Sail Pandora

We have been in Dominica for a few days participating in the Dominica Salty Dawg rendezvous, hosted by a local Dominican group PAYS, Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security. This group does a lot to organize tours, dive trips and parties to keep the cruisers coming back. It’s a great group and makes visiting what was once a fairly dangerous island, a lot of fun and very safe. With upwards of 20-25 Salty Dawg boats here for at least a week, it’s nice to see the group come together again and to make new friends. We arrived a few days early as the winds were forecast to drop to near nothing for nearly a week after blowing upwards of 30kts, with gusts to 40kts, while we were in Deshaies, Guadeloupe.

Dominica, often referred to as the “nature island” is very different than Guadeloupe with it’s shabby European vibe. It’s very rural, poor and has very few hotels. For those who enjoy the rainforests, it’s just about a perfect place to visit.

We’ve been here for a few days and it’s been a mix of rain and sun, with a generous dash of rolling swell which for the first few days made things a bit unpleasant. But, even with a nasty swell the beauty of a post-shower rainbow is amazing.

The weather has changed a lot from day to day since we arrived. That sunny day was followed by a full day of rain, unusual for the Caribbean where short squalls followed by rainbows is more typical.

During the rainy day, it was beautiful but very humid as we had to keep Pandora all buttoned up. This schooner, one of a number that spend time here with paying guests, anchored nearby. It was hard to even see the horizon. It looked like a vision that might have been seen here 200 years ago.

Prior to heading to Dominica we visited Deshaies Guadeloupe, our first stop heading south from Antigua, is impossibly quaint village that is best described as shabby chic. There are some very nice restaurants to choose from, French, of course. The 50 mile run from Antigua was particularly sporty with strong winds and big seas. I was sorry that it had to be that way as it was the first run of the season for Brenda.

While we were in Deshaies we met a very nice German couple on Grey Hound, an aluminum boat about the same size as Pandora. They came aboard to talk about cruising the Med and Brenda was intrigued. Well, intrigued with visiting Spain at least. I’d like that. Fingers crossed. Perhaps we can head to the Azores in the spring of 25. Something to look forward to. (note: Brenda hasn’t agreed yet… Ever hopeful)

There is a small river running down to the harbor through a cut in the mountains. It was a short walk into the woods, complete with a wonderful swimming hole. Nothing like a fresh water swim after a short hike. And into water that is considerably colder than the harbor.

Another place we always make time to visit is the local botanical garden, Jardin Botanique de Deshaies, a short drive from the harbor via their own van.

It’s hard to decide what the best things to highlight from our visit to the gardens but here goes.

As you enter the gardens there is a wonderful reflecting pool…

Complete with a large family of koi. Each between 12″ and 18.”

And now, a wonderful mix of textures among the many amazing tropical plants.

It must be a big pump that powers this 6′ high water tower.

These charming little parrots are fun. They live in a large aviary that you can enter and interact with them. They eat nectar out of a cup that you can purchase.

Of course, there is also a number of wise old McCaws happy to check you out.

This little guy scampered away when I got too close.

I loved the way that the light shown through these fronds.

Looks delicate and soft but is large and spiny.

These grasses are actually is as soft as they look.

This succulent looks delicate and velvety but is anything but at about 5′ from side to side.

Everything is supersized. Each of these leaves is more than 2′ long.

The giant papyrus, with the fluffy tops, is one of my favorite water plants. We grow a clump in a caldron each summer at home.

Not so fluffy, the trunk of a massive tree. Looks like the folds of elephant skin.

These flowers grow just about everywhere. I understand that the locals here in Dominica make their intricate baskets with fibers in the stems. Brenda purchased some baskets yesterday as gifts when we rented a car yesterday but that will have to wait until the next post.

And, closely related to the one above another “wild flower” that is every where. The frond is about 18″ long.

Of course, many of us in the freezing north grow these as house plants. Here the leaves get more than 2′ long and carpet the ground in huge areas.

Flowers like this make me wish that I could grow topicals at home.

The gardens are high on a hill overlooking the harbor where we had moored Pandora. Brenda and Maureen surveying the harbor.

After days of near gale force winds in Deshaies, making Pandora strain on her mooring, the wind dropped to near dead calm once we arrived here in Dominica. When the wind is very light, and it rarely is, it is quite hot down below.

Fortunately, there is a breeze today but still with calm conditions. With that in mind, I took time to scrub the slime off of the bottom of Pandora. I use a small compressor with a long hose. An abrasive pad with a handle and air from the compressor, I am able to stay below for the 45 minutes that it takes for me to completely scrub the bottom. I try to do it every two weeks during the season so it doesn’t get too nasty.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. When the surge was at it’s worse, we visited our friends on Kalunamoo for cocktails and while their boat rolled from side to side, our dink was caught under their boarding ladder, puncturing a hole. Flat dink.

I actually found two holes, by spraying Windex all over the pontoons, after pulling it out on the beach. It took two days with careful prep and a day for the bond to cure. I used a special two part rubber adhesive that I borrowed from my friend Mark. The dink looked pretty sad deflated and covered with sand.

She’s back in the water, holding air… I hope.

I also took some time with a friend to fix up the local town dock where the cruisers go to get ashore. The dock has been in very rough condition for years and after I suggested an upgrade, with free labor, the PAYS guys agreed to supply materials, boards, screws etc. Fortunately Mark had some power tools aboard to speed the job along. We both worked for a half day, with a few of the PAYS guys, to add some refinements to the dock.

First, an extra 4′ of dock on one end. That’s Mark. Notice the step to make it easier for those of us that are older, get up on the big dock.

We also added a wood strip on the edge to tie dinks to. It doesn’t look like much but to those of us trying to get ashore when there is a surge running up on the nearby beach, having an easy way to tie up is important. That board, mid dock, is a handy way to grasp and climb ashore. There is also a board below the dock to keep dinks from being stuck under the dock at low tide. We’ve seen plenty of dinks get damaged when they grind against concrete. It is always advisable to put out a stern anchor to keep the boat away from harm.

Mark and I were assisted by three of the local PAYS guys. An enthusiastic group. Notice the guy on the right with a “joint” in his mouth. A number of them are half stoned much of the time. It was a fun project.

Later that night there was a barbecue with all the rum punch you could drink. And there were a lot on hand to have that punch. The next morning it was clear that I had a bit too much.

So, here we are for a few more days of fun before we head on to another island. As the wind is expected to be from the south for much of the week, which almost never happens, we may backtrack north a bit to Le Saintes, just below Guadeloupe, one of our favorite destinations to wait for the wind to shift back to a normal easterly direction.

After that, on to Martinique. We were going to attend Carnival but I don’t think that we will this time as we won’t be able to get there soon enough to secure a spot to anchor in what will surely be a very crowded harbor.

After weeks of strong winds it’s nice to be enjoying calm conditions after a very windy week in Deshaies,

Calm is good…

It’s been three weeks since we arrived in Antigua and I will admit that I am becoming a bit restless to begin heading south. In past years, the “Christmas winds” tend to be a bit lighter toward the second half of January but this year the winds were quite reasonable earlier in the season and not so much recently.

For the last few nights we have had strong squalls where it went from sort of windy to quite windy with heavy rain only to lighten up ten minutes later. The good news is that it washes off the decks. The down side is that we have to jump up to close all the hatches with no warning except drops hitting us in bed.

Nighttime is beautiful in Falmouth with all the yachts brightly lit. I can only imagine with that costs as a KWH is about $.75. I have been told that some of the yachts run up electric bills of thousands a week. I guess if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

The view of the yachts in the marina at night is pretty impressive. For the purposes of scale, note that a mast that is over 100′ tall has to have a red light. Lots of red lights…

The one with three masts on the right is the Maltese Falcon, that I wrote about recently.

She left the harbor a few days ago. It was impressive to see her unfurl her sails. Amazingly, a few hours later she was back in the marina. Imagine taking a 300′ sailboat out for a day sail? “Ok, let’s head back to the dock. Enough of that for today. I don’t like the whole wavy thing at all.”

Every day I look at the GRIBS (computer generated wind models) along with Chris Parker’s forecast with the hope that lighter winds are on the horizon. It is possible that we can head south to Guadeloupe on Monday but that is a very narrow one day window and the winds will quickly become strong again. The good news is that we may be entering a period of lighter winds in about a week but that’s a long way off so I guess we will just have to see how that goes.

With that in mind, we headed to Jolly Harbor today, a short 15 mile downwind run. There is a nice grocery in Jolly as well as a place to check out with customs. Tonight we will have dinner with our old friends Bill and Maureen on Kalunamoo. You may recall that they were our mentors on the very first trip south in 2012. We are all a bit older now and somewhat worse for wear.

Here’s the view from Pandora when we arrived in Jolly. A beautiful day with lovely clouds.

Hopefully Monday will not be too windy but the waves are expected to be between 7-10′ on the beam. Windy yes, and a contrast to the view of our home in CT, here with a dusting of snow. Thanks to Mike and Heidi for sending this shot and for keeping an eye on our home this winter.

Yesterday was laundry day and with the strong winds everything dried PDQ with the first load ready to fold and put away as the second one came out of the washer.

I have tried to do what I can to help Brenda feel productive aboard Pandora this winter. It is no secret that she misses “her people” when she is here in the tropics. To ease all that, this winter she is doing a bit of teaching for some of her more advanced tapestry students. Here she is during her first two hour session. We have things set up with a second camera so that she can demonstrate techniques as well as share photos from her computer along with commentary. It seems to be working very well and she’s enjoying the time .

Fortunately, many of her groups are using zoom, even when they are being held in person. This is good as many members can’t get to live events as easily for various reasons like age, weather or, in Brenda’s case, thousands of miles of ocean between her and the meeting. Perhaps not as good as “being there” but she is smiling as I write this, participating in a bobbin lace meeting.

Yesterday I had a meeting at one of the big marinas and took advantage of the moment to take some photos of some awesome sailboats visiting to participate in the upcoming Caribbean 600 race, one of the top ocean races in the world.

These three trimarans seem to be of identical design.

One of them is Argo. At 70′ she is a beast, capable of upwards of 40kts. She’s a handful and I can only imagine what sailing one of these boats must be like. Read this first hand account of what the experience is from Sailing World.

Better yet, watch this short video of her under sail. Hard to imagine sailing one. Perhaps easier to imagine crashing or flipping one if you don’t know what you are doing.

The cockpit on Argo is all business. And, they are tiller steered with three rudders.

The rudders and foils look like they would snap under the massive loads. I guess that they do on occasion.

Imagine the loads on the dagger boards that require blocks to move them up and down.

What is on the “water end” looks impossibly fragile.

One thing for sure is that this sort of boat needs someone with deep pockets.

And, speaking of deep pockets. I would love to get aboard Nahlin, owned by Dyson of the vacuum family.

And, of course, Nord, fresh from the builder’s shed. I have written about this boat recently but it’s worth noting that in past years, the owner’s last boat, Scat, held an end-of-season cookout on the dock for all comers. The day I took this photo, the office staff of the marina had been invited aboard for lunch. I suspect that most owners aren’t quite as open.

And, for bespoke yachts, bespoke tenders. And, usually more than one. Not a bad ride.

And speaking of “rides”, how about rowing across the Atlantic in an open boat? The first arrivals of boats in the Talisker’s Whisky Challenge have begun arriving in English Harbor. You can see where all the boat are on that page too. They come in with great fanfare.

Seeing them step on shore for the first time in over a month of rowing is quite a sight.

A lot of hugging.

And tears…

Family comes from all over to welcome them. It’s quite a moment.

It’s been nice to be here in Antigua for the last few weeks but I am anxious to move on. Off to Guadeloupe on Monday, I hope.

Love those French islands! Croissants, baguettes and oh yeah, wine in our future.

We are still in Antigua and hope to head to Guadeloupe next weekend. The problem is that the winds are quite sporty and to head out on a 50 mile run, my first of the season with Brenda in what Chris Parker, our weather router, calls “salty” would not be a great way to set the tone for the coming months.

The sunrise was beautiful yesterday, like nearly every day.

And when the sun peaked above the hills a few moments later…

So, for now we are hanging out and enjoying the sights. And those sights include some of our neighbors, some of which I have written about in the past.

This yacht Moonrise, is owned by Jan Koum, a co-founder of WhatsApp. He was born in 1976 so has plenty of years left to enjoy the fruits of his labors. Moonrise is over 300′ long and a real stunner. With a crew of 32 it is no surprise that it costs upwards of $20m to run her every year.

Of course, these days, even the biggest yachts don’t have enough room to store all their toys so they have a support yacht. This one, Nebula, shadows Moonrise. If Moonrise was big enough to support all the toys aboard the “mother ship” it would be too large to fit in most any harbor. This is quite a yacht in it’s own right and the “hanger” is big enough to accommodate a helicopter without folding the rotor along with all the other toys. This link shows just how elaborate this “tender” is.

I have written about Maltase Falcon in the past. She was commissioned by Tom Perkins, an early venture capital founder behind some of today’s biggest tech companies. Tom passed away and she is now active on the charter circuit. When she was built, she was the most sophisticated sailing yacht ever launched.

It’s worth watching this video about this remarkable vessel. To date, there are only two yachts in the world using this unique rig design.

In spite of being one of the largest sailing yachts in the world, she looks tiny next to some of the other yachts in the marina.

And speaking of unique, this boat, Norn, is owned by Charles Simoni, one of the developers of Microsoft Office. Norn is brand new and bigger than his prior yacht, Scat with many of the same characteristics. Check out this link to the builder’s site for Norn to get a feel for what such a yacht looks like down below. They both have a military look to them. The owner also has the distinction of being the only civilian to go up to the International Space Station twice, as a tourist.

While there are plenty of massive motor yachts to choose from here, I should note this huge sloop, Sarissa, owned by Lachan Murdoch, who runs News Corp. Launched in 2023, she is a luxury racer/cruiser, designed to take him and his family just about anywhere. Check out these photos of her?

This morning has been a very busy day for arrivals of the biggest yachts here in Falmouth harbor. This yacht is called Dreamboat. She is owned by the founder of Home Depot, Arthur Bank. Launched in 2019 she cost a staggering $180M. He also owns two sports teams. Of course he does…

I doubt that many of the materials were purchased from Home Depot but the money surely came from there. Check out this link for photos and a description of this amazing yacht.

Dreamboat has a nice spot suited to sundowners, I’d say.

Of course, you have to have a proper tender on such a yacht. When they get this fancy, they are called limos.

A favorite of mine is Naulin, launched in 1930 and carried King Edward for a tour of the Med before he abdicated the throne. After decades of neglect, she was fully refurbished by James Dyson, the vacuum guy. She was steam powered and now is converted to twin diesels. This link will take you to an interesting brief history. She is over 300′ long and only 35′ wide, a much smaller yacht than a yacht of similar length today. A classy lady, to be sure.

Ok, one more although, not with a particularly creative name. Here comes the Sun, she was once owned by a Russian but no longer. Interestingly, she recently went through a refit and had about 40′ added to her length. Sounds complicated.

Wonder what the “down below” looks like? It’s hard to pick which of these massive yachts to include as there are so many to choose from. However, Here Comes the Sun has a great video tour.

So, enough about the .oo1% gang that seems to be everywhere. How about “a day in the life of the little retired cruisers?”

With that in mind, the other day we rented a car with some friends to do a bit of exploring.

Here’s something that you don’t see everyday, especially aboard mega-yachts. Along the way we had to stop to wait for a herd of goats to get out of the way. It was hilarious to see them trot down the road, parting to get around our car and reforming behind us.

Once the goats cleared, our first stop was the Saturday farmer’s market in St John. It was a crazy experience with vendors set up on every street corner.

I wonder if some of those goats were headed for this meat market? It was alarming to see how fast the guy moved the meat through the band saw blade and how close his fingers came to the blade.

Or, better yet. I wonder what this machete sharpener guy was preparing for?

We are certainly not slumming it aboard Pandora but it’s a bit hard to reconcile how different the lives of those mega yacht owners and the typical Antiguan.

However, even the most extravagant wealth isn’t much use if you can’t enjoy your toys. Back when Putin invaded Ukraine all the Russian owned mega yachts took off with moments to spare lest their boats be impounded. Most of them are now in Turkey or the Middle East where they are safe from sanctions. However, one that didn’t get away, supposedly because they did not have enough fuel aboard, was Alfa Nero.

She is still here two years later, now under the control of the Antigua government and it’s unclear as to what will happen next. Some think that the Antiguan government has bitten off more than they can chew as they are now required to keep the boat in perfect condition, an expensive proposition for a yacht that costs thousands a day just sitting there.

These big kids come and go all the time so you get the feel that being a part of such a club is common. However and to get a feel for how rare the billionaire set is, there is one billionaire on the planet for every three million people, about 2,500 of them. And to say that a billionaire is “one in a million” understates it by a factor of three.

But to be a Russian billionaire right now isn’t what it used to be. While most of the Oligarchs got out of town when Putin invaded Ukraine, feel sorry for the owner of Alfa Nero that wasn’t fast enough on the trigger to leave Antigua and can no longer enjoy his toy. Well, that assumes that he hasn’t got another one stashed somewhere.

One of the things that we enjoy about being in Antigua is how friendly the locals are. Being a part of a nation of only 90,000, it’s not hard to imagine that you have to be nice to fit in. We used to tell our boys “watch out what you do in public. Someone we know might see you”. That was true in the small town in NJ where they grew up and is surely true in Antigua.

Here it is just considered good manners to greet someone with a simple “good morning” and if you spend time on one of the many island busses, greetings are shared as each passenger gets on and off the bus. More often than not, the response isn’t a simple “good morning” but “morning, morning” or “good morning, good morning”. I find the “duplicate” greeting to be quite charming.

In NYC, where one of our sons lives, these sort of casual greetings are rare and to look into the eyes of a stranger on a subway may very well be met with suspicion, anxiety or even hostility, wondering what you want or worse, them wondering if you “might not be all there.”

Sadly, over the last decade or so, it seems that we have become accepting of increasingly antisocial or even violent behavior. After walking into town today with so many friendly greetings, I am reminded that today is the third anniversary of the 6th riots in DC. Hopefully, this particularly unpleasant phase in our country will pass over time. I can tell you that our image in the world has suffered.

Unfortunately, we seem to have become a nation of people with the attitude of “I will do what I want, when I want and I dare you to stop me.”

Having spent my life in the general NYC area it seems normal to live in a neighborhood where you know few of those that live close by. Even though I am only on-island for perhaps two months a year, it is hard for me to walk down the street without someone recognizing me. The contrast between home and Antigua is sharp where just about everyone seems to know each other. I am sure it’s not all that simple, but I do enjoy being in a place where nice is the norm.

Most of the Salty Dawg boats have left the island and are roaming about in the Caribbean so we are now flanked by the “big girls”. I have to say that having the “pros” pull in beside us is a lot less anxiety producing than those that are not very familiar with Med Mooring. The Cat beside us is 75′ long and it’s one of the smallest boats around.

Just around the corner are some very impressive yachts, all lined up like sardines. More like cans of fine caviar.

This one in particular, Nadan, about 150′ long, is quite a boat. You can sort of see from the stern that she has a real classic yacht feel.

Here is a photo of her underway. She looks like a true art deco classic but was built in 2019.

I wonder if they will be neighborly and invite us over for dinner? Pretty nice digs.

Or, perhaps for a dip in the hot tub? Not holding my breath.

I think that the closest I will get getting to a tour is this 2 minute video promoting her as a charter. She was built in 2009 and recently changed owners. However, she is still available for charter at $125,000 to $145,000 per week.

Well, I won’t be loosing any sleep if we don’t get invited. However, as they say, timing is everything and we have both docked on the private island in the Bahamas, Over Yonder Cay. Albeit, not at the same time, as you can imagine.

We were there way back in 2016. How we came to be invited to a private island in the Bahamas, and it was our second visit, is a long story. Click here for a post about that visit. Note that Pandora was dark green at the time. No longer.

Here’s our neighbor on the dock there. Well, I think it’s the same place.

Wondering how we were invited to visit a private island? I had written a blog post about the owner, his yacht Marie and this island. I actually wrote the post for my dad, who died ten years ago last week. He loved WWII airplanes and the owner, Ed, owns a bunch. This post earned us two visits to his island and three days of sailing on Marie.

While Ed has since sold Marie, she is currently tied up in nearby Falmouth. It is indeed a small world and one that I like.

And, I particularly enjoy walking in the morning and being able to say “Good morning” to every local I see and to have them return the greeting, “good morning, good morning” and they mean it.

So, before I break, the view of the entrance to English Harbor from Pandora this morning.

And sunrise over the hill.

Not bad and our view is just as good as the view from Nadan. However, I have to make my own coffee to greet the new day.

And when Brenda gets up, “good morning, good morning” and a hug…

We are now solidly into the new year and I have to say that I am more than a bit shocked to realize that I find myself yet one more year beyond “upper middle age”. The bad news is that while I enjoy being on Medicare, I am not all that crazy about being precariously perched on the road to “elderly”. Well, that’s if “just south of 70” falls short of elderly.

New Year’s Eve here in Nelson’s Dockyard, and it now seems like ancient history, was great fun with hoards of locals jamming the place. There was raucous music and plenty of partying. Quite a crowd.

At midnight the fireworks show began. It was not a NYC style event but really wonderful. Nothing like sitting on the bow of Pandora on a beautiful evening.

The display clearly classified as “short and sweet” but the enthusiasm from the crowd saw it as much more.

Earlier in the evening Brenda and I had a wonderful dinner at a local French place, Colibri, with some friends. It was a 5 course dinner and seemingly endless glasses of prosecco. In spite of all the fun, I felt pretty good the next morning. Amazingly, I was able to stay awake until after 1:00. Not to shabby for a guy just south of old age.

The holidays are officially past us and the Salty Dawg events that began here in Antigua in mid November are winding down. Sadly there were only three events planned for this week including last evening’s Cocktail party at Colibri, tonight’s Tot Club event in the Dockyard where I have invited some fellow Dawgs and a New Year’s Day progressive cocktail party here in English Harbor.

Now that we have crossed the threshold to 2024, most of the Salty Dawg boats have moved along and are now scattered from Grenada to the south to the Virgin Islands to the north. It’s hard to keep those Dawgs from roaming.

Brenda and I are planning to stay here in Antigua for a few weeks and then will begin running south to Guadeloupe, Dominica and hope to land in Martinique in time for Carnival in early March. Since we arrived we have had a parade of workers on the boat, cleaning, tracking down an electrical issue (unsuccessfully) and sails being reinstalled. As of this afternoon, Friday, we are by ourselves, finally.

Oh yeah, yesterday I was on a zoom Salty Dawg Board meeting when the boat started to shudder. I jumped up on deck to see the boat that had been moored beside us pulling out. As he passed our bow he realized that he was tangled in our anchor chain. Instead of standing by for help, he continued to pull up his chain and my anchor, along with it. Without my anchor to hold us off the dock, and him pinned to our bow, we both turned sideways to the dock with no fenders to cushion the blow on Pandora. In spite of perhaps a dozen passers by trying to fend Pandora off of the dock, we still ground away.

The dockmaster in the Dockyard came to our rescue along with some divers to reset my anchor. The process took over 30 minutes and meanwhile the “offender” took off and is nowhere to be found.

It’s still a bit unclear if there is any real damage but I will have to explore more carefully. We have the offender’s contact info but I don’t know what I will do about it as the scratch doesn’t look that bad.

Hopefully the excitement is now behind us and we can relax.

Unlike up in CT and our home town, it’s warm and sunny here on Antigua.

So, for now… Just hanging out in Antigua and recovering from way too much holiday crazy and dock excitement…

Setting aside dings, scratches and endless workermen aboard, I am happy to say that Brenda and I are settling in and enjoyed welcoming in the New Year with Antigua.

It is New Year’s Eve and we are moored at Nelson’s Dockyard for the next week.

We arrived in Antigua on Friday night and moved all our stuff aboard Pandora, where she had been on a mooring for the last six weeks. The bottom was pretty nasty so I hired divers to clean her up. (more on why I didn’t do it myself in a moment)

The view when we woke up on Saturday morning. The weather: Mid 80s and sunny with puffy clouds. I do love clouds. A big departure from the grey weather in CT this time of year.

Pandora was on one of the Antigua Yacht Club Marina moorings. Back in October a lightning strike sparked a fire at the marina. The flames consumed every business on the marina pier but luckily, nothing on shore. Fortunately, the wind blew the cinders into the water. Had the wind been from a different direction, the loss would have been far worse. The pier was completely destroyed down to the cement slab.

When I was here in November evidence of the fire was cleared away and there was nothing but a concrete slab. Now, they have put a number of very nice tents covering seating areas and lots of potted palms. I am told that in a few days there will be food served daily. Brenda and I had a few drinks our first night after arrival. (and that is why I was not up to spending an hour under Pandora scraping away)

Of course, a bar would be the first business to open.

When the taxi left us off at the marina I took the luggage out to Pandora, leaving Brenda on the pier with a glass of wine, of course. This gave me an opportunity to air Pandora out and move all our luggage aboard.

When we arrived from the airport we also had some groceries that we had picked up along the way as our driver, Eric, was nice enough to stop at the market. Between all of our luggage and groceries, probably about 200 lbs of stuff, we stacked everything on the dock for me to take out to Pandora. Unfortunately, we left a bag of fresh food, meat, cheese, all expensive stuff, probably about $75 worth, on the dock. It wasn’t until after a few glasses of wine, of course, that I realized that the bag was missing.

I went ashore but nobody had seen the bag. Or so it seemed… Somebody was lucky and got a bag of very nice food, complements of Pandora.

I reported the loss to the marina office and checked back the next morning, just in case.

Amazingly, the bag was there and cool from a night in the fridge. It seems that the marina staff, when they heard of the loss, reviewed security camera footage, recognized the person that had picked up the bag and retrieved it. Mystery solved…

As you can imagine, we were thrilled and more than a little bit amazed to get the bag back and with everything intact.

I often get questions about safety in the islands and tell everyone that it is very safe here in Antigua. Well, it’s actually safer than I thought as I can not imagine another place where a bag of groceries left on a street corner (or marina dock) would ever be returned. I understand that this wasn’t the first time that a security camera saved the day.

I have been told by Carlo, the owner of the marina, that the pier would be fully rebuilt by next season. In the meantime, it’s looking pretty nice already.

Their fleet of Dragons was untouched.

The marina office is now in an adjacent area, spared from the fire.

We moved the Pandora the short distance to English Harbor the next day and are now in the Dockyard where there will be a huge New Year’s Eve bash beginning today at 10:00 and running through 02:00. The loud crowd will be huge as thousands show up every year. We will be hosting BYOB cocktails on Pandora and a few other Salty Dawg boats at 10:00. Midnight fireworks never disappoint. Pandora, second in, on the dock with a number of other Dawg boats that moved here to enjoy the festivities.

They do a nice job of holiday lighting in the Dockyard.

Well, it’s time to get going on preparing some food to share tonight before the fireworks.

Oh yeah, we are meeting our friends Barbara and Ted of Raven for a very fancy dinner at one of our favorite spots, Collibri, a French style spot in Falmouth. I think it’s 7 courses. Hope I can keep up.

Happy new year from Antigua where you only take home what is yours, or else…

One of the best parts of being at anchor in Falmouth Antigua is the beautiful sunrises. While I’ll admit that I am partial to sunsets, a sunrise over the land in Falmouth is particularly beautiful. Over the years I have taken many photos at that special time of day, one more beautiful than the last.

With many conjuring images of, well, you decide…

I am getting excited about returning to Pandora in a week as we begin to wrap up the activities here in CT. It’s hard to believe that it’s only a few days until Christmas. Time flies as I have been away from Pandora for over a month and yet it seems like just yesterday that I arrived back at JFK. What a whirlwind…

This morning my friend Jay, who has been keeping an eye on Pandora while I have been away, sent me this photo, taken shortly after sunrise today.

Our flight takes us to Antigua next Friday and we will turn the page from the fun but hectic holidays. I do enjoy seeing family over Thanksgiving and Christmas but keeping up with all the details of managing a boat along with a home can be overwhelming at times. Just deciding what we need to bring with us to Antigua is complicated enough but getting the house ready, blowing out all of the water pipes, putting antifreeze in the toilets, washing machine, dishwasher, icemaker, is a real head spinner that takes nearly a half day.

We take great care to make sure that everything at home is immune to freezing as a power failure for even a few hours during a cold snap can reek havoc. One of our neighbors had a broken pipe last winter and their entire kitchen and den were destroyed. The ceiling came down, cabinets and floor destroyed. The only thing out of their den and kitchen that was salvaged was the granite top to their kitchen island. Half of the house was stripped down to the bare studs and a year later the repairs are not yet completed.

Fingers crossed that I won’t forget anything. I have been doing the winterizing for a decade now and even with long outages, we have never had any damage.

Our plan, upon arriving in Antigua, will be to move aboard for the night and than heading to nearby English Harbor for the New Year’s celebration the next morning after I clean the bottom. It is probably a mess after sitting for more than a month.

New Year’s eve in the Dockyard is an amazing experience. To sit on the bow of Pandora watching the midnight fireworks as we ring in the new year is an experience not to be missed.

While we are in the Dockyard we are hoping to organize a group to hang out on the docks after dinner but before the midnight display. It’s amazing to see how many locals show up to view the spectacle.

And, on New Year’s Day, another party in the dockyard. And we will be participating in a progressive cocktail party with other Salty Dawg boats.

They really decorate the dockyard for the holidays.

And, of course, lots of beautiful sunrises to look forward to this winter that will surely rival the New Year’s Eve fireworks display.

No, nothing quite like a sunrise in Antigua from aboard Pandora.

Soon, very soon…

In about two weeks Brenda and I will head back to Antigua and Pandora. Plans are mostly in place for getting some work done on Pandora in Trinidad next summer. After spending many years cruising the waters of the eastern Caribbean, Brenda has begun asking the question of why we have to do this for yet another season.

I’ll admit that I am not all that excited about heading to the same places yet again and frankly was looking forward to heading to the northern islands this season, and perhaps spending some time in the Bahamas again. However, the work that needs to be done, painting the decks etc, is just too expensive to do elsewhere so Trinidad it is. Of course, this whole exercise will be made even more complex due to the fact that I will need to change insurance carriers to one that will cover Trinidad for the summer.

Sure, it does seem a bit bratty to suggest that spending time on white sandy beaches and eating French food while others are up north braving sub freezing temperatures is something to tire of but these are our “golden years” and we want to make the best of them.

In my last post, I talked about the importance of having goals and while this is very common for folks during their working years, I believe that many retire, or perhaps put off retirement, as they just don’t know what they will do with themselves without a job to keep them occupied.

I have always been goal oriented and having goals in retirement is no exception.

So, Eastern Caribbean, been there done that… What’s next?

My dad, who was inspiration for this blog for many years, once said “Bob, wouldn’t it be great to see Gibraltar from the deck of Pandora?”. It’s been a decade since he left us but I have not been able to get that image out of my head and just about every year I turn my thoughts to “what about cruising the Med?”, always pushing it to the background.

Let’s face it, Brenda isn’t all that crazy about living for months aboard Pandora and yet she does, year after year. I am grateful for that and constantly feel compelled to do what I can to make the experience more rewarding for her. However, it does get harder each year. So, where does the Med fit into all this?

I have mentioned many times that Brenda and I met in high school back in the 70s and I should add that during that time she studied Latin. In college she majored in the classics, both Latin and Greek and as part of her studies, spent semesters in both Italy and Greece. She loved being there and yet we have not visited those places together.

Our boys have commented our time on the water “is a lifetime of Dad trying to make Mom like sailing”. That’s true and as someone who is self-described as “ever hopeful”, perhaps time in the Mediterranean could fill the bill as a next step. And, back to the Classics, I’d say that if Homer thought that the best way to tour the Med was by boat, who are we to say that he was wrong. Right? Yeah… I’m goin with that…

When you think about the nearly 50 years that Brenda and I have cruised together and the reality that I am still trying to find that elusive “sweet spot” for time on the boat with her, some might say that I am just about out of ideas. We have cruised the US East Coast from Maine to south Florida, all through the Bahamas, much of Cuba and most recently the Eastern Caribbean from the Virgins to Grenada.

So far, nothing has quite filled the bill for Brenda once the novelty has worn off. So, what’s left? Beyond the Med, I am just about out of ideas…

Additionally, we haven’t had a lot of success in getting our kids to join us in the Caribbean. Hey guys? Want to visit us in the French Riviera? Na… Oh, well.

I’d say that revisiting our youth and Brenda’s love of the classics. So, I’m thinking, follow in the footsteps of Homer.

It’s worth a try.

The plan, for 2025 although admittedly still in it’s infancy, is to launch Pandora after getting work done i Trinidad next summer, perhaps early winter and work our way north through the Eastern Caribbean. In the spring of 2025 I would run to Bermuda, onto The Azores and finally to Portugal where Pandora would be hauled for the season and relaunched in the fall for a run to Spain.

The run from the Caribbean to Portugal totals about 3,700 miles. Leg one, about 900 miles to Bermuda where perhaps I’d do a crew change. Then across to The Azores, another 2,000 miles and from there to Portugal.

Along the way I would stop in The Azores, a place that I never imagined going and yet have always been fascinated by. There are plenty of YouTube videos about the area but this piece is pretty good and is short, less than 5 minutes. It gives a pretty good feel I think.

The real gateway to the Med is Gibraltar. Brenda and I almost visited there when we spent a month in Portugal a while back. I think that this would be a great place to meet up with her. This is a short piece by Rick Steves, the travel writer.

Looks awesome. Dad was right.

Oh yeah, any video about Gibraltar shows the famous monkeys. When we were in St Kitts a few years ago Brenda had her “monkey encounter”. An omen?

In the Azores video there is a reference to the Pillars of Hercules. There is a rock formation at the entrance of English Harbor by the same name.

Pillars of Hercules in Antigua and Gibraltar? Coincidence? I don’t think so.

One big issue will be insurance and that may prove to be quite a challenge. Even insurance to run to the Caribbean during the “hurricane off-season” has become very expensive. I have been working on coverage for Pandora this coming summer in Trinidad and that’s proving to be a bit of challenge. My current policy only allows me to go as far south as Grenada, about 85 miles north of Trinidad. And, most applications require a survey within two years and my last full survey is only a few months more than that. I guess I should have moved forward on these plans a few months ago.

I know that spring of 2025 is still a long way off but without a plan, you don’t have much.

In spite of all this, who really knows what will happen next but thinking and planning is fun. Right?

As of now though, I do know that we will be heading back to Pandora in about two weeks and the answer to where Pandora is headed next is simple. The Caribbean, a nice place to spend the winter and that’s a pretty sure thing.

Where will she go after that? Well, it depends…

It’s hard to believe that Brenda and I are entering our second decade of winter cruising. We have visited so many places along the US east coast, Bahamas, Cuba and most of the islands between the US Virgins and Grenada and I have to say that we feel the most at home in Antigua. For anyone who follows our exploits and this blog, that statement will not come as a surprise.

Antigua has a lot going for it as a cruising destination beginning with its’ physical location, the eastern most island in the Windward and Leeward Caribbean chain of islands where just about any other destination is a reach or down wind.

Aside for those who cruise the area, the appeal of Antigua, and of the other islands south of the Virgins is not widely known. This is because most of the material out there is focused on the Virgin Islands. The simple fact is that advertising is critical to any publishing business and with advertisers heavily weighted toward the charter industry and the vast bulk of Caribbean charters focused on the British Virgin Islands, that’s what they write about. So, as the advertising goes, writers follow. Result: “go sailing in the BVI!”

If you pick up just about any consumer marine magazine you will see many articles about chartering, and often they only focus on the BVI and USVI area. As a result, in the popular press there is just not a lot of information about cruising the many islands to the south.

And, after speaking to so many first time seasonal cruisers in my role as rally director for Salty Dawg, I can tell you that there is often “asymmetry” with couples that are planning to cruise, with one, often the women, who is more reluctant to head out, especially to the Caribbean, which is so far from home. An obvious compromise when negotiating about plans, is to say “honey, we had fun chartering in the BVI, how about we go there?”. On the face of it, this makes sense but for practical purposes, for cruising, it doesn’t make a lot of sense as a landfall.

I faced this quandary, or information vacuum, when Brenda and I first began cruising the Caribbean and when we made landfall in Antigua that first time, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

So, fast forward to now and a lot has happened. Historically the Salty Dawg Rally made landfall in the BVI and now is fully focused on Antigua. I have covered the reasons why in past posts but the simple fact is that Antigua has a lot going for it with the cruising set, beginning with the geographic location as the most eastern island in the chain.

Antigua’s location east of other islands means that whether you are heading south to Grenada, to the islands to the north or west of Central America, a reach to most anywhere, which makes for much better sailing. By contrast, if someone chooses to make landfall in, say the BVI on their way south, getting to other islands down-island means heading directly into the wind for hundreds of miles, a decidedly unpleasant business. The better option for visiting the BVI is to do so on the way home in the spring as it will be a down wind sail.

Nearly half of the boats that make the run to Antigua each season with the Salty Dawg Rally are heading to Antigua for the very first time and they have no idea what to expect, any more than I did the first time I headed there. This means that our group, SDSA and me as port officer for Antigua, find ourselves in the role of “concierge”, guiding skippers on what to expect and what sorts of services are available to them when they get there. I focus a lot of my efforts to this end, trying to cover everything I can think of to help them better understand what’s in store.

This post from 2019 outlines a number of reasons why Antigua makes so much sense as a place to begin the cruising season.

To this point, I have become a sort of self styled “Antigua evangelist”, constantly looking for ways to bring boats to Antigua.

Beyond the physical location of Antigua, the next most important aspect is the protected harbors, mainly Falmouth and English Harbors. These are arguably the two most protected harbors in the Caribbean and Nelson’s Dockyard perhaps among the most iconic places to make landfall anywhere. This is English Harbor off-season, a fully renovated British Royal Navy yard from the age of sail.

Make landfall here and you will see for yourself why the Royal Navy make this wonderful harbor it’s base of operations in the Caribbean for hundreds of years. I was smitten by my very first visit.

As Salty Dawg brings so many boats to Antigua, and do so early in the season, our presence has an outside effect on the local economy. We have loads of special events and hundreds of skippers and crew bring money to spend.

The third reason to choose Antigua is the availability to get stuff fixed. A long ocean passage puts a lot of wear and tear on a boat and when we arrive in Antigua, there are businesses that can come aboard to fix just about anything that needs to be addressed. Take 80 boats onto the ocean for up to two weeks and that’s a lot of broken stuff. While I am always careful to be sure that Pandora is in top shape before heading out, there are some things that can be put off until Antigua where labor rates are less than the US by about 30% or more. It is still more costly than Trinidad where may boats stay for the summer.

As president of Salty Dawg I have often been called upon to talk about why our rally comes to Antigua and on three occasions now I have been interviewed by the local TV station to talk about Salty Dawg and our relationship with the island.

Last spring before heading home to the US I was interviewed live on the morning news to talk about Antigua and why we have come to think of the island as our home in the Caribbean.

When I retired my goal, and nobody should retire without one, was to focus my energy on something that I was passionate about.

Surely, sailing is a passion and has been for decades but Antigua and my desire to spread the word about this island and it’s people has also become a focus. 

While many cruisers desire to head to warmer climes when they can, very few know much about the islands in the South East Caribbean and getting that word out has become a passion of mine. 

I feel blessed to be able to say into the second decade as “retired guy” I am blessed with a passion and the time to spread the word about Antigua and the islands of the eastern Caribbean.  

Everyone should be so lucky. 

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 8 years, since Brenda and I first visited Antigua.

I recall being smitten with the island when Brenda and first visited in 2017, after having made my original landfall in the BVI. From the BVI to the next island to the south (east actually) St Martin, was a terrible slog, directly into the wind, for nearly 100 miles. I recall being told that the run south to St Martin from the BVI, directly east and into the trade winds, “was fine if you waited for a cold front”. Sure, as long as you have time to kill, which we didn’t, so slog we did. It was a terrible way to inaugurate Brenda to cruising the Caribbean.

I have always said that the BVI was a perfect place to spend a week long charter but for the cruising set, not great. It’s crowded and most of the popular spots loaded with moorings. And, for most of our cruising friends, avoiding the charter boats, as they really don’t know what they are doing, is our goal. Anyway, I loved visiting the BVI when we flew there and stayed in a hotel years ago but as part of the cruising community, not so much.

When we visited Antigua the first time, I had no idea at all what to expect as I actually had never met anyone that had sailed there. That first visit to the island was in February of 2017 and I wrote about the final leg from St Barths to Antigua, my first post about the island that would become our favorite place in the Caribbean.

From that visit on, I made it my mission to convince the Salty Dawg board to send the rally to Antigua. I’ll admit that my first attempts did not go well. “Nope, the rally will continue to go to the BVI.” More than once I was accused for being too aggressive about pushing Antigua.

But I persisted. And, as luck would have it, if I dare call it luck, two hurricanes thrashed the BVI less than a month from when the 2017 rally to the Caribbean was to begin. As the BVI had sustained so much damage, we had to do something so I took the opportunity to set up a fairly large number of arrival events in Antigua, more than we had ever been able to muster in the BVI, and did so within a few short weeks. If the truth was to be told, for the last few years that the rally went to the BVI it was becoming increasingly difficult to get supporters there to welcome the fleet.

The real problem with the rally and the BVI is that the businesses there are more focused on the big spending one week charter and not on the slower paced cruising community.

The simple fact is that in order to have a partnership work, both parties must have goals that are in sync. And, there was always a bit of a disconnect with that the Dawgs wanted verses what the businesses in the BVI were looking for. The Dawgs were the tortoise part of the Tortoise and the Hare, and the one week, “slam bam, thankyou mam” approach of the charter crowd, was what they were looking for. The fact is that while cruisers spend plenty each season, they do not spend as much in a single week as charter boats spend.

It took another year or so but eventually the rally gave up on the BVI and now heads to Antigua every year.

Fast forward to this fall and amazingly, of those supporters that hosted events for us in the first few years, all but one have continued to host events every year since then. And, the one that skipped a few years, has again expressed an interest in doing something with us in late December. She’s a small art gallery and the pandemic hit her hard.

The simple fact is that what the Dawgs want from Antigua and those on the island want from us, are in sync. Our early season arrival is key as having 80 boats descend on them weeks before anyone else shows up is important to many businesses on the island. And many, probably most, of us arrive with broken stuff on our boats that needs to be fixed.

Having skippers and crew arrive ready to party with boats that need repairs is a magical combination for Antigua. Their season is short and to have hundreds of visitors come to the island to spend money a few weeks early, make our presence of outsize importance to the economy.

My friend Tom, who arrived on another boat a week before our rally showed up sent me this photo of the dockyard. Nearly empty…

Less than two weeks later the Dockyard filled to capacity, and nearly all the boats were from our rally.

I have gotten to know a lot of people on the island and have developed some nice friendships. Last spring, before I headed north and back to the US, I met with my friend Zoe for a wide ranging interview about Salty Dawg and my views on Antigua.

Not surprisingly, Zoe, like so many in Antigua, has a lovely British accent.  

It’s always nice to show up in Antigua and have so many say “hi Bob, welcome back”.   

This year the very first welcome was by my friend Isabella, who runs a lovely little French restaurant in English Harbor.  While I was waiting to be put on the dock that first morning in Antigua, I heard “Hi Bob” and saw Isabella waving wildly from the dock in front of her restaurant.   A moment later she sent out a skiff with some still warm croissants.   Here is a photo that she took of her skiff visiting Pandora.

So, here I am, home in CT on the last day of November, busy visiting family and enjoying the holidays. Lots to look forward to in the coming months. (I won’t talk about the terrible cold that Brenda and I have)

Oh yeah, it’s cold outside and I am wearing a sweater.

Next step, after a few weeks of whirlwind visits to family, back to Antigua in time to see the New Year’s Eve fireworks from the bow of Pandora.

For sure, Antigua still loves the Dawgs and the Dawgs love Antigua.