Well, after sending two weeks in Marigot, St Lucia, it was time to begin our run north to Antigua.   It was a real treat to spend time at the lovely resort attached to the marina and to enjoy the views of Pandora with the ocean in the distance.  I took this phot from the bow of Che, the huge cat that I have mentioned in past posts.  It was wonderful to watch the fiery sunsets every evening.  And see the colors change with the minutes.  It’s amazing how quickly it gets dark every night. Yesterday, Brenda and I sailed less than ten miles north from Marigot to Rodney Bay where we went into yet another marina to spend two days with our friends Bill and Maureen of Kalunamoo, marking the beginning of our run north and the beginning of the end of our season in the Caribbean.  The marina staff was nice enough to put us next to each other on the dock. You may recall that Bill and Maureen were our mentors back in 2012 when we made our first trip down the ICW on our way to the Bahamas.   They proceeded us in the Caribbean by a few years, but ultimately we followed them again, so here we are.

We will begin our near 200 mile run north on Monday with  an overnight to Antigua beginning tomorrow morning, Monday.As the wind is nearly always from the east, we have spent the entire season as we have headed south on a port tack and now that we are turning to the north, we will be on a starboard tack.  This will also be the case for the 200 mile from Antigua to the USVI where I will join the Homeward Bound Rally in May.

I expect that we will continue on a starboard tack much of the way until Pandora is north of the Bahamas on our passage to the US.  As Pandora moves farther north we will encounter the SW prevailing winds on the US East Coast that are dominant.

We’d prefer to move to Antigua doing short 70 or so mile jumps over a three or four day period, but the wind will shift back to a more NE direction on Tuesday and we really want to avoid being hard on the wind for the nearly 200 mile run to Antigua.  Sure, we could wait but that means being here for perhaps another week and that’s too long.

This time of year the trades begin to shift to a slightly more ESE direction so it’s generally easier to head north than south, unlike earlier in the season when ENE was the norm, favoring southbound runs.

The wind won’t be particularly strong, at about 15kts with gusts to 20, so we should have a decent run and I am guessing that it will take about 26-31 hours to go the 185 miles.  Along the way we will pass Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe so if we decide that we want to stop, there are plenty of options.

I will, as always, have my tracker transmitting our position so feel free to follow along.  See the link “where in the world is Pandora” on the top of this page.

We really enjoyed our time at the Marigot Bay Resort and I am looking forward to organizing a rendezvous next March with the Dawgs as spending a week or two there is a nice way to break up the season.

In addition to the lovely pool that is the centerpiece of the resort, there is a very nice spa where Brenda spent some time.   The entrance to the spa area is, I guess, best described as Zen with a plunge pool near the entrance.  I did wonder if anyone had ever sat in the two white chairs.  If you prefer a small plunge pool with a water feature, this is for you.They also have a steam room so you can get all hot and then jump into the nearby pool.  And, all of this is available to folks on the docks and moorings.  Such a deal.

The day before we headed out to Rodney Bay, we rented a car with Stephanie and Jim to tour the island.  To say that driving on the left on those narrow and winding roads was challenging, doesn’t begin to do justice to driving in St Lucia.  It’s a bit hair-raising.

Along with a number of the other islands in the eastern Caribbean, St Lucia has an active volcano.  Most of the evidence of what’s happening down deep in the earth is the presence of hot springs and steam vents.   This spot looks really nasty and nothing can grow.   The smell is a strong odor of sulfur.  Not a place I’d want to have a picnic. I understand that the venting steam is a near permanent fixture of the area. The island has been volcanically active for millions of years.  In past millenniums, violently so as evidenced by the pitons, the cones of long extinct volcanos.  These formations are all that is left after the softer outer parts of the structure weathered away and left the hard igneous rock.  This view from an overlook along the winding, switchback road.  Of course, what’s an overlook without a couples photo?We visited a chocolate factory and store.  What a variety, including chocolate infused gin.  And Brenda, being a gin girl, had to get a bottle. The product displays were in very cleverly modified steel shipping containers.    Below, in their restaurant, we had coffee and a snack. Later, we had lunch at Ladera, a spot overlooking the Pitons.  It is perhaps the best view of any place we have ever had a meal.    A lovely open air spot, high above the water. The view of the few yachts on moorings, in more than 100′ of water, far below.  Zoom in on the one big yacht and you can see that it is Excellence, owned by an American, Herb Chambers.  He owns a slew of automobile dealerships in the North East, US.  She is a spectacular yacht, one of two that he owns.  This one was built in Germany a few years ago.  She can be yours for a week for about $100k.

Of course, if you split the charter with another couple, like the group in this video, it’s half price, a mere $50k plus expenses and tip.   I can tell you, if I had the coin, this boat would be on my list. The owner lives on the CT River not far from our club in Essex.  However, this boat never comes up the river, spending it’s time in the Caribbean and likely the Med in the summer.  His smaller one, a mere 150′ long, is also named Excellence.  Not bad Herb. Well done.

After lunch we visited one of the many beautiful waterfalls on the island.  This one, diamond falls, is not far from the sulphur vents so the water spilling over the falls is warm and mineral laden.   The water stained the rocks and was a dark grey.   We were told that the color of the water changes day to day as the leaching of water from the vents evolves.
Brenda and Stephanie enjoy each other’s company.  Just down stream from the falls are a series of mineral bath pools.  We all donned bathing suits and enjoyed time soaking.  It was nice to be there alone as the crowds in past visits were pretty large.  Interestingly, the water in the pool was clear during this visit and last time, a coco brown.  So ends the southbound journey of Pandora for this season.   Even though we are thousands of miles from home, it still feels like the end.

Perhaps I’ll close with a photo of Pandora, under sail, taken for us by a friend.  Of course, you know that we were sailing south, because we were on a port tack. So much for that, it’s starboard tack from now on.  Well, mostly…

Oh yea, a special thanks to my friend Maureen, yes that Maureen, to point out that I really messed up the whole port and starboard tack thing.  I fixed it…I think…

Yes, I know that there are still a few typos.    Such is life…

Over the years we have been cruising, especially the last ten years when we spent much of each winter afloat, we have increasingly been focused on having Internet connectivity where ever we are.

Back before I retired in 2012 we spent several time in Maine most summers and as cell coverage in much of Maine was and still is terrible so we were always trying to find Wi-Fi that we could tap into.

Early on, we put a Wi-Fi booster aboard with the hope of tapping into routers that were too far away but we only had limited success on that front, as more and more routers required a password.  And to get that code, we needed to visit, eat a meal or pay for time in an Internet Cafe.

When we were in Cuba in 2016 this problem was particularly acute as there was no way for us to “phone home” and the only way to communicate with family during the two months that we were there was by purchasing scratch off paper passes for computer time in a Cuban government hotel.  These “passes” had a scratch off area that revealed a code to be into a browser on a computer terminal.   It was supremely frustrating and the speed,  really slow.  Think AOL dial-up speeds.  Just doing a blog post, assuming that all the text was written prior to logging on, often took 90 minutes and three “passes”.  And, getting these passes was often very difficult as they were in limited supply and many users were hording them, just in case.

So years later, as we expanded our cruising horizons to the Bahamas and now the Caribbean, the quest for connectivity continues to be a focus and while access is a lot better, our expectations have increased faster than the connectivity available will allow.

Most recently we purchased a new phone and installed a simcard for Digicel a local carrier that is supposed to give us data coverage in most of the islands of the Caribbean.   It worked perfectly for about 6 weeks but after that I was having trouble getting it “topped up” as the instructions were all in French and while I tried to get things resolved, it finally shut down for lack of payment.  However, today I see that my card was charged for the monthly fee so perhaps things will get better.  Details to come on that front but I am not all that confident…

The point in all of this is that while connectivity is better than ever, well, it’s not that simple and requires jumping through some pretty amazing hoops to keep the information flowing while we move from island to island.  Some of our friends just purchase simcards for each island and swap them out as they move around.

For the last two weeks we have had the luxury of being on a dock here at Marigot Bay Resort, enjoying visits to the pool, meals out and time with friends that are staying here too.   And, best of all, or at least nice, is excellent wifi, assuming that I am willing to come ashore where the signal is strongest.

Along with all the other amazing things that he is involved in, Elon Musk is well on the way toward establishing satellite based wifi that he is planning to make available anywhere on the planet through his burgeoning Starlink internet program.  It is a very ambitious plan but those who have bet against him in the past have regretted it.

Delivering internet access through fiber optic cables or cellular service has always seemed like a very complicated way to handle things and Starlinks plan of using low orbit satellites just makes sense.

All of this is very confusing and hugely complicated to put into service but the promise of the technology will transform how we stay connected.   I found this video that describes, in very clear terms, why this approach may very well be vastly better than what is available now and the probable impact it will have on marine communications.

The commentary is focused on the megayacht community but it isn’t much of a leap to imagine that there will be applications for smaller yachts in a few years.

Check out this fascinating description of the future.When I think about how things have changed over the last few years, I can only imagine what the future will bring.  I just hope that I will be out on the boat when things really get going.

In the meantime, all I can say is that, all I can say is HELP!  I NEED TO CONNECT!

Elon!  Elon!  Are you listening?  It seems he is…

 

 

It’s hard to believe that our winter of cruising the Caribbean is almost over.   I will admit that Brenda has a somewhat different view of this than I do and is a lot more excited about our flight to the US on April 10th from Antigua.

I like to begin a post with an image that is sort of reflective of what’s going on so here you go.  It’s been hard…chillin.We are spending about two weeks here at the Marigot Bay Resort, tied up at the dock, AC cranking away while we waste water with, sort of, long showers aboard.  Actually, compared to folks on shore, our normal water consumption aboard Pandora is about 15 gallons per day and now on the dock a whopping 30 gallons per day, I’d guess.

Anyway, it’s a nice cushy change of pace. The view from our cockpit is, well, tropical.And while we are spending about $70/day on the dock, the visitors in the hotel are paying about $500/night.   Such a deal! To be able to enjoy the pool while paying about the same cost as a mooring in Martha’s Vineyard is pretty appealing.   Brenda has actually been doing a bit of weaving poolside. Not a bad spot to spend an afternoon. We have met some really interesting folks here including the crew of a nearby mega yacht, a huge catamaran, the third largest in the world.  We have enjoyed some fun evenings aboard Pandora and their digs. How about a singalong?  Her cockpit is wider than Pandora is long.  Big frigging boat. Other “local color” includes a little bird that visits us most days for a snack of banana.  Brenda tells me he/she is a Lesser Antillean Bull Finch.Just to prove that the visitor is really aboard Pandora with our dink “HOPE” in the background, a sort of “proof of life” shot. No wait, this is even better.  He made himself at home in our cabin.  Brenda wasn’t happy about that.  Alas, gone pre-poop.   GO AWAY! This is just so BULLFINCH. The harbor is a very popular spot for party boats to tour.  They come in with music blaring and well lubricated passengers.  I wonder if they have enough life jackets aboard.  Hmm…In the interest of full reporting, chill though I may be, life aboard Pandora here isn’t without it’s mishaps.  The most recent “insult” was compliments of some sloppy docking by a 40′ Sunsail charter boat that tied up near us for one night.  He did a pretty good job of coming in but his inexperience showed when he left and clipped one of my stanchions with his grill.    Fortunately, the damage was limited to the single one.  I was able to bend it, sort of, back in place but it’s clear I’ll need to source a new one when I get home as the top is a full 2″ out of plumb.  And, it should be fun to find a part that was sourced in Finland in 2006 or so.

I have the contact info from the skipper, from the UK who says he will pay for a new one.   I know what you are thinking.  “Good luck with that Bob!”   Yup, we will see how that goes.  At least he didn’t scratch the paint.  No wait, that’s already been done by someone else.    Oh, the bliss of the cruising life and yet another reason to love the charter set.   At least we aren’t in the BVI where they are EVERYWHERE!When I return home I will only be there for about three weeks before I head back to Antigua with my friend Craig.  We will spend about ten days working our way north to the USVI and then will join the Salty Dawg Homeward Bound rally to the US and make landfall in VA where she will receive her lithium battery., house bank, upgrade.

I have mentioned in past posts that one of her three fuel tanks has a leak so I will be down about 1/3 of her fuel for the run home.  With that in mind, I am considering purchasing a collapsible fuel bladder that holds 52 gallons.   This will more than make up for the missing fuel from the leaking tank and when empty, it rolls up into a small package.  It isn’t cheap but being able to avoid another half dozen yellow 5 gallon jugs that sit in the locker empty much of the time, taking up lots of space, is very appealing.

Additionally, once I have that leaking tank back in service again, the bladder will give me additional capacity to make long runs without worrying so much about running out of fuel.   It is larger than it looks but full of fuel it will fit it into one of my vented cockpit lockers.  I can also strap it on the deck under the dink if I choose.   I was told about the use of bladders by the captain of a megayacht who told me that big yachts use this approach to carry more fuel when they have to make long runs that go beyond their fuel limit. One issue, if I put it in the cockpit locker, is how I will transfer the fuel, up hill, into my fuel tanks.  If it’s on deck, gravity will do the trick but below I will need a pump.  After checking a number of sources, this lithium powered pump seems like a good option.  It’s not very expensive, pumps 15 gallons a minute and the battery will last about a half hour between charges.   I am also going to look into a 110v option as that might make the most sense so I won’t have to worry about recharging or the battery going flat between uses.

I always worry about running out of fuel on a l0ng run as it seems that the wind is often light and from an unfavorable direction.   With 25% more fuel I can, in theory, run the engine faster and still have enough fuel to get there in less time.

And finally, in keeping with my “hey, join us for some fun” attitude, I have organized a happy hour at one of the local watering holes for tonight and invited everyone in the marina, cruisers and the crews of some mega-yachts to join us.

It will be fun with a nice mix of folks to meet.   I guess that’s all for now.  So, as our season cruising in the Caribbean moves to a close, coming to you from St Lucia, just chillin.

Tomorrow Brenda and I hope to head south to St Lucia, our next to last stop before we begin thinking about the end of the season and a return to CT.   I say “we hope” as the wind is expected to be a bit “sporty” which will make for a difficult run but it’s not all that far, about 25 miles. And the wind will be from the beam so Pandora should ride fairly well with a reef in the main, or perhaps two.

An additional complicating fact is that we have to have a rapid Covid test before we leave here and can’t arrive at the marina more than 24 hours after testing.  We can’t wait till tomorrow to see what the wind is like as the pharmacy isn’t open on Sunday.   While the wind should be less than the winds today, gusting near 30kts, it will still be in the high teens with gusts into the 20s, more wind than I’d like.   That’s not particularly fun so we will have to see how it goes.  Fortunately, bad or not so bad, it’s not all that far to where we will be in the lee of St Lucia.

At this point, Brenda and I are pretty much ready for some pampering at the Marigot Bay Resort, our destination, and are also looking forward to being in a more protected area out of the relentless winds that we’ve seen since we arrived in St Anne.

In the evenings the wind is generally a bit calmer and we always enjoy watching the sunsets.  A few nights ago the view from Pandora’s cockpit was particularly dramatic following a squall that had passed us earlier in the evening.

Behold the glory of nature!  You can almost hear the choir of angels belting out a dramatic chorus.   Always on the lookout for great cloud photos, I summitted this one to the Cloud Appreciation Society to be considered as one of their “Cloud a Day” images.  They share a photo of a cloud every day to their 55,000+ members.  I have submitted a number of photos this season and most were rejected.  However, I learned a few weeks ago that they will be sending out one of my images next Sunday, my second.  When you consider how many members there are and they can only use 365 photos a year, getting mine chosen is a pretty big deal.

We are now into the last month of our cruising season here and we began talking about what we would do with Pandora at the end of the season, shortly after arriving in Antigua.   I was only about half of the way to Antigua last fall when I decided that I needed a break from the slog back and forth and we thought taking her to Trinidad made sense.

That all seemed like a good idea but as we began to think about all the details and costs associated with having someone else do so many of the jobs on Pandora it began to be less of an obvious decision.   I won’t go into all the details that went into our decision but Pandora’s heading north yet again.

So, off we head tomorrow, I hope, to Marigot Bay resort for some luxury time on the dock at a four star resort, time at the pool and to enjoy some meals out.  All, while the AC hums away aboard Panodra and we have unlimited water, hot and cold.

We’ve been there before and for the budget minded, taking a mooring for $30/day gives you the run of the place.  We are going to splurge and go on the dock at about $1/ft per day.  It’s still a steal and less than a mooring most anywhere in New England.  They even have room service on the dock and I expect good wifi.  Movie time anyone?  Take a look at this place?We also hope head a bit farther south to Bequia (pronounced Bekway) for a bit and then return to Marigot in early April where we will leave Pandora for a few weeks.   At that point, both Brenda and I will head back home, open up the house and get the kitchen stuff moved to prepare for the renovation to begin.  New floors, counter tops and painted cabinets are on the list.  It’s going to take a few months to complete the job so we want to get going in early May with the hope that it doesn’t take the entire summer to complete the job.

After a few weeks in CT, I will head back to St Lucia in late April or early May to rejoin Pandora and begin the run north.   My friend Craig will fly back with me and we will make our way north to where we will hook up Alex, my other crew for the run north with the Rally.  The rally is expected to depart from St John this year on May 10th, when we hope to head north to the Chesapeake.

I have mentioned in previous posts that I need to replace the house battery bank and want to upgrade from AGM lead acid to lithium.  This is a fairly big deal as the new batteries will require some different charging equipment and they are also slightly different in dimensions.  The good news is that by replacing the four 8D AGM batteries with Lithium will actually save some 500 lbs and offer us more usable power.

I am told that these batteries, current state of the art, will likely last for longer than I will own the boat, and that assumes that I live to be quite old.  I do hope to live a long time but I am realistic about the number of years I will still be sailing.  Well, perhaps not all that realistic but the good news is that the next owner will have a functional bank with lots of remaining life.

Our time in Martinique has been more than a month and we have seen more of the island than during any other past visit.

A few days ago we rented a car with our friends Jim and Stephanie on Hero.They moved aboard last May and will be sailing the southern Caribbean this coming summer, south of the Hurricane belt and expect to be back in Antigua next November when the fall Rally fleet returns.  Me too…

We visited one of our favorite distilleries, Clement.    It’s quite a place with an elaborate sculpture garden.  As you enter the grounds you are greeted by a dramatic row of palms. As you wander, you pass a reflecting pond.    The sculptures that are placed on the grounds are quite large, like this 8′ tall mask beautifully sited on the edge of the pond. From across the way, the “mask”, in the distance, is framed by this piece. I thought that the siting for this trio was perfect.  I understand that the crops in the distance are rotated between bananas and sugar cane to keep yields high. Another dramatic view was these two 12-15′ high wire pieces.Thinking about that ficus plant you left in your office at the beginning of the pandemic?  I expect that it didn’t fare as well as this one.  And, speaking of “house plants gone wild”, how about this strangling fig?  It’s certainly  living up to it’s name. A display garden, with sugar cane and an old narrow gauge steam engine once used to move freshly cut cane to the factory.  It’s always a rush to process cane as it begins to ferment within hours of being cut.  And, speaking of the factory, this equipment has been long abandoned with production now in nearby modern buildings.  The old steam machinery and distillery are still open for viewing.  These gears once connected a huge steam engine to the cane crushers and other equipment connected by long belts that snaked through the building.

Being around all this exposed equipment must have been hugely dangerous. I read that when working near a cane crushing machine there was always an ax handy just in case someone got their hand in the gears, so that the arm could be swiftly cut off to avoid being fully pulled into the machine and crushed.  What an image.A riot of pipes and pulleys. The huge fermentation vats, each a dozen feet across. Below the building displaying the old factory equipment, a tasting room.   Try all you like at no charge but be prepared to elbow your way to the bar.  Not a lot of social distancing. And some huge warehouses with giant wood barrels for the early aging of the rum.  I have no idea how many barrels one of these holds but they were perhaps 20′ tall.  That’s a lot of rum.Later the rum is transferred into smaller barrels where the rum ages for years and sometimes decades.  A lot of rum being prepared for market. As you can imagine, this sort of production was a source of great wealth and the Clement family was quite well off.  This was the family home up until the middle of of the 20th century.  The place is a picture of elegant tropical living. With beautiful plantings all around.  Of course, their home was up-wind from the factory. We purchased a good stash to share with friends.  “would you care for a tot of rum, imported to the US aboard SV Pandora?”

A friend suggested that we visit the banana museum, and we did.  I’ll admit that I was skeptical but we went anyway and it was very interesting.   I won’t bore you with a litany of how many types there are except to say “I had n0 idea”.

They have a very nice garden with many varieties represented.Well maintained cement pathways winding through a variety of bananas from all over. The views were really beautiful and very lush.On the nearby hillside, many, many bananas.  Bananas that set their fruit in a remarkable spiral. I was struck by the way the fruit grew on this variety.  Sort of like an upside down layer cake.  Many bananas that are only eaten cooked.  Actually, that’s the bulk of the types.  Not sweet.  The type we see in our markets is plantain.   They look like the sweet ones but taste like a raw potato unless cooked.

Some are very tiny.The type that is most commonly grown and the vast bulk sold worldwide are Cavendish.  They are actually clones, all genetically identical and set fruit asexually meaning that they do not need to be pollinated and never develop seeds.

Each stalk is individually wrapped in a plastic bag to protect them from insects and to promote faster growth.  When the fruit is ripe the part of the plant that bloomed dies and is replaced by a sucker that grows up from the bottom bulb.   Along with the Marigot Bay Resort, we are looking forward to touring St Lucia and again visiting a restaurant that has arguably among the best views anywhere. It overlooks the Pitons, long extinct volcanic cones that rise up dramatically, dominating the landscape. It’s been great visiting Martinique but it’s time to move on.

Let’s hope that the run isn’t all that sporty after all.  Good luck with that!

Here we are, hanging out in St Anne, Martinique, a charming spot that we enjoy visiting.  It’s a very nice rural sort of village with a church that dominates the downtown scene.To call it a “town” perhaps overstates things a bit.  This is just about all of it and after dark, it’s even smaller when many of the businesses close. Saturday, yesterday, is market day, with all sorts of vendors showing their wares. The Caribbean is known as the “spice islands” and the vendors do not disappoint with a huge variety to choose from. The diminutive scale of the town is not proportional to the size of the harbor, perhaps the largest anchorage in the Caribbean, about 1.5 miles long and a half mile wide.  Without a panorama to show all the boats, perhaps a shot of the town dock gives a feel for how many boats there are.  You can’t see the other side, but it’s just as packed.  In the distance, part of the fleet, several hundred strong.  I’d guess that this view is about 10% of the total.  Nearby, perhaps a 30 minute run in a dink at high speed, is La Marin, home to a huge marina with more than 1,000 slips.  The number of charter boats is daunting. Just one of many piers lined with dozens, no hundreds, of cats and monohulls, standing by and ready for you to jump on board and head out on holiday.

Don’t want to head out for a week long charter?  Not to worry, you can charter a motorized floating barbecue for a few hours.  We have seen these in the past but never out and about.  In the wind, nearly 20kts today, I can’t imagine that these would be a whole lot of fun with the  umbrella propelling you along in a way that makes the tiny outboard useless.   Don’t like the idea of a black umbrella in the tropical heat?  There are other colors to choose from.  Problem solved, or as some local T shirts advertise, “Pani Pwoblem”.   I am trying to imagine what happens if the grill won’t light.  “Roberto, just squirt more lighter fluid on those, sort of smoldering coals. ”  Wooosh!!!!  Run away!  Run?   On second thought, SWIM AWAYYYYY!Anyway, St Anne is a nice place to hang out in a less commercial environment and yet still close enough to La Marin to be able to buy most anything you might need.

I’ve been reading about the price of gas in the US going up because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and everyone is stressed by gas over $4.00 a gallon.  Here in Martinique it’s a lot more expensive than that.

I purchased about 5 gallons of gas for the dink and our Honda generator, and the total came to over $50,  about $9/gallon.  So there, you spoiled Americans!   One way to get energy gobbling Americans who seem to think that 15mpg is fine for their family car, would be to charge what the rest of the world does for energy.  That would sell a lot of compact cars, PDQ.   The folks that say they are fine with cars that get terrible mileage often say “I can afford it!” or “You only live once.”  Perhaps they would feel differently if it cost $200 to fill that guzzler up every week.

Anyway, off of my soapbox and back to cruising.

On my way back in my dink from shopping and gassing up in La Marin, I passed these unique sailboats racing in the harbor.  It seems that they are called Yoles boats and there is a very active racing fleet.  These races draw thousands of spectators.   Follow this link for a brief overview of their history.  They have an interesting sprit rig.  It looks like sailing them is pretty energetic with a large crew working hard to keep the boats upright. Note how they are steered.  No fancy rudder, just an oar sticking way out the back.   With all that sail way up in the bow, I expect that the boat has a lot of weather helm so having the long oar way out back will give it a lot of leverage.  Better yet, check out this brief video that gives a pretty good feel for how exciting the races are.And finally, to the topic of this post…

A major focus of cruisers, for many years now, has been connectivity.  The ability to get email and stay in touch with family and friends while “off the grid”.

This has been a perennial frustrati and while connectivity gets better each season, increased expectations always seem to outstrip progress.  In the past, the first question asked by anyone when they arrived in a harbor was “where is the best wifi”.  Now, not so much, with the advent of cellular service that can power a hotspot, offering fairly good access to all but the largest files.  Having said that, the service quality can change hour to hour, sometimes amazing and sometimes less so…

In spite of things getting better it is still amazing how much data you can purchase for a reasonable cost in the islands.  While fuel is hugely expensive, when compared to the US, data is a pretty reasonably priced.   For about $45 we get 70 gigs of data for a month, more than enough for most applications with the possible exception of watching movies every night.

The ability to do a blog post from the boat or a zoom meeting with family, all without worrying constantly about running out of data, is a real improvement over years past.

A standout, and not in a good way, on the data front for us, was when we were in Cuba in 2016 and there was no way to use our cell phone or even have access to wifi any kind for the entire two months that we were there.  Being in Cuba was a wonderful experience overall, but it was hugely tempered by being nearly totally isolated from family for the entire time.

Here we are, a little over 5 years later and we can talk to family every day, sometimes more than once and even use video in some areas.  It’s a huge change and certainly one for the better.

In spite of the vast improvement in connectivity, it can be very frustrating as service quality varies greatly from hour to hour and place to place.  In some areas we can easily watch videos and download the current issues of the NY Times, Wallstreet Journal and Times of London to keep up on the latest news.  In other areas, not so much.

As an example, for this post, I did a search to learn more about the Yoles boats and previewed the video that I embedded above.  A few years ago there was no way that I could do that from aboard Pandora.  Now I can.

Yes, being aboard and cruising for the winter involves accepting that we are not nearly as well connected as we are in the US but after years of searching for Wifi ashore to get even access to email, it is a huge improvement to be able to do most everything we wish from aboard, albeit in moderation lest we run out of the allowable data before the end of the month.

Who knows what the next few years will bring but I am sure that it will be great.  The big question will be if the reality will fall short of our ever expanding desire to remain in touch.

For now, between my Google Fi phone and the Digicell data plan, at least we feel more connected than ever. I can only imagine what lies ahead and hope that we are still cruising to enjoy what will come.

Besides, when temperatures drop to the low double digits at home, it’s nice to be here, spending time swimming and visiting Tiki bars to watch the sun go down, like this one, a few steps from the dinghy dock.

I think I’ll have another Lorraine and make that a 50cl grande.  See, I can speak French after all.  For now, we are making the best of what we have and are enjoying sharing video calls with family, especially our three grandchildren Tori, Rhette and Emme.

It’s so great when we ask, “can you hear me now” and they say YES!  Well, at least some of the time.  It’s better than it was and for now so I’ll take it.

Yippee!

 

 

Of course,