Antigua, Fun and Games!

Hi,
We are only as far as Antigua. 5 April. We have been here for a week now, and just found a grand place for kite surfing. It is on the East coast of Antigua around Green Island. There are free buoyed moorings, about 20 in a reef protected anchorage. Pity the wind right now is now quite enough, but it is sure to pick up as the day progresses.
The sail from Guadalupe to Antigua was anything but comfortable. Only 42 Miles, but eventful. While motoring out of Deshaies, just after we had stowed the anchor, the alternator / coolant pump fan belt broke. Not a major crisis, but I needed to replace it. Fortunately I had one spare left, (started the voyage with 6 spares) Replacing it is not as simple as initially it may seem. First as we are sailing, the boat is now at 20 deg and moving around a lot. Next the engine is hot from the motoring while lifting anchor. Then to remove the offending belt, you must start with water maker belt, off, then Jabsco salt water pump belt, off, then the alternator / coolant pump. All this adds up to being a fiddly, dirty and awkward job, filled with profanities. Lucky I have had practice. My alternator is too big for just one belt, so I go through one every 100 hours or so.

Finally, after all was tidied up again, we got to the task of sailing north. Two reasonable wind squalls later I had a sick wife. Lucky I have spare........ Helmsman Alex. Now Alex likes to sail fast. 8 knots fast? For us it is OK! So we sailed on our side through the squalls, then we had NO wind, so we motored. Then the BLOODY fan belt was slipping. Not enough tension! The whole boat smelt like a day at Drag racing. Fuel and burnt rubber. That really got my Poor Wife Green.
Bucket Green!

Well the anchorage at Antigua in English Harbor was fantastic. Calm, clean water, Beautiful 120 ft boats, Classics Boats, New Fast Plastic Boats, Wooden Boats varnished to Museum display grade, and some ordinary boats too. All too Beautiful and too comfortable ! So we moved up to Green Island. An eight mile move which took 4 hours and 18 miles of sailing. Beating against wind and current. Poor Wife....

The kite surfing is good :)
Chat soon
Rob

Snail is moving

Hey, here is an event worth noting
We moved, from Rodney Bay, St Lucia to Marin, Martinique (26 miles)
WOW!
Tomorrow perhaps up to le Saints.
Need to first get some wine and cheese here. Stock is dangerously low.
Weather is fantastic. Sea is like pond, wind is 12 kts ESE. Boat sails like a rocket......... well, ok, not quite.....
Have a great day
Rob

Hey, here are some pics for fun

Bequia

Hi,
Having left Grenada, where we had a great couple of weeks, and James had his birthday :) we sailed up to Carriacou,(2nights), then Union Island, which is our best for kite boarding. Alex has it, but James and I, well lets just say "not so good"
We anchor just behind Frigate Island, a small peninsula on the south side of Union which provides great protection, and creates lagoon like conditions. Here you can spend weeks, if you had provision enough, as there are no shops, but if you are prepared for a long dingy ride to Clifton, the main town, there is an assortment of shops with "tourist" prices.
Unfortunately (as we were having fun), we had to leave a bit prematurely. The weather was turning nasty. We managed a mid afternoon departure, a 6 hour (very wet and lumpy) beat up to Bequia, where we arrived at 21:00.
So right now we are anchored in Bequia, Port Elizabeth which is reasonable calm and there is plenty to do.
The weather looks like it will only let up in a week, so till then we do school, boat improvements, and maybe some diving.
Projects in hand include: Raise the cockpit floor, build shelves in the TV cupboard (yes we have TV), fix the bloody grey water pump again, fix the leaky garden tap on the stern which is making big ugly rust stains down the transom, and of course chip and paint some other rusty spots.
Or we could do all that stuff tomorrow, or the next day, as we have a fridge that works, and it has many beers which are not drinking themselves ;)
Present anchor position 13 00,00 N 61 14,86 W
Rob

Trinidad

Hi, while in Trinidad, we had a marvelous time!
Apart form meeting great people, we hauled "Margie" (The Teddy Bears Picnic) for new antifoul, hatch over the heads, a hard top roof, new through hull fittings and some other things that needed attention.
We are all now ready for the adventure to carry on. Too long in one spot.

Tanzi, Alex and Michael

"MINE   !!"...... "MINE !!"

Backing in to be hauled out. Reverse???? This is a boat it goes forward!

All good

All Rats are happy when messing around in boats.... what life is all about.

"MY KEEL."

Leaving Trinidad

Looking back at Chagauramas.

Alex , Birthday morning. He got woken by Girls with presents. ;)

Happy !

Building me a roof in Trinidad

Bending up a pipe for the edge

 

 

James always over the Moon when helping.

And ME, Always happy when building stuff

Roof Ready to go up

Roof up

Anchored in Grenada. What........

On Friday we should be starting our way up toward The Bahamas.
The plan is to stop off in Bequia, Martinique (for bread and wine), Le Saints, Antiguia, Barbuda, St Martin, BVI, Puerto Rico, then The Bahamas.

Hope all works out (especially the wine!)
Rob

We had a great time in the Big USA
Then 3 months ago we flew back to Trinidad. With plenty of work, and an estimated time to complete of one month.........Well 3 months later and we are on our way.

Here are some pics of the 3 weeks we were working on the boat in the Power boats Yard in Trinidad

Alex taking a well deserved break

All happy and full of smiles!

James on one of his errands

Ready to go back in
new antifoul, hard top roof, thru hull fittings.

We are now in Grenada, waiting for our friends from Norway, who are in Tobago till tomorrow

Bye bye Trinidad

Relaxed and ready for a night passage to Grenada

Water temp....mmmmm maybe my instrument is bust!

Hey, we are still here in USA !!

Hi Everybody,

I know I know, I know,  I am slack. Big sorry! Jammer meneer, Ek het geen goeie verskooning op die oomblik nie!

Ok so we had a great time down in Orlando. Universal Studio, and Sea World. Disney World will have to wait for the van’s to earn more cash.  We then took a drive across to Tampa, to a “Boat Show” of all things. My family was so excited to see more boats………….. boats ja right!

We managed to buy a car. The purchase was easy, but as a foreigner, to get insurance and a tag took more patience. It is a Chrysler Town and Country which has been great. The original plan was to buy a RV, but what we could find (all pretty buggered), or a scam. There are LOADS of SCAM sales, (they want you to deposit the cash then they will deliver it to you? They all have the same bull#&*t story.

“ I am Employed by the military, posted to a position in Afghanistan, or North Korea. So the vehicle is in storage in UTAH or somewhere and will be delivered within 3 days for your approval after receiving payment. YA RIGHT ! when exactly do you think I was born? Apparently, If you are not happy, then you will be refunded……… hahahahahahaaaaaaaa……..cough splutter…. sorry…!!!  Also the optimistic miles to the gallon advertised were a bit scary.  So we went the Car and Motel route instead.  

After leaving the Orlando area, we drove up north to Dan Coleman’s place in Madison. He lives on a small piece of Paradise. He his own small Pond. We have had a wonderful time hunting, fishing, cutting wood and building a shed. Dan has a sawmill and used to have trees.  When I say we built a shed, first we cut the trees, cut the logs into planks on his sawmill, built the trusses, planted the poles, and with the use of his OLD Excavator, erected the trusses. We only had to rebuild one truss, after the excavator tore it to pieces. Dan was most proud of himself for managing to not tear the whole thing down during construction, or maiming ME, although he did his best.

Dan took us up to Cecil, a town about 50 miles North of Valdosta,  to the Drag racing. Loads of Nitrous, BIG V8’s, Super wide tyres, and groovy chicks. We spent the day watching. Well for the drag racing here are some impressive numbers for those who like cars and going FAST !!!!!!!!!!!! very

200m run. 4.1 seconds, 205miles per hr ( that is for the kph people….ZERO to 328kph in 4 sec)

And to rub it in, this is done in street legal cars. Only in the USA

What also impressed me a whole bunch, was the lack of marshals bossing everybody around, and there being no need for them. But check how everybody crowds around on the start line. Not more than 2 feet from the race cars as the pull off. They even do their  Tyre Burn-out amongst the crowd. Check the photo of the start. Alex, right in the middle.

We are now further north. Up in South Carolina, just up from Charleston, Staying in Neal and Darlene Petersens house “Tapawingo”.  It is in a real Axe Murderers setting. It is stuck away in the forest of huge pine trees.  And  with Haloween in two weeks I suggest we get  gone. I am sure we have seen Zombies ……….Many in Walmart.

Neal is the South African who sailed in the Solo round the world race in 1999. He is now married to Darlene, and is a very successful keynote speaker and author of the book “Journey of a Hope Merchant”. We met up with them in Trinidad, while they were their on their sailing their Cat.

From here we will go up to Washington DC, visit the White House and the Smithsonian and then head down again to Dan’s Place through the Appalachian Mountains, where the leaves should be changing as Fall is here.

Chat soon

Rob

Under the trees at Dan's place, Next to his pond

James trying to hit anything moving

Fun with the Quad Bike

Dan's saw mill, where we cut all the wood for the shed. I need one

Captn. Dan

Checking out guns in Walmart.

And bows

Good advice !

Dan fishing with James on his pond early in the morning.

More guns in Ganda Mountain

Gerda at the football in Valdosta. Very serious business this football

The school band  WOW !

On our little visit to The Okeefinokee Swamp. We managed to get across the Ocean without wearing life jackets, but had to wear them when in 6 ft of water....We are being protected from ourselves.

Cypruss trees in the swamp

and more trees

and more, but still very pretty.

Yes there are loads of alligators!

And the engine quit, so we paddled. Note, out of sight , life jackets GONE. Better use as a seat

BIG Cyprus tree

Alligator, if your were not quite sure

Just had to check to construction of the canoes.

We had a day on Cherry Lake skiing. Her is Gerda showing she still has it. GO BABE!

James giving the learners bar a go

The poor Rattle Snake

Had a braai, Redneck style at Dan's place.

Alex and James collecting fire wood

Boss, ....worker

Me the farm boy

This is how you split wood. Even Alex and James were happy splitting a whole pile of Oak.

We let G practice her driving in Dan's bakkie...... very nervous!!

Gerda building a fire for marsh mallows.... Good Idea Love

At the Drag Event in Hahira. You can buy anything. Engine blocks, Cylinder heads, nitrous systems, turbos....

Amaizing

Exhausts

James recons we should buy this. ME to

Alex, Dan and G at te races

James

Very nice 1965 Mustang.Thought of you Glen. Sweet condition. Only got to 177 miles per hour in the 1/8 mile

James checking out the price tag on this V8

How's that for a set of wheel nuts

There were some real dragsters too

And some quite Awesome rides

Crowds at the start

Woooooosh!!

Alex in the middle

cutting more wood

Dan building trusses

Built 15 for the roof

Then we planted poles

Me

Dan

Farmer Rob

At the Honey Bee Festival in Hahira

Viper

Me and Dan

And Family

Shed coming along

Lifting the trusses Redneck style

Alex supervising

Yay ...... a     Shed

On the way to Savanah

Lighthouse on Tybee Island

Ft Pulaski just south of Savanah. Full of holes.

Honey shop in Savanah

In McClennanville, Shrimp boats

Family

George town

Neal and Darlene's house Tapawingo

Right in amongst the trees.

Our famous car......................