Exploring Falmouth and English Harbor ... Tues 26th - Wed 27th March

Exploring Falmouth and English Harbor   ...   Tues 26th - Wed 27th March

Tuesday 27^th, 2018

Once we were all ready to go to shore, we remembered that we hadn’t run the engine to cool the fridge!  I stayed on board listening to the drone of the engine while Mike took the dinghy over to the Catamaran Club marina here in Falmouth bay.  His purpose was to find out if we could fill up with water and diesel on their docks.  Antigua is having a drought (it seems) and water is not easy to come by.  When Mike asked at the closer docks, he was told we should take the boat round to English harbor and try to fill up there.  That didn’t seem over appealing, nor did it sound like a sure thing.  Fortunately, the catamaran marina could help us but not until 11 am.  So, our plan to go to shore early was completely scuppered.  

We called on the VHF at 10:45 and found out which dock and what side would be toward the dock.  Preparations commenced: dock lines and fenders were deployed.  Many parts of the bay are quite shallow so a circuitous route was required.  The docking went smoothly for the most part, although getting the line to the bow across was a tad problematic!  We filled with water and then diesel, paid and got underway with some help from the Danish boaters tied up in front of us.  It has to be said that in the past to come into a dock with a boat already tied up would have made us very nervous.  This time the docking only made me into a wreck, Mike was fine with it.  We made our way back to the same spot (more or less) and re-anchored.  Lunch was required before a trip to shore could be undertaken. 

By mid-afternoon we were exploring the Nelson’s Dockyard area in English Harbor.  The number and variety of massive boats was truly staggering.  Although the mega-boat docks here in Falmouth are nothing to sniff at either.  According to the guidebook, showers are available to all in the Dockyard.  We were pleasantly surprised to be able to get a shower for the princely sum of $2(US)/person.  It had been about a month since we’d had a ‘real water shower’ (at Rodney Bay on St. Lucia).  Don’t get the idea that no washing has taken place on Cotinga.  We employ a garden sprayer to shower with the minimum amount of water.  While the sprayer works fairly well, there is nothing like a land-based shower.  Even turning the water off while soaping up didn’t detract from the joy of lots of water flowing over my head.  Mike complained that the water was not hot, I just saw that as an added benefit! 

Wednesday 28^th 2018

Today we resolved to go to shore early and take a walk.  We set off about 9:30 with the objective to walking to Stanley Heights –once the site of fortifications to protect English harbor.  The tourist map made it look like about a mile.  We were thinking a nice easy stroll.  Not quite so much!  First we visited Dow’s Hill which gave a view of the southern coast AND of the long, sunny road to Shirley Heights.  Somehow 148 meters sounds like nothing but... It was a steady uphill march in the blazing sun.  All the benefit of yesterday’s shower was undone.  A thinking person would have realized that all forts are placed on high ground preferably with a good view.  The return trip was somewhat easier.  The entire outing took 4 hours and left us tired and famished.  One of our friends from the rally said he was done with botanical gardens.  Maybe I should be done with forts!  As all our outings start from sea level, visiting forts is hot, uphill work.

English Harbor - Nelson's Dockyard - Falmouth Harbor    ...   from Shirley Heights

The bakery Nelson's Dockyard

Grey Kingbird

Gnarly spider!

Memorable moments … Sun 25th – Tues 27th March 2018

Memorable moments   …   Sun 25^th – Tues 27^th March 2018

Not every memory from this trip will be a pleasant one. This morning we are anchored in Falmouth harbor, Antigua after an excellent passage from Guadeloupe. It’s early and a beautiful cloudless blue sky surrounds us as we sit in the cockpit to drink our morning coffee. The sun is already hot and we head below to cook breakfast. I’ve finished browning the toast and crack the first egg to drop in the pan, but this one is different from normal. A thin liquid erupts into the pan and the boat is instantly filled with the worst smell I have ever encountered (and we’re chemists, well practiced at making bad smells!). This egg is bad – no sign on the outside but moldy green on the inside. The hazmat response team springs into action, the shell goes overboard fast, along with the contents of the pan, and thorough washing-up is followed by plenty of bleach down the drain. It’s tough enough keeping on top of dirt and odors on a boat without rotten eggs!

Anyway, moving onto to more pleasant things….

We spent Sunday in Deshaies doing WiFi and checking-out of immigration and customs; as with all French islands this was a trivial process of simply filling in a form on a computer in a shop, printing it and getting it signed and stamped. There’s a nominal processing fee (in this case 4 euros) that hardly compares to the $50 US that we just spent checking into Antigua. In the afternoon we had time to go walking and in the evening prepared the boat for departure.

It was a fabulous sail up from Deshaies, Guadeloupe to Falmouth harbor, Antigua. We left at 6.15 am and covered the 42 miles in a little less than 7 hours. Winds were 12-17 knots from the ESE and we were sailing due north. We set full main and genoa, switched on the autopilot and enjoyed a relaxing passage. Oh yes, and we caught a fish; a beautiful female MahiMahi (Dorado / Dolphin fish) about 3 foot long, maybe 6 pounds or so! The lime-green colors of these fish when they first come out of the water are stunning. After filleting, we think there is enough meat for three meals. We ate one portion for dinner, sautéed with lime and ginger butter, served with white rice and green beans. Awesome! For dessert we continued the theme and sautéed some fresh pineapple in butter, brown sugar and fresh passion fruit. These are the things that I want to remember!

Mike



We saw a great display of seine net fishing here in the harbor at Deshaies. The following shots attempt to capture some of the action ...

The yellow boat circles an area dropping the net and floats. As they complete the circle they start to pull the net closed. There is a diver in the water who may be there to ensure the net doesn't catch on anything or to discourage fish from swimming out of the gap or to ensure turtles are not ensnared.

At this point the circle of net is getting progressively smaller, trapping the fish

A second, smaller boat comes alongside and the contents of the net are tipped into this boat

The nets are tied up and prepared for the next round. In northern latitudes seagulls would be circling, here it's frigate birds looking for discarded fish.

We were walking by the side of a small road when we saw a hummingbird low to the ground. It stopped moving and we saw that it had landed ona  nest about the size of a thimble (maybe 2cm wide). It took me the best part of an hour to get close enough with my 100 mm macro lens to get this shot). The bird didn't seem too bothered by my presence but wasn't so keen on the flash. My camera flash also seems to have a pre-flash which is a bit of an issue ... but that's what prompts the wing motion seen here.

The waterfront at Deshaies

An incredible sunset at Deshaies. A quick note on brightness ... I work up most of my shots in the evenings with low light in the boat.  It is sometimes hard to judge the right level of brightness. This shot looked bright enough when I worked it up, but looks really dark as I sit outside in the WiFi zone. It's easy enough for me to change later ... so I'll look again and re-edit / post as needed.

Jardin Botanique de Deshaies ... March 24th 2018

Jardin Botanique de Deshaies   ...   March 24^th 2018

When we met up with the rally boats in Iles des Saintes, our friends had very positive things to say about the botanical garden here in Deshaies.  The one exception was Nigel on Taiko.  He had elected to stay on the boat rather than visit “another botanical garden”.  This tale was accompanied by a bit of a rant about the evils of gardening in general.  I can’t possible do it justice.  It did remind me of Mike’s friend from Edinburgh who claimed “gardening is for old age pensioners”!  Now that we are of the correct age, what’s wrong with a visit to the botanical gardens.

In a rare display of discretion, we called to get the shuttle to pick us up and transport us to the garden. Once we saw the route, we were overjoyed with our decision.  The road was steep, winding and very fast—at least the way the shuttle bus driver attacked it.  We paid and entered to see a pond filled with Koi.  The fish were more or less swimming over one another in an attempt to be fed.  As far as I could see, no one had any food so these efforts were for naught.  Turning the first corner we entered a free flight aviary with “blue headed lorikeets”.  These very colorful birds were flying around, many were perched on shrubs close to the path, allowing you could get a good look.  If you had the correct coin (which we did not) you could purchase a cup of nectar to feed the birds.  We saw a number of people with multiple birds on their hands and arms.

After the aviary, we walked through the gardens where many orchids, blooming shrubs and trees were to be seen.  Interesting displays talked about the introduction of plants to Guadeloupe, the earliest being sugar cane in the late 1400s.  While many of these were food crops, not all were by any means.  In addition to the lorikeets, we saw flamingos and macaws.  I was very excited to spot a brown trembler in a tree and to point it out to Mike (this type of bird I had seen on St. Lucia but Mike had not.)  When we got to the macaws enclosures, there was a trembler eating out of the food bowls!  We saw another Vanilla orchid vine looking very vigorous (but no seed pods). 

After a fortifying sandwich at the cafe, we walked back down the hill (about a mile) to the town of Deshaies.  Once again we were struck by how unpleasant it might be to walk up that road.  We scoped out the shop with the customs clearance and returned to the boat.  I had a rest but Mike returned to town for some ice and shopping.  A refreshing swim followed by dinner ashore rounded off an excellent day.

Gloria

I took so many photos at the botanical gardens that I drained the battery of my camera. Here are a few of my favorites ....

Hyacynth Maccaw (not-native)

Hyacynth Maccaw (not-native)

Back-lit leaf

Back-lit leaf

Orchid

Hibiscus

Ornamental Banana flower with lizard

Ornamental Banana flower with lizard (not sure which of these two I like better - the flower in photo 1 but the lizard tongue in photo 2)

Lizard on a helaconia (sp?) flower

Dragonfly

A pair of Lorikeets (native to Australia) ... there were literally dozens of these beautiful birds flying around in a walk-in aviary

Lorikeets preening each other  "awww do it again, that feels great ..."

Snorkeling Cousteau National Park … Fri 23rd March

Snorkeling Cousteau National Park   …   Fri 23rd March

The pigeon Island anchorage was awfully rolly, with Cotinga getting into periods when she acted more like a metronome than a sailboat. Having said that, the snorkeling off the islands was amazing. This area is part of the Cousteau National Park and as such fishing and anchoring in the protected areas is forbidden ad it makes a huge difference. We jumped in the “dumb dog” and motored over to Pigeon island and tied up to one of several dive buoys provided. There’s a fair bit of traffic as snorkeling / diving tour boats operate from the mainland. Right off the mooring visibility and the wealth of coral and fish were excellent. It was interesting to be able to see divers in the deeper water, but for once I didn’t feel being under the water, as opposed to on the surface, offered any great advantage. We probably spent about 45 minutes to an hour swimming around and then called it a day and motored the dinghy back to Cotinga. In the afternoon we sailed up the coast about eight miles to Deshaies and anchored peacefully on the southern shore of the bay.

If you are interested in mechanical things then keep reading, otherwise you may want to skip the next section … !

This afternoon, whilst checking on a few things to do with the engine and drive train, I found a problem that could have been serious. You may recall that we had some issues with our engine blower repeatedly burning out its fuse. (this unit simply vents hot air from the engine housing). I attributed this to a faulty thermostat and replaced it with a manual switch, which seemed to solve the problem. Today it fused again as I was playing around under the “aquadrive*” and I found that the pair of wires were rubbing on the “aquadrive” and were part worn through and shorting out. Of more concern were the hoses that supply raw water to the shaft seal and antifreeze to the heat exchanger in the hot water heater, both of which were substantially worn through. I was able to make some temporary repairs and solve the immediate problem, but these hoses really need to be replaced. It made me think about unintended consequences and the need to really understand the cause of problems when they arise.  This is what I think happened ...

In 2014 we hit a rock in Maine and damaged (amongst other things) the support for the “aquadrive”. This was repaired but unbeknownst to us the shaft was now not aligned correctly, causing excess friction and wear and the ultimate collapse of the shaft seal last summer, resulting in us having to be towed out of the Cape Cod Canal. We replaced the shaft cutlass bearings and the strong-seal and the engineer repositioned the “aquadrive” to ensure proper alignment with the shaft. At this point the bundle of hoses and cables that pass under the engine housing (out of view) probably weren’t secured adequately and over time have slumped onto the “aquadrive” which has acted like an angle grinder as it rotates to wear through them. These hoses and cables are now properly tied up, but the big question in my mind is whether the engine and “aquadrive” are still correctly aligned since we moved the latter … and on inspection I think the answer is no. Obviously it is working and we’ve done hundreds of miles under motor since last summer, but the longevity of the unit is compromised if it’s poorly aligned. The reason I was inspecting the “aquadrive” in the first place is that our drive train sounds louder and more “rattly” than it used to and the aquadrive itself seems to get quite hot (which may just be conduction from the engine). I will try to adjust the engine alignsment, but Gloria suggests we wait until we get to Antigua where there should be more support if we need it.

(* The “aquadrive” is essentialy two inter-connected universal joints that connect the drive shaft from the gear box to the propeller shaft, reducing vibration and noise and compensating for slight mis-alignment)

16^o 18.29 N,  61^o 47.92 W

 Fellow cruisers sailing up the west coast of Guadeloupe

Our friends Ted and Shan (Northstar) anchored off Deshaies, north west Guadeloupe