The other morning I was working on our continual refinishing of our exterior wood. Since I had gotten an early start to take advantage of the cooler temperatures I had the opportunity to witness the harbor waking up. Of course it wouldn't be a Caribbean island without the prerequisite occasional rooster crowing inter spliced with dogs barking. You know when the cruisers have decided to venture out when you start to hear the various whiny pitches of outboard driven dinghies moving about the harbor. Once the sun gets high enough the wind generator begins its whirring as the wind flexes its muscles after relaxing overnight, All of a sudden I think I'm at a Formula One or Indy Car race because emanating from the of the shore I here the characteristic high pitched whine of a small engine repeatedly being revved to high rpm before shifting to the next gear. Sounds like someone on the island has racing aspirations. As the businesses start their day we have the sound of diesel engines, probably trucks making deliveries in town.. Now that the wind has increased a bit the dinghy tied along side a neighboring boat begins making a slap, slap, slap sound, like hands clapping, as it bounces over the wavelets in the harbor. Now there is a familiar and welcome sound, that is Pam telling me that breakfast is ready, gotta go.

Back in 2001 when we last cruised these water there were very few single handed sailors cruising here. The ones that we ran across at that time were all single guys on small boats. This time we have observed a stark difference in the single handed sailors that we have seen thus far. There are more of them and their boats are bigger. I would say back in 2001 the average size of a single handed sailor's boat was around 35 feet. The ones that we have seen thus far are averaging well about 44 feet. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues as we move down island this year.

Yesterday was my birthday so we basically took the day off from doing projects. We decided to take the advice of a lady that we met at a cocktail party last Sunday. She has lived on Antigua for over forty years. She suggested that we hike up to Ft. Cuyler which guarded the east side of Falmouth Harbor's entrance. Additionally, she said that Ft. Cuyler was a great place from which to the starts of the Classic Regatta. So on my birthday we hiked the trail from Pigeon Beach up to the fort. The trail is called The Middle Ground Trail and a sign at the begiining near Pigeon beach says that it's maintained by the Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua. If you are really adventurous you can hike this trail all the way to Ft. Berkley on the west side of English harbor's entrance It was somewhat of a tough climb as the trail had its share of loose ground but what a view! It was well worth the climb and we now understand why it will be a great place to view the starts of the Classic Regatta off of Falmouth Harbor - awesome view. When we purchased our current inflatable dinghy we decided to go with a aluminum RIB (Rigid-bottomed Inflatable Boat) because it had a more pronounced up turn to its bow than its fiberglass counterparts. We figured this bow configuration would translate into dryer dinghy rides. So imagine my remorse when in daily trips to and from shore, here in Falmouth Harbor, we were getting wetter than I remembered we did in our old dinghy. We were getting wet no matter what speed I chose to run the boat, putting along or up on a plain. The only difference between the different speeds was that when we went faster we get wet faster. All the while I envied the other dinghies that I saw plying the waters of the harbor seemingly as dry as a bone. What was I doing wrong? Then one day, during a return trip from shore, I noticed that the dinghy's bow seemed to be heavy. At first I thought is was all the stuff that we had in the bow but later on I felt we were still down in the bow even with just the two of us in the boat. Now some people would suggest that we should lose weight, but that wasn't the problem. One day, my little voice told me to try adjusting the outboard's tilt. I moved it one notch and what a difference! The bow is mow up and we're flying around the harbor like everyone else.