Falmouth Harbour, Antigua

Where have we been and what are we doing? You may well ask… what a few weeks since the last blog! As a minimum, we intend to write a blog every month now, unless on serious passage in which case it could be daily. However, it has been some time since the last blog. I’ve also received complaints (thanks mum) that some blogs are a bit long when we’ve left a long period between them.

So, back to what we’ve been doing. Here is it in bullet point form:

·         We had a lovely two weeks with Vicky coming to visit. The mate will put some photos in below to sum up the fortnight.

·         We ended up being seconded into helping with the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, despite not actually volunteering this year.

·         Our lovely Rolls AGM batteries died all of a sudden; we’re blaming the heat in Trinidad amongst other things. As luck would have it, our friend Steve was in Sint Maarten and heading for Antigua, so we wasted no time in asking him to bring down three Victron equivalents. Needless to say, the terminals were different so that entailed plenty of ‘fun’ with the wiring. Luck, though, was on our side when we discovered only one (the inherited  + and – take off one) of the Rolls was dead and a fellow cruiser was happy to take the other two off our hands for nearly half the amount we’d spent on our new Victron batteries. Incidentally, the new batteries are now wired correctly.

·         Next up, our lovely solar panels were banging in the amps when a Victron MPPT decided it needed a firmware update (my fault, I pressed the OK button) and subsequently packed in. Nothing we could do would revive it, so the only option was to buy another. Luckily a place in Nelson’s Dockyard provided a slight upgrade at near enough a UK price. Subsequent advice is don’t upgrade firmware when the panels are working hard and, according to one source, Victron recommend not upgrading firmware at all if the system functions well. It does and we won’t!

·         If this wasn’t all enough, The mate found a dyneema halyard which had chafed beyond reason. It was the same halyard that we’d hauled Vicky up the mast with a week or two earlier (fear not though dear mother in law, your youngest daughter is safe with us!) Naturally this needed replacing (it was old) which we did, but with Marlow Blue Ocean (made predominantly from recycled plastic bottles), not dyneema which is unaffordable in these parts. It’s already been tested, the mate hauled me a short distance up the rig.

·         Why did the mate do that? Because a halyard exit had almost fallen out of the mast and we had a nice new stainless one to put in. This should have been a simple job (ha ha) but as Skip was tightening up the screw (supplied with the Selden halyard exit) the head sheared off it! This then needed to be filed, sawed and finally drilled out of the mast. Then the thread on the second supplied screw stripped, so we put in a much better screw from our bits box - which is what we should have done in the first place!!

·         Next, the water maker. The mate and I serviced the water maker and to our delight it works very well with no leaks. It took some time though…

·         The fridge needed a new thermostat. I fitted it yesterday. Unbelievably the job, which I thought might take most of a day, took 20 minutes. That’s because I ‘cheated’ and used the same wires to the control box.

·         The mate has had to put new tabs on our helmsman’s shade. Long story, but she did shout at times.

·         We also had to replace our lazy jack control lines, which had chafed themselves to death in all the wind in Le Marin earlier this year.

·         Finally, our dinghy floor was leaking (it’s a HPIF air floor). Vicky had brought over a ‘miracle’ product that you can pour into inflatables and it seals all leaks. Guess what – it works! A product that actually does what it claims to do, will miracles never cease :)

Add this lot to the fetching of water every few days (we don’t use the watermaker in harbour if possible), shopping, daily chores and all the rest that has to be done by dinghy plus finding and dealing with a new tenant at our house and you can hopefully see why we’ve been quiet…

Now, it is 29 April and we are waiting for a weather window to head west. The idea is to cross the Caribbean sea from Antigua on a northerly route, keeping away from the Colombian weather pattern (which can be rough) and then head down to San Andres. This passage should be made before the early part of June due to weather patterns, and we have just discovered that our Iridium satellite phone SIM needs replacing and this has to come from our provider (the same as who hosts this blog) in the UK. It could take a week or so. So time-wise, the pressure is on a bit. We do have an alternative, which neither of us prefers, which is to head back to Martinique and wait for weather for the southern route via the ABC islands. In theory, that passage can be made most times of the year, but it does cross the Colombian weather pattern, which we’d rather not.

Fingers crossed that we’ll be away from Antigua on the Northern route within two weeks, or thereabouts. Watch this space.

The view from Shirley Heights

Atop Shirley Heights (before too many rum punches!)

Vicky up the mast – replacing the wind instrument

Bird’s eye view of Stargazer, P2 and the Mate

The moon starts to rise for the onboard Full Moon Party!

Out on the trail

Pigeon Beach

Cosmos at Pillars – Cheers!

What a great couple of weeks – thanks Vics xxx  What a ridiculous picture – Skip.