This is it!  I am heading to the BVIs this afternoon for an overnight run with Craig so today is my LAST day in St Martin.  As we prepare to leave it’s time to say goodbye to French food, baguettes, croissants, French wine, fine pastries and little bags of aromatic spices at farmer’s markets.

When I unzipped my camera bag this morning an intoxicating aroma of the islands wafted out and I was reminded that I had purchased some small bags of spices in the outdoor market yesterday.   I have to admit that I have been terribly spoiled by the French islands over the last few months to a point that I have developed a preference of one bakeries’ baguettes over another.

As access to great bread will come to a screeching halt after today, I plan to buy a “brace” of baguettes and a few croissants to bring along.  Yes, I know that baguettes get stale in a day but a stale baguette will be far better than any bread available in the BVIs.   “Bob, Bob, you are such a snob.  It’s disgusting!”.  Yes, I know and considering that I am one of those who “eat to live” verses those who “live to eat” that’s saying something.

As I write this I am sitting in a lovely little cafe, this is what’s in the case behind me.    I must avert my eyes lest I find myself drooling with nose and cheek pressed against the glass.  Oh wait, there’s more.  Is it sin to eat an eclair before noon?Well, at least I’ll have photos to look at and remind me of what awaits next winter when we return.

Last night Craig and I had dinner at a lovely little French place on the water.    And yes, that’s a bottle of French wine in the ice bucket.  I know that putting up photos of one’s meals is tacky but I can’t help it.  But wait, all’s not lost as the BVIs have the boat bar Willie T’s.  I visited it in January.  It has a certain charm.   Lovely clientele.   Very sweet, taking a nap together. Ok, Ok, I am exaggerating as there are some lovely spots in the BVIs but nothing competes with the French islands, nothing and I’ll miss it here.  But, as my father used to say “there’s always next time” and there WILL be a next time.

When Craig arrived on Monday morning we headed ashore but everything was closed because of the long Easter weekend.   There is, as is the case on most islands, a fort overlooking the harbor.

From the summit, the view of town and the harbor is beautiful.   We are anchored between the French side and Dutch side which is on the other side of the mountain to the left.  We are to the right of the small island in the middle of the photo with the little pointy top.  Actually, and not to be indelicate, that island, surely named by the French, is called “witch’s tit”.    Yes, I think I can see the resemblance to a certain anatomical feature if I think like the French.  Oui!The downtown area surely has a French feel with all the red roofs. As the lagoon on the French side is too shallow for large yachts, unlike the Dutch side, they have built a large marina surrounded by a breakwater in the harbor.   Here’s Craig “conquering” the fort.   Notice that he is sporting the same dorky type of hat that I wear.  So practical though.
And speaking of the French, which I was until I began focusing on Craig’s hat, ocean racing is dominated by the French and there is no shortage of go-fast yachts.  These are built with the singular goal of getting from here to there as fast as possible.  This machine was tied up at the St Martin Yacht Club.  She clearly means business.  No creature comforts here. Absolutely no protection from the wind and waves.   But, wow, I’ll bet she’s fast.   Looks completely miserable to me. Brenda’s goal is to “retire” Pandora and to get something to putt-putt up and down the CT River, preferably with a glass of wine.  Perhaps one of these would suit her.   It has just about everything she might want.    A motor, 5HP anyway.  A grill, check, umbrella, check, cooler, check and plenty of cup-holders.  Perfect!   And, while it was designed in France, with the name of Donuts Dream, it looks to me, totally “American”.  It even has running lights for use when it’s dark.  What more could you want?   Baguettes perhaps? Well, they have them here.    The donut boat company even has a facebook page.   You can follow them if you dare.  Nobody will know if you do, I promise.All kidding aside, BVI’s or bust it is and in about a week I’ll be back in the US with Brenda and will soon see our “now not so quite new” granddaughter Tori again.  I don’t know who’s more excited, me or Tori about my return as it’s been a few months since I last saw her.

Grampy is coming to see me!Grampy who?

I won’t think about that right now.

Well, that’s it, French food out, bar crawling in the BVIs, in.   No wait, home to Brenda.  Yes, that’s in.  Totally in!

Can’t wait.  I’m coming Tori.  Soon.

For now, I’ll take a baguette to go.  No make that 6.  I do need to keep my strength up.   Oh yeah, toss a few eclairs in the bag too.

It’s Easter Sunday and I have to admit that it doesn’t feel much like Easter. Brenda’s in MD with our son Rob and his family and it’s a beautiful day here in Antigua.  However, I’d rather be with Brenda and kin, frankly.

Yes, it’s a beautiful sunny day which is good as yesterday was uncharacteristically cloudy and rainy, something that I haven’t seen in at least a month.  Yes, we do get showers with fair regularity but a grey day with showers and rain, not so common.

Craig arrived on Saturday afternoon and seems to be settling into the cruising lifestyle.  Last night I invited two couples, Sue and David of Sans Cles and Al and Tess of Inomar, both Salty Dawg Sailing Association members and live aboard cruisers.  Sue and David are heading toward Panama for the hurricane season and no return home date on their calendar and Al and Tess will be heading back to work after taking a year off to cruise.

I thought that Craig would enjoy getting the perspective from cruisers to better understand “how the other cruising half lives”.

Yesterday we cleared out at customs as it’s our plan to set sail later this afternoon for the 100 mile run to St Martin.  Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to visit St Barths along the way, we have decided to bypass that island as it’s likely to be somewhat rolly in the anchorage with the expected north swell.

The wind forecast is for moderate easterly trades which should make for a very nice run.  I expect that we will pick up anchor and get underway around 16:00 this evening.  Of course, if you are curious, you can follow along under the link “where in the world is Pandora” on the home page.  Or you can go right to the dedicated Google Maps page and see where we are “sort of” right now.

Customs, where you clear in and out here, is located in English Harbor, home of Nelson’s Dockyard.  As they are hosting the Classic Yacht Regatta, only a week away, a remarkable collection of boats are beginning to arrive for the festivities.

After finishing up the paperwork required to leave Antigua, Craig and I walked out to the lookout at the head of English Harbor, to the spot where British troops were once stationed to watch out for enemy ships.    Along the way was a beautiful flowering tree with perhaps a dozen hummingbirds vying for the most choice flowers.  Now, we are working to get a glimpse of the beautiful classics.  Turn around, face the harbor and there is plenty to look at.  A few days ago these docks were nearly vacant.  Now, more yachts arrive every day.  In a week’s time the place will be wall to wall classics.  As we watched, the three masted schooner Spirit of Bermuda rounded the point and prepared to enter the harbor.   She was built in Rockport maine and launched in 2006 and serves as an educational vessel and ambassador for Bermuda.  I have seen her in Maine and now here.  She’s a sight to behold with her impossibly tall masts.    You can crew on her if you’d like to spend time aboard.  Check out their site. The deployed their dink to help maneuver into position to med-moor against the bulkhead at the dockyard.They dropped their two bow anchors and backed toward the dock yard wall. The line handler caught the lines tossed to him by crew.  Neat, what you can do with action shooting at 4 frames per second.  Action shot, anyone?Even though they had a large crew on board, a tender pushing the stern as needed and line handlers on shore, it still takes brute strength to bring everything together.
While this will soon be the near exclusive domain of classics, there are a few super high tech beauties there.  It’s hard to believe that the “little” one on the left is nearly 100′ long.  Nice cockpit.  However, not a lot of protection from the sun.  Well, this is the last post I will do from Antigua this year as later today we begin heading home, sort of.   Craig and I will be leaving this afternoon for our run to St Martin, a few days there and then on to the BVIs where Pandora will sit for two weeks while I head home for a short visit.

It’s a bummer to be away from Brenda for so l0ng but at least I know that as I head toward the BVI every mile brings me closer to her and home.

Well, wish us luck in our overnight voyage tonight.  It should be a great sail with wind and a clear night to carry us on our way.    Antigua’s been nice but I can almost taste the baguettes and pastries.  You gotta love those French islands.

Yes, it’s good to be heading home, sort of…

 

 

Well, here I am and it’s yet another day in Antigua.   Brenda’s settled in at home in CT and my friend Craig arrives in a short while for a week of sailing.  I expect to be underway and bound for the BVIs by Sunday evening.  We hope to stop in St Martin and perhaps St Barths along the way, but it looks like that a coming north swell will make the St Barths anchorage unpleasant.  Alas, an extra day enjoying French food in St Martin.  I expect we will find a way to adjust.

A friend of mine sent me a note a few days ago asking “what great boats arrived in Antigua today?”.   That’s a good question as it does seem that, as the classic yacht regatta gets closer, more and more iconic yachts are making their way here every day.

Just for fun, and it was fun, I walked around Nelson’s Dockyard today and took some shots of a few new-comers.

Of course, it’s debatable if there is a more iconic yacht than Bolero, the Olin Stephens designed 72′ yacht launched in 1949.  She was first to finish in the Bermuda race three times and set a speed record for that race that stood or 17 years.  Her current owners have lavished attention on her and she’s a sight to behold. This article from Yachting is worth reading about the history of this very special yacht.

Here’s a modern classic from Gannon and Benjamin in Martha’s Vineyard.   This isn’t the first photo I have posted of Juno but what a beauty she is and to see these two magnificent yachts right next to each other.  What a sight.Want to see more about Juno.  This link has a number of additional photos.

Perhaps the most remarkable arrival today is the schooner Columbia, a replica of the famous fishing schooner of the same name launched in Essex MA in 1923. Years in the planning and construction, Columbia is true to her history.    At 141′ long, she is sleek and a sight to behold.   This is an excellent article and gives a good feel for how much thought and care went into bringing her to life.  I wish I could be here in Antigua to see her stretch her legs.  Alas, I have to leave before the racing begins.

You get a feel for the attention to detail down to how carefully her jib is stowed.This video of her launch and sea trials is worth viewing. Of course, there are still plenty of “big girls” that dwarf these classics here in the harbor.  How about this lineup?  “Excuse me, can you spare a bit of Grey Poupon?”Just about everything here seems bigger than the next.  The masts tower into the sky. To give you a feel for the scale of these monsters.  This closeup of the mast on the left above has someone working aloft.  As I type away, I a feathered visitor seems completely unconcerned that my hands were typing away so close by. Well, I could go on all day about the magnificent yachts here in Antigua.  Perhaps I’ll, close with shot of a rising nearly full moon last night.  What a view. Yes, just another day in Antigua and what a day it is.

It’s almost time to meet Craig at the dock and head out to Pandora, a welcome “tot” of rum and a swim.  Yes, that will surely set the tone for Craig’s visit.

Welcome to Antigua for yet another day in the winter home for the icons of yachting.

 

Well, my visit here in Antigua is just about over as my friend Craig will arrive tomorrow and we plan to head up to St Martin on Sunday night.  We’d love to stop in St Barths but there is a large northerly swell running that will likely make the anchorage there very rolly.

I spoke with Chris Parker, our weather router, today and he told me that the sailing conditions should be great, likely a broad reach in 15-25kts, but that any anchorage that might be affected by a northerly swell, in this case 7-8′, is probably best to avoid.

I guess I’ll check back with Chris on Saturday and see if his forecast might have changed.    Happily, my SSB radio is now back in perfect health which is just so great.  I have participated in a number of nets over the last few days and I am told that indeed they “can hear me now”.  What a relief.  It took months and more than a few “boat dollars” to sort through that problem.   All better now.

When Brenda and I were tied up in English Harbor Antigua during our last visit here a month ago, while our son Christopher was visiting, we saw a group of folks standing outside of a bar in the dockyard doing some sort of chant.  Actually, the looked positively “druidesque”, if you ask me. When we returned to Antigua last week, our friends Sue and Dave of SV Sans Cles, invited me (Brenda had already flown back to CT) to participate in an evening meeting of, what I now know is the Royal Navy Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda.

Ok, sure, I’ll go.  How could I say no? And, I didn’t.

So here’s the deal and once again this proves, without a question, that there is indeed a club for everything and everyone.  And now that I know about the Royal Navy Tot Club I am fairly certain that the Brits lead the way in that department.

So, you might be asking yourself, who are these people that stand in a circle and drink rum?   This is what they have to say about themselves.

Don’t you feel sorry for all the sailors here in Antigua who don’t know about this exclusive club?   So, what does everyone else do to keep busy if they can’t attend?

Well, last night, aboard The Maltese Falcon, it was movie night.   Yes, movie night.  Unfortunately, while I did spend some time with the crew of Marie, the 200′ Vitters Ketch that Brenda and I sailed on two years ago. I wasn’t invited to the movies aboard Falcon.  They unfurled one of the aft sails and voilas, a movie. So, if you wonder what folks to do keep busy here in Antigua, now you have your answer.    If you are one of the .001% crowd, movie night.  For the rest of us, assuming that you know the right people, there may be a tot waiting for you here in Antigua.

You just can’t make this stuff up.   And why would you want to when real life is just so entertaining.

Sure, I’ll have a tot.  Just one more, for now…

I wasn’t sure what to have as a title to this post and was thinking that I might use yet another reference to whacking moles.  However, as has been the case with so many issues that have come up this winter, I thought that something about it being a “pain in my AIS” was more fitting.  So, that’s the title…

Anyway, dear reader, I have certainly had my share of “technical challenges” with Pandora this winter and it is worth noting that, for the moment anyway, the FINAL mole was whacked into his hole as of this morning.

When the SSB radio crapped out a while back we had a power surge that also took out the AIS transponder.  AIS, the following link is a bit outdated as the system is required on much smaller vessels now but not on those as small as Pandora.

Automatic Identification System, is a program similar to that used by aircraft designed to make it easy to identify who’s going where and how close they are likely to come to one another.  From my perspective, it is a terrific safety feature to have aboard as it allows us to monitor other vessels in the area and to determine if they are a threat to us.

Getting the AIS repaired proved to be problematic and we ended up having to purchase a new one.  That was very painful but it had to be done.   The installer, with the hope of saving time for the installation, made a point of replacing it with one from the same manufacturer so that it could use the same cabling and simplify the installation.   Well, it did include the same cables but getting it up and operational proved to be anything but simple.

As so many hours are in the SSB replacement job, I opted to do the AIS installation myself.  The electrician labeled the wires so I’d know which went where.  Simple yes?  Not!

I put it in place, powered it up and it sent out a signal but didn’t show up on my plotter.  Fast forward a day of fussing along with a few hours of diagnostics this morning it still didn’t work.  After we had exhausted every possible option the manufacturer finally suggested, “just switch the two wires and see what happens”.   Well, it worked.  All better now.  Of course, we won’t talk about the hours I messed around with it and all the back and forth with the installer.

With a functioning AIS I will be able to see all the big boats on my plotter and will be able to see them on my chart plotter including how fast they are going and how close they will come to me.   As an added bonus, those ships will also be able to see Pandora, assuming that they are looking, which they sometimes aren’t.  You too can track Pandora using this system on your smartphone.   Check out this link “where in the world is Pandora” to learn more 0n how to, sort of, “friend” Pandora and keep track of where we are.

All better now.  So all that’s left is to pay for all the work that’s been done over the last few weeks.  It’s going to be interesting to see what the bill says.  I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.   It’s going to be interesting, that’s for sure.

The good news is that Pandora is operational now and ready to head off into the sunset.   Let’s hope that no more moles show up.

Enough of that for now.  Let’s talk about boats, no make that REALLY BIG YACHTS.    How about the Maltese Falcon, an ultramodern square rigger, a nearly 300′ long technological wonder, as it were?   She’s one of the largest, and certainly the most technologically complicated sailing yachts in the world today. She was launched in 2006 in Turkey and was built for the Venture Capitalist, Tom Perkins, perhaps one of the most successful ever.  He made his money investing in early web startups including Amazon, Google, AOL and other high profile businesses. Stock and crypto investments helped him grow his wealth even further. The XTB Broker Review provides an overview of the trading platform that allows investors to access various financial markets, including stocks, forex, and cryptocurrencies.  And given the fact that he made his m0ney in Tech, it stands to reason that Falcon would be so technologically advanced.

Her rig, known as Dynarig, was originally designed as a way to power cargo vessels. She’s known as The Maltise Falcon, but as I motored up to her transom I realized that she’s actually “Falcon” from Malta, the country where she’s registered.  Oh yeah, I get it.  Clever.Perkins is deceased now and Falcon was sold a few years ago for $60,000,000 Euros, which is proof that no matter how much you have, “you can’t take it with you”.  However, if you rank him on the “he who dies with the most toys wins” scale, Perkins was a standout.

Falcon is now owned by a charter company and it is no longer used as a private yacht.  However, if you want to sail on her you have to pay for the whole kit and kaboodle.  No renting a cabin on her, it’s all or nothing.   Check out these photos and videos.  Amazing.

Want a video tour of your charter option?  Check this out. 
You really get a feel for her “hugeness” when you see one of her 17, count em, crew on deck.   Big boat, little crew person, by comparison. Her unstayed masts rotate to orient her 15 square, self furling, sails totalling nearly 26,000 square feet of sail,  to the optimal angle of the wind.  When fully furled they are oriented fore and aft, I guess, to minimize windage.  Windage? Good luck with that on a 300′ yacht.  When viewed from her stern, the pattern of the spars remind me of a double helix DNA strand. Falcon was the largest sailing yacht in the world when she was launched and surely reigns supreme as one of the grandest “high tech” achievements on the water today.    I am amazed every day when yet another magnificent yacht sails into Falmouth harbor here in Antigua.   I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

As amazing as they are, I can’t help but wonder what sorts of moles their crew must spend countless days whacking into their mega-yacht holes.

For me and Pandora, and I don’t want to jinx it, perhaps the worst is behind us but there is one thing for sure keeping her running well can sometimes be a big pain in the AIS.

I can’t wait till I get the bill.  As they say, “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it”.   Well, I’m asking and my fingers are crossed.

Wish me luck.