It’s Sunday morning and we have been here in Antigua for nearly three weeks, with no end in sight.   Our plan, when we arrived here, was to stay for a week and then move south to Guadeloupe and explore some of the other islands near there and then return to Antigua and meet up with our son Christopher for a week.

However, as is so often the case, boat repairs and more recently, weather, has conspired to keep us here.  So here we are so I thought that take a moment and share what a typical day aboard Pandora is like as we sit here.  Did I mention that we have been in Antigua for nearly three weeks?  Thought so.  It’s been a long time but it’s better than Cleveland in March for sure.

In my last life, when I was working,  my day got off to a rousing start really early, usually in the dark, immediately breaking out in a cold sweat, wondering what trauma I’d be dealing with when I got to the office.  That would be quickly followed by a quick cup of coffee before I headed to the office where I would “run” non-stop for something like 12 hours and then return home exhausted, eat dinner, sleep and begin the whole process all over again.  That went on for more than a few years but not nearly as long as it might have so I feel lucky, very lucky.

Our new life?  Well, it’s different.   “Like no kidding Bob”.   There are similarities but it’s a lot LOT less structured, and much SLOWER.   Actually, not much of note really happens before late morning, even though I get up quite early, usually before it’s even light out, a cold sweat isn’t a regular occurrence.   And, the work nightmares, they stopped, mostly, after about 5 years.

One question we get a lot from “land based” folks is what we do all day and “don’t you get bored” on the boat.  Well, I suppose that we do get bored, sometimes, but more often than not, living aboard has a nice rhythm to it and there is always something that needs attention on the boat like today when the little Honda generator was acting up while we were trying to do laundry.  Dosn’t that sound fulfilling?  A awkwardly running generator?  Yes, Pandora has a washer/dryer but we have to run the Honda in order to do laundry.  Well, the generator kept dying but after I changed the spark plug, checked the spark arrestor and changed the oil (it really needed it, oops) it seems to be running better.  I think that there is a problem with the fuel filter but that doesn’t seem to be serviceable unless I take it to a dealer.   And, while we are doing laundry, we also have to run the watermaker full blast to make up for the water that we use doing a load of wash.    A load uses 8 gallons for a load according to the manual.

Anyway, the day begins when I wake up.  No alarm except when I have to get up to listen to Chris Parker’s weather briefing and am afraid that I will oversleep.  However, more often than not, I am awake anyway.   Not to be indelicate, but my bladder works very well as an alarm and other guys of a “certain age”, and you know who you are, will understand.

When I get up it’s generally still dark and the first thing I do is put on the coffee.  Sound familiar?   And just so you don’t think that we live a fully deprived life, we have capuccino most mornings thanks to the miracle of a stove-top espresso maker, a low tech and wonderful device.  We also have a milk frother that runs on 110v and is powered by the inverter.  In goes the milk, push the button and, voila, in a few moments, perfect warm foamed milk.  We use “box milk”, the sort that can sit unrefrigerated on a shelf for months, when we are aboard. The brand sold in the U.S. Parmalat, tastes odd to us so we were very pleased to find a number of brands here in the islands, from France mostly, that actually  taste like real milk.  Fresh refrigerated milk is also available here but it is terribly expensive.  Think $10 a half gallon.   Anyway, the boxed, stabilized, keeps for a year unopened on the shelf.  It isn’t cheap but it’s actually less than in the U.S. and a lot better tasting.

So, back to the beginning of my day.  I generally wake up while it’s pretty dark, more like twilight (Is that what not-quite-light in the morning is called?)  and turn on the coffee, which I put on the stove the night before so all I have to do it turn on the gas and go.   It’s also a good idea for me to be quiet because if I wake Brenda up that early, well, it would be a CLM,  a Career Limiting Move.   Better to be quiet.

While waiting for coffee I turn on the “hotspot” on our phone, which lets us get e-mail and the NY Times on our iPad so I can hear yet again, now crazy things are in Washington.  And, to make it even more fun, I get my news through the NY Times, a bastion of balanced if completely and unapologetically liberal thinking.

Getting the news and our e-mail on board consistently is a treat and something that we haven’t enjoyed until this year, well not reliably anyway.  When we were in Cuba, well forget Internet except in Government hotels and during our years in the Bahamas, it was very tough to find wifi on shore, was always terribly slow and usually only available for a fee.  We had a phone hotspot while we were in the Bahamas but it never worked very well.  So, this year with connectivity much easier, it is a nice change of pace.

Anyway, I get up pretty early in spite of the fact that there isn’t anything at all that’s pressing.  I guess that old habits die hard or perhaps it’s simply the bladder thing, probably the bladder.

Tonight there is a full moon.  At least I think it’s tonight and the view of the moon for the last few nights has been positively amazing.  This is what the moon setting over the mountains behind Pandora looked like this morning.   I woke up just in time to catch it dropping behind the hills.  What a view. Perhaps even more remarkable is that my camera, with image stabilization, could actually take that photo.  Not perfectly crisp but a nice shot.

And, to continue on that vein, how about last evening’s sunset.  You know how I like sunsets. Ok, while I am at it, I’ll toss in today’s sunrise.  Yes, I know, it looks a LOT like one I put up a few days ago.    But it’s nice. Ok, one more thing.  How about a double rainbow?   While every day is a sunny day, it often rains several times for a few minutes.  The sun goes away as a dark cloud passes overhead , we run to close all the deck hatches, it rains, it stops raining, a spectacular rainbow appears, we say “Oooo…Ahh..” and we open up the hatches again until the next shower.

So, not a lot happens in the morning worth noting but we somehow manage to keep busy, at least sort of, until around noon when we gain enough momentum to head ashore.   This generally includes a quest for faster wifi as what we have on the boat isn’t fast enough to pull up websites or anything faster than email.

I bring my camera with me everywhere, always on the lookout for something to write about.  How about a donkey? And a very calm one that seems to be saying to say “Don’t worry, be happy.  I’m on island time Mon”.  You are probably wondering “Bob, now can you possibly know what he’s thinking?  Actually, he’s probably just waiting until you step behind him so he can give you a swift kick.”.   I don’t know how I know but I just do.  He’s a very calm donkey.  I am completely confident on that point.  The last time I put up an equine shot was in ST Martin and that was a horse walking past a bakery.  No doubt, I had a mouth full of baguette at the time.   Oh, how I do miss the food of the French islands.  Antigua food?  Ok, at best compared with the French islands.

One thing that occupies my time endlessly, is to watch the comings and goings of massive mega-yachts.  One appeared on the horizon today.  Nice view all around and you can see it in the distance.  Big boat.As she came into the harbor she just dwarfed the boats owned by “mere mortals” like us.   I do wonder what these guys do to make enough money to own and operate one of these giants.  Given the secrecy surrounding who owns what, I expect that they would rather we not know. Really, really big. He probably burned more fuel just entering the harbor than I burn in a whole year of cruising.   Watching one of these behemoths approach a dock is like watching ballet. they make it look easy but I’ll bet that it isn’t.  This one came in around 07:00 and had to leave and head back out as the marina they were approaching wasn’t open until 08:00.  I guess that even those guys have to wait sometimes.   Not often, but sometimes.

And, of course, part of each day is devoted to making sure that, Louis, Pandora’s mascot, enjoys his time aboard.  Louis joined us in St Martin.
His long range plan is to sail with us for several years, see the world and then go to live with our granddaughter Tori when she is old enough so that she won’t just pull his ears, arms and tail clean off.  He’s very concerned about that but we have assured him that we will make it clear to Tori when he goes to live with her, that pulling his arms, ears and tail off isn’t  what nice girls do to mice, especially such a well traveled and refined French mouse as Louis.

And Tori is already thinking about what sort of image that might appeal to Louis, such a cultured and oh-so-French  mouse.   She knows that high fashion is very French. In spite of my best efforts, I am not confident that I have done a very good job of describing what a day aboard is really like.  I should add that I spend a lot of time writing too.  There is always some sort of deadline coming up for an article that is due as I write for a number of newsletters and magazines and don’t forget these scintillating blog posts that just come pouring out of my tangled head, like this one.

And while I’d like to avoid thinking about it, there’s always those pesky whack-a-mole issues to keep up with although things don’t seem to break quite as much when we are just sitting at anchor.   I probably shouldn’t say anything as I might jinx it.  Besides, the SSB still isn’t fully operational as it’s just been too windy to get to a dock so the electronics guy can easily work on the final touches that need to be done.  Happily, the wind seems to be settling down so perhaps tomorrow we can get into the marina and he can finally finish up the job.   I’d like that as it will good to know that all is settled for me to get my daily weather briefing form Chris Parker when I head home in May.

And, speaking of heading home,  it’s been challenging  to find decent flights that will get Brenda to CT in April from Antigua but I think we have finally settled on a plan.  She will fly to JFK in NY, as that’s a non-stop flight, and then she will rent a car for the two hour drive home.  It’s complicated and will be a very long day but at least it’s only one long day.  The alternative from the “you can’t get theah from heah” Antigua to Hartford, in less than 30 hours, quandary had to be NYC and a car rental.  That’s actually pretty good since it avoids a hotel room for her along the way.

There is a gap of several weeks from when Brenda leaves, my friend Craig comes to Antigua to help me run Pandora to the BVI and my crew arrives for the return trip in mid-May so I plan to head home as well for about two weeks to help Brenda get the house and gardens ready for summer.  After that, I’ll head back to the BVI to meet up with crew and bring Pandora to CT.

For sure, the time I am away from Pandora will be a lot more action packed than our typical days aboard Pandora.  However, I am looking forward to being back in CT as the summer will soon be here and it will be lovely.  And, we can go for a ride in our little red car.
Oh yea, as an added bonus, I will even be home for Mother’s day for the first time in several years.  Brenda and my mom will like that.

Mom, are you listening?  I know you are as Karla tells me that she’s reading my posts to you.  Thanks Karla.

Well, there you have it.   A blow by blow description of what happens aboard Pandora while we are in port.  Not much but it’s not boring.  Well, at least not to us.

I had better break off now as there’s got to be something that I have to attend to. Hope so because I  don’t want to get bored.

I’m not bored, really.   It’s a beautiful day.  Is that a rain cloud coming over the mountain?  Quick close the hatches.

See? Plenty to do.

It’s Thursday morning and we have been in Antigua for… Actually, I don’t want to think about how long we have been here as there are so many other islands to visit and we don’t have a lot of time left before I have to head back to the BVIs. However, it’s been really windy so we can’t leave.  And that’s that, for now, I guess.

Our son Christopher arrives here in less than a week and after that, on April 10th, Brenda flies home to attend a conference.  We are finding that booking a flight from Antigua to Hartford CT is tougher than we had thought.  When I did some preliminary checking on flights several  months ago before committing to have her leave from here, I looked at schedules and saw that an early morning flight from here would arrive in Hartford late in the evening.  That sounded pretty good to us.

What I didn’t realize is that a flight that left first thing in the morning arrived in Hartford late in the evening, the NEXT DAY.  These flights were not in the range of 13 hours that I thought, but more like 26 hours.  Oops.  Minor detail.  Brenda’s thrilled.  Not.

Anyway, I haven’t booked anything quite yet but it’s looking like she’s going to have to fly to Miami,  Dominica or pehaps Puerto Rico and then stay in a hotel there for a night and then fly out the next day.  There are some flights that can get here there the same day but they are in the $1,000 range, one way.   Not really practical.

It would be easy if she could fly into Newark or perhaps one of the NY airports. Hartford?  It seems that nobody wants to go to Hartford from Antigua.  Makes sense, actually.   Better than Cleveland I’d expect.

I have also been trying to come to grips with my own trip home.  The problem is that after Brenda leaves and I spend a week with my friend Craig who’s coming here to Antigua.  After he leaves I will still have about a month until my return crew arrives to bring Pandora back to CT.  I really don’t want to be on my own without Brenda for that long as nice as it is in the BVIs.

So, the plan, I think, is for me to fly home for a few weeks and the return to the BVIs to prepare to bring Pandora north.   Besides, I can fly into Baltimore and see Tori, our grandaughter.  Remember?  The cutest granddaughter EVER!

She’s excited to see her grampy.  Oh yeah, I’ll see her parents too.

That’s all fine but the logistics of our collective travel plans is a bit overwhelming.  I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise after several decades of moving boats around.  Such is the life of land and sea.   I have to remind me that this is a lot more appealing than having the boat on the hard in New England for the winter.

Repeat after me, it’s hard but the tropics are better.  It’s hard but the tropics are better.  It’s hard but…

So, her we are in Antigua STILL.  The good news is that there are plenty of other cruisers that are stuck here with us because of the continuing strong winds.

And, with the classic yacht regatta, and the place being a very popular place to base sailing charter yachts, so there is plenty to look at and admire.

When we sat overlooking Nelson’s Dock Yard at lunch the other day, the view included some magnificant yachts, each swarming with workers painting and varnishing. There’s two huge schooners from the UK that are right next to each other, a sort of “his and hers” deal.  Workers with brushes all over each of them getting them ready for the upcoming classic yacht races. Some of the yachts are hard to actually see as they are covered with so much canvas to protect the decks and all that paint and varnish from the tropical sun. I think I used a shot of this beauty in a previous post.  However, as the “belle of the harbor” I just have to show her again.  I wonder how many crew it takes to keep her looking like this?Not all of the yachts are not classics but many are.   This one, complete with a serious looking flat black hull sported it’s own chopper. I thought that this was an interesting boat.  The companionway is unique.  I expect that the dodger wasn’t part of the original design.   And, not even a tiny bit of varnish to look after. No varnish on this racer either.   I’ll bet she screams on a reach and is really noisy with a tooth jarring ride. This yacht looks like it can go just about anywhere with it’s wave piercing bow.Nice dink.  No getting wet when crossing a choppy harbor in that. Not your usual bow profile.  Surely she can go into most anything without slowing down. And, speaking of bows.   Many of the classics sport enormous overhangs. Especially the classic America’s Cup Js from the 30s.  This is Ranbow.  She’s actually not original but was launched just a few years ago from the original plans.  And, she, like all the Js sailing today, sports carbon spars.  Beautiful. Not a lot of cabin varnish to keep up on a 90′ yacht.   It’s perfect though. There’s something like less than a dozen of these classic J yachts in the world today.  However, there are more now than in the 30s, when they raced for The Cup.  Several have been recently constructed to original plans drawn and never built.  Of course, they raced during the Great Depression.  It’s interesting that several more were also built during the recent Great Recession.   Says something about the rich getting richer.

Not certain which one this is.  I think Lionheart.  It’s just so hard to keep them straight.   So many Js to choose from and most of them are here in Antigua right now.   Imagine the spinnaker that uses that pole?Amazing overhangs. Not all of the big sailing yachts are Js but they all sport those lovely lines. Nice butt too.Interesting bimini.  Perhaps not all weather but hey, the owner isn’t going to be slogging to weather in a gale.  That’s the job of the crew.
This beauty spends her summers in Vinyard Haven.  I’ve seen here there.  She was built by Gannon and Benjamin a few years ago, right in that harbor.  She’s also down for the regatta.
Another nice if more modest classic.   I’ll bet her decks don’t leak a drop. Well, I guess that’s enough “eye candy” for now.  It’s time to make the coffee.  After looking at all of these magnificant yachts, perhaps I’ll have a cappuccino.  I do so wish that I had a steward to fetch it for me.   James, James!  Is that you?  “No, you idiot, it’s the wind.  Make your own d%$# coffee.”

Oh well.  No steward.  However, I will have the electonics guy on board today or soon to finish up on the SSB install.  Let’s hope that it works as my trip north is coming up fast and for the moment, it’s the ONLY thing that’s not working properly.  However, I don’t want to jinx it…

Heck, it’s only money and pennies, no make that fractions of pennies on the dollar compared to the rest of the yachts in the neighborhood.

Yes, Antigua.   Beautiful sailing yachts and plenty of them.   Bring your check book.

 

It’s been a few days since my last post but I have been busy doing, well cruiser stuff.  No, I have not been doing boat repairs as I am still waiting for the power supply for my SSB radio which should be on-island today and hopefully in place by tomorrow.  At that point I’ll know if it’s going to solve my communication problem or if there is something more fundamentally wrong with the installation. I hope it works as I really have to have it working for my run north in May.

The forecast calls for strong winds over the next few days which is also why we are still here in Antigua instead of a bit further south in Guadaloupe, an island that we had really hoped we’d be visiting on this trip.   Perhaps after our son Christopher visits next week.

Alas, being stuck in Antigua isn’t all that bad as there is plenty to see and there are lots of other cruisers who are stuck here too.  Being the social animal that I am we get together for cocktails and evening domino games some nights.  However, because of the strong winds that’s keeping everyone from moving on to other islands, there is a growing number of “landlocked cruisers” looking for socialization as well.  That’s good.    We met at a local bar the other night.   Is it still windy?  Let’s have another rum punch. I mention this because cruisers, bound together, or pinned down, as it were, by common experiences are very supportive of one another.   In our case, Nick and Lori-Anne on Wreckless Faith, gave us two tickets to a Cricket match that we went to on Sunday.    So, we went.   How’s that for a segue?

Have you ever been to a Cricket match?  Not me…

So, what’s Cricket anyway?  I had not idea and thought that it was something related to a bug, like this one that I spied on a flower yesterday.     A beautiful “bug” but alas, not Cricket.We arrived at the stadium with absolutely no idea what to expect.   The place was huge and jammed with enthusiastic “cricketeers” rooting for their teams.  The “home team” West Indies and the other England.  As Antigua was once a colony of England, I was wondering if it was a “grudge match” but while there were plenty of fans from both island nations, it was a friendly crowd.  And, there were lots of them. We had great seats right behind “home wicket”, if that’s what you’d call where we were.  Across the circular field, and it was a big one, another set of stands.The tickets said that the gate opened at 07:30 but we didn’t arrive until mid morning.  The game was in full swing with lots of action on the field.  The score board said…Actually, I had absolutely no idea what it said.  What in the world is a P’ship? Or an Overs Rem?…   As luck would have it, there were two very British looking gents sitting right in front of us and when prompted, happily agreed to help us better understand what was going on.   However, I still have no idea what a P’ship is and based on their answers to my questions, it takes years to really understand the game.  Forgive me, but that just sounds so British to make up a game that is impossibly complicated.

However there was a nice breeze and we were happily sitting in the shade on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and even if I didn’t understand much about the action in the field, there was plenty to watch in the stands.

Pop quiz… which team do you think this guy was rooting for?    When I see a “fan” like him the first question that comes to my mind is what is it like when he goes on a job interview.    “So Mr. Woodhouse, tell me a little about yourself.  What sorts of hobbies do you have”? Brenda and I were entranced by this beautiful girl with her painted face.  A little different view to be sure.  GO WEST INDIES!I’ll show you a few photos of the action, and there was plenty.   This is what a “pitch” looks like.  Very fast with the ball going toward the batter at close to 100mph.   The guy in blue is the pitcher, and he puts everthing he has into thew windup for the pitch if that’s not completely clear. And, not 50′ away is the batter on the receiving end of all that power.  He has to be very, very fast with his reflexes with the ball screaming toward him.The white “frame” behind the batter is actually called a “wicket” but that’s about all I know.  And one of the many, many objects of the game and the game lasts something like 8 hours if you can believe it, is for the pitcher to hit the wicket with the ball while the batter tries to hit the ball beyond the “rope” that is laid on the ground in a huge circle around the field.   Got it?  Good.

Half time was fun to watch as there were literally dozens of young cricket players out on the field chasing balls around.   They even had “Chirpy”, their own mascot. Trying to come up with something witty to say about Chirpy but just can’t.  It’s just a grown man dressed up as a giant green bug suit.

We had a great time and enjoyed the game, what little of it we even remotely understood.  Complicated or not, the game is a very big deal in Antigua.

I guess we only scratched the surface.  Remember that you have to watch the game for a lifetime and only then can you really understand the subtle nuances of the game.

Isn’t that just so British?  Don’t forget that their neighbors in Scotland invented Golf, another diabolically complicated game that takes hours and hours to play and a lifetime to master.

So, another reason to visit Antigua and now I know that shouting about Cricket doesn’t always lead to a frantic call to an exterminator.

Who knew?

Well, now I do too.

 

Well, it’s been 10 days since we arrived in Antigua and we HAVE NO IDEA when we will be able to leave.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place as witnessed by the view from our cockpit a few moments ago.    It’s been a dramatic morning with squalls coming through the harbor several times an hour bringing gusty winds and rain, only to be followed by brilliant sunshine moments later.  Pretty dramatic.  Not a bad spot to be and hey, the decks are salt free. While Antigua is a neat island, the Caribbean is a big place and we really don’t want to be in one place for too long as there is just so much we want to see.   The first problem is that the SSB still isn’t installed, although it might be finished by early next week.  Second, the winds continue to be very strong and while going to Guadalupe is a reach both ways, the waves are really big, at about 10′ and the north swell is also up, which would make for a really bumpy run.

This means that it would likely be a CLM (Career Limiting Move) with Brenda if we were to head out into that.  Unfortunately, Chris Parker, the weather router we use, says that lighter winds, than the 20-25kts that are currently blowing, won’t arrive for the “foreseeable future”.     We are hopeful that sometime next week there will be somewhat less wind so we can make the run to Guadaloupe.

In particular, our interest in visiting that island is because it would be the first on our trip with a tropical rainforest.  The other islands we have visited are much more arid.  Guadeloupe is quite mountainous, nearly a mile high and as the trade winds from the east pass over the island the air rushes up the mountain, cooling, and driving the moisture out of the clouds as rain.  From our many years of growing orchids and having a greenhouse, we are anxious to see tropical plants in-situ, as it were.

Anyway, that’s our plan but “whack-a-mole” issues and weather “issues” are winning out for now.

Our son Christopher will be flying in from San Francisco on the 15th so that means we have to be back here to greet him, limiting our travel window too.  We are very excited about his visit as we don’t see him very often.   We have reserved a slip in English Harbor at Nelson’s Dockyard, a very scenic spot.  It will be interesting to tie up there as we will be Med-moored.   This means we will drop our anchor as we approach the tie-up bulkhead and then back up against the bulkhead, using our anchor to hold off.  From our stern we will tie up lines to shore and tighten up everything to keep Pandora straight and off of the bulkhead.    Good thing we have a bow thruster as there is no way we could pull this off without a way to control the bow as we back down on the anchor.

What will make it even more fun will be that we will be doing all of this maneuvering as we thread ourselves between two other boats, all the while praying that we won’t lose control and bump into them.  Meanwhile, folks on shore, who are blissfully not at risk from us, will stand by ready to take photos, of what they hope will be our inevitable crash, fully prepared to exclaim wth great glee, “Look at that, they have absolutely NO IDEA what they are doing”.   I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to hear how all THAT goes.

And speaking of broken stuff, I decided that I should post some photos of the “mortally wounded” SSB.  The inside of the unit looks impossibly complex.   At first glance, not so bad.  I see a lot of OK pieces, right?However, upon closer inspection, the extent of the damage becomes obvious. And that’s not all…  Oh, so that’s why “can you hear me now?” didn’t get me anywhere. The moral of this story is clearly that salt and electronics don’t mix.  Frankly, given the harsh environment that this equipment functions in, or not function as it were, it’s amazing that more stuff doesn’t die a nasty death.   So, as soon as our new SSB winds it’s way through the import agent, who BTW gets 4% for his efforts, I am hopeful that this will all get sorted out.

In the meantime, Brenda and I are working hard to keep busy and not focus too much on what all of this costs.    Enough of that…

So, the other day we took a bus from the nearby marina into St John for the day.  When I say “bus” I mean a sort of panel van and not a particularly big one at that. As we made our way to St John, the bus stopped often for passengers to get on and off, many laden with bags of groceries.  Counting the three up in the front, including the driver, the bus had a capacity of 15 when  the jump seats were folded down into the aisle.  It was really, really tight and quite an experience.

St. John is where the cruise ships dock and was very crowded.  Outside of the immediate dock area it’s much different without all of the T shirt shops. However, once closer, it’s a much more manicured. The ships, and there were three or four of them, loomed over the downtown area.  And, of course, plenty of stalls catering to the “I need a souvenir from Antigua, cruise ship crowd”.   Not hard to choose, or not, as just about every booth had exactly the same stuff. Not a lot of creativity.  Perhaps they know their customers and when 10,000 new ones show up each day, know what sells.
Much of the downtown area, less the cruise ships, reminded us of some of the places in Cuba we visited last winter except this, a Burger King.  A bit depressing but hey, everybody loves a taste of home I guess.  And no, we didn’t eat lunch there. Anyway, it was an interesting day but alas, we came away empty handed.  No tchotchkes that called out to us.  Oh well.

So, pinned down, what next?  What’s a cruiser to do…

Here’s an idea.  Let’s go to a cricket match!   It seems that the West Indies team is playing the UK team and cruiser friends of ours offered us tickets to join them on Sunday.  We have never been to a cricket match so it should be an interesting day.  Stay tuned for scintillating commentary soon.

Well, I guess that’s about all I have to report for now.  Perhaps I’ll close with a shot of all the “big girls” in the super yacht marina nearby.  Lots of brightly lit masts.  Note the red lights at the top of the masts.  That means that they are over 100′ tall and need a light to warn off low flying aircraft.  And, I will tell you that many of those masts are 200′ tall including the masts on Marie, the 180′ yacht Brenda and I sailed on in Newport two years ago.  She came in yesterday.  Perhaps I’ll stop by to see if I can borrow a cup of Chivas.  So, for now, just pinned down in paradise.  It could be worse, it could be snowing.

dAs I sit down to begin this post, it’s blowing like stink which I understand is the expectation for the next several days at least.  We had hoped to head down to Guadalopue this week but with the very strong winds that will have to wait.

But, that’s only one of the reasons that we will have to stay put for a bit as “whack-a-mole”continues to rear his ugly head or “heads” as it were.   As I have written of late and more times than I can count, it seems that there always something to fix on a boat and sometimes the problems take years to develop and suddenly…up pops another mole.

Since installing the SSB from “old” Pandora onto our “new” Pandora, I have had nothing but problems with the reception on the unit.  It worked last season mostly and sort of on my way south this winter.  However, since being here in the Caribbean, the performance on the unit as gotten worse and worse.

Finally, about a month ago it got to a point that I wasn’t even able to communicate with anyone, even in the same harbor.  So much for “world wide” communications.  And, NO, you can not HEAR ME NOW.

I had someone look at the unit in St Martin and thought that it was fixed but nope.  So, now that I am here in Antigua, I decided to go to an electronics repair place and have things checked out once and for all.

So, here’s the deal.  On “old” Pandora, on occasion, when we were in some particularly heavy weather, I noticed a leak over the nav station, perhaps from a leaky deck fitting.   Unfortunately, and mostly unbeknownst to me (you tend to see what you want to see), some salt water dribbled into the control unit for the SSB which was mounted behind the instrument panel.   Well, it turns out that some salt water had gotten inside the unit and had done some major corrosion to the sensitive electronics.  The problem is that the corrosion was a progressive thing so the unit worked for several years, but not now.  When the repair guys took the unit to the shop and opened it up.  Not good…

So, no repair possible and now I need a new unit.  And, it’s going to cost several boat dollars.  Painful.  I know that I generally post photos of damaged or destroyed equipment, a sort of before and after deal.  However, in this case, the whole “before” thing is just to painful (read, expensive) and I don’t even want to put up any pictures.  You will just have to imagine “rust” and one of your favorite electronics thingies and you’ll have a pretty good feel for the whole deal.

Anyway, the part/parts are on order and will be here in a few days.  Ha!  It’s only boat dollars.

As you can imagine, yesterday was a painful as the extent of the damage became clear but I won’t share the blow by blow of the diagnostic process.  However, as they say,” it could have been a lot worse”, although it’s plenty painful.

While I was running the electronics guy/guys back and forth to Pandora in the dink to deal with the SSB, I spied a rigging company and stopped to talk to one of the guys.   I asked him if he’d be interested in teaching me and Brenda how to do soft shackles.   Yes, I know that your first reaction to such an opportunity is bound to be something like “Bob, Bob, I want to learn too!”.  Well, sorry but hold that thought for now.

So, at 17:00 yesterday I met Bishop the soft shackle expert at the dinghy dock, a very nice guy from Antigua Rigging, who had agreed to come out to Pandora and put on a “soft shackle thingy making class” for me and Brenda.

I took a sort of step-by-step series of photos of the process but believe me when I tell you that the final or stopper knot isn’t for sissies.  However, Brenda, with her deep history in fibers, caught on much faster than I did.   Sorry, but you moght not be able to look at the photos that follow and exclaim, “Bob, I get it. Now I know how to make soft shackles”.

First of all, a soft shackle is a short, spliced piece of high tech Dyneema yacht braid.  It’s very flexible, soft but stronger than steel.   used in many applications aboard where line must be very strong as well as UV resistant and also non abrading.    This sort of shackle has a loop in one end and a stopper knot on the other end.  The idea is to put the knot through the loop and tighten it up so that you can attach things to the shackle.   Dyneema braid is used in an application where the attachment point must be very strong but flexible.

First, perhaps I am getting ahead of myself but this is what we wanted to make.   On pandora I use these to attach temporary blocks to things as they are easy to attach and remove.  In particular, I use them to temporarily attach preventers and snatch blocks, lines that help manage the boom when we want to be able to control things in the event of a jybe when conditions are rough.   Anyway, just trust me, they are handy to have on board.

This is they…So, here’s our teacher Bishop, a lifelong resident of Antigua, beginning his lesson. with “Now, boys and girls, pay attention”.The first thing you do is to decide what size you want the finished product to be, say 12″ long and measure out four times that amount. Then you use a fid, or wire to pull one end of the line inside the line itself.   You end up with a loop at the end where you pulled the line into itself.
Then you take one end of the line and make a loop.
Then put another loop with the other end. Pull that end through the other loop,  Then you end up with something that looks like a pretzel. After that, well you just had to be there.  It’s not easy to explain but you put the lines through and through like some sort of demented snake or rabbit running in and out of a hole and around a tree…  Got it?  Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either.You pull it tight and put the knot end into the loop end and you have a soft shackle.    Remember the photo of what it looks like from earlier in the post?  Now, wasn’t that easy?  “Bob, your instructions suck.  I have not idea what you did after the first few moves”.  Not to worry, come to my SSCA Essex Summer Solstice event the weekend of June 17th and sign up to learn yourself.  We have Chuck Poindexter and yes, that’s his real name, from Sound Rigging Services who will be running a workshop so you can learn to make them yourself.

So, there you have it.  After a frustrating day spent listening to a loud sucking sound from my bank account because of a little salt water on the SSB that happened years ago, Brenda and I needed to actually accomplish something.  So, Bishop came to the rescue.

Now we know how to make soft shackles or in Brenda’s case, some very stylish and super strong bracelets.  You too can have a tiny bracelet that you can tow a large SUV out of a ditch with.  Handy, right?  She even made a “belt” for Pandora’s mascot, Louis.  Actually, it looks a little bit well, you know.  Oh Louis!Enough of that.

The other night, before we were feeling SSB poor, Brenda and I had dinner at Nelson’s Dock Yard.  It was beautiful.  While we had a cocktail a lovely little hummingbird entertained us.  Actually, is there any other type of humming bird han “little”.  Then he turned to face us and showed off his iridescent green head.  It looked like a beacon. The view from our table of the tiny harbor.
As the light faded, the place looked more and more beautiful. The restaurant was named Pillars after the pillars, remains of a building that once stood in the dockyard. After dinner we went for a walk through the boat yard.   It was a beautiful winter, shirt sleeve evening.   “Bob, don’t rub it in.  We get it.  Warm and lovely”All and all, visiting Antigua has been wonderful if expensive from an SSB perspective at least and with the strong winds we won’t be going anywhere until things settle down a bit and the new SSB is installed.  I understand that it will arrive in Antigua within a few days.

However, I also need a special power supply to convert the 24 volts that my system has to the 12 volts that the SSB needs and that won’t come in until the end of the week, at least.   I won’t bore you with all that except that I really want the unit to work and that’s what I am told I need.

So, while we wait for “stuff” and weather, we will continue to explore the island and perhaps rent a car for a day or two.  As luck would have it, the electronics guy has a friend who rents cars.  Who knew?  I don’t know if that’s good or bad but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Until then, and in lieu of yet another sunrise photo, how about an amazing rainbow from early this morning.    I have to say that as photos go, this one “looks like a million bucks” or at least like way more than a few boat dollars.   Let’s hope that there’s a pot of gold at the end, we’ll need it.

So, for now, sans SSB, absoulely nobody can hear me at all.   Hopefully, with a new unit and a lot less “coin”, I’ll be able get an answer of “yes” when I key the mike and say…”can you hear me now?”

I guess it’s up to the mole…