November 2021

In 2012, when I retired, Brenda and I expanded our cruising grounds, beyond New England and began spending winters aboard.  Our travels took us south on the Intra Coastal Waterway to Florida, four seasons in the Bahamas, several months cruising much of Cuba and most recently, the Eastern Caribbean where we have explored many islands from the Virgin Islands south to Grenada.

While our cruising has covered thousands of miles and dozens of islands, we have come to love visiting Antigua most of all.

When we first came to Antigua I was already involved with the Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean which had a long history of visiting the British Virgin Islands.  However, when hurricane Irma devastated the BIV and many other islands in 2017, we had to move quickly to find an alternate destination.

Based on my limited experiences in Antigua, I got on the phone and within weeks we had everything in place, complete with a dozen events to celebrate the arrival of the Salty Dawg Rally to Antigua.

So, here we are, five years later and Antigua has proven to be a wonderful partner.  This year, I was thrilled to have more than 50 boats, a record, pointing their bows south with the goal of making landfall in Antigua where we filled Nelson’s Dockyard to near capacity.

A few days after my arrival aboard Pandora, I was told that Brenda and I were to go to St John to meet the Governor General, Sir Rodney Williams, the Queen’s representative (yes that Queen) to Antigua and Barbuda.

I was told that I was to be thanked for my work in bringing so many boats to Antigua over the years and I was excited to meet him.  I imagined that we would meet briefly and I would get a nice note saying how much everyone appreciated my work on behalf of Antigua.

There is no doubt that I have worked hard, with presentations and articles in publications, always singing the praises of Antigua as “the best place to begin and end the winter cruising season”.

My enthusiasm for Antigua, that I feel is not as widely known in the cruising community as it deserves, has sometimes gained me criticism for being, what some felt, was overly aggressive and too single minded in pushing Antigua.  Apparently, Sir Rodney didn’t feel that way.

Friday morning arrives and a car, complete with a very dapper uniformed driver, arrives in Nelson’s Dockyard to whisk us off to St John and Government House.  We arrived and were ushered into a large and very ornate room, with only a few chairs.  My question, as we were escorted to our seats… “So, who else will be here today?”  Answer:  “Just you…”.   Just me?That was my first sense that something more than a simple ataboy was heading our way.

We were not alone for long and soon others entered the room, all dressed in sharp suits and uniforms.   Brenda and I were handed a “program”.  A program! I opened it up… Yikes!   My name was on it.

And they even spelled our name right.  Almost nobody gets it right…

Brenda and I sat, trying to look casual, waiting for something to happen.

Soon we heard a siren and a motorcade, complete with a police motorcycle escort, pulled into the drive, delivering Sir Rodney to meet with us.

More evidence that this wasn’t a simple meet and greet.  On the back of the program was a description of what was to come.  Soon someone in uniform approached the podium and announced something to the effect of “all rise for His Excellency, Sir Rodney Williams”.

The national anthem was played, of course.

Oh boy, if I had ever been in a desperate need of a blue blazer, that was THE MOMENT.  I felt like a kid being awarded for perfect attendance at Sunday school.  At least he didn’t pat me on the top of the head.  I was asked to stand while the reason I was there was explained.  Oh, did I mention that there was a video crew and photographer capturing the whole thing.  His Excellency said some very nice things…Then he pinned the award on my shirt.   Oh boy, that blue blazer would have been way better.   The award.   Snazzy, yes?   I believe that the big version is for formal occasions and the little to wear “just because”.  Meanwhile a photographer snapped away and the entire thing was taped for the evening news. I could not resist putting in a plug for Salty Dawg,  presenting a rally flag, the very last one I had on board Pandora to His Excellency. Oh yeah, recall on the program “remarks from honoree”…  I gave a brief speech on why I was so focused on Antigua.   That part was actually pretty easy as I had been “pounding the drum” for Antigua for years so telling that story was second nature.

Anne, from the Governor General’s office was nice enough to send me the footage of the ceremony so you can see an edited version here.  I say edited as I didn’t expect that you, or anyone would stick with me for the nearly half hour that the formal part of the ceremony took.

I hope that you enjoy this but note that His Excellency was, shall we say, a bit generous with the facts, making me sound bigger than life.  But, as they say , you had to be there.
Next stop, “processing” for a photo op.  I can’t say that I have not had all that much experience “processing” except for when Brenda and I were married over 40 years ago.  I felt like a little kid then too at our wedding, which I was, but at least I was appropriately dressed.
Next and final stop, out on the veranda for an interview with the local TV station, and another opportunity to talk about the great partnership between Salty Dawg and Antigua.As if all of this wasn’t surreal enough, it turned out that the ceremony ended up as one of three top news items on the evening news broadcast that night.

Check out this link to see the broadcast yourself and let me know what you think.  My bit appears at 11:49 on the timer.

The next day I participated in a meeting of the Antigua and Barbuda Royal Navy Tot Club and Anne, a sweet woman who was my sponsor when I joined the group, congratulated me on my award.

Then she leaned close and said, in a whisper almost to soft to hear…  “you did look a little like a deer in the headlights”.   No kidding Ann.  Perhaps I would have felt better if I had a blue blazer.

Deer in the headlights or not, it was a great day.   My only regret is that my Dad wasn’t there to experience it with me.

I mention this as I have been keeping this blog for 13 years.  This post is the 1,010th and for the the first 7 years I wrote for my Dad and Mom.

Whenever I put up a post, Dad would pull it up and he would read it aloud to Mom while they were having a glass of wine before dinner.

I expect that he’s up there now, probably having a glass of wine together with mom, and feeling pretty good about all this.  For me, this is indeed one of the best ataboys ever and that’s why I do what I do.

And, finally, a special thanks to Ann-Marie who I came to know as Park’s Commissioner of Antigua and a good friend to me and the Dawgs, for helping to make this happen.

It’s been more than a week since the first boats in the Salty Dawg Rally began tying up in Nelson’s Dockyard and a few are still on the way and should arrive soon.   I don’t know where to begin with all that has been going on here as we have been busy with events, sometimes two, every day.

We’ve had cocktail parties and group photos.  And, the group is getting so big that we had difficulty in fitting everyone into to the shot. As in past years, we were honored by a visit from the Minister of Tourism, Fernandez, a highpoint of the evening. And me, the tireless Antigua cheerleader, always happy to address the group.  What’s with the grey hair?  My mom used to say that I was blond.  Hmm… Following cocktails at our arrival event, we had a lovely meal poolside at Boom, part of the Admiral’s Inn.  It was a beautiful night. We celebrated the arrival of one of our boats, Nobody Home, that had come to the rescue of another rally participant that lost part of their rig and sails, helping them sort through a mess of sails and lines that ended up in the water, hundreds of miles from land.   Nobody Home stayed on station for several days helping to  sort things out before continuing on to English Harbor.

When Nobody Home finally arrived, they received a hero’s welcome from the fleet who went out to escort them into the harbor.The Antigua Coast Guard was on station to lend a hand if needed. I greeted the crew at the dock when they were finally secured, with a “tot” of Antiguan rum to celebrate their arrival.  It was good to see them safe and sound. With the fleet tied up in the Dockyard, we filled the place.  It was very rewarding to me, after so many years of beating the drum about Antigua, that we had a record number of boats finally here.
It is remarkable how big the boats have gotten over the years.  When we first began cruising, decades ago, a big boat was anything over about 35 feet.  Nowadays, the average boat in the fleet is over 50′.  These two carbon cats are part of a trend toward catamarans as opposed to the tried and true monohulls.  And they sport all the comforts of home in a very stable platform. Another great event was “rum in the ruins”, hosted by Dr. Christopher Waters, head archeologist for the island.  He spoke to us about the history of the Dockyard.   Chris is an excellent speaker.   And the rum part, tasty but REALLY strong. Thinking ahead to what else we can do in Antigua and “down island”, our friend Bill from Kalunamoo shared his knowledge with others about what awaits the explorer. About 2/3rds of the fleet are visiting  Antigua for the first time.  They were all ears about what to see and where to go. There are still a number of restrictions here in Antigua so some of our events had to be postponed until January when things are expected to be more or less back to normal.

With vaccinations mandatory for many here in Antigua and vaccination required for all visitors, Antigua is a lot safer than the US.  With over 90,000 citizens living on the island they have only had 100 deaths due to Covid, a remarkable achievement.

Our host for many of our events, Paul Deeth of the Admiral’s In, treated me, Brenda along with my crew Peter and his wife Jane to a harbor tour in his Longtail from Thailand.  Paul brought that boat back when he captained a yacht on a round the world tour many years ago.   You will recognize this design from a James Bond movie.  It is powered by a diesel engine mounted on a swivel to steer the boat with a surface piercing propeller. Paul treated us to a much more stately cruise than James, the “shaken not stirred” Bond guy. We passed Pandora docked with other Dawg boats.Past Fort Berkley at the entrance of the harbor. The Pillars of Hercules, dramatic stone columns opposite the fort.I just can’t get enough of being on boats and I was having a wonderful time. We rented a car yesterday with Peter and Jane, to tour the island.   I won’t go into too much detail except to say that on the way back to English Harbor I let Google Maps choose the way.  Not a great decision as it routed us down an “alternate” route that was little more than a narrow and really rocky single lane road. There were times when it was so narrow and rough that I was certain that we’d be hopelessly stuck.  Peter thought the exact same thing.

After miles of lurching along, certain that the “end was near” and we finally began to see “the light at the end of the (green) tunnel”, our path was blocked by a very stubborn donkey.  Pull as I might, I could not get him, her? to move out of the way.

As I tugged and coaxed, I was worried that I might be kicked.  Never get behind a donkey, I have been told.  Alas, no kicking and we finally got by and continued on our way.  I’ll admit, and so would Peter, who was driving, that there were times when we both thought that we’d soon be marooned in the middle of the wilderness.  To say that it was a rough ride doesn’t do it justice.  For miles we lurched along a path as the brush scraped along the side of the car and the rocks banged against the undercarriage.

I would have taken photos but was too busy gripping my seat to pull out the camera, fearful that I would jinx things by saying “this is an awesome adventure guys, right?”  Repeat after me “collision damage waiver, collision damage waiver…”

Anyway, we made it back…

So, with our departure for the holidays coming up on Sunday, It’s hard to cover all that has happened since we arrived in Antigua.  With that in mind, perhaps I’ll leave it at that for now.

I’ll admit that I am looking forward to catching my breath as it’s been plenty busy here in Antigua.   What with cocktails, and a lot of rum and even a donkey to liven things up, yes, I’ve been busy.

One more thing.  Brenda and  have been summoned to Government House today to have an audience with the Governor General, ostensibly to thank me for my work in bringing the rally to Antigua.    All I know is that they are sending a car to pick us up at 09:00.  At least Brenda and I won’t have to ride a donkey to get there.

Brenda and I are asking ourselves, what does one wear to meet with the Queen’s representative, someone that everyone refers to as “his excellency”.  Wish us luck.

I am so glad to be in Antigua.   Pandora is all snug on the dock here in English Harbor and about half of the 50 boats heading here have arrived, with many more to pull in over the next few days.  This place is perhaps the most scenic place I have ever been.  It just drips of history as the harbor was, for more than 100 years, the Caribbean base for the British Navy.

We are really the only boats here, so early in the season.  Clearly, the docks are beginning to really “go to the Dawgs” and that is a very good thing. It feels like an eternity since I cast off from the dock in Deep River to begin my run to Antigua with a stop in Hampton to join up with the fleet, three weeks ago today.

The run south was painful if not particularly rough but it seemed that for much of the trip, the wind was either on the nose or there was no wind at all.    We set a record for motoring, 152 hours listening to the engine rumble away.  And, as Pandora’s engine is under the sink in the galley, all that heat of 500 lbs of iron radiate into the cabin for hours after the engine is turned off, which it seemed hardly ever happened.    As we weren’t able to open hatches much of the time, that heat had no place to go.

For much of the run, the seas were so smooth that you’d never know that we were 500 miles from land.  That swirl in the water was a dolphin surfacing.  We had a small pod running along with us on several occasions.  Try as I might, I could never get a decent photo.  Other times, plenty of wind to move along, sometimes at nearly 10kts, a pretty impressive turn of speed for a boat like Pandora. Sadly, Pandora doesn’t motor particularly fast when there isn’t wind to help the boat move.  And at the low RPM that I need to use in order not to run out of fuel, I am not getting much of a push at all.

Slow or not, better to go REALLY slow than to be becalmed with NO WIND AT ALL, a constant fear for anyone trying to keep moving when there isn’t wind.  But, you already knew that, if you follow this blog.

If I want to up my speed from 5.5kts to even one knot more, the fuel burn rate can nearly doubles and that means that I will run out of fuel twice as fast without really going much faster, a real life example of “better late than never”.

The three of us, George, Peter and me, divided up the “watch” at night in four hour increments.   George and Peter swapped the 8-midnight and the midnight to 4 watches, every day or so, but I always took the 4-8 as that allowed me to enjoy my favorite moment, the sunrise, as the sun brightened the sky to the east.  Sunsets are great too but nothing to rival the rise in the morning after a dark night.   I have no idea what that stripe on the cloud was caused by but it struck me as particularly interesting.  And, a day later or sooner, a very different view.   “Sorry Bob, that looks just about the same to us, just another sunrise.”   Ok, ok, I guess you had to be there.  Besides, with nothing but the horizon, clouds in any direction for days on end, it doesn’t take much to make you excited about something new, even if it’s not really new at all.

Yes, you had to be there, and I was and for a longer time than I really wanted.   Nice view, never the less. We went for days without seeing a single boat.  This yacht transport passed us on it’s way from the Med to Ft Lauderdale.  Does this count as a single sighting or multiple?  You decide.  I had explored the idea of having Pandora shipped to Greece aboard a transport like this but was put off by the $30,000 price tag.  Perhaps in my next lifetime.

Imagine what the cost to run big yachts like this is across the Atlantic?   As Commodore J.P. Morgan of the NY Yacht Club once quipped, “if you have to ask what it costs, you can’t afford it”.  Ship Pandora to the Med? I asked and sure enough, I couldn’t afford it.  Next question…

And, speaking of really expensive stuff, how about this sub we passed leaving Hampton?I could almost hear the conversation on deck.  “Captain, can I drive?” It isn’t all about sunrises, sometimes it’s about rainbows. Who doesn’t love rainbows?We fished a number of times and caught a nice Mahi-Mahi.  I was so anxious to deal with the bloody flopping thing that was regurgitating his last meal as it made a mess of my cockpit, that I forgot to take a photo.  You’ll have to trust me that we caught, and ate, a fish.  After landing one, enough fishing as we just might catch something bigger.

And speaking of the “one that didn’t get away”, other boat on the run caught a marlin, a powerful fish.  Theirs was over 4′ long.  They didn’t even try to bring it aboard.  What do you do with a fish that weights nearly 50lbs?  Take a photo and say “goodbye little fishy”.

So, exactly what did we do all day long, aside from worrying about running out of fuel, while waiting for the wind to pick up?  We read books and when we were done, we read a book that others had already read.  And, as the pickings got thinner, we re-read the same books. We even talked to each other but honestly, much more time was spent with noses buried in a book.   For sure, that’s a lot better than fiddling with a phone.  Right?

Doesn’t Peter look like he’s having a good time?Well, here we are in Antigua and if you ask me, none too soon.

Now the fun begins.  Can you say Happy Hour!  I can and will, again and again…

It’s hard to believe that we are finally within a day’s run of Antigua after nearly two weeks at sea.  The motor, and adequate fuel has kept us moving for half of the way.   I really feel for the boats that don’t carry enough to crank up the engine when the wind gets light.

And, speaking of wind, one of the boats, a 40’ C&C, Calypso, lost their forestay in particularly rough conditions, and their headsail ended up in the water.  They had had some rigging work done recently and it seems that the fitting on the end of the stay at the masthead let loose.

I won’t go into all the details but conditions were rough and it took the crew some four hours to get the mess back on deck.  Fortunately, the mast didn’t come down too and they were able to secure a spare halyard from the masthead to the bow to keep the mast from buckling.

Once the mess was cleaned up, sort of, they went to start the engine not realizing that there was still a line under the boat.  That line promptly wrapped around the prop and stopped the engine dead.   Not good as their batteries were low and now they had no way to charge things up as the engine was jammed in gear.

Things went from bad to worse but fortunately another rally boat, Nobody Home, was less than 20 miles away and came over to offer assistance.  Another boat, a Salty Dawg member not in the rally, also heard about what was going on and joined them to offer assistance.

Once the seas had calmed down somewhat, someone went into the water and was successful in clearing the line from the prop.  Fuel, water and some food was shared with the exhausted crew of Calypso.  I can tell you that getting in the water near a pitching boat and moving heavy jugs of fuel is no simple task and not for the faint of heart.

All the while the shoreside tracking and emergency response team for Salty Dawg stayed in touch with the stressed crews, helping them work through the problem and getting everyone back on track.

As of now, the three boats are sailing in company for the remainder of the run to Antigua.  I’ll arrange for a rigger to meet up with Calypso so that they can get things sorted out.

This experience, and how quickly other members pitched in to help is a great example of how close knit the Salty Dawg community is.  Everyone working hard to live by our code of “sailors helping sailors”.

I plan to recognize the crew of all three boats at our arrival dinner a week from now so hopefully they will have arrived in Antigua by then.  It’s an impressive story.

So, speaking of arriving in Antigua, when will Pandora arrive?  TOMORROW!!!, and I can not wait.

With about 120 miles to go, we should arrive sometime between midnight and 0300 tomorrow, Thursday.  Perfect timing as Brenda will be arriving in Antigua on Friday.

Last night we ran the second of three fuel tanks dry.  It was my plan to run each tank until the engine quit and then switch to the next tank.  Generally that works well and squeezes the maximum number of hours from our fuel.  However, when the engine quit last night it did so very abruptly.  Normally, when the fuel is running out, the engine begins to stumble and slow down but last night it just stopped.

When a diesel engine runs completely out of fuel you have to open a number of fittings and “bleed” the system before you can start it again.  Normally,  this isn’t needed as just a quick use of the starter motor is generally enough to get things moving again with fuel from the “new” tank.

Not last night, and it ended up requiring me to get out my tools and go through the bleeding process.  I’ll admit that I was anxious to get the engine going agin and ran the starter a bit too long.  At that point, I was concerned that I might have run the starter battery down too much and would not be able to get the engine started again.

Note that the starter for the engine is 12V and the boat is 24V so you can’t just use jumper cables from the house bank if the starter battery fails.  I’ll have to figure out a work-around on that one, just in case.

However, after a proper bleeding of the system, the engine started right up so all was well.

Engine or not, and I am very glad that it isn’t “NOT”, we have finally found our way to fairly consistent trade winds and it’s none too soon.  After more than 1,400 miles under our keel we finally have good sailing for the last few hundred miles.  What took so long???

And, speaking of wind, we had a few squalls last night with one bringing with it over 25 kts of wind.  Pandora was screaming along at nearly 10 kts and after about an hour of that, I decided to reduce sail and calm things down.   Blasting along at near double digit spreads is exhilarating, but all I can think of when that’s happening is that something is going to break.

Now, a few hours later, we don’t have quite enough wind but we are still moving nicely toward Antigua.

After nearly two weeks at sea, it’s about time that we have fair winds and seas at our back.   We deserve it.

And, all this with no particular gear failures.  Perhaps I shouldn’t even bring that up since I might jinx it.

Oh, yeah, it will likely be dark when we arrive so I plan to enter Falmouth Harbour, right near English Harbor, where we plan to clear in when it gets light.  Getting into English harbor in the dark is tricky because the entrance is narrow and the marks are not lit.

While there is a nasty reef at the entrance, Falmouth is well marked so that is our choice.  We will take a mooring in the harbor and as soon as we are tied up… I’m going for a swim, then a tot of rum with my crew to celebrate our arrival.

Then a nap…

Antigua, here we come and I can’t wait.

It’s Tuesday morning and we continue to motor along.  It’s hard to believe that we have put so many hours on the engine and have still not entered the trade winds.

In past years we have been able to sail for much of the trip and this time, not so much.  As I write this we have been motoring for nearly 6 days in total.  That’s half of the way and pretty much what Chris Parker had warned us would be needed if we wanted to keep moving.

With such light winds, I know that some boats are surely having difficulty with fuel, some precariously close to running out and yet with days left to go before they arrive.      It’s a tough position to be in.

There are always gear failures along the way, which you’d expect with 80+ boats sailing such long distances.  One boat lost their headstay, so their jib ended up in the water and one of the lines wrapped tightly around their propeller.  They haven’t been able to free the line so they can’t get the engine out of gear or start it to charge this batteries.   Another boat came to their rescue and shared some fuel.  The crew on the stricken boat were able to stabilize the rig and are heading to St Thomas for repairs.  That is a long way off, hundreds of miles but at least it’s down wind.

Another boat lost their anchor when the swivel came loose and the anchor just fell into the water.  I wonder how long it took to reach the bottom, 15,000 feet below.  Not great to loose an anchor but better that way then when anchored in a tight anchorage.

Fortunately, the bulk of the fleet is doing well if anxiously nursing their fuel supply.  On this front, we are doing well as we are still on our second tank, having used a bit more than half of our fuel.  Hopefully, we will be sailing soon but who knows.

While we aren’t particularly concerned about running out of fuel, fresh food is getting a bit scarce.  I clearly did not buy quite enough bread for sandwiches. Having some more eggs would be good too.  And some more apples would be welcomed by all.

However, we still have some flour so I am baking for the third time, making Raisin Bran muffins.  They smell great and I am getting hungry.  Baking does really heat up the cabin.

To that point, with little wind last night and the engine running all the time, it was pretty hot and stuffy down below.

I mentioned that we had caught a Mahi-Mahi, and last night I baked it, seasoned with a bit of Old Bay.  That and new potatoes were a hit with all crew.

It’s not great to run the oven in the evenings but a hot meal is pretty important, I think.

Well, only two more days of meal planning before we are in Antigua.  That’s good as I am running out of ideas.

I guess that’s all I can report right now and the muffins smell like they are ready to come out of the oven.

Let’s hope that the wind fills in soon.  So sick of listening to the drone of the engine.   Don’t get me wrong, I would prefer to be sailing but the drone of our trusty engine is music compared to no engine or fuel to run it.  Fingers crossed that things continue to go well and perhaps soon the wind will fill in.  That would be nice.

With Antigua so close, we are all counting the days until we can dive off of Pandora and enjoy a swim in English Harbor.