Log of Sea Wings

25 March 2009

On Mooring

Charlestown, Nevis WI

Lat 16 18.4822 N

Long 61 47.9213 W

Back On The Road Again

We are finally back on the boat after a three month hiatus in the States and Canada. From late August until early December we visited three sets of parents in Pennsylvania and Florida; spent a week with great cruising friends at their lovely home in Kingston, Ontario; our daughter Blair and her husband Ashley in Atlanta; our son Keith and his wife Shannon in Jacksonville; and finally Lew’s brother and his partner in Ft Lauderdale before flying back to Antigua where we splashed the boat on December 11.

We found everything in good order and our topsides polished and bottom coated with the ‘good stuff’ that you can’t buy in the States. The new bottom should save on scuba tank fills as I hope to spend less time cleaning the bottom. The downside to the new bottom is that our two dolphins, Portia and Sirocco, which were painted on the bottom could not be repainted as the darker bottom color did not leave enough contrast to be able to see them. They have sailed with us since we left Jacksonville in June of 2007 and we have had safe passages and generally good weather. Hopefully, we can do as well without them looking after us as we sail further south into the Caribbean.

After a week in a marina to put the boat back together (you completely strip the outside of the boat to reduce windage when it is stored for the storm season) we headed south to Falmouth Harbour, Antigua to spend Christmas and New Year and wait for mail to catch up with us. We quickly became good friends with Paul and Helen on Helen Mary Gee, a British couple who have crossed the Atlantic several times to cruise the Caribbean……..to get here we can sail down the island chain from the States with only a handful of overnight passages, they have to sail across the Atlantic to get here. We spent many hours enjoying their wit and charm before they moved on to St Martin. We hope to see them again in Antigua in March before they set out across the big pond for home and to accept their offer to join them on Helen Mary Gee for some cruising in the Med.

We celebrated Christmas and Old Year’s Night (New Year’s Eve) with Paul and Helen and had a wonderful time. The atmosphere is special with hundreds of revelers packed into the tight quarters of Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour, all in shorts, watching the fireworks show almost directly overhead. We traveled the island together looking for boat parts and groceries. Paul helped us sort (another) alternator issue and Helen got our Pactor modem up and running. Finally!! Now we can transmit and receive email from the boat anywhere in the world. We were sad to see Helen Mary Gee’s transom disappear as they sailed away but we looked forward to seeing them again soon or later in the Med.

One interesting thing happened to us while anchored in Falmouth Harbour. The island of Montserrat lies about 35 miles west over open water from Falmouth. The volcano there erupted in 1997, burying the entire town of Portsmouth and causing the (permanent) evacuation of half the population. The volcano continues to occasionally erupt, spewing ash as high as 10,000 ft. During our stay it spewed for about a week with the ash cloud drifting on the NE trades some days actually showing up as clouds on the satellite images of the Caribbean. One afternoon we were below reading with the wind blowing near 20 kts from the east when we began to sense dust in the air. Closer examination revealed that a very fine, gritty dust had quietly come in all the hatches and covered the entire interior of the boat. Surely this must be trash burning on shore or something else but certainly could not be from Montserrat, 35 miles downwind of 20 kt trades. Yup, it sure was and we got two days of it. The ash cloud had risen high enough that it caught a west wind and took enough of the ash east of Antigua that as it fell and caught the east surface air it coated the entire town and anchorage at Falmouth, 35 miles upwind of the volcano. Wild.

One of the best things about cruising is that while you are sad to see good friends sail away, new ones await around the corner. Among those were Dudley and Becca from Miami with whom we enjoyed our last days in Antigua as our mail arrived and a weather window opened and we headed to Nevis to rendezvous with Bob and Lynn on Leap of Faith whom we had not seen since the Annapolis Boat Show in August 07.

We sailed for Nevis on Inauguration Day and, after clearing in with Customs and Immigration, headed for a local waterfront bar. The bar was crowded with local Nevisians who were glued to the TV coverage of the inauguration events in the US. They had on their Obama buttons and hats and tee shirts and were whooping and cheering all day. And around town, just as in Antigua, we saw bumper stickers and billboards and tees all showing support for the new President. Wait a minute, he is our president, not theirs (they call our guy “President For America”). That afternoon in the bar brought into focus many things that we have been seeing since our return to the islands and sheds a lot of light on how others see our country and the impact we have on the rest of the world.

Americans as a whole don’t get to see much of their own country, much less any other part of the world (less than 35% hold passports) and we seem to stick our heads in the sand a lot and don’t really know, or care, how we effect other countries. We see ourselves as ‘Number One’ in everything even though we are no longer number one in most things. We have all the answers, know more than anyone else about everything and feel that they should bend to our will and are shocked when they sometimes don’t….remember Freedom Fries?

While rest of the world is global, Americans still see it as us and them. It is no wonder that respect for our country has waned and on more and more issues the rest of the world simply moves forward without us. The simple fact is that our country has less and less impact on the daily lives of the rest of the world (notable exceptions being, of course, Iraq and Afghanistan). But we were still number one in one important thing……all things financial. And in the fall of last year we showed just how much we can still effect the rest of the world when our economy came crashing down.

OK, what does all this soap box stuff have to do with the Caribbean? When our economy tanked we thought that, once again, only bad this time, it was all about us. But it was not just about us and our failures brought much of the rest of the world to it’s knees as well. And it is felt all the way to the Caribbean where it has had a major effect on the lives of most who live here.

In the past, the economy of the islands was based on agriculture and trade but today tourism runs the islands. Hotels, resorts, cruise ship terminals, restaurants, bars and now mega yacht terminals in many islands drive the economy. Many, if not most tourists come from the US, but other countries, primarily Europe, contribute equally with us. When our economy craps we hunker down and cut expenses where we can. We cancel that trip to the islands, or spend less if we do go. And as our fall has been the fall of others, they aren’t coming to the islands either. So who is it hurting here? The store, hotel and restaurant owners for sure, but also the boutique employee, taxi driver, wait staff, service staff, tour operator, boat captains, kayak operator, car rentals, provisioning companies, real estate companies, caddies, cooks, chefs, clerks, bus boys, bus drivers, the list goes on and on.

During our stay in Antigua the Sandals resort let 170 workers go and many seasonal businesses have not reopened. Mega yachts for charter based in Antigua usually come and go as their charters begin and end……..they are sitting unused in Falmouth Harbour. Tour operators are living on pre bookings (booked before the crisis) and don’t know what will happen when they run out. In Falmouth alone there are over 25 stewardesses normally employed all season on mega yachts who are sitting idle on shore on 24 hour notice. Tour boats sit at the dock, cruise ship passengers shop but don’t buy. Even the number of cruisers is way down from normal years and this is supposed to be the height of the season. And we see fewer bare boat charters plying the waters.

That afternoon in a waterfront bar we realized that these islanders, so far from American shores, were cheering our president for two reasons. Certainly because he is black and his rise to become the leader of the free world demonstrated that anyone of color can become anything they want and this was being celebrated that day. But more so they, like us, were cheering the fact that change had come at last and that their futures, like ours, depend on the ability of this young President For America to dig us out of this mess we are in.

We spent an enjoyable several days with Bob and Lynn taking in the island we were seeing for the first time. We toured the island by taxi and were amazed at how green and lush it was after being in the more arid islands to the north. Our travels had taken us more east than south from the states and now the islands were changing with the drop in latitude. The high peaks are rarely out of the clouds and it brings moisture that, combined with the rich volcanic soil, greens the whole island. As it was ripe for sugar cane, many plantations were built on the island and they are a major attraction, now as hotels or restaurants or historic sites. We visited several of these as well as their botanical gardens on our leisurely trek around the island.

The main town on the island is Charlestown, a lovely little village a short walk or dinghy ride from the tourist/cruiser oriented Phinney Beach and the Four Seasons Resort. Both the beach and resort had received significant damage from Hurricane Omar last fall and the resort had not yet been repaired enough to reopen. Other than that damage it was a beautiful and well kept island with good roads, houses showing pride of ownership, and a relative sense of prosperity.

One surprise for us was the number of resident Americans we encountered on the island. It turns out that Nevis has a well kept secret. It has become a mecca of sorts for a number of retiring Americans. It’s natural beauty, low crime rate, low cost of living and pleasant nature of the Nevisians has attracted a growing number of retirees. Not so much to condos, or very high end enclaves, but more modest individual homes mixed into the local population. A short ferry ride to St Kitts provides access to international air travel making getting to and from the island very easy. It is quite a nice mix with the ex pats blending into the local population.

Out plans are to head next to St Kitts (St Christopher) then to Statia (St Eustatius), Saba, and St Maarten to meet friends and sail the Heineken Regatta.

Fair winds,

Lew and Lyn

s/v Sea Wings