Leaving Cienfuegos, we had an uneventful passage to Jamaica and checked in Port Antonio after 68 hours, one of the prettiest anchorages we have been for a long time. We motor sailed into the wind and waves for two thirds of the journey. We are paying for the downwind sailing we have done this year.  We need to get as far East as the Dominican Republic before we can veer south towards, preferably Los Roques perhaps Bonaire or even Curacao would be good.

Modern technology can be frustrating but also wonderful. We installed an AIS (Automatic Identification System) last year, an excellent device which will detect any ships over 300 tons.   It gives their name, heading, and at what speed they are travelling. We set the alarm for about 8 miles range.  It will sound if any ships are within that radius. We can contact them on the radio and ask  if they have seen us, inform them that our intentions are to proceed on our course and in turn what their intentions are.  I have heard Chris dealing with this situation therefore one night during my watch I decided to let him sleep and deal with it myself.  With trepidation I called ‘Blue Star, this is s/y Scorch’ ‘Do you read me?’  a foreign voice replied but I could not  understand a word he said, apart from channel 10.  I promptly tuned the radio to 10 but no one replied. I was at a total loss and had to wake Chris to help. The ship was still on channel 16 waiting for me to confirm that I was moving to 10. I have progressed since then and I am less nervous but many times I can’t understand a word they are talking about but I am reassured that by calling  we would make our presence known should they be  asleep and hopefully will avoid us.  

Few sailors we have spoken to mentioned that they like the Marina Errol Flynn, Port Antonio but were not enthusiastic about Jamaica.  We have been here nearly two weeks and we have thoroughly enjoyed the place. It is beautiful, mountainous and green.  It is a tropical rainforest country; hot and humid.   Its people of definite African decent appear very laid back and gentle (could be marijuana induced). This Country where Bob Marley : King of Reggae was born reverberates with loud bass and rhythm everywhere so loudly that we can sometime feel the vibrations in our chest,  Heaven help our eardrums.

Close your eyes and practically anywhere you can hear music. Radios blare out on the street; buses pump out nonstop dancehall and every Saturday nights the bass of countless sound-systems wafts through the air until the early hours.

Chris and I decided to see some of the country and took a shared taxi ride 17 miles West.