REDjet because the day we flew back to NY after launching MoonSail in November, 2011, was the inaugural flight for REDjet from Barbados to Antigua. The plane had just parked in front of the terminal as we sat down in the upstairs lounge to await our flight out. There was much hand shaking, picture taking, and obvious government dignitary type people around. This had prompted me at the time to get online and look REDjet up, since I had never heard of them. I'd be surprised if they fly again.
This morning, the Russian fleet took off for Barbuda. Barbuda is about thirty-five miles north of here, so they will have an all-day sail. We heard the committee boat call the marina after they had been out an hour or so, and say a boat was coming back with a fuel problem. About an hour later, he came to the fuel dock for a bit, then left again. We learned later that the problem was his fuel gauge wasn't working right, and he wasn't sure he had enough fuel to make the round-trip to Barbuda. (This is a sailing regatta right?)
To celebrate my birthday, we went to lunch at Castaways, the beach restaurant. We had a nice lunch, and people watched. There are lots of Russians here who apparently didn't go to Barbuda with the boats. It was funny listening to them try to order food. Unlike most western Europeans, who speak English as a second language, most of the Russians seem to have zero English knowledge, and there is no similarity between the languages. There was a lot of pointing and gesturing going on. After we ate, we got complimentary beach chairs. The deal at Castaways is that lunch customers get two complimentary chairs, but the umbrella is optional and costs $5 USD. Of course we wanted the umbrella, and I gave the guy $20EC (about $8.50 US) and thanked him. The afternoon was very pleasant, with a few highlights. The first was that Barb noticed several young ladies topless on the beach several hundred feet down from us. Antigua is not known for topless beaches, so it's not an everyday occurrence as in some other places. Of course, we didn't bring the binoculars with us, so all we could tell from where we were was that they were topless. We could also tell that they weren't topless often, because the normally covered parts were much whiter than the rest of their bodies.
There are several guys who rent jet skis along the beach. It seems that when they aren't rented, the local guys race around on them. I would bet they spend more time being played with by the local guys than they are rented. Maybe they think they are marketing. At any rate, while we were in the water up to our necks, one of the local guys hopped on his parked jet ski and took off. As he did, he very intentionally passed only about fifteen feet from us and gave the machine a little goose so that we were splashed. Jerk.
The day had turned out to be fairly cloudy. although nothing looked very threatening. Finally about 15:00, one of the clouds actually produced about a three minute shower. There were several people on chairs behind us without umbrellas. They scurried to grab all their stuff and run to the bar, as if they would melt in a few raindrops. Should have sprung for the optional umbrella. We listened to the drops on the umbrella and enjoyed the shower.
I read the rest of The Observer and found numerous funny things that you only find in an Island paper. There was the ad for Sister Rosa, who "can call out your enemies by name". "Having trouble in your relationship? Are you suffering? Do you have bad luck? Feeling sick and weak and doctors have no clue what is wrong? Sister Rosa can tell you what's wrong! Without you saying a word." Then there was the add for a luxury resort looking to fill several positions. At the end was the statement that "Priority will be given to individuals who are legally authorized to work in Antigua & Barbuda". That tells me that if you're not legal to work, you might still have a shot at it though. The refreshing part of reading the local paper was that there was no mention of any murders, or car accidents. And there was only one fire, in which nobody was hurt and little damage was done.
We noticed that there were new signs in several places around Castaways directing people to the restrooms. I had never seen signs exactly like this, and I'm guessing maybe they added them for the Russians benefit.
As we walked back to the boat from the beach, I detoured to the grocery store for a bag of ice, while Barb continued to the boat. As I was walking back with the ice, I had just crossed the street from the grocery when I heard skidding tires. A golf cart coming towards me, but still a couple hundred feet down the street, suddenly skidded, made an abrupt 90° turn, and rolled onto it's side. Several people immediately ran to the guys aid. They righted the cart, leaving him lying there in the street. After a few seconds, the guy sat up and appeared ok. The cart was ok, except for some scratches, and amazingly the guy seemed to not even have any road rash. Considering he was only wearing shorts he was lucky to not be scraped up or have hit his head. By the time I got to the scene, the guy was back in the cart and going to leave. He seemed a bit out of it though. Not sure if it was from whacking his head, or if he was already out of it from perhaps too much alcohol. At any rate, against the wishes of the guys who had helped him, he drove off.
We went to happy hour and Gordon joined us again. Barb brought him a bowl of the leftover jambalaya from last night. After happy hour, we decided to treat me to dinner out for my birthday. Barb went to Peter's BBQ to get us a table while I passed by the restrooms. When I got to the table, we placed our order with Anthony. The staff here is part family and part staff who have been here for years. The family part was Peter and his wife Patricia, her mother, and her seven year old son. Peter died sometime between 2009 and when we returned, so Patricia is usually on the grill now. Her mother is quite old and sits watching and frequently helps set tables or bus tables. We had noticed that Grandma had not been there in a week or more. We were sitting at the table closest to the grill, so we asked Patricia if everything was ok. Turns out her mom had a stroke and is in the hospital, not doing very well. We wish her the best. For dinner, Barb had sausage and I had veal cordon blue. It was all very good. After they cleared the plates, I expected them to bring the bill, but next thing you know, here come one of the waitresses with a piece of cake with three candles in it. She sang me the first couple of lines of Happy Birthday, and we had a good laugh. Turns out Barb had mentioned it was my birthday when she first got the table, and they took it upon themselves to do the cake thing. I didn't have my glasses, so I couldn't tell if the cake was on the bill or not, but it was fun regardless.
With the Russians all gone to Barbuda, it was a quiet night, with no bands. There was also almost no breeze, making it a bit hot for sleeping. We have fans in the aft cabin that help, but it's much nicer when the wind is blowing.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.
Mar 20
Today there is a whole new batch of stuff being set up in the main courtyard of the marina complex for the final ceremony of the Russian Regatta. There is a sound system, a lighting structure, small stage, and seating with tables that are not usually here. Should be an interesting show.
Again, I spent a good part of the day catching up on my writing. We got new neighbors next to us, Gavin & Mandy on Secret Smile are leaving their boat for a couple weeks while they return to the UK for his son's wedding. I helped take their dock lines, and the first thing Gavin asked was if we liked Wahoo. Well if it's free of course we do. I've always said if you can't fish, hang around with people who catch more than they can eat. So now we have a couple meals of fresh Wahoo in the fridge. Gavin mentioned that he had wanted a boat like ours, but couldn't find one for sale in the UK when he bought his boat. He asked if they could come over and take a look inside. So later after they got settled, they came by for a look. We also gave them our opinion of staying in Grenada for hurricane season. They were aware of Clarke's Court Bay Marina, and may go there.
While helping dock Secret Smile, I chatted with William the dockmaster, and he mentioned the Russians were tearing up boats left and right. He pointed over to two that did not make the trip to Barbuda. Apparently in the day racing they did Sunday, these two collided. One rammed the other broadside, punch the anchor through the side and leaving a large hole and crack in the hull almost to the waterline. The ramming boat was also badly damaged as it left about a foot long crack in the hull parallel to the deck, as well as bending the crap out of the bow roller. I suspect at least the one with the hole in the side will have to be hauled and repaired here. William implied there have been other incidents on the Barbuda leg, so it will be interesting to see the fleet come back in later.
We had a boat come into the other side of our dock a couple days ago, that has a bright yellow hull. The name of the boat is Let It Be, which was of course a Beatles's song title. We joked that given the color, it should have been Yellow Submarine. But then again, maybe you don't want to name your boat anything with the word submarine in it, lest it become one.
Late in the afternoon, we started to see the boats from the regatta coming back to the marina. By dark, at least half of them are not back. I have no idea if this is because they have the time and decided to stay an extra day in Barbuda, or if they are just slow and still out there after dark.
We went to happy hour a little early (16:30) thinking it might be crowded due to the regatta, but initially it was empty. It was almost as if the regulars stayed away. We sat with Sujaye our local friend for a bit, then Jim & Cheryl from Orion joined us, then Gordon from Calmos III showed up. Gordon brought back the container from the jambalaya and said he enjoyed it. Gordon is leaving Antigua tomorrow, headed for St. Maarten. The problem with staying in one place so long is that you feel left behind when your friends leave.
We went to pizza night at Al Porto for dinner. Angie was not working, as she usually does on Tuesday nights, because her husband has gone to England, leaving her to baby-sit their three-year-old. But, she did come by and say hello. As I was taking care of our check, a guy from the next table pointed at me and said "MoonSail?". Guilty as charged, but I didn't recognize him at all. He came over and said he had met us in Grenada. I asked the boat name, and it was John from Metallia. We had heard them check in on the Coconut Telegraph in the last day or two, and I had looked them up in my list to see where we had met them before. Obviously he has better facial recognition skills than I do.
Instead of going straight to the boat after dinner, we went back to WestPoint to see what was happening with the Russian crowd. Things were just getting started there, so we had a drink. There is a new bartender at WestPoint, who is only 18 and obviously never has worked at a bar before. Let's just say she has a lot to learn, and it is trying Fred's patience to teach her. The awards ceremony was just starting after we had our drink, so we walked around and listened to the beginning of the speeches, and translations, up the point of starting to award trophies. Then it was back to the boat. We'll see what the noise level is tonight.
GPS N 17-04.000 W 061-53.000 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.