{"id":7981,"date":"2017-12-02T17:23:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T22:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=7981"},"modified":"2017-12-02T17:23:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T22:23:25","slug":"antigua-been-there-port-captain-done-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=7981","title":{"rendered":"Antigua?\u00a0 Been there…\u00a0 Port Captain?\u00a0\u00a0 Done that\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a few days in late October before we were scheduled to leave Hampton VA to head to Antigua and anticipation of what was to come was high.\u00a0 Pandora, my Aerodyne 47 sloop was as ready as she would be and my crew was excited.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d been listening to Chris Parker, who I had been working with on each of my trips for the last 6 years, and were trying to make sense of his forecast calling for extremely light winds and how we\u2019d make it the 1,500 miles to Antigua without running out of fuel.\u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately, Pandora is what Chris refers to as an \u201ceasily driven vessel\u201d so I was feeling like it would likely be easier than predicted and besides, there always seems to be more wind than is called for when I am offshore.<\/p>\n

After my previous experience of making the run to the BVIs in January of this year and \u201cenjoying\u201d gale force winds and 20′ waves for nearly 5 days, the prospect of a calm run was very appealing, although, as port captain for the rally, I was feeling real pressure to get to Antigua as soon as possible so that things would be ready when the rest of the fleet arrived.\u00a0 Of course the Dawgs would be looking for a good time and I didn\u2019t want to be the one that fell short. And not to torture the whole “dawg” thing too much, I was really hoping when they got to Antigua, that \u201cthe the Dawgs would like the Dawg food\u201d.<\/p>\n

As far as planning was concerned, with all the hurricane damage in the BVIs in October, just a few weeks prior to departure, the board decided to head to Antigua and with less than a month to plan, it was my responsibility to be sure that those who made the run would have a great time when they arrived.\u00a0\u00a0 It just wouldn\u2019t be fitting if 50+ boats sailed 1,500 miles and didn\u2019t feel \u201cthe love\u201d when they got there.<\/p>\n

Brenda and I visited Antigua for a month last winter and had really enjoyed our visit so I was anxious to do everything possible to make for a great time for the 55 boats that would ultimately make their way to Antigua.<\/p>\n

Even with nearly 80 boats leaving Hampton, we were only within eyesight of any other members of the fleet for a few days.\u00a0 A view like this, a boat on the horizon and a full moon rising isn’t something you see every day.\u00a0 We took it as a good omen.\u00a0\u00a0\"\"While it\u2019s not news for those of you that follow this blog, the trip was indeed relatively uneventful and we did what we could to get as far east as possible, get around the ridge, catch the trade winds and avoid motoring the entire way.<\/p>\n

Don’t Chris and Jim look happy?\u00a0 Actually, that was about as rough as it got on the whole trip.\u00a0 Well, that’s if you don’t count the 20+ squalls we went through.\u00a0 With our new cockpit enclosure, what squalls?\"\"Things held together pretty well and it was only Jim’s eagle eye one night that averted disaster when the fitting on the boom that holds the tack of the main broke.\u00a0 A few minutes longer and the main would have ripped from tack to leech.\u00a0 I dropped the main immediately and went to work lashing the clew to the boom and mast.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t pretty but held just fine for the rest of the trip.\u00a0 This is just one reason that I keep a good supply of Dyneema, super strong line, aboard.\u00a0 You can see that one “ear” of the “rabbit ear” fitting is gone.\u00a0 I always thought it looked a bit fragile.\u00a0 \u00a0In Antigua I swapped it out for another bolt I had on board. All better now.\u00a0\"\"And, speaking of sailing, or at least motor sailing as the engine did run 100+ hours on our way south, Pandora is a fairly light boat and can sail at a reasonable pace, assuming her main isn’t ripped to shreds,\u00a0 in wind as light as 10-12kts so I was fairly confident that we\u2019d be able to make it all the way without using up the 155-175 gallons of fuel that we had on board.\u00a0\u00a0 I use that capacity as a liberal estimate, as I really don\u2019t know exactly how much of the fuel we have in our tanks we can actually use. \u00a0\u00a0It turns out that the one \u201c50 gallon\u201d tank we ran dry, only took 38 gallons to refill.\u00a0 I do wonder about the other two that supposedly hold 50 gallons.\u00a0 \u00a0Before learning that at least one tank is smaller than advertised, I assumed that we held 150 gallons between the three tanks and another 25 in Jerry jugs.\u00a0 Now, I’m not so sure.\u00a0 I guess I’ll have to run the other two tanks dry and hope that the engine doesn’t quit at an “inopportune” moment.\u00a0 \u00a0Having a boat where only three were built is always a bit of a “scavenger hunt” any time I need something.<\/p>\n

Dry fuel tanks or not, I was very focused on keeping Pandora on the move without burning any more fuel than I had to and to get there as close as possible to the ten day goal that I was shooting \u00a0for.\u00a0 Besides, Brenda doesn\u2019t do the long runs with me and I really wanted to be there by the time she flew in on the 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

I have done a fair number of offshore passages over the years and find that for the first few days I feel like \u201care we there yet\u201d and by the 4th<\/sup> or 5th<\/sup> day the only way I can even tell how long it\u2019s been is to look at my log and count the days that have passed.\u00a0 Being a skeptic about electronics and knowing more than a few friends that have had all their electronics knocked out by a lightening strike, I log our position every two hours including our course, speed, battery level and other important numbers , just in case.<\/p>\n

As I am a pretty fastidious guy, “Well Bob.\u00a0 Actually, the word that comes to mind is anal”, I tend to do all the cooking and besides, it gives me something to do.\u00a0 With the limited amount of ingredients to work with, sometimes I have to be creative, like this banana, zucchini, raisin, date etc. quick bread.\u00a0 It tasted great, like most everything aboard does.\u00a0 I guess if you are hungry enough…\"\"Preparing three meals a day along with keeping things clean down below, staying in touch with Chris Parker\u2019s twice daily SSB nets and checking in with the fleet keeps me pretty busy.\u00a0 I also like to do a daily blog post when conditions are reasonable and that burns up a few hours.<\/p>\n

Under the category of \u201cjust how much can you photograph while underway\u201d category, here I am at the nav station writing a post.\u00a0\"\"Anyway, we made it and were one of the first boats to arrive in Falmouth Antigua.\u00a0 I tied up at the Antigua Yacht Club Marina where I stayed until Brenda joined me and got settled, nearly a week.\u00a0 Chris and Jim had to head out the very next day so I made sure that before they left that they had the best breakfast in Falmouth or Antigua, at the Admiral’s Inn.<\/p>\n

Just so you’ll think, for a moment, that this post is actually a shot of my breakfast on Facebook,… Why is it that EVERYBODY puts photos up of food?\"\"Yes, it was really tasty and my crew, they sure look happy. Hope it’s not because they FINALLY had a decent breakfast.\u00a0 \"\"I rarely tie up at a marina but the convenience of just stepping onto the dock is pretty intoxicating, as was the wine I shared with other Dawgs on the dock, I\u2019ll admit.\u00a0 Besides, if I’d anchored out I would have been all alone and you know how much I hate that.<\/p>\n

As port captain and “responsible party”, I was really focused on making the shore side activities so great that nobody would question why they had come all the way to Antigua.\u00a0 And given the long history of the rally, that was going to be a tall order.<\/p>\n

So, there I was, a Dawg with a mission.\u00a0 A mission to making landfall in Antigua the best it could be.\u00a0\u00a0 However, that was complicated by the fact that nearly a quarter of the fleet decided to divert to Bermuda to refuel because of the light winds and others waiting it out in Hampton for better sailing conditions.\u00a0 That meant that the fleet was spread out with nearly 1,000 miles between those who left with us and those who opted to leave later or stop in Bermuda.<\/p>\n

For the month or so after hurricanes roared through the eastern Caribbean I spent countless hours on the phone contacting folks in Antigua.\u00a0 At first I was just trying to find out who to talk to and then focusing on setting up events.\u00a0 All the while not knowing exactly when the fleet would arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we\u2019d like to have a welcome dinner at your place but I really don\u2019t know when it will be.\u00a0 Interested?\u201d\u00a0 Fortunately, they were and everyone I spoke to was very supportive and anxious to help.<\/p>\n

We had some really terrific events including several cocktail parties at Pillars, part of the Admiral\u2019s Inn, a fabulous spot in Nelson\u2019s Dockyard in historic English Harbor. We held our arrival dinner at Boom, another part of the inn, overlooking the dockyard.\u00a0 \u00a0Then you already knew about that if you follow this blog as I have written more than anyone wants to know on the subject.<\/p>\n

So, here I am in CT struggling to get the lawn and gardens put away for winter and to prepare our home for a long winter nap before we return to Antigua after Christmas.\u00a0 \u00a0And, all of this is punctuated by visits to MD to see our family and our new granddaughter Tori who’s about to turn one.\u00a0 \u00a0I can’t resist sharing a photo of her when she was christened last week.\u00a0\u00a0\"\"Yes, as they say “home for the holidays” and as far as Antigua is concerned, been there and Port Captain, done that, so I’ll just leave it there for now.\u00a0 Besides, Brenda’s home and it’s opening time.<\/p>\n

And, you wouldn’t want me to get out of practice, would you?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

It was a few days in late October before we were scheduled to leave Hampton VA to head to Antigua and anticipation of what was to come was high.\u00a0 Pandora, my Aerodyne 47 sloop was as ready as she would be and my crew was excited. We\u2019d been listening to Chris Parker, who I had […]<\/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-7981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7981","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=7981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7990,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7981\/revisions\/7990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}