May 10 2009

May 1

After the morning nets, I went to return the rental car. It's amazing how fast you get used to having a car at your disposal. When I got to the place, a girl I had not seen before was working. Slow Paulette was not there. She checked me in quickly and was going to take me back to the marina when a guy I had not seen before walked in. She told him to take me back to the marina, which he did in the car I had just returned. I didn't know it could go that fast.

Once I was back, we started getting ready to leave the marina. I topped up our water tank and rinsed off the deck where it was dirty from shoes coming aboard from land. (Crocs are terrible about tracking dirt.) I disconnected the power, water, and cable TV and told the dockmaster to read the meters. After I took a shower, I went to the office to check out and pay up. Mike & Lynn had been in to use the internet and when they were done, they helped cast off our lines. We are in the third slip from shore, so I wasn't sure if I would try to back all the way out the fairway, or back towards the dinghy dock and turn to go forward out the fairway. I thought I'd see what the wind and the boat decided to do. Well, I started backing towards the dinghy dock, and had plenty of depth, but when I started forward, I wasn't going to turn sharp enough to clear the sterns of the other boats. My best plan would have been to just sit and be patient and let the wind blow us away from the dock a little, but the wind pretty much was non-existent then. So, I backed up a little more and took another shot at it. We cleared the other boats just fine and were on our way. Once out in the open waters of the anchorage, it was blowing fifteen knots. Where was that wind when I wanted it? We went out near where we had been anchored before, a little closer to Seabbatical, and dropped the hook. Much as I like being in marinas, it felt good to be at anchor again with a great breeze blowing through the boat.

The rest of our gang was going to Philipsburg to watch a Carnival parade this afternoon. Barb absolutely didn't want to go. I thought about it, but decided that a quiet afternoon aboard sounded better. We dinghied over to Shrimpy's old dock and went to lunch at a Chinese place across the street. We had been to this place two years ago. It doesn't look like much, but what it lacks in ambiance it makes up for in taste. I somehow ate my whole meal, but Barb only ate about a third of hers. We took it home for another meal.

We spent the afternoon aboard catching up on writing the logs. The whole time my brother was here I didn't write anything, and it's time to publish the update, so I better get caught up.

For dinner Barb cooked up some pork chops and veges. We are starting to consciously plan meals around getting rid of food we have onboard. We were the beneficiaries of many people cleaning out their boats before haulouts while we were in Grenada. Now the shoe is on the other foot. We won't leave any food aboard while the boat is stored, and this time of year, there won't be many other cruisers to give stuff to, so it's eat it or toss it.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 2

I hosted the net this morning. I was able to hear better than last weekend when we were in the marina, but still had to rely on a lot of relays to get it done. After the net was over, we headed up to Marigot with Mike & Lynn. The first thing we discovered was that the dinghy had grown more crap on the bottom in one week in the marina than it had in three weeks in the anchorage. I guess the water is even more stagnant and full of nutrients there. At full throttle, we not only couldn't get up on a plane, we were going slower than we ever had. On the way to Marigot, we encountered a large French sailboat that was aground. They were apparently headed for the French side bridge and got out of the poorly marked channel. We offered to help by pushing them with our dinghy, but they waved us off. They did not speak any English, and I couldn't understand their French. I wanted to tell the captain that he was using all his power to push himself further out of the channel instead of back into it, but it wasn't happening. We left them to their own devices.

We were joined in Marigot by Don & Devin. We first went to the nice patisserie that we have been to before. We had brunch there before turning the ladies loose shopping. While the ladies shopped, the boys went to the mall. The primary purpose of going to the mall depended on who you asked. Don wanted to go because in his words, "they have the best bathrooms in the Caribbean". The rest of us were interested in the air conditioning and people watching. After the mall we went to the little street-side bar that we frequently stop at here and got beers. Coors Light is popular here, and they have cool labels that change color when they are properly chilled. I guess somebody found a use for leftover chemicals from mood ring days. We actually passed on a bar before this one because the mountains on the Coors Light labels were not blue. The mountains here were as blue as they get, so this is where we stopped, although I stuck with Presidente, not Coors Light. Bar owners have to dislike these labels since they give the consumer the opportunity to easily tell that the beer isn't cold.

The girls met us at the pre-arranged bar in the marina, where we had one more drink and decided what to do for lunch. Since the nice places around the marina in Marigot were all hot due to a lack of breeze, we decided to go back to Simpson Bay. We met at a Lebanese place on the main drag. They make a thing called Shawarma that is like a gyro in a wrap instead of a pita. It comes in beef, chicken or lamb. I had a lamb one, and Barb had chicken. They were quite tasty and reasonably priced.

After we ate, we walked to Ric's Place to see if they would have the Kentucky Derby on. The answer was yes, so after a trip back to the boats to relax for an hour, we reconvened at Ric's at 17:00 to watch the Derby. There was an impromptu pool set up, where you paid $2 and drew a horse from a hat. Winner takes all. I drew Dunkirk, one of the favorites, so I was feeling pretty good. When the race was over, Dunkirk finished fifteenth, but Don had the 50-1 odds winner, so he got the $38. We stayed at Ric's for another hour and a half and got them to change the channel to the NASCAR race which was a night race. There was also karaoke starting at 20:00, which I came dangerously close to singing in, but didn't.

We went back to the boat around 21:00, and Barb warmed up the Chinese leftovers which we split for a nice small dinner.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 3

Today's plan is to upload the website update and go to a movie with Mike & Lynn. About 10:00, we headed ashore to have breakfast and do the internet thing. We went to Zee Best Breakfast and had breakfast before trying the internet at Jimbo's. When we were done, we walked back to Jimbo's to find people leaving because there was no internet. The place doesn't open until 17:00 on Sundays, but the internet is always on. We found that the power adapter to the wireless router was gone. Whether it was intentionally taken in, or stolen we don't know. But, the net result is no internet here. Since I still had the security code for the marina's wireless, I went around the corner and sat on a wall and connected to it. But, for whatever reason, it wasn't working well enough for me to get the website updated. Since my web update was half published, I had to finish it. We hopped in the dinghy and went to the Yacht Club and paid for an hours service to finish the update.

After we finished with the internet, Mike & Lynn joined us to go to a movie. There is a large theatre walking distance from the marina, so we left our dinghies there and walked to the theatre. We went to a 14:00 showing of The Soloist. We enjoyed the movie and the air conditioning and the popcorn and sodas.

After the movie, we went back to the Yacht Club for happy hour. We were met there by Don & Devin, Chris and guest Mike from Verna Breeze, and Alex & Vanessa from Wild Sea Monkeys. Alex & Vanessa are not your typical cruisers. They are in their early twenties and are traveling on a twenty-five foot sailboat with absolutely no equipment. The have no navigation equipment other than a compass and, maybe a handheld GPS, no refrigeration for food, and no head. Yes, they do it in a bucket. They left Florida in December and have made it here without incident. On one hand, I admire the lack of fear of young people who just take off and do it without any thoughts of the consequences. On the other hand, I fear for their safety and the safety of those who may try to rescue them someday. They were very fun to chat with though, and Vanessa flattered me by guessing that I wasn't as old as her parents, who are in their mid forties.

We had a $8 special lasagna and salad dinner at the Yacht Club before returning to the boat for the evening. It was good, cheap, and just the right amount not to be stuffed.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 4

This morning after the nets, we went ashore with Mike & Lynn. There were several domestic errands to be accomplished. One was to drop off laundry again. We could go longer between laundry runs, but it would just be that much more to do in Antigua before we leave, so we might as well do it here where it's convenient. Mike and I walked up the street to the Port Authority building, and I paid my harbor fees for the last few weeks. When on the Dutch side of the lagoon, it costs a boat our size $20/wk for the right to be here. That applies whether you are anchored or in a marina. The bigger the boat, the higher the fee. We paid for two weeks when we checked in. We are now into our fifth week, and with the weather forecast, we will be into our sixth before we can leave for Antigua. Normally I would not pay up until we leave, but there is a deal I signed when we checked into the marina last week that says if we show up on a no-pay list, the marina will charge our credit card and pay the fee for us. I didn't want to risk any confusion and possible double paying and having to straighten it out long distance, so I went and paid in advance. We're good now through the 17th. Hopefully we will have a good weather window to leave before that. We walked back to where we left the ladies at the grocery store and found them almost done shopping. We checked out and headed back to the boats.

We have noticed the last few times we have gone out that the dinghy is going slower and slower. It has been in the water for a month now, including a week in the marina where the water is even richer with nutrients, so there is bound to be stuff growing on the bottom. We took the engine off and hoisted it up on the rail mount where I could clean it better than just leaning in the water. I used a wire brush and scraper to remove a significant quantity of green fuzzy stuff and quite a few hard barnacles. I used the raw water washdown hose to rinse everything off afterwards. Then we hoisted the dinghy on the davits and I used my big stainless steel scraper to scrape the bottom. There was a layer of white crusty stuff growing on all the surfaces that are in the water. I did the half I could reach from the swim platform, lowered the dinghy, turned it around, hoisted it again and repeated the process. When it was all scraped, we lowered it and put the motor back on.

At 16:00 we joined the gang for happy hour at the Yacht Club. It was the same group of ten as it was yesterday. We watched the boats come and go during the bridge opening, which now is just one opening that handles outbound traffic first, then inbound. During the busy season, November through April, the bridge opens for outbound boat traffic, closes to let the car traffic clear, then opens again thirty minutes later for inbound boat traffic. During the slow season, which started May 1, it only opens once for both ways. It does this once in the morning, at noon, and once in the late afternoon. There were no big boats going either way, but quite a few personal sailboats came in, including one that Alex & Vanessa knew and had not seen since Puerto Rico.

We went back to the boat about 19:00 and Barb made a tuna casserole for dinner. The wind is still blowing hard and is expected to for several days. While we had been at the yacht club a squall came through. There is much more rain forecast also.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 5

As forecast, the winds were high all night and we had several showers blow through. I left our instruments on overnight, and the highest wind gust was 33 knots. Surprisingly, I slept pretty well despite the wind. I got up twice during the night, glanced out the windows to verify we were still in the same place, and went back to sleep. When I got up about 07:00, I poked my head up in the cockpit and noticed that a boat that was anchored behind us, Salty Shores, was definitely further back than he had been last night. I watched for a minute, and it didn't seem to be moving at the moment, so I didn't worry about it. An hour later, it was apparent that the boat had moved still further, and now it was pretty close to two other boats. I didn't see any activity on the Salty Shores, but both of the other boats are occupied, so I figure when they are uncomfortable with how close they all are, they'll blow a horn or something to wake the guy on Salty Shores up. After the Coconut Telegraph, I looked at Salty Shores again, and now I saw Willy from Lady Sarah aboard. Since I had not seen the guy from Salty Shores, and still didn't, I wondered if perhaps he had left the boat, and now Willy needed help trying to re-anchor it. I hopped in my dinghy and went to see if I could help. Just as I approached, I saw that the owner was there, but he was down in the cockpit lazarette working on something. Just as I hollered to see if they needed another hand, The boat took off forward at full throttle. Willy grabbed the wheel and turned to avoid ramming one of the boats that they were very close to now. The owner got the boat out of gear and everything was ok for the moment. I asked again if they needed help and Jim the owner said yes he could use another hand. Turns out that his throttle/gear shift mechanism is broken. That was why he had not tried to re-anchor sooner when he realized he was dragging. He had been down in the lazarette working on a jury rig so that he could motor at all. He thought he had it operable now, so Willy and I went to the bow as Jim powered forward. Willy ran the windlass, and I cleared grass and crap off the chain as it came up. When the anchor was up, I looked at Willy and asked if he had ever seen an anchor like that. He had not. It looked like a big flat tooth on a hinged shank. At first glance I didn't see how it would be expected to hold. Jim motored us forward and I pointed him towards a light spot where the bottom hopefully is more sand than grass. We dropped the anchor again and let out about a hundred feet of chain. Jim came forward and I asked him what kind of anchor that is. He said it's called a Barnacle and it's made by a guy in St. Thomas. He said it works great except in grass. Hopefully now that we dropped in a sandy spot it will hold better. While Willy and I were aboard, Jim asked us if we could give him a hand reinstalling his dodger and bimini. He had them off getting the eisenglass replaced. We helped him, and with three sets of hands, it was a simple task to reinstall.

I went back to the boat and got soaked doing so. I hadn't gotten wet going downwind to Salty Shores, but coming back into the chop I was soaked. I only had shorts on, but getting clothes wet with salt water sucks. It is so windy and the lagoon so choppy, that we probably will stay aboard all day. Barb and I were both in the cockpit reading when she noticed something floating behind Willy's boat, which is anchored in front of us. Willy was not aboard, so I hopped in the dinghy and went to fetch the object. It was a plastic battery box cover that I recognized as being Willy's. I snagged it and took it over to Lady Sarah and dropped it in the cockpit. I got wet again, but this time I had my bathing suit on, so I just dried off when I got back to MoonSail and went back to my reading in the cockpit.

At the 11:30 bridge opening, several boats came in. One was another Island Packet named Watermark. They tried to anchor a little behind Seabbatical. That would make us surrounded by four Island Packets. Remarkably, they had the same Barnacle anchor that Salty Shores has. I've never seen or heard of this anchor before, and now here are two in an hour. Watermark had pretty much the same success with anchoring that Salty Shores had the first time. Over the next two hours, they anchored, dragged, and re-anchored at least six or seven times in different spots. They had a alternate anchor, a Bruce, which is another type of anchor that I don't understand why anybody would expect it to work. They tried both anchors multiple times and last we saw them they appeared to be heading for the marina.

We read all afternoon, and for dinner Barb spruced up the leftover tuna casserole into a whole other dish. It was still blowing hard, but the rain seemed to have moved on, at least for now.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 6

I didn't sleep well last night. It was more like the sleep I would expect to get when we have extreme conditions. I would lay there awake and look out the big window at our heads to make sure we were where we should be. Every now and then I would get up and look out the sides and ahead of us to make sure nobody in front of us was dragging towards us. It didn't rain all night, but the wind blew pretty steady over twenty knots all night. It blew hard enough that we recorded one of the very few nights in our cruising career that we made more electricity overnight with the wind generator than the fridge and freezer used.

Around lunchtime, we went to shore to have lunch and retrieve our laundry. It was blowing very hard and the bay was choppy, so instead of taking our dinghies to the old Shrimpy's dock, we went to Palapa Marina's dinghy dock instead. It will be further to walk with the laundry, but since there are boats in that marina the dinghy area is protected from the chop of the lagoon. Mike & Lynn were with us, and we walked to the Mexican truck place for lunch. I think the real name of the place is Macho Taco, but we all just know it as the Mexican truck. We ordered our lunches and beers and were sitting at a table waiting for our food, when a guy walked over from another table and took our salt. He didn't ask if he could use it, or say anything. He just took it. We just sat there and looked at him, thinking he was maybe going to use it and bring it back, but he didn't. It didn't really matter since none of us salted our lunch anyway, but it was just so odd. In hindsight I wished I'd gone over and, without words, taken it back when our food came. After lunch, we picked up our laundry and schlepped it back to the dinghies.

I spent the afternoon finishing the book I am reading. It was On The Road, by Jack Kerouac. Somehow in my younger years, when it was a much younger book, I never read it. This particular book was a reprint from the early nineties which had a preface by a literary historian about Kerouac and the rest of the Beat Generation writers. I almost didn't read the book because reading the forward was quite tedious. The book itself was ok.

Tonight is the weekly cruiser's happy hour at Turtle Pier, but it is so rough out there that it would be a wet dinghy ride. Instead we went over to Seabbatical and played Rummikub and had our own happy hour. The MoonSail crew won all four matches.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 7

Another blowing day in the lagoon. Went spent the morning reading again. This time I was catching up on three months worth of Latitudes and Attitudes magazines that my brother brought me. At lunchtime, Barb and I went to shore and ate at a place we haven't tried before. The place is next to the Lebanese place we ate at last week, and they have panini sandwiches which had caught our eye then. Barb ordered one with chicken and I got the smoked salmon one. Both came with cucumber and lettuce inside. When they came, they were both on foot long French bread that had been squashed an heated in a panini machine. Isn't ciabatta bread what makes a panini a panini? No matter, they were both very good.

While we were ashore, I stopped at a dive shop to see if they did boat bottom cleaning. They didn't, but they had the name of a guy that does. The girl called him and gave me the phone. Neale was the diver's name and he said he could come tomorrow to clean MoonSail and Seabbatical. He told me the price, and I told him about where we were anchored in the lagoon. He said he would be there tomorrow, but I couldn't pin him down on an exact time. I also didn't know if he would need me to pick him up on shore, or if he had a boat. I told the dive shop lady to call me on the VHF tomorrow if I needed to come in and pick him up.

We met the gang at Jimbo's for our last happy hour there. The guys from Liquid Courage have really taken a liking to the staff at Jimbo's and enjoy going there for happy hours. We only had two rounds (of two-for-one) and headed home.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 8

Again, the morning was spent reading. We finished all three issues of Lats & Atts and passed them along to Mike &Lynn. I wanted to do some internet stuff, so I joined Mike & Lynn at Jimbo's in the afternoon for that. Barb had a headache, so she stayed aboard and watched a movie while I was gone.

We met the gang at the Yacht Club for happy hour tonight. We watched the boats come and go when the bridge opened. After some deliberation we decided to stay there for dinner.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 9

We started mentally preparing ourselves to leave St. Maarten tomorrow. We also started to doing little things around the boat to get everything secure for our passage south. The one thing that kept bothering me was the bottom cleaning guy. We have to have it done before we leave, because we felt a vibration when we came out of the marina last week which is most likely due to crap growing on the prop and shaft. Mike & Lynn have a local phone, and I have Neale's number, so Mike gave him a call. Just after Mike and I had the radio conversation about this, we saw a small open boat with two guys slowly approaching us. As they got closer, one guy answered his cell phone. It was Neale. He cleaned ours first, and it took him quite awhile. He worked on us for over an hour. He then went over and did Seabbatical, and then went and did Liquid Courage's prop and shaft. When Neale had finished our bottom, he said it had been quite bad. Our paint has worn out, but it lasted two full seasons in the water, which for any boaters reading this who are not familiar with the Caribbean, is excellent.

It was about 14:00 by the time all the bottoms were cleaned. We then went to shore with Mike & Lynn to have a late lunch/early dinner and check out. We went to eat first as we were all hungry. We left our dinghies at the Yacht Club and walked down the street a bit to Lee's. We had eaten here before and it was quite good. We were disappointed that they didn't have any Wahoo today, but we all found something else and it was all good.

From Lee's we walked across the bridge to check out with Customs and Immigration. It was pretty straight forward and there were no new forms to fill out which was pleasant. In many islands you fill out the same long form as you did when you checked in, with the only difference being the box that says inbound or outbound.

By the time we were checked out it was 16:00, so a final happy hour at the Yacht Club was in order. We said goodbye to the staff members we have gotten to know there, and some other cruisers who we have seen there often. On the dock we had hugs and goodbyes with Seabbatical. We have been with them every day since back around Christmas and have really enjoyed their company. But, as with all cruiser relationships, the time comes that we go separate ways. We hope to see them again either on the water or back in the States. We went back to the boat and hoisted the dinghy on the davits in preparation to leave in the morning.

GPS N 18-02.429 W 063-05.610 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10023.

May 10

I hosted the Coconut Telegraph this morning. This is the last time to deal with the noise of Simpson Bay when trying to hear the net participants. Once the net was over, we just hung around waiting for the bridge which opens at 09:30. Willy on Lady Sarah is going to buddy boat with us to Antigua, so he was getting ready to go too. About 09:10 we raised the anchor. As was the case last time, the anchor was firmly dug in and needed some coaxing to come loose. With the right anchor the holding here is phenomenal.

There were about a dozen boats planning to leave on this bridge opening and we were all milling around trying not to run into each other. It reminded me of the good old days of waiting for bridges on the ICW during our first two seasons, except we had a lot more room to maneuver around. At 09:30, there was no sign of the bridge opening. In fact through our binoculars, Barb could see that the bridge operator was not in the control room yet. We waited and waited, until about 09:40 when the operator came strolling down the sidewalk apparently with no care that he was late. Must have had a big Saturday night. The bridge finally opened and we all went out into the outer bay. We unfurled about 3/4 of our main sail and started south. However, just as we did that a large squall came over the island and headed right for all of us. Not wanting to start the trip soaking wet, I just pointed the boat right into the wind a idled there for several minutes while the bulk of the downpour passed. Pointing straight into it kept us mostly dry in the cockpit behind the dodger. Once the rain passed, we turned southeast and headed for St. Barths. It is only fifteen miles from Simpson Bay to Gustavia, the main harbor on St. Barths, so it should take us about three hours.

The trip was about as expected. We were heading almost directly into the wind, so we motored with the main up for stability. The seas were not too bad, but again we were bashing straight into it so it wasn't a great ride. Once we got to St. Barths, we had a choice of where to park. There is a bay two miles north of Gustavia called Anse de Columbier that has some free mooring balls. We would like to see the town of Gustavia though, and given the weather two miles would be a long wet dinghy ride. In Gustavia itself, there are moorings in the inner harbor that are usually full of permanent residents, and there is dockage that is intended to be stern to Med moor style. There are also two areas outside the harbor to anchor. We went into the inner harbor just to have a peek at it, thinking we would anchor outside. We had noticed that the outside anchorage was rolling pretty good, so it didn't look all that attractive. In the inner harbor, we found most of the moorings full and they were a style we have never done before anyway, with a ball for the bow and another for the stern. The docks were very empty, with no mega yachts here at all. I noticed three personal sailboats side tied to the dock instead of Med moored, and wondered how you got that deal. We drove back out to the anchorage to look for a spot, but on a whim I thought I'd call the Port Authority and see if I could get a place to tie up alongside like the other three boats. I hailed the Port Authority and got an immediate answer, which in the islands is often not the case. St. Barths is a French island, but the Port Authority man spoke excellent English. I inquired if it would be possible to side tie by the other three boats. He said no, that space was reserved, but there was a place I could Med moor. I told him Med mooring didn't work for us, and mentioned that we only wanted to stay one night. Then he said there was space on the other side of the harbor where we could side tie. We came back in and found the spot he was talking about, right in front of a museum with a large plaza in front of it. We came in and tied up with no problem. It's been awhile since we docked without having somebody there to take our lines, but we used to do it all the time, so it was no problem. Lady Sarah was about half an hour behind us and he also called the Port Authority and got permission to dock right in front of us. We took his lines as he came in since he is by himself.

As soon as we had both boats secure, we took our papers and walked all the way around the harbor to the Port Authority office to check in. In typical French fashion, there was one simple form to fill out for Immigration and one even simpler one for the dockage. There is no charge for Customs and Immigration, and the fee for dockage was only thirteen Euros. I had not asked the price before deciding to tie up, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how cheap it was. St. Barths is known as a very expensive place.

After checking in, we went in search of food. We had not eaten anything yet today and were all hungry. We headed to Le Select, which is reputedly the place that inspired Jimmy Buffett to write Cheeseburger In Paradise. Unfortunately, being Sunday, almost everything in town was closed, including Le Select. It also was a bad time to be looking for food, since most French restaurants serve lunch from 12:00 to 14:00 and then dinner from 18:00 to whenever. There was one place called La Route des Boucaniers that was open all day every day so that's where we ended up after walking through the deserted town. Since we were between lunch and dinner, salads and sandwiches were the only thing available, but that was fine. I ordered a cheeseburger which was huge and very good. Willy told me that he had been to Le Select before and had the absolutely worst cheeseburger he could remember, so perhaps we made out better here, although it would still have been cool to see the place. We lingered after lunch over an extra beer and chatted and watched people. There was a small cruise ship anchored outside the harbor, so there were a fair amount of tourists walking about. I don't understand why the cruise ships bother stopping when all the shops are closed, or why the shops don't pay more attention to the cruise ship schedules and open regardless of the day. I guess they do well enough to not care.

It was after 17:00 when we walked back to the boats. There now were many families hanging out on the plaza where we were docked. It's apparently a place to bring your kids and whatever wheeled toy they have so they can play. There were roller blades, Razors, skateboards, split skateboards, and bicycles. They were all playing with the adults sitting on park benches visiting until just before dark when a rain shower dispersed most of them. We were reminded that when you are at a dock, the rain doesn't always come from the front of the boat like when you are at anchor. We had to close up everything, including the companionway until the storm passed. We headed to bed pretty early, around 20:30, as we have a very long day ahead of us tomorrow.

GPS N 17-53.922 W 062-51.155 Nautical miles traveled today 15. Total miles 10038.

May 11

Our trip from St. Barths to Antigua today is seventy-five miles. Averaging five knots, that will take fifteen hours. There isn't enough daylight to make the trip entirely in light. Our choices are to leave in the wee hours and get in before dark, or leave at first light and get in after dark. Since we have been to Jolly Harbor before, and it is a pretty wide open anchorage, we chose to leave at first light and arrive after dark. We were up at 05:00 getting ready to go. We helped Willy get off the dock and then we released our lines. The wind was switching back and forth in direction, I think due to our proximity to the buildings, but when we needed it to blow us off the dock it did. We left the harbor and once out past most of the anchored boats unfurled the main. Again, we only put out about three quarters of it until we see what the conditions away from the island are.

Once we were out of the lee of the island, we found pretty much what was forecast, which wasn't great. The wind was blowing about eighteen knots and it was at an angle where we would have to motorsail to stay on course. We did find that with our clean bottom, we were able to motor faster than we have been lately, and were making over six knots initially. If we can keep this speed up, we may get in just before dark. The seas were not real big, but they were ugly. There was a swell coming in from the east that was varying anywhere from four to eight feet. We were taking the big swells at an angle and even the big ones were not much problem. The problem was the wind chop. It coming from more ahead of us. The waves were mostly only four or five feet, but they were very closely spaced, so we were constantly bashing into them and taking lots of water over the foredeck. The bashing slowed us down to closer to five knots most of the time. In the first few hours of the trip, we encountered a few rain showers. They were not too bad, with the wind just five knots more than they had been and rain for a few minutes. About 09:00, Barb went below to try and take a nap. She dozed until about noon when she came above and relieved me so I could try and nap. I laid in the cockpit and immediately fell sound asleep for an hour. I woke up but kept trying to go back to sleep, when the engine faltered and lost some rpm. It occurred to me then that I should have changed the fuel filter before we left St. Maarten. The engine recovered, and we both hoped perhaps it would keep going without doing it again. Of course that wasn't going to happen, and about half an hour later, it died entirely. Barb went below and got a new filter out of storage and a plastic bag for the old one. When she had everything ready, I went below, quickly changed the filter, and got back above before being below caused me to get sick. I got the engine restarted and we resumed our course. I had not been feeling well the whole way and had been on the verge of getting sick all morning. Although I made it through changing the filter, after a few minutes the urge got the best of me and I was hanging out of the cockpit. Since it was so rough, I didn't get out of the cockpit and hang over the lifeline. I just let it go on the deck, which was getting washed every few minutes with sea water anyway so it didn't matter. I had not had anything to eat since our late lunch yesterday, so there was nothing much to come up. After getting that over with I felt better. I am an unusual seasick person in that once I get sick I feel better instead of being debilitated by it for hours.

I kept checking the chart plotter to see what our ETA to Jolly Harbor was. The seas had dropped a little bit about halfway through the day, and we were making a little better time. It looked like we were going to just miss getting in just before total darkness. Willy was about half an hour behind, so even if we made it, he would definitely come in after dark. When we were about an hour away from Jolly Harbor, we saw a large ugly looking squall approaching from the east. The forecast was for squalls associated with a strong tropical wave to get here this evening, and it looks like it's right on time. I pushed the throttle up to full throttle, which I don't like to do all the time, in hopes that we could skirt the heaviest part of the squall. The plan worked as we only got a little light rain but we could see heavy rain on the water less than a mile from us. Poor Willy was going to get hammered it looked like, and we lost sight of him as the squall passed behind us. Just as we were approaching the outer markers of the Jolly Harbor entrance, we saw Willy's lights appear in the distance as he emerged from the squall. I called back to him on the radio and made sure everything was ok, and it was.

The entrance to Jolly Harbor is wide open. There is a marked channel, but unfortunately the markers nor the position of the whole channel are correct on our charts. The channel really is just there to define a place where people should not anchor, thus keeping a lane open for boats going all the way into the marina. The depth is a consistent twelve to fifteen feet from just off the beach to at least a mile out, so you can pretty much anchor anywhere and not have to worry about running aground. The only real obstacle is the fact that at least one of the pilings making the channel isn't lit. We slowed way down as we approached, looking for the channel markers in the dark. Barb spotted a couple markers that were lit, but I knew from last time we were here that there was one that wasn't. Sure enough, Barb spotted it as we passed about twenty feet from it. I did not want to go up in the front of the anchorage where other boats were in the dark, so we slowly approached the rear of the anchored boats and dropped the hook in about twelve feet of water. The anchor set immediately and I went back to the cockpit to take refuge from the shower that came up just as we were dropping the hook. That was perfect timing really so it rinsed the salt water off the boat. I hailed Willy on the radio as he was approaching us. I warned him to watch for the unlit marker and guided him towards us by blinking a flashlight in his direction. He turned and came straight towards our stern where I told him to drop the hook anywhere he was comfortable with. He asked me if he wasn't still in the channel as that's what it appeared to him from his charts. I told him that his chart must be wrong like mine and not to worry about it. There is no commercial traffic here anyway so even in the channel there would be no problem. Willy said he thought he was close enough to us and dropped his anchor. Barb and I laughed that he was going to be surprised in the morning to see how far out he still was, but it doesn't matter for tonight.

As we had been approaching Jolly Harbor we had a wonderful brief event. This whole season, we have only seen one dolphin. This is dramatically different from our trip south two years ago when we saw them almost every day. When we were about an hour out of Jolly Harbor, dead tired from the trip and just wishing it would be over, suddenly two dolphins popped up on the starboard side of the boat. They were not going our direction, but rather had gone under the boat and popped up just as they cleared it. Barb was dozing as I yelled "dolphins" and she jumped up to see. Another group of six then popped up in exactly the same fashion. Then a few seconds later another pair. That was all we saw, and they didn't hang around to play with us like they sometimes do, but it was a wonderful pick me up to finish the trip and our cruising season with.

Another thing we saw as we were approaching the island was a large white ship near the main port of St. Johns. We assumed it was a cruise ship getting ready to depart, but as we got closer I didn't think it looked fancy enough to be a cruise ship. Barb got the binoculars out and found that it was a hospital ship anchored. I have no idea why a hospital ship would be here, although I think I recall hearing that there was a hospital ship that made the rounds of the Caribbean islands.

Once we were anchored, we relaxed and took stock of the boat. Unfortunately we found that we had gotten quite a bit of leakage from the forward hatches. While they never leak in a rain storm, when the water is coming down, they leaked more than they ever have with the water washing up under their edges when it came over the bow in the rough seas. I guess it's a good thing we will be taking everything out of the v-berth to pack as now we need to dry everything off and clean things. For you land based readers, the problem when salt water leaks is that it never dries. It will stay wet and sticky for days and days unless cleaned up with fresh water.

We decided the cleanup can all wait until tomorrow. Barb made us arrival beverages and got out some crackers and cheese for a snack. Even though we haven't eaten all day, neither of us feel like a real meal. While sitting in the cockpit relaxing, Barb noticed the Southern Cross low in the sky to the south. We haven't seen that since our trip south two years ago. I'm sure it could have been seen from Grenada, but not from where we were in the marina. Seeing it again brought back good memories. We hit the sack about 21:00 and slept well.

GPS N 17-04.494 W 061-53.814 Nautical miles traveled today 75. Total miles 10113.

May 12

Overnight we had several other rain showers, so the outside of the boat got a good rinsing. We checked in with the Coconut Telegraph and could hear lots better now that we are out of the interference of Simpson Bay Lagoon. We heard Pat & Dori on Sol Y Mar check in, and they had just arrived in Georgetown, Bahamas. We rarely hear boats that far away. Barb made us a real breakfast since now we were both hungry. The bad memory of the ugly crossing is already fading as we enjoyed the calm anchorage here. There is a slight bit of roll since we are so far out of the anchorage, but by comparison it's nothing. We did laugh when we got up and saw that Willy was even farther out than we thought he was. He's a good quarter mile behind us, and similarly, we are further away from the closest boat in front of us than we thought we were. Everything looks closer in the dark.

As Barb was cleaning up from breakfast, she exclaimed that "we have hot water!" The water heater makes hot water either electrically or when the engine runs. Ever since replacing the leaking hoses between the engine and the water heater two years ago, we have not made hot water when running the engine. This means the only way we can make it is electrically, which is possible but not practical when we are not at a dock plugged in. The likely reason for this problem is an air lock in the line between the engine and the hot water heater, but I had done everything I could to ensure that wasn't the case while we were in Grenada, yet still we had no hot water. The hard bashing that we did getting here must have caused the air lock to clear since the water now is just as hot as when we heat it electrically. I love it when a problem fixes itself. But why did it have to wait until two weeks before we leave the boat to do it?

We launched our dinghy and I went out to pick Willy up. We went in to check in with Customs and Immigration. Having been here before and dealt with the ridiculously arduous task of checking in here, I briefed Willy on what to expect. To my surprise, the procedure was significantly different that it was two months ago. No easier, but different. There were three forms to fill out instead of two last time. And of those three, only one was the same as last time. The order in which we were shuffled between Customs, Immigration, and Port Control was different also. And when I asked if I had to do anything special since the boat was staying here and we were flying out, you would think we were the first people to ever do this. After much consulting between offices, they gave me yet another form to be filled out before we depart from the airport.

After we were all checked in, I took Willy on a brief tour of the area. We went to the marina where I showed him the office as he plans to come to the dock later. I showed him where the ATM, restaurants and grocery store was. We then went back to our boats. Willy weighed anchor and went to the marina where he plans to stay a few days. We had to decide whether to just move to the front of the anchorage and anchor for a week, or take a mooring inside the inner harbor. We decided on the mooring since we can sometimes bootleg a free wi-fi connection in there. We weighed anchor and headed in and as we did we saw several other friends anchored up front. We saw Mariche, Sutton Hoo, Shian, and Spyglass. We yelled hellos to them all as we passed. We thought a couple of them had already headed back across the Atlantic so we were happy to get to see them again before they leave.

We picked up the same mooring we had last time we were here. I found the wi-fi signal, but it doesn't seem to be as strong as before. Maybe we'll try a different mooring later, but I'm not sure where the signal comes from, so it's hard to guess where to go to be closer. We started to cleanup the v-berth. The first thing to do was clean the floor so we didn't keep tracking salt water throughout the boat. I pulled up the floorboard which up there is just a decoration over the fiberglass floor, and Barb mopped the salt water and then rinsed it all with fresh water. Since it rained off and on all day, we couldn't have the hatches open and it was pretty hot inside the boat. That led us to not do much more cleaning today and we relaxed in the cool cockpit and read and napped. Manana for the cleaning.

At 16:00, despite the fact that it was still lightly raining, we went to the Foredeck bar for happy hour. We met Willy there, as well as Paul & Janie from Shian. We first met Shian in Luperon on our way south two years ago, and have shared harbors with them many times over the past two years. In our conversation, it turns out that Willy knew a lot of the same boats that we did, most notably Caribbean Soul who is from Texas as is Willy. The more we talked the more boats we realized we all knew. Angie, the owner of the bar came by later in the evening and remembered us from a couple months ago. Although, she refused to believe that it had been six weeks since we were here. She thought it was about two weeks ago.

After a while, Willy invited us to have dinner with him, his treat. A good cruiser never turns down an offer for a free meal, so we went to Peter's Barbeque where we had enjoyed several meals on our last visit. The special was a Swiss veal cordon blue and we all ordered it. It was delicious. We enjoyed spending the time with Willy, and he thanked us for the help we have given him over the past couple weeks.

We headed back to the boat in a light sprinkle. When we were quite a distance from MoonSail, Barb said that it looked like we had a masthead anchor light on. I said we must be perfectly lined up with the boat behind us creating an optical illusion, since we have no light on the masthead any more. As we got closer, it was apparent that indeed we did have a light on our masthead. That light quit working in Luperon two years ago and I determined that the wiring in the mast was the problem. I knew that I had taken down the LED fixture because that's what we have used for an anchor light ever since, simply hanging it over the boom when we are at anchor. I did not remember reinstalling the original fixture on the masthead though. I was so sure of this that as we approached I double checked that we weren't going to the wrong boat. The further mystery was why this light would be on since the switch that controls the LED light is not the real anchor light switch. Barb went aboard while I backed away in the dinghy so I could see the masthead, and she turned off the anchor light switch that had been accidentally turned on earlier. I was still baffled by this and had to go back to my logs from March 2007 to see that indeed I put the old fixture back up there at the time. Apparently the wiring problem is not consistent. That wiring will all be replaced when the mast gets reinstalled when we get back anyway. The whole thing sure did confuse us.

GPS N 17-04.494 W 061-53.814 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.

May 13

This morning we started doing some cleanup from the passage. Barb did some minimal wiping off things within reach that had been dripped on, but the whole v-berth will have to be emptied to clean up right. Manana.

Around noon, we dinghied in to the marina. We got rid of some garbage and went to lunch at Peter's Barbeque. The special today was grilled knackwurst and potato salad and that's what we both had. We were sitting right next to another couple who were obviously boaters. From listening to their conversation, it was apparent that they had just hauled out and were heading home. They started talking about burgers and Grenada. The guy couldn't remember the name of a place near Prickly Bay, Grenada where they had their last good burger. I piped up and said "that would be Bananas". He remembered then and agreed. His wife then said that she heard Clarke's Court Bay Marina had good burgers too. We laughed and then explained to them that we had been at the marina for a year and had done the burgers. They were familiar with the marina and knew Bob, but didn't know about us, and I didn't recognize their boat name, Last Tango, so they must not have been there during our tenure.

After lunch, I went to the marina office to check in and pay for our mooring, while Barb went to the Epicurean grocery store. After checking in, I joined Barb at the store. It's a shame we are making a concerted effort to eat all the stuff on the boat and not replace it, because this is one of the best groceries in the Caribbean. We only got a very few things we needed and headed back to the boat.

We spent the afternoon relaxing. I read the latest Jimmy Buffett book, Swine Not. It's a cute story about a pet pig living in a four-star hotel in NYC on the sly. Late in the afternoon, we decided to change moorings. We took mooring number nine (out of ten) because it was the one we used two months ago. When we were here then, we could bootleg a free wi-fi connection there, but now it is barely strong enough to connect. Since we don't get the wi-fi, there is no point being on the furthest mooring from the marina, so we moved in to mooring number two. Still no wi-fi, but a shorter dinghy ride to the dock. We're also not as close to the new homes being built so we don't have to listen to the workers yelling at each other all day.

Barb made homemade pizza for dinner. I guess we are still getting over the long day Monday, because we hit the sack before 21:00 again.

GPS N 17-04.494 W 061-53.814 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.

May 14

We have heard from my brother that Bimmy is fully acclimated to his new surroundings. He no longer hides in the bedroom and is exploring the house fully. He is enjoying sitting out on the screened-in porch which I imagine feels like the cockpit of the boat to him, but larger. He has been using the cat box in the cellar that Bob's cat uses eliminating the need for a separate one in the bedroom which makes cleaning up a lot easier. It's good to know that he had adjusted well.

Today we did the thorough v-berth cleaning. There are three goals to the task. One is to dry any remaining salt water off things, another is to get rid of anything we really don't need aboard, and the third would be to find anything that needs to go home with us. To put the task in perspective, imagine taking everything out of your garage and sorting through it. The v-berth is our garage on MoonSail. We started removing things and stacking them in the main saloon or out in the cockpit. Barb was cleaning things off as we went. Eventually we got half the stuff out and got the starboard half of the mattress out. It was a little damp, but not bad, and not mildewed at all. It went out on deck to be in the sun for a while. We vacuumed the empty half and Barb wiped down the walls and mattress base with a bleach/water solution. This not only cleans up the mildew that was on the walls, but hopefully will deter much from growing while the boat is stored. To look at the walls, you wouldn't have really noticed the mildew, and it didn't smell bad, but when Barb wiped with the sponge, it came up black every time. Overall though, since we have not done a thorough cleaning like this in several years, we can't complain. We continued pulling out the stuff from the other side and got that half of the mattress outside on deck also. We took a break in the action and Barb was sitting in the cockpit when a gust of wind picked up one half off the mattress and almost took it overboard. She ran and got it, and then took a line and tied them down. That would be all we need, to actually dunk one in the water. After our break, we started going through stuff and deciding what we could get rid of and what has to go home. Suddenly, we realized it was starting to rain. We dashed outside to get the mattresses off the deck before they got wet again. Of course since they were tied down, it took a bit longer, but we got them inside with no harm.

While Barb was working hard in the v-berth, I tackled cleaning off the nav desk. The nav desk is like that place everybody has in their home where the mail gets dropped and the keys and the pocket contents. It tends to collect stuff and needs to be purged now and then. I cleaned off the top of the desk, sorting through things as I went and vacuuming dust bunnies and hair as I went. Once the top was cleared off, I opened the desk up to see what might be there that needs to go home or could be trashed. The stuff inside the desk is mostly important papers and the like, that we rarely access since the top of the desk is always full. I got everything out of the desk, sorted through it and vacuumed the dust from the inside. (How does the dust get inside when the lid is always closed?)

We took a break at lunchtime and Barb made us sandwiches. We had another rain shower, forcing us to close the hatches again. This contributed to extending our lunch break a little because it's no fun actually working hard below without airflow. After the shower passed, we started putting things back in the v-berth. We will probably rearrange stuff when we resume cruising, but for now, things not going home went up front, things going home stayed accessible, and several things that we will give away to the guys in the boatyard also remained out and accessible.

At 16:00 we called it a day and went to the Foredeck for happy hour. We have several things to donate to them if they want them, and when Angie, the owner, showed up, we asked her if she wanted them. There is an unopened bottle of Worchester Sauce for Bloody Marys, a can of coconut milk, cat food for the little bar cat, and a feeder for the cat. We decided the feeder was too bulky to take home, and besides, Bimmy has gotten used to eating out of any container put in front of him, so he doesn't need this particular feeder. After we had been at the bar a little while, we were joined by Willy from Lady Sarah. There were a lot of local people at the bar today, more than I have ever seen before. In the crowd, I spotted a couple that we knew from Grenada, but I couldn't remember their names or their boat name. They were about to leave, so I jumped up and intercepted them. It took them a minute to place my face too but then we had a grand reunion. They are from the catamaran Jenna, and they spent quite a bit of time in the marina in Grenada. They are leaving in a day or two to cross the Atlantic and go home to the UK. They have another couple making the crossing with them, who have never been on a sailboat before. That ought to be interesting.

Other friends of ours, Bob & Sally on Mariche VII are leaving tomorrow too, but under different circumstances. They have hired a crew to sail their boat back to the UK and they are flying home. We also met Bob & Sally in the marina in Grenada and have run into them numerous times over this past cruising season. They brought the boat into the marina this morning to facilitate unloading their luggage and loading in the crew. While we had been at the bar, we saw them on Mariche with the crew and planned to stop and say goodbye when we left the bar. But, when we left they were not aboard. We assumed they must be having dinner, so we checked all three restaurants and found them in the third. We said our goodbyes and hope to see them someday in the future. Sally indicated that she would like to come back to the Caribbean again in a couple of years, so perhaps when we are back, they will be too.

We went back to the boat where Barb whipped up a mystery casserole. With the goal being to use whatever we have onboard without buying much more, the meal combinations ought to be interesting. Of course, the casserole was excellent. We actually stayed up a little later tonight even though we worked hard all day.

GPS N 17-04.494 W 061-53.814 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 10113.