Chinook Arch

The previous blog entry was written on Sunday, January 31 but was not sent until today Friday February 5. We still do not have our new computer hooked up to the Globalstar satellite phone so when we are away from WIFI connection we cannot send any entries to our blog. I plan to remedy this situation after Jacques and Micheline return to Montreal on Sunday but until then the posts will be spotty.

After leaving Falmouth Harbour we went to the west and north sides of Antigua to Deep Bay, Dickenson Bay and Long Island. I think that Micheline was most impressed with Dickenson Bay. This is the location of the Sandals Resort and there are always lots of people tanning on the long white sand beach. There are several other resorts along this beach as well but Sandals is the largest and most well known. We were the only sailboat anchored in this area so we likely provided some added scenery and ambiance for the people on the beach and in the hotels.

Today is Friday and we have just anchored back in Mosquito Cove outside Jolly Harbour where we have WIFI coverage again. Tomorrow Jacques and Micheline want to take the bus into St. John in order to buy some souvenirs for their relatives back home. Unfortunately they did not have the best weather that the Caribbean has to offer during their stay here. As I mentioned in a previous post last week was windy with high waves which led us to change our previous sailing plans. So far this week we have had calm winds again (at least since Tuesday) but we have had cloudy skies with rain every day. Our guests are happy to have left the cold weather of Montreal behind them and tell us that they have enjoyed their stay here in spite of these minor inconveniences.

Jacques and Micheline were very impressed with Falmouth Harbour and English Harbour in the south end of the island. While we were sailing to Falmouth we had to share the waters with some of the largest sailing yachts in the world. The annual Antigua Super-Yacht Cup was being held last week. It was impressive to be sailing in the midst of these beautiful large sailboats. In addition to the racing yachts there were many other large motor yachts and sailing yachts moored or at dock in the harbour that were not racing. Mirabella V, the largest sloop in the world, was there but did not race. At night these boats make quite a sight in the harbour with all their spreader lights, anchor lights and security lights blazing.

There is a very nice beach nearby that we could dinghy to that Micheline especially enjoyed while Jacques, Dawn and I went snorkeling. English Harbour is only a short walk away from where we were anchored in Falmouth (only about 500 meters). This is an historic sight and is interesting to explore. Nelson's Dockyard and its surrounding area is a national park that can take several visits to fully explore. Jacques and I also hiked along the ridge between the 2 harbours where we had a great view of the final day of the super-yacht regatta. On this hike we also saw some old ruins of 2 gun emplacements above the cliffs where the British marines protected the entrances to the 2 harbours.

Today we are moving on to Deep Bay. We will spend a night there before sailing around to the north end of the island.

Micheline and Jacques arrived from Montreal on Sunday January 24. They brought with them a new computer to replace our old one that had died a couple of weeks earlier. Unfortunately it had Windows 7 installed as its operating system and many of the programs that we use for email, weather and satellite phone were not compatible with this new OS. I spent 2 days searching for and downloading drivers and programs to allow us to use this new computer. At this point I have still not been able to get the Globalstar satellite phone to send our emails from the boat so we have to take the computer to shore to send and receive our mail on public WIFI. The other bad news is that we lost all of our email addresses when the old computer crashed. We may be able to recover some of them when we return to Calgary at the end of March from an older copy that we have on our home desktop computer but that will have to wait. In the meantime we can only reply to our friends and relatives that write to us so please do not be offended if you don't hear from us for a while.

We are very much enjoying the company of our old friends Jacques and Micheline. We buddy boated with them for 3 months on our trip from the Bahamas to the Caribbean in 2004 and 2005. Jacques had taken a year off work back then to live his dream of sailing his boat from Montreal to the Caribbean and back again. We became very good friends over that period and have kept in touch since then. This is the second time that they have visited us on Chinook Arch.

Our initial plan was to sail with them from Antigua to Guadeloupe and back in the 2 weeks that they have to spend with us. Unfortunately the weather has not cooperated and we have had to change our plans. In a previous email I mentioned that the Christmas winds had not yet arrived ... well they have now albeit a little late. Almost as soon as our friends got off the plane the winds picked up with daily sustained winds of over 20 knots and gusts of over 30 kts. Jacques and I left it up to Micheline and Dawn to decide whether we continue with our original sailing plans or revert to plan B which was to sail in and around the waters of Antigua. They opted for the later. Fortunately Antigua is probably the best single island of the Caribbean for sailing and exploring by sea. Only the Virgin Islands can equal the number of beautiful bays, coves, harbours and beaches accessible by sailboat but then the Virgins are an archipelago and not a single island. Antigua boasts of over 365 beautiful white sand beaches and even Dawn and I have still not seen them all in over 3 years of using Antigua as our home port in the Caribbean.

We started out at Jolly Harbour for the first 3 days of their visit and on Wednesday we took a quick trip over to Five Islands Harbour before sailing to Falmouth Harbour on the south side of the island. We had some dragging issues here in Falmouth so I had to set 2 anchors in these brisk winds. We have been holding well since then and will explore this area with them on land over the next few days. Our guests were amazed to see the large number of super-yachts that use Falmouth as a home port. These are some of the largest sail and motor yachts in the world. At night their anchor and security lights light up the entire harbour. It is very pretty and an unusual sight to see. Today (Friday, Jan 29) we plan to walk over to English Harbour (1 km away by land) to show them the historic home of the British naval fleet from around 1600 to 1900. The buildings and gun emplacements have been fully restored. Some of the buildings are now used as hotels, restaurants, bars and shops while others are still in their original condition. There is also an interesting museum to visit.

We will stay here as long as our company wishes to explore this area and then we plan to sail around to the north of the island to see the smaller islands and coral reefs up there. I will try to post more often while our friends are here.

A number of people have emailed us and asked what we are up to and why haven't we posted recently.  Recently "cousin Bob" posted a similar comment on this blog.  Well the problem is that our computer (just purchased 18 months ago) has crapped out.  I took it in to a local computer repair shop and they told me that the mother board died and that I now have a new boat anchor.  I have been able to go to the local internet cafe recently to check our emails but that has been the extent of my computer use over the past 10 days or so.  I am now writing this from a fellow boater's borrowed computer sitting outside of a local merchant's office that provides free WIFI.  So bottom line is that we have been out of commission for a while.  The good news is that I am also strategically placed to await the taxi carrying our friends Jacques and Micheline form Montreal who will be joining us for 2 weeks aboard Chinook Arch.  We will be sailing with them to Guadeloupe next week.  I was able to phone Jacques this week and he is bringing me a new computer so we will be back online soon.

Earlier this year we also had a problem with a relatively new VHF radio (again less than 2 years old).  It failed on us on our trip to St. Martin.  We have a backup handheld unit that we used for the rest of that trip.  I took the radio in to a repair shop in St. Martin and they said that I would have to send it in to the manufacturer for repair.  Well that is just not convenient when you are sailing around various islands (separate countries) of the Caribbean.  It will have to wait until we go home at the end of March.  Hopefully the handheld will continue to work for the rest of the season as it is not safe to sail without a VHF radio.

Hasn't modern technology made our lives so much easier?  But when they fail you wonder how you ever managed to live without them.

It's Dawn's birthday today. Alana wrote Dawn the following email:

"Happy Birthday Mom, we wish we could join you in person... one of these years... hope you have a wonderful day!

When I asked Ava if she could think of something special to do for Granny's birthday she said "Maybe we could buy her some flowers and send her a picture!" I thought that was a great idea so here you go... (PS - I know pink isn't your favourite colour but I'm sure you can guess who picked them out ;)"

Dawn loved her email flowers from her granddaughter so much that I thought that I would share it with you (see below in the current sailing season's photoalbum).

We are at anchor just outside of Jolly Harbour (Antigua) in Mosquito Cove. We will be going to shore today to sit on the beach to read our books, swim and relax in the sun/shade. Later we will celebrate Dawn's birthday by enjoying a nice dinner at the new Italian restaurant that opened up recently called Al Porto. The chef is actually Italian and is superb. While we are at the beach we will also take the opportunity to paint the antifouling on our new dinghy's hull while it is hauled up on the beach. There is no reprieve from boat repairs/maintenance even on a birthday. We try to do a bit each day but we don't over do it. It all gets done in due course. We are awaiting the arrival of our friends Jacques and Micheline from Montreal on the 24th. We will sail with them to Guadeloupe and explore that island a bit more thoroughly than we have in the past.