Earth Hour

Sadly I must report that there was no evidence of Earth Hour in
Falmouth Harbor. The mega sailing yachts continued to light the sky
with the up lights on their spreaders, looking oddly like small oil
refineries. And the motor yachts continued to illuminate the water
around their hulls with high intensity underwater lights. And of
course all the mega yachts had abundantly lit decks, cabins and
walkways. The homes around the harbor were also lit up. I guess the
message didn't reach Antigua.

But from what I read, the major cities of the world did participate
with some notable landmarks darkened for an hour. Hopefully this will
build grass roots support for reductions in carbon consumption.

One lap around Antigua

Last week was basically one lap around Antigua. We departed Falmouth
and had a nice sail, mostly downwind, to Five Islands Bay where we
anchored off the Hermitage resort. The next day we motored around the
NW corner and threaded our way between reefs and small "islands" to
Jumby Bay.

Jumby Bay is directly across from the main runway of the airport so we
got some pretty big jets going over a few times each day. It's also a
very upscale resort (though still under construction) with rooms and
villas from $2,500 - $12,000 per day (including meals and liquor)! We
anchored off their beach and enjoyed the same view and water for
free! Pictures soon.

On Monday we picked up Caitlin at the airport and returned to Jumby
Bay. Tuesday we sailed down the east coast, with seas on the beam, to
Green Island. We spent 3 days at Ricketts Harbor swimming,
snorkeling, sleeping, eating and sipping sundowners. We also made a
dinghy excursion to Harmony Hall for a nice lunch and a bottle of
Ferrari Carano (Sonoma county).

On Friday we sailed around the SE corner to Falmouth and completed the
loop. We capped the week with dinner at Le Cap Horn restaurant to
celebrate Caitlin's 21st birthday.

Today Caitlin flew back to school and Fay went off to visit her sister
in Pittsburgh. Next week Lyman Morse will be here to so some further
warranty work and attend to a variety of problems, with a tilt to more
joinery and carpentry issues and less systems problems.

More St. Barths pictures

I added new pictures of St. Barths, including the turtles in anse de
Colombier. Look under "Where we've been".

Catching up

Way behind and a lot of stories to tell!

We escaped Gustavia and moved to Anse de Colombier, a pretty anchorage
on the NW corner of St. Barths. Colombier is a marine preserve so
there are moorings along both sides of the cove and anchoring is only
allowed in the middle. When we arrived the only mooring open was quite
close to the shore, but our depth showed 8' under the keel and it was
designated as suitable for a 60' boat so we hooked up and went for a
swim. While swimming we noticed that the keel seemed pretty close to
the bottom, or maybe the water was just really clear? Upon further
investigation I figured out that the depth offset in our instruments
had been reset to zero when we updated the firmware back in January.
We had been sailing around thinking we had 5.5' more water under our
keel than was actually there! When we thought we had 8', we actually
had 2.5'. We were still floating, but a couple of big swells could
easily have bounced us off the bottom.

The next day we waited for some boats to leave and then moved to
another mooring so we'd have a little more water under the keel; this
proved costly. I'll spare you the details, but at the end of the
exercise we were successfully moored in deeper water, and both our
boat hook and our 2hp outboard motor were on the bottom of the cove.
Fay was able to free dive and recover the boat hook, but the engine
had been ripped from its mounts and we finally resolved to leave it
there, though we did later inform the preserve management so that they
can remove it if they are so disposed.

With our flopper stopper deployed the persistent north swells were
manageable in Colombier and the many green turtles were a constant
source of enjoyment. I'll post some turtle pictures when we have more
bandwidth. We also connected with John Tipp and had a great dinner
onboard MOAB with his friends from Detroit (who report the economy is
really destroying the city).

We monitored the weather and when a window appeared that would allow
us to avoid the usual "wind on the nose" for the 84 mile passage to
Antigua we moved back to Gustavia to prepare for the passage to
Antigua. In Gustavia we cleared out, did our last shopping at the
French stores and used the internet connection to catch up on a few
things. Unfortunately the north seas persisted and the anchorage at
Anse de Corosol was full so we had to anchor across the channel in
what was virtually an open roadsted with a strong roll 24/7. We had a
great dinner at Eddy's restaurant, but no sleep for two nights.

We departed for Antigua at first light on Monday the 16th and arrived
in Falmouth at 4:55pm. We succeeded in having the wind at 40-60
degrees apparent for most of the trip and averaged just under 8 knots.
The first six hours were pretty rough with lots of rain squalls,
confused seas and wind up to 35 knots, but then the sun came out, the
seas backed off and we had a pleasant and fast sail to Antigua for the
last five hours. Fay asked for, and received, a big rain squall in the
last couple of miles so New Morning got a nice freshwater wash and was
sparkling clean as we entered the harbor. The anchorage at Falmouth
was wide open, very calm and we were asleep by 8:30pm!

The next morning we connected with our friends (and double
circumnavigators) Beth and Evans. We chatted away the morning, then
launched the dinghy (using the 15hp engine), made to the trip to the
Antigua Marina and walked to Nelson's Dockyard at English Harbor where
it took us only 3 hours to clear in with immigration and customs. That
night Beth and Evans joined us for dinner and a spirited discussion of
politics and the economy.

Over the next couple of days we made the decision to put New Morning
on the hard at the Catamaran Club in Falmouth for the hurricane
season, got a SIM card for our telephone, purchased a new 2hp engine,
did some grocery shopping, had a nice dinner ashore and enjoyed a
couple of sunsets with a gin and tonic in hand. It's amazing how such
simple things can consume two entire days.

This morning we departed Falmouth and had a nice sail to Five Island
Bay on the west side of Antigua. It was really nice to do a few hours
of downwind sailing! Tomorrow we'll sail around the top to the North
Sound and find a nice quiet anchorage. On Monday we'll pick up Caitlin
at the airport and initiate her into the cruising life.

Escape from Gustavia

Our departure from the mooring field in Gustavia was fortunately much
less dramatic than our entrance! After 4 days of being pushed around
by north wind and seas, combined with 8 hours a day of jack hammers on
the construction site about 50 yards away we were ready to get out of
town. But we'll miss the bakery!

We're now anchored at Anse de Colombier on the NW corner of St.
Barths. We have beautiful clear water, some good marine life (Fay saw
a manta ray take fight out of the water) and had a nice sunset.
Unfortunately the north seas are wrapping all the way around to the NW
opening to this little bay and we're rolling around quite a bit.

We're out of WiFi range now so no internet and not much email. We'll
catch up with everyone when we get to Antigua next week.

We're expecting to meet some friends here tomorrow afternoon, and a
second boat of friends arrives on Friday. Could be pretty social for
a few days!

Cheeseburger in Paradise?

Le Select is widely known to be the inspiration for Jimmy Buffett's
"Cheeseburger in Paradise", both the song and the chain of burger
joints. We had a burger there today and I'd have to say that Jimmy
took some artistic license. Great bar and a fun place (I was even
greeted by the owner - Marius), but the burger wasn't in the same
league as the ones we had at the Fat Virgin on Virgin Gorda.

More pictures and recipes

If the uploading cooperates, I've added pictures of the BVIs, St. Martin and St. Barths in Where we've been. Fay also added sections on Bermuda and the BVIs to Locavore.

St. Barths

After a short and bumpy passage from St. Martin we arrived in Gustavia
on Wednesday afternoon. We had a thrilling time getting ourselves
settled here in the fore/aft moorings that are fairly tightly packed.
In the process we dumped the dinghy in the water (upside down) and
clipped another boat's pulpit which will cost us a little to repair
But we finally ended up with a great spot, moored at the far end of
the harbor with a short ride to shore and very protected from the NE
wind and seas that we're getting today and tomorrow.

St. Barths seems to be a little piece of the French riviera in the
Caribbean. Excellent food and wind, haut couture shopping, and pretty
expensive. We're pacing ourselves on the food and wine and avoiding
the shopping!

Correction!

It turns out the dinghy was not vandalized. Fay figured out this
morning that the dinghy slipped under the dock and the waves pounded
the engine up into the underside of the dock creating the damage.

This is a relief and we now leave Grand Case with a very positive
feeling.