{"id":12496,"date":"2022-03-30T15:18:45","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T20:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=12496"},"modified":"2022-03-30T15:18:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T20:18:45","slug":"back-in-antigua-it-feels-like-home-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=12496","title":{"rendered":"Back in Antigua, it feels like home again."},"content":{"rendered":"

Brenda and I did an overnight run from St Lucia to Antigua, arriving here yesterday, Tuesday.\u00a0 We had a very fast passage, making the nearly 200 miles in just over 24 hours at a speed of just under 8kts, respectable by any measure for a fully loaded cruising boat in wind under 20kts.<\/p>\n

After leaving St Lucia we passed Martinique, then Dominica and finally, Guadeloupe, a passage that took a single day after spending two months heading the other way.\u00a0 Not a lot to show from the passage except that it was nice to see the islands as we sailed by.\"\"As Pandora cuts through the waves, we scare up a lot of flying fish and the seabirds have learned to fly over the waves just in front of our bow to catch the fish that jump out of the water, as they scurry out of our way.\u00a0 This is a brown booby, an impressive bird that lives just about all of it’s life offshore, only going to land to lay eggs.\u00a0 \"\"This may be another shot of a booby but I am not sure.\u00a0 I could not find a photo that matched but I think it’s another species. \"\"We also passed a large school of very enthusiastic dolphins that leapt from the water, but they are notoriously difficult to photograph.\u00a0 Sorry, no images.<\/p>\n

I’ve mentioned that I am upgrading our house battery bank to lithium in May when I take Pandora to a boatyard in Deltaville VA.\u00a0 At that time I am also going to have an attachment point welded to the radar arch so that I can add a wind generator, something that I have wanted to do for years as a way to boost our charging options.<\/p>\n

While our solar array works great on a sunny day, the sun doesn’t shine at night and the batteries take a big hit from the large refrigeration load along with all the instruments when we are on passage.\u00a0 With a wind generator, we can take advantage of stronger winds that happen at night and also on cloudy, less settled days to help boost the batteries.<\/p>\n

I am also told that lithium batteries also take a charge faster than more traditional lead-acid batteries so details to come on that front.<\/p>\n

It’s nice to be back in Antigua after being away for a few months.\u00a0 Yesterday afternoon, when I went to check in with customs and immigration, I saw several folks that stopped to say hi.\u00a0 It is nice to feel welcome.<\/p>\n

I’ll be focused on setting up events for the arrival of the Salty Dawg Rally fleet next fall and hope to have all of the events scheduled before I leave the island for the season.<\/p>\n

Later this week one of the biggest events of the season, the Classic Yacht Regatta,<\/a> begins here in Antigua, with several days of racing that brings out out a large selection of classic sailing yachts of all sizes.<\/p>\n

My favorite of all is Columbia, a reproduction of a classic fishing boat.\u00a0 Columbia was built a few years ago in FL.\u00a0 I was fortunate to get aboard for a tour a few years ago and wrote about her in this post.<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been focused on getting aboard her for some racing for the last few years and today I was introduced to her captain by my friend Franklyn, the commodore of the Antigua Yacht Club.\u00a0 Seth, the captain, was very nice but said that he wouldn’t know for sure until later tomorrow if there is a slot for me.\u00a0 Fingers crossed.\u00a0 it would be awesome to be aboard for three days of racing on such a spectacular yacht.\u00a0\"\"And, speaking of schooners.\u00a0 Ashanti, at over 100′ long, is a beauty and I was aboard her as well back in 2018 for a Tot club event which I wrote about in this post<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0The owner is a Tot Club member and has offered to again host the group for a Tot on Saturday and Brenda and I are planning to attend, totally!\u00a0 We are also going to the Tot this evening and it will be fun to reconnect with my Tot Club friends.\u00a0 \"\"It is rare to see so many wonderful boats in one place and the Classics is one that draws them.\u00a0 I walked the docks today for a gander.<\/p>\n

The schooner on the left is one that I have toured and written about<\/a> in the past.\u00a0 Her name is Mary Rose, the last schooner built by the great designer and yacht builder, Nat Herreshoff, known as the “wizard of Bristol”. <\/span>\"\"The yachts that pack the marina are certainly not all classics and there are quite a few that are so huge that they dwarf even the biggest sailboats.\u00a0 \u00a0 One of the largest is the Mayan Queen at 306′ long.\u00a0 Her “beach club”, as the sunning area on the stern of yachts is referred to, gives a good feel for her scale.\u00a0 Imagine how large the interior space is?\"\"It is fitting that this one is called Alpha Nero, as the is “alpha” in every way and no slouch at 270′.\u00a0 She is reported to belong to a Russian.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, nearly all of the yachts owned by Russians have fled the area as of weeks ago as sanctions have been levied on many of them in reprisal for the invasion of Ukraine.\u00a0 \"\"An anchor and chain is a huge weight on a boat and one way to address this is to store your yacht’s anchor on a tender.\u00a0 This boat is designed to carry the anchor for a maxi race boat.\u00a0 \u00a0They deploy the anchor and pass the chain to the “mother ship”.\u00a0 \"\"And, they won’t have to wait long for the anchor to be delivered with over 1,000 hp.\u00a0 \u00a0Yup, another Russian owns this boat.\u00a0 The boat that they tender is Scorpios, a 125′ racing yacht, one of the fastest in the world, launched in 2021.\u00a0 Impressive graphics.\"\"And, speaking of tenders, how about Garson, a 21o’ long yacht designed to carry around “toys” that you don’t want cluttering up your “mother ship”.\u00a0 \u00a0I’ve seen her before. \"\"<\/span>And, any yacht worth it’s station in life needs to have a proper tender.\u00a0 This sort is referred to as a “limousine tender” for good reason. \"\"She belongs to Limitless, which is what your bank account would need to look like if you owned a yacht like this.\u00a0 \u00a0She is 315′ long, again, huge.\u00a0 \u00a0Her owner is Leslie Wexner, the founder of The Limited.\u00a0 He acquired a number of other iconic brands including Abercrombie and Fitch and Victoria’s Secret.\u00a0 \u00a0Note the open area on the starboard quarter.\u00a0 That is the “garage” for the tender pictured above. \"\"A huge amount of work goes into keeping a yacht in, well, “yachting trim”.\u00a0 These guys were washing the side of a huge sailing yacht today.\u00a0 \u00a0This tender carries it’s own water supply, kept full from the dock by a large hose. I guess that by carrying their own water they can have an adequate supply even if the pressure from shore isn’t enough to spray high on the hull.\u00a0 Why didn’t I think of that?\"\"And, with a large yacht, you need large fenders, and lots of them.\u00a0 Notice the ones laying sideways on the dock.\u00a0 A rigger is working on one of their forestays and roller furler that is really, really long.\u00a0 \"\"Most of the yachts here have been built fairly recently but not this beauty, Talitha, 271′ long, built in 1930 for the founder of Packard Cars.\u00a0 \u00a0She is currently owned Mark Getty, the son of JP Getty.\u00a0 \u00a0Interestingly, Mark Getty founded Getty Images, a clearinghouse for professional photographs used worldwide. It is clear that Mark has fabulous taste.\u00a0 \u00a0Boy, would I love to get aboard her for a tour. \"\"Ok, one more photo of a sailing yacht that is a big contrast to all the ladies that are in town for the Classic Yacht Regatta.\u00a0 She is the maxi racer named “Controlling The Animal, L4”, a mouthful of a name, launched in 2021.\u00a0 She is one of the fastest racing yachts in the world and she really looks the part. \"\"It’s great to be back in Antigua again, where I made landfall back in November.\u00a0 There is no shortage of magnificent yachts to look at, that’s for sure.
\n\"\"Tonight Brenda and I will be attending a meeting of the Tot Club and it will be fun to reconnect with friends.\u00a0 Perhaps I can get a replacement membership card to put in my new wallet, when I finally get it.\u00a0 Remember that lost wallet, the one I lost when I was in Martinique?\u00a0 So far, nobody has tried to use any of the credit cards that I lost.\u00a0 \u00a0Fingers crossed that they won’t…<\/p>\n

Over the last few months we have been to some amazing places and it’s hard to believe that our time in the Caribbean this season is just about over.\u00a0 One thing for sure is that the Classic Yacht Regatta will be great fun and it’s good to be back in Antigua again, our Caribbean “home” away from home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brenda and I did an overnight run from St Lucia to Antigua, arriving here yesterday, Tuesday.\u00a0 We had a very fast passage, making the nearly 200 miles in just over 24 hours at a speed of just under 8kts, respectable by any measure for a fully loaded cruising boat in wind under 20kts. After leaving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12496"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12518,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12496\/revisions\/12518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}