18:10.8N 76:27.3W

 

Our stay in IIe a Vache has been one of the most memorable of our journey so far. It is so beautiful and totally unspoilt by development. I guess that suits us as it pleasing to see people living in a simple uncluttered way using the skills that have been passed down from generation to generation. This doesn’t provide many jobs and doesn’t meet the aspiration of the young people who without work will move away and the community will die. This may not happen because the curse or blessing of development is not many years away. Hopefully it is carried out with consideration for the environment and to the benefit of the local population.

 

Also memorable was the fact that I became a Grandad. Welcome to the club says Norm. My son Alastair and his wife Rebecca had a baby boy (name still unknown) the day before we left Haiti. He was born in Washington DC and Pat has headed off there to help out for a few weeks. To celebrate Norm and I headed off to the locals bar with Jasmine and Willy the guys who had been helping me on RT. Quite a few beers were consumed to the background of the local Haitian music and Bob Marley. Staggering back on board is was another few drams of malt to thoroughly wet the babies head before hitting the sack. A night to remember.

 

We are anchored now in Port Antonio harbour, Jamaica in the quiet of the morning after a rainy night. Our 155nm passage was quicker than expected and we made it into harbour in the gathering gloom of the evening finally anchoring at 19.45. We are anchored off the Errol Flynn Marina. Yes he lived here, on Navy Island, shown in the background in the picture below. Its a beautiful setting. The marina staff are very friendly and have arranged C&I clearance. We’ll go back onto the anchorage after filling up with water and recharging the batteries.

 

The Customs lady has just been on board. Looked at all our food stuffs checked the consume by dates and been horrified by some of them. Some must be two years out of date. She was really interested in the Tilda Rice packets. We said she could have one to try. That was fine until I pointed out that that was out of date too. Only by 6 months. One tin of beans looks particularly suspect so we may have that on toast for us tea.

 

Haitian Bus

 

Haitian Sail Boats

 

Moored up awaiting Customs and Immigration Clearance, Navy Island in the Background