Sail Magazine

I just discovered a nice article written by Sail Magazine, you can read it on their site at Sail Magazine. If that link doesn't work for you there is a PDF of the article on the bottom of About New Morning.

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Antigua-Barbuda pictures

Added pictures from Antigua and Barbuda, two islands, one country.
This is what Barbuda looks like as you approach it from the west. A
sliver of sand between the sky and the sea, with the
"highlands" (towering 150' above the island) in the distance.

You can find them in Where we've been or http://www.newmorning.info/page41/page57/page57.html

Another week of repairs

We made it from St. Barths, back to the Catamaran Marina in Falmouth,
via Barbuda and Nonesuch Bay. Now it's another week of work on the
boat (paint, varnish, rebuilding the bow locker bilge, etc.) while Fay
goes to San Diego. More later.

Just the Facts

A did a little reorganization of the About New Morning page added a
page with all the basic information. I should have better connection
next week and will post some photos from the the last few weeks.

St. Barths

We're back in St. Barths. We arrived yesterday afternoon and immediately connected with Chris & Kelly on Verna Breeze. A couple of beers, a great sushi dinner and a big thanks to Chris & Kelly. Absolutely incredible that our dingy was drifting in open ocean (7 miles off Barbuda) and crossed their path. They snagged it on the first attempt and towed it all the way to St. Barths.

So we're reunited with our dinghy which appears to be no worse for the unscheduled 60 miles drift and tow. We'll spend a couple of days here while we wait for the winds to relax a bit, then head back Antigua.

Dinghy found!

We listened to the Coconut Telegraph this morning and confirmed that
our dinghy had been found. We spoke with Chris & Kelly on Verna
Breeze who picked up our dinghy floating by about seven miles offshore
from Barbuda. So now we're going to return to St. Barths.

Unfortunately today is a holiday in Antigua / Barbuda (Easter Monday)
so we can't check out, we have to wait until tomorrow. This means
we'll either leave later on Tuesday and arrive late in St. Barths, or
we'll travel on Wednesday.

Dingy lost!

We got up this morning, had breakfast and then noticed that our dinghy
(and almost new Yamaha 2hp outboard) was not hanging off the back off
the boat where we had left it last night. We had been comfortable
that crime was minimal here so we didn't bother to haul it out as we
usually do. This is really bad, basically like finding your car not
in the driveway when you live in suburbia. You can't go anywhere!

We immediately called our contact in Barbuda and the Barbuda police
and both promised to look further. Then we went on VHF channel 16 and
issued a Securite call about our missing dinghy. Not thirty seconds
later we got a call back from a boat who had listened to the "Coconut
Telegraph" this morning (a cruiser net on the single side band radio)
and heard a report of a boat named Verna Breeze that was sailing to
St. Barths and had picked up a drifting dinghy seven miles offshore!

Thirty seconds after that call, another cruiser hailed us, said they
had heard about our situation and offered to provide any help they
could, ferrying us to shore, etc. Really great support from the
neighborhood!

We've called the port captain in St. Barths and asked them to let us
know if the boat checks in at St. Barths. Tomorrow morning we'll join
in on the Coconut Telegraph and see if we can contact the boat that
picked up the dinghy. At this point we're hoping that rather than
being stolen it was a case of me doing a sloppy job of tying up the
dinghy! We may be making an unplanned return to St. Barths.

Stay tuned for more on this breaking story!

Barbuda-ful

We've been anchored off 11 mile (or is it 14 mile or 17 mile?) beach
on the west coast Barbuda for the last 4-5 days. We actually lost
track of what day it was, thinking it was Saturday when in fact it was
Sunday! There is a powdery white sand beach off the bow pretty much
as far as you can see to port or starboard. The water is a
kaleidoscope of blues, constantly shifting as the sun dodges around
the clouds. When we get some bandwidth we'll post some photos, it's
hard to imagine without seeing it.

Unfortunately the water is fairly murky. The sand is so fine,
combined with a steady swell breaking on the beach that the water
within about half a mile of the beach is churned up and not very
clear. We're in about 15' of water and can't see the bottom, in fact
we can't see the bottom of the keel! But it's 80 degrees and we had a
nice swim to the beach and back yesterday afteroon.

Earlier yesterday we got the grand tour of Barbuda, it's 1600
residents, saw a lot of the 62 sq miles, the frigate bird rookery, the
lagoon and the village. At two-foot bay we hiked from the beach up
through some caves to emerge on the cliffs above with a stunning view
of the bay and north shore (rumored to host more than 300 wrecks).

We're tentatively planning to move to the southwest coast, and more
white beach, in a few days.

Brochure sailling

Yesterday we sailed from Five Island Harbor on the west side of
Antigua, to Barbuda, about 32 miles. It was "brochure" sailing all
the way. Once we got pointed in the right direction we had 13-15
knots of true wind on the starboard beam which gave us 16-19 knots of
apparent wind at about 60 degrees. We moved really nicely through
4-5' waves (as reported by Wind Guru, I can never estimate wave
height) at a steady 8-9 knots with the autopilot having a good day and
steering a straight course.

Warm wind, warm water, 8-9 knots of boat speed and only the occasional
splash onto the deck. That's what the brochure said!

We're now anchored off 11 mile beach and look forward to a little
exploring later today.

Warranty week

Last week was warranty week. Fay went to Pittsburgh for a family
visit while I moved the boat to the Catamaran Marina (aka Cat Club).
Jim came down from Maine and spent the week on a long list of items
ranging from cosmetic to annoyance to needing new fiberglass work.
Some of the more major items still need work (like our ongoing
autopilot saga). We'll return to the marina in a couple of weeks for
another list of items, and then yet another set of items will be
deferred until this summer.

Jim also brought some great pieces with him from Lyman Morse. We got
a new "cocktail" table for the cockpit, small and easy to set up, just
the right size for cocktails, or dinner for just two. Michael made
new poles for our bimini which are really great. The bimini looks
better than ever and is keeping the cockpit shaded and cool, yet still
allows good air flow and view of the horizon.

We decided to leave New Morning at the Car Club for hurricane season.
She'll be in a one piece cradle, strapped to mother earth with the
decks stripped and the boom removed, but the mast still stepped. And
of course we hope that no hurricanes will pass through Antigua this
summer.

Fay returned on Saturday and yesterday (Sunday) we moved to Five
Islands Bay and anchored again off the Hermitage resort. It's a
beautiful spot and a peaceful anchorage. The produce containers
arrive in Antigua on Monday so tomorrow Fay will go shopping for
produce in Jolly Harbor. Then on Wednesday we'll sail about 30 miles
to Barbuda. The beaches are supposed to be unbelievable (11 miles of
uninterrupted white sand) and very few boats. Eleven miles of beach
is also a fairly open anchorage, but we're hoping that the east winds
and seas will mean the west side of the island is pretty calm.