Falmouth Harbour

Antigua
17.00.708N
61.46.523W

While Dale checked us out of customs and paid our refrigeration bill, I found an internet café and camped out for the rest of the morning and early afternoon. Unfortunately, it was a slow connection and I couldn’t get any of my pictures to load.

We saw Brian & Lisa off Wasabe walking down the street and called them in to join us. We had spoken to them briefly when they arrived via the radio and had promised to catch up with them today. Brian had his computer and logged in while Lisa made the introductions to their new buddy boat named Jalapeño. They told us that they had seen a sign indicating that tonight was sushi night at the marina so, they made reservations on behalf of us all, including Steve and Vicky on True Companions. We caught up between the distractions of working on the computer and then said good bye until we were scheduled to meet up again on True Companions at sundown.

We stopped and greeted our new neighbors on TaiTai, an older, very British couple, who may have anchored over the top of our anchor and have to either pull up or fend off as we leave early tomorrow. They were very nice and said that they thought they might have to move if we left before them. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to sneak by without having to disturb them.

At sundown, Brian brought their parrot Gypsy along for the ride. She’s a beautiful red parrot with a purple breast and bright yellow and purple tail feathers (although she’s kept clipped pretty short). She was looking much better than the last time we saw her when she was going through a molting period (supposedly throwing a temper tantrum while Lisa was off the boat). Gypsy seems to like Dale, or at least his glasses and rubbed her beak all over his shoulder; ‘claiming him’ according to Brian. I hope that I’ll be able to load the picture of her when it comes time to post this section. She really is a beautiful bird.

Later we made our way over to the yacht club for shushi and enjoyed a very tasty and expensive meal. Dale likes sushi as does Brian & Lisa; I like steak. Personally, I think I got the better deal.

Tomorrow will begin with another fairly early morning as Dale wants to get underway by 7am. Hopefully, the sailing will be better than when we arrived.

Falmouth Harbour,
Antigua
17.00.708N
61.46.523W

A quick check of our sat e-mail this morning brought some alarming news. Gerry and Nicky sailed past Montserrat and continued to Guadeloupe. However, they lost their engine power along the way which forced them to continue under sail and into a new harbor late at night. Today they tore their engine apart to ascertain the problem and discovered that they have a bad fuel injector.

Dale checked us into customs and then dropped by the refrigeration people to confirm that we had arrived as scheduled. We were 4th on the list and were told that they would try to make sure we were seen today. Dale got back to the boat and wanted to move us in a little closer to the marinas. We chose a spot just up from where we had originally anchored and already the roll disappeared. We got out the hose and gave the inside of the cockpit a quick wipe down to get all of the salt off. We’re hoping for a little rain shower will pass our way to get the rest of the salt off the outside of the boat.

In the light of day, we recognized that we were amongst the very elite in sailing. The Maltese Falcon (the largest 3 masted sailboat) and a huge ketch are tied in slips just in front of us. Also, as we had surmised, many of the larger racing yachts are in from the Heineken Race and also at the marinas with a couple anchored out with the rest of us mere mortals.

Early afternoon we were contacted to head into the fuel pier and pick up Richard, the refrigeration repair guy. He had fixed our refrigerator last year about this time and we kidded him that we were back for our annual maintenance. He brought a young apprentice with him and with Dale’s assistance, they tore the salon apart to access the compressor and pump. The long and short of it was: faulty wiring.

The culprit was a short in an unknown splice in the wire leading from the compressor to the pump that led through a strake beneath the floor boards at the level of the bilge (which means that it was not visible.) Richard discovered this with his multimeter and the fact that one end was black and the other end was white. We dug out some string, attached it at one end and started pulling. Sure enough the rusty splice came out and promptly fell apart in Dale’s hands. Why anyone would put an unprotected electrical component in a place that is bound to get wet is anybody’s guess. In fact, Richard said that we were lucky that we hadn’t had a fire or explosion considering the potent ional for spilt fuel or oil in the area.

Once this was discovered, Richard told Dale to just re-splice the wire, adding the necessary heat shrink material for protection, then lead it back through again. Dale not only put heat shrink material on each individual wire, he put heat shrink material on the bundle as extra protection. A couple of hours later, we had the salon put back together and the refrigerator going. Now we’re wondering what else is lurking in inaccessible areas.

Steve & Vicky on True Companions and Brian & Lisa on Wasabe heard us talking on the radio earlier in the day and contacted us to get together with them in the evening. We had last seen True Companions in Grenada and Wasabe in Trini. As much as we would have liked to visit with each of them, we’re still exhausted today. So we declined the invitations and promised to get together tomorrow as a check of the weather had 9’ seas and we’re going to wait until they decrease a bit before heading back out again.

In the meantime, we offered to run down a fuel injector for Gerry and found out that we could get one here in 24 hours if necessary. However, Gerry & Nicky are taking a tour of Guadeloupe and will look for one there. Hopefully, they’ll let us know in time should they want us to bring one with us when we leave.

Since we’re going to be here another day, I’ll head into a marina tomorrow and see if I can find an internet café.

Falmouth Harbour,
Antigua
17.00.670N
61.46.670W

Happy Birthday Gary! You know you’re getting older . . . when your knees buckle and your belt won’t!

At 6:13am we lifted our anchor, unfurled our main to the first reefing point, radioed our good-bys to Gerry & Nicky who would be continuing on to Montserrat, and made our way out around the north of Nevis. We anticipated that this would give us a better sailing angle to Antigua.

On this adventure we tried the southern channel between the protective reefs and made our way clear of them according to our chart plotter. Of course the second we turned to find our angle of sail was the first time we saw shallow water. The charts showed a shallow spot behind us, so we figured that it must have been a shifting sand bar and headed out a little further. This time the anticipated depth was reflected on the depth sounder so we continued on.

Alas, this ended up being a very uncomfortable trip. The forecast was for 4-6’ swell, E winds at 15kts. The reality was 4-6’, heavy on the 6’ with the occasional 8’ thrown in for good measure. The winds were more South of East and directly on the nose at 20-25. It was going to be a pinch in any event but with what we encountered, we rolled in the main, continued motoring and had to hand steer the whole way.

It was a challenge to ride the waves without pounding or getting more water in the boat than around the boat. To do this we found the best way to keep from going too far off course was to steer downwind going up the wave and upwind going down the backside of the wave. The trick was timing this during what little interval we had between the waves. Most times it worked but there were sets of larger than normal waves mixed in with the average ones that forced us to alternate between the two methods of piloting and proved to us that not all of our water tight hatches - - actually are. This also gave us our workout for the day.

We ended up taking 2 hour shifts because we’d get so tired. At one point, Dale misinterpreted the chart plotter and steered us closer to the island. This actually helped us in the long run as it put us closer into the island’s lee, knocking down the wave heights a bit to increase our speed but did make the route a bit longer considering we were already racing the sun into a new harbor.

When we rounded to the south of Antigua where Falmouth was in sight, the waves were back up again and seemed even larger than they were originally. A dismasted sailboat grounded on a reef was a visual reminder that things could still go wrong.

The sun had already set and we had done our best to memorize the charts and cruising guide suggestions as we entered into Falmouth Harbour. There was enough light to recognize the buoys that lay up ahead marking the channel and even though they didn’t match the charts, I trusted Dale’s knowledge of navigational aides. Apparently more buoys have been added to help guide the mega yachts to the two marinas within. It looked as if all of the big boys from the Heineken Races had come here to rest.

It was well past dusk as we entered the channel and then picked a spot near one of the outlying boats anchored off the channel. We dropped our anchor in 20’ of water, made a quick dinner, sent an e-mail to Orpailleur to let them know we had made it and called it a night. The Palace is covered in salt that needs to be rinsed off and already we can tell that it’s a little rolly where we are but that all can wait for tomorrow.

Photo of Gypsy Palace taken by Orpailleur on the way from St. Barts to Nevis.