From Antigua to Les Saintes, Guadeloupe, and passage to Bonaire May 15-24, 2012

The time has come for Sinbad to head south for hurricane season. For insurance requirements  and the safety of the vessel (and crew!), we have to be out of the hurricane belt (below 12 degrees North latitude) . The choices were Grenada/Trinidad or the ABC’s –Aruba-Bonaire-Curacao, and we chose the latter because it was cooler.  And there’s great diving!

We departed Antigua with a posse of boats , whom we had gotten to know a bit while at anchor in Jolly Harbour in Antigua and in a day we made Deshaies (pronounced Day-Hay), Guadeloupe.  We anchored under the shadow of cliffs on the northern rim of the bay, overlooking the pretty town and green mountains surrounding it.  Since we were transient, we kept the yellow Q flag up and did not go ashore, but turned in early . The next day we were up with the sun and headed for the Saintes, a small cluster of islands off the southeast corner of Guadeloupe. 

We arrived in the afternoon, hooked a mooring ball ( pretty much mandatory throughout the Saintes) and went ashore to clear in.  In the usual French way, we had to hunt all over town for the Mairie, the courthouse, only to be told that customs operations had been transferred to a contractor which was also an internet café.  Pas de probleme!

                                              Mairie, non...

         

                   Internet cafe, oui!

 We explored the charming village of Bourg des Saintes, built at the turn of the last century for  foot and donkey traffic in the old Norman and Breton way, and with mahogany siding  and windows on many buildings.

 The islanders now primarily use scooters to get around. We found the bread bakeries and grocery stores, as well as several unique boutiques and artist’s shops, but did not spend too much of our hard-saved cash.

  The rain was abundant and flowers were everywhere, and most yards had some sort of fruit or vegetable plants.  We explored a lot on foot, hiking out to the overlook on the west side of the harbor, where goats were tethered on the ruined 19^th century signal station.

We hiked up to Fort Napoleon, a massive 18^th century-style fort, complete with dry moat, built in the 1860’s long after the cannons stopped thundering.  It is well maintained, with museum exhibits throughout and a garden of succulents and aloes along the ramparts. We enjoyed spectacular views from the fort and on the road leading to it. We both took lots of pictures along the way; shots of the fort, panoramas of the town, and gardens along the way. 

 On the trip down we stopped at La Saladiere, a cozy seaside restaurant overlooking the boats at anchor, and run by Eduard, a sailor turned artist who made some really interesting and sophistcated collages from colorful bits of wrecked local fishing craft.  We enjoyed a great meal (salads, of course!) and chatted in Tarzan French and English with the artist.

One morning we got a Facebook messaged from Cindy and Steven from Red Ranger (another Whitby), saying that their good friends were anchored about about 200 yards due south of us.  So we introduced ourselves to Nancy and David aboard s/v Fawkes.  Had a great time with them, first with snacks and hospitality visiting each other’s boats, and then out on the town for pizza.

We rented a scooter and the Wild Hogs from Sinbad terrorized the island. To travel down all the navigable roads on the island took about two hours!  We circled the east end, visiting the cemetery, the tourist beach, the wild heavy surf beach with a 100 yard deep carpet of Sargasso washing in, then circled back and headed for the “best beaches” on the west end.  Well, this ain’t Antigua, Dorothy, and the beaches were small and rocky.

 After one elegant and delectable stalight dinner celebrating  the really great food of the French islands, we needed to move on. 

 The weather window was open, with E-ESE  18-25kt fair winds and moderate seas, so we departed Les Saintes for Bonaire on May 21 at 0730.  With following wind and seas, we struggled trying to hold our own course for a while, then conceded that we needed to tack downwind for ease of steering and for the comfort of the off-watch.  The following seas overwhelmed our automatic steering from the get-go, so we hand-steered in three hour watches for the four days and nights of the passage.  It was very tiring, but things went smoothly and without incident. One of the highlights of the crossing was observing two large pods of over 50 spinner dolphins coming along side, leaping and splashing, and surfing the big swells along with us. In the middle of one night watch, Di got smacked in the face by a flying fish (it didn’t hurt but it sure was a surprise).  We sighted the island around midnight of the fourth day, and so we dropped our sails and motored back and forth along the northwest coast of Bonaire, shielded from the wind by the mountains, until the sun was up and we could approach the shore safely in daylight and grab a mooring ball.

Clearing into friendly, laid-back Bonaire was a snap, and on the third day, our friends Jackson and Rico on s/v Apparition, whom we had met in Culebra P.R., pulled in and moored right next to us!  It was great to see them and to get to spend some time getting to know them better, and we're having a great time "divin' and jivin'" with them here in Bonaire. Stay tuned for Bonaire!

Sinbad's Dodger & Bimini

Sinbad's look has changed a little since we left Lake Huron last August. In this picture you can see the wifi antenna and Kiss wind generator that we added to the mizzen mast. As you look down from there you will see a new Wave Stopper hard dodger, a new bimini and a fly that  we attach to the bimini for shade and rain protection. You might even see our new solar panel.

People have been asking about these changes, how we did them and how we like them . Plus they wanted pictures. So this blog story is all about the dodger, bimini and solar panel.

This view typical of how we are at anchor; center windshield open and the clear plastic spray shield between the dodger and bimini part way unzipped.

 

Inside view of the bimini. Towards the front (right hand side of photo) it is laced on, in the back it is zipped on. We have added a zipper on the bottom edge for later use when we decide to add sides.



In these pictures you can see the side supports. It is rock solid. In the top photo you can see we added a cross brace to the hard dodger, a vertical support in the front and two in the back.

The next set of pictures will show how we rerouted our main sheet.

In these two pictures you can see we added a swivel to the block on the boom, a pad eye to the mizzen mast and a block by the winch.  The swivel block at the end of the boom helps the sheet to align more directly with the original blocks , since we were experiencing a lot of line chafe with the original setup.

A couple of benefits that we discovered with our new dodger and bimini are that we can stand on the dodger to work on our main and we now have very secure, convenient hand holds for moving forward or aft on Sinbad, and also an additional handhold within the cockpit, above the main companionway.  The visibility through  the windshield of the hard dodger is far superior to that of new conventional, flexible clear windshield material. All the clear windshield material can be removed from the hard dodger in preparation for a big blow, if necessary.  However, with the windshield material in, it has withstood >40kt winds rock-solid.  We designed the hard dodger to have a low profile to reduce windage, but it is still spacious enough for all our cockpit use.


In order to install solar panels we needed to extend the aft port and starboard rails 53 inches.

You can see we have the starboard side panel and intend to install the second one this summer. Once we purchase  it and get it installed we feel our power needs should be complete. Currently we have gone has long as 3 weeks and as little as 5 days before we fire up our Honda generator.

HAPPY SAILS

Jacque's Visit During Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta - April 2012

We arrived in Antigua from St. Martin on April 15 and cleared in at Falmouth Harbor, Di’s old stomping ground from the fabulous eighties.  Much has changed, and in a good way.  We familiarized ourselves with Falmouth and English Harbour, met a lot of new cruiser friends at a “Cruiser meet and greet” happy hour, and did some exploring to get ready for darling daughter Jacque’s arrival. 

 We wanted to be able to show her as much as we could during her short and welcome visit. Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta kicked off with a lively party at the Antigua Yacht Club, and the party continued all week! 

Sinbad welcomed Jacque, a former member of the “all girl crew of Rachael Too”, aboard on April 21 for five days of relaxing and regatta. She arrived when the regatta was in full swing.

 We walked the docks and inspected the immaculate fleet of classic yachts, marveling at the pristine condition and remarkable craftsmanship in evidence on these fabulous old boats, many of which dated from the early 1900’s. 

   

Then we returned to the yacht club for complementary snacks and cocktails and to “chip and wind” (local dance moves)  to live music as the sun went down and the moon came up.  What a party!

The next day Jacque and Di went exploring.  We walked around Nelson’s Dockyard, appreciating the Georgian architecture and lush landscaping of this beautifully restored naval dockyard.

 We hiked out to Fort Berkeley, overlooking the entrance to English Harbour, and then turned back to hike the Middle Ground Trail overland, by more ruined fortifications. Jacque got acquainted with the rugged landscape, plants and animals of Antigua. 

We ended up at Pigeon Beach in Falmouth Harbour. We rested up from our hike, enjoyed refreshments at the beach bar and grill, then changed in to our bathing suits and swam back to Sinbad, at anchor near the beach. It was Jacque’s first day at Camp Sinbad! 

We spent a day lounging, swimming and relaxing at anchor by day and partying at the Yacht Club and Dockyard in the evening

 We had a great time  singing along with a guitar playing cab driver on the way to the Dockyard, anddancing at the Rasta Shack with English pals Andrew and Kate from Hammersmith, near London, who were charmed with Jacque ( and wanted her to come to England and marry their son!)

The next day, Monday, we boarded the local bus and rode in into St. Johns, the capital of Antigua.  We had tried to contact Lionel Michael, our good friend and esteemed colleague in Public Health, but were unable to reach him by phone.  So we asked around and made some calls, and managed to locate and call on him at his office in St. Johns Health Centre.  He was surprised and delighted to see us, especially Jacque.  They became buddies when Jac was nine months old, when he spent Christmas break with us during his studies at Ferris State U. He says she looks the same—and so does he! 

After this brief meeting, we had lunch on Redcliffe Quay, overlooking the bay and the pirate-y party boat Black Swan.

Di then lead Jacque and Randy on a whirlwind walking tour around St. John, past the old places she remembered and to her old house on (what used to be) the edge of town.  Then back to Falmouth on the hot and crowded but cheerful bus.

On Tuesday, we moved the boat from Falmouth around to Deep Bay, on Antigua’s western coast.  Lovely, quiet, clear water. 

We anchored in time to snorkel on the wreck of the “Andes”, a ship that burned with a cargo of pitch at the turn of the last century.  Jac quickly got the hang snorkeling, and saw a lobster, shark, lionfish while diving her first wreck. The sun set in a pool of coral light, the moon rose, the stars came out , the tree frogs  chirping and the lapping of the waves on the beach.  All peaceful.  We heard the distant sound of local soca music…moving…getting closer… and louder. And  louder. And LOUDER!  It was the Black Swan, coming straight at us with music blaring at ear-splitting decibels.  They picked up a mooring right next to Sinbad and proceeded to party with deafening volumes exceeding that of a jet engine, until well after midnight.

The next day we came ashore and hiked over to the ruins of Fort Barrington, overlooking St. Johns harbor and Deep Bay. Lovely views and well preserved Georgian powder magazine structures. 

  

After exploring the small beach and nearby salt pond, we headed back to the boat and motored back down the west coast to Jolly Harbour. Randy took us on a dinghy tour of this extensive development and then went ashore to explore, shop and chill. Nice facilities and reasonable prices- we decided to return here to for fuel and water before we head the boat south for the hurricane season.

The next day Randy relaxed and read aboard Sinbad while Jacque and Di took the dinghy around to Jolly Beach.  The shallow water and white sand here produce the most brilliant turquoise water, and we enjoyed shopping with the beach vendors and swimming. Jac also learned to operate the outboard motor so she was the dinghy captain for the entire day.

Friday came too soon, and it was time to return to Falmouth for Jac to fly out on Saturday.  We swam over to Pigeon Beach and played in the water there, and did the Yacht Club parties for one last time, enjoying a nice meal ashore at the Yacht Club for Jacque’s Aloha Night.  The week went by too fast!

Since Jac departed, Randy and Di participated in the Antigua Sailing week festivities, notably the Ky-Mani Marley concert. The warm up band rocked the house , the Mighty Swallow came on to perform. 

We had a blast and made the papers (see our heads in the tiny circle!). Since then we’ve hiked up to Dow Hill, down the Forest Path and back down to Freemans Bay via the Indiana Jones Rocky Ravine of Doom.  Whils Randy limed, Di returned to pick acerola cherries growing wild by the roadside, went thru Shirley Heights and returned via Desmond’s Look-out Trail. Randy is closing on the sale of his house, so we returned to St. Johns to scout for a Notary and Fedex, and had a nice lunch at last with Lionel.  He gave us a tour of the town and a quick visit with old colleague Alton Ford, and then a ride back to the bus station. After, we moved the boat up to Five Islands to swim and clean the bottom, will top up the tanks at Jolly Harbour and prepare to move South for hurricane season.

Another long story told, hopefully more and shorter next time!  Cheers, Di