Mar 21
I bummed a ride with Tom & Kathy from Yellow Rose over to the Catamaran marina, where there are several marina related businesses. We all went to the chandlery first. It wasn't much of a chandlery. They didn't really have much in the way of parts, just things like cleaning supplies, paint, and stuff like that. After browsing their three isles for a little bit, we went to Antigua Rigging. Tom needed to buy a block for his boat, and I need to replace one of the blocks on the dinghy motor hoist. Last time we lifted the engine, one of the sheaves jammed, and then as I forced the line to keep going through it, the plastic sheave melted from the friction of the line running through it. The guy at the rigging shop said he could get one next week, and to come in Monday morning and he would order it. Next stop was to be the inflatable repair shop, but they were closed.
Later Barb and I went to town to the Mad Mongoose to use their internet connection. I signed up for a month of HotHotHot Spot service in Portsmouth, and it worked pretty good there, but their service here sucks. I can see four different networks of theirs and can't reliably connect to any of them. I needed a good connection to upload the website update, and the Mad Mongoose has a free connection there. Pat & Dori were already at the Mad Mongoose just finishing lunch when we got there. We joined them and enjoyed lunch before I did my updates. About 14:00, Mike & Lynn joined us and we ended up spending all afternoon there. Tevaine, the bartender, is a hoot, and she takes good care of us. By 18:00, we were getting hungry again, so we ordered a couple of baskets of curly fries and chicken tenders to share, and that became dinner.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 22
We spent a quiet day aboard today, until about 16:00. Then we joined Pat & Dori, Mike & Lynn, Tom & Kathy, and Chris & Kelly and their two guests at the dock. We are all going to Shirley Heights tonight for their Sunday barbeque. Shirley Heights is on the site of an old fort overlooking English Harbor and Falmouth Harbor. At the street, we found Renford, a taxi driver with a van. Twelve of us fit perfectly for the ride. We negotiated a price of $25USD one way before we got in. Renford turned out to be a character and he laughed and joked with us the whole way. He gave us a mini tour as we went, telling us about a few sights. At the top of the mountain, before taking us to the Shirley Heights side, he drove us a little ways to a dead end overlooking the southeast corner of Antigua. From here we can see Indian Creek, Mamora Bay where the St. James resort is, and Willoughby Bay. On Standfast Point, Renford pointed out a large low house belonging to music legend Eric Clapton. After a few minutes snapping pictures, we moved on.
Shirley Heights is a national park and the site of an old fort. Every Sunday, there is a large barbeque here with bands and lots of food. We got there about 16:45 in the hopes of securing a table to eat at. We found many large picnic tables, and we got the last one. We had several drinks before deciding what to have for dinner. They had a good selection of burgers, chicken, fish, pork, kabobs, and a few other things. Barb and I both went for the chicken. The meal came with a nice potato salad and green salad. There was a pan band playing from 16:00 to 19:00, and then a reggae band took the stage. The view from there was outstanding. We could see English Harbor just below us, and then Falmouth Harbor where we are anchored just behind that in the distance. We were hoping for a great sunset, but there were clouds on the horizon, so it wasn't as good as some we have seen recently. We met up with several cruisers we haven't seen in a while. Tussen Taak II was there with guests, Sutton Hoo was there with their adult daughter as a guest, and Vision and Dream Maker, whom we haven't seen since Grenada were there. We had arranged to have Renford pick us up at 20:00 to take us back to Falmouth. We started to migrate to the parking lot a little before that. I was already out in the parking lot and walked back to the building that housed one of the bars to tell Pat & Dori that we were out there. As I stepped up to the open window of the building to holler to them, I stepped into the foot deep ditch that surrounds the building. Fortunately, I put my arm up and kept my face from hitting the window sill, but that resulted in a nice bruise on my forearm. There was a policeman standing not ten feet from me who witnessed my little maneuver. As I recovered I looked at him and said "Watch that ditch". He gave me a "stupid tourist" look and didn't say a word. Renford was almost right on time and we loaded up.
We had Renford drop us in front of the Mad Mongoose where we were going to have a nightcap. We were all figuring out money and taking care of Renford, when the next thing you know Kelly, from Verna Breeze, is riding a little donkey in the street. We didn't see the donkey before she was on it. I think the guy with the donkey hung around the bars just for this purpose - you ride his donkey or take a picture with it and then give him some money. After several minutes of riding, and lots of laughs, we left the donkey man and went to the bar. Instead of going to the Mad Mongoose though, we went next door to the Cockpit. Some of the other folks met the lady who owns the Cockpit last year and they wanted to see if she was there, or even still owned it. We had several drinks and the bartender told us that yes, Angie still owns the place, but she usually works at her other location in Jolly Harbor. After a few drinks here we went back to the boats.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 23
In the morning after the nets, Tom from Yellow Rose picked me up in his dinghy and we went to the Catamaran Marina to take care of our rigging orders and I needed to see the inflatable people. With Tom was Webb Chiles, who had anchored his boat, The Hawke of Tuonela, near Yellow Rose. Webb is well known in boating circles as an author and a single handed circumnavigator. He was very personable and spoke of sailing from South Africa to here as if it was from the next island to here. When we got to the dock, we went to Antigua Rigging first. I went first and placed my order for the replacement block. They don't stock it, but will bring it in with their regular order by Friday so it doesn't cost me extra for shipping. While Tom and Webb took care of their business with the rigging shop, I went to Seagull Inflatables. I met Dino, one of the owners and explained my dinghy woes to him. He said to bring it over as soon as I could and they could probably repair it in a day and a half. I met back up with Tom and Webb and Tom took me back to MoonSail. Tom & Kathy were leaving Falmouth to go anchor at Green Island, so I didn't bother Tom to come back and give me a ride home after dropping off the dinghy. Instead, I called Mike and asked him to pick me up over there in about half an hour. I drove our dinghy over and Dino took a look at it. He felt, as I do, that it's on it's last legs, but he thought they could patch it well enough to last the season. Mike picked me up and brought me back to MoonSail. We will have to bum rides for the rest of today and tomorrow.
Late in the afternoon, Mike & Lynn picked us up and we went to the Mad Mongoose again. Pat & Dori joined us. While we were there we were also joined briefly by Larry & Betty from Whimbrel. They are from Rhode Island and during our conversation we learned that Ryan's Grocery in Wickford has closed since we were up there. Ryan's was an institution there, which I remember from my childhood when I visited my half-sister who lived there. When we were in RI in 2006, we docked at the free town dock for a couple of hours and shopped at Ryan's. We had a few drinks and then sat down for dinner. The place was full, and one of the two waitresses had called in sick. This left Kim, the remaining waitress working her tail off. It took longer than usual to get our food, but it was excellent. This time I had seared tuna. Since it's not my birthday anymore, I had to pay for it this time.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 24
Today we are taking a bus into St. Johns, the main city of Antigua. Seagull Inflatables had told me to check with them about noon to see when the dinghy would be done. Instead, I called them before we left and said I would just pick it up in the morning. They were good with that since they had found another leak once they patched the one I knew about, so they wouldn't have to rush to fix it.
Mike & Lynn and Pat & Dori joined us for the day in St. John. Pat & Dori picked us up for the ride to shore since "our car is in the shop". We got the bus right by the Mad Mongoose and rode it to the end of the line in St. John. There are three large cruise ships in port today, so the town was pretty crowded. We walked around fending off the constant barrage of taxi drivers looking to sell us an island tour or a trip to the beach. Our standard answer was "We're not off the ships", and then they immediately left us alone. Trouble is there are dozens if not hundreds of them. We decided we should have t-shirts made that say "We're not off a cruise ship" made to wear on days like this. We aren't looking for souvenirs, but more interested in just seeing a little bit of town and people watching. About 11:30 we stopped in an open-air bar right near the docks for a beer. After a considerable wait, the bartender acknowledged us and we said we needed six beers. When we told him each of us was paying for two, you would have thought we had asked him to walk on water or something. He had to slowly hand write three identical tickets for two beers each, then one at a time take our money to the one lady who was entrusted with the cash for change. It was a painful process. It really was odd to see the way this place worked, with no computers, and typical island procedures when they deal with thousands of people a day from the ships. And they went at island pace, oblivious to how many potential customers walked out because they were so slow. After our one beer, we went a block down and found another nice bar called Cheers. There we had another beer and were served promptly, with no hassle over wanting separate checks. Off course this place was run by a middle eastern guy and not locals.
After our two beers, we went looking for lunch. Going to a particular Chinese restaurant that Pat & Dori had been to before was part of the reason for the trip. Mike & Lynn aren't crazy about Chinese, so we split up. We found the Delightful Chinese restaurant a few blocks from the docks. It was going on 13:00, but the place was full. We got the last available table, and that was only because the waitress pulled apart a table for six that only had three guys at it. We knew we were in the right place, because of the thirty or so diners, all but two were Chinese. The food was excellent and there was lots of it. Unlike Grenada, where the Chinese food was more like food you would get in China, the food here was like we would expect in the States.
We met back up with Mike & Lynn at Cheers. We had one more drink there watching the cruise ship passengers. They are easy to spot because they are so pale. They also are either wearing too little, like guys without shirts, and women in bathing suit tops (which isn't really appropriate in town), or they were wearing their Hawaiian shirts, baggy shorts, and sandals with knee-high socks. You get the picture. On one hand, I think cruise ship people are being terribly misled, because their impression of the Caribbean is going to be these towns with shop after shop of jewelry or crap t-shirts. On the other hand, at least they are getting out of their mid-west freezing towns and seeing something. They seem to enjoy themselves and that's what counts. If you are inclined to see the Caribbean by cruise ship, the best thing you could do is get off the ship, hire a taxi driver for the day, and tell him to take you wherever the tourists don't go. See some little local towns, and eat local food in a somebody's kitchen.
As we walked back towards the bus station, we came across a very interesting sign on a wall. We actually saw several of these signs. It said "Please Do Not Indiscriminately Relieve Your Self In This Area - Penalty Fine $100.00". If you don't believe it, see the pictures. Should people have to be told this? It's even better than the signs at the scenic overlook in the mountains that say "Don't Dump Garbage Here", which are invariably surrounded by garbage.
We hopped the bus back to Falmouth. The bus station was very busy, with people returning home from work and school kids going home. We were lucky and got a "big" bus that holds about twenty five, instead of a regular van which holds about fifteen. Unlike other local buses we have ridden, they didn't attempt to pack in more people than there were seats. Every seat and jump seat was full, but it wasn't bad at all. By the time we reached Falmouth, the majority of people had gotten off, so when it was our turn to come from the back of the bus, nobody had to move for us.
We stopped at the Mad Mongoose and had a couple of happy hour drinks before going back to the boats.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 25
This morning, Pat gave me a ride over to Seagull Inflatables to pick up the dinghy. They had it done and ready to launch. The charge was about $200 US, which I felt was worth it to keep from having to pump it up every time we use it. Especially in a place like this, where you dock the dinghy in the Yacht Club and are being observed by crew from all the mega yachts here, it was embarrassing to come back to a sagging dinghy and have to pump it back up every day. Of course that probably made it less likely to be stolen too.
Back at the boat I got out our salt water wash down hose and cleaned part of the deck. There is something about the dirt here that is different from other islands. It is very black, and it sticks to shoe bottoms, especially my Crocs. The deck from where we board at the back to where we climb in the cockpit was black with footprints. Since it hasn't rained since we got here, and isn't forecast to, I have to clean it. The black came right off with a little water and our deck brush. From now on, we'll take our shoes off before boarding.
A little after noon, we met Pat & Dori and Mike & Lynn for lunch at the Mad Mongoose. We enjoyed the burgers we had there last week, and have been looking forward to repeating them. I was almost out of fuel in the dinghy, so we went a few minutes early. I took the gas can out of the dinghy and before going to the gas station, I went to the used oil collection place and dumped the last quart of gas out of the can. This quart was probably half rusty water. Gasoline with methanol added for pollution control absorbs water from the air. It's not a big problem in cars because the fuel system is sealed, and the gas gets used much faster. But in a dinghy tank, it gathers. The rust happens because the fuel cap has a built in gauge that is made of steel. When I dumped the gas/water, I also broke off the remains of the gauge, which never worked anyway. I then got three gallons of gas and replaced the tank in the dinghy.
We had a nice lunch. Everybody except Lynn had burgers and everybody agreed they were real good. After we finished eating, we stayed and had several more drinks before returning to the boats about 15:30. We stopped at the little grocery at the Yacht Club on our way back. It's a little store, but it has a pretty good selection since the big boats are here.
Before sunset, we heard a loud horn blow twice. It was Leander leaving the dock. Leander is a large mega yacht that we saw down in the Pitons at St. Lucia a while back. Several other boats blew horns back as if to say goodbye. I'm guessing from the response that perhaps it's leaving for the season as opposed to just going out for a charter. A lot of boats have left just in the week we have been here. When we got here, there were at least ten big mega yachts, and another ten or fifteen huge (100' plus) sailboats. Most of the large sailboats have left this week to go to St. Barths for the St. Barths Bucket Regatta. The Bucket Race is so named because the trophy for the winner is a bucket. It is probably the most fun and least serious regatta that any of these boats will participate in, but it's all about the party. Jimmy Buffett will be performing a dockside concert sometime this weekend. In the past, Jimmy was always there, but his performance was not announced as to when or where, so you were just lucky if you were at the bar or party he showed up at.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 26
My morning chore for today is to fill the water tanks. We switched to the last of the three tanks yesterday, so I'll jug enough water to fill the two empty ones. Our tanks are twenty-nine gallons each, and we have two seven gallon jugs for water. That conveniently works out to four jugs per tank. We have been using the dinghy basin at the Antigua Yacht Club all week and there is a faucet at the dinghy dock for getting water in jugs. I went to the marina office and told them I would be getting sixty gallons and paid $24 EC for it. The jugs perfectly fit under the nozzle fortunately, so I didn't have to bring my hose over. I made four round trips and filled the two tanks. To my surprise, I didn't end up too wet doing this. It is very windy today and the bay is quite choppy. I expected to get splashed quite a bit on each ride across, but by sitting on the downwind side of the dinghy each way, I managed to only get a few drops on me.
Late in the afternoon, we met Mike & Lynn and Pat & Dori at the Mad Mongoose for happy hour and internet. Internet on the boat has been very spotty and even non-existent some days. I have a couple of important things to do online, so I need a good connection for a while. After we were done with our computers, we enjoyed the rest of happy hour, and then decided to have dinner here again. Every meal we have had here has been excellent. We were not disappointed this time either.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 27
This morning, the white noise on the SSB radio was so loud that I couldn't hear the Coconut Telegraph at all. At one point I barely heard the host and got checked in. It wasn't just me, because none of the other boats in Falmouth Harbor, that usually check in, did so either.
I have several boat projects to attend to today. First I dinghied over to Catamaran Marina to the rigging shop to pick up the block I ordered Monday for the outboard hoist. It was there as promised, although the girl who does the invoices wasn't there, so I don't know how much it cost. They have my credit card number on file, so I'll just get surprised some day in the future. While I was there, I stopped at Seagull Inflatables to let them make a copy of my clearance form. The work they did for me was duty-free, but I didn't have the form with me when I picked up the dinghy the other day for them to copy.
When I got back to the boat, I took Barb and two big bags of laundry to the Yacht Club. There is a lady who sits there all morning collecting laundry and it will be returned tomorrow. While Barb arranged the laundry deal, I went to the chandlery to get a new shower hose for the boat. The one we have has started leaking badly inside the engine room where it attaches. I have been through this before, but last time I scavenged the hose from the forward head since we never use that one. The only hose and handheld shower fixture they had, had a different fitting than mine. They lady who runs the place knows where every little piece is in the crowded store, and she dug up a fitting that would adapt the new hose to my pipe. The fixture and the adapter cost about $150 USD, but I think it will work.
Back at the boat, I started to plot the installation of the new shower. As soon as I started, I realized that neither end of the new hose would fit through the hole between the faucets. As soon as I realized this, I remembered going down this same path last time I replaced it, and that was why I ended up using the one from the forward shower instead of a new one. Barb and I brainstormed ways of resolving this, including just drilling a new bigger hole alongside the faucets. Not elegant, but it could work. While researching that option, I realized that on the inside, I would not be able to access anywhere alongside the faucets, so that wasn't as good an option as we thought. Barb remembered that we had another shower fixture and hose stored in our spares that I had bought originally for the outside shower. She dug that out, but it had the same size ends on the hose, so it wouldn't work either. After some more thought though we came up with a solution. The original hose, and the one I bought today are clad in a flexible metal jacket. The one I had in the spares for outside was just a reinforced plastic hose. Barb suggested we cut the hose near the end that would be inside the wall and unseen, and then after feeding it through the hole, I could reattach the ends with a barbed fitting. Genius! We cut and spliced and now we have a working shower again. I took the shower hose we bought back to the chandlery and returned it. When the lady saw me coming she said "Won't go through your hole will it"? Guess I wasn't the first to go down this road.
The next task was to install the new block on the outboard hoist. This is pretty simple as long as I can remember the path the line takes through five sheaves on two blocks. I threaded the line through and got it right the first time. I lubricated the track that the block slides on and hopefully we will be able to hoist the motor when we leave with no problem. While I had tools out, I also adjusted the latch on one of the lifelines that had been very hard to close. I loosened the end one turn and now it doesn't put up a fight to latch it.
After all this hard work, I went below and was trying to connect to the internet. I heard a noise outside and stuck my head out to see what it was. It was a boat near us named Ghost Boat that was raising it's sail while at anchor. The noise I heard was the line straining on a winch. It's not that uncommon for someone to raise a sail while anchored or moored to work on something. When it's the mainsail as this was, you are pointing into the wind anyway, so it doesn't try to make the boat move. I went back to what I was doing. A few minutes later, I heard Seabbatical calling Karina, the boat the other side of Ghost Boat. When she got no answer, she called us. It turns out that Ghost Boat had tied their dinghy to their anchor chain, then taken the chain remaining on the boat and dropped it in the dinghy, freeing themselves from the anchor. The only logical reason to do this would be to save your spot in a crowded anchorage. This anchorage is far from full, but I guess the guy wants to save his close in spot. Anyway, when the boat was free, and the sail was up, the boat turned sideways and started to blow back. Neither of the two guys was at the helm at the moment, and the bow roller of Ghost Boat whacked the side of Karina. Karina is a sixty-three foot German boat, and it is very nice looking. There was a person aboard Karina who was below unaware of what was happening until it was too late. As she came running above to see what the noise was, Ghost Boat simply sailed out of the harbor. The good news is that obviously he plans to come back. We looked at the damage to Karina, and it took a good sized chunk of gelcoat off. That won't be a cheap fix. Later, when Ghost Boat returned he put on quite a show trying to get the boat tied up to the anchor again. After five or six tries, they finally got it secure without hitting anybody else. The captain of Karina was back then and the Ghost Boat owner went over with his papers to have a chat with them. Funny how one stupid decision can end up costing you a few thousand dollars in the blink of an eye.
At 17:30, we went to Arctic Tern for happy hour drinks and snacks. We met Hunter & Devi on Arctic Tern in Grenada and have seen them a couple of times since. They also invited Peter & Nanni from Jewel over. We had never met them before, but we have heard them check in on the Coconut Telegraph. We had a very nice visit for a few hours. Peter & Nanni are on their first trip south in the Caribbean, so we shared our experiences with them as to what to expect.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 28
Today was my turn to host the Coconut Telegraph. Yesterday I couldn't hear at all, so I was worried, but today was much better. There was still a lot of noise, but I got it done with the help of several relays. After the net was done, we started the motor to charge batteries and make hot water. My boat task for the day is to defrost the fridge, so the hot water is necessary. Once the water was hot, I took the stuff out of the fridge and started scraping ice off the cold plate on the exposed side. I filled the sink with chunks of frost and ice from what I could manually reach. Then I used the hot water sprayer from the galley sink to melt the ice that forms behind the cold plate. There is a foot pump to drain the water out of the box as I go, making this a simple task. It all took about ten minutes and I put everything back in and turned it on again.
We joined Mike & Lynn for lunch at the Mad Mongoose. When we got there and went to order, the waitress informed us that the grill was being worked on, so we couldn't order anything cooked on the grill. Well that's pretty much everything except fries and salads. The waitress checked with the owner who said it should only be about thirty minutes before the grill is working, so we ordered an order of curly fries to hold us while we waited. In less than thirty minutes, the waitress came back and took our order. I got the burger I wanted, and this time I added chili to it. It was as close to an old Terlingua Pride from Chili's as I've had in years.
We didn't spend the entire afternoon at the bar as we have a couple other times in the past week. We went back to the boats for a while, then at 15:30 went back to the dinghy dock to meet the laundry lady. She was waiting there as promised. We loaded the laundry in the dinghy in a plastic garbage bag and took it back to the boat. We threw it aboard and went back to shore to join the gang at the Mad Mongoose for happy hour. Mike & Lynn and Pat & Dori were there, and we were joined later by Paul & Janie from Shian. We resisted the urge to eat dinner here again and went back to the boats a little after 19:00, where Barb whipped up some mac and cheese with sausage.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 29
I hosted the Coconut Telegraph again this morning, and did ok with the noise level again. There were several boats I never heard, but a few other folks helped out with relays so we got everybody checked in. Pat & Dori are leaving today to go around to Jolly Harbor. We were tempted to go today also, but the weather is just supposed to get calmer and calmer all this coming week, so we decided to wait until tomorrow.
We spent the whole day aboard, reading and writing. Tom & Kathy from Yellow Rose stopped by to say goodbye. They will be getting guests in a few days and then heading to the Virgin Islands, probably leapfrogging us when we go to St. Maarten in a few days. They will be staying in the Virgins and hauling out in Nanny Cay for the summer, so we probably won't see them again this year, if ever. I know I have written this before, but probably the best thing about cruising is the wonderful people you meet. They can be from all walks of life, and some are people you would have never met back in a land based life, either because their social strata was above or below yours. But out here, we are pretty much all equals, and we all have cruising in common. The worst part of cruising is that you make fast friends with lots of people, but then you have to say goodbye. Your cruising schedules are different, your destination plans are different, and when you say goodbye, you never know if you will see these friends again. There are several couples out here from places other than the US, who we know we will probably not see again after this cruising season because they are headed back to Europe. At least with US friends, we may someday visit them on land, but for international friends, those chances are much less. We will however, always hold the memories of these friendships dear to our hearts.
Late in the afternoon, we went to Seabbatical. Our primary purpose was to plan our next week of travels. The secondary purpose was to play Rummikub for a couple of hours and then have dinner. When we play Rummikub, we don't keep score like you are supposed to. We just go round to round, seeing who wins and who did the worst. For the first time in my brief Rummikub career, I actually won a round. For dinner, Lynn made a nice salad, garlic toast, and spaghetti.
GPS N 17-00.932 W 061-46.419 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9919.
Mar 30
This morning after the Coconut Telegraph, we departed on our passage from Falmouth Harbor to Jolly Harbor. This passage is all of twelve miles or so. The first three miles were due west with the wind dead astern. I had not unfurled the mainsail in the harbor, because I wasn't sure what we find out in the open water. I was glad I hadn't because with the wind dead astern, the sail wouldn't help steady the boat, and it would be constantly changing sides as it caught the wind. The seas were coming from behind also, but they weren't much more than three feet or so, so it wasn't too uncomfortable a ride. Once we got to Old Road Bluff , we turned northwest inside Cades Reef and Middle Reef in Goats Head Channel. The seas became flat and since we were in the lee of the island, the winds were under ten knots. The depth this close to shore on the west side of Antigua reminded us of the Bahamas. Most of the islands south of the Virgins are volcanic in origin. This means they have steep shores both above and below the waterline. We have sailed numerous places where a few hundred feet offshore you are in several hundred feet of water. Antigua is not volcanic. That means there are no extremely tall mountains, and there is shallow water around the edges. The last nine miles of our day, up the west coast, were in less than twenty feet of water. When we came through the Bahamas and Turk's & Caicos, we were excited to see double digit water depths. Since being down in the Caribbean, the more likely scenario is that there is no depth display because it only measures to a little over three hundred feet. So spending over an hour at full speed in water under twenty feet was a reminder of times past. Seabbatical was behind us, and at one point Mike called on the radio and said "It's the Bahamas to port and the Caribbean to starboard". This was because the water was shallow and turquoise to port but the island, a quarter mile to starboard, was not as flat as the Bahamas. This was also one of the few time that the cat did not get sick and was not confined to the head.
As we motored up inside the reef, we saw a couple of floats from some form of fishing apparatus. This, and the calm conditions, prompted Barb to go stand on the bow. After a little bit she yelled something back at me. Since she wasn't waving her arms one way or another, I assumed she wasn't telling me about an upcoming float. But, I wasn't sure what she saw. After several attempts, I heard her say "Dolphin". We have not seen any dolphins since we left Grenada. On our way south two years ago we saw many south of here, so we had wondered why we weren't seeing any. I ran to the bow (the auto-pilot was driving) and watched as this quite large dolphin played in our bow wake. Several times it came right up alongside the bow and rubbed against the hull as we both sped forward at six knots. I went below to get our camera, and of course the dolphin peeled off to the west as I came up with the camera in hand. We radioed back to Seabbatical to look out for him, but he didn't pay them a visit. The other wildlife we saw was a small turtle. What made this guy memorable was how small he was. We have seen many turtles underway and at anchor that are roughly eighteen inches to two feet in diameter. This guy was only about six inches in diameter, not much bigger than your average house pet box turtle. He was obviously a juvenile.
Jolly Harbor has three distinct areas. There is a large area outside the man-made harbor where you can anchor. The whole "harbor" is a man-made basin that was dredged over twenty years ago for a harbor and land to build houses. Just inside the harbor is an area where there are ten moorings belonging to the marina. Then, at the end of the harbor is the large marina and boatyard. We took a mooring right next to Sol Y Mar who came here yesterday. For our entire week in Falmouth Harbor, we were hoping for rain to wash off the salt from our rough passage from Guadeloupe. Today we got that rain, but couldn't it have come thirty minutes later after we were secure on the mooring? No, it had to come as we approached the mooring field, so Barb got soaked as she snagged the pennant on the mooring ball and got us secure. Once secure, we both got out on deck and brushed and wiped as the rain fell and rinsed off the salt.
Seabbatical got secure also, and then Pat & Dori picked us up in their dinghy and took us to shore for lunch. We went to Peter's Antigua BBQ, where today's lunch special was a bacon cheeseburger and fries for $15EC (less than $6USD). The burger was good, but not as good as the one at the Mad Mongoose in Falmouth Harbor. After lunch we went to the marina office to check in and pay for three nights on the mooring.
After checking in, we walked across the street to the Epicurean Market which we have heard so much about. It was like stepping into an American supermarket. It was better than the IGA in Grenada, and close to the Grand Marche in St. Maarten. We didn't have our full shopping list with us, but we got a hand basket full of things we knew we needed.
Then bummed a ride back to the boat with Mike & Lynn. We got there just as another shower passed through, so they came aboard to hide from the rain. While they were here and during a break in the rain, I commandeered their dinghy so that I could try to smear some goop on the stern of our dingy while it still hung on the davits. Since the goop was applied to a wet surface, I don't hold a lot of hope for success at stopping the water leak, but we'll see.
We all went back to the docks to the Foredeck bar for happy hour. Sol Y Mar and Seabbatical spent a month here last year and got to know Angie the owner quite well. Angie was pregnant with her first child then and has since delivered. When we got there, Angie was there, and after reuniting with Sol Y Mar and Seabbatical and being introduced to us, she called her partner and asked him to bring the baby down so we could see him. Sam is seven months old and was quite cute. (Babies are usually cute when they aren't yours.) We enjoyed meeting Angie and the other staff at the bar.
We have been hoping to hear from other friends this evening. We met Ian & Natalie from Lady Natalie our first hurricane season in Grenada. They were the cruisers who first befriended Tammy, one of the marina dogs at Clarke's Court Bay Marina. They put Lady Natalie on the hard in Grenada in March 2008 and flew to Italy to become Captain and First Mate/Chef of a 112 foot private motor yacht, Nati Tre, that was just being completed by it's builder. Since then they did a few months in the Med to check everything out, had the boat shipped to the US for the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show, then brought the boat south through the Bahamas to St. Maarten. We have been in touch off and on this past year, and knew they were taking Nati Tre to Grenada this week. We were back on the boat when Ian called on the radio. They had gotten in to Antigua later than expected, so getting together tonight is out of the question, but we made plans to get together in the morning.
GPS N 17-04.327 W 061-53.295 Nautical miles traveled today 12. Total miles 9931.
Mar 31
Sol Y Mar left for St. Barths this morning at 06:00. The forecast is for the wind and seas to be calming down all week, and we plan to make the same trip in a couple of days, but they are trying to catch other friends going back to the States this year, so they didn't want to wait. We listened to the Coconut Telegraph and they checked in at 08:00, and it sounded like the conditions were a little rougher than forecast. I'm glad we are waiting another couple of days.
Ian & Natalie came to visit about 10:00. We spent an hour and a half catching up. It was good to see them, and good to hear that even on a brand new mega-yacht, stuff still beaks.
After our visit with Ian & Natalie, we launched our dinghy and went to the marina. We were glad to see that the goop I put on the dinghy is sealing 95% of the leak. Hopefully it will last a couple of months. We saw Mike & Lynn at the dinghy dock and agreed to call each other later. Our first task was to walk around the marina to the boatyard. We want to meet the manager and discuss the logistics of our haulout. When we got to the yard, I asked the security guard at the gate where to find Steven the yard manager. The guard told me this was his day off. I guess this task will move to tomorrow's agenda.
We went back to Peter's BBQ for lunch, where I had the largest sausage I have ever seen served in a restaurant. This was at least a foot-long sausage, cooked on the grill and served with potato salad and a green salad. I'm sure all those salad words negated the big-ass sausage word.
After we ate, we stopped by the Epicurean grocery to get creamer for Barb's morning coffee. We were in and out quickly, although we ran into Bob & Sally from Mariche as we were leaving. We first met Bob & Sally in Grenada, when I caught a small rat aboard their boat for them. Since we have left Grenada, we have seen them several times, but not been able to really hook up. We chatted for several minutes and hopefully will catch up with them in St. Maarten and be able to spend more time with them.
We went back to the boat to stow the creamer and called Mike & Lynn on the radio. We agreed to meet at the dock for a beach walk. From the marina it is a short walk to the beach. We spent about two hours walking the beach and taking a dip in the water. The water is kind of cool by Caribbean standards, meaning it is about 77 degrees. When we finished walking, we stopped at the marina pool and pool-bar for a beer. This is a nice bar with several big screen TV's showing sports. After a beer here, we moved over to the Dogwatch Saloon. We were the only customers here at 16:00, but that just meant we had the pool table to ourselves. We had a few drinks and played four games of pool. We then went to the Foredeck for a couple of more drinks before returning to the boats just before dark.
GPS N 17-04.327 W 061-53.295 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9931.