There's always something!
Oriole
Sun 16 Jan 2011 23:04
|
Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. 17:00.99N
61:46.42W
Just when you think that everything is going ok
something happens to dispel the illusion that this cruising life is a bed of
roses! A few days ago the watermaker on which we rely heavily would
not start up, a small crack has developed in the exhaust of the engine and
is exuding salt water, the electronic sailing instruments would not work
properly, the computer was throwing a wobbly, and the day we wanted to
leave Carriacou the engine would not start! You might ask what we
need all these things for on a simple sailing boat, but there is no such thing
as a simple sailing boat if you want to keep in communication with the world,
have hot showers, cold drinks, and not have to keep going into marinas and
harbours to fill up with water. So the sailor has to be able to fix all
these things but it is often far from relaxing. All except for the crack
in the exhaust was rapidly sorted out, and the crack in the exhaust will
hopefully be rectified next week. An engine part sent out from the UK
for us for this purpose was addressed correctly but coded incorrectly by Fedex
in the UK and narrowly escaped going to Anguilla rather than Antigua but got
held up in St Martin and Puerto Rico for the best part of a week while they
sorted out where it should go. Why do the kids at home not get taught
proper geography these days? Of course Antigua is correctly called Antigua
and Barbuda and it is hard work persuading someone in the UK that this is
neither Bermuda or Barbados.
Meanwhile we are thoroughly enjoying being back in
Antigua, where there are some good and inexpensive
restaurants, bars with drinks at giveaway prices in the early evening,
lots of friends around and 365 beaches, one of which will be graced with our
presence this afternoon. So life is not all bad but we will be wrestling
with the exhaust next week and hope that the bolts that we have to undo will not
shear off or be irretrievably seized otherwise we will be looking for a new
mortgage.
 
Sunday lunch with the Moonsongs (Peta and David)
-
- on Galleon Beach at the entrance to English Harbour.
|