Windwalker Log - February 00

02/01/00	Francis Bay, St. John, USVI We left Leinster early - heading back to Caneel so that we could pick up additional mail (and the Pocket Mail unit which we'd ordered a few days earlier) at Connections in Cruz Bay. On the way, we saw Flight on a mooring in Caneel and circled their boat while we said hi to Mary. Drax was in town but we never ran into him. Lunch at Margaritas while we opened the PocketMail unit, initialized it and got ready to phone in our activation. (We'd finally decided to order the device after considering the price of getting SSB-based e-mail going, the high satisfaction rate other cruisers were having with it, and that we knew we'd have access to phones down-island but weren't sure what our internet access would be. We've only shared our pocketmail address with family members and still plan to use our worldnet id as our primary e-mail vehicle.) We called PocketMail and activated service and then headed back to Connections to log on and check our e-mail. Bad news. Fred's mother Pat had injured her hip and was in the hospital. We tried calling Fred's sister Kathie - but no answer. Back to the boat for a quick move to Francis. We'd hoped to go to Jost Van Dyke, but we needed to have access to a phone to call Newport. Fred dinghied into the Caneel Bay resort before we left and reached Pat in the hospital and spoke to Kathie who was with her. We ran the watermaker again with bad salinity results. At least the water isn't going to waste as we are filling up containers for showers, dishwashing, etc.
02/02/00	Marina Cay, BVI We made a quick trip into Maho Bay Camps for ice and to check pocketmail and then left for Great Harbor (point of entry) in Jost Van Dyke. It took us two tries to set our anchor in 20 knot winds. Iris stayed with the boat while Fred cleared us in for a 4 day stay. For the first time they asked if we had pets. Yes - two cats not to be landed. No problem - but now our paperwork lists cats. Oh well - don't know if that'll pose a problem down-island. The clock has started to tick. We need to be out of the BVI by Sunday. After lunch aboard, we motorsailed into the stiff breeze getting to Marina Cay around 5pm. We decided to splurge and take a mooring and we went ashore for a nice dinner at Pussers. We got one of the last moorings (peak charter season in the BVI) and enjoyed our dinner.
02/03/00	Trellis Bay, Tortola, BVI Rather than going into Roadtown by boat where we needed to run some errands, we decided to move over to Trellis Bay and take a cab in. We hailed August Crow during chat and made a lunch date with them since they were in Village Cay Marina getting some work done by Cay Electronics. We moved to another mooring (we didn't want to worry about the boat while away all day) and caught a cab to Village Cay. We had a long list of things we wanted to accomplish. First - we signed up with David Jones, Caribbean Weather service (8104 at 8:30am AST) primarily so that our family could reach us in emergencies and so that our positions would be logged when doing our down-island passages. We checked for e-mail on pocketmail - still no notes altho' we'd sent several. Is it working? We visited August Crow and tested their water at around 450 (their meter reads around 150) - so perhaps the problem is with our meter? A nice lunch with them and Joan and Ron of Nautilus (their salinity is usually 600 which they consider ok - is it really?). Fred and Iris continue to spread consternation amongst the cruisers whose water we test. We mailed some letters, visited several banks to try and buy francs and ECs for our down-island adventure (success at Barclay's Bank). It was getting late in the afternoon and we dashed over to the other end of the harbor to see the watermaker specialist located at Cay Electronics. Not there. Iris hung out waiting for him while Fred made some parts purchases at Parts and Power. The specialist returned and Iris flagged him down in the parking lot. No, he couldn't calibrate our meter. Wait - test this! He came out of his office with a mug of tap water and said - this should read around 500 ppm. Our meter read 512. So the problem is with our water. But he claimed that the World Health organization 500pm cuttoff for drinking water was for bottled water only and that we should be satisfied with 600-1000ppm water and anyone whose meters read 150 or so were wrong. Huh? Now we're really confused. We got overcharged on our cab ride back to the boat, (or was it just a surcharge since we had to call for the cab?). We felt ripped off by everyone and depressed. Since Village Marine told us that they worked closely with a gentleman, Julian at Watermaker Services in Antigua, we decided to wait until then to take further action. Meanwhile, we'd continue to run the watermaker, collect the water in our various containers and thus still minimize our drinking water usage.
02/04/00	Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, Spanishtown, Virgin Gorda, BVI No one collected for our mooring last night. Honest folks that we are, Fred dinghied to the Last Resort to pay and then we headed out to Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor who had slips available. We had a rough time docking in 20+ knot winds. Then off for chores. This was going to be our final provisioning/parts stop prior to going down-island. Lots to do. Iris couldn't find a phone with which to do pocketmail. They were all broken. She went off to do laundry, provisioning and get rid of our garbage while Fred changed the oil in the engine and the generator. Iris was having a really bad backache which was getting worse throughout the day wtih continued heavy lifting. We had a very nice lobster dinner at The Rock; by this time Iris was really hurting and had difficulty walking back to the marina. We watched our final 'wall street week' and then listened to the weather. We agreed that the best outlook was for a Sunday (rather than Saturday) night departure.
02/05/00	Drakes Anchorage, Gorda Sound, BVI A rough morning for both of us. A hot shower helped Iris' back a little. Final provisions. Fred had to walk about a mile to find a working card phone in order to send pocketmail with our float plan. Iris logged on to the internet at the marina. We filled our water tanks and made ready for departure - putting the dinghy on deck and getting ready for offshore. We called Pat to see how she was doing and then headed out to the fuel dock to get fuel and to check out. We motor-sailed to Drakes and anchored in 20 feet of water. Iris made a St. Kitts/Nevis flag - so now we're set for anywhere in our plans other than Antigua (cut but not sewn) and Dominica. We're both anxious - we've been in the USVI/BVI too long, we haven't been offshore in awhile (over 2 mos) and are not used to new places.
02/06/00	Drakes Anchorage and enroute We're planning on departing at around 4 or 5pm this Sunday afternoon. The weather report is looking good - small seas and the winds should move from the southeast (adverse for us) to northeast in the evening. Fred continued to do route planning while Iris prepared the boat for offshore some more. We heard a boat on the Caribbean security net talking about having just come from Montserrat. We'd written that off as an unsafe place to go - but maybe we'll go there too! Dave on Jewel had a good phrase this morning on chat. He was now in St. Martin and happy to be out of the VI. "We felt like we were velcroed to the VI!" We took things slowly during the day - checking the boat, making sure everything was properly stowed and that safety gear and abandon ship bag were in order. We left right at 4pm. As we passed Necker Island Passsage we got our first view of Virgin Gorda from that angle. New territory at last! High cirrus clouds and incoming low clouds marred the sunset. We motorsailed from then until 11pm when the wind angle improved and we were able to sail until 5am - when we ran into several squalls and the seas got quite lumpy as we approached Saba.
02/07/00	Wells Bay, Saba We had quite a wild ride as we passed the north end of Saba, about 80 nm. southeast of Virgin Gorda. Basically a big rock with no real harbors and cliffs all around, it is not an easy place to visit. We timed it so that if swells made the area untenable we would have time to go on to Statia. At around 8:15am we picked up one of the 7 free marine park moorings (2 others were taken). We cleaned up and got ready for customs. We were quite tired, but we needed to get the dinghy off the deck and put on the outboard before we could go ashore. The winds were very gusty - going from 10 to 28 knots within seconds. We tried to time our activities between gusts but the dinghy got pinned to the shrouds when we tried to lower it. Oh no - Iris started to see the dinghy painter unravel from Windwalker's bow where Fred had secured it and ran towards it. Too late. He had no outboard yet, nor oars. And there was nothing between us and central america. The current was moving him fast so he jumped off of the dinghy in his customs finery with the painter in hand and swam to the boat. He and dinghy were safe - and his clothes were soaked - but fortunately he hadn't put his wallet into his pocket yet! Saba was feeling like a harder and harder place to visit. But we were moored next to dramatic heights and couldn't wait! We dinghied around to Fort Bay - the port of entry. Destruction from Lenny was everywhere - the docks were badly damaged and we had a hard time finding a place to attach our dinghy. The harbor buildings were damaged as well and nothing was labeled. We walked along the waterfront and met a lady named Gloria (who was to become our taxi-driver/tour-guide). She pointed out where we'd passed the harbormaster and marine park registration. We were able to register Windwalker with the marine park, but the harbormaster was not to be found. We were told to try again before 4 and to enjoy our stay. We found Gloria and told her what we wanted to see and do. She waited while 6 or 7 other folks from a luxury motor yacht who had picked up the mooring in front of us joined us in the van and off we went. Saba is like something out of Brigadoon. By convention, everyone paints their roofs red. The buildings are on nooks and crannies and cliffs that look unbuildable. The road consists of amazing switchbacks. Everyone knows everyone else on this tiny island and it seemed like a very tolerant and upbeat place despite significant obstacles. It is an island of improbables - "the road that couldn't be built", the airport that wasn't supposed to be feasible, the people who have figured out how to live on the rock for many generations. Lenny parked over Saba for 3 days of over 150 knots winds. Most of the breadfruit trees were knocked down. Gloria lost her house for the second time in two years. Many of the inns were closed. The harbor area was just being rebuilt. There was only one working public phone on the island. The tourist season was ruined and very few boats were coming in; no one was coming by plane or ferry either. Very hard times. The medical school was going fine, however and Saba is known for a good hospital and fine elder care. We stopped in the tiny village of Windwardside for lunch at a cafe called Y2K and heard the owner's version of the hurricane experience. The other group was hiking to Mount Scenery - the highest point in Saba - on a steep trail with over 1064 steps. After lunch, since Gloria wasn't returning until 3 or 3:30 - we decided to dash (ugh) up the trail. This trail was straight up and was supposed to take 90 minutes one way. All we had was 90 minutes total. When we got 3/4 of the way up (and 1 hour into the trip), Iris decided to turn around. The views had been fantastic and Iris is a lot slower going downhill than is Fred. We'd passed our fellow cab passengers (who it turned out hadn't actually got all the way to the top) on their way down as they headed to Windwardside to shop and dine. Fred continued up into the clouds as Iris made her way down. He got back down only 5 minutes after Iris did, but looking considerably more wobbly. Very hard on the knees. At the top there was a sign that said to stop at the park office for your 'certificate'. Fred did so (after proving the trip with some detailed knowledge about what was up there) and was issued a formal certificate for climbing Mt. Scenery, Saba, West Indies. It was worth the climb for the amazing views of the surrounding islands for the 5 or so minutes that were clear - then the clouds moved back on the mountain and visibility went to zero. There was also a neat area of 'elfin woodland' in a little depression near the top that seemed like a completely different place. The remainder of our folks showed up and we headed back to the dock area, stopping briefly at the only phone booth on the island in the town called "the Bottom" so that we could send our pocketmail e-mail. Back at the docks we finally found the dockmaster, who was very friendly and cleared us in and out. We got back to the boat for a fairly rolling dinner aboard although the winds had calmed considerable. We'd started our down-island trip with quite a bang!
02/08/00	St. Eustatia (Statia) We didn't want to leave Saba without snorkeling in Wells Bay - so we dropped our mooring at 9:30 and moved to one about 1/4 mile closer to the snorkeling area, picking up a 'stealth' mooring we were told about by the marine park. The mooring ball was gone but the pennant was still floating. We swam for about an hour - the visibility was about 100 feet - the best we'd seen since some Bahamas trips. We saw a sea turtle and a small black tip reef shark along with big schools of large fish. We left at around 10:45 glad that we'd decided to do the quick snorkel, and motor-sailed into the wind with big swells for Statia. We anchored in Oranjestad around 2:30 pm alongside several Moorings and Sunsail charter boats who had picked up moorings. (Apparently we should have called the harbormaster for permission to anchor and he would have directed us to one of the free moorings). We dinghied over to the commercial dock and cleared in with customs who told us we'd have to go to immigration up in the Upper Town. We requested a two-day stay so that we could spend tomorrow hiking The Quill - an extinct volcano. While in Upper Town (the original lower town was destroyed a hundred years ago) we visited the restored fort which was the site of the first acknowledgement of the US Flag (during the revolution) by any country. Statia suffered pretty horribly for its support of the US, as the British Admiral Rodney retaliated by confiscating about 100 merchant ships and pillaging the place. The Dutch were neutral during the conflict and sanctioned smuggling. Until France joined the war, Statia was the primary source of weapons and ammunition for our struggling country. We also visited the Statia museum and then returned to the boat for a rolly night aboard. We decided to forego dinner ashore until tomorrow night.
02/09/00	Statia Can't call the harbor a great anchorage - the swells rolling in made for a very uncomfortable night! We went ashore around 10:30am and hiked up to The Quill - seeing lots of lizards, soldier crabs, 2 snakes, a falcon, several doves through a rainforest terrain. We had a great view into the bowl of the extinct volcano, filled with lush vegetation and trees. There is a trail to the bottom, but we were tired. Fred climbed to a higher point while Iris chatted with some charterers, one of whom dreamed of going cruising. We took the wrong trail back and ended up hiking half way around the 'Round the mountain trail' back through interesting subdivisions and great views of the airport and the other side of the island. On the way back we stopped at an abandoned Dutch Reformed Church and got back to the boat at 3, after hiking 8-10 miles. We planned to go ashore for dinner, but after getting cleaned up, decided to stay in. The anchorage was really bad with 3-4' swells from the south and then from the east. All of the boats were bobbing around. It felt like we were lying ahull at sea. Yech!! Iris even slept with lee cloths in the main salon at night after getting thrown out of the settee. We hope things settle down in the morning so that we can get the outboard back on the boat prior to heading out for St. Kitts.
02/10/00	Basseterre, St. Kitts We left Statia at around 8:15am. We couldn't wait to leave. We had difficulty getting the outboard back on deck, and had a hard motor-sail against the wind and seas. The short 20 mile hop took us over 4 hours with 6 foot seas and 20 knots on the nose. We thrashed the entire way and got into the harbor in Basseterre around 12:30. We hailed the Porte Zante marina, which looked great in the cruising guide. But the cruise ship dock right before the marina sure looked funny - like there were only pilings and no dock. Was there really a marina? Yes - since they replied they had room. (Not really - as we were to find out). As we were directed in, we saw that there weren't any slips, just pilings. So tied to the bulkhead and pilings bow in, the only way to get ashore was via the bow (a la Elizabeth City). The marina had pretty much been destroyed by Lenny (and by Georges the prior year). The rates were cheap, and there was security. Water was included. No fuel. No restrooms. No showers. Well - you can't have everything. Access to downtown Basseterre was there. And things looked calmer than in the harbor. We checked into the marina for two nights and they called us a cab to take us to customs/immigration a couple of miles away. "Smile on Me" wanted to be our tour guide for tomorrow, but introduced us to "Easy Ride" in case he couldn't make it. "Smile on Me" took us to customs, who were very friendly but very formal. This was the first place that took our clearance out from the prior country. We could cruise in St. Kitts but would have to return to Basseterre to get a cruising permit to sail to Nevis where we would also have to check in (and clear out). And oh by the way, we didn't have to visit immigration, but did have to go to Port Authority to pay additional fees. OK. Kitties were not a problem, not to be landed. We signed up for 4 days in St. Kitts. We took the cab back to downtown, where "Smile on Me" gave us a brief town overview. We walked back into town, which was bustling with activity. While "Smile on Me" assured us that walking around was perfectly safe, we were getting other vibes. We arranged to start our tour the following morning at 9am. We checked out several restaurants (deciding to return to Stone Walls later that night), went to a bookstore, found an internet cafe and checked our pocketmail using our phonecard from BVI. Bad move. We'd paid dollars for that phone card, yet it was ticking away the dollars in EC. A lesson learned. Back at the boat, the folks that we'd met on charter in Statia where docked next to us. Said our hellos. Then, two men on a boat anchored in the harbor (Badger) asked if we had an American Flag we could sell them. The owner of Badger had lost his boat in Lenny while in St. Croix and just purchased Badger and wanted to put a flag on her. Iris rummaged around and found one which we gave to them. (actually, it may have been in better shape than the one we were flying, oh well). We got ready for dinner and walked back to town to Stone Walls. What a neat place! The first thing the 'hostess' did was introduce herself. Since dinner wasn't being served yet, she escorted us to the bar where she proceeded to introduce us to everyone else already there. We talked with several folks (some St. Kittians, some not) and ended up dining at the bar wtih a couple here on holiday from France. She was from Corsica and he an ex-patriot from Ohio - now living in Paris and Switzerland. They warned us about crime and to be careful going back to the marina. We didn't notice how the restaurant entirely filled up while our backs were to the tables. Great place! We took care getting back to the boat and watched the goings on at a small cruise ship moored across the dock from us. We stowed everything loose below and locked ourselves in for the night.
02/11/00	Basseterre, St. Kitts We skipped chat in order to run the generator early. At 8:50 we saw "Easy Ride" waiting by the dock, instead of "Smile on Me" who was called away. Good thing. Carlton had lived in Great Britain for 22 years and his accent was very understandable. We had a full day planned and told him what we'd agreed to with "Smile on Me". Our tour took us by Bloody Pt. (Carib massacre), included a rainforest tour (we hiked for about 45 minutes while Carlton showed us plants and trees as we crossed the stream which was part of the main water supply for the island). Then off to Romney Manor at the Winfield Plantation (Winfield purportely being the grandfather of Thomas Jefferson) to visit Caribelle Batik factory where we bought some clothing and some wall art for the boat. On to Brimstone Hill with a beautifully restored fort. Since Iris wanted to see monkeys (brought to St. Kitts, Nevis and Grenada and not native to the island originally), we bypassed a favored lunch spot at a plantation on the north end of the island and continued on to the Black Rocks (black lava flow), south past the Frigate Bay resort area and airport down to Turtle Bay beach bar - where we had lunch amidst the monkeys! As we talked, we found out that drug smuggling is a significant problem in St. Kitts and has severly impacted development here. It has hurt the cruise business (the US government is putting pressure on the island and thus no US cruise ship companies are coming in to the island anymore). As our country clamps down on Columbia - the drugs are moving to Panama and the Caribbean. Several hotel projects have been abandoned. Back to town stopping at a gas station for cube ice. We said our goodbyes to our driver and then headed back to town to pick up some photos we'd had developed. As we were walking out of the marina, Iris thought that she heard a familiar voice of David on Jewel asking about the marina - but she didn't hear the boat name. We returned from our new errands to new marina neighbors - a British boat who'd done the ARC in 1998 and then had spent 1999 doing almost the same trip we did up to Maine. They left Norfolk 2 days after we did and spent Lenny in Nanny Cay in Tortola. We dined aboard. We listened to the local radio. Elections were called for March 6 and there was a lot of politicing going on. We also heard that the primary tourist location in Nevis, The Four Seasons Resort, had been destroyed by Lenny and had just layed off 400 people with severe impact to the local economy. Note: other interesting points about St. Kitts: The sugarcane industry took a nosedive (most sugar is made from beets nowadays), so the price of sugarcane sugar is very depressed. The government of St. Kitts took over all of the plantation lands and runs the refinery. St. Kittians won't work in the fields (pays too little) so Guyanans are the migrant workers. There is some industry and light manufacturing - electronics assembly and clothing. There is a veterinary school. No income taxes, but high import fees. Children are leaving the island (true of many islands) to build their lives elsewhere. The island is very pretty with a sharp study in contrasts between the volcanic, forested and sugar-caned north end, and the more arrid, California-looking south end.
02/12/00	Whitehouse Bay, St. Kitts During chat this morning Jewel sounded like they were right next door. Almost! It was they who we'd heard the previous day. They'd decided they didn't like how Basseterre looked from the boat and headed on to Whitehouse Bay, a secluded anchorage on the south side. They hadn't cleared in (and were flying their quarrantine flag), and didn't want to leave their brand new dinghy and outboard on the isolated beach. We told them we'd head their way after doing a few chores in town and we'd watch their stuff for them. We went in to use the internet cafe and to look for some items in the local hardware stores. With the assistance of the marina security guard, we manuevered out of the 'slip', once again in high winds and had a bouncy motor-sail to Whitehouse Bay. We anchored in 20' on a nice sandy bottom near Jewel. David came over after lunch to show us his dinghy/outboard and to chat. They'd decided not to check into St. Kitts and not to tour the island. They asked us over for cocktails. Once there - we found out it was Dave's birthday! We enjoyed birthday cake made by Julie along with our toasts to Dave's birthday. It was a squally evening back at the boat, altho' when the clouds cleared we had a great view of the volcanpo on Nevis around 10 miles away.
02/13/00	Whitehouse Bay, St. Kitts We dinghied to shore after breakfast and hiked to Guana Point and along Great Salt Pond to Ballast Bay, another anchorage. Back to the boat to snorkel on a wreck right near us. Later that evening Jewel came by for drinks. We planned to sail to Nevis the following morning. We had to go back to Basseterre to get our cruising permit. Jewel, since they hadn't cleared in, would go straight to Nevis.
02/14/00	Pinney's Beach, Nevis We left at around 8:30am for our trip back to Basseterre. We anchored off the deep water dock and Fred dinghied over to Customs. We motor-sailed on to Nevis, noting that Jewel had already departed. We anchored near Jewel, already there, in Charlestown and dinghied ashore in search of Customs, waiting until 1:30 when they were due to reopen (or so we thought). We got 3 or 4 versions about Customs - no - they were only open 8-noon downtown; no - they were no longer located at this harbor but down at long point; no - they should be there. Nope - the doors were definitely locked. We went to a local cafe, said to be a good source of info in our cruising guide. They reiterated - open in the morning, moving to Long Point in the afternoon. As we sat at the bar, Dave from Jewel came by - they were having lunch there. We checked out a few tour places, collected some brochures, agreed with Jewel that we'd share the cost of an island tour the following morning, and headed to the ruins of a fort at the edge of the harbor walking back via the waterfront. We also visited the Alexander Hamilton (birthplace) museum and then headed back to the boat. We moved to the more pleasant section of the harbor along Pinney Beach not far from the damaged Four Seasons resort. The Nevis harborfront had also sustained a lot of damage from the swells from Lenny. We enjoyed a nice dinner aboard with the second half of our New Year's rib roast and fixings and toasted our continued adventure!
02/15/00	Pinney's Beach, Nevis We left for Charlestown at 8:40 in order to squeeze in a garbage run and customs check-in prior to our 9am tour. Poor Fred got stuck in a customs/immigration rigamarole - since St. Kitts stamped our passports but didn't put an exit date for St. Kitts/Nevis and our customs paperwork expired the previous day. He had to redo paperwork in Customs, go to the police station for immigration and return to customs. And we still had to clear out prior to leaving Nevis. What a pain. Sarge, a 23 yr old Nevisian, gave us our tour and did a nice job. We visited the Botanical Gardens, an old church, several plantations (now beautiful inns and resorts) and some other ruins. At the Golden Rock Plantation we ran into a couple from Oslo that we'd met in Customs the previous day. They were in the ARC and rescued two different people in the last few months. Nevis is a very pretty island quite different from St. Kitts. The small 9000 person population creates a much closer knit society. Little crime. Tourist orientation. The peak season was destroyed because most of the inns relied on overflow and activities centered around The Four Seasons. So the impact was more than just to the 400 people laid off. We said our goodbyes to Sarge and we went for lunch at Unella's. Jewel returned to their boat. We visited a bank for more EC, stopped at a produce market, supermarket, did our pocketmail and back to the boat at 4 with a gorgeous view of Mt. Nevis and Pinney's Beach and the 2nd green flash in a row. From far, Pinney's beach is beautiful. Up close, almost every palm tree has been damaged or destroyed from the hurricane.
02/16/00	Pinney's Beach, Nevis It was a rainy day. We decided to get our clearance out that morning for the following morning so that we could head to Montserrat. We wanted to call the Montserrat tourist office to see what the volcano alert level was. After being assured that all was well in Montserrat, we got our clearance, checked out a local amusement park (but didn't go in), went to the Horatio Nelson museum (he was married to Nevisian Mary Nesbitt) and returned to the boat where Iris started to work on the Dominica flag. We dinghied to the beach around 4pm to walk down to the Four Seasons - yep - there was quite a bit of damage. The resort may be open by target date of November. We passed by Jewel on the way back to our boat and told them we planned to leave for Montserrat the following morning at 6:30 or 7am. They wanted to go there as well. Iris continued to work on the Dominica flag, but didn't complete it. Another green flash night.
02/17/00	Little Bay, Montserrat We left Nevis at 6:45 am, Jewel following close behind, and motor-bashed into the wind for several hours, arriving in Little Bay around 1:30pm. Jewel arrived about a half hour later. Little Bay didn't look like much (and it isn't - just the port of entry to the island), and Jewel decided to once again fly the yellow flag and not clear in. We found a ladder that we could climb along the commercial dock and were directed to customs in a trailer in the dock area. The customs officer seemed surprised when we replied positively to the question "Was Montserrat your intended destination?" More paperwork. Fred had to go to immigration. He asked the gentleman whether there were tours or cabs and the man responded that we could call a cab. He then directed Fred to the Port Authority to pay fees and to yet another building to get our clearance out for the next morning. When we returned to the security checkpoint to leave the area, the man from immigration, this time smiling, said that he'd gone to the establishment next door and asked them to call us a cab. Just ask for Moose. Yeah, right.... We left the dock complex and walked up the street to the Bitter End Beach Bar. Moose introduced himself to us, said the cab would be right there and that he'd called a good guy, and if we needed anything to just ask. He could be reached as Black Magic on VHF 16. We bought a couple of beers and waited a short while. John, of Beenup Taxi service arrived, we negotiated a 2 hour tour and asked to see as much of the evacuated areas as possible. He told us what he was going to show us and it sounded good so off we went! Montserrat, along with Maine and Saba are truly the highlights of the past year. The road towards Plymouth was lush with beautiful, tall trees and beautifully landscaped properties. Wild and cultivated flowering bushes lined the roadsides. We passed large estates and made our first stop at "Runaway Ghaut", where those who drink from the springs will return to Montserrat. We guess we will since we both partook. Then we stopped at the tourist bureau for brochures. Iris asked the lady there if she was the person Iris had spoken to the previous day. She said she was and we exchanged pleasantries. She handed us the latest Montserrat brochure. But more interestingly, she also let us take one prior to the volcano - the 1995 version. So we could compare the photos of then and now as well as prices and see what had happened. We also purchased a diary of the year 1997, Volcano, Book 3 and a postcard of the volcano simmering at night. Tourism has all but stopped. Yachts come and anchor at Little Bay, but very few come ashore as we did. No one visits on the daily ferry from Antigua. 5 vulcanologists reside on the island, but they don't bring in any guests. And Montserrat was a upper-scale tourist destination with villas for rent and a large population of wealthy American, Canadian and European retirees. The working class was probably middle class compared to most of the islands we were currently visiting. All gone..... We entered the first zone where folks were trying to re-establish businesses. It was the last area to be abandoned and still susceptible to ash falls. Then we started to enter the day-time Exclusion Zone. This part of the island, which does NOT include the abandoned capital of Plymouth, is open to residents from 6am to 6pm daily. After that, security gates are closed. During the day, people can return to homes and buildings to try and collect belongings. The problem is that there is no where to take those belongings. Much of the remaining 3500 population (previously 10000) still lives in shelters or newly constructed public housing. Not a lot of storage places. We drove over mud flows and approached hills overlooking Plymouth, traveling through beautiful, abandoned subdivisions, with cars halfway buried in ash and graced by blooming oleander bushes. Some homes seemed completely intact. No people, no birds, no noises. Silence except for the occasional lowing of a cow. Abandoned livestock walked the streets (hogs and cows). As we continued, we passed a car. Our driver spoke to the couple in the car who said that this was the first time they'd been back to their homesite since abandoning it. (The guy was a soccer umpire from South America and was famous, we were told). Our next stop was the Montserrat Hot Springs Spa and Tennis Club. This lush resort overlooked Plymouth and was filled with ash. We tramped through the very fine dust to the swimming pool, surrounded by cow patties and now a major source of water for the loose livestock. But our guide showed us that the water, which looked deep, was only a few inches deep as the pool was filled with ash. Plymouth stood before us - it was hard to tell what we were looking at. It looked like movie views of nuclear devestation - where an area is devoid of life. The hillsides looked flat. However the town had previously been built on steep ravines, now filled with volcanic debris. The primary reason people weren't allowed into the complete Exclusion Zones is that no one knows how deep the ash is in spots and one could just disappear in the soft dust. John collected some ash in a bottle and presented it to us. Looming over the town was the volcano - hidden in clouds (or was that steam? or was it an ash cloud?). We moved back to the intermediate zone where cruise ships continued to bring tenders when Plymouth was off limits. The golf course was destroyed. The river was buried in mud. We collected pumice stones and watched a fisherman collect bait in the shallows. We drove up to Old Town, where the View Point Hotel had been trying to reopen for the last 2 or 3 months. They were struggling with the continual fall of ash. The family that ran the place was one of the primary families on the island and had several businesses throughout; the View Point was the oldest resort on the island and had served as a meeting place for the populace throughout the crisis. We noticed that our driver coughed quite a bit. He said that while people were encouraged to wear dust masks, one can't live wearing a mask indefinitely. We'd asked about shelters and how people lived - so he proceeded to take us everywhere. He knocked on shelter doors because he wanted us to see how the people lived. We went throught the single and two-family projects and by the hospital and schools and government buildings. Many of the business people (Moose was one) had had to leave Plymouth and move to what was then considered a safety zone. They spent all of their savings on restarting their business in the new zone, only to have to abandon once again. Britain did not provide much support. The Montserratians would, at this point, prefer to be independent so that they could get loans and assistance from the US and Canada. Tackily, anything provided by Great Britain (shelters and ambulances - even storage crates) were plastered with signs saying "Gift of the British People". Food is primarily imported from Dominica. Most of the remaining residents have never seen what we saw via tour nor have they seen their island from the water (as we were to see the next day). The southern 2/3 have been abandoned for 4-5 years now and it may be 30 before the volcano settles down enough for a return. The Montserratians see what it happening on the news and through videos. It was a very emotional trip for us as Beenup brought us back to Moose's at 5:45 or 6. We bought some ice at Moose's and then rushed through the security gate at dusk to bring the ice to Jewel who had requested it. We felt like we should have eaten at the Bitter End Beach Bar, however we weren't comfortable with negotiating the steep dock after dark. We resolved to try and get lots of our fellow cruisers to overcome the fear generated in the cruising guide and to visit the island. We said our goodbyes to Jewel as they were headed to Antigua the following morning while we were pushing on to Guadeloupe. Iris stayed up half the night reading Volcano 3. Fred was to read it over the following couple of days. It brought to life the chaos, disruption and turmoil of the populace as they lost their homes, their businesses, their livelihood, and for a very small number, their lives..... An amazing experience.
02/18/00	Deshaies, Guadeloupe We departed Little Bay at 7:15 for a very rough motor sail to Guadeloupe. On the way down, we took the west side of Montserrat (discouraged by the cruising guide) so that we could see Plymouth up close. We saw more devestation as we saw other sections of the island unapproachable via the tour. As we left the island, the seas were the largest we'd seen since the gigantic rollers on the ocean crossing - but these were short and very uncomfortable. The forecast was for 6-8 foot waves but most were more like 10-12 feet and were breaking waves in constant 30-35 knot apparent winds with higher gusts. We hung on and rode it out until just before entering Deshaies, where the island effect lowered the waves and winds. We dropped anchor. Oh no - the chain had collapsed on itself in the chain locker due to the high seas and wouldn't come out. Iris went below to free it, but couldn't pull it out. She took the wheel and circled the harbor while Fred went below to pull the chain out of the chain locker and disentangle it. OK - let's try this again. The anchor took. We were wet and tired and it was very windy. We assumed customs would close at 4pm, especially on a Friday. So we decided to keep the dinghy on deck, clean ourselves up and spend the night aboard. Our next stop would be the Saintes, where there isn't any place to clear in - so we wouldn't go ashore in Guadeloupe and would make Dominica our next stop. We rested in the cockpit as the sun went down and yes, it was another green flash night. (Now that we know what to look for... the green flash isn't a flash as such. The very last segment of the sun as it sets on the horizon, turns an emerald green. Quite striking!).
02/19/00	Isle Cabrit, The Saintes, Guadeloupe After a squally night, we left Deshaies for what we thought would be a short hop down to The Saintes. Not to be. The winds gusted from zero to 38 knots. The waves were high again as we crossed between the main island and The Saintes. We'd been dodging fish pots the entire day. We couldn't make any easting and ended up rounding the westernmost island of The Saintes group. We wanted to try the Anse Fideling anchorage - one that would be good in the northeast swells that were forecast for the weekend. We approached at 4pm just as two or three boats decided it was too rolly and left. OK - plan B was Isle Cabrit. As we approached it, we were circled by what looked like some kind of military patrol boat, but were not hailed nor stopped. We tried to anchor in an open spot unsuccessfully. We didn't want to anchor in 40+ feet of water. On the third try, the anchor set - altho' we were uncomfortably close to two other boats, but we couldn't help it. Iris dove on the anchor. It was buried somewhat and we had a lot of scope out. We kept our quarantine flag up and left the dinghy on board and settled in for the night.
02/20/00	Ilet Cabrit, The Saintes, Guadeloupe It was a very gusty night. Iris got up several times to check our location. Everytime she looked we were pointed in a different location, as were our neighbors. But - no mishaps and no collisions. Iris spent a good part of the day completing the Dominica flag and the one for Antigua while Fred did chores. We were getting a little 'cabin fever' and decided to snorkel on the reef in the anchorage. We saw a moray eel swim from one spot to another. Neat. We also saw why our first two anchoring attempts failed - on a coral, rocky bottom. Iris is starting to get pretty anxious about tomorrow's trip to Dominica, primarily due to previous not so pleasant boat boy experiences. Some other C1500 sailors had a relationship with Martin who is reachable on VHF as Providence (he is also mentioned in the Doyle guide). We decided to play it by ear and see who came to us.
02/21/00	Portsmouth in Prince Rupert Bay off the Coconut Beach Hotel, Dominica A sleepless night (for Iris) with lots of rain squalls and a few rolls. A heavy downpour just as we were about to set off at 7am. But we had only 20 miles to go so we decided to wait until the weather abated, which was around 9am. We sailed the entire way with winds consistently in the mid-20s and smaller waves (2-4'). We saw the mountainous terrain for much of the day as we approached Dominica. As we neared Prince Rupert Bay, everytime we saw a small wooden boat headed our way, Iris took after her cat Frosty, and went catatonic. We decided to head for the southern section of the bay - further away from town but with purportedly only the most ambitions boat boys, if any. OK - this one isn't a fishing boat - he's definitely headed for us. "Welcome to Dominica. I'm Alexis and I'll see you later." Immediate relief. Alexis had been written up in a recent SSCA Bulletin as very nice and helpful. Maybe this won't be so bad..... The bottom near the Coconut Beach Hotel was corally/rocky and it took two tries before we felt the anchor was somewhat set. Alexis returned and we arranged for him to take us to Customs via his boat so that we wouldn't have to rush to take down our dinghy. He left to do the same for another boat and returned a little later (in his colorfully painted wooden scow with a 40 hp motor). Alexis told us that he was going to take the other folks on the Indian River tour as soon as they completed at Customs and did we want to come too? Sure - the Indian River tour was one of the things one does in Dominica... He deposited us at a ladder by the bustling commercial dock and we did the customs thing, requesting 4 or 5 nights in Prince Rupert Bay. They wouldn't issue us a cruising permit for the entire coastline. We'd have to return to customs when we were ready to leave. OK. We climbed back into Alexis' boat as did the 4 French folks on a charter from Martinique to St. Martin. They were only in the anchorage a few hours and planned to depart that evening for The Saintes. Alexis gave the tour in English and French. As we approached the Indian River, we passed Lenny damage, with cruising boats grounded on the shoreline as well as destroyed docks at Coconut Beach, Portsmouth Hotel, downtown and more northern resorts. Lenny didn't bring high winds but brought 14' waves ashore for 3 days continuously. Alexis rowed us up the mangrove stream and pointed out the trees and wildlife as he rowed. Other boat boys did the same - altho' one or two used their outboards (uncool), drowning the natural sounds of the river. We were brought to a small bar/restaurant at the end of the navigable part of the river where we signed the guest book and had a drink, after which Alexis returned us to our respective boats. As he left us, we arranged to do a 'special' tour with him. We'd leave at 7am to hike to a favorite, non-commercial waterfall (Milton Falls) passing through plantations. He promised lots of fruit as well. And then we'd head to the closest rainforest to look for the endangered parrots of Dominica. Sounded good to us. We said our goodbyes and then got to work to bring down the dinghy. Iris wanted to eat ashore, so we dinghied to the damaged dock of the Portsmouth Hotel - where we bought a phone card to do our pocketmail safe arrival e-mail and to call Pat. A modest but tasty dinner at the hotel, after which we spoke with the proprietess about the Lenny experience. Early to bed as we planned to get up at 5 to run the generator prior to heading out on our adventure in the morning.
02/22/00	Portsmouth, Dominica Another rough night. Lots of rainstorms plus Iris was suffering from a touch of Montezuma's revenge, getting worse over the last couple of days. With all the various places we'd been, it could have been anything since we hadn't been particularly careful - but not a good situation for a several hour hiking trip.... A early am large dose of Immodium AD did the trick. We got into Alexis' car at around 7:15. First stop was a hike through a banana plantation to the falls. Alexis had worked in a plantation and so thoroughly briefed us on the process as we hiked to the trail to Milton Falls. Oh no - a very wet, sloppy trail with three difficult rushing stream crossings through a rocky forest. Not Iris' cup of tea. She started to balk but Alexis insisted and assisted her through the rough spots. It was worth it - the falls were about 100' high right out of a high mountain lake. The government had plans to commercialize the falls as they had in other locations, but the trail hadn't been put in yet and the plans were probably a few years away. On our way back through the plantation (phew - we got back over those 3 streams), Alexis gathered a huge bunch of bananas and about 15 huge grapefruit and a few gigantic oranges for us. All got stowed in his trunk as we continued our trip. Off to the rainforest. As we approached it, Alexis pointed out a few parrots - we struggled to see them as green on green doesn't show up very well. He pulled over and and we sighted on a couple of parrots very high up in very tall trees. Not what we'd expected; the parrots in the wild don't come down to people level. They remain at the top of these 100' full trees and are silent except for the occasional squawk. We hiked in the Syndicate Estates Nature Trail (short .8 mi) as Alexis pointed out the attributes of this rainforest. The forest was quite different that the rainforests in St. Kitts and Nevis. The trees were much taller and there was very little underbrush in most of it. Quite beautiful. Alexis purchased $10 EC of dasheen from another plantation as we drove through. Iris asked him for one of them. Dasheen is also known as Taro root (as in Poi in Hawaii) He described how I should prepare it, wearing rubber gloves or plastic as the uncooked fruit is an irritant to the skin (and like fibreglass to the insides). We returned to the boat with our fresh fruit bounty, and grimy and muddy from our hikes. Iris had to process all of the fruit - washing the grapefruit and oranges in fresh water, rinsing the huge bunch of bananas (at least 40 bananas) in saltwater with the deckwash and then giving it a quick rinse with fresh to get rid of bugs and debris. Then to the dasheen. She soaked off the mud, peeled the root wearing plastic shopping bags on her hands and parboiled it. Meanwhile, Fred swam a bit and cleaned the bottom of accumulating soft growth as well as checking on the anchor. Iris heard an engine. "Welcome to Dominica". Thank you. We're working with Alexis. But what is your name? Martin. OH - Martin! We've heard a lot about you. He was surprised that we'd come in yesterday. As asked if we were traveling with any other 1500 boats or expecting some in, said his goodbyes and headed off to line up some business. Dinner onboard. Fred hung the bunch of bananas from our ship's bell. We look like a banana boat!
02/23/00	Portsmouth, Dominica The anchorage certainly is scenic - with the huge harbor, highlighted by the volcanic peaks and lush terrain. A beautiful sight at dawn and dusk. We listened to chat and confirmed that the boat anchored next to us was Kia Mara. We'd heard them talking to Perregrine (a C1500 boat) several times over the last few weeks. Alexis stopped by at 8am and Iris requested that he bring us some ice that evening. He said that he would. We dinghied to the Portsmouth Hotel dock, introducing ourselves to Chris, Mary and their daughter, Kelsey on Kia Mara (a morris 46). We discussed sharing an island tour the following day and got Chris into the dinghy so that we could discuss options with the hotel. We decided not to move south to the capital city of Roseau, but to stay put and tour out of Portsmouth. We made arrangements for the tour guide to meet us around 5pm to discuss tomorrow's tour, and Fred returned Chris to his boat. We then walked into town, passing the Ross University Medical School (most of whose students reside in the Portsmouth Beach Hotel or in apartments in the surrounding hills), then stopping at a bank on the way to town to get more EC. (The ATMS aren't taking our cards, forcing us to wait in lines to change money). We walked on to the Cabrit, mini-pitons on which Fort Shirley was built by the British. We stopped by the cruiseship dock to get information on taking on water. Dominica was a primary water source for the British Navy in the 1700s and 1800s. Portsmouth was to be the capital of the island, however there was malaria and yellow fever in the Indian River area and thus the capital was moved to the less desireable harbor at Roseau. We paid our admission fee to the state park and headed up a very well maintained path to the fort. What was restored was beautifully done. We took a few trails to the West Cabrit with the usual snakes, hermit crabs, lots of tree and ground lizards, and the crushed carcasses of land crabs. What's this? (we were told by the next day's guide that there is a bird that thrives on the crabs). It was getting late and we decided to stop at The Purple Turtle, a small restaurant at the north end of the bay, near the fort, for lunch. Who was there but the crew of Kia Mara. They never made it as far as the fort, and had to rush back to their boat to take an Indian River Tour with their boat boy - none other than Martin. We ran into Alexis as we walked through the ramshackle residential section and he offered to take us back to our boat by his scow. We declined since we needed to buy some foodstuffs, but reconfirmed that we'd see him later. We continued through town where we were approached, but not accosted, by a Rasta person who was mumbling that he was tired of seeing F...ing whites. That Europe should be for the europeans and Africa for the Africans. OK - so what country was he in????? We sped on to a tiny grocery which the cruising guide said had US meats. Iris rummaged around in the freezer and picked up a package of something that looked like oxtail and another package that looked like pork. At the checkout she asked - is this oxtail? No - it's turkey drumstick (chopped up with a cleaver). Is this pork? No - it's turkey wings. Oh well - turkey it is. We were about out of meat and wouldn't be shopping for a few days. We trudged back the 2 miles to the boat, stopping at another little store for soda. At the hotel dock we saw an altercation between Oscar Services (another boat boy highly recommended in the cruising guide) and Alexis and potential customers. The former was maligning Alexis, who stood quietly by and only occasionally said 'I work with the hotel'. Most of the people chose to do their Indian River tour with Alexis while a couple went with Oscar. Meanwhile - it was 5pm and Max Tours was there to talk with Fred. Winston would be our guide tomorrow, arriving at 7:30am. Back at the boat, it was getting dark and no Alexis with ice. In fact we never did see him again. We guess he got his money's worth out of us in the first couple of days and couldn't be bothered with the petty little chores. We swam a little and noticed that our anchor had dragged some into an area of coral. Got to move the boat. We stowed our purchases, started the engine and moved next to Kia Mara in a more sandy bottom. We didn't want to have a poorly anchored boat while we traipsed around Dominica tomorrow.
02/24/00	Portsmouth, Dominica We got up early to prepare for the trip and run the generator. We and Winston were at the dock right at 7:30. Kia Mara was running a little late and we departed around 7:45. Our tour included more plantations with fruit (let Kia Mara have it), coconut tastings - green and mature. Ah - a few pieces of coconut brought on immediate visual disturbances of an oncoming migraine for Iris. Aspirin caught it in time. Good to pinpoint something specific like that. We then went to a place with red rock (volcanic) which was the site of deep crevices formed by an earthquake and surrounded by views of white and black sand beaches. Kelsey was like a little mountain goat leaping from one spot to another as she ran after Winston. He was an excellent guide, very professional and knowledgeable. We discussed politics, farming (he was a small plantation owner) and a variety of other topics as he drove. We made a short stop at the town of Calibishie, then another stop at the Carib reservation where we saw basket making demonstrations and spoke with two Caribs about their lifestyle and traditions. Dominica is the only island with any remaining Caribs (Guyana on the mainland has a large population) and of the 3000 living on the island, only about 90 are purebred. The rest have mixed with those of African descent. Women who marry outsiders must leave the reservation. Their children will not be able to inherit land. Meanwhile, carib men may bring their wives into the fold. Next stop was the national park site, Emerald Pool (and falls) another pretty rainforest trail. We're starting to get an overload of rainforests. Kia Mara felt the same way having just come from the equally gorgeous islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Martinique. We had a fried chicken lunch at an interior island restaurant and then headed to Roseau. Roseau had a city feel to it - a lot happening there. Portsmouth, by contrast, was a sleepy village of 5000. Quite different. Back to the boat at 5:45. On the way, at the dock, we ran into Oscar Services, who was putting down life in Dominica. Iris asked him why he didn't just leave. He said that he was already established here, but if one could get a better job elsewhere, one should leave. Unhappy guy. We had agreed to meet Kia Mara at their boat and to do another water test with them. They read our water as 307 and theirs as 156. We read ours as 625 and theirs as around 350 (still good but a lot higher than they thought). Oh no - another meter bites the dust. They too needed new batteries and Chris pulled out a wire on his as he opened the battery compartment. He'll need another tester. We remain abandoned by Alexis. We're running out of ice....
02/25/00	Bourg Des Saintes, The Saintes, Gaudeloupe A quiet night. We listened to the weather forecast. A bad storm in the mid-atlantic was going to bring really big swells from the NE by Monday. Bad for a trip to Antigua mid-week. We concluded that we needed to high-tail it out of Dominica and start heading north so that we could be in Antigua by Sunday afternoon. We were Dominica'd out anyway. We walked to customs, dropping off garbage on the way (no Alexis stopping by to help) and got our clearance out. We said our goodbyes to Kia Mara, who planned to hang out at least another day in Dominica before heading up to Guadeloupe. We heard The Reach on chat. They were in the Saintes and we said we'd look for them when we got there. We had a beautiful sail, with a beam reach almost all the way north to the islands, marred only by a rain squall just before we got there. We saw where The Reach was anchored and decided that was too rolly a spot. But after 3 attempts in a more protected part of the anchorage (but known to have very difficult holding ground), we gave up and returned to anchor right near The Reach. We decided to go ashore for dinner, altho' we remained under our quarantine flag. Alan and Gail stopped by and we invited them back for drinks. Fred called Kia Mara on the SSB to report on the conditions at the Saintes. Turns out they left a few hours after we did, scared off by the same forecast, and were anchored a couple of miles away. We caught up with The Reach on our respective adventures and then went ashore in search of dinner out. Many of the restaurants were closed in the evening. As we walked the pretty streets, a couple said 'You're Windwalker'. We'd tried to anchor in front of them the first 3 times. Chichaca, a 44' catamaran, had also been in front of us one night in Dominica. We invited them to join us for dinner and we ended up at the Cafe de la Marine (which turns out Fred and Iris had eaten at on their charter to Guadeloupe a few years ago). Back to the boat at 8:45 with plans to leave for Deshaies or stay depending on tomorrow's forecast. The Reach planned to move to another Saintes anchorage. We're beginning to smell like a banana boat....
02/26/00	Deshaies, Guadeloupe Things can change 'in a New York minute'. We got up to listen to chat. Iris stayed in the cockpit in order to flag down a vendor who brings ice, croissants and baguettes to the Saintes anchorages each morning. Gail got him first, but Iris bought two bags of ice (the shopping bags smelled a little fishy), 2 croissants and a baguette. Yummm. Meanwhile The Reach decided to forego the Saintes and travel with us towards Deshaies. We left and enjoyed an hour's sail before the seas got lumpy and we lost most of our wind in the lee of Guadeloupe. We motored a lot and tried various sail combinations. Then we had another hour of good wind. Then no wind. Time to start the engine. Thunk. Sounded ominously like the water in the engine problem in Salt Pond. But this time we were underway with 20 knots on the nose and uncomfortable swells. Fred went below and got the engine started again. No water, although the engine was running a little hotter than we liked for the last day or so. But this day was turning 'bad' for us. We ran the engine at low RPM and were only making 2-3 knots and it was getting a little late. We limped into a very crowded Deshaies at around 5pm. (On a lighter side, we "made Deshaies (prounounced Day-Hay) while the sun shined". )Another anchoring drill where the anchor set on the 3rd try. The Reach showed up about 15 minutes later and after a couple of tries got set a boat over from us. We had a lot to do and turned down their invite to come over or dine ashore with them. We started getting ready for offshore in the dark. Turned on the spreader lights. One was burned out. Great... We got the dinghy and dinghy items stowed on board and Iris started dinner while Fred cleaned the engine saltwater strainer and checked the impeller. A little seaweed, but not a lot. We had a quick dinner and started the generator to run the watermaker and cool the fridge (with the hot engine we didn't run the refrigerator while motoring). The load on the generator was too low so Iris turned on the air conditioning to up the load. NOOOOOO! The generator's fuse blew. We didn't want to go offshore without having a backup way to charge our batteries if the engine died. So out we both went to empty the deep starboard lazarette so that Fred could climb in with fuse and flashlight in hand and change it. 20 minutes later the generator started right up. Fred tried recreating what Iris had done with the same results. Blew the fuse again. Fortunately, we hadn't replaced the items in the lazarette. It was getting quite late now and we planned to depart at 6am. No more turning on the A/C until we're on shore power and can check it out. Meanwhile, over the last several days our head has gotten more and more difficult to pump. It may need an overhaul. We need to get to Antigua to get access to chandleries.... We definitely smell like a banana boat!
02/27/00	Falmouth Harbor, Antigua We and The Reach got an early 6:15am departure. We needed sufficient light to see the numerous fish pots in the area. The winds were too light for them, so while they motor-sailed we got to sail for at least 3/4 of the trip. Al and Gail took some really nice photos of us undersail. When we're able, we'll post them on the web-site. We pulled into the harbor around 2:15, about 15 minutes after The Reach, and anchored amidst a lot of other C1500 boats. There was going to be a mini-reunion at Shirley Heights Lookout, which has a big barbecue and steel band on Sunday nights and is 'the thing to do' on Sundays. There were at least ten 1999 c1500 boats in the harbor that day, plus some previous c1500 boats. When we got to the dock at Antigua Yacht Club Marina, we ran into several of the c1500 folks. We and The Reach walked the 5 minutes to English Harbor and Nelson Dockyard to clear in. How refreshing to be somewhere where customs/immigration was open on a weekend, altho' they had more paperwork than almost any other island. The entire area was a culture shock in contrast with Saba through Dominica. Sidewalks everywhere, all businesses catering to yachtees and yachts larger than anything we'd seen since Ft. Lauderdale. All the business (and boaters) monitor VHF 68 - from markets to restaurants, to laundries, etc. Three internet places right at the dinghy dock. And quite a dinghy dock it was, surrounded by restaurants, a bank, chandlery, market/liquor store, bookstores and shops. Garbage dumpsters for yachts only. Lots of telephones. After quick showers, we took a cab to Shirley Heights at around 5:30. What a mob scene. The place was filled with cruisers and folks off of a cruise ship. We got to see The Reach, Jewel, Windbourne, Blue Moon, Feisty, Elixir, Lulu, Tara, Peregrine, Legend. After our barbecue, we took a cab back to the marina with Jewel. Lots of chores tomorrow. Top priorities: 1) Pay our bills 2) Fix the gasoline leak in our dinghy gas can hose before it explodes 3) work on the almost unusable head.... Our bananas are turning an unlovely dark color....
02/28/00	Falmouth Harbor, Antigua We went ashore at around 9am to check out the facilities - chandleries, laundry, and e-mail. We needed to be able to use our own pc to do our pc-banking. We purchased a phone-card to do pocketmail and call Pat. We walked to Watermaker Services - we'll bring them a water sample and our meter tomorrow. Fred got a new hose for the gas can. Back to the boat. Fred wanted to try scraping the head discharge thru-hull to see if barnacles were blocking the outlet. Nope, that's not the problem. Banking was an even higher priority - so back to shore with our laptop to do the banking at Cable and Wireless; we then moved to another internet place with slightly cheaper rates to use their pc for e-mail. Back to the boat to handle the head. What a horrid mess! The problem was calcium carbonate buildup throughout the hoses and pumps. Calcium carbonate is as hard as cement and is a common problem in some areas. We thought that the Raritan head chemical we used would prevent stuff like that. Others use vinegar. In the future we'll use both. Fred literally had to scrape what he could and do a head rebuild at the same time. Our 'head' manual as well as Nigel Calder's book both said that it may be necessary to take the hoses to a dock and beat on them to break up the cement. They mentioned that it might be easier and preferable to replace all the hoses. We didn't do either. We'd invited Windbourne over for cocktails that evening. But at around 4:45 we told them that Fred was 'up to his elbows' in unmentionable stuff. Then Blue Moon and Elixir stopped by to see if we wanted to go for pizza and America's Cup viewing. Nope - same response. Around 8pm, after a thorough disinfecting and cleanup, Fred declared the head workable. We ate at nine. What a day....
02/29/00	Falmouth Harbor, Antigua Our head is semi-working, but not quite right and we're afraid to use it. The hoses will have to be replaced, we think. Ashore early for breakfast at Sophies, bathrooms, laundry and trips to chandleries. We brought water samples and our water tester to Watermaker Services. Conclusion - your water is bad! You shouldn't drink that water (we don't!). Our 632 reading was really about 750. (That means all the other boats we tested probably had even higher readings than we gave them). Julian probably wouldn't be back until late afternoon. Perhaps he'd come over to our boat on Wed. morning. We bought some groceries and ran into The Reach who invited us over tonight after they get back from St. John. We called Austin to have our mail sent to Hinkley Yacht Services and dropped off some film for development. Back at the boat, Fred replaced the anchor snubber while Iris did more chores. We'd purchased additional vinegar so that we could 'soak' the hoses and see if that improved the head function. Meanwhile, Rob and Susan of Windbourne stopped by and asked us over since they hadn't departed for St. Martin/St. Barts as planned. They said, bring The Reach with you. But The Reach wasn't back at 5 and things were getting too complicated. We hailed Windbourne, Jewel, The Reach and invited them all over to our boat. The Reach answered but was still in transit from St. Johns. Windbourne and Jewel came over; then Jewel left to get some cruising info from The Reach, leaving Windbourne and us. We tested Windbourne's water output - great reading at 250ppm. Rob and Susan left around 8 and we hailed The Reach to see if they wanted to go ashore for dinner. They did (and Jewel and Windbourne didn't), so we met at the dinghy dock and went to The Last Lemming for dinner. Nice time. The band started at 9:30 and around 10 we left. Back at the boat the news wasn't good - the head wasn't working...