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Log 45B - Christmas in
Antigua
Written at: Boca Chica, Dominican Republic
Jan. 17, 2008 By Dec. 11 we were
comfortably ensconced in the quiet waters of Ordnance Bay, with several boats
still there from the last time we were here, Jan., 2007, as this inner bay is so
well sheltered. We enjoyed the camaraderie of the
Royal
Naval Tot Club members, several of whom we have known since our
landing on Antigua in Feb. 2006 after our Atlantic crossing from the Cape Verde
Islands. They still meet at 1800 seven nights a week at the Calabash, the
Antigua Yacht Club, or other establishments for refreshments and the ceremonial
tot, which involves reading exploits of the day in the history of the Royal
Navy, the toast of the day and the Loyal Toast, and downing the 2½ ounces of
Pusser's or Old English rum in one gulp, to carry on with other refreshments and
socializing afterwards.
While there we saw many large (70 to 150 foot) mega yachts at Nelson's Dockyard,
assembled for the Maxi Yacht races held each December. We took Wave Dancer out
to the opening of English Harbour once to watch one of the races which started
just off the entrance, between English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour. The boats
were so far offshore we didn't want to go outside far enough to actually watch,
but had a chance to see these magnificent vessels as they motored out of the
harbour, raising their monstrous sails, in anticipation of the race. They reefed
their sails as the weather outside was quite heavy, the tail end of a cold
front. Each ship had its crew in their ship's colours, except one in which the
crew members wore uniform loud Caribbean sport shirts. There were between 15 to
25 permanent crew on each vessel, disgustingly healthy, athletic, attractive,
young men and women in their prime of life. Good for them!
We did the usual maintenance, filled our propane and camping gaz tanks, water,
fuel and gasoline tanks and other on-board chores while in a sheltered
anchorage. At the Tot Club we met a few
Blue Water Rally
sailors who are in a round the world rally, starting from Gibraltar, having just
completed their Atlantic crossing from the Canary Islands. Their next
destination after Antigua will be the Panama canal. There are several rallies
which land in Antigua and other Caribbean islands; some are local within the
Windward and Leeward Islands while others come from more distant locations. Judy
and I enjoyed the East
Mediterranean Rally back in 2002, but we are not rally people. We like our
independence and our ability to determine when we leave a port and where we are
heading or if necessary diverting. We heard, from a maverick who waited five
days after the flotilla left and had good weather, that the Blue Water Rally got
hit by bad weather. The ARC
Atlantic Rally for
Cruisers suffers from a similar problem every year as they leave from the
Canaries in late November to be in St. Lucia for Christmas, before the trade
winds have settled in, and frequently hit bad weather. The best time to cross
east to west is late January or February, when the glorious winds of the Trades
are a dependable 15 to 20 knots from the east.
A couple of North American rallies are the
NARC North America Rally to the
Caribbean from Newport to St.Martin, and the
Caribbean 1500 from
Hampton, Virginia, near Norfolk, to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. These
give vessels an opportunity to sail in a rally from the Eastern states to
destinations in the Caribbean. Judy and I cannot see the value in such, other
than the socializing and group preparations at the beginning and the parties at
the end, if you arrive within a few days' window at the end. If you have to
divert or are delayed, too bad, you missed some good parties. Once the flotilla
has departed, each vessel is basically on its own, as any passages over 100
miles will find the boats strung out across the broad ocean, and probably not
seeing one another after the first couple of days until they arrive at the
destination. These rallies offer a security of sorts to the uncertain skipper
and crew, and a challenge and social interaction for wealthier and bigger boats
to strut their stuff. We would rather have the independence to sail where and
when we like, and to use the money saved to put on the boat. Besides, we are too
small to keep up with the other boats whose average size is about 42 feet,
compared to our much smaller 32 feet. Even in the EMYR we were the second
smallest boat. However, we have done far greater distances than many bigger
boats.
A couple of other activities with the Tot Club were the Sunday morning exercise
and the Bolens rum run. The Sunday morning exercise is trail clearing, as the
Tot Club has accepted responsibility for taking care of the many trails around
English Harbour which lead up to a variety of historic Royal Navy outposts and
fortifications for this former British West Indies naval dockyard. We go up the
trails wearing work gloves and equipped with chainsaws, pruning shears,
machetes, saws, and hatchets to keep the trails open. The Bolens rum run is out
to the general store/post office/gas station/rum shop, in the hamlet of Bolens,
where John plunks down a bottle of his blended rum which has to be consumed
before any purchase of his spirits is permitted. He buys the rum base from the
Antigua Rum distillery and blends it to his own delicious recipe, selling it for
$10.00 EC (about $3.85 Canadian {or U.S. now} for a 750 ml bottle, or $37.00 EC
(about $14.22 Canadian) for a gallon (four quarts or four litres). I bought a
gallon, even though I have greatly reduced my alcohol intake (for medical
reasons). I have decanted it from the one gallon plastic bottle into five empty
Pusser's Rum bottles, which will make good gifts.
Another activity we had been looking forward to since last spring was the
Antigua Rainforest
Canopy Tour When we stopped in Antigua overnight last May, to catch a
plane out next day, we had rented a car from and to the airport, and drove out
to this Canopy Tour outfit before catching our plane to Puerto Rico to rejoin
Veleda. At that time, we did a short zip line course of about six cable slides
through the canopy of the rainforest, and were interested in the more daring
Challenge Course which involves a wider variety of tree top aerial transits.
Together with Ron and Barbara from Our Whim, an American Passport yacht anchored
in English Harbour, we took a taxi out to the rainforest and went for the full
Challenge Course.
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| Aubrey crossing a v-rope |
Judy coming down a zip |
Barbara on plank bridge |
It was exhilarating! After being issued safety helmets, and heavy leather
working gloves, we were fitted into our harnesses, each equipped with a double
sheaved pulley on a three foot tether, and several safety lines with carabiners
attached, and briefed on the procedures to follow. We then walked across a
ravine on a reasonably stable rope suspension bridge, hiked up the next hill on
well groomed paths, and then started off with a few zip slides. Even though Judy
and I had done them before, it was still fun.
Safety was stressed so that even though the various activities looked
precarious, there was double back up at all times, so that if someone were to
let go, he or she would still be secured by a strong safety line attached to the
harness, regardless of which aerial activity was involved. On the zip lines, I
would stand on a platform high up in the trees, and connect my double sheaved
pulley to a thick wire cable just above my head. The second safety line was then
attached, with a strong carabiner, to a second cable a foot above the first.
Holding the tethered line to the pulley in my left hand and loosely gripping the
cable behind the pulley with my right, I then sat in my harness, allowing the
cable to take the strain, then let myself swing off the platform and zoom the
100 yards or so across the ravine down to the next tree platform. With the left
hand holding on to the tether attached to the pulley, the speed of descent is
controlled by the right hand gripping the cable behind the pulley, releasing the
grip to go faster, pulled by gravity, or tightening the grip to slow down to
safely land on the next platform. At each platform was a ranger to help the
zippee stabilize on the platform before detaching the pulley from the cable. I
liked the slogan these "rangers" had on the backs of their shirts. It said,
"We are here to save your ass, not to kiss it."
The other aerial traverses involved crossing chasms on a variety of rope lines
and bridges. One crossing was made on two cables with our feet sliding along the
lower one and our hands holding on to the upper one. A safety line was attached
to a slider on a still higher cable. Another was a rickety slatted bridge with
lines hanging down from a higher upper cable every five feet or so all across
the ravine. The object was to walk across the slats, swinging from line to line
for support. Again the safety line was to be attached to the sliding support on
a top cable. There were two of these slatted bridges, the second with the slats
staggered wider apart, causing us to stretch across each group of slats. A third
crossing of a ravine involved a V-shaped rope bridge which we traversed, inching
our feet along the base rope and hanging on to the two side ropes for balance
and support. There was a free fall line on which we were attached to a single
line on a controlled pulley 70 feet above the ground. We then stepped off the
platform and had a free, but controlled fall down, not quite like a bungee cord
drop, as it was a solid strap, controlled by an automatically braked pulley for
the last ten feet of the fall. All these aerial transits were exhausting,
challenging, and exhilarating. Barbara and Ron were good sports who enjoyed the
experience.
I had been on a similar aerial challenge course with the U.S. forces in
Berchesgaden , West Germany in the late 1970's, but in the wintertime. We did
similar transits, with a few extras such as swinging from tire swing to tire
swing to cross a ravine. The finale was a "Tarzan" swing on a single 70 foot
rope across a chasm of over 90 feet distance to grab hold of a suspended cargo
net, from which we had to climb down another 60 feet to the base. Wow, was that
a rush!
A few days before Christmas we relocated out to Freeman Bay, near the
entrance to English Harbour, to get into cleaner water where we could go for a
swim and to be able to scrub Veleda's bottom, waterline and propeller, a
necessary activity which should be done every week or two and before any
departure because of build up of barnacles and algae. I set up and decorated a
small artificial tree, put a few red bows around the boat and ringed the cockpit
bimini with multi-coloured Christmas lights. We had also mounted a light inside
the hard bimini, allowing focused illumination so we could sit outside in the
evening reading a novel. It felt quite Christmasy sitting in the cockpit at
night with the lights ablaze, even if they did consume a fair amount of power.
On the VHF Net we heard that a friend of ours, Rod Heikell, had arrived after an
Atlantic crossing in adjacent Falmouth Harbour. Rod, the author of several
sailing guide books for the Mediterranean, we first met in early 1999 in Key
West and again in Cuba when he was sailing in Seven Tenths, a 36 foot Choi Lee.
We didn't then know he was a prolific author of such cruising guides, but just
enjoyed his friendship. We met up with him again in London at his home, and
again in Malta. We only were aware of his publications (his website
http://www.freewebs.com/seawrite/index.htm) when we were in the U.K. getting
ready to head for the Med, and saw his name as main author on the pilots we were
buying. We called him on the VHF and planned to meet with him Christmas Day at
the Dockyard reception. His new boat is Skylax, a 46 foot Warwick Cardinal in
which he and Lu plan to sail the Caribbean for a while.
The Christmas Day reception and champagne party at the Nelson's Dockyard is a
large annual affair in which the sailors on Antigua gather to buy bottles of
champagne, the proceeds for charity, to listen to the sounds of a loud local
band, and meet and greet fellow sailors. We met several others from the Tot
Club, a few more Canadians, and several other cruisers, but unfortunately did
not see Rod or Lu. Oh well, we will probably meet up with them down island some
time in the next year or so. The Christmas night Tot was held on a large
catamaran at anchor in English Harbour, giving us the opportunity to say goodbye
to our friends of the Tot Club as we were leaving Boxing Day, headed towards the
Dominican Republic. We may not return to Antigua on our way back down the
islands to Grenada and Venezuela in June, and so may not see our friends from
the Tot for another year or more.
At 0515 Dec. 26, we set sail for a 60 mile passage to St. Kitts, the first leg
of our 450 mile passage to the Dominican Republic.
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