{"id":6822,"date":"2017-03-18T07:56:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-18T12:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6822"},"modified":"2017-03-18T07:56:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T12:56:55","slug":"christopher-is-here-and-the-ssb-still-doa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=6822","title":{"rendered":"Christopher is here! And the SSB…still DOA."},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Saturday and we are tied up in Nelson’s Dockyard and still in Antigua. \u00a0 We have some pretty impressive big boat neighbors. \u00a0Interestingly, when we dropped our anchor to back up to the bulkhead, our anchor snagged the chain on one of the other boats. \u00a0Great. \u00a0We 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”. \u00a0 I’ll bet it’s nearly always the case given the number of snags and anchors running every which way.\u00a0\"\"Our son Christopher arrived a few days ago from San Francisco for a visit. \u00a0 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. \u00a0Is it really winter? \u00a0Funny, we haven’t noticed.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Anyway, he’s here and we are really enjoying his time with us. \u00a0Here he is catching up on his reading. \u00a0Nice view. \u00a0\"\"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. \u00a0If you look really really closely, there’s Panodra…\"\"Now wait, I’ll zoom in. \u00a0That’s better. \u00a0She’s on the right with her stern too the bulkhead.\u00a0\"\"Christopher tollerated his dad. \u00a0“Chris, pose for a photo op”. \u00a0\"\"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. \u00a0Not a lot to eat.\u00a0\"\"A mother and her kid, that’s what they are called, did their best to keep ahead of us. \u00a0The “kid” complained a lot. \u00a0Not sure if it was because of us or if his mother was walking too fast. \u00a0“Maaam, I’m hot. You are walking too fast. \u00a0Who are those people and why are they following us?” \u00a0“Just keep quiet and eat your cud.”\"\"Along the way, a century plant. \u00a0The flower stalk is impossibly large. \u00a0I believe that the plant dies after it flowers but don’t think that it actually takes a century to get that big. \u00a0If it does. \u00a0Guess what Horatio? \u00a0That seedling you saw when you ran your dockyard here. \u00a0Well, it finally flowered. \u00a0 Nice place, by the way.\u00a0\"\"Shirley Heights is named after some guy. \u00a0Not my mother Shirley though. \u00a0It’s named after Sir Shirley, or whatever his name was, that lived there back in Lord Nelson’s time. \u00a0It’s now eautifully preserved and dinner is served a few nights a week. \u00a0It’s very popular as a spot to watch the sunset. \u00a0We are going to go there on Sunday with Christopher. \u00a0 Very charming spot. \u00a0However, one walk up the hill is enough. \u00a0On Sunday… taxi.\"\"On our way back, Christopher and I opted for the cross country route down to the water. \u00a0It was a dramatic walk with some pretty steep scrambles. \u00a0\"\"Antigua is a fairly dry island and this part, in the lee of the prevailing winds, is particularly dry. \u00a0The 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. \u00a0It’s on the eastern part of the island which is more mountainous and much steeper. \u00a0As the trade winds blow off of the ocean they tend to drop their moisture in that area. \u00a0 Much more lush than where Pandora is tied up.\"\"We stopped at a farm stand for some banannas. \u00a0\"\"We passed some beautiful beaches. \u00a0\"\"This “pirate ship” was moored off of the beach. \u00a0I couldn’t figure out how there could be so many on board a boat that looked, well, so “piratie”
\nand why it was so oddly moored by many lines off of the beach. \u00a0 \"\"I realized this morning when looking more closely at the photo that it was a photo shoot. \u00a0Note the boom microphone in this closeup. \u00a0“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. \u00a0Well, we FINALLY got to the bottom of it yesterday when the electronics guy was on board \u00a0yet AGAIN. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0Well, both he and I contacted the manufacturer and, what do you know, it’s not working correctly. \u00a0 \u00a0Surprise!<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0Well, we will have to see how it turns out when the tuner comes in. \u00a0What a pain. \u00a0This “mole” has been a real bear to kill.<\/p>\n

Never mind on that for now. \u00a0Christopher is here and we are happy. \u00a0 Really happy.<\/p>\n

As Christopher is so busy at work he NEVER reads our blogs. \u00a0Perhaps we will have a marathon reading to him today so we can catch him up. \u00a0 Perhaps not.<\/p>\n

Snorkling is probably a better idea.<\/p>\n

With that, I’ll sign off for now. \u00a0Time to make coffee.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Saturday and we are tied up in Nelson’s Dockyard and still in Antigua. \u00a0 We have some pretty impressive big boat neighbors. \u00a0Interestingly, when we dropped our anchor to back up to the bulkhead, our anchor snagged the chain on one of the other boats. \u00a0Great. \u00a0We will now have the pleasure of hiring […]<\/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-6822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6822","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=6822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6842,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6822\/revisions\/6842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}