They Are Back! – Jolly Harbour, Antigua, April 25, 2023
Since we had odd winds out of the west, we decided to take our opportunity to see Antigua and took the day to sail over. It was awesome because as we were approaching the island a whole pod of dolphins came to see us. Buddy & Biscuit are back!
Buddy and family.
We picked up a mooring ball in the harbor but boy was there a lot of seaweed!
Wow!
Jolly Harbor is a lovely little seaside community but outside of a good grocery store it was mostly private houses. We walked around a bit but there wasn’t much to do here. Since it was the first day here we dinghied to snorkel “the five sisters” which is a little group of island and some surprisingly good reefs. Sadly, the coral was about 50% dead but I am not sure if this means it is recovering from the two major hurricane hits (Maria & Irma) a few years ago or if it is dying due to rising ocean temperatures. It was nice to get back in the water since it has been too rough to snorkel at all in St. Martin (although we tried) and we had been moving ever since.
The next day we tried to rent a car, but the guy couldn’t have cared less and since he had such a bad attitude towards us that we decided not to give him our business and as it turned out, he was the only game in town. So we walked the town but there is surprising little to do here and the vibe of the island was rather unwelcoming. It is the first island where we have felt that way. The good news is there is a fantastic Mexican restaurant. Gotta love that!
Once Around the Barn– October 29, 2022, Palm Coast Marineland, Florida USA
Today, we turned in our trusty steed. We have had our little rental car since April, and she has been great. Officially we have been carless for the last year, but it’s nice to only have to rent when you need one and not pay all the time.
This car actually drove itself.
Amazing to think but we put more miles on the car than it had on it when we picked it up. We started with 6,000 and ended with over 19,000. Here’s a fun fact…Sailing Hubby and I have travel over the circumference of the earth this year. The circumference of the earth is ~24,000+ miles. We have traveled 9,000 miles by motorcycle out to the west coast, 13,000 via car to Ohio visiting family and back to Florida, then 2,000+ nautical miles back from the Bahamas.
Anyway, after we dropped off the car, we decided to catch the Ohio State vs. Penn State game for the afternoon then headed home. All was fine and OSU won (yeah!), except when we came home, the bilge light was on, and something was running. Uh Oh!! Turns out I think we had two issues. First was we are on the T dock and must have gotten a bad wake that triggered a faulty bilge switch. There was minimal water and no additional coming on. So, since Hubby determined it was electrical, he swapped out the faulty sensor and we were good to go. Whew! It is never a good feeling to come back to the bilge light on – ever.
This light should be called the “oh shit” light
Then we found out our friends, who were staging at the Jekyll Island Marina, had gotten hit by someone trying to dock without their full engine controls! Crazy. No damage to them or their boat but that would be awful! Another close call.
While I am sure we could fix things on the boat forever, the time has come, and we are on the move again. It’s time to leave our little haven in Marineland. For day one we passed Daytona and were now trying to time the tides to get under all the bridges on the Intercoastal. So far so good but the closest one we scraped on last year was in Vero Beach. At least we had dolphins to kick off our trip again this year!
Happy Splash Day! – October 20, 2022, St. Augustine, FL, USA
I feel bad since lately everything Ron has touched is broken. First off, chart plotter decided to crap out (which we verified on our float down to our new Marina today). Sailing Hubby initially thought it was the card with our Florida charts that was corrupt. So, he located another card 2nd hand we went to pick up locally (luckily!). However, our new card was only working occasionally which means it truly is our chart plotter. A nice expensive thing if this is the case. Sailing Hubby is not one to jump to the most expensive fix of buying a new one right away and like all things, he simply takes it apart to fix it first. He’s amazing and thinks he fixed it. We get to test it out on our next leg of the trip. Fingers crossed that this is the end of the saga.
Not fixed!!
Then, we were scrubbing the dinghy getting it ready, and every time he used the power washer, it would trip the inverter and we lost power. That wasn’t fun but we finished the job. Sadly though, we must order a bigger fuse and he must rewire it again. After that, he went to start the generator and the pull start just came off in his hand. That required him to take apart the generator and restring it so we could have hot water to shower, and we had to test it anyway.
The good news is both engines start (although we are ordering a new alternator backup to take with us just in case), the dinghy outboard oil has been changed, and he fixed the shower drain on the starboard side (which we have had continuous trouble with, and I am glad it is not our main side shower drain).
All these fixes were not enough to keep us warm when we woke up yesterday and it was 49 degrees with no heat. The car was warmer than the boat, so we dressed quickly, and a donut & coffee run was in order! Time to get splashed so we can get to the marina and get some shore power to plug in our heat!! We were finishing up all the last-minute items to get in the water and for one of our Walmart runs, decided to do provision run #1 (and then went back for beer run #2 – hey beer is about $50 a case in the islands – it literally pays to bring it with us!). It was all that we could fit in the car, and no one even checked our cart as we left the store. Odd.
This brings us to today – splash day! Finally! It was a very chilly 53-degree morning and I found myself singing “Back in the Saddle Again” in my head. Boats don’t like to be on the hard and it was high time get her wet to see if she floats after taking out both sail drives.
The amazing news is – SHE FLOATS! No leaks and an uneventful run to our new marina down the street. Whew!! Just how we like it and let me tell you it feels REALLY good to be back on the water. My pet dolphins, Buddy & Biscuit even made a cameo to wish us well 😊.
Our splash date has moved so many times I have lost track. We are now to the point in Florida where we have cold fronts moving from the west consistently so this should lessen our hurricane risk and the 10-day forecast looks pretty good. Now that we are at the dock, we can finish the rest of our provisioning (where we have heat!) before we turn in the car. Once we turn in our car, we can head south and wait for our weather window to make the jump to Bahamas. It’s a happy day indeed!
Cement Donkeys 