Guadeloupe

We moved South from Antigua to Deshaies, Guadeloupe and had a nice sail. About half way over the wind picked up a bit so we rolled in some of the jib. After an hour or so we tried to roll up the rest of the jib and could not. We could move it a foot or so in or out but could not roll it up entirely. Had to go up on deck and drop the sail and then move it back to the cockpit.

Once we arrived in Deshaies we discovered that we had a line override inside the furling drum - what a mess but was finally able to clear it. Before reinstalling the sail we examined it and decided to do some repair to the sunbrella cover. Lesley took the dinghy in and cleared in while I stayed on the boat and dried off from an early afternoon "Hat Rescue" swim!

Had a nice evening in the anchorage with some small amount of occasional roll.

The next day we walked to the local Botanical Garden and had a great time exploring and taking pictures of the plants and animals.

Lorikeet













Every "Pirate" ship should have a parrot!




















Some of the blooms from the Botanical Garden

Ash Fall - Soufriere Volcano

Woke up this morning to a layer of fine volcanic ash on the boat. The Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat had a major dome collapse yesterday and ash was reported to have gone to over 50,000 feet. We noticed that planes were landing from the East to the West yesterday and didn't see any weather related reason for this. Now we know why. We are on the East Side of Antigua so sundowns are not nearly as spectacular as they are on the West side but will see what sundown looks like this evening. The wind has gone light and variable and there is a lot of haze in the area - suspect that some of that may be atmospheric dust.

The sundown was partially obscured by clouds so I was not able to get a decent picture showing the effects of the volcanic dust.

I wasn't able to get a decent picture of the sunset but I did notice the ash had covered our solar panel!

Antigua and Barbuda

We were hanging out in Antigua and decided to sail up to Barbuda for a few days - we have been wanting to make the trip up for the past few years - but weather and boat issues had not allowed it. We made it this year and after a nice sail up we anchored for three days in Gravenor Bay - between Cocoa Point and Spanish Point. The water was shallow, 8ft and the bottom looked like fine sugar. Went ashore and did some exploring, but found the island very desolate and rugged. The stars are incredible at night and you can hear donkeys on shore. With some serious weather (North swells from Atlantic Storms) forecast, we left Barbuda and sailed back to Antigua. Came in through the reef at Horseshoe Channel and made our way in to Davis Bay off Long Island. Long Island is a very nice private island development. We are tucked in nicely and are enjoying the calm water here and Lesley is up to her old tricks (some great food) while we hang out and enjoy the place.
I did some teak maintenance today and we sent a birthday greeting with photos to our sailing friend Hayden - enjoying the winter of 2010 in Souderton, PA! NO SNOW FOR US THANKS.