There are worse places to be stuck...

At anchor in English Harbor, Antigua. Our boat is on the far left.


We are currently sitting at anchor in English Harbor with some of the engine apart just waiting for the arrival of the local diesel mechanic. Yes, yet another boat repair. I have always heard that the definition of cruising is really fixing boats in exotic places....and it's true. I'm not complaining - there are definitely worse places to be stuck, in fact it's simply beautiful here. I know I said that the last place we were was my favorite, but now this one is. I just hope we can get to Guadeloupe before our friends Liz and Ritchie do.

We were packed up with everything battened down and ready to sail for Guadeloupe early Thursday morning when a last minute alternator adjustment caused a major bolt to break off. Getting a new one isn't a problem. The problem is that half of the old one is still stuck in the engine head and that's not something we're set up to fix. The mechanic was supposed to have come yesterday, but got too busy (this also happens to be Race Week in Antigua which is the biggest race series of the year here) so Ron is picking him up at his dock any moment and hopefully we can get the problem resolved and be on our way while the weather and seas are still favorable. In the meantime, this is really not a bad place to be stuck. English Harbor has some fascinating history and ruins to explore and we have taken advantage of the down time to do just that.

In 1723, the British discovered that this harbor provided both perfect shelter from hurricanes and immediate access to the trade winds on the major routes. Work began on the dockyard and it became Britain's main naval station in the Lesser Antilles. Lord Nelson was stationed here under the command of Sir Richard Hughes (who had blinded himself in one eye chasing a cockroach with a fork). Nelson later took over as naval commander. He wasn't overly popular with the locals because of the way he enforced the Navigation Act, meaning he kept the port closed to all trade except British ships. The dockyard is now known as Nelson's Dockyard in deference to Britain's favorite hero. Today, the harbor is managed by Nelson's Dockyard National Park which is part of the national parks authority. Many of the buildings remain today as they were almost 300 years ago and some have been restored, and each of them is functional, albeit in a different capacity. The buildings now house everything a cruiser could need here from Customs and Immigration, to a terrific bakery, to shops, pubs, restaurants, sail makers, riggers and shipwrights and a great historical museum. All of them are wonderful to explore, each with their own short labeled history in front of them. It's amazing to walk through these buildings and imagine what life would have been like here during the time of the British Navy...and even better to be here today.

 
One of the main buildings at Nelson's Dockyard dating back to the 1700's

 
"Mom, why are those bananas hanging on that tree?" A perfect lesson opportunity while we wait for dad to finish clearing us into Antigua.

 
A stroll through Nelson's Dockyard in beautiful English Harbour.

 


The lookout at the fort at the entrance to the harbor. There are still cannons mounted here and I guess if you weren't a British ship, you were a target.


The Lookout from on top. The old buildings to the left are empty today, but at one time stored weapons and armory.



The view from the lookout. You can see some of the race boats in the distance that have just left the harbor for the day's race.

Antigua 17*04.175N 61*53.057W

The rough stuff is starting on the way to Antigua - am I getting concerned??



Ron getting info from the local police on Nevis



Volcano on Nevis


Today, I'm so thankful for dry land. Our trip to St. Kitts was so fun and so peaceful I guess it was time to experience the other side of sailing. Our time in St. Kitts was great. We looked into a few Island tours, but they all seemed a little pricey for our budget so we opted just to walk around the Town of Basseterre. Just as we were walking away from the tour office, a taxi/tour driver offered to take us around the island for less than half what the tour companies wanted so we were in luck! The driver was quite animated and had suck a thick Caribbean accent that I don't think we understood a quarter of what he was telling us - oh well, the price was right and the island is just a pretty and has as much character from the road as it did from the ocean. I asked him to stop at a little roadside store to get some water and was treated to one of the locals yelling and pointing at me in a language and dialect I hadn't heard yet. I have no idea what he was saying or that was about or , but I don't think he was from the local chapter of the Welcome Wagon. We left St. Kitt's and stopped to have a snorkel in a spot called Shitten Bay and Bugs Hole, which despite their names are both beautiful and tranquil spots. We continued on to Charlestown in Nevis which was just a quick 40 minute sail from St. Kitts. We were going to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives on Nevis, but I guess he got too busy and couldn't make it out, so we packed up and prepared to head out at 4 am for Antigua on Sunday morning. According to two different weather reports, the conditions were going to be ideal: 8-10 knot ENE winds and 3 foot seas. I guess mother nature had other ideas...

There was a little rain at 4 am so we had another coffee and pulled anchor at 5 thinking the rain was finished, or nearly and that we would be moving away from it at any rate. An hour into the trip the seas built to 6 of 7 feet and the wind to 25 knots and rain, rain, rain. Once Miss Olivia got out of the bunk, she was already turning green and I wasn't far behind her. She spent the next 4 hours eating dry cheerios and thowing them up and sleeping. We could see more weather ahead so changed our course and headed south to Monserrat. After 7 hours, we were glad to be at and land but there is only really one good anchorage there and it wasn't great - rolly and very exposed and with the way we were feeling, we just didn't want to spend the next 12 hours there. We took a huge gamble and opted to head out north east to see if it had calmed enough to get to either Antigua or Guadeloupe. To get to Antigua we would be beating into the waves a little, but we could see it and there didn't appear to be any squalls moving around it. To the south, we couldn't even see Guadeloupe so we knew there was weather that way. The last leg to Antigua was much nicer - 4ft. seas, 12-15 knots of wind. We finally arrived at 6 last night and so glad to be here. We are currently in Jolly Harbour and are loving the country side here. We'll spend the next 3 days checking out different parts of the island before heading out to Guadeloupe to meet up with our good friends from Victoria, Liz and Ritchie. More peanut butter - yay!...and great company, of course!


Pulling into Jolly Harbor in Antigua




The view from where we are anchored for the night


Our first sunset in Antigua

On Our Way...St. Kitts

It's so easy to get bogged down by small problems but problems or not, we are on our way and it feels great to be moving! We left St. Maarten on Tuesday and had a great sail to St. Bart's where we were treated to our first pilot whale sighting just as we were entering the anchorage. We had a quick snorkel at Anse du Columbier again and spent the night before a 9.5 hour sail to St. Kitts this morning. No whales or dolphins, but what a great sail over! The crossing was all that we always envisioned sailing these waters to be: the warm wind at a perfect 12-15 knots 30 degrees off our port bow, the seas were small at 3-4 feet and we had Exodo cruising at 7.5 knots most of the way and even hit 8 knots on a few occasions. Had a small rough patch while transiting the channel between Statia and St. Kitts and enjoyed a short but hard rain squall which nicely cleaned the decks and us too! Ten minutes later, there is no trace it ever happened! We rounded the northeast corner to an easy ten mile sail down the island to the marina at the town of Basseterre. That 10 mile stretch was certainly one of the prettiest and most scenic I've seen yet. Beautiful seaside villages, churches, brick smoke stacks at old sugar cane plantations, the largest historical fort in the Caribbean perched high on a majestic hill and spectacular jungle hillsides leave me breathless. We are off to check in, have a bite to eat and plan to see a little more of the island tomorrow.


Beautiful St. Kitts Coastline


Sailing past the volcano on St. Eustatius (Statia)


Our view this morning as we sailed to St. Kitts


Pilot whales in front of Anse du Columbier on St. Barts

Special Friends...

One of our discoveries (and not so surprising) is that while the few places we've been to are really beautiful to look at and explore, it truly is the people that make the experience and help create the best memories. We've been so very fortunate to have fallen into favor with a wonderful small group of people in St. Maarten. Each of them has made our time here special and is making it harder and harder for us to move on. They've come from different corners of the world, are all friends with each other and have an almost symbiotic relationship in some ways. They spend much of their time poking fun at each other and getting laughs at each others' expense, but at the end of the day, you'd be hard pressed to find a tighter group of people who would go to the ends of the earth not only for each other, but for the likes of us too.

Patrick and Sofia – Our introduction to St. Maarten, ruthless Domino players, and the couple who sold us EXODO who have been so helpful and accessible each time we've had a question about the boat (and there have been many), or anything else about anything else for that matter. Without their help, we'd surly still be trying to figure out how some of the boat's systems work, and we would definitely have bought and a new fridge and a new windless by now! Patrik still wants to be a 4 year old and Olivia loves Patrik – so they are quite a pair together– we are just waiting to start hearing Olivia recite some colorful new vocabulary with a Swedish accent.



Lindsay and Margy – Friends that we met through Patrik and Sofia. Lindsay runs a workshop at Bobbie's Marina and has the heart of a saint. A kinder, more generous, knowledgeable, capable yachtsman you'll never meet. Lindsay kindly allowed Ron the use of his shop space, chandlery discount, tools and know-how each time there was something to repair (almost everyday) in exchange for a good laugh when Ron provides the entertainment (shocking himself on an outboard engine, falling off the shop roof, etc.) Margy is everyone's friend and animal lover extraordinaire. She takes in strays from dogs to people and makes the best ribs ever and has fallen in love with our Olivia. Sorry Margy, we love you, but we're keeping our girl forever.



Mike and Del – We first met Mike and Del (Delphaine) at a dinner at Lindsay and Margy's house. A kind and generous couple from Texas that now call St. Maarten their home for most of the year. Mike makes beautiful furniture (he made the extension for our cockpit table and his own 'floating' dining room table) and Del is a very talented jewelry designer who has also fallen in love with Miss Olivia and is sure she is the princess daughter she was meant to have! Del is also a fabulous cook who hosted the whole crew for a spectacular Easter dinner. We are told by reliable sources that we should be back in the neighborhood for Christmas dinner – hmmmm...



Royce – American Airlines pilot on leave to enjoy his passion of wind surfing and sailing the Caribbean for 5 years. Also happens to be the Redd Bull Sales rep for the Caribbean. Comes and goes faster than the wind, but always more than willing to lend a hand (or a smart remark about Patrik) Royce was our own personal pilot escort the first time we took Exodo out of the lagoon for her shakedown sail.

Kate – Marine Biologist AKA The Queen of Statia – Kate just landed a great job as the Director of Park Services for the Island of St. Eustatius (Statia) and has promised that when she takes the throne at the end of April, she will still remember all the little peons and periodically allow us to visit her in her new kingdom. We have always planned to go to Statia and now we'll know a friendly face there!



Joe – AKA Porno Joe. Don't know all the stories behind that yet, but Joe is a regular in this crew while he culminates his own dream of circumnavigating and kindly went up the bosun's chair for us when we needed someone to feel a line through the top of the mast. Joe and Kate have this crazy on again, off again kind of thing going and I think it's on again...no, off again...no, on again....wait a sec....


There are others too and I could go on all afternoon, but time and tide are waning and we do have to make some attempt to finish the chores to get underway at some point. We will surly miss 5:00 at Lindsay's.

Pictures to follow...

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Easter and Catching up

One day rolls into the next here so quickly. Yes, we are still in St.Maarten, but are now pretty much ready to roll. Our plan was to leave today, but we're waiting for one of our deck stantions to come back from welding today. Just as well - it's been blowing and raining on and off here like crazy for the past several days and wouldn't be at all pleasant to sail in. Looks like the next weather window to go in will be late Tuesday or Wednesday and we'll be ready. I have a rental car for today to do the last big stock up shopping at CostULess (Caribbean version of Costco, but smaller), fill propane, pick up laundry, return our modem (which hardly ever works anyway) and Ron will be busy getting the autohelm adjusted, repairing that stantion, replacing a turnbuckle on one of the main stays and a few other last minute things. We were having some on going problems with our dingy outboard and Ron has since bought and tuned up another old outboard that Lindsay had kicking around the shop. Lindsay has been so great at helping us out with info, parts, and general knowledge about all things mechanical or boating related.

Backing up to last weekend....Last Saturday, we were invited to Del and Mike's home for a wonderful Easter potluck dinner with the group that has somewhat 'adopted' us while we're here. Everyone brought something yummy and coupled with Del's fabulous cooking, we had a feast fit for a king! Great food and great company.

The Easter Bunny does indeed visit the Caribbean Islands and in fact, favors good little girls on sailboats. After we finished finding all the treats that the bunny left on our boat, we went to a little place in the lagoon called Turtle Pier for breakfast, Easter Egg coloring and an egg hunt. This is where many of the cruisers meet on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings for general get together and exchange of information, book/dvd swaps, etc.

On the 8th, I celebrated another 39th birthday with a wonderful Aloe Vera (quite gooey) full back and foot massage on the beach...it was heaven!

We are really looking forward to getting on with the next part of our journey, but we'll sure miss the great people we've befriended here. Download speed is very slow at best from here so pics will follow soon.