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Sarah December 11 2000
Emma wins the passage length bet—21 days. We are feeling
pretty good after a beautiful night, with the boat rocking gently at anchor,
instead of lurching violently from side to side, with the rig shuddering and the
sails popping. And being able to sleep until you have had enough, instead
of struggling to wake after two or three hours. The last couple of days
Douglas, Neill and I had no more that four hours of broken sleep per day, and
the girls not a lot better. We had constant squalls blowing through (wind up to
30 knots with rain and then down to less that 10 and wallowing), it was VERY rolly and we were just too keyed up. Douglas was completely
insomniac, and from Neill's watch through mine there he would be, wide awake.
He was so tired, he was a wreck, plus being determined that the
Caribbean was going to be a complete disappointment and Antigua hopeless he is
already in depression about the Christmas reunion being over and nothing left
but to sail home, although it isn't yet). We went into shore after putting the boat away, i.e. sails
covered and lines coiled and dinghies launched etc, and indeed the Falmouth
and English harbor are very small and expensive, with lots of tourists
wandering round and big expensive yachts and the atmosphere a bit like a
Hollywood set. Plus that first walk on shore always has a completely surreal
feel to it. We had a hard time finding anywhere to eat where we
could get a hamburger for less than US$10 and we paid US$8 for a gallon of
milk. So Douglas's quote after lunch was "Well I'm still really tired and
depressed but at least I'm not hungry anymore." Well at least we read in
our book that St Johns up the road is a bigger town with big, reasonable
supermarkets. The idea of the family provisioning for 12 for two weeks
from here filled us a bit with horror.
The kids were great helping with the boat. It always
feels good to clean it up a bit after a passage, put away the seaberth, wash the
floors and open wide all the hatches. And it felt great to get that
beautiful Caribbean breeze blowing through. It is wonderful to be here,
the anchorage is pretty, and sheltered, the climate perfect, the local
Caribbeans, with their lilting musical accent, the epitome of laid back.
We got back from lunch and went for a glorious swim off the boat - something we
have not done since the Balearics (we discovered that the rear half of Margarita
was covered with a field of sea grass and goose barnacles - it is amazing she even
moved). And then to sit on the foredeck with a beer and watch the local
scene, with other world cruisers and charter boats anchored all around, a
Caribbean steel band playing from up on the hill, the sun setting by Monserrat
in the distance and the almost full moon rising behind the hill. What bliss.
We found it was the longest day because we discovered it was GMT -4 instead of
-2 as we had thought, so it went on forever and we stumbled into bed by about 8
pm. Glorious! We had visions of climbing Shirley Heights which
overlooks our anchorage and puts on a weekly Sunday BBQ and steel/reggae band,
but as Bronwen said -we were overstretching ourselves for the first day, and
being still on Maggie was very relaxing.
All is not fun and games in the sun, because as always boat
chores call. Neill has the aft head ripped apart and is up to his elbows in
sewage matter. We will all be thankful for this repair though. And
tomorrow is the wind generator. After that it will be figuring out why the
new batteries we bought in Gibraltar have only half their storage capacity.
Pretty nice surroundings for a bit of work though.
Anyway, thanks for all the good thoughts that helped us get
across the Atlantic safely, we always do rely on outside help. Keep in
touch, love from all - Sarah
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