Brenda and I did an overnight run from St Lucia to Antigua, arriving here yesterday, Tuesday. We had a very fast passage, making the nearly 200 miles in just over 24 hours at a speed of just under 8kts, respectable by any measure for a fully loaded cruising boat in wind under 20kts.
After leaving St Lucia we passed Martinique, then Dominica and finally, Guadeloupe, a passage that took a single day after spending two months heading the other way. Not a lot to show from the passage except that it was nice to see the islands as we sailed by.
As Pandora cuts through the waves, we scare up a lot of flying fish and the seabirds have learned to fly over the waves just in front of our bow to catch the fish that jump out of the water, as they scurry out of our way. This is a brown booby, an impressive bird that lives just about all of it’s life offshore, only going to land to lay eggs. 
This may be another shot of a booby but I am not sure. I could not find a photo that matched but I think it’s another species. 
We also passed a large school of very enthusiastic dolphins that leapt from the water, but they are notoriously difficult to photograph. Sorry, no images.
I’ve mentioned that I am upgrading our house battery bank to lithium in May when I take Pandora to a boatyard in Deltaville VA. At that time I am also going to have an attachment point welded to the radar arch so that I can add a wind generator, something that I have wanted to do for years as a way to boost our charging options.
While our solar array works great on a sunny day, the sun doesn’t shine at night and the batteries take a big hit from the large refrigeration load along with all the instruments when we are on passage. With a wind generator, we can take advantage of stronger winds that happen at night and also on cloudy, less settled days to help boost the batteries.
I am also told that lithium batteries also take a charge faster than more traditional lead-acid batteries so details to come on that front.
It’s nice to be back in Antigua after being away for a few months. Yesterday afternoon, when I went to check in with customs and immigration, I saw several folks that stopped to say hi. It is nice to feel welcome.
I’ll be focused on setting up events for the arrival of the Salty Dawg Rally fleet next fall and hope to have all of the events scheduled before I leave the island for the season.
Later this week one of the biggest events of the season, the Classic Yacht Regatta, begins here in Antigua, with several days of racing that brings out out a large selection of classic sailing yachts of all sizes.
My favorite of all is Columbia, a reproduction of a classic fishing boat. Columbia was built a few years ago in FL. I was fortunate to get aboard for a tour a few years ago and wrote about her in this post.
I have been focused on getting aboard her for some racing for the last few years and today I was introduced to her captain by my friend Franklyn, the commodore of the Antigua Yacht Club. Seth, the captain, was very nice but said that he wouldn’t know for sure until later tomorrow if there is a slot for me. Fingers crossed. it would be awesome to be aboard for three days of racing on such a spectacular yacht. 
And, speaking of schooners. Ashanti, at over 100′ long, is a beauty and I was aboard her as well back in 2018 for a Tot club event which I wrote about in this post. The owner is a Tot Club member and has offered to again host the group for a Tot on Saturday and Brenda and I are planning to attend, totally! We are also going to the Tot this evening and it will be fun to reconnect with my Tot Club friends. 
It is rare to see so many wonderful boats in one place and the Classics is one that draws them. I walked the docks today for a gander.
The schooner on the left is one that I have toured and written about in the past. Her name is Mary Rose, the last schooner built by the great designer and yacht builder, Nat Herreshoff, known as the “wizard of Bristol”. 
The yachts that pack the marina are certainly not all classics and there are quite a few that are so huge that they dwarf even the biggest sailboats. One of the largest is the Mayan Queen at 306′ long. Her “beach club”, as the sunning area on the stern of yachts is referred to, gives a good feel for her scale. Imagine how large the interior space is?
It is fitting that this one is called Alpha Nero, as the is “alpha” in every way and no slouch at 270′. She is reported to belong to a Russian. Not surprisingly, nearly all of the yachts owned by Russians have fled the area as of weeks ago as sanctions have been levied on many of them in reprisal for the invasion of Ukraine. 
An anchor and chain is a huge weight on a boat and one way to address this is to store your yacht’s anchor on a tender. This boat is designed to carry the anchor for a maxi race boat. They deploy the anchor and pass the chain to the “mother ship”. 
And, they won’t have to wait long for the anchor to be delivered with over 1,000 hp. Yup, another Russian owns this boat. The boat that they tender is Scorpios, a 125′ racing yacht, one of the fastest in the world, launched in 2021. Impressive graphics.
And, speaking of tenders, how about Garson, a 21o’ long yacht designed to carry around “toys” that you don’t want cluttering up your “mother ship”. I’ve seen her before. 
And, any yacht worth it’s station in life needs to have a proper tender. This sort is referred to as a “limousine tender” for good reason. 
She belongs to Limitless, which is what your bank account would need to look like if you owned a yacht like this. She is 315′ long, again, huge. Her owner is Leslie Wexner, the founder of The Limited. He acquired a number of other iconic brands including Abercrombie and Fitch and Victoria’s Secret. Note the open area on the starboard quarter. That is the “garage” for the tender pictured above. 
A huge amount of work goes into keeping a yacht in, well, “yachting trim”. These guys were washing the side of a huge sailing yacht today. This tender carries it’s own water supply, kept full from the dock by a large hose. I guess that by carrying their own water they can have an adequate supply even if the pressure from shore isn’t enough to spray high on the hull. Why didn’t I think of that?
And, with a large yacht, you need large fenders, and lots of them. Notice the ones laying sideways on the dock. A rigger is working on one of their forestays and roller furler that is really, really long. 
Most of the yachts here have been built fairly recently but not this beauty, Talitha, 271′ long, built in 1930 for the founder of Packard Cars. She is currently owned Mark Getty, the son of JP Getty. Interestingly, Mark Getty founded Getty Images, a clearinghouse for professional photographs used worldwide. It is clear that Mark has fabulous taste. Boy, would I love to get aboard her for a tour. 
Ok, one more photo of a sailing yacht that is a big contrast to all the ladies that are in town for the Classic Yacht Regatta. She is the maxi racer named “Controlling The Animal, L4”, a mouthful of a name, launched in 2021. She is one of the fastest racing yachts in the world and she really looks the part. 
It’s great to be back in Antigua again, where I made landfall back in November. There is no shortage of magnificent yachts to look at, that’s for sure.
Tonight Brenda and I will be attending a meeting of the Tot Club and it will be fun to reconnect with friends. Perhaps I can get a replacement membership card to put in my new wallet, when I finally get it. Remember that lost wallet, the one I lost when I was in Martinique? So far, nobody has tried to use any of the credit cards that I lost. Fingers crossed that they won’t…
Over the last few months we have been to some amazing places and it’s hard to believe that our time in the Caribbean this season is just about over. One thing for sure is that the Classic Yacht Regatta will be great fun and it’s good to be back in Antigua again, our Caribbean “home” away from home.
It was wonderful to watch the fiery sunsets every evening. 
And see the colors change with the minutes. It’s amazing how quickly it gets dark every night. 
Yesterday, Brenda and I sailed less than ten miles north from Marigot to Rodney Bay where we went into yet another marina to spend two days with our friends Bill and Maureen of Kalunamoo, marking the beginning of our run north and the beginning of the end of our season in the Caribbean. The marina staff was nice enough to put us next to each other on the dock. 
You may recall that Bill and Maureen were our mentors back in 2012 when we made our first trip down the ICW on our way to the Bahamas. They proceeded us in the Caribbean by a few years, but ultimately we followed them again, so here we are.
As the wind is nearly always from the east, we have spent the entire season as we have headed south on a port tack and now that we are turning to the north, we will be on a starboard tack. This will also be the case for the 200 mile from Antigua to the USVI where I will join the Homeward Bound Rally in May.
If you prefer a small plunge pool with a water feature, this is for you.
They also have a steam room so you can get all hot and then jump into the nearby pool. And, all of this is available to folks on the docks and moorings. Such a deal.
I understand that the venting steam is a near permanent fixture of the area. 
The island has been volcanically active for millions of years. In past millenniums, violently so as evidenced by the pitons, the cones of long extinct volcanos. These formations are all that is left after the softer outer parts of the structure weathered away and left the hard igneous rock. This view from an overlook along the winding, switchback road. 
Of course, what’s an overlook without a couples photo?
We visited a chocolate factory and store. What a variety, including chocolate infused gin. And Brenda, being a gin girl, had to get a bottle. 
The product displays were in very cleverly modified steel shipping containers. Below, in their restaurant, we had coffee and a snack. 
Later, we had lunch at 
The view of the few yachts on moorings, in more than 100′ of water, far below. 
Zoom in on the one big yacht and you can see that it is Excellence, owned by an American, Herb Chambers. He owns a slew of automobile dealerships in the North East, US. 
She is a spectacular yacht, one of two that he owns. This one was built in Germany a few years ago. 
Brenda and Stephanie enjoy each other’s company. 
Just down stream from the falls are a series of mineral bath pools. We all donned bathing suits and enjoyed time soaking. It was nice to be there alone as the crowds in past visits were pretty large. Interestingly, the water in the pool was clear during this visit and last time, a coco brown. 
So ends the southbound journey of Pandora for this season. Even though we are thousands of miles from home, it still feels like the end.
So much for that, it’s starboard tack from now on. Well, mostly…
We are spending about two weeks here at the Marigot Bay Resort, tied up at the dock, AC cranking away while we waste water with, sort of, long showers aboard. Actually, compared to folks on shore, our normal water consumption aboard Pandora is about 15 gallons per day and now on the dock a whopping 30 gallons per day, I’d guess.
The view from our cockpit is, well, tropical.
And while we are spending about $70/day on the dock, the visitors in the hotel are paying about $500/night. Such a deal! 
To be able to enjoy the pool while paying about the same cost as a mooring in Martha’s Vineyard is pretty appealing. Brenda has actually been doing a bit of weaving poolside. 
Not a bad spot to spend an afternoon. 
We have met some really interesting folks here including the crew of a nearby mega yacht, a huge catamaran, the third largest in the world. 
We have enjoyed some fun evenings aboard Pandora and their digs. How about a singalong? Her cockpit is wider than Pandora is long. Big frigging boat. 
Just to prove that the visitor is really aboard Pandora with our dink “HOPE” in the background, a sort of “proof of life” shot. 
No wait, this is even better. He made himself at home in our cabin. Brenda wasn’t happy about that. Alas, gone pre-poop. GO AWAY! This is just so BULLFINCH. 
The harbor is a very popular spot for party boats to tour. They come in with music blaring and well lubricated passengers. I wonder if they have enough life jackets aboard. Hmm…
In the interest of full reporting, chill though I may be, life aboard Pandora here isn’t without it’s mishaps. The most recent “insult” was compliments of some sloppy docking by a 40′ Sunsail charter boat that tied up near us for one night. He did a pretty good job of coming in but his inexperience showed when he left and clipped one of my stanchions with his grill. Fortunately, the damage was limited to the single one. I was able to bend it, sort of, back in place but it’s clear I’ll need to source a new one when I get home as the top is a full 2″ out of plumb. And, it should be fun to find a part that was sourced in Finland in 2006 or so.
When I return home I will only be there for about three weeks before I head back to Antigua with my friend Craig. We will spend about ten days working our way north to the USVI and then will join the Salty Dawg Homeward Bound rally to the US and make landfall in VA where she will receive her lithium battery., house bank, upgrade.
One issue, if I put it in the cockpit locker, is how I will transfer the fuel, up hill, into my fuel tanks. If it’s on deck, gravity will do the trick but below I will need a pump. After checking a number of sources, 
I have submitted a number of photos this season and most were rejected. However, I learned a few weeks ago that they will be sending out one of my images next Sunday, my second. When you consider how many members there are and they can only use 365 photos a year, getting mine chosen is a pretty big deal.
We also hope head a bit farther south to Bequia (pronounced Bekway) for a bit and then return to Marigot in early April where we will leave Pandora for a few weeks. At that point, both Brenda and I will head back home, open up the house and get the kitchen stuff moved to prepare for the renovation to begin. New floors, counter tops and painted cabinets are on the list. It’s going to take a few months to complete the job so we want to get going in early May with the hope that it doesn’t take the entire summer to complete the job.
They moved aboard last May and will be sailing the southern Caribbean this coming summer, south of the Hurricane belt and expect to be back in Antigua next November when the fall Rally fleet returns. Me too…
As you wander, you pass a reflecting pond. 
The sculptures that are placed on the grounds are quite large, like this 8′ tall mask beautifully sited on the edge of the pond. 
From across the way, the “mask”, in the distance, is framed by this piece. 
I thought that the siting for this trio was perfect. I understand that the crops in the distance are rotated between bananas and sugar cane to keep yields high. 
Another dramatic view was these two 12-15′ high wire pieces.
Thinking about that ficus plant you left in your office at the beginning of the pandemic? I expect that it didn’t fare as well as this one. 
And, speaking of “house plants gone wild”, how about this strangling fig? It’s certainly living up to it’s name. 
A display garden, with sugar cane and an old narrow gauge steam engine once used to move freshly cut cane to the factory. It’s always a rush to process cane as it begins to ferment within hours of being cut. 
And, speaking of the factory, this equipment has been long abandoned with production now in nearby modern buildings. The old steam machinery and distillery are still open for viewing. These gears once connected a huge steam engine to the cane crushers and other equipment connected by long belts that snaked through the building.
A riot of pipes and pulleys. 
The huge fermentation vats, each a dozen feet across. 
Below the building displaying the old factory equipment, a tasting room. Try all you like at no charge but be prepared to elbow your way to the bar. Not a lot of social distancing. 
And some huge warehouses with giant wood barrels for the early aging of the rum. I have no idea how many barrels one of these holds but they were perhaps 20′ tall. That’s a lot of rum.
Later the rum is transferred into smaller barrels where the rum ages for years and sometimes decades. 
A lot of rum being prepared for market. 
As you can imagine, this sort of production was a source of great wealth and the Clement family was quite well off. This was the family home up until the middle of of the 20th century. 
The place is a picture of elegant tropical living. 
With beautiful plantings all around. Of course, their home was up-wind from the factory. 
We purchased a good stash to share with friends. “would you care for a tot of rum, imported to the US aboard SV Pandora?”
Well maintained cement pathways winding through a variety of bananas from all over. 
The views were really beautiful and very lush.
On the nearby hillside, many, many bananas. 
Bananas that set their fruit in a remarkable spiral. 
I was struck by the way the fruit grew on this variety. Sort of like an upside down layer cake. 
Many bananas that are only eaten cooked. Actually, that’s the bulk of the types. Not sweet. The type we see in our markets is plantain. They look like the sweet ones but taste like a raw potato unless cooked.
The type that is most commonly grown and the vast bulk sold worldwide are Cavendish. They are actually clones, all genetically identical and set fruit asexually meaning that they do not need to be pollinated and never develop seeds.
Along with the Marigot Bay Resort, we are looking forward to touring St Lucia and again visiting a restaurant that has arguably among the best views anywhere. 
It overlooks the Pitons, long extinct volcanic cones that rise up dramatically, dominating the landscape. 
It’s been great visiting Martinique but it’s time to move on.
To call it a “town” perhaps overstates things a bit. This is just about all of it and after dark, it’s even smaller when many of the businesses close. 
Saturday, yesterday, is market day, with all sorts of vendors showing their wares. 
The Caribbean is known as the “spice islands” and the vendors do not disappoint with a huge variety to choose from. 
The diminutive scale of the town is not proportional to the size of the harbor, perhaps the largest anchorage in the Caribbean, about 1.5 miles long and a half mile wide. Without a panorama to show all the boats, perhaps a shot of the town dock gives a feel for how many boats there are. You can’t see the other side, but it’s just as packed. In the distance, part of the fleet, several hundred strong. I’d guess that this view is about 10% of the total. 
Nearby, perhaps a 30 minute run in a dink at high speed, is La Marin, home to a huge marina with more than 1,000 slips. The number of charter boats is daunting. 
Just one of many piers lined with dozens, no hundreds, of cats and monohulls, standing by and ready for you to jump on board and head out on holiday.
Don’t like the idea of a black umbrella in the tropical heat? There are other colors to choose from. Problem solved, or as some local T shirts advertise, “Pani Pwoblem”. I am trying to imagine what happens if the grill won’t light. “Roberto, just squirt more lighter fluid on those, sort of smoldering coals. ” Wooosh!!!! Run away! Run? On second thought, SWIM AWAYYYYY!
Anyway, St Anne is a nice place to hang out in a less commercial environment and yet still close enough to La Marin to be able to buy most anything you might need.
Note how they are steered. No fancy rudder, just an oar sticking way out the back. With all that sail way up in the bow, I expect that the boat has a lot of weather helm so having the long oar way out back will give it a lot of leverage. 
Better yet, check out this brief video that gives a pretty good feel for how exciting the races are.And finally, to the topic of this post…
For now, we are making the best of what we have and are enjoying sharing video calls with family, especially our three grandchildren Tori, Rhette and Emme.
Our time in Fort de France was punctuated by constant rolling by passing ferries so it’s nice to be away from that.
A particular highlight of this area is that there are loads of turtles. Yesterday I was swimming under Pandora and saw one, perhaps 20′ in diameter, munching away on grass under the boat in about 15′ of water. I swam down and was able to touch, more like pet him on his/her shell. He didn’t seem to be particularly alarmed by my attention and slowly swam away. It was quite thrilling, I’ll admit.
There are also a number of pretty amazing boats here, including two restored French fishing boats. Biche, is the last surviving traditional tuna boat. She was brought back from an abandoned hulk a number of years ago when she was restored in France. She’s quite impressive with her unusual yawl rig. 
We had seen her sailing in Les Saintes a few weeks ago. 
She is accompanied by a smaller and not quite as well maintained cousin, on a nearby mooring. 
Of course, Pandora looks ok herself, framed by trees on the beach. 
There are a lot of folks snorkeling in the bay with dive boats heading out multiple times a day. Some are heading far afield with others just bringing folks to nearby rocky beaches. Yesterday, when I was talking photos of those two classics, I saw a group on the beach nearby, waving wildly to a dive boat and. A short time later a rescue chopper appeared. 
They hovered over the beach and dropped two EMTs while an inflatable launch ran up on the beach at high speed, delivering a patient.
The chopper continued to circle around the area, kicking up sand and spray before landing in a nearby field.
The took the stricken swimmer up under some trees and for what seemed like way too long, they worked aggressively to revive him with a series of techs applying CPR.
Eventually, an ambulance arrived but there didn’t seem to be any urgency at that point to transport the patient to the hospital. I am guessing that the outcome wasn’t good.