Antigua - Stanford Race Week

30 April 2008

“Our boat really is quite small!” exclaimed Kuno as we were returning to our boat, now back in Falmouth Harbour, following yet another excursion along the docks to check out the amazing array of boats. The Stanford Sailing Race Week, one of the largest annual regattas in the Caribbean, is on and the place is buzzing. We can see anything from 100+ ft racer cruisers, to pure racing machines of all sizes, to super fast “around the world solo” kind of trimarans, you name it. We recognize some of the boats from pictures in magazines. While the size of our boat has become a bit of a joke in the last two weeks, this time there was a hint of seriousness in Kuno’s voice. Footitis already? We just bought this boat! Fair enough, we are the smallest boat on the dock, in fact, one cannot even see the boat in between the docks – they are too high, set up for much bigger boats. And it is also true that the size of our boat is almost the same size as some of the tenders we have seen here. But I like her. And we don’t need a crew to sail it (although I could sure use a crew to clean it).

Since we are spending quite a bit of time in Antigua, we rented a car and are exploring the island on land. Driving is an adventure in itself, considering that one drives on the left side and our car is a manual. This is beyond my coordination skills, so Kuno does all the driving. He often ends up signaling a turn by turning on windshield wipers instead, as the levers are opposite, and the gear box is hoping for a British tourist next time. Since our last trip to Antigua about 6 years ago, not much has changed, but there are more paved roads. More is relative, as in two days, we managed to drive pretty much all the roads on the island. There is a beautiful small, hilly portion of the island with a lot of greenery and forest. Driving along one of the roads we felt we could just lean out of the window and grab a ripe mango of the loaded, giant mango trees lining the road. But majority of the island is covered in brush, remainder of land cleared for sugar planting. Ruins of windmills are dotting the landscape and we get to explore the machinery of one of them. Originally, the windmill powered 3 vertical crushing drums and with two passes it extracted only 60% of the juice. Later, they switched to 3 horizontal drums and improved extraction to 80% with one pass of the sugar cane. From the mill, juice was pumped to the boiling houses. Even Tatiana got interested in figuring the process out. The whole sugar and rum production was quite ingenious for the time. Too bad that is has such a dark side.

The beaches in Antigua are truly amazing and the water is much warmer than in Montserrat. Tatiana loves playing in the surf and can stay in for hours. The biggest challenge is to get her out of the water long enough to put more sunscreen on. We spend endless time digging channels and building sandcastles, only to be thwarted by some errant wave washing it all away.

We had fun visiting the fruit and vegetable market in the capital, St. John. They had items I have never seen before. The funniest was a fruit called Stinky – not something I was willing to experiment with. My resulting culinary explorations will be the topic of a separate blog.
In Falmouth Harbour we discovered a really neat printing shop whose business was to supply all the crew shirts to the race boats. Catching the bug, we decided to get some “Blue Moon” shirts printed for ourselves as mementos. Not to mention that Kuno pretty much destroys one t-shirt every two days, as it is virtually impossible to wash out the gobs of sunscreen, engine oil and tomato sauce that he slaps on regularly, so we needed some new ones anyway. We got to study the printing mechanics and Tatiana watched her own shirt being made.

But after five days in Falmouth and English Harbour, it is time to move on. I am anxious to get to Barbuda and enjoy some quiet anchorages. I have been waiting for some quiet time to start painting, but so far there is always something more pressing to do. We spend the last day doing all sorts of chores. The trouble with boats is that you start working on one thing and discover three more that need doing. Like Kuno spilling several liters of water all over the floor while trying to install a drinking water filter, which led to lifting the floor boards and cleaning out tons of sand and hair and other stuff, that I didn’t even want to identify, and while we were at it, removing copper strips under the boards that were poorly installed for an SSB radio at some point in Blue Moon’s history. And on it goes, life of a sailor. The laundry needs to be done in the kitchen sink, the propane and water tanks refilled, the dinghy gas and the steering fluid replenished… the list remains long. But eventually we lift the anchor and have a wonderful beam sail back to Jolly Harbour. We pass a huge turtle in the water on the way, but no dolphins today. Back in Jolly on buoy, Kuno returns in the dinghy from an errand and as we start our lunch, we hear our neighbour shout “Dinghy, dinghy…!” As we look up, we see our dinghy floating away in the middle of the channel, propelled away by a gentle breeze. It is good to have vigilant neighbours that also lend a hand in the rescue. And really, after spending many years sailing, you would think Kuno would know that just stepping off a dinghy without tying it to the boat is not very practical.

Antigua - Classic Race Week

24 April 2008, Antigua

Arriving in Antigua feels welcoming. The wind and swell have somewhat settled, allowing us a glorious, albeit slow, sail from Montserrat. I almost forgot how comfortable sailing can be. The water is many shades of turquoise blue, lined with white sand beaches and the coast dotted with bays for anchoring. Visitor brochures claim that Antigua has 365 beaches – one for every day of the year. We will sample as many as we can during our planned 3 week stay. Antigua is nice because it has a bit of everything. History tied to Lord Nelson, who was stationed here early in his career (hating it) in late 18th century, remnants of sugar plantations and rum distilleries, incredible beaches and even an amazing cricket stadium for sport fans. And let’s not forget the amenities – supermarkets for provisioning and a laundry, sorely needed by us after three weeks. I like the way laundry is done here. Drop off three bags of dirty laundry with a dinghy in the morning, pick up three bags of clean laundry at lunch time. Very civilized.

And let’s not forget the internet. It is a bit of a hit and miss to get free wireless on the way, but so far we have been able to keep in touch on a regular basis. But in Falmouth Tatiana got to Skype some of her friends and that made her very happy (and no, she is not drinking beer!).

The Classic Race Week is on, and Falmouth Harbour is jam-packed with boats either racing or watching. We join the crowd of ogglers. The classic boats are magnificent, although only a few are really original classics. Most are brand new, high end, classic racing machines, manned by paid crew. The size of the equipment on these boats is incredible – we saw winches 0.5m in diameter! The spare equipment – chains, anchors, sails and anything else heavy, is lying on the docks to lighten the load for the races and crews are busy cleaning and polishing at the end of the day. Then its party time.

After a few days of hanging around Falmouth and English Harbour, exploring Nelson’s dockyard with all its restored buildings and shipyard equipment and scrambling up to Shirley Heights for an incredible view (Blue Moon is somewhere down there), it is time to explore further up the coast. It is only an hour sail up to Mamora Bay tucked in behind a reef, but we get to see the first dolphins under our bow and whales splashing in the distance. Mamora has a nice resort and apparently we can get “room service” on the boat if we tie up on their dock. But I must be turning cheap (the ultimate cruising life is rubbing off on me) and choose to anchor and cook instead. We switch our usual positions and this time I am dropping the anchor and Kuno is driving. And wouldn’t you know, we drive over the dinghy line, wrapping it in the propeller. I guess there is a first for everyone! Luckily no damage is done and the line untangles quite easily. Every opportunity is good for a rum punch and this one calls for a strong one. We observe a family of birds trying to make a nest inside our boom for a while and then its off to the resort beach and join in a game of volleyball. Another day in paradise, with all its challenges and pleasures.

Montserrat

18 April 2008, Montserrat

We celebrated Tatiana’s 10th birthday just before our departure from Nevis. Decorating a boat with streamers and balloons is a challenge, but it has to be done. It is a sore point with Tatiana that she has not celebrated her birthday at home for the last 5 years, but by now we have established a routine for birthday celebrations while traveling. Presents in the morning, playing with “stuffies” and games until it is time to go find a swimming pool and a nice dinner out in the evening. Can you guess her favourite present from the picture?

The sea was a little bit more forgiving on our way to Montserrat, at least in the size of the swell if not in the direction of the wind. The competitive spirit set in early on, as several other boats left Nevis at the same time, but eventually all ended up going in different directions and we were alone on our way past Redonda to Montserrat. A foul smell attacked us about three hours into the trip and I chased Kuno to check the head, as surely something must have gone wrong (and there was no way I was going down there). But all was fine and it dawned on us that this was the welcome from the volcano at Montserrat – and we were still two hours away!

But Montserrat surprised us. The beauty and devastation are both striking. A small island to begin with, only one third of it is now in use, the rest contained in an “Exclusion Zone”, where access is prohibited. The volcano has been continually active since 1995, burying the main town of Plymouth in mud, ashes and lava in 1997. In one place, only the steeple of an old church can be seen peeking out and there are whole areas where nothing can be seen under the 20 – 30 ft of deposit. Even now the volcano is alive, with the last outburst as late as this January. This left Montserrat with no economy, as both the sea port and cruise ship terminal were in Plymouth and the airport on the other side of the volcano was also wiped out. The land in Montserrat is incredibly fertile and we stocked up on all sorts of fruit directly from the trees, including tamarind, which we have never tasted before. Breadfruit and mangoes are so abundant that there are not enough people on the island to consume it all, but no set up industry to export it either. People are still leaving with only 5000 residents remaining, although heavy financial support is flowing in from Britain of which Montserrat is still part. A completely new town is being built in the safe zone, but this area is hilly and too rugged for agriculture. And there really is no infrastructure to attract tourists other than the divers and cruisers as us, with only a few small hotels and local restaurants open.

Our driver also showed us the Waterworks Studio, belonging to George Martin, where Beatles and Mick Jagger used to record. It is now in disrepair and we wondered through the empty rooms and recording studio with remnants of equipment and even some tapes strewn about. The setting was beautiful, up in the hills, with view of the ocean (and probably lot of pot growing in the garden) – great for inspiration. But as the rest of the island, the beauty is tinged with devastation.

At the end of our visit in Montserrat we played on a beautiful beach close to where we were anchored in Little Bay and discovered perfectly black sand. I have never seen anything like it and Tatiana and Kuno had tons of fun rolling in it, looking like they had stockings or wetsuits on. An appropriate end to a great visit of an island that many cruisers bypass.

St. Kitts and Nevis

11 April 2008 St. Kitts and Nevis

“I dropped your propeller and can’t find it!” called out the diver as he emerged from underneath our boat. Anchored in Simpson Bay, finally almost on our way, we had just one last chore to do – change the propeller. We should have known there was a problem the moment the diver brought out a hammer instead of a propeller puller. However, this is Caribbean and things are done differently, we reasoned. Luckily, after a while the propeller was found, changed, and Blue Moon is a happier boat under power, not to mention Kuno, who likes to tweak all things mechanical!


We left Philipsburg on St. Maarten still in the dark, hoping to put in some miles behind us before Tatiana woke up. But the sea and wind weren’t very kind to us and we spent the next ten hours rather uncomfortably, in big swell, on close reach to the wind, occasionally pelted by rain and large waves spilling into the cockpit. It dawned on me that doing a big ocean crossing really wasn’t something that I was interested in, 10 hours was long enough for me. We passed the islands of St. Barth’s in the distance, Saba and St. Eustacius quite close by and finally landed on St. Kitts. Volcanoes dominate the landscape of all of these islands, making them easily visible and recognizable. But neither Saba nor Statia have a decent anchorage in this weather and so we decided to bypass them. We will visit St. Barth’s, my favourite island, on our way back up.

After the necessary customs and immigration hoopla, we were free to explore the island. And so we hopped on the “Sugar Train”, built in 1926 to transport sugar cane from across the island into the port. The landscape in St. Kitts is dotted with remnants of old windmills and chimneys from the sugar plantations, now mostly in ruins or converted into hotels. An impressive fort, Brimstone Hill, is guarding the entrance to the island, fought over by the British and French. Sugar cane is left to grow wild all over the island to prevent erosion but is no longer a viable economy. What struck us about St. Kitts is how much friendlier people are than on St. Maarten. St. Kitts and Nevis are celebrating 25 years of independence from Britain and it seems that their government is doing a good job. Health care and education are paid for by the state (we admired the colorful creole school uniforms, so much more fun than Tatiana’s plain navy blue), as well as “rent to own” housing; overall the island seems fairly prosperous. This year St. Kitts added a cruise ship terminal and so we woke up in the shadow of a big cruise ship that arrived early in the morning. Observing the frantic cruise ship visitors trying to get as much activity in as possible before the afternoon departure, we were happy just sitting in a street café, sampling local beef patties and playing cards. We are slowly settling down, just hanging out…

St. Maarten

6 April 2008, Island Water World Marina, Simpson Bay Lagoon, St. Maarten

The halyards on the neighbouring boats keep waking us up in the gusting wind. The boats make all kinds of noises in the wind, muffled during the day but very loud at night. Strange at first, they become familiar after the first few nights. Every once in a while a rain squall comes through, bringing a whiff of wonderful cool air into the boat. The wind is unusual this time of the year. It surprised us getting out of the airport, almost bowling Tatiana over. A bit extreme, even for sailing. On top of it, no sailboats can get into or out of the Simpson Bay lagoon where Blue Moon is docked. In the strong wind the two bridges that connect the lagoon to the open ocean cannot be opened. And so there is an air of waiting around us, everyone taking time to fix whatever needs fixing before the next passage. I feel sorry for those that have come for a week or two of a vacation, but for us, time right now doesn’t seem to matter. Tatiana calls me “timeless” as I have given up on wearing a watch. We spend our days provisioning, eating ice cream and exploring the island, while Kuno is putting up the dinghy davits and solar panels. Oh yes, and let’s not forget the obligatory fixing of the head (gasket failure), power outage (that I have caused) and a sundry of other usual sailor’s chores. Turns out he forgot a box with many of the fittings and right size screws for the davits. Uncharacteristically, this gets him quite flustered. It is a good thing that there is a marine store at the entrance to our dock. By now we have opened an account there to get a bulk discount, as Kuno keeps running for yet another gadget back and forth on a regular basis. But as of yesterday evening, the davits are up, solar panels are assembled (although not quite yet connected), sails are up, dinghy is in the water and generally things are looking up.

Kuno and I celebrated our 11th anniversary in style – French cousine on a Caribbean beach. For me, it doesn’t get much better. In fact the island of Sint Maarten/St. Martin (belonging to Netherland Antilles and France) is fantastic that way. It has beautiful beaches, great food (I am finding European goodies in the supermarket that I haven’t seen since I was a kid) and tres chic French boutiques. Too bad the type of clothes that would look great here would look very strange back at home. And so I am just window shopping. And let’s not forget boat ogling. Next to the amazing selection of mega yachts, both sail and power, our beautiful 40ft Blue Moon looks like a little toy boat. But for us, she is starting to feel like home (a very small home as Tatiana keeps reminding us).

Here is a picture of Tatiana in the pullman cabin – her “room”. Kuno was a bit incredulous when I was packing new polka dotted sheets, pink decorative pillows, neon green floor mat, bunch of Hannah Montana posters and what seemed like a full library of books (not to mention of Archie comics), but Tatiana’s exclamation “I love my room!” proved it was worth it. Tonight we went to see a local dance school production of Hairspray (only those with pre-teen daughters probably have an idea of what I am talking about). It was excellent – either that or the rum punch we had just before was very potent!

Tomorrow is our last day before we take off from St. Martin. The wind is slowly settling down and the bridges are back to the twice a day opening schedule. Our “to do” list for tomorrow is still long, but experience tells us that on a boat the list is never done. Kind of like owning a house, except the consequences of something breaking are different. But by now we are keen to get going. By Tuesday, we should be on our way to St. Kitts.