A Tale of Two Chemists: Janus day

Janus day

Dec 31st 2024

Is there any day better for looking back and looking forward? We have come to the end of 2024, which was quite a year.

In January of 24 we spent time with Will and Liz in Antigua and Barbuda. We travelled down to Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique. We came back to Antigua in March to fly back to Massachusetts to see the eclipse with Susan and Stew (an outstanding experience). We returned to Antigua in early April with my brother Rod and worked our way south to St. Lucia stopping at Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique. Rod flew home from St. Lucia, while we carried on to Bequia and Tobago Cays. We explored new terrain in the shape of Union Island, Carriacou and finally Grenada. So many beautiful places. We finally arrived in Grenadas and left Cotinga on “the hard” for five months (hurricane season) and flew back to Boston. We think it was a really good plan to split this expedition over two years. The extra time has allowed us to cruise at a more leisurely place and soak up the experience.

We enjoyed the summer at home—catching up with family, friends and our neighbors. A frenzy of ordering boat parts and other “essentials” was the lead up to the return to Grenada in November. Since then, we have had the pleasure of three weeks of cruising with Pete and Jo, followed (after a short interlude) by a great visit with Don, Dolly, Mac and Tasha. After they left it felt lie “things got “too darn quiet” for a few days! One thing we didn’t anticipate was how tough life in the tropics would be on Cotinga, and the first few weeks after returning to the boat were filled with concerns about “what would break next”. Thankfully, the boat issues seem to have settled down … at least for now!

This morning we set off for Antigua at 6:40 am and arrived at the Customs dock in Jolly Harbor by 2:20 pm. The passage was a bit mixed with some motor-sailing and some sailing with swells that eventually settled down. We had everything from 4 knots to 18 knots of wind (with some rain, of course). On arrival, we took Cotinga right up to the dock for Customs, Health, Immigration and Port Authority. We were concerned that they would be shut today for the New Year, but it turns out they are open 365 days a year. In any event, clearing-in is quite a long proces, but eventually we were able to make our way back to the anchorage and “sling the hook”. We are happy to have arrived safely.

As for the future, 2025 is bound to bring us some new adventures and some re-visits to favorite islands. Mike is very keen to visit Monserrat for the thrill of seeing an active volcano (I guess). We hope to visit Nevis and St Croix before meeting friends in the Virgin Islands in early February. After that, we will start the real down wind legs of the trip. We hope to actually visit Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic this time - as opposed to sailing past as we did in 2018. We might re-visit Turks and Caicos on our way to the outer islands of the Bahamas. Then we’ll travel back to the US. We hope to persuade some friends to join us for the Bahamas and others might explore some of the ICW with us.

The rest of the year is less planned at this point but I’m sure we will both be glad to get back home to enjoy summer in New England.

Love to you all

Gloria

17 04.573 N, 61 53.636 W