Leaving Dominica

Tomorrow we return to Antigua after 9 great days in Dominica. The hiking was vertical and slippery, but the views were stunning.

Jungle Bay has carved out a niche that I can only call "rustic luxury". Bare board cottages that remind me of 1930's farm houses, but with great ocean views, outdoor showers (with hot water), and a daily massage! Plus, no mosquitoes, which was a welcome relief.

The diving was warm and we saw fish we had never seen before. First off was a sail fish (like a sword fish, but with a big dorsal fin "sail"), probably 6-8' long, a pelagic fish that is not usually seen when diving. Then we saw sea horses (real ones), jaw fish (pile up rocks around a hole like praire dogs), moray eels, garden eels (always entertaining), file fish, etc, etc.

Tomorrow we return to Antigua where Steve has done a great job fixing some major issues. We plan to spend a few days making sure everything is working, stock up the the fridge and freezer. We'll probably spend a few days at Green Island making sure everything is working, then head to Les Saintes.

Updates

The Locavore page for Antigua has been updated with additional information on stores and farmer's markets. Our "schedule" has also been updated.

Dominica

We're really enjoying our time in Dominica. It is incredibly rugged, lush and green. The hiking is arduous, but the scenery is spectacular. Yesterday we went scuba diving in Soufriere and saw a huge turtle munching on coral like a cow eating grass. Steve is making good progress on New Morning but we'll be here at least another 3-4 days. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Back to the dock

We returned to the Catamaran Marina yesterday. Lyman Morse will be
here today to do additional warranty work which is estimated to take
about a week. While they work on the boat we're going to take a trip
to Dominica and do some hiking and scuba diving. Dominica does not
have lots of good anchorages so we decided we'll take the opportunity
to explore it by land rather than by boat. The hiking and diving are
supposed to be outstanding so we've packed our bags and the taxi picks
us up at 2pm.

Off the dock

On Sunday we finally got off the dock. The dinghy was inflated, the
outboards fueled and lubricated, the water tanks filled and we made
our escape. We're now anchored in Freeman's Bay, English Harbour.

It's a little cooler here, and we don't pay dockage fees. There was a
spectacular electrical storm last night as a big front is passing to
the north. Fortunately not too much wind, but a good rain left the
decks sparkling clean!

The weather is unsettled and the wind and waves are confused so the
anchorage is pretty rolly, even with the flopper-stopper deployed.
Now we have a long list of things to do before we can leave Antigua,
but we hope to escape next week for a week or so. Then we'll head
back to Falmouth so Lyman Morse can do some additional work. We're
tentatively planning on a dive trip to Dominica while they work on
the boat.

New mattress

Yesterday was another big step forward. The new Tempur-Pedic mattress
that we shipped down from the states was cut to fit our bunk and moved
onto the boat. That allowed us to move out of the hotel and spend our
first night on the boat since we returned to Antigua.

So now we've completed two steps of our three step plan. Step 1 was
to get back in the water. step 2 was to move onto the boat, and step
3 will be to get off the dock. Step 3 is waiting on finishing up all
the high water consumption projects (cleaning the boat, washing
clothes, etc.), servicing the outboards so they're ready for another
year, filling the propane tanks, buying gas for the outboards, and
then inflating the dinghy. With luck we'll reach step 3 on Sunday.

First sail

It's been a very busy week since we put New Morning back in the
water. The weather has been mostly hot, but then very rainy for a day
(with lots of lightning), followed by totally still air and horribly
hot/humid conditions for two days while hurricane Ida (though far
away) pushed back the trade winds. The water is still 84-85F
(compared to 82F in the winter) and it's usually about 88-90F inside
the boat, with 70% humidity. Lots of fluids are the order of the
day. Today the trade winds returned and cooled things down a bit,
though it's still quite warm below decks.

Much of the last week was focused on working with Lyman Morse, and
various subcontractors, as they finished up some major warranty work
on our refrigerators and freezers. It was an enormous project but one
which they have executed very meticulously. There are still some
items to be finalized, but the boxes are chilling!

We were also working with Antigua Rigging to get the boat re-rigged,
sails bent on and our new autopilots finished up. And then in the
middle of everything the fresh water pump quit working and the
replacement pump turned out to have a different mounting bolt pattern
that the new one, though it is the same model!

Yesterday we got out for our first sail, calibrated the autopilot,
checked all the running rigging and even got our spinnaker up for the
first time! It was a great afternoon on the water with Stan and Kevin
from Antigua Rigging. The new autopilot (Raymarine) seems to be
working much better than the old one, though Fay is holding off
judgement until we can do 40-50 miles in reaching and running
conditions.

Today we started sorting through the 600lbs of stuff we brought down
from California and figuring out where to stow it all. Everything
from water maker filters to salsa and scuba gear. New Morning will
definitely sit a little lower on her lines when we're finished.

We're hoping to move from the Catamaran Marina to the anchorage in
English Harbour in a few days. Once we get to English Harbour we'll
start in on the 75 other maintenance and "home improvement" projects
that are on our lists.

The plan is to spend 2-3 weeks in Antigua, Guadeloupe and Les Saints,
then return to Antigua for a hopefully final set of Lyman Morse
warranty projects. Then we'll be leave Antigua and head west.

Stupid hot, but back in the water

As a few people have put it, it's been "stupid hot" in Antigua. But
today we got back into the water and everything went very smoothly.
No leaks, engine started immediately and ran perfectly, the cleaned up
prop swiveled quickly and the short trip from the travelift well to
the dock was uneventful. Now it's time to go through the list of work
that was to be done over the summer, as well as the final warranty
items.

The fresh wahoo was great a dinner last night. Hopefully we'll be
moving back onboard Saturday.