Back Aboard

Let's see, today is Tuesday, we arrived Saturday afternoon. Django is in pretty good shape, although some of her components are showing their age. The anchor chain is due for replacement, and I have found the right size in Jolly Harbour. How to get it aboard is the next exercise. The Nissan outboard is overdue for a proper service, and we have left it over at the fuel dock to be picked up by Greg, the outboard man. Of course, Greg is in Grenada for a while, so K and I paddle Boffo backwards, like a canoe, around English Harbour. We are anchored in tight in the preferred spot close to the dinghy dock at Nelson's Dockyard. Many of the semi-permanent residents have their spots here. We are lucky to find one close to shore. The holding is solid in mud, so no fear of dragging ashore in the night. This spot is all the better for being close up to a high hill in the west, behind which the blazing sun settles at about 4:00 pm, giving us two hours of shade before sundown.

Django's head is acting up. The joker valve is having its little joke, allowing the sea to come in. It dribbles over the top of the head and out through the shower sump, whence over the side through the shower pump. It is an annoyance which must be fixed, involving dismantling of the head. I do not like this job much at all.

It has taken a few days to acclimate to the heat again. Sunday, tied inshore by the mangroves, was brutal, 38 degrees C. Once we escaped to the anchorage things improved. I have drunk vast amounts of water to replace the buckets of sweat.

Terry has been a great help in all things, and has invited us, as his guests, to attend meetings of The Royal Navy Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda, which meets every evening at 5:45 pm to read from the "This Day in Naval History", receive announcements concerning members, and to drink the toast of the day including a toast to "Her Majesty, God Bless Her". A tot is 2.5 gills of neat rum, followed by a glass of cold water to douse the fire. The club has over 500 members from all parts of the world, although the two meetings we have attended have had five to ten members present. A number of the members are also keen fans of Patrick O'Brien, of Aubrey - Maturin fame. We have enjoyed meeting new friends.

Enn and Dana arrive Nov. 5. There's more to tell, but I will let you all savour this morsel and provide the rest later.

Preparations

Oct. 24, next Saturday, is the day K and I head back to Antigua and Django in English Harbour. Terry has looked in on her regularly, kept me abreast of the storms passing by and how Django has been doing resting in the weeds. K has sold her house and floated free from the grind of working to pay off the expenses. A bit mauled by the stock market, I have reduced my dependence on buy and hold dividend income and taken a more proactive stance in the markets to bring in the wherewithal. My little Acer will do double duty over the wifi links. You may be burdened with ideas on what seems a good thing from time to time and I would warn you not to take these to heart.

The first order of business is haulout, and do up the bottom. I am ordering new two blade folding props to replace the kiwiprop feathering props we have now. They are to much for Django's Volvo Penta D1-20 engines, and tend to stall in reverse; often embarrassing coming into a dock. So biting the bullet and shelling out for the new blades.

K is a great singing cook and loves to entertain guests aboard Django. Dana and Enn, her journalism mentor, will come down for a stay soon after we have completed the maintenance rituals. Not final where we will go, but Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis are high on the list of likely stops. English Harbour will be our base of operations this season.

The weather here is clear and cold, the sun too dim for sufficient vitamin D production. Take those supplements, you who must remain behind. I am looking forward to swimming and boating and soaking in the heat, not to mention the rum.