Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Been downloading some music.  Came accross this one.  Helen’s probably already fed up with it but I love it.  Makes me really reeeelaaaaax.

[singsong-insert:http://www.aboarddignity.com/blog/files/02_Summertime.mp3]

St Brendan’s Isle is a wonderful thing. They’re basically our mail service. They provide us a unique Florida address where all our mail goes. On arrival the envelopes are scanned and we can view them online. For each envelope we can ask to have it shredded, opened and scanned and/or put aside to be mailed to us at a later date.

Today our batch of mail arrived in English Harbour a day or two earlier than we expected. This means we are essentially free to go to Guadeloupe. We want to watch Obama’s inauguration tomorrow so it may be Wed we leave. A bar called the “Mad Mongoose” is having a Happy Hour all day tomorrow and will be showing the whole thing on their big screen TV. We’ll probably go there.

Ideally we’ll be heading to Port Louis. The predicted winds would be ok for this if it weren’t for the currents between the islands. We may end up in Deshaies instead – or we may motor a bit which I’m not fond of. I don’t really want to give up the easting we made yesterday.

This morning we shifted the boat into the bay a little as Helen likes a minimal swell and the beach was a bit noisy. We’re now also a bit closer to things. We went for a walk ashore and found a path between English Harbour and Falmouth which had some spectacular views. Enjoy the pics.

This morning we woke to an empty boat. Nobody joined us for breakfast. When we were in the guest hull for our chores (changing watermaker filters, etc.) no one was there. Life goes on. We get over the sadness by looking forward rather than looking back so that’s enough of the maudlin.

We decided to go ashore one more time this morning at Jolly Harbour. I’d left (or I least I think I may have left) my USB stick in the internet café where I printed an itinerary to get the kids checked off the boat. We also took the opportunity for one last decent shower and food shopping. I had my heart set on some hobnobs but they’d sold out so I splashed out on some chocolate digestives instead.

We had the boat prepped and ready to leave by 11am. Winds were well above forecast but made for some fun sailing. We changed our minds (it seems to happen a lot) and went straight to Falmouth Harbour where we are now anchored of Pigeon Bay. This required a bit of easting into the current too so it was a longish sail. Along the way we had a bit of excitement when Helen spotted a boat a little ahead of us had lost their dinghy. We didn’t have much time to react. I tried a maneuver to bring us along side without dousing the sails. Seeing Helen running around I quickly decided I didn’t want this turning into a (wo)man overboard situation so I abandoned the attempt. Had it been a person there would have been no question of a rescue but not for a dinghy at such short notice and only the two of us aboard. Plan B was to note the position and time radio the boat that had lost the dinghy. The first responder was the Antigua search and rescue to whom I gave the coords and time. Later I was able to hail the mothership who had discovered their loss and were heading back. I gave them the time and coords too so they could project the position from point/time and drift.

We’ll be here for the next few days. Principally we’re waiting for our mail. Tuesday has been declare a public holiday here to let folks watch Obama’s inauguration on TV (footnote: this was incorrect). We’ll find a public place (a bar probably) and join them and enjoy the spirit of the occasion.

So here we are in Falmouth Bay. It is full of gorgeous mega-yachts. Will have to take a few pics for you all.

We’ve said goodbye to the kids.  It hurt.

This morning we woke up to incredibly stuffy humidity following the rains.  The sun came out and baked us making everything sweaty and uncomfortable.  Through this we waded through our last morning together.  Packing, cleaning, the occasional conversation.  Parting this time is harder than the last.  Before we knew we were meeting up at Xmas.  Now we have no idea when or where next.  The pain of separation is not pleasant.  Again, you find love is most greatly expressed alongside loss.

Around 1pm the kids piled into a taxi with all their gear.  They left and we all waved goodbye.  It’s now 3pm and we’ve moved the boat out of the marina back into the anchorage outside for the night.  I keep feeling like one of the kids will climb up the steps after a midday sleep.  I know they won’t but I’m sure I’ll be looking round for a while.

Plans for Guadeloupe will need to be adapted as I learned today that we won’t be able to fit Dignity through the bridges between the two halves of the island.  This means our first port of call will be Port Louis.  My guess is we’ll be there on Wednesday give or take a day.  Tomorrow we plan to overnight in Carlisle Bay on the south side and head into Falmouth Bay the following day.  We’ll stay there until our mail arrives then we’ll be off.

We decided to go into the marina for our last day.  It meant everyone was able to come and go as they please which made for a pleasant day/evening.  The rain did go away.  We had a number of downpours throughout the day but the evening the skies were clear.  Beautiful.

It also meant I could hook up to shore power and give all the batteries a good recharge.  In particular I went back to equalizing the house bank, an excercise concluded way back when in St Maarten.  This time, in one day, I was able to achieve an acid concentration better than I obtained after many tedious days on the hook.

Our time together is now just a few hours.  Not too much more to do now.  We need to clear everyone off the boat here in Jolly Harbour, some last minute packing and no doubt some cleaning up.

Yesterday we met our marina neighbour Bob who is a 5 year cruiser.  He said this morning he’d let us know a cool place to visit around the island.  It’ll be interesting to see what he has to say and to see if it’s worth adjusting our plans for the next few days.