Category Archives: Caribbean

Islands of the Caribbean including both windward and leeward islands

The Great sail to Jolly Harbor from Les Saints.

Leave a reply

Where was yestereday’s weather the entire trip so far? We got to crack off the wind a bit between Les Saints to Guadeloupe where we fully expected to be in the lee of the the butterfly island, in the lee is behind the mountains and not much wind, so thats where we had breakfast. We motor sailed again, just to keep out time down and to possibly arrive in the daylight. We could probably have sailed without the noise makers but.. its vacation and just sort of wanted to make it north.

Bonzai into customs after setting the hook, they were still open, clearing in the eSeaClear system is supposed to be easy, but they keep changing it and I couldn’t login, so a new account had to be created. Not a big deal, just took longer than its supposed to. No worries, cleared in and on shore in time for happy hour.

Asked for recommendations for food from some locals and they said the place by customs, it sure looked fancy to me. But after HH we head over there, and if not everyone from the happy hour bar was there, I didn’t see the missing person. A nice band was playing we ordered a pizza and a couple salads. Yummy, and back to the boat well early to get some sleep.

Had made the decision to hit Barbuda and make Xmas there, so we had 40 miles to cover and to clear out of customs and grab some more beer to replenish the diminishing supply. Oh and a bottle of champagne for xmas morning mimosas, ala Melnar style.

One beer on the boat, out were the lights. Might have been 9pm if lucky.
-Matt

Early to bed – means early to rise.

3 Replies

I was thinking about changing the super secret plan of checking out and heading to Barbuda, but everyone was still up for it. So it was going to happen, a quick run to Epicurean Grocery store, that looks like every grocery we have the states, with equally as good a selection, obviously catering the boat people, as they wheel the shopping cart right to the marina and your dingy for you. Sweet.

Then Christine was gonna do some shopping, I was supposed to check out of the country. Customs was busy, and I couldn’t get on line to use the eSeaClear system for a while, and when I finally did thats when all the fun started. I completed the checkout process and it showed on my account but they couldn’t find it on their system. So we go and try to use the checkin record, but over at immigrations, that didn’t fly. An hour later and a couple of tech support calls, turned out someone had cancelled out checkin to had to resubmit that then our checkout showed up. Got all checked out but the port agent wasn’t going to be there for another 30mins, the nice guys that had been on the call, saw me waiting and remembered that we had just checked in and as Christine and Wayne were coming back in the dingy, he told me that we didn’t really need to wait for her as we had just checked in yesterday and there would be any money they needed to charge us.

Back to the boat for breakfast and its now noon, so we had a good ole american style breakfast. Eggs over easy, home fries and BAAACON, cause everyone loves bacon. Christine made a few phone calls for xmas folks incase we don’t find wifi out here in the boon docks.

Motor sailing once again, just so we can get there before dark and get the hook set in the small island of Barbuda for the eve, and find a way to church in the morning.

Lines are dragging, that wasabi is still on the shelf …

I had asked Wayne to summons a Charlie from the deep, but all he came up with was a Hemi. Hemi-cuda that is, so we troll on.

Making water all day yestereday, checked on progress, and the tank was empty?? So we started the 1/2 tank or 30 gallons of fresh water on the starboard side, and now we had 0, zilch, nada. Where did it go becomes the question. Small panic as I realized that the engine bilge pump was running. Quickly opening the engine room, expecting to find lots of water, the bilge pump had kept it pretty dry. And one rock of the boat over the waves, found the hose that had parted on the fresh water system, draining all the fresh water in to the bilge and was eventually pumped overboard. Reaching around the engine, while it was runnig wasn’t my smartest move, caught a bit of my arm on the alternator pulley and have a nice mark to show for it.. But chick’s dig scars and this one be one of them.
Fixed the hose and we made about 1/2 tank of water so we could shower last night, topping off the tank on the way to barbuda to day.

Where our real “lime days” will begin, just tinkering on boat projects, cleaning this, tweaking that (no not Twerking).

Merry Xmas Ya’ll from Barbuda.

Jeers to Jolly

2 Replies

Rushed to shore to hit the local market (which is fabulous) to get necessities like beer, milk, samich meats, etc…and then Matt hit customs/immigration to clear us out of the country and I hit the Budget Marine and the local home goods store. The boys caught a beautiful 3′ barracuda yesterday with gouging teeth and all! We will upload photos at our next wifi spot as we need to hear out of Jolly to Barbuda (where we will not have wifi). Anyway, needed to get some gloves for the fisherman and dehumidifiers and other such fun sundries. With a dingy full of food, beverages and what not, we made the long trek back to the boat. Made a few early Christmas calls as we will not have wifi on Christmas Day, ate breakfast, checked the engines and will be on our way for the short 30-40 mile trek to Barbuda. More to come when we find wifi again. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

20131224-121304.jpg