adrenaline
04 March 2017 | Jolly Harbor, Antiqua
Greg Windy
Hello, I'm back after a little hiatus. There are times in life when you just do not have the inspiration and creativity to write so you take a little break. After my whirlwind tour of travel, helping get a new dog for a friend and fantastic skiing, while back in Colorado, maybe coming back to the boat was a little mundane and slow motion.
I arrived with my new crew in tow and promptly went shopping and got ready for a hasty departure. We had a small weather window before some nasty winds were to arrive so we wisely decided to take advantage the nice weather we had and get moving. We were rewarded with a beautiful sail to Les Saints, then one to Pigeon Island where we took advantage of snorkeling and diving. This was followed by a quick motor to DesHaies, and then a wonderful eight hour sail to Antiqua.
Once we got to Antiqua, the wind and weather starting making a change for the worse and we just hunkered down in Jolly Harbor marina.
What do you do when you get stuck in a harbor and sailing is not on the horizon for a few days? You just have to find new ways to play.
A very close friend had given me a card that I opened up and it read "Hope you're having as much fun as you can have today. And if you aren't, then go with a new plan. Certainly, you, the big kid, can scheme up some more shenanigans and rope in a few hooligans." This being said I took her advise and found an adrenaline filled atv buggy ride.
I think our definition of adrenaline rush is a little different from theirs. It started with the tour guides mother picking us up in the parking lot. "I just spent a lot of time in Atlanta and this driving on the left is very confusing," she stated as she is driving on the right side of the road." I calmly suggest that maybe she should move over to the the left side to avoid oncoming traffic.
When we arrive the tired looking buggies are being worked on by her son. "He can fix anything," She proudly says.
"Ok" I think to myself as she walks in to get the credit card machine so we can pay. It does not seem to be working, can you pay in cash? "Sure" we say as we peel off the cash. Soon they have given up on one of our bogies and push a forth one out to try and get running. There are no starter switches on any of the buggies and only one even has a battery. Interesting but soon we have four machines running and off we go. Our "Tour was suppose to start at 10:00 and it is now closer to 10:45. We make it to the first off road turn leaving the highway and one of the buggies decides not to work anymore. After a few minutes it is determined as hopeless and leave it along side the road. The guides let us drive and just jumps in next to us. We hit the first on what we thought would be many mud puddles and the lead buggy roars ahead while the second buggy stops dead. I am in the third and my is running just fine. About one block ahead of us the lead buggy decides to quite working also. We end of pushing the buggy number 2 though the mud puddle to get close enough to defund busy one to use the battery to start two. 45 minutes later we have all three buggies running again. "Now I can see why we had to pay in advance." says one of my team. Buggy number one stops overtime to let up on the gas and has to be hot wired to get running, buggy number two now has no throttle cable so it is either fast or not moving and I just get to sit in the only one running and watch the antics. Buggy number two gets to drive in lots of circles while waiting for us to catch up since he can't stop. If that is not interesting enough, buggy one now looses it ability to steer. The toothed clamps no longer had any teeth to hold the steering wheel in place. No problem we will just find a nail in the dirt and stick it there to hold it together.
The adrenaline rush was "are these machines going to keep running." Not the thrill of sailing around curves, over cow trails, back trails and swampy areas that we had expected. Our two hour tour quickly turned into four hours and we were very surprised and relieved that we actually make it back to where we started.
My crew is now headed to the airport and I will spend a week getting recharged and the boat cleaned and organized before my family arrives.