Happy New Year 2009!
As we look into the crystal ball for 2009, we wonder what it will reveal. Our premier boating adventure is slowly winding its way to a finale as we prepare to greet some friends and daughter Nancy aboard the good ship Allergic to Cities.
This year’s New Year’s Eve celebration was a bit toned down from years past but was quite memorable, just the same. Following the big Christmas day feast at English Harbour in Antigua. Suz and I, actually being “allergic to cities”, decided we needed some space as we weighed anchor and set sail for Jolly Harbour, around the corner of the island. We had slipped away to this lovely spot a few days prior to Christmas and returned to the English Harbour gathering to be with our friends. We stayed at Jolly Harbor for only a few more days, then decided to move on to a new island for us, Barbuda.
We had been told about this special place by many of our friends whom had enjoyed the pristine beauty of this island during previous visits. We decided we didn’t want to miss it. The island of Barbuda (pronounced ‘Bar-BEW-dah’) is politically part of the country of Antigua although located about 35 miles across the Caribbean. We sailed up there with our English friends on Magic (Dave and Donna) as they hadn’t visited it before either. We all were really pleased that we went as it held some of the most spectacular beaches any of us had ever encountered. The sister island of Antigua actually imports barge loads of their special pinkish colored sand for their beaches. As much as Antigua is commercial and business oriented, Barbuda is laid back. Antigua has tried for years to “modernize” their sister island, but the Barbudans have rebuked all efforts as they like their more laidback life style.
One of the highlights to our visit was a tour of a frigate bird rookery, or nesting sight. Frigate birds are those spectacular soaring creatures, with near six foot wingspans, who make one think of the great prehistoric birds we see in artists rendering of that era. As our guide explained, during mating season, the male bird has a large red-colored pouch on his chest, which he inflates to attract a partner. They expand these sacks to a nearly unbelievable size and lean their heads back, swaying back and forth as if to say, “hey girls, look at this!” The female birds fly around doing some “window shopping” before they decide whom they’d like to settle down with. We were told that once the female settles down on a branch next to the male, the male will allow the female to cuddle up to him, rubbing her beak on this pouch as if to say, “you may be the lucky one!” The male will then go off, pick up a few twigs and present them to the female as a sign of his ability provide a good nest. After a few trips for twigs, she will begin to make a nest and they will mate. He will only stay around until the chick learns to fly, about four months, when he prepares to head off to the Galapagos Islands off of South America. This preparation includes deciding which of his “buddies” he will fly away with, all leaving their seasonal “wives” behind to finish raising the chicks. This rookery is second in size only to the one in the Galapagos Islands and was a true highlight of our trip.
Being New Year’s Eve, we decided to have dinner with our friends on their boat. They prepared a lovely meal of roast pork and mashed potatoes with gravy and broccoli. We enjoyed the early evenings dinner, knowing we’d soon be returning to our respective boats for an early night’s sleep as we’d planned an early departure for St. Martin at “O-dark:30). Later, we all commented about this being the first time in memory that either couple had been in bed before 9pm on New Year’s Eve.
At 3:30am, lights came on in each of our boats as we each prepared to “yank the anc” at 4am . Because we had a long sailing day ahead of nearly 80 miles to St. Martin, we needed to get underway early. Since we were in and especially reef strewn anchorage, it was important to plan our departure before dark so we would not have any unpleasant grounding on one of the many coral reefs surrounding our anchorage. We took off on time and had a terrific day on the seas making great boat speed and nearly breaking our speed record at one point. We arrived into St. Martin, dropping our anchor as the sun set, and retired early again, exhausted from the long day “out there”. Our companion boater, Dave and Donna, had some mechanical problems underway and although were planning to continue on to the Virgins with us, found themselves at the mercy of the mechanics on St. Martin for boat repairs as we left early, again, the following morning.
Again we knew that the weather window was closing again soon and since we have Joe and MK arriving on Wednesday next week, we have to be in the USVI’s to meet them for their time aboard with us. So we set our clocks for another early morning departure and slid out of St. Martin at 3:30am.
It is always a bit intimidating traveling the open ocean alone. We had crossed this passage last season on our way down the chain and this is where we had the night of the unrolling genaker sail to contend with in the middle of a squall, so we were a bit apprehensive about making the passage this time. Our concerns turned out to be unnecessary as we had another outstanding sail without incident. Good trailing winds, medium seas produced a much faster crossing than planned. We arrived at Virgin Gorda Sound at 4pm, very tired but grateful for a good safe trip. We celebrated with a couple of very cold beers and fell into bed knowing we’d sleep like dogs. Unfortunately, we had forgotten to turn off our 3:00am alarm and were rudely awakened by an unnecessary alarm at 3:00! We quickly turned it off, muttered a few choice words, and fell back into deep sleep almost as fast as we were awakened.
Today, we have been doing a few boat chores and a couple of repairs which were needed since our departure. We have been enjoying not moving around and relaxing on land today where we have found an active Internet connection. For the next few days we will just pain goof off and prepare for our friends arrival. We know that with them will come a flurry of activities and fun and we’ll need every ounce of stored up energy just to keep up. Wish us luck!
Noel fixing our ripped off clew on the Mainsail
Rick up on the mast
"The sign says it all"
Breakfast is ready!
Joe and MaryKay Ghiglia at St John
Rick and Joe and Suz at Saba Rock
It's a hard life...
