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Larry's LogThat afternoon while Diane did laundry, I started getting the boat ready to leave as soon as the winds calmed down. A boat had come in that day that I thought was not directly over our anchor. We went over to Boondoggle and said that if we left, we might have to ask them to shorten scope a little to let us get our anchor up. No problem. Diane called me via our FRS radio to pick her up with the laundry, but when I got there she said that the dryer wasn't working properly and she had to continue with that cycle. OK, you have to get used to that type of thing here. Later, when I did pick her up, the clothes still weren't dry and we had stuff hanging out on a big clothesline I rigged. We try not to use the lifelines for this since they are often dirty and salty. We had the couple from Boondoggle over for drinks later and after they left had a quick dinner. The next day, March 21, we left for Jolly Harbour and after getting clear of English Harbour, had a nice sail under just the jib. But from the point of leaving English Harbour to about the entrance of Falmouth Harbour, we rolled through about 45 degrees. The wind was pretty stiff, around 20 to 23 knots and the seas were around 5 to 7 feet. We left because we were pretty tired of English Harbour - not that it wasn't nice but we had been there for almost 2 weeks and needed a change of scene. We also needed to run the watermaker and couldn't do that in the enclosed bay where we were anchored. Once we get the jib up, we still rolled but not quite as much and once we got into Goat Head Channel, which is protected by Cades Reef, the seas calmed down. Once around Pelican Island, the seas were even better and we were now on a reach since the wind was from the southeast. As we approached Jolly Harbour, we both decided that we should go just a little further into 5 Islands Harbour, a large bay about 2 miles long that should be very protected, as long as there was no swell coming in from the north. So we went past Jolly Harbour and into 5 Islands Harbour and it was really lovely. We saw the beach where the guidebook says you can anchor and there were only 3 other boats there near a beach almost ½ mile wide. So we anchored there and finally found a "almost deserted" Caribbean anchorage. We stayed there for 3 days. That first day we ran the watermaker for a few hours and generally cleaned up the boat and relaxed. The watermaker was running OK but had never given me the rated output. It seems that when the unit was first installed, the cleaning valve was put on backwards by the manufacturer. I never realized it until much later so every time I tried running it, the concentrated brine solution produced as a waste product was being fed back into the reverse osmosis membrane. After I figured this out, and after contacting the manufacturer about it, they suggested doing the cleaning procedure to try to get the unit back to its rated output. I did that and it seemed to improve a bit, I was now getting about 5.5 gallons per hour instead of 4.5 to 5, but it should be better. Unfortunately, it seems the only alternative left is to change the membrane itself. I had also changed the prefilter since it had gotten dirty using it in English Harbour one day. After I saw the condition of the filter, I knew we shouldn't do that again. Not that there was any oil in the water (oil is the great enemy of the RO membrane) but the silt has really clogged up the filter. Ken from Great White Wonder in St. Martin had a similar watermaker and had suggested removing the old filter and cleaning it and then drying it in the sun. I did that and I believe that it can be used again. We will have to get some more prefilters at some point though. Our second day at 5 Islands Harbour, I cleaned the waterline again since a new crop of barnacles growing. Diane and I also brought the dinghy to a small beach to clean the bottom. This was an interesting experience since we first tried to bring it to the wide beach we anchored near but as we got closer we saw a small reef just in from that was breaking. There were some passes through but there were other people there so we went to the smaller beach just a few hundred yards further southwest. There were no reefs but the drop off was incredible; just 5 yards from where the waves broke on the beach, the water was 10 feet deep. So we had to be quick about beaching the dinghy while raising the outboard engine. OK, we got it beached without too many problems and turned it over to clean the bottom. It wasn't too bad but after St. Martin, we still have speckles all over the bottom from barnacles. After cleaning it, we righted the boat but some very fine sand flipped into the dinghy at the same time. Great, now we had to try to get the sand out. Pouring water into the dinghy and then upending it again was only partially successful. We got most it out, but there's still some in there. Launching the dinghy again was also fun. Since the surf was a little heavier now, we had to be even quicker about getting away from the beach. So I put the outboard back on in its tilted position, connected the gas tank, put the rest of the gear aboard and waited for a set of smaller waves. We saw our chance and I hopped in while pushing the bow around. Diane then jumped in and pushed away with an oar while I lowered the engine, got it started and powered away back to the boat. Success (with just a little sand as a reminder). We ran the watermaker again that day as well, since they like to be run a bit fairly often. Otherwise they need to be flushed with fresh water or for longer periods of non-use, "pickled." Although I didn't worry about running the watermaker there, the water itself was not as clear as I thought it would be. In 20 feet, we couldn't see the bottom. While that's not unusual for anchorages in the US, I thought it was strange for the Caribbean, at least in a non-congested place like this. The next day we went back to Jolly Harbour so we could get fuel, update our web site and clear out. We thought we'd only be there for a few days but we stayed another week! The week was occupied with getting the boat ready for the passage to Guadeloupe. We listened to the weather daily and made decisions based on that. Interestingly, the person who does the weather on English Harbour Radio was generally more accurate, at least for Antigua, than either David Jones who runs the Caribbean Weathernet or NOAA. Of course, he was only looking at a small portion of the Caribbean; David looks at the entire Caribbean basin. The week was also occupied with getting fuel, which I jerry jugged from the fuel dock, doing a small load of laundry, updating the web site and of course, since we were here, going to the pool. The third day at Jolly Harbour we also saw Passagio come in. We had first met them in Simpson Bay Lagoon. Randy and Patty also had company - Patty's father had come down for a visit and they were showing him the various places on Antigua. We had a nice, if brief, reunion with them. We also asked if Patty's Dad could bring home some mail for us to send off in the US, including our taxes! He kindly agreed. Otherwise we would have had to send the returns back to Diane's father via Federal Express so he could then send them on to the State and Federal governments. The next day, Friday, we went into St. John's again. We went in to do the update to the web site, get some money from the bank using an ATM card and possibly to buy a t-shirt. We were successful on all counts, but using the ATM was an experience. There are major banks (Barclay's, ScotiaBank, etc.) in St. John's, the capital of Antigua, but we had to find one that would accept an American ATM card. Once we did that, Diane also wanted to get French Francs since we didn't have any left from St. Martin and there is no bank in Deshaies, in Guadeloupe, where we would arrive. We had to go to 2 separate banks to accomplish our various transactions. After we had finished at the last bank, we went to an Internet place, Parcel Plus on Redcliffe Quay. I got on immediately as they had about 8 PCs setup and the access was pretty good - much better than the connections on St. Martin. I updated the web site and checked all our accounts online in about an hour. We then went shopping and I found a nice t-shirt (on sale). We had lunch of Big Banana pizza (pretty good) and then back on the bus to Jolly Harbour. Once back at the boat, Diane went to clear out while continued preparing the boat for the trip. While the actual process of clearing out was painless, her landing at the clearance dock was. She accidentally missed the kill switch on the engine and accidentally ran UNDER the dock, hurting her back as she fell. Fortunately, there was no serious damage to the dinghy (or Diane) and the customs and immigration people were very nice as they helped her after the crash. After that, we went to the pool and to take showers before finishing preparing the boat. The preparation consisted of taking the engine off the dinghy, removing the other dinghy gear (oars, seat, bow bag, etc.) replacing the forward head's solar vent with a deck plate, closing the sea-cock to the forward head sink (it backfills into the sink when on starboard tack) and stowing all the miscellaneous gear below. The last thing to do was to raise the dinghy on deck and lash it down. That would have to wait until the morning since it then too dark to see. |