Yesterday Brenda and I decided to visit a local botanical garden in Deshaies that was highly recommended by a number of cruisers that we have met, the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies gardens.   Brenda and I have been to quite a few botanical gardens over the years but never a “real” tropical one.  It was wonderful.  I took plenty of photos and frankly don’t know which are the best.  Having said that, here you go.

As you enter the gardens this is the view that greets you, a beautiful reflecting pool. The pond is teeming with koi, all looking for a hand out.   “Feed me, feed me”.They have a lovely cafe on top of a waterfall.   We had lunch there with another cruising couple, Dale and Cori of Hi Flite, who we met when Cori offered to take our photo. They have lived aboard for 14 years.  We enjoyed getting to know them a little bit.
This is the shot that got us together.   We thought that a photo of us in front of a poinsetta would prove that we haven’t forgotten that it’s winter somewhere. I have absolutely no idea what this flower is but it’s the size of a grapefruit and grew on a very tall stalk that looked a lot like bamboo, but wasn’t.Of course, we have seen these before but never in such profusion.   Actually, I have always seen them as part of an arrangement in a hotel lobby.  They are about 3′ tall.  The plant itself, 20′.Bananna flower stalk.  You can see the baby banannas lower down the stalk.
Everywhere you looked there was a riot of colors and textures.  Very well laid out to be viewed as grand spaces…As well as intimate corners.   A lovely “fallen” tree, repleat with bromiliads overhanging a pond. With all the lush vegitation, birds of all kinds.
Brenda and I used to have a greenhouse and have a soft spot in our hearts for orchids, especially phalanopsis.  Stag horn ferns are also a favorite of ours. There was an aviary we could walk inside of.  Many parrots flying all around. This arbor, a sort of rainforest tunnel, sprayed a fine mist every few minutes.  It was covered by a tangle of vines.
Crazy flowers hanging inside and the very oddest color.  They looked like they were dyed this odd color of blue.  Very fleshy and each cluster was about 18″ long.  Here and there, cozy sitting areas to sit and enjoy the scenery. Of course, what botanical garden is complete without flamingos?  Unfortunately, these were not the bright pink one associates with these as that color comes from a diet heavy with brine shrimp.  The birds are healthy but not that impossibly pink color that they are in nature as they don’t get live shrimp all the time. Plenty of bring colors though, to make up for the rather drab flamingos including this Macaw parrott. Or this impossibly red passion flower, named after the stations of the cross. Of course, what post is complete without a shot of me standing in front of a tree? Earlier in the day I watched as a local fishing boat slowly motored around the harbor while one of the crew tossed bits of grass onto the water.  I can only imagine that the “flotsum” was put out with the hope of enticing schools of small fish to rise to the surface.   After a while the crew became very animated and began putting a long net over the side, encircling a school of fish. They drew the ends of the net together and began to pull it into a smaller and smaller circle. Eventually, they drew the net completely closed and pulled it aboard, a teeming mass of silvery little fish.  I don’t know what kind of fish they are but they appear on menus at the local restraunts.  Sardines perhaps?  I guess we will find out tonight when we eat out. This is such an interesting place and to see fisherman practicing an age old process of catching fish for the market was wonderful to watch.  In it’s own way, it was as colorful as the flowers and birds of The Jardin Botanique de Deshaies.

We expect to stay here for perhaps another day and then may head a bit further south before we turn north again to head back to Antigua.

Well, we did it.  We left Antigua after nearly a month.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a very nice island but the bread?  Well, let’s just say that it’s not French.

Our son Christopher left two days ago to head back to San Francisco after an all too short visit.    It’s the first time in a few years that we have actually seen him relaxed and not thinking about work every waking moment.   He was quite disiplined about email and I don’t think he even looked once.  Amazing.

However, he did spend time reading up on quantum computing.  That’s what he does.  Don’t know what that is?  Ask him, I guess.

He explained that the papers he was reading were hard to understand (no kidding) but after the second reading he, sort of, got it.

Notice his “lobster” complexion?  That’s what happens when you visit the tropics after spending 18 hours a day in a lab for months… Oops!We visited Shirley Heights on Sunday evening with about 1000 of our closest friends.  It was a lot different from when Christopher and I hiked up there a few days earlier.  However, what a beautiful place to watch the sunset.   And, it seemed that just about every tourist in Antigua thought the same thing.

Here’s Critter and his mom.  That’s what his older brother called him when he was too little to pronounce Christopher.
Our friends Bill and Maureen of Kalunamoo went with us.    They are our closest cruising friends and they too spent a long time in Antigua, mostly with us. Ok, ok, how about a nice shot of Critter and his proud parents? Now that all the portraits are out of the way let’s move on to sunsets.  And, you know how much I like sunsets.    As Shirley Heights is considered the perfect spot to view such things, let’s have a few more shots of a remarkable display. “Bob, don’t stop… More sunsets, please.”  Ok, just one more, if you insist.Before Christopher left us to fly back home, we decided to move from English Harbor to Falmouth for a change of scenery.  It was amazing how lumpy it was outside of the harbor from all the strong winds.  Fortunately, it’s calmed down now so we could make the run to Guadaloupe.

Remember when I mentioned that we had snagged someone else’s anchor in English Harbor when we dropped it to back down to med moor?  Well we did, so we knew that we would have to hire a diver to untangle things.  They followed our anchor chain all the way out to the “tangle” and attached a lift bag to our anchor and filled it up with air.  Up came the anchor.   I reeled in the chain, anchor, diver and all.   Brenda kept Pandora in forward gear, still tied to the seawall to keep the boat us from hitting the dock. When the diver and anchor were near the bow he untied everything and we were on our way.  It was quite simple.  All it takes is $60U.S.  Tangles are so common in English harbor that there are divers on call all day long so they can come to the rescue, for a price, at a moment’s notice.  They are very busy divers.
So, after taking Christopher to the airport and drying off the tears, Brenda and I headed off for a bit of sightseeing.

We visited a, sort of, restored, sugarcane plantation called Betty’s Hope.   One of the windmills used to crush the cane is still operational and does demonstrations on certain days.  There were no “sails” on when we were there as they were not open.  However, the native goat community was in full swing. They kept careful tabs on my every move.  Some stood on a wall seemingly to say “You’re obviously not from around these parts.  You can go now.”There were some “kids”, so young that their umbillical cords hadn’t yet dropped off.
Fast forward to yesterday when we headed out to make the 50 mile run to Guadaloupe.   The forecast was for gradiant wind of about 10-15 kts.   When going between islands the wind is strongly effected by the high peaks of the islands.  As you leave the lee of an island you often see much stronger winds as they are funneled around the end of the island making the wind near the islands about 10kts stronger than the speed of the actual wind.   This meant that we had winds of over 20kts as well as a passing squall to contend with as we left Antigua.

After we were about 5 miles out things settled down nicely.   As we approached Guadaloupe things picked up again but backed a bit so the stronger winds were from behind the beam, giving us a pleasant run.  Once we were in the lee of the island we lost much of the wind and had to turn on the motor.

That’s the drill, we have been told, when you go from island to island.   Along the way we let out a fishing line.   Happily, we caught a small tuna.    Brenda prepared a ceviche tuna salad but without a recipe and little experience with such things, she wasn’t very happy with the results.  Oh well, better luck next time. So, here we are, anchored in Deshaies harbor Guadaloupe.  A picturesque fishing village.  It’s beautiful and oh, so French.  What a sight, a tiny village tucked into the base of the moutains.
Interestingly, clearing into a French island is so simple, unlike Antigua which involved three offices and multiple forms as well as a meaningful fee.  In the French islands you can clear using a computer, in this case, at a “T” shirt shop and all for 4 Euros.   I guess they know you are really more interested in a good meal so they don’t want you to waste any more time on paperwork than is absolutely required.

Everything is neat and tidy in town with a beautiful montain backdrop. I saw a lady selling ice cream out of two old fashioned hand churns. There was quite a line of folks waiting for their turn.   I hadn’t yet found a way to get Euros so I couldn’t have one myself.  Well, perhaps today. Guadeloupee is the first of the “islands that brush the clouds” that we have visited so we hope to spend time in the rainforest on the windward side of the island in the next day or so.     So, for the next few days, we are anchored in this beautiful spot.    Well, I guess I had better sign off for now as it’s time to head ashore so we can eat a croissant.  Oh yeah, we had a baguette last evening with some nice cheese and a bottle of French rose.  So glad to be with the French again.

I so needed a baguette.  All better now.

It’s Saturday and we are tied up in Nelson’s Dockyard and still in Antigua.   We have some pretty impressive big boat neighbors.  Interestingly, when we dropped our anchor to back up to the bulkhead, our anchor snagged the chain on one of the other boats.  Great.  We will now have the pleasure of hiring a diver to untangle things when we leave. What a racket with divers standing by “just in case”.   I’ll bet it’s nearly always the case given the number of snags and anchors running every which way. Our son Christopher arrived a few days ago from San Francisco for a visit.   We were concerned that he’d get tied up in all the winter weather related flight delays due to the snow in the NE but happily, that didn’t happen.  Is it really winter?  Funny, we haven’t noticed.

Between the scramble to get everything done at work and the long flight, a red-eye, he arrived pretty worn out but has rallied to spend time with his very excited parents.

Anyway, he’s here and we are really enjoying his time with us.  Here he is catching up on his reading.  Nice view.  We’ve taken it easy and not tried to pack too much into his short visit of less than a week but yesterday Christopher and I walked up to Shirley Heights, a historic spot way up on the top of one of the local mountains overlooking English and Falmouth Harbors. What a sight.  If you look really really closely, there’s Panodra…Now wait, I’ll zoom in.  That’s better.  She’s on the right with her stern too the bulkhead. Christopher tollerated his dad.  “Chris, pose for a photo op”.  It was a pretty long walk from the Dockyard and along the way we saw a number of goats keeping the grass, such as it is on this dry island, clipped short.  Not a lot to eat. A mother and her kid, that’s what they are called, did their best to keep ahead of us.  The “kid” complained a lot.  Not sure if it was because of us or if his mother was walking too fast.  “Maaam, I’m hot. You are walking too fast.  Who are those people and why are they following us?”  “Just keep quiet and eat your cud.”Along the way, a century plant.  The flower stalk is impossibly large.  I believe that the plant dies after it flowers but don’t think that it actually takes a century to get that big.  If it does.  Guess what Horatio?  That seedling you saw when you ran your dockyard here.  Well, it finally flowered.   Nice place, by the way. Shirley Heights is named after some guy.  Not my mother Shirley though.  It’s named after Sir Shirley, or whatever his name was, that lived there back in Lord Nelson’s time.  It’s now eautifully preserved and dinner is served a few nights a week.  It’s very popular as a spot to watch the sunset.  We are going to go there on Sunday with Christopher.   Very charming spot.  However, one walk up the hill is enough.  On Sunday… taxi.On our way back, Christopher and I opted for the cross country route down to the water.  It was a dramatic walk with some pretty steep scrambles.  Antigua is a fairly dry island and this part, in the lee of the prevailing winds, is particularly dry.  The vegetation works hard to stay alive.On our way to pick Christopher up at the airport Brenda and I took the scenic route through a part of the island that is more lush. It’s not exactly rainforest but much less dry.  It’s on the eastern part of the island which is more mountainous and much steeper.  As the trade winds blow off of the ocean they tend to drop their moisture in that area.   Much more lush than where Pandora is tied up.We stopped at a farm stand for some banannas.  We passed some beautiful beaches.  This “pirate ship” was moored off of the beach.  I couldn’t figure out how there could be so many on board a boat that looked, well, so “piratie”
and why it was so oddly moored by many lines off of the beach.   I realized this morning when looking more closely at the photo that it was a photo shoot.  Note the boom microphone in this closeup.  “Ahoy matie, brace the yardarm or I’ll keelhaul ya!”Oh, and speaking of being “keel hauled” or “raked over the coals” as it were. I should also update you on the status of my SSB radio quandry.  Well, we FINALLY got to the bottom of it yesterday when the electronics guy was on board  yet AGAIN.  I have been repeatedly saying that the tuner, the ONLY part of the unit that hasn’t been replaced, might not be working correctly and he, repeatedly insisted that it was.  Well, both he and I contacted the manufacturer and, what do you know, it’s not working correctly.    Surprise!

So a new tuner on the way finally but now without a LOT of hours wasted trying to figure things out and finally learning that a relatively simple solution is at hand.  Well, we will have to see how it turns out when the tuner comes in.  What a pain.  This “mole” has been a real bear to kill.

Never mind on that for now.  Christopher is here and we are happy.   Really happy.

As Christopher is so busy at work he NEVER reads our blogs.  Perhaps we will have a marathon reading to him today so we can catch him up.   Perhaps not.

Snorkling is probably a better idea.

With that, I’ll sign off for now.  Time to make coffee.

 

Yes, we are still in Antigua and will be here for at least another week.  And, that’s because our son Christopher will be arriving here tomorrow.  After months of anticipating the POSSIBILITY that he would be able to take some time off and that he’d be able to visit us in the Caribbean, it’s actually happening.

So, here we are, in our third week in Antigua a country that I actually never imagined visiting until a year or so ago.  Such is life.  I guess you never know until you know.

Yesterday we had a big “first” when we successfully, well mostly successfully, completed a Mediterranean Moor with Pandora.  A Med Moor, as it’s generally known, is not commonly practiced in the U.S., where marinas have individual slips that you tie up in, involves approaching a bulkhead, dropping an anchor about three boat lengths away and then backing down until the stern is a foot of so from the bulkhead.  And here’s where it really gets interesting, this is all done between boats that are also moored in the same way on either side.

Brenda and I had never done this before so we really didn’t know what to expect. My plan was to put the tender, Pandora’s dinghy, off of the bow so when we backed down it would be out of the way and not likely to be sandwiched between us and the two boats that we were going to tie up between.    Normally, when we anchor, Brenda handles the helm and I deal with the anchor but in this case we opted to have her manage the anchor, deploying it as I backed toward the bulkhead.

Our friend Bill, from Kalunamoo, came along to help in case we ran into trouble. Fortunately, there were also a number of hands on the dock to help guide us in. And, to make things even more interesting, we would be backing into the wind.

When everything and everyone seemed to be ready we approached.  Brenda dropped the anchor on my “command” and we began backing toward the bulkhead.   Looking good, well at least until a few moments later when the anchor chain began dropping into the dink, that was now trailing off of the bow, instead of into the water.  Oops.  I had not anticipated that problem and the moment the chain began to get tight, compliments of chain piling up in the dink, I lost control of the boat.  In spite of the thrust from my bow thruster, we were dropping down toward one of the boats , also moored on either side of our intended path.

I increased the reverse power and was able to continue making progress as the chain was pulled out of the dink, really, really slowly.  By this time we were up against another boat but the “hands” were able to fend off, mostly.

One thing lead to another and we were finally able to get close to the bulkhead and were tied up.  No loss of life, or paint.  Success, if not an elegant approach.

Now we know.  Don’t let the dink trail off of the bow.  Problem solved. Well until the next time we have to do a Med Moor, which will be today when we move over to English Harbor and Nelson’s dockyard.   Wish us luck.

Here’s Pandora all snug in her berth.   You can see that pesky anchor line trailing off of the bow to keep her off of the bulkhead. The reason we decided to come into the marina was to have the electrician finish up the SSB installation.  It’s about done with a bit of “mopping up” this morning. It’s hard to believe that a DC-DC converter this big is needed to power the SSB. It’s the size of a shoe box and costs as much as a the designer shoes that would fit in that box.Our neat and tidy Pandora was trashed for the day. And from the “gift that keeps on giving department” the electrician now tells me that the AIS that was damaged in the power surge of the “roasting” SSB can’t be fixed so he has ordered from Europe.  Oh great.   This SSB had better work as it’s costing a bundle to get in place and operational.  “Can you hear me now?”

Anyway, enough of that for now.   How about I get to the title of this post, “The Colors of Antigua”.

I decided to go for a short walk this morning to take some photos around the marina.  The other day I posted a photo of a remarkable caterpillar that I had spied nearby.  These beautiful yellow flowered bushes are a favorite food for the Pseudosphinx tetrio moth.  When it’s done being a caterpillar, it’s a big moth although I can’t vouch for that from first hand experience. So, as you’d expect, it comes from a very large caterpillar, some 6″-8″ long.  Very colorful.  I generally think that a lowly caterpillar becomes a much more beautiful butterfly.  Not in this case, from my perspective at least, the moth is a step down from it’s predecessor.  I have always loved turtles and a lady in the marina office has a number of young red footed tortoises in a basin with her at work.  She says that she breeds them in captivity and that these are about 8 weeks old.   These babies are small , about 4″ now but can grow to nearly 16″ long when adult.  I do wonder about the “breeding” part as it is reported that over collecting has made this species nearly extinct.  It is wide ranging in northern South America and I guess the islands too. This one didn’t seem to be very upset being held by me for his/her beauty shot. Remarkably, they have red feet.   I am partial to these, palms?  Paradise plants? Whatever they are called.  They look so exotic.
Hibiscus have always been one of my favorite flowers and this one, with it’s delicate fringes, is really stunning.  We generally have at least one variety on our porch for the summer at home. Mahi-Mahi are common in these waters and on restaurant menus.   A charter fishing boat came in mid day yesterday with a large catch.  The biggest one was over 4′ long.  Their colors are brilliant while they are alive but still pretty dramatic when they “aren’t”. There’s a boat in the marina that has had workers swarming all over it for weeks now.  They refinished the dink that’s stored on the bow.  What a stunner, the “mother ship” is too, like a piece of fine furniture, but it’s covered with masking tape and brown paper while it’s paint is touched up so sorry, no picture.   The amount of attention given to the larger boats, all of which have full time crew, is impressive.  Look at this beautiful awning to keep the sun off of all the expensive varnish.  It must take hours to put it up and remove it when they want to go sailing.  This surely suggests that this boat spends a lot of time tied up.

Note the kayak nearby on the dock, complete with it’s own custom cover.  That’s attention to detail.  It just wouldn’t do to have a garishly colored kayak on deck would it?Antiguans, if that’s what they call themselves, love to paint their homes bright colors.   Even the most humble homes are painted in fun colors. A few nights ago Brenda and I had a drink at Pillars, in Nelson’s Dockyard.  It’s a lovely spot with curtains blowing in the breeze, completing the ethereal moment as the sun set behind the hills. Tied up to the dock in front of the restaurant were two ocean rowing boats.   These were participants in an annual race, the Atlantic Challenge, from the Canary Islands off Africa, I think, and 3,000 miles from Antigua where they finish.   Billed as the toughest rowing race in the world, some 30 competitors SLOWLY make their way over a period of months, they left in December and it’s now March, to complete the course.  Win or loose, you win if you can make it all the way, I would think.   Talisker Whiskey is the sponsor and that’s a good thing as the competitors will surely need a stiff drink after completing their journey.

The boats are only about 20′ long and seem impossibly small to cross an ocean.  Tiny though they are, they are plenty high tech, complete with all manner of electronics and solar power.  However, you still have to just row and row and row.   And this one had photos of children plastered all over, probably as a reminder to keep rowing and not let them down. IT TAKES A VERY LONG TIME to row across the Atlantic and there were goose barnacles hanging off of the bow to prove it.  I’ll bet that there are plenty below the waterline too.  I’ll bet that really helps the boat go faster.  Not.So, there you have it, some of the colors of Antigua.  However, the continuing saga of Pandora’s SSB suggests that the “color” that she’s inspiring is more “green” with the hours piling up on this job.

Oh well, as my dad used to say “It’s only money.”  Yes, and the color green.

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.