{"id":6721,"date":"2017-03-03T08:45:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T13:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6721"},"modified":"2017-03-03T08:46:09","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T13:46:09","slug":"pinned-down-in-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6721","title":{"rendered":"Pinned down in paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it’s been 10 days since we arrived in Antigua and we HAVE NO IDEA when we will be able to leave. \u00a0Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place as witnessed by the view from our cockpit a few moments ago. \u00a0 \u00a0It’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. \u00a0Pretty dramatic. \u00a0Not a bad spot to be and hey, the decks are salt free.\u00a0\"\"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. \u00a0 The first problem is that the SSB still isn’t installed, although it might be finished by early next week. \u00a0Second, 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.<\/p>\n

This means that it would likely be a CLM (Career Limiting Move) with Brenda if we were to head out into that. \u00a0Unfortunately, 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”. \u00a0 \u00a0 We are hopeful that sometime next week there will be somewhat less wind so we can make the run to Guadaloupe.<\/p>\n

In particular, our interest in visiting that island is because it would be the first on our trip with a tropical rainforest. \u00a0The other islands we have visited are much more arid. \u00a0Guadeloupe 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. \u00a0From our many years of growing orchids and having a greenhouse, we are anxious to see tropical plants in-situ, as it were.<\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s our plan but “whack-a-mole” issues and weather “issues” are winning out for now.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0We are very excited about his visit as we don’t see him very often. \u00a0 We have reserved a slip in English Harbor at Nelson’s Dockyard, a very scenic spot. \u00a0It will be interesting to tie up there as we will be Med-moored. \u00a0 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. \u00a0From our stern we will tie up lines to shore and tighten up everything to keep Pandora straight and off of the bulkhead. \u00a0 \u00a0Good 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.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0Meanwhile, 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”. \u00a0\u00a0I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to hear how all THAT goes.<\/p>\n

And speaking of broken stuff, I decided that I should post some photos of the “mortally wounded” SSB. \u00a0The inside of the unit looks impossibly complex. \u00a0 At first glance, not so bad. \u00a0I see a lot of OK pieces, right?\"\"However, upon closer inspection, the extent of the damage becomes obvious.\u00a0\"\"And that’s not all… \u00a0Oh, so that’s why “can you hear me now?” didn’t get me anywhere.\u00a0\"\"The moral of this story is clearly that salt and electronics don’t mix. \u00a0Frankly, 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. \u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Brenda and I are working hard to keep busy and not focus too much on what all of this costs. \u00a0 \u00a0Enough of that…<\/p>\n

So, the other day we took a bus from the nearby marina into St John for the day. \u00a0When 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. \u00a0Counting the three up in the front, including the driver, the bus had a capacity of 15 when \u00a0the jump seats were folded down into the aisle. \u00a0It was really, really tight and quite an experience.<\/p>\n

St. John is where the cruise ships dock and was very crowded. \u00a0Outside of the immediate dock area it’s much different without all of the T shirt shops.\u00a0\"\"However, once closer, it’s a much more manicured.\u00a0\"\"The ships, and there were three or four of them, loomed over the downtown area. \u00a0\"\"And, of course, plenty of stalls catering to the “I need a souvenir from Antigua, cruise ship crowd”. \u00a0 Not hard to choose, or not, as just about every booth had exactly the same stuff. Not a lot of creativity. \u00a0Perhaps they know their customers and when 10,000 new ones show up each day, know what sells.
\n\"\"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. \u00a0A bit depressing but hey, everybody loves a taste of home I guess. \u00a0And no, we didn’t eat lunch there. \"\"Anyway, it was an interesting day but alas, we came away empty handed. \u00a0No tchotchkes that called out to us. \u00a0Oh well.<\/p>\n

So, pinned down, what next? \u00a0What’s a cruiser to do…<\/p>\n

Here’s an idea. \u00a0Let’s go to a cricket match! \u00a0 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. \u00a0We have never been to a cricket match so it should be an interesting day. \u00a0Stay tuned for scintillating commentary soon.<\/p>\n

Well, I guess that’s about all I have to report for now. \u00a0Perhaps I’ll close with a shot of all the “big girls” in the super yacht marina nearby. \u00a0Lots of brightly lit masts. \u00a0Note the red lights at the top of the masts. \u00a0That means that they are over 100′ tall and need a light to warn off low flying aircraft. \u00a0And, 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. \u00a0She came in yesterday. \u00a0Perhaps I’ll stop by to see if I can borrow a cup of Chivas. \u00a0\"\"So, for now, just pinned down in paradise. \u00a0It could be worse, it could be snowing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it’s been 10 days since we arrived in Antigua and we HAVE NO IDEA when we will be able to leave. \u00a0Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place as witnessed by the view from our cockpit a few moments ago. \u00a0 \u00a0It’s been a dramatic morning with squalls coming through the harbor several […]<\/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-6721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721","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=6721"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6733,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions\/6733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}