As always, we packed a lot in the last 3 weeks. As you know, we arrived in Antigua after an largely uneventful but unusually long 10 day passage. That doesn’t mean that things didn’t break. There is a lot of wear and tear on a boat during an ocean passage and, even though we really only had 2 days of rough seas, it was enough to create a list of repairs. Other than a brief intermission to visit our family for Thanksgiving (more on that below), that has been our main focus since our arrival. Our repairs include (but are not limited to) attending to a tear in our new canvas cushions, an electrical connection issue with our hydrogenerator, a malfunctioning alternator, a broken cupboard latch in our galley, a break in the wooden piece that secures our companionway doors when away and not in use, settling of our new garbage bin (preventing complete closure), a break in the wooden lip that holds one of our floorboards in place, mainsail repairs (recall the batten that somehow flew out during our passage and landed on our deck, making a good size dent in the gel coat but, thankfully, not hitting anyone!) and dings in our gel coat (from the falling batten and other miscellaneous injuries). In addition, just before leaving for our passage, we bought a new stereo (20% off boat show pricing!) to replace the existing stereo that no longer connected to our speakers so we had to install that. Finally, after 10 days at sea, every inch of Che Figata was covered with a thick layer of salt which needed to be thoroughly cleaned (think spraying down the entire boat, washing and polishing the hull and polishing our ubiquitous stainless). Though we could do some of this work, some required us to hire help and, as always, whether you are doing the work yourself or coordinating the work done by others, it takes time. So while we have definitely taken time to enjoy ourselves (more on that later too!), we have spent a fair amount of time just getting Che Figata back in shipshape! Repairs and maintenance in exotic places strikes again!
On a somewhat related note, we got some really great news. Those of you who are regular readers of our blog know that we have had issues with our 2 drawer freezer/fridge unit. The freezer drawer is now effectively a cool refrigerator and the refrigerator drawer is more like wine cooler temperature. Great for our wine (and do we really need much more???) and some condiments but not much else. We ordered a new unit in the Spring after spending enough money on repairs that we could have purchased two units. At any rate, it was supposed to arrive in the States in early September but, like a lot of purchases coming from overseas, it got caught up in the shipping backlog. So the date kept slipping . . . First to the end of September, then October, then November, etc. Needless to say, it did not arrive before we had to set sail for Antigua. Well, a few days ago, it finally arrived in Florida. Yay! That’s the good news. The bad news is that the shipping delays meant that we now had to get the unit from Florida down to Antigua. There are two options. The first is to place it on a ship. The problem with that option is that it takes time and, more importantly as we have learned, December is not when you want to ship things to Antigua for two reasons. First, the stevedores apparently go on strike each year right around the holidays. That, of course, stops everything. Second, there is this little thing called “Christmas Barrels.” Basically, every resident gets to ship one barrel of stuff to Antigua duty free. Most residents take advantage of this opportunity and their shipments are given priority. (You can add both of these things to the long list of fun facts you have learned from reading our blog! You can thank us later.) Between the stevedore strike and Christmas Barrels we were told not to expect our new unit to arrive before sometime in January if we shipped it. Because Jill’s father and stepmother are visiting over the Christmas holiday and we are simply getting tired of stuffing all of our food into one small fridge, we decided to go with option two. Option two is FedEx! So, yes, we are having our freezer/fridge unit flown to Antigua via FedEx. Don’t even ask us what that cost. It is too embarrassing to acknowledge. But, we should get our new unit in the next few weeks and should be able to get it installed shortly after that. We are focusing on the bright side of having a working fridge and freezer! As we have said before, resilience is the name of the game if you want to live on a sailboat!
When we first arrived in Antigua, we Med-moored (more on this later) at Nelson’s Dockyard — a historic location that once served as the British Navy’s most important base in the Caribbean. The dockyard has wonderfully preserved buildings, lots of historic plaques to read, and an incredibly protected harbor. We really enjoyed the spot, and appreciated the historic significance of the site. (You can read more about Nelson’s Dockyard here: https://www.nationalparksantigua.com/). Most all the Salty Dawg rally boats made their first stop there and we enjoyed the social events and interactions with other sailors. A sailboat that berthed next to us was a boat that we had met in Maine this past summer (seems like everyone was in Maine this past August!). They are very interested in buying a Hylas 56, and Jill went into “Boat-Matchmaker” mode and they may actually buy a boat that Jill referred to them. We had arranged a berth at another marina that we could stay in long term with less expense while on Antigua. After 10 days at Nelson’s Dockyard, and prior to heading back to the US for Thanksgiving (see below), we moved to Catamaran Club Marina (affectionately known as “Cat Club”) in Falmouth Harbour. The berths are predominantly Med-mooring berths so we had to repeat the process of Med-mooring there. The Med-mooring process involves backing stern first toward a concrete dock (no side finger docks involved) and, when you are about 100’ to 150’ out from the dock, dropping your anchor and letting out chain as you back in. The anchor secures the bow and keeps it pointed out. You then must tie off to the dock, just from the stern, and you access the dock from the stern of the boat. The height of the dock at Nelson’s Dockyard made the stern exit fairly easy (as long as you weren’t afraid to take the jump required to cross the gap between the boat and the dock) but at the Cat Club it is a different story. Between the height of the dock and the distance from the boat you need a plank or gangway (officially called a “passerelle” — which we don’t own). Fortunately, between the three of us (Zack, Jill and our crew member Eric) we were able to fashion one securely using a 8’ long 2X12 piece of wood lent to us by the marina. Needless to say both times we Med-moored we were glad to have our third crew member Eric on board. Lots of moving part. After a few tries, we settled into our berth — right next to a Hylas 54, Blue Pearl — as our new “home” for the next several weeks as we complete repairs and enjoyed Antigua. (Incidentally, the idea of attempting to Med-moor with just the 2 of us is not highly appealing and has definitely influenced our decision to stay at the Marina, rather than repeatedly leave to anchor and come back, until all our repairs are complete.)
Just a few days after getting settled at the Cat Club we said good-bye to our crew member Eric and left Che Figata ourselves to head to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with our three children, their partners and our two granddaughters. It was wonderful to have our nuclear family under one roof and we made sure that our visit ended with an invitation back by hosting the Thanksgiving dinner. Jill did the cooking while Zack was our sommelier and cheese monger. The meal was not as elaborate as when we hosted the holiday in our own home — we just didn’t have the time — but there was still plenty of core Hummel Thanksgiving fixings (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with roasted garlic, butternut squash with red onions, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake and apple pie!) and, of course, a Hummel family tradition, great wines and a wonderful charcuterie platter (with plenty of vegan options for Jill) to start the festivities. And no Hummel Thanksgiving (or gathering for that matter) would be complete without the kids engaging in a few ruthless games of Settlers of Catan! All in all, it was a wonderful trip and, as always, went way too fast. Of course, the temperature dropped steadily during our stay in Chicago — it was below freezing by the time we left — so while saying goodbye was hard the thought of returning to 85 degrees and sunny skies definitely took some of the sting out of the farewell. Still bitter sweet.
Once we arrived back to Che Figata it was back to the repair list. We are hoping that the freezer/fridge unit arrives soon and the rest of the repairs can be completed in the next few weeks. So far, things seem to be on track and we are slowly crossing items off the work list. Though the Cat Club is lovely and its location in Falmouth Harbour is terrific, we are really hoping to leave the marina so that we can begin to circumnavigate Antigua and visit the many wonderful harbors and beaches Antigua is famous for. You can’t be in Antigua more than 30 minutes without learning from a local that Antigua boasts 365 beaches, one for every day of the year. That’s actually quite a lot for this relatively small island. To put the size of Antigua in perspective, the smallest US state, Rhode Island, is 1,034 square mikes while Antigua is 108 square miles, a 10th of the size. So we are really anxious to begin exploring the island and, after enjoying the complete Antigua experience, depart to explore the Windward Islands by early February.
Though we are still tethered to a marina, and took time to travel home, we have found plenty of time to have fun here in Antigua. In some ways we were almost forced to have fun. We have learned that the Salty Dawg group is quite the social group and that they like their cocktail and dinners events. Between our arrival in Antigua and our departure to Chicago we attended numerous cocktail receptions and dinners at great locations including The Admiral’s Inn, the Antigua Yacht Club (where we are now members), Boom’s, Shirley Heights (with breathtaking views) and La Brasserie d’Antigua. We also sampled several restaurants on our own and are particularly taken with Catherine’s (a French restaurant right on Pigeon Beach), Cambusa (a date night restaurant), Indian Summer, Sweet-T’s and Hummus Antigua. Most are on the water and all have wonderful food with great vegan options for Jill. And, while dining at Cambusa, we had a brush with greatness once removed. We got into a conversation with a nice man dining alone, Uri, and ended up asking him to join us for dinner. It turns out that he was dinning alone because his wife was busy giving media interviews. You see, he is married to Keisha Schahaff who entered and won the Virgin Galactic and Omaze sweepstake to become a part of the Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut Community as a civilian astronaut. She and her daughter — who she is bringing along — will be the first female astronauts hailing from the Caribbean. You can read more about Keisha here: https://our.today/antiguan-mother-daughter-duo-to-become-caribbeans-first-astronauts/. While we didn’t meet Keisha personally, it was definitely fun meeting her husband and hearing, (almost) first hand why this is so special for her (it’s a lifelong dream to go to space plus her daughter is studying astrophysics and hopes to become a professional astronaut some day) and what she hopes to accomplish (giving her a platform to call attention to climate change and the importance of a vegan diet!).
As you can see from the above paragraph, food has definitely been a highlight of our Antigua social life. We are quite impressed with the restaurants here. That said, it has not been all cocktails and dinners. We’ve taken a few really great and rigorous hikes and we continue to walk where ever we can just to get exercise and experience the local community. We particularly enjoyed two hikes. The first was the Middle Ground Trail from fort Berkeley to Pigeon beach, passing by Fort Culyer on path that was, at times, hand over hand. Though you got glimpses of the ocean — particularly when you reached the forts — most of the walk was through a rocky forest path that ultimately led to lovely Pigeon Beach and the wonderful Catherine’s restaurant. The second was a hike up the steep Carpenter Rock trail — which took us ever so close to the edge of a precipitous but magnificent cliff overlooking the ocean — and down the Jones Valley Trail which brought us back through a forest and an old graveyard with the tombstone marking the graves of English officers and their wives and children from the 1700s and 1800s. Our feature photo from this blog entry was taken from one of the stunning views along the Carpenter Rock Trail.
Last but not least, we learned to play Mexican Train Dominos, the (un)official game of Caribbean cruisers. Who knew the rules of Dominos could be so complicated and the playing so strategic (and competitive). (Oh, and there is a healthy dose of luck too.). But the veterans took pity on us and though cruisers down here are quite serious about their Dominos (you focus on the game and don’t engage in a lot of unrelated chit chat), they enjoyed bringing newbies into the fold and were actually quite patient with us even though we couldn’t always keep straight what to do when we or someone else played a double tile or whether our train was public or private. Rules, rules! There’s a group that plays every Sunday afternoon at the Antigua Yacht Club and we hope to join a few more times before we head off for other islands. BTW, in case you are wondering how we get around to all of these places, we travel by dinghy. Che Figata may be immobile at the moment but our dinghy can get us to lots of great locations in the Falmouth and English Harbour area, sometimes accompanied by a walk and/or a short taxi ride. Have dinghy, will travel!
Finally, finally, just because we are “joiners,” we volunteered to guest host the morning cruisers net for a few weeks while the regular host is off sailing. The “net” is a moderated conversation that occurs on VHF channel 72 each morning at 8:30 AM. The idea of the net is to announce important local developments (e.g., like the protests currently happening in nearby Guadalupe which may impact cruising there) and social events while also giving cruisers the opportunity to ask for help finding local resources for repairs or purchases or to share that they have spare parts available for the asking as part of the “Treasures of the Bilge” segment. (We sailors always have stuff to giveaway!) The net is very local (due to VHF broadcast limitations) and is intended for cruisers in Falmouth and English Harbours. The big topic on the net right now is the new Covid Omicron variant and the impact on travel between islands. Last year travel was quite restricted because of Covid testing and quarantining requirements so most of us picked a destination and stayed put. This year things looked like they were opening up and many of the Windward Islands, particularly the French ones, had no travel restrictions to speak of so the cruising community was looking forward to some island hopping. We are all sharing what we know and hoping for the best. At any rate, Jill is now hosting the Falmouth & English Harbour cruisers net (at least for a short while) which makes us feel very authentic!
That’s it for now. Hopefully our repairs — including the arrival and installation of our new freezer/fridge unit — will go as planned and we will be off circumnavigating Antigua in no time. Our next blog entry will likely be after the Christmas holiday when we will have some excursions under our belt and have said good-bye to our Christmas visitors.
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