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Advertise with Googlier.com <![CDATA[Saxon Blue's Blog - News Feed]]> /saxonblue/index.rss Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:57:00 UTC Back at White Hill /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/16/281-back-at-white-hill
Well, that's it. We're back home at White Hill. When we arrived yesterday lunchtime, the birds were singing away so loudly that we both just stood there and listened in astonishment. Since then, we've seen the Buzzards and heard the Tawny Owls, watched the Rabbits and investigated where the Badgers walk through the wood. The Bluebells are out and spring is happening all around. We even heard a Cuckoo this afternoon. Some animal, Badger perhaps, has been digging away at the Meadow Ant's nests in the bottom field but I'm sure the ants will be OK.

All in all, then, life is continuing here much as it has forever. It's a funny feeling coming back and finding that things are just going on as they were before. It's hard to believe that we've actually been away and I had a strange moment when I felt that I'd missed a year. Like the fairy stories where a person disappears into the otherworld for a few moments and returns to find that years have passed. Like those travellers, it's hard to reconcile this regular existence with the one of moving through the world on a boat. There seems to be little in common between the two and it remains to be seen whether I can take the lessons learned out there and use the knowledge here. In the old tales, it was dangerous to take anything from one world into the other - you can't bring anything home from the land of the Fairies. Perhaps the danger is that the traveller would never be able to fit back into the normal, everyday world if there was a tangible reminder of their other existence. Seeing as I don't have to fit back into an everyday world, though, maybe I can afford to take the risk. I hope so.

Saxon Blue is still in Antigua so we're intending to go back out to join her and do some more exploring next winter. If that happens, I'll have to do some more blogging but, for the moment at least, that's it. If you've followed some or all of our adventures then I hope you've enjoyed hearing our tales and having some insight into the day-to-day reality of seafaring. When we started, we didn't know where we would end up or how it would work out. We've had a better time than we imagined that we would and the world is stranger, more varied than we thought. I'm not sure what it all means and, as a wise person said, "you won't find out the answer to life but you will learn a lot about your boat".

So, thanks to everyone who helped us prepare for and then go on our voyage. Thanks, also, to everyone who's taken an interest in it. If reading this has made you want to go off exploring then I urge you to follow that impulse. It really is amazing out there and the people are wonderful.

Harvey

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com]]> Sat, 16 Apr 2011 20:57:00 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/16/281-back-at-white-hill (@author) Blogtastic! /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/14/280-blogtastic-

All hail to the mighty blog meister!

The blog has been an integral part of this adventure and it's been brilliant that Harvey has been so steadfast in his dedication to it. It's been great for me to know that our journey has been so wonderfully chronicled and that so many of you have been following it. This has been a life changing year and the blog has helped to express this in ways that would not be possible to fully describe on our return. It's helped to make me feel closer to my family during a difficult year for all of us. I know Dad would have been so proud of the achievements and adventures of Saxon Blue and it's awesome crew!

Andrea

]]> Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:57:33 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/14/280-blogtastic- (@author) Waiting for the plane /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/14/279-waiting-for-the-plane Antigua Airport, Thursday evening

We're in the lounge at the airport, waiting for our plane to start boarding. There are loads of annoying children here at the moment so I hope they don't end up too close to us on the plane - we've paid a lot of cash for a bit of sleep.

We woke up early today to get our stuff packed. This was harder than you'd think as we had some bags to come back to England, some to go onto Saxon Blue permanently and some to go there temporarily until our flight tonight. We got Moody to drop us over to the Cat Club and loaded everything up the ladder and into the boat. She's already looking dusty and dirty, a taste of worse to come, I'm sure. I did have a good meeting with George at Antigua Rigging, though. He received the spreadsheet of work that I emailed to him yesterday and had sorted it into warranty and other with some questions for me. It made me feel a lot less stressed to see that he was getting it all organised.

I signed some more warrant forms to avoid the 100% import duty they charge in Antigua, marked the bits of gelcoat which need repairing with blue tape and then helped Andrea sort a few things onboard before Moody came back to pick us up again. He dropped us back in Falmouth where we spent a very pleasant half hour wandering along the Yacht Club Marina pontoons looking at all the classic yachts which are here for the regatta. They were in all shapes and sizes from 20 odd footers up to massive 150 foot mega-yachts. We were particularly impressed by the two old guys on the smallest yacht who were busy removing their self-steering gear. Neither of them had a scrap of fat on them, nor many muscles, come to that. They looked like they could cross the Atlantic with cigarettes and a few packets of crisps. Seriously hardcore Classic sailors, alright.

We had a table reserved at Cloggies, the restaurant inside the yacht club, for lunch. We'd won the lunch in a raffle a month ago and the waitress looked a bit nonplussed when Andrea presented the voucher. The food was really good, though, and they didn't try to charge us for the coffee or anything so I was very impressed. We sat looking out at all the yachts with their flags flying in the breeze, a lovely sight.

After lunch, we staggered off to the Dockyard, had an extended sit down in Hamiltons and then a walk out to the fort where we sat in our usual spot, watching the comings and goings of the boats and discussing what we thought of people's choices of anchoring location. It was cloudy and drizzly again all day so we didn't get overheated. It's great for us but the people who've come out for a bit of sun for a week must be very disappointed From there, we walked back to the Dockyard and our hotel to pick up our big bags and load them into Moody's taxi.

He drove us around to the Cat Club for us to put our summer clothes away on Saxon Blue, pick up our laptops, long trousers and, I can't believe it, socks. It was an odd feeling to be leaving the boat sitting there all alone. I'm sure the guys in Antigua will look after her but it's not the same as a permanent crew. Still, they can always give her a good valet before we get back so we'll never know what a state she got into.

Back in the cab, we picked up a couple of other passengers and then set off for the airport. No problems like the last time with long queues so we got through in plenty of time and should be boarding in about 15 minutes. Hopefully, we'll get a sleep on the way home. I can't wait to see whether we've got bluebells in the woods at White Hill and to see everyone. It's going to take a long time to catch up with all our friends and family and even longer to assimilate all the stuff we've seen over the last year. Maybe, we'll find that we just have to go back and check out some of it for a second time.

Harvey

]]> Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:52:53 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/14/279-waiting-for-the-plane (@author) Half Moon Bay /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/13/278-half-moon-bay
We've just got back to the hotel after a visit to Half Moon Bay. It was our last chance for a swim and snorkel in the Caribbean and the bay is reputed to be the most beautiful on the island. It was lovely but not as natural and untouched as some of the ones we've found offshore over the last month or so.

We had a slow start to the day as I didn't feel too great - waking up with a sore head. Must have drunk too much fizzy water last night. Andrea was buzzing around getting our stuff packed up as we had to move rooms this morning. The hotel is really busy now with people arriving for Antigua Classic Yacht Week. There are beautiful wooden boats parked everywhere and I suppose the owners would rather stay in a hotel than in the cramped quarters such fine hulls provide. Anyway, Andrea had most of our stuff moved upstairs to our new attic room before we went down for breakfast.

I felt a bit better after something to eat so we decided to see if we could get ourselves removed from Saxon Blue's crew list. This is on our Customs Clearance document and I wanted to have us off it just in case somebody else takes the boat out of Antigua and couldn't prove that we had left. I had no faith whatever that we'd achieve it but, amazingly, they just crossed our names off, wrote our details in their paperwork and that's it. To be honest, we could have just crossed our own names off as there is no system for cross-checking anything but they already manage to make me feel like a criminal every time I walk into the office without me actually making myself into one.

After that unexpected success, we went down to Falmouth to do a bit of shopping, then back to the hotel for lunch. Andrea wanted to go for a last swim but didn't fancy the beach in Falmouth Harbour which is a bit near all the boats. We'd heard about Half Moon Bay and the manager of the hotel recommended it as well so we rang Moody to see if he could take us over there. He was on his way to the airport so sub-contracted Oliver to do the job. When we walked out to the taxi rank, he was waiting for us and was very happy as he'd only just arrived there so he was last in the queue to get a fare. We'd effectively jumped the whole queue for him which made him very chatty.

On the way around to the Bay, he told us about his sons, how the middle one had nearly died from a brain tumour but was OK now and how Oliver's O negative blood meant that he couldn't be a vegetarian, even though he is a Rasta. It was very entertaining as we pottered along as he only has one driving speed, irrespective of road conditions or, indeed, other traffic. He told us about the party they have at the end of the season on Half Moon Bay for all the taxi drivers and everyone else in the tourist industry so it's popular with locals as well.

He dropped us off after a 45 minute drive which was much longer than we expected as it's not far on the map but the road goes all around a huge bay on the way and parts of it are just gravel tracks. There weren't many people on the beach due, in part, to the fact that this is the third day on the trot with cloudy skies and drizzle. Nobody in Antigua can remember weather like it but, as we've discovered, everyone says that about the weather regardless of where we are or what it's doing. We walked past the surf part of the bay to the end which is tucked in behind a small reef so it's much calmer, got our gear on and went in. It was pretty shallow but clear with boulders mixed in amongst the sea grass in among the sand. There were plenty of fish to look at and Andrea spotted a small octopus. He shot off in a cloud of black ink when she put her foot near him but he soon came out again and I watched him undulating over the rocks, instantaneously changing his colour to match the background as he went.

After we got too cold for swimming, we walked along the far end of the bay and along some terraced rocks, carved by the sea. Looking out, we could see the horizon of the Atlantic with some nearby islands to the North and Guadeloupe to the South. The crashing waves were an excellent reminder of just how much sea we've travelled over in the last 12 months and just how magical it all is.

We're off in a minute over to the other side of the harbour to Catherine's for our last evening on Antigua. It's the best restaurant we've found on our travels so it's a fitting place to end up. Just a few last odds and ends to finish tomorrow then we can enjoy the Classic yachts so I'm finally starting to relax.

Harvey

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com]]> Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:37:00 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/13/278-half-moon-bay (@author) Mostly taking it easy /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/13/277-mostly-taking-it-easy
Andrea and I had a great night out with John and Jane last night, talking about boats and sailing. The time went past quickly so we didn't get back to the hotel until after 11pm which is very late indeed by our standards. Andrea had also drank rather a lot so she was feeling a bit soft around the edges. As a result, we didn't get a great night's sleep and, as we didn't really have to get up early, we had a bit of a sleep in.

We met Alden for breakfast and decided that, although he was intending to work for us until the end of today, there wasn't really anything left for him to do so he could have a paid holiday. We spent a while transferring his money, sorting out his flight back to St Martin and saying "goodbye" so it was almost lunchtime by the time we were ready to leave the Admiral's Inn. Alden is planning on crossing the Atlantic to France on a yacht, leaving St Martin at the end of April so he's got a lot to get ready in the meantime. He's staying with a friend of his in Antigua for a week or so before he flies out to join the new boat.

Andrea and I got Oliver to take us round to the Cat Club marina. I wanted to have some time with George at Antigua Rigging to sort out what they're going to do on Saxon Blue over the summer. We did go over some stuff onboard but it's difficult as his mobile phone is going the whole time and he is always pushed for time, especially today so the whole thing was more stressful than I'd hoped. I'm going to email them a list of works so that should help get things sorted.

We went to a small cafe at the top of the road for lunch which was OK, then got Moody to pick us up for the trip back to Nelson's. We ended up sharing the taxi with a completely manic woman from one of the mega-yachts who was talking at us as if we knew everything that she was referring to. I reckon she was on speed or something. By the time Moody dropped us back, I was really frazzled and remembered some things I'd meant to do on Saxon Blue but had forgotten so that didn't help. To calm down a bit, we watched some episodes of Battlestar. It's been raining nearly all day so we weren't missing anything much outside.

We went for a walk out to the fort at the entrance to English Harbour before dinner and continued chatting about our trip, where we've been and what it all means. So far, we've decided that comfort is more important than luxury but I'm hoping it means a bit more than that. We'll see. We had dinner at Hamiltons which was excellent, particularly the plate of lovely vegetables, before walking back along the dock. It's very odd not to have Saxon Blue sitting there and it's sad to see all the boats bobbing around in the water while ours is languishing in a dusty yard. Hey, ho. We don't have much choice at the moment but I'm dreading all the issues that will come up over the summer.

Harvey

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com]]> Wed, 13 Apr 2011 01:23:00 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/13/277-mostly-taking-it-easy (@author) Safely into the boatyard /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/11/276-safely-into-the-boatyard
Well, that's it. Saxon Blue is safely ashore in a cradle in Baileys yard. It's a huge relief to me to have got her there safely. As they say, "there's many a slip twixt cup and lip" and it would have been awful to have pranged her in the last couple of miles.

We met Alden for breakfast, then Andrea went off to get the marina guys in Nelson's Dockyard to prepare our bill for keeping Saxon Blue there for the last 10 days. Alden and I got Oliver to drive us over to the Cat Club as Moody was busy. Oliver is normally silent but, this morning, I got him talking about his family and his children so that was a challenge successfully met. George at Antigua Rigging was chatting to a couple, John and Jane, when we arrived and it turns out that they own another Discovery 55 called Seaduced. She's in the same yard as Saxon Blue with Antigua Rigging looking after them both.

Alden and I went around to the dock to see where we'd have to manoeuvre Saxon Blue for her to get lifted out. It's a very narrow gap between the two concrete piers which the crane runs along. The wind is notorious for whipping across the bay and pushing you sideways as you try to reverse into the gap so it was good to go and see it first. After having a chat to the guys operating the travel hoist, we got back into Oliver's taxi and headed back to Nelson's Dockyard to see Andrea. She had the marina guys sorted out so I went and paid for our stay. That sounds easy but you have to pay so much per foot per night, extra per person per night, yet more for water and electricity, even more for environmental impact and then the Harbour woman tried to get me to purchase a new cruising permit even though mine was still valid for today as she didn't believe that I was getting lifted out. They have a real knack of making you feel like a criminal, even if you're just paying up before leavi
ng.

We had to wait a while for the marina rib to get washed, then they released our lines plus the ones of the yacht alongside us and we could head out into the harbour to retrieve our anchor. That came up fine although we got very close to Miniskirt - the 100 foot Ron Holland yacht we looked around in St Martin - in the process. Elias has her all masked up for repainting at the moment so I certainly didn't want to put a scratch in her topsides. Then we headed out slowly while Andrea and Alden tidied up the deck. I had to negotiate the harbour entrance past a couple of yachts moored right in the middle of the channel and then we were out into the open sea. We had a look for whales as Alden spotted a group of three right outside the harbour entrance when he was out there last night but they must have swum off by this morning.

It was a bit bouncy on the way around to Falmouth Harbour entrance so we took the opportunity to agitate the black-water tanks and flush them out for the last time. Then we came into the harbour, past the reefs on either side. There are two buoyed channels, one to Falmouth itself and the other over to the North side for the Cat Club. There are lots of shallow patches around so I took it steady and we got outside the dock without any drama. Then I put Saxon Blue's bows into the wind and put her hard into reverse as I wanted to get moving before the wind took our bow too far to starboard. Alden was in the tender ready to act as a tugboat, if required. Thankfully, the wind was fairly light at that moment so I could take it steady and just use the bow thruster to steer us into the dock as I tickled her astern. We went in very gently and the guys operating the hoist congratulated me on the manoeuvre so I was pleased with that. We tied up and left her there as it was time for the y
ard guys to get lunch.

We headed off to the cafe in the Cat Club marina with some trepidation as it's impossible to get served quickly out here. We ordered and then waited. Andrea wanted to film Saxon Blue getting lifted out and I didn't want to be too far away so it was typical that they gave our food to another table. Andrea only managed a bowl of soup before heading back to the dock and then phoned me to say that they were getting the hoist ready so I bolted my gnocchi and got going. The hoist operators were getting their slings sorted and I helped them get the lines off. They were intending to get Antigua Rigging to drop the backstays but, in the end, that wasn't necessary so they just went ahead and lifted us out and then moved over the concrete pit where they do the high-pressure hosing. It didn't take long to get her clean as there wasn't a mark on the anti-foul, just a bit of weed on the anodes and a few other dirty bits. As they were doing that, another guy lifted our tender out with a loa
der. I didn't want to have that hanging on the davits all summer and I want the lift-points replaced anyway so we kept it separate.

I was concerned that the cradle they put us into was between a Coastguard patrol boat and a racing yacht, not between similar boats to us. I spoke to George, though, and he told me that it was only a temporary place as the other boats would be moved before the hurricane season and we'd all get moved and strapped in properly then. Fair enough. By then, we were all secured in our cradle and the operator guys had gone off to lift the next boat - a massive rib which is a tender for Rambler 100, the racing boat which won the Caribbean 600. We got onboard and finished our preparations. Andrea put all the fenders and lines away while Alden and I dropped the cockpit covers and put them in our cabin to keep safe. I'm hoping to get another cover made out here to keep the cockpit dry but our existing ones are no good anyway as the rain pools on top if the boat isn't rocking and she certainly won't be doing any rocking for a while.

We got everything finished just as we ran out of energy so rang Moody to take us back to the hotel. I've got to go over the work list with George tomorrow but there shouldn't be much else that needs doing so we had a very successful day today. I'm writing this before we have our dinner as we're going out with John and Jane from Seaduced and I'll definitely be too tired once we get back.

I couldn't have wished for a more successful day. I was nervous about those last few miles as it's easy to take your eye off the ball right at the end of the trip and have an incident. Now it's all done, I can start to relax. Saxon Blue looks safe enough and I think she'll be OK out here, even though it's so far from home. A boatyard is a horrible place to leave a yacht - they get filthy in no time - but we'll be able to get her cleaned and relaunched quickly when we return. I think leaving her here was the right choice although it's going to seem strange when we fly back to England, leaving our home for the past year sitting in a dusty yard.

Before we left her, I took down the Red Ensign and the two small flags which Nathan and Josh made for me when I got Chalkhill Blue. All three flags have flown over us for almost twelve thousand miles. Those bits of cloth have been places that very few flags have fluttered over. I'll take them home with me and think of all the places we've been together. They can hang at White Hill like the Standards of ancient regiments enshrined in a country church. A reminder that there are other countries out there and exciting deeds to be done. For our next trip, I'll start afresh with new flags and see if they and we do as well.

Harvey]]> Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:00:48 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/11/276-safely-into-the-boatyard (@author) Cleaning and polishing /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/11/275-cleaning-and-polishing
We're back in our room at the Admirals Inn after having our dinner at Trappas. We got back at about 7:30 pm so that's what I call a good night out. We were both hungry and tired after a very busy day but Saxon Blue looks the tidiest that she has since Annapolis and the shiniest since she was launched.

Andrea and I had our breakfast in the hotel, then walked over to the boat. Alden was still waiting for his toast in the cafe half and hour after ordering it so they were living up to their usual standards. We all got stuck into different bits of the boat. Alden cleaned and polished the forward half while Andrea and I worked out what we were going to take back to England and got that packed ready to go. I'm hardly taking anything. I've got some faulty Lopolights and a bunch of posters in the Makita wheely bag and that's about it. I'm trying to avoid taking things away from the boat as I'll only have to bring them all back again.

Andrea has a lot of stuff that she needs at home - particularly her Janeway costume, video camera and computer stuff along with a lot of clothes that she doesn't have duplicates for so she's got more stuff than me. Still, by the time we'd finished sorting and packing, we've only got two large bags between us and we're allowed to take three each so we're doing well. We had our lunch in Hamiltons (Alden and I had Sunday roast so that was a taste of England) and then Andrea and I gook our bags back to the hotel so we could start to see what was left onboard and get it tidied up.

When we got back to Saxon Blue, we had new neighbours. They were resting hard on our fenders and Alden told me that their anchor wasn't set properly so they had no means of pulling themselves away from us. I don't like causing a fuss but I wasn't happy with them using us to keep themselves off the dock so I asked the skipper if he wouldn't mind taking up on his anchor a bit to take a bit of weight off us - pretending that I didn't know that his anchor was just sitting on the mud directly in front of his bow. He told me that he thought his anchor might not be set properly and I tried to look sympathetic while suggesting that perhaps he could get the divers to set if for him.

Then Alden suggested that he could take our neighbour's anchor out in our tender and drop it far enough out to set properly. I left them to it at this stage and, when I looked out later, the job was done but the skipper was still moaning on about other boats maybe crossing his chain when they came in. I think he deliberately didn't set the anchor but just hoped that he could rely on the rest of us to act as fenders for him. Anyway, we got him sorted out without resorting to verbal pyrotechnics so I think it was all OK.

We all spent the rest of the afternoon just putting stuff away, washing things and then putting them away or, preferably, throwing them away. We had the air-con working all day so it was nice and cool below. I don't think we'd have managed it without as it was baking hot in the marina. By the end of the afternoon, everything was looking very tidy. We've got a few things still to do tomorrow after we get lifted out but it really feels as though we're nearly there. Andrea and I took the stuff we'll need to last us through until Thursday with us back to the Admirals Inn while Alden went off for a snorkel in the tender.

After all the activity, we were hungry again so went straight out for dinner. We chatted about how we feel at the end of our trip. It feels like years ago that we set off. I found some business cards from the Cafe Kisimul in Castlebay on Barra and told Andrea. She wondered why I had them onboard and then realised that we went there on this voyage - she was convinced that it was an earlier trip. A lot of the stuff we did early on seems like a different era and I'm worried that the memories of those adventures will get pushed out by the more recent ones. It's going to take a while until it all settles down in our heads and gets sorted out into some kind of order.

Another thing that's strange is how Saxon Blue herself fades into the background in our minds. I think we're so used to being onboard that we don't really notice the boat any more. That and we're always looking out at the places we've been so it's the world around us that gets stuck in our memories. It's great to have a beautiful boat and I do like it when people compliment us on how good she looks but, most of the time, it's more important to just be there. One thing that's really worked is the raised saloon. It allowed us to enjoy the views in the arctic while remaining warm and cosy the whole time. The funny things is, though, that we've had the curtains closed the entire time we've been in the Caribbean. It's too hot in the day so we need to keep the sun out and, when it's cool, it's dark so there's nothing to see anyway. I think all the modern-looking boats with their huge windows are crazy given where people are going to go on them. In the hot places, you'd be better off with no windows atall, just some good, insect-proof, rain-proof ventilation - something that I've not seen on any yacht.

So, that's it for preparations. Just the final short trip tomorrow and I'll be very glad when that's over. When Saxon Blue is resting in her cradle, I'll be able to relax a bit and get my head around going home.

Harvey

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I'm writing this sitting on my bed in the Admirals Inn. The building is part of the original Dockyard so it's beautiful with high ceilings and huge wooden beams everywhere. That said, I'd rather be back onboard Saxon Blue but we wanted to be able to concentrate on washing and tidying everything which is impossible if we're all still staying onboard.

It's been hard work today but successful in the end. Cind, Andrea and Alden went for breakfast to the cafe but I couldn't take the stress of wondering what I'd get so I just had muesli onboard and joined them for coffee. By that time, they hadn't had anything but, eventually, they got solid eggs that were supposed to be "over easy" and other random variations on what's written in the menu. Back on Saxon Blue, Andrea and Cind got stuck into sorting through our remaining provisions. They threw out all the open packets and out of date stuff, put the things that will go out of date during the summer into a couple of boxes to go to a local orphanage and put the stuff that will be OK into 2012 back into the cupboards. They also got the fridge and freezer defrosted and gave all the frozen stuff to Alden's friend Deano.

Alden and I got the last of the replacement Lopolights - the steaming light - fitted onto the mast and the old ones packed up ready to go back to the UK. I fixed a problem with the heater matrix in the forward cabin and sorted out a load of stuff that was under the forward bunk. We packed away the charts of Antigua and then I put preservative into the watermaker so it won't go mouldy over the summer. We generated many bin bags of rubbish and I managed to get my toe caught in a deck fitting while I was carrying one of them ashore so that my left little toe is now all black and sore. Still, that's a good excuse to have an easy time of it over the next few days and I can always use my old drama training to ham it up if required.

While we were doing all that, we washed all the bedding, towels and clothes. They dried quickly in the warm breeze so we only have a few things hanging on deck now and they should be dry tomorrow. Alden packed all his stuff up and moved into the hotel at lunchtime and then Andrea and I went to the airport with Cind so she could catch her flight back to London at 8pm tonight.

It was sad to see Cind go and we'll miss her optimism and energy - she did so much to help today that there isn't that much left to do. It was fantastic her and Christine coming out here for the last part of our trip. It made a special time out of what could have been a gradual running out of steam. It kept us exploring right up to the end and it's been so good for Andrea to share her new boating life with her friends. Parting was made easier by the knowledge that we'll see Cind again in a very short while back in England.

On the way back from the airport, we shared Moody's taxi with a couple who have chartered a 173 foot motoryacht for their holiday. It can have 12 guests so it must be pretty impressive. Still, they haven't sailed with icebergs so Andrea did a good job of casually letting them know that she has. Moody dropped us back at Saxon Blue and then we walked the few hundred yards to the hotel with an overnight bag. We've just had a lovely dinner outside by the water's edge. I had Snapper, Andrea had Linguine with Mussels and Alden went for Duck.

Andrea has just been back to Saxon Blue with Alden to get some cleaning solution into the black water holding tanks. That's just the sort of thing you need to do after a good dinner when you're living on a boat. It's not all glamour.

So, that's it. We live on land again. Saxon Blue has been our lovely home for almost a year and she's kept us comfortable and safe for that whole time. We'll both miss life onboard although I'm looking forward to getting back home to England in the Springtime and seeing my family and friends. At the moment, we're both feeling keen on sailing to some other new places so our experiences haven't put us off. We'll see how we feel after a few months at home.

Harvey

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com]]> Sun, 10 Apr 2011 01:39:00 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/10/274-wash-day-in-antigua (@author) Sails off, ready for a rest /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/9/273-sails-off-ready-for-a-rest
We've just got back from Catherine's restaurant after a superb meal. Cind and Andrea had lobster so it was an extended affair now that Andrea likes to eat every last scrap of meat, helped by Alden.

We all got up at 0630 so that we could take the sails off in the relative calm of the morning. It all went smoothly so that was a relief. We started with the jib to see if it was going to work OK and we got that down and flaked on the foredeck with no trouble. The Genoa was next. It's a much bigger sail so was a bit harder to get under control and it's too big to flake effectively on the deck so we just dropped it quickly, Alden trussed it up and we picked it up between the four of us and carried it ashore. There, we spead it out on the grass before making a neat job of folding it and then into the bag it went. The main was next and we were on a roll by now so we got that straight down, carried ashore and flaked.

After all that effort, it was time to go to the cafe for a good breakfast. It was great to get the difficult job done so quickly and without incident - in the cool of the morning, too. After breakfast, Andrea and Cind headed off to St Johns to do some shopping. Alden and I got all the running rigging off and coiled up before putting it into the sail bags. I rang George at Antigua Rigging and arranged to get all the sails picked up from the dockside so they're all gone now. Saxon Blue looks a bit bare.

We had time before lunch to get the masthead anchor light down and work out why it had been wobbling around on its pole. After that, we headed over to Catherine's to book for tonight and then had our lunch next door while chatting to two guys from England who we met a few weeks back. Alden was visibly wilting as he'd been up late at a barbecue, drank rather too much and then had to get up and do the sails. We headed back to Saxon Blue and he went to bed for a couple of hours. It was too hot to do anything outside anyway and I just sat in our cabin with the aircon on full blast. The girls returned from the big city, stopped for a drink and then headed off to Pigeon Beach to go swimming.

I got the new anchor light tested and fitted to the bracket, then woke Alden and he went up the mast again to fit it all. It's a right pain of a job, made harder by Lopolight fitting a one meter long cable to a masthead anchor light. Perhaps they imagine that the 50 meter long vessels it's designed for have a 90 centimeter high mast. Anyway, after a bit of messing around, we got it fitted and working so we now only have one more light to fit tomorrow.

With all that work, there was only time for a quick shower and then over to the restaurant for dinner. It was excellent, as ever. It's lovely going out by tender and then sitting by the water watching the fish swim about beneath us. The staff at Catherine's are so friendly and our waitress was particularly entertaining, if a bit outrageous. We've just had a tender ride back across the harbour again -driven by Cind - and we're enjoying the cool and a cold glass of fizzy water.

It's strange to think that this is our last night onboard Saxon Blue. We're cleaning out the inside tomorrow so we're all moving into the Admirals Inn so that we can wash and store all the bedding, towels and stuff. It'll be odd having the boat here but not living aboard but I suppose it will prepare us for when we have to leave her completely and fly home. A few more days of work and then it'll all be over. That's going to take some getting used to.

Harvey

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com]]> Sat, 09 Apr 2011 02:23:00 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/9/273-sails-off-ready-for-a-rest (@author) One step forward, two steps backwards /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/8/272-one-step-forward-two-steps-backwards
It's been a stressful day working on Saxon Blue and trying to get her in a good state to leave for the summer. Alden and I have done loads of good stuff but, overall, it seems like we're further away than ever.

I was pretty dozy this morning - probably because we had our windows closed to stop mosquitoes which makes it stuffy and airless in our cabin. Andrea and Cind were going off to Rendezvous Bay to go swimming so they got ready while Alden and I looked through our list of jobs. I went off in the taxi with the girls and got dropped at Antigua Rigging to pick up the replacement LopoLight package. They were all as jolly and helpful as ever and George tried to calm me down by promising that they could do anything that we didn't get around to before the lift-out.

When I got back onboard, Alden had cleaned out the lazarette lockers so we put the Eberspacher heater on to test it and were pleased to find that it ran without a hitch although one of the fan units needs to have a bit of attention. We then got stuck into fitting the new lights which do seem to be the correct ones so I was amazed at that. The most awkward was always going to be the stern light so we started with that. It went smoothly enough although it's crazy that we had to put a join in the cable inside the comms mast as the wire attached to the light is only about a meter long. Every one of them should come with 5 meters of cable at least but they're all supplied with just enough to get inside the nearest fitting. Disgraceful.

While we were having a break, a couple of guys from Antigua Rigging turned up to look at our fixed rigging. They've got another Discovery 55 with cap shrouds constantly breaking and they wanted to look at mine to see what the differences were. It turns out that the differences are only in quantity as I, too, have a broken cap shroud and some corrosion and discolouration in other places as well. I know they've told me this before but, apparently, the mast will have to come out to effect the repair. I'm convinced that this is an over-reaction and that the shrouds can be replaced with stronger ones in situ but it seems that we're destined to have a load of work carried out over the summer.

I can't help thinking that rather too much attention is paid by the builders to getting the interior joinery perfect and rather too little to two major functions of the boat: keep the water out and keep the rig up. I know that stainless rigging is heavy and it's better to have a lighter rig but it's supposed to last 10 years without trouble and we're nowhere near that. I suppose it won't be my problem to fix it but every time something major gets done, it creates a load of knock-on jobs and I won't be around to check on it all. With the issues we've already identified, they might be better off just taking the whole boat apart and starting again from scratch.

Anyway, Alden and I had some lunch in Hamiltons and then carried on with the lights so that, by the end of the afternoon, we had the stern and the two forward lights installed and working as well as our lockers cleared out and ready for long-term storage. Geoffrey from Antigua Sails came round to see about making an awning to protect our cockpit from the sun and rain while the boat is out of the water so, hopefully, he can come up with something to do the job. The girls came back from their expedition having had a lovely time swimming in the sea with the whole white strand to themselves.

We've just been out to get our dinner, only to find that our favourite restaurant seems to have closed down. I'm not surprised as we seemed to be the only people who were ever in it. Great food but terrible advertising (or total lack of it) seems to have been a disastrous combination. We had a good meal in another place, though, and then waited for a couple of rainstorms to pass over before heading back home.

I'm feeling a bit less stressed now than I did earlier but I'm not liking the idea of leaving Saxon Blue so far from home with so many big jobs to be done. Perhaps it will all go smoothly but experience doesn't help me maintain that illusion. I'm sure we'll do our jobs well and leave her tidy but I've no idea what state she'll be in when we return.

Harvey

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com]]> Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:34:00 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/8/272-one-step-forward-two-steps-backwards (@author) A second dose of Screw /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/7/271-a-second-dose-of-screw
We're onboard Saxon Blue in the Dockyard again, listening to the band playing in the cafe. They're pretty terrible, actually but it still feels like home.

We were up early today and got our stuff packed ready to check out - not that we brought much with us so it didn't take very long. We had Jepson's coconut and Pomp's grapefruit with our breakfast. At that rate, we'd be self-sufficient in a few weeks. We said goodbye to the staff and other guests and went up to Reception to meet Jepson. He drove past us heading down to the kitchen to prepare some sugarcane for us while we checked out then we loaded up into his van and we were off.

We got started on the sugarcane straight away and it was hard work. It tastes like very sweet grass and it's just about possible to chew through the inch-diameter stems. This releases the sweet juice and gives your jaw a thorough work-out at the same time. I'm not sure that you'd get very fat on it, given the amount of energy necessary to eat it. Cind thinks that the fibres clean your teeth as you eat so, perhaps, it's both calorie and caries neutral. Either way, it was a bit too much like hard work for a foodstuff.

It took us about an hour to get up to Screw Spa which had just opened so we were the first ones in. As we got into the first pool, it started to bucket down with rain so we were sitting in the hot water, looking out at the jungle all around with the sun shining and getting wet from huge drops of rain. That's not a combination that I've experienced before. It wasn't long before the water started to work its magic on me and I was quite happy listening to the sound of the waterfalls with my mind drifting away. The girls got bored while I was still dreaming they dragged me up to the reception shack and ordered some lunch which was very good.

By now, it was time to get going up north to the airport. We picked up a women called Jacinta who works at Jungle Bay in Roseau as we drove through as she wanted to come for a scenic tour of the island with us. Almost immediately, we started to drive up a well-made but precipitous road through a series of hairpin bends. Jepson came to a halt next to a building site where some guys were erecting a steel-frame building and Harold came out to say "hello". He was full of smiles, as ever, and we thanked him for his gifts of jelly coconuts and the sugarcane. It's a shame that we hadn't seen him before but I think he's busy with this new construction project and work's not that plentiful that he can afford time off. We wished him a fond farewell and then all back in the van again and around more bends and past more jungle-covered mountains.

We had enough time to take a detour on our way North through the Carib Territory. Dominica is unique among the islands as it still has a remnant of the pre-Columbian population living there. The Caribs were famous warriors who built seagoing canoes and conquered the islands from the peaceful Arawaks. After Columbus, some of the islands were quickly captured by the Europeans. Antigua had a tiny Carib population as they considered it too dry so no problems with uppity natives there. Dominica was another story. The Caribs not only held out in the dense forests but launched raids in support of their relatives on Guadeloupe and Martinique. Despite horrific battles, they were never fully defeated so ended up negotiating a separate territory for themselves which is where their descendants still live.

It's a proper integrated part of Dominica so not like the Native American Reservations in the USA but it's still distinctive. All the land is owned communally although they still farm the same plants. The buildings are smaller than in the rest of Dominica but it all looks tidy. There are shacks along the road selling handicrafts like baskets which are intricate and well-made. One stall where we stopped was clad in old printing plates so that the walls were covered in news stories, many of them pretty lurid and out of keeping with the carved wooden masks on display. We passed some traditional wooden boats in people's gardens which looked much like the war canoes must have done. The people were distinctive as well although I don't think many of them are pure Carib any more. There were a lot of asian-looking faces and long dark hair.

We stopped by a roadside bakery and bought some Cassava bread. It was surprisingly delicious, chewy and slightly coconutty. The Cassava is native to Dominica so it was being eaten by the Caribs before all the other delicious plants were brought there by the Europeans. I was worried that the Carib Territory would be a depressing place but it was far from that. People were poor alright but there seemed to be a good community feel going on and I'd like to go back for a longer look but we didn't have time for that today.

We finally got to the airport just in time to check in for our flight and then have a drink with Jepson and Jacinta. As we sat there, Carlos came by, having dropped another guest called Gaby to the terminal so he joined us to make quite a party. When it was time for us to go into the airport, we were sad to leave and I think Jepson was sad to see us go. It feels as though we've known him for ages and I'll miss seeing his huge smile and hearing him say "Yeah, mon" while taking huge trouble to make sure we have a good time.

Once we'd negotiated the chaotic terminal, Cind was ecstatic to find that they had Manchester United vs Chelsea on the TV so she and Christine texted each other in excitement as the Reds beat the Blues. The plane arrived and about ten of us got on before it took off back over the familiar islands up to Antigua. The immigration and customs guys were incredibly friendly and one of them was asking Andrea for advice about how he could get his wife interested in going out sailing with him. Moody turned up and he ended up chatting to Cind about football the whole way back to the Dockyard so I think they're now firm friends.

Then we were back home. Saxon Blue was sitting where we'd left her and Alden was getting off, sporting a new very smart haircut. We had a chat to Nick from Taiconderoa who told us that Kali had helped them out in St Barths after she'd left us so that's a typical Kali holiday - dashing around and helping everybody. Alden cooked us a delicious pasta and the "music" from the cafe has got even worse. They seem to be having some kind of open mic night although, thankfully, without the mic. Without any discernible talent, either.

It's good to be back onboard again although it's a far cry from the peace and natural beauty of Dominica. They've got something very special down there and I'm really glad we went back for another dose of it.

Harvey

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com]]> Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:34:00 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/7/271-a-second-dose-of-screw (@author) Two Inspiring Dominicans /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/6/270-two-inspiring-dominicans
We had a full-on day today which included a good hike and two inspiring people.

Andrea and I didn't get a great night's sleep as it rained on and off since I finished writing my blog last evening. At 1:30am, I was getting rained on in bed so had to get up and shut the door and windows. Every hour or so after that, I was woken by the rain hammering on the roof. Our excursion this morning was at 9:00am, though, so we had to get up and ready before heading down for breakfast and trying to load up with enough energy to get us through as I had a sneaking suspicion that lunch would be small, delayed or non-existent.

We loaded up into one of the minibuses with a guide called Brother who we'd not met before. He was very good and gave us an interesting introduction to what we'd be doing. With that, we drove for half and hour or so and then all got out into the pouring rain. The walk was up a rough path with river crossings every 15 minutes or so. To start with, we were walking through small fields of Dasheen and Bananas with mellow-looking cows reposing in picturesque attitudes. Brother got everyone together, shinned up a nearby tree and threw down an orange for each of us. They were delicious and he told us how nobody can starve on Dominica as there is always food to be had on the trees. The epiphyte growing on the bark is used as a cure for fever and he informed us that the island's reputation for longevity is based on such herbal remedies. The trees want you to eat the fruit so they can grow some more and, when you throw away the pips, another tree grows so there's even more to eat.

He demonstrated how to harvest cinnamon from another tree by scraping away the bark and peeling off the next layer of the tree. It tasted strong and sweet. After an hour or so of walking, we started the climb up a slippery, stony track to Pomp's Residence, also knows as Pomp's Paradise, which was the destination for the hike. At the top of the hill, we walked out onto a close-cropped paddock with occasional trees and surrounded by virgin jungle. Pomp himself was busy with a mechete tending to his Dasheen but didn't need much persuading to stop that and chat to us lot. He was wearing a set of French Blue overalls, rubber boots and a large brown Rasta hat which set off his lined face, goatee beard and twinkly eyes wonderfully.

We all headed over to his house, set in a garden of fruit trees and outbuildings. Everyone sat down beneath an awning with Pomp at one end next to me. He spoke slowly with long pauses and wasn't in any hurry to do or say anything, content to let the peaceful atmosphere make its own impression. We talked of how the world has gone mad with fighting and greed. Of how people need to have access to land so they can live simply and raise their family. He's clearly living a dream life that he's carved out of the jungle for himself and it's very much the Rasta ideal although didn't use all the usual phrases which made what he said a lot more convincing.

After a lot of chatting and even more pausing, we went for a look around the garden. It was stunning. Trees everywhere bearing either fruit or flowers with the promise of fruit to come. All the usual suspects plus cocoa, grapefruit (and what grapefruit they were, delicious and sweet) cashews, limes, oranges, golden-apple... Amongst the trees were all the herbs you could name plus soyabeans, carrots, sweet potato and even brussels sprouts. We spent a very unhurried hour or so wandering around trying to make sense of it all. The birds and animals from the jungle come out and eat some of it but, apparently, he just plants enough so they can have some too, especially the birds who work so hard at spreading the seeds for him. He also keeps goats, cows, chicken, rabbits and horses, none of which get eaten or even milked. I'm a bit puzzled at all the animals which must take a lot of looking after and occupy a huge area of land, cleared at some effort.

After a good look around, we sat down again and ate home-made Journey Cakes which are deep-fried unleavened bread, cooked in the separate kitchen building. Then time for a bit more lounging around before heading off back down the hill.

The whole place was like a different world or, I suppose, a different time. He's a simple man is some ways but a very complex one in others. Poor in that he uses no money but rich in spirit and, frankly, in land. Wise in that he's made the life for himself that he wants but naive in that he wants it for everyone else and can't see why they would object. The scale of his ambition is impressive. He's not just wandered off to be content with the minimum but has created a self-consciously perfect kingdom in the hills complete with picture-postcard wooden house and flowers everywhere. It's certainly an attractive vision of what the world could be like but I'm not sure that it's this world. Maybe something out of the Bible.

Anyway, we set off back to the minibus and I had a chat to a German guy called Thomas who's thinking of setting off in a yacht and wanted to find out what we'd been up to. Then it was back to Jungle Bay where Andrea had an afternoon nap and I read my Bob Bartlett book about boating adventures in the Arctic. Before too long, it was time to get going again as Sam, the owner of Jungle Bay, was giving a talk about the resort.

We sat under one of the trees while he told us about wanting to do something that involved the community and helped the Island. He had to train all the people to work in the resort from scratch as the people who now run the restaurant had never actually eaten in one. They've carved the trails out of the jungle for the walks, created a local market for farm produce and then helped the farmers supply it, employed most of the local people and done it all while protecting the natural environment of Dominica. Sam has had successful businesses before on other islands and is the sort of person who would always get stuff done but his ambition in setting out to create a new business that would work itself and act as a model for others to follow was staggering. He wanted to make a point and then set out to do whatever it took. Now that he has a successful business, he's been able to use that as a springboard to get the Dominican government to focus on a sustainable path to development
and, for example, refuse to let the Venezuelans build an oil refinery here.

We've just had our dinner while discussing all the stuff we've seen and heard today. It's been very inspiring. Both Pomp and Sam have got their visions of how to make Dominica - and the world - a better place. They're both out there doing it. Prepared to fail but putting in sufficient effort to make sure that doesn't happen. Sure, they're both getting their own kick out of it and enjoying themselves but they're both holding up a beacon for others to follow. Both showing that there are other ways to be, that the world can be better.

Harvey]]> Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:29:30 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/6/270-two-inspiring-dominicans (@author) More Champagne /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/5/269-more-champagne
As we weren't off on any trips this morning, we could take it a bit easy so we had a leisurely breakfast before setting out on the Zom Zom trail. This is the walk down to the rocks in the ocean which goes from Jungle Bay itself so no need for a vehicle journey. It's a lovely walk through the forest with lizards everywhere and the occasional hermit crab. We sat on the rocks at the end watching the surf roll in around us. It's amazing that the island is still here with so much pounding from the waves every day.

We didn't have time to wait around too long, though, as we were getting picked up by Jepson at 1pm and we had to fit our lunch in before then. I just had time for a shower and change my shirt, then down for lunch and directly up to reception to pick up some snorkelling gear. Jepson arrived and we set off for Champagne Beach. On the way, we passed his bar where he stopped to give the truck keys to his wife. This was a good opportunity for Andrea to have another cuddle with Kaydon, Jepson's son. He's walking now and getting into all sorts of trouble. Very cute. On the way out of Petite Savanne, we stopped to pick up three young women who sat behind us all quiet and embarrassed. I'm sure they would normally have been giggling the whole way.

Jepson dropped us at Champagne Beach and headed off with the three young women who were looking a bit more lively now that we were getting out. We got ourselves sorted out with a dive guide called Diane who was busily having her hair braided by another girl. Andrea and Cind hired wetsuits for themselves and we all headed off down the beach and past the herds of Iguanas with half of Diane's hair in corn-rows and the other half au-naturel. It's a bit difficult getting into the sea on the beach as it's really stony and I have to take my shoes off before getting in deep enough to fit the fins. Not having glasses on makes it all even harder.

Anyway, once I was in and sorted out, I turned face down and it was immediately apparent how clear the water was. Clearer than the last time we were in Dominica and much better than any we'd seen in Antigua. Almost immediately, a flounder swam beaneath me and on into the streams of bubbles emerging from the seabed. Just past him, there was a whole shoal of little fish just hanging out. We swam a different way round to the last time and soon saw the cannons and anchor from the Spanish ship and then swam over the edge of the lava. This time, the water was clear enough to see the bottom, even in that depth. The feeling of flying over the land was wonderful with water so clear that it was hard to be aware of it.

We ended up swimming the length of the beach and seeing some great walls, covered in sponges and fish. I dived down a few times for a closer look but, to be honest, you could see everything from the surface and I was often just doing activities to keep myself warm. After we'd swum over some barren sand, Diane said she'd point out some Seahorses. She dived down to some frondy weeds and pointed at a brown lump which looked like part of the plant. After she'd come back up, I dived down to the same spot and could make out the Seahorse pretty well. They've very well comouflaged, though, so this was the one time when I was at an advantage to Cind and Andrea. They did end up seeing the little creatures but it was difficult.

From there, we were soon back at the beach. Andrea declared that she'd had a much better time than on her previous visit. I think the wetsuit helped her keep warm and feel more buoyant so she'd been totally relaxed the whole time. She'd ended up swimming for an hour out of her depth which is pretty amazing. Cind was blown away by how much we'd seen in so short a time and we had a good chat over a drink with Jepson in the little cafe by the beach. Diane was now straight back into the job of getting the other half of her hair braided. Once we got back into the bus, it was clear that we'd be very short of time to continue on to the Trafalgar Falls which was our plan. We didn't fancy doing a drive up there only to have a short visit so we decided to just head back for Jungle Bay.

On the way back, Jepson phoned somebody who we assume was his wife and said he'd be back in ten minutes. That didn't stop him staying with us for another drink, though, and we had a lovely talk about hurricanes and Dominican planning laws with a particular emphasis on how to get around them. He was alternately talking to us in English and then the other Jungle Bay staff in Creole. As ever here, everything was good-humoured and unhurried so it was a good while before I paid him for today, arranged to meet him again on Wednesday for our extended return to the airport and we headed up to our cabins to have a shower before dinner.

We all had a massive meal again but we're going on a long walk tomorrow so we had to carbo-load for that. Cind is determined to see a Tree Frog but she'll have a hard job as they're tiny, shy and fast-moving. We did see a lovely black and yellow snake today, though, so that's one wildlife encounter we can tick off the list. All in all, another great day on Dominica.

Harvey]]> Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:21:48 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/5/269-more-champagne (@author) Back in Dominica /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/3/268-back-in-dominica
We're back at Jungle Bay again, listening to the surf smash itself against the beach and the birds arguing about who gets the best perch. Cind is in the cabin where we stayed last time and we're next door so we can yodel to each other when it's time to go down for a meal.

Cind, Andrea and I woke up a bit the worse for wear yesterday morning as we'd all eaten far too much in the Italian restaurant the night before. I could barely manage any breakfasat as I could still feel the previous evening's pork in my stomach. I had a lot of little jobs to get done before we left for Dominica so I had to get cracking with doing emails, ringing taxis, getting packed and getting Saxon Blue in a sensible state. Alden and I had a look at the list of jobs and decided which of them he could sensibly tackle while we were away, then found the necessary spares and materials. Hopefully, he'll be able to get some stuff finished and not find too many other things which need doing. I'm sure he'll enjoy having Saxon Blue to himself and not having us around forcing him to eat veggie food.

We all had our lunch together in the little cafe by the waterside which was a bit of a mistake as they're back to their bad old ways of taking ages to produce food that bears little resemblance to what's described in the menu. We waited over half an hour for some salads and a sandwich so I don't think we'll be troubling them again any time soon. By the time we'd eaten, I had about five minutes to get a quick shower and finish packing my bag. In that time, Moody rang to say he was running late so he was sending another guy, Oliver, to pick us up. He arrived bang on time so fair enough. Cind, Andrea and I got in and we headed off for the airport.

When we arrived, there were people everywhere - in contrast to the normal semi-deserted state. We checked in, paid our departure tax (cash only) and got some departure forms to replace the ones that I'd forgotten to bring. Then we joined the queue which went virtually the whole length of the concourse. There were no announcements about what was going on nor any indication of what people were supposed to do if their plane was about to depart. As we inched our way forward, surrounded by panicing Canadians, it became clear that the holdup was with the cabin baggage screening. They only had one X-ray machine working so they had a row of people manually searching through the bags of half the would-be passengers. People were losing their sense of humour everywhere. A guy shuffled Andrea out of our queue into the one for the X-ray as she had a laptop but there was no signs up telling such well-gadgetted types to get into that line. Talk about making a drama out of a crisis. Everyone
in an airport is freaked out anyway and all they had to do was put a few printed signs up to calm people's nerves.

We'd left plenty of time for unforseen circumstances so we were pretty calm and still had half an hour to spare before the boarding time of our plane when we finally made it through the security screening. Then they called our names out for final boarding of our plane - I've never had my name called out before. We went straight through the gate, walked across the tarmac and into the small plane which promptly took off a good thirty minutes earlier than scheduled. I don't know what they'd have done if we hadn't arrived until we were supposed to. The flight was great as we could look down on loads of the places we'd been in Saxon Blue. We saw Five Islands Bay and then Falmouth Harbour, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, The Saintes and, finally, the coast of Dominica.

It's funny how different the islands look from the air. Antigua is green but quite flat with scattered houses everywhere. Guadeloupe has big areas of green forest interspersed with neatly ordered towns, their municipal buildings and sports facilities arranged properly. The Saintes looked tiny - hardly room to hide behind them from the ocean swell. Dominica is just trees and mountains. We hardly saw any houses atall as we came in, just above the level of the trees and banked hard to get onto the runway. We got through customs and immigration OK then had to wait half an hour for Jepson to arrive. He was slightly late as he'd had to stop to get two new tyres on the bus and, just for the purpose, we were early. Anyway, it was good to see him again and we set straight off into the countryside.

The eastern side of the country is hardly populated so we were just travelling through the jungle over the terrible roads. The Chinese gangs had left diggers and lorries everywhere so they're obviously doing their best but it seemed to take forever to get to Jungle Bay. I think we were all feeling a bit travel sick by the time we arrived after negotiating hundreds of hairpin bends. We had a drink with Jepson and his friend in the reception then put our stuff in our cabins and went straight down for dinner. The food was as excellent as ever and, to make amends for my excessive carnivorousness the day before, I just had vegetables. All the staff remembered us from our last visit and were surprised to see us back again so soon. Nancy and Sam came over for a chat and asked us where the boat was so we had to explain where we'd been. Then it was time to face the unavoidable climb back to our cabin. Andrea made a cup of tea and we just about managed to drink it before collapsing int
o bed - hence no blog yesterday night.

I slept like a log, in spite of the tree-frogs making a racket, followed by the birds as soon as it got light and the rain rattling on the roof. Cind told me about all the noises as I didn't hear any of them. We headed down for breakfast and were about to get started when Carlos waves us over from near the kitchen. He had a bag full of jelly coconuts which Jepson had brought for us - I think his friend Harold had grown and prepared them - so we got Carlos to machete a couple of them open for us. We drank the water and then scraped the jelly from inside and ate that so it was a very Caribbean breakfast.

Our tour this morning departed at 10 am so we headed up to reception to catch that only to find that it was Carlos taking us out so we had a good laugh about how stuffed full of coconut I was. He suggested that we take our coconut water mixed with moonshine in future. There were only another two women on the tour with the three of us so we had a great time doing the river walk up to Victoria Falls. The water was a bit lower this time so the walking was easier and we arrived before we knew it. The rivers here are just magnificent. Surrounded with vegetation, they carve their way down the mountainsides so it's like walking through a botanical garden. Then there's the waterfall at the end. There's something about the noise and pressure of it that is exhilerating and we were all shrieking and larking about in the pool at the bottom like a bunch of kids. The walk back to the truck didn't take long which was just as well as I was famished by then and ready for my lunch.

On the walk, Carlos had been showing us the different plants, especially the edible ones growing all around. We smelled the Lemon Grass and the strongest Thyme that we've ever come across. Cind put some in her pocket and became an instant pot-pourri. Anyway, he then bent down and gave a delicate-looking little plant a poke with his finger and it promptly folded its leaves up. He said it was Mimosa so I'm going to have to look it up. The leaf is made up of about 20 tiny leaflets and, when I touched the end one, it furled itself up into a limp tube. The wierd thing was, though, that the reaction continued along the stalk so that each of the leaflets in turn folded itself up as well. Then the whole stalk went limp. It's like the plant has some kind of nervous system. I've never seen anything like it. Carlos reckons that the leaves come out again after a while but we didn't wait to see that.

We've just been hanging our in our room for the afternoon, reading and chatting. It's good to have a bit of time not doing much and it's great not having to worry about the boat, now that Alden is looking after her in Nelson's Dockyard. Best of all, though, is that there's another top-quality meal getting prepared down in the restaurant.

Harvey]]> Sun, 03 Apr 2011 21:37:05 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/3/268-back-in-dominica (@author) Safely back in Nelsons Dockyard /saxonblue/posts/2011/4/2/267-safely-back-in-nelsons-dockyard
It's been a day of mixed emotions, today. I'm very relieved to be safely back in Nelson's Dockyard but I'm also sad that today was the last section of our voyage and it'll be a while before Saxon Blue heads out to sea again. We've still got to take her around to Falmouth to get hauled out in just over a week but that doesn't really count.

We got up this morning before 0800 as we wanted to have time for a swim before breakfast. Andrea and I swam over to the perfect beach and just sat there, looking back at Saxon Blue. We're amazed that we've come so far since we left Southampton eleven months ago. The contrast in the scenery, weather and wildlife is startling. Saxon Blue looks pretty much the same and I think we do, too, although we're a bit browner now. Have we changed much? I'm not so sure about that. I think Andrea has discovered that she's braver and tougher than she thought. I've learned loads of things although I'd struggle to put them into a pithy soundbite. The world seems smaller than it did before we left home and stranger. The history of the places we've visited is also much more intimately connected than it might appear. England has provided a strong link between diverse places, sometimes for good and othertimes for ill. As an Englishman, there's a strange mixture of pride and shame when I look at what went on.

I think it's going to take us a while to absorb the lessons of our voyage. I hope it changes us. It would be disappointing to come back home and carry on exactly as we did before although I'm not sure that either of us have the option of doing that. I don't actually have a job, for one thing, so I'll have to make some changes.

Perhaps that's what was going on inside our heads or perhaps we were just stunned. Either way, we were both nervous about getting Saxon Blue back to the Dockyard safely. It would be really annoying to have a cock-up on the last trip. We swam back and got onboard, had our breakfast and prepared to get going. We decided on the easiest option for getting away and Andrea let some anchor chain out so that I could back towards the mooring buoy and let Alden release the line. We then motored forward slowly while Andrea recovered the chain. I managed to retain steerage way through most of the maneuver although we got a bit off course just before we finally got the anchor up. We soon had her facing the narrow exit between the reefs, though, and then I could follow Alden's hand signals and gain the open water outside the reef.

It got rough suddenly and, as we headed East, the waves got steeper again. We were in about 10 meters of water but that's not a lot for a big ocean swell and they were really feeling the bottom. The seas were steep enough for us to bury the bow a couple of times which meant Alden getting wet but he was busy shrieking in delight so I think he was reliving his childhood. The water was clear enough to see the bottom so that was disconcerting as it looked much shallower than it really was. After a few minutes, we cleared that reef, too, and the swell died down. We turned to the South, put most of the main and all the jib out and got ourselves sailing.

As we turned the southeast corner of Antigua, we could see the rocky coastline getting pounded by the surf. Antigua may have 365 beaches but there are plenty of them that I wouldn't want to be anchored in front of. The wind got a bit further behind us as we changed course to the west so we swapped the jib for the genoa and had a screaming run past the reefs and cliffs. We were outside English Harbour in no time so got the sails away and motor on for the final tricky bit of getting ourselves berthed.

Now that we've done it a few times, we know the drill so we got fendered up on both sides, got the tender tied to the starboard bow, two long warps rigged at the stern and the anchor ready to go. The marina guys were visibly disappointed that Kali wasn't onboard but managed to smile through it and were as helpful as ever. We dropped the anchor almost on the other side of the harbour and backed towards our allocated spot but Alden let me know that it was dragging so we had to wind it all in again and have another go. This time, it held solidly so we backed down towards the dock and the waiting guys. It all went well that time and we were soon tied up, adjusting our lines to get ourselves close enough to get off without being in danger of banging the stern into the dock. Just for the purpose, the wind is slightly on the starboard side as it's further south than usual. Of course, I'd laid my anchor slightly to port on the basis that the prevailing wind comes from there so we're at a bit of an angle but it's all safe and we'll be perfect when the wind shifts back to the usual place.

So, that was it. All safely alongside and I was mightily relieved. We all headed up to Hamiltons for lunch and had some meat on the basis that we'll be in Jungle Bay eating veggie stuff for a few days from tomorrow. Andrea spent the afternoon uploading YouTube videos while I caught up on some emails and helped Alden tidy up the deck. Mostly, though, I was enjoying not doing much. I had a good chat to the guys on the boat next-door and that was about it for the afternoon. We've just been out to our favourite Italian restaurant for a fantastic dinner so we're all completely stuffed now and I'll soon be in bed. It'll be months before we feel Saxon Blue forging her way through the waves again but, hopefully, that will give us time to think through what happened since Southampton and get some good ideas of where we want to go next.

Harvey

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We're still anchored and moored in our lovely bay. I think it's the best anchorage we've found in the Caribbean so, as they say, we saved the best 'til last.

Andrea had me up and out of bed early as she was keen to get out and do some Janeway filming before the hordes descended on the island. We wanted to go around to the next beach which is used as a picnic spot by boats from the resorts in Nonsuch Bay. We had our breakfast while discussing the tactics and decided that we needed Alden to drop us ashore so I had to get him out of bed as well. As we got ready, we saw an Osprey fly past us with something in its claws and land in a nearby tree. I went and got my proper camera and fired off a load of shots while he sat in the tree eating his fish and then flew around the anchorage. One of the pictures came out well. We then put all Andrea's stuff in the dry bag, got into the tender and headed around the point to the next bay where we all got out knee-deep in the sea and waded ashore. Alden headed back home to listen out for us on the VHF.

The beach was beautiful - no wonder they take people there - with a couple of palm-trees in the middle and a picnic bench beneath them. We set the camera up at one end and Andrea got changed into her costume. We did a fair few takes as we wanted to make sure we had usable pictures. By the time we'd finished, Cind came back with news of another good filming spot further out on a rocky point so we walked over there along the rocks. I'm not sure that these really are rocks in this area. They look exactly like the coral that's still underwater. The stuff on the beach could be fossilised or it could just be left behind as the sea levels sank. Either way, it's full of shells and coral fragments so it's interesting and extremely sharp.

From the point, we had a great view of Saxon Blue moored up amid the reefs. The waves were crashing beneath us on the seaward reef and we had a clear view of the wrecked yacht. We did more filming, some of it with our boat in and some with a small fishing boat which arrived. The fisherman was snorkelling so I assume he was after the same lobsters as Alden. After a few different shots from there, Cind had again found another location, this time on the top of the low hill above us. We walked up there through the scrub and cacti and got some shots of Janeway among the desert-island plants. We wanted to shoot out to sea but it was too windy and the spray was threatening to swamp the camera so we left that, raised Alden on the VHF and headed back to the beach.

Andrea and I got a lift back home in the tender while Cind swam back via the reef. As we got onboard, I realised that we'd interrupted Alden having one of his major breakfasts with eggs, mushrooms and noodles but he soon got stuck back into it. It was actually almost lunchtime so we had our sandwiches and salad just after Alden had gone off armed with his underwater camera and his lobster snare. After we'd finished our lunch, the girls wanted to swim to the nearest beach, walk to the picnic beach and then swim back via the reef. I didn't fancy the walk so I swam around to the picnic beach to meet them. On the way, I almost had a head-on collision with a group of a dozen other snorkellers coming the other way.

As I got around the point, I could see that they had all come from an Adventure Antigua catamaran which was moored just off the sand. There were people everywhere. Hey, ho. I swam on until I could just sit in the surf and waited for the girls to arrive. They didn't so I went back out and did some more snorkelling. The reef at this point is spectacular with a sharp drop-off so there are loads of different fish. I saw a fair size stingray which I dived down and swam with a couple of times. A bit later, I saw some odd-looking fish which, on closer inspection, turned out to be a pair of squid. As I swam down for a closer look, they turned so they could keep their beady eyes on me. They were changing colour all the time - probably in an attempt to scare me off. They really are amazing creatures so I was glad to get a close look at them.

After all that excitement, I swam back to the beach to see if I could see the girls amidst the crowds. They were still nowhere to be seen so I assumed that they'd seen the catamaran and decided to go back to our secluded little bay. I set off to swim back around the reef to Saxon Blue and was pretty tired by the time I got back. Alden was onboard and pointed to the girls, sitting on the beach. They'd tried to walk around but there wasn't a path and they'd got scratched trying to make it before giving up and coming back to sun themselves in peace. As they sat on the sand, they'd been chatting to a very friendly family who'd arrived in a motorboat from the resort where we had dinner the night before last. They were from the UK and loved Saxon Blue. They were impressed that we'd parked her in such a tight spot and even more so when Andrea told them the route we'd taken to get here from home.

Andrea and I got back onto the boat from there while Cind went off exploring to see how close she could get to the wrecked yacht. Alden joined her in the tender after a while and they had a good little adventure while we ate snacks. Then it was time for some reading and chatting while doing a few chores and, before you know it, Sundowner time. As the sun set, the Osprey came back so I spent a while watching him fishing through the binoculars. I suppose he migrates down to the Caribbean each winter before heading back up into North America for the summer. That's what they do in Europe, anyway.

As I'm writing this, Alden is transforming more of our King Fish into dinner which smells fantastic so, hopefully, I'll be eating that before too long. So that's it for us exploring the wilder anchorages of Antigua. We're off back to Nelson's Dockyard tomorrow. It's been a great couple of weeks doing our circuit of Antigua and Barbuda and it's one of our favourite places in the Caribbean. There's plenty to see with wild places and towns for contrast. The anchorages have been safe and spectacular with enough of them that we can move every time we feel like it. We liked Antigua as soon as we arrived and like it even more now.

Harvey

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We're anchored fore and aft in the tightest anchorage we've been in for ages. It's very snug now that we're in and we can see the ocean swells smashing themselves onto the rocks and reefs outside. On one of the reefs, there's the hull of a wrecked yacht high and dry which is a chilling sight.

We were all pretty lazy this morning. I think we all ate too much in the restaurant last night which meant we went to bed later than usual. To make matters worse, there were mosquitoes around for the first time since we left English Harbour. That meant we had our hatches shut and the temperature was higher in the boat as a result. We were all a bit groggy first thing so it took us a while to get going.

Alden needed to get some internet access as he's trying to arrange crew for his next job - an Atlantic crossing back to Europe. We couldn't "borrow" anything from onboard so he and I went over to Harmony Hall to see if we could get some joy there. They were really helpful and let us use their wifi although we did buy a latte each in return. In fact, I think that was the only sale they made all morning as we didn't see another customer the whole time we were there. Like all the resorts and hotels, everything seems empty at the moment. They had three chefs, two waitresses, a gallery curator and a couple of gardeners. The few dollars from our coffee won't go far in paying for that little lot.

When I checked my emails, I had one from Greg who was with us from Scotland to Iceland - which seems like years ago now. He and his fiance Kate have just had a baby boy called Finley so we were all very excited to hear that news. He's the second baby born to people who've been part of the trip so we've done very well in that regard. Odd that they've got such similar names: Richard's Finton and now Greg's Finley.

Anyway, Alden and I got our online jobs done and I phoned up and got Andrea, Cind and I booked into Jungle Bay on Dominica from Saturday onwards so that's exciting. I may spend a few days in Screw Spa eating fruit and listening to reggae. We got back onboard Saxon Blue and then had our lunch before deciding that we really ought to do something. Our anchorage was good for access to the resorts but not much else so we decided to head back over to Green Island and see if we could get ourselves tucked into one of the remote bays on the south side.

We got the anchor up and headed off with Alden and Andrea on the bow looking for coral and giving me directions. We passed the bay where we'd anchored previously and noticed that there were some vacant buoys so that would do if we needed to come back. As we carried on out through the channel, we could see that there was a free buoy in the first bay but, as that's the one which has a tourist boat arrive for lunch every day, it wasn't our first choice.

Carrying on out towards the open sea, we passed the wrecked yacht and another large wreck on the shore before turning to port and into some swell. Alden kept to his coral spotting which was just as well as I already knew that the chart (electronic and the paper one it's derived from) are wrong in where they place the channel so I was relying on his eyes and the forward-looking sonar for confirmation. We turned to port again and passed very close to the island before running through a narrow pass between two reefs with the swell pushing us in but dying off all the time. Suddenly, we were through and in calm, green water. No time to relax, though, as the depth was falling dramatically. I had to turn Saxon Blue on the spot so that Alden and Andrea could get her onto the single mooring buoy and the depth gauge was reading 0.3 meters when we'd finished.

I badly wanted a cup of tea but there wasn't room for us to swing on the buoy without getting into even shallower water and there were some worried flatfish under our keel already. Alden and I went for a snorkel to see where the deeper water lay and found that, no surprise, it was to seaward of the buoy so that put paid to my ideas about tying ourselves to the shore with a stern line. Time for a more radical move.

We got the laser range-finder out, worked out where we wanted to end up and then dropped the buoy. Turning on the spot, we headed slowly back out of the bay with Andrea on the stern calling out the distance to the rocks until we'd gone 70 meters further out than we started. There, Alden dropped the anchor and I got into astern and backed slowly towards the buoy again while he and then Andrea paid out the anchor chain. As out stern came back within 10 meters of the buoy, Alden leapt into the water clutching our floating polyprop line, swam it over to the mooring and made us fast. Cind made the other end off onto our stern cleat. A bit of tweaking on the anchor chain and we were held bow into the slight swell and seaward of the buoy. That's exactly where we still are with Saxon Blue nodding slightly in the waves but generally behaving like a very solid object while, all around us, the sea is crashing onto the reefs and generally making a fuss.

It didn't take Alden long to get his togs on and himself into the water. He went off on a photo expedition for a couple of hours while Andrea and I got some Janeway footage. I felt that I needed to make up for the last effort as, when Andrea looked at it on the computer, the horizon wasn't level, rendering it useless. It's very hard to get such a strong horizon absolutely right and there isn't any opportunity for just turning the image slightly with video like you can with a still picture. The viewfinder of the camera doesn't have any grid lines (which is a bit stupid seeing as my digital SLR has them and they'd be even more useful in the video camera). We decided to try again and fashion a plumb-line to see if that would help although it only works if the camera isn't pointing up or down. Honestly, being a video cameraman is far more stressful than being a skipper - well, I don't know if that's entirely true but I do feel that I have at least some idea what I'm doing with the boat and precious little when it comes to video.

This time, I dropped Andrea onto the shore in the tender where she changed from her swimsuit into her Janeway costume and I set up the camera on the forward deck of Saxon Blue. We got a good shot in the end, helped by the fact that the camera was moving the whole time so the horizon wasn't so critical. I picked Andrea up and dropped her onto another bit of shoreline but that wasn't so good for filming so we put all the gear away and I went for a snorkel around the nearby reefs instead. I got back just before sundown and slightly before Alden. Cind then got cracking on turning more of the King Fish into delicious dinner, this time with a coconut sauce and potatoes. Having ate ourselves to a standstill, we're now enjoying the cool of the evening.

Alden is in his cabin watching Battlestar - he's become something of an addict and will soon have caught up to where we are. Cind went onto the foredeck and discovered that we're floating in a sea of intermittent shooting stars. They're bright little things, move for half a meter or so as they glow and then wink out again. I tried stirring the water but that doesn't make any difference so they don't behave like the phosphorescent plankton we've seen before. Whatever they are, they're too small to see with a torch so I have no idea whether they're fish or arthropods. The girls are still out on deck, lying on blankets and watching for shooting stars above us while they chat.

We're planning on spending all day tomorrow in this bay. It's so idyllic, there just isn't anywhere else we'd rather be.

Harvey

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We've just got back onboard Saxon Blue after having our first meal out for ages. It started raining just as we left the restaurant so we all got soaked in the tender. Alden thinks that we're English, so we should be used to it but, in England, we're never without a rain jacket so it doesn't matter.

Andrea and I had a good planning session in bed this morning while we drank our first cup of tea. We decided to get back to Nelson's Dockyard a bit early and then go off to Dominica with Cind so we've been arranging that during the day. We had our breakfast and then set off ashore to walk over to the bay on the far side of Green Island and go for a swim there. It's not very far but it's an interesting walk through whole groves of cacti. The ones that look like Aloe Vera start out tiny, but end up with leaves about 2 meters long and the whole plant is the size of a room. They then send out a flower stalk from the centre with huge yellow flowers - these stalks grow to about 4-5 meters high so they look like trees from a distance. Once the stalk has done its work, the whole plant dies, leaving a hollow cylinder where the leaves grew. As we walked, the whole life cycle was visible around us.

On the far side, we found the bay along with its resident tourist boat. We went for a snorkel and saw some interesting sponges but it wasn't very clear and the waves were a bit high for the girls. After we'd had a good swim around, we got out ready to head back. As I had been wearing my fins in the water, I didn't have any shoes on and, combined with not having my glasses on either, I stood right on a tiny plant which was covered in seed-pods designed to stick into anything which passes. I got a right foot-full of the little sods and it took a while to get them all out. I was still picking bits of dry plant out of my foot hours later.

Once I'd sorted myself out, we got underway back to our bay where we explored some more and found a great cave full of small fish. From there, I swam back to Saxon Blue and got Alden to take the tender to collect the girls. We all had a lovely lunch and then got ready to move the boat nearer to somewhere we could get a taxi. I rang Moody to collect us from Harmony Hall at 5pm and then we got underway to get over there. It was only about a mile so it didn't take long and we passed a huge sailing yacht called Ethereal on the way.

It turned out to be pretty easy to anchor here in the bay outside Harmony Hall which is now a restaurant but was originally a sugar plantation. Andrea and Alden went over in the tender to get rid of our rubbish and book us in for dinner. They paid a few dollars to hand over our garbage but had the unwelcome news that the restaurant was closed for the night. Alden, in particular, was disappointed as he'd been looking forward to catching up on some meat-eating. I suggested that we try to book into another resort nearby which looked half-finished and he shot off over there, returning a few minutes later with the good news that their restaurant was open and that we were booked in.

Christine had spent all this time packing her stuff ready for the trip back to the UK. Her plane left at about 8pm so we all went up to Harmony Hall for a drink in the bar before the taxi arrived. Moody was early but didn't hassle us as we finished our Pina Coladas while we looked out at Saxon Blue anchored in the bay. Then we set off for the airport, leaving Alden to look after the boat.

This side of Antigua is totally different to where we've been before. Outside the resorts, it's completely abandoned. There is just mile after mile of scrubby forest with the ruins of sugar plantations sticking out. The road was graded gravel with occasional tarmac sections and frequent potholes. We saw a Mongoose dart across so that was a good wildlife sighting. After a while, the terrain changed again and we saw some actual farms and even some herds of cattle. It all looked a bit Wild West. Abruptly, we were outside the enormous, brand-new Viv Richards Cricket Stadium which looks as though it's just landed from Mars and is plonked in the middle of nowhere. Soon after that, we were at the airport.

Christine checked in while Andrea sorted out our flights to Dominica with the LIAT guy. Then we said a sad "Goodbye" to Christine who's now on her way back to Gatwick with a bottle of rum in each hand. We got some cash out, found Moody again and then got him to drop us at a nearby supermarket for a strategic strike on the shopping. That didn't take long and then we were on our way back home. By this time, it was pitch dark and it felt like we were in the wilderness as Moody drove us along the dirt roads. We got him to take us into the deserted, half-finished resort where he shot around blind corners and the wrong way down one-way streets until we arrived at the restaurant.

We unloaded all our bags of shopping, got Alden on the VHF to come and get us and then walked through the restaurant and down to the dock. It felt a bit odd walking though there with all our stuff but nobody seemed to mind. Alden took all our swag back onto Saxon Blue and then joined us for dinner. It was a superb meal and both of us boys caught up on some meat-eating with beef tenderloin and even had chips. We were so stuffed by the end that we could hardly walk and then we got caught in the rain so we ended up waddling around getting very wet.

So there are just four of us now. Christine has gone back to London leaving us without a responsible adult onboard so we'll have to find the voice of reason somewhere inside one of us - Andrea, probably. We've got a couple more days out here in the the islands and then it's back to the Dockyard. At least we've got enough supplies.

Harvey

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We haven't moved very far today - just far enough to give us a different view and another island to explore. I had lots of troubling dreams in the night so it took me a while to get myself ready for action this morning. To start with, I just couldn't work out where I was, even that I was on a boat. Then I dreamt about being back at home but everything was slightly different so I didn't know where anything was or what I should be doing. Luckily, Andrea realised that I was getting feverish and woke me up.

Cind started the day off with a swim around Bird Island. While she was doing that, Saxon Blue was yawing around all over the place in the increased wind. It had also swung around to the south a bit so I thought that moving over nearer Green Island would give us more shelter. We dropped our mooring and headed over there with Alden showing Andrea what to look for in spotting safe passages through the coral. When we got to Green Island, we could see a beautiful beach with some moorings off it. Unfortunately, they were all taken so we motored in slowly towards a bit of clear water between the buoys and the beach. As we came alongside one of the moored boats, I looked over to see Hans, our Norwegian friend from the Iles Des Saintes sitting in his cockpit watching us. Just time for a quick "Hello, how are you?" before we were past and into anchoring mode.

We anchored not far off the beach and dropped back in front of the boats nearest to it. It was slightly short of room but fine, especially just for the day. From there, we all jumped into the water for a snorkel around. Alden shot off in the tender to explore the anchorages on the other side of the island and came back while I was still swimming around. He wanted to show me what he'd found so I jumped up into the tender and we headed off around the point.

On the other side of the island, things were much more exciting. There were some offlying reefs and one of them had the hull of a yacht stuck on top of it at an alarming angle. It must have been there for some years, judging by the state of it. Past that, we entered a shallow bay with only a slight swell making it in past the reefs. There were two empty mooring buoys but a large tour boat was parked on the beach disgorging a stream of obese Americans. We carried on past another point and into a more protected bay with another couple of buoys. It looked completely idyllic although the entrance was a bit narrow. Both the bays looked lovely and I'm sure we'll go around there over the next few days.

We headed back around to Saxon Blue and found that the boat on the mooring buoy behind us had left so we decided to get ourselves onto that for a bit more security and space. Alden got the anchor up while I backed away from the beach and then forward again to pick up the vacant buoy. From there, I swam ashore to continue my snorkel and Alden got prepared for a day out hunter-gathering on the reefs. I found where the girls had put all their swimming stuff in some trees. There were a couple of makeshift hammocks there as well so I just sat down in one of them to see what animals were around. Immediately, everything started to rustle. A flock of tiny birds were hopping about in the branches and arguing about who should get the best perch. Some of them were the little yellow-breasted ones that like sugar and they're always brave so they came quite close.

Most of the rustling, though, came from the lizards. Dozens of them were ranging around looking for lunch. Somebody had left some barbecued chicken on the ground so the largest lizard was tearing bits off that and chasing away any smaller ones who dared come too close. Others were hopping on and off branches and roots. I kept my feet still and one lizard just walked over them, giving me a nice tickle as he did so. It was lovely sitting there with all the creatures. Often out here, you don't see any animals atall. Sometimes you can hear a bird but not see it. This was much more like being in England with all the birds hopping about, too busy with making a living to bother about a person watching them.

Alden walked past me on his way inland to walk over to the other bays and go hunting and photographing. After a while, the girls returned so we swam back to Saxon Blue to get some lunch. In spite of the beauty of the bay, it isn't great for snorkelling with a lot of grass and no rocks for the fish to live around. The water isn't very clear, either. After lunch, the girls went back ashore while I stayed onboard reading my book about Captain Bob Bartlet, a Newfoundlander who sailed to the arctic in around 1900. I also gave the watermaker filters a wash as we've been running that a lot in water with a fair bit of sand in it. It's a great bit of kit and has given us so much freedom. We can have lots of people onboard, all having showers and doing washing without having to go to marinas all the time to get water.

As the afternoon wore on, the sun got lower and Alden didn't reappear. I went around the point in the tender to see if he was trying to swim back but couldn't see him anywhere. As it got to almost sunset, Andrea was making plans to effect a rescue but, just as the sun set, he appeared on the beach. I went in to fetch him in the tender and he was looking very happy. He'd explored virtually the whole island, taken loads of pictures and videos and found the biggest lobster yet. It was a beautiful creature which we all admired and then ate. Delicious. It's great to watch Alden, Christine and Andrea getting stuck into the recesses of the shell to extract every last bit of flesh.

It's dark now and getting cooler. Our mooring is sheltered from the waves and swell so we should get a very calm night and then another day in paradise tomorrow. I realised today that I'm very happy just knocking around on the boat. Antigua is a great place to relax at the end of our voyage. There are lots of sheltered anchorages with great scenery and no hassles. There are other people around but it's not crowded and they're mostly competent mariners. It's going to be hard to leave, in the end and I think we'll be glad that we'll be coming back before too long.

Harvey

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for information see: http://www.sailmail.com]]> Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:22:00 UTC /saxonblue/posts/2011/3/29/263-another-night-another-lobster (@author) How big's your King Fish, Mate? /saxonblue/posts/2011/3/28/262-how-big-s-your-king-fish-mate-
We had a great sail today, all the way from Barbuda back down the East coast of Antigua and up to the entrance to Nonsuch Bay where we're now bobbing around on a buoy.

We all got up early to get underway at 0800. We retraced our track out through the reefs and soon headed South. Initially, we could just make out Antigua in the mist but it soon became distinct as Barbuda dropped away astern. We were hard on the wind on port tack straight away and stayed like that all day, trying to make some ground to the East inspite of our leeway and the current pushing us westward all the time. The swell was bigger than on our outward passage so there was a bit of spray flying about and it was a spirited sail in about 15 knots of true wind so good fun altogether. Saxon Blue seemed to be enjoying herself shouldering the waves aside and keeping up a good 7 knots.

I was sad to see the amazing beach of Barbuda slip away. When I stood on it yesterday, waiting for Alden, it seemed to be one of the most distinctly island-like of the places we've been. The feeling of standing on that strip of sand, looking out at the horizon of water really summed up this voyage - we've been following that line where the land meets the ocean all the way around the North Atlantic. The land, the sea and the sky really felt like parts of a planet - I could sense the roundness and the limits of our isolated island home. Funny that we've had to come all this way to get an impression of that but there you are.

Andrea and Alden soon had the fishing gear out astern and it wasn't long before we got our first bite. The reel screamed, Cind and I hove to and we all got excited only for Alden to announce that the fish had got off. They put the line straight back out but we went a long time before we got another bite. In the meantime, we kept on course, trying to pinch to windward and miss Antigua. Gradually, the island got nearer until we could make out warehouses, then houses and finally we could see Great Bird Island and the other places in North Sound where we'd spent the days before our trip to Barbuda. We were in ocean swells and it was odd to think that there were such sheltered anchorages only a short distance away - the reefs are amazing at calming the waves.

We had some lunch, even Christine although she was starting to feel the effects of a hard beat to windward. She's pretty stoical, though, and I certainly appreciate how much effort it takes to stay cheerful when you're starting to feel a bit rough. Then we had another fish strike. Again we hove to while Andrea wound away on the rod. She almost got the fish alongside before she just ran out of puff and handed the rod to Alden. He soon had the fish all the way in and it was a whopper, flashing silver as it spun in the water. Andrea tried to net it but couldn't reach down far enough so I had a go but got the net on the second set of hooks so, in the end, we got it onboard with a mixture of net and just pulling it up with the line.

It was by far the biggest fish we've had so far - at least two feet long and heavily built. She was brilliant silver with strong fins and a series of impressive bumps along her back. Alden recognised it straight away as a King Fish and announced that it was one of the best to eat so he was very excited. He bled it on the lee side while I fetched buckets of water to wash the deck and sluice the blood overboard. Andrea then gutted it with Alden's advice, finding a couple of sacks of eggs in the process. They had to cut the fish into two halves so we could get it into the fridge.

Once that was all done, we got underway again with the rod out. We soon had another strike and got that fish onboard as well but it was a Barracuda so Alden just got the hook out of its mouth and let it go. It's a shame we can't eat them as they look like serious predators but that's the problem. They eat fish which have eaten toxic reef algae and the Barracuda ends up poisonous. Soon after that excitement, we had to tack onto starboard briefly to avoid an offlying reef and then we were back onto port tack and heading for the waypoint outside the channel leading into Nonsuch Bay.

We got the sails furled, the motor on and headed in to pick up the channel. It's charted as right alongside some drying reefs but, in fact, it's further away so it was good that we had Alden on the bow spotting the changes in the water. He had polarised sunglasses which help to see what's beneath the water surface so he guided us in until we were well inside the reefs. As we came around the tiny Bird Island, we could see a dozen or so yachts, some anchored and others moored onto buoys. It's kinder to the reefs to use buoys so we chose one very close to the island and Andrea picked up the line while Alden tied us on. Fantastic - the end of a great day's sailing.

We all had a drink and I took the chance to have a power-nap to recover from all the concentration. Then it was time for a snorkel over to a nearby reef and then on to the island. There's a lot of old stags-horn coral around, all of it dead. In between are some live brain corals and lots of sea fans. Plenty of fish to look at, too. We got back onboard, had a shower and a snack and then all just sat around in the cockpit admiring the view. The bay here is totally open to the Atlantic on the eastern side so it's just the reef which keeps it calm enough to anchor. Inland, there are a series of bays and inlets which we'll go and explore over the next few days. Gradually, most of our neighbours left to head back to English Harbour so there are just a few of us here now, bobbing around in our little bit of paradise.

Alden got stuck into preparing the fish. In the end, he had enough steaks for us all to have two big bits for our dinner plus three whole other dinners worth in the freezer so that really was some fish. We've just eaten our fill and it was lovely. Delicate, soft and light, just fried with a bit of butter and garlic. Superb.

So that's it for another day. Probably our last long sail on Saxon Blue for some time. We've still got to get back around to Nelson's Dockyard and then Falmouth but they're very close now. This area looks great to explore so we'll be enjoying our floating home for a while yet, though.

Harvey

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