Antigua/Barbuda

Morpheus spent the remainder of November 2023 in Antigua/Barbuda.

Debbie arrived on the 10th, and both Bob and Doug were able to spend a week “enjoying” Antigua before flying home on the 16th. Unfortunately, a good deal of their vacation time was taken over by helping me address some onboard issues.

There were several urgent matters to deal with…

• My wind instruments at the top of the mast were not registering in light air. (Needed to change the bearings. Deb delivered new ones!)
  
• My engine starter locked up and we couldn’t start the engine. The bearings were frozen. Lucky for me (and the food in the fridge) we were referred to a fantastic shop that repaired the starter in less than 24 hours for $70. Try getting that done at home!
  
• My dinghy engine finally died. Well, it died to the point where I was no longer interested in repair options. We have a long trip ahead of us to the canal and then North to Mexico. (Antigua is one of the few places left where you can buy a two stroke dinghy engine. The local Yamaha dealer cut me a very good Duty/Tax free deal, and we donated the old engine to the Antigua Yacht Club Junior Program.)
  
• I had to decide what to do about my instruments. Losing our Autopilot for 2 days on the way South was not something I wanted to experience again.
  I decided to bite the bullet and do the upgrade that I’ve been putting off for years. 20+ rock solid years from my existing instruments was a pretty good run, but I’ve decided to finish the upgrade I started in Newport. New mast displays, instrument system CPU, and autopilot are on the way!!

Anyway, a few days at the Catamaran Marina working on the boat, and a few days touring the island via rental car enabled everyone to have some fun while we also got some work done.

Barbuda

A couple days after the boys headed home, Deb and I decided to take one more trip to Barbuda. I’m glad we did as it is still a beautiful destination despite the active development. The winds were light, so no opportunities for kiteboarding. But, it was an excellent decompression stop and we were able to visit with our friend Enoch at his beach bar which remains as it was.

I’ll insert some photos below, without going on and on about how depressing this development is. Check these photos out and then do a search on this blog for Barbuda to see what it used to look like. Even better do a Google search on Coco Point Barbuda development” to read more info proving that in the end, money and people with it win. Very sad….

Green Island

After a couple of days on Barbuda, we headed back to Green Island, Antigua with hopes for increased winds and a chance to do some great kite surfing at this wonderful spot.

Once again, we were shut out when it came to wind, but enjoyed the swimming, snorkeling, and letting Travis (our dog) run wild on the beach.

Falmouth Harbor

From Green Island, it was back to Falmouth Harbor for some pre-departure provisioning and last visits to some of our favorite spots.

The harbor which had been relatively empty when we left had been transformed by the arrival of 15-20 superyachts. Actually, 4-5 of them were super superyachts. Antigua runs a broker’s boat show this time of year and these boats were showing up and cleaning up at the docks for that show. If you are interested in spending up to $100,000/week and probably more to charter one of these monsters, that’s the boat show for you!!

Falmouth Harbor Cruisers – Happy Hour

For the rest of us non-super yacht owners…