We love having friends visit us on Scappatella, but the planning and scheduling of it all can be a bit challenging for both us and our friends. Due to weather, the inevitable mechanical issues, and a desire to remain spontaneous and "unscheduled", it's impossible for us to know exactly where we're going to be at any given time. All we can do is give it our best guess and ask that friends who want to visit are a bit flexible and spontaneous with their travel plans. But, if it's a bit complicated meeting up with us, just imagine what it's like for the friend who wants to visit us AND another cruiser during the same timeframe. Such was the case with our adventurous and fun-loving friend Jen Fuller.
When we started planning her visit back in November, Jen was trying to coordinate a visit with both Scappatella and with friends on another boat - Pilrgim - who at the time were in Rhode Island. While we're emailing Jen from Curacao, deep in the Southern Caribbean, Pilgrim is in a boatyard some 2,000+ miles north of us! Both of us were still in the yard at this point, and both of us had "plans" to be in Antigua at some point. Jen's idea was to meet up with one or the other of us, and then hopefully sail and/or fly between islands and catch up with the other boat. All in the space of 10 days.
Many emails go back and forth as Jen tries to get a handle on all of our various plans and learn the general lay of the land...where she could fly into, out of, and what islands we might possibly be in January. Of course, both boats are delayed. Pilgrim is dealing with ongoing mechanical issues (yup, every boat has them) while our earlier weather delays result in us getting to Antigua a few weeks later than planned. At some point she throws caution to the wind and books a flight to Antigua, figuring it will all work out...somehow.
So here we sit having drinks at the Mad Mongoose in Falmouth Harbor, waiting for Jen's taxi to drive up. And there sits Pilgrim, in the boatyard just a stone's throw away! Now, what are the odds of that? Isn't it interesting what happens when you just let nature - and boats - take their course!
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Well, wouldn't you know it: we finally have some time to kiteboard but the Weather Gods are still toying with us. Light winds are forecasted, and we need at least 15 knots to get a decent ride. So it's back to Falmouth Harbour for us, where we can get caught up on boat chores and such as we await the arrival of our next guest. The winds are exceptionally light today - 8 knots and falling - but we enjoy a gentle upwind sail along the western coast of Antigua. We see a small shoal area marked on our consistently inaccurate charts, so I'm on deck, scanning the waters ahead. I see a light brown mass in the distance and yell back to Louis, "I think I see it...just off to starboard". I keep watching for the rest of the reef system to appear when I realize that's not the reef - it's a BIG ASS turtle! We've seen lots of turtles in our time on Scappatella, but this thing is HUGE! And there's more: we've apparently found the motherlode of turtles, as we sail along and see turtle heads poking up all over the place! After being mesmerized for quite some time, I grab my camera and sit up on the bow pulpit, hoping to get a shot of one up close. Sure enough, a turtle surfaces directly ahead of us. Poor thing - it pops its little head up just in time to see this big ol' boat barreling down on it! It dives down, just under the bow, as I furiously click away while it descends to the sea below. Maybe you can just make out the little-big guy in the photo above? We continue to sail along in the thick turtle soup for some time...a perfect end to our "circumnavigation" of the beautiful island of Antigua.
Disclaimer: no turtles were exploited, hurt, run-over or otherwise abused during the author's sail.
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Eric and Moira's departure has apparently disturbed the Weather Gods. Immediately after they left the winds picked up and squalls began to blow through our previously tranquil anchorage. Within 24 hours the skies have darkened until all that is visible is a solid mass of grey. Rain pummels the decks while 20 - 30 knot winds churn up the bay, creating 1' seas in an anchorage that just hours ago we'd nicknamed "The Bathtub".
It's New Year's Eve and Louis and I are hunkered down inside Scappatella. Outside the wind continues to howl and waves slap noisily against the hull of the boat. But inside is a different story: as soon as we descend the companionway stairs and enter the "salon" all is quiet and cozy. The transformation is amazing.
We're having pizza for dinner, watching an incredibly bad movie: "Ask the Dust" with Colin Farrell and Salma Hayeck. Have you seen it? It's like watching a porn flick with no plot. Not even Colin's brooding good looks and tight pecs can keep me awake. Salma apparently does a better job of keeping Louis' interest as all of a sudden he jumps up, checks the clock, and cries out "Sweetie, let's go...it's one minute 'til midnight!". We scramble up into the cockpit, grab our rain jackets and leap into the dinghy with a flashlight and a bunch of old, expired emergency flares. We have big plans to light them off in celebration of the new year! Fortunately, the rain has ceased but the wind is still rippin'; it's up to 30 knots and the seas swirl around us. I try to hold the dinghy tight to the boat as Louis starts the engine. It heaves and bucks as I remark, "This probably isn't the smartest thing we've ever done..." Nonetheless, we head away from Scappatella in the near gale-force winds.
All of a sudden an explosion of fireworks erupts around us! It seems several resorts and local towns each have their own fireworks display, and we have a front row seat. "Happy New Year" we yell to each other, attempting a kiss, but the motion of the dinghy makes it more of a primitive face-mashing. Louis opens our canister and lights one of the expired flares. We hold our breaths in anticipation, but...nothing. Flare number 2 is lit...nadda. Flare number 3 is another dud. Good thing our life doesn't depend upon this! Flare number 4 is a parachute flare. Louis pulls the pin on it, shoots it into the air, and a loud explosion of light shoots up into the night. I scream as it goes off, and we watch the red ball light up the sky as it arcs up, up, up about 100 feet high and then slowly begins to descend toward the water. We're shouting with laughter and yelling "Happy New Year", doing some more face-mashing. "Wow, that was AMAZING"! I exclaim to Louis. He's laughing and with a gleam in his eye says, "That was TOO cool...we've gotta do another one!." So he shoots up a 2nd - again I scream - and we're in awe of the giant arc of light we've set off up into the sky! Laughter continues to erupt from our little dinghy as we head back to Scappatella, exhilarated and content. We fall asleep and wake to the sun shining on us, greeting the first day of the new year!
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For our wedding, we asked all who attended to leave a message of some sort for us in a giant tequila bottle, courtesy of Dave Martinez and "emptied" at Louis' bachelor party. We took our note-filled bottle with us on our 1st journey aboard Scappatella and opened our messages along the way, connecting us to our friends and family back home and to the incredible celebration we all shared. Now our Scappatella guests are leaving messages for that same bottle, which we'll seal at the end of our journey and toss into the sea at a meaningful moment and place. Who knows where - or if - our bottle will surface again?
Here's our first "message"...courtesy of Moira!
To you who find this bottle,
The second decade of the new century is dawning! We have spent the last eight days with Louis and Janet, the dashing crew of the Scappatella. We have sailed from Falmouth to Willoughby to Green Island to Rabbit. We are now rocking on a gentle sea. We have snorkeled and swum with the beaugregory and sergeant major. We have seen the leaping rays, the turtles' floating disc, the ecstatic slap of the ballyhoo. Stories, laughter, wine, full bellies. We are happy. We are blessed. The moon is singing, and the wind blows her silver notes into the sea.
-Moira Magneson
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All too soon it was time for "E" and "M" to leave. Our last night together was spent at the cozy little anchorage between Rabbit and Redhead islands. Turns out there's more than one poet in the Magneson household...check out Eric's portrayal of their time aboard Scappatella:
Stardate: 12/30/09
It's blue on blue on blue
under a young damselfish sky,
Moonbright above, dangling its
toes in lulling sea.
Sigh and clap of wave on
reef and shore
There is turtle talk and Ballyhoo,
wine and laughter, guitar and song.
Frigate and tropic bird aloft and
full sails and creaking sheets.
There is expanse of horizon and
wondrous creatures below.
There are feasts and swirl and
weave of sea grass and conversation
into the night.
Reach of moon,
Reach of friendship over sea
they arc and pulse together.
- Eric Magneson
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On to North Sound and the exploration of its multitude of little islands, beaches, and bays. We see turtles poking their little heads up, rays slithering along the ocean floor, ballyhoo skipping ecstatically across the surface of the water, and conch slowly slithering across the sandy bottom. We also watch as Moira's skin begins to morph from a beautiful healthy "sun-glow" into a glistening-red tribute to Rudolph. Despite diligent;y slathering on sunscreen, her skin continues to burn in the scorching Caribbean sun. Eric, too, is reddening a bit beyond comfort until one morning he pokes his head up into the cockpit and asks Moira about their "sunscreen": "Do you know what kind of sunscreen this is...I don't see any SPF rating on it?" Moira looks closely at the tube of Alba Organics. "Oh my God, this isn't sunscreen.....it's body wash! We've been lathering our skin with SOAP!" Apparently she had purchased the tube of body wash which looked almost identical to a previous tube of Alba sunscreen she'd used and liked. So the two of them had unknowingly been out in the blazing hot Caribbean sun with no protection, and had been irritating the heck out of their skin with repeated applications of soap! The good news is that within hours their skin was back to a healthy glow as they rinsed off the glistening layer of soap and allowed their skin to breathe. Amazingly neither were seriously burned and we all had a good laugh that over lime-in-da-coconuts that evening!
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The arrival of Eric and Moira marks the beginning of a 10-day long dream vacation for all four of us! For them, coming to Scappatella is a welcome respite from the stress of everyday life and an immersion into a whole new world. For us it also a vacation, as we set aside our project lists for the first time this season to play, rest, laugh and thoroughly enjoy their visit. For all, it ends up being an incredible time as we immerse ourselves into the world of the sea and show Eric & Moira the "cruising life".
Their trip begins with a demonstration of the hospitality of the Antiguan people as a number of locals assist our effort to track down Eric and Moira's missing luggage. The airlines are difficult to reach and don't have much concrete information, so the people in Falmouth Harbor step up and soon it seems the entire community is trying to help! In the end, a local guy sitting at the bar overhears their plight and contacts a friend who works at the airport. He eventually locates their luggage and has it sent to a nearby marina, in care of another incredibly helpful local guy who watches over it - a very positive end...and beginning!
Finally we set sail for our first destination, Willoughby Bay, a short three miles away as the crow flies. It's upwind (of course) so we tack out and back and finally we arrive a mere four hours later. The next day it's Christmas Eve and on to Green Island, a short 3-hour sail during which Louis and I cemented Eric and Moira's trust and respect as we tag-team vomited over the side...sorry guys! They were impressed with our civility during the whole affair, however. "Excuse me, Janet, it's my turn", Louis politely stated. "Ummm, Sweetie, is it possible to turn the boat just a bit", I later requested.
Despite our stellar beginning, the four of us spend an incredible Christmas holiday swimming and snorkeling in the turquoise waters off Green Island, collecting sea treasures along the powdery white sand beaches, feasting on fabulous meals and enjoying the tasty wines Eric and Moira brought from the states. We enjoyed spirited conversations with constant laughter, shared many-a-funny-story of the misadventures of our youth, and were lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of sea, the quiet strumming of Louis' guitar weaving through our dreams.
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Finally the weather subsided a bit - just in time to get to Antigua ahead of our friends Eric and Moira! All of Scappatella's "little issues" are fixed save the boat leaks. We've spent hours over the past few days spraying salt water all over the boat trying to discover the source of that major leak we recently discovered. We can't replicate it, so we remove the salon's headliner - a white decorative covering that hides the wiring & fiberglass structure of the cabin-top. It's sort of like removing the drywall from your house, although thankfully not as dusty! Our hope is that we'll be able to pinpoint the source of the leak while underway.
The sailing gremlins, as the previous owners called them, apparently had a different idea as barely a drop of water comes in through that spot this time around, but several new leaks appear! By the time we got to Antigua 40 hours later the boat is a bit of a mess - I could cook for a month on the salt that has collected inside the boat! We had less than 24 hours to get her all spruced up for the arrival of our friends; we're pretty excited about their visit and of course want Scappatella to be looking her best! But checking our email, we found that big storms in New York had caused hundreds of flight cancellations, including Eric and Moira's ! Oh no!! Several emails went back and forth as they scrambled, desperately trying to find an alternative flight. In the end, they had to drive to the airport to work with an agent in person, who miraculously found them the last 2 seats on a flight arriving the next day...phew! As it turns out, we needed a full day to get Scappatella back to being presentable, so although we were sorry for their stress and the delay in seeing them, we fully used the extra time this gave us!
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This sailing adventure is complex. Beyond the sport of sailing itself, one needs to learn about weather, electronics, systems, engines, rope work, and the like. And then there's the language of sailing. It just wouldn't do to say right, left, up or down; instead you must master terms such as starboard, port, above and below. These are the simples ones of course, although in the beginning I did have to think "I left my port at home" to help me remember that port was on the left. But beyond these there's an entire slew of words that mean just the opposite of what one might think. Take "brightwork" for example. If I said I had to catch up on my brightwork, you might think I needed to polish the stainless and make the boat all shiny, right? Wrong. Brightwork refers to the varnished parts of the boat, not the bright and shiny stainless. Hmmm....
Then there are the words that have different meanings depending upon what you're doing, and where you're doing it. So a rope is a rope is a rope if it's sitting there all pretty, coiled on the deck. But when that rope comes to life and is actually doing something, it's referred to as a "line". But that's apparantly only in the US. In France, I guess it's still a rope, or a "corde" as they would say in French. Now, if you take that rope - or line - and attach it to a sail, the line becomes a "sheet". Not very intuitive, given that a sheet looks more like a sail than rope.
Ok, say you've mastered the basics of Sailing 101 Speak and are now out sailing. You decide to head into port. (No, you're not going left, nor are you burying your head in a fine bottle of fortified wine from Portugal. You're going into the harbour.) There's a handy little system of buoys to direct you into the correct deepwater channel, away from the reefs and other hazardous areas. Ever heard the phrase "Red, Right, Return"? It means when you're "returning" to the harbour you leave the "red" buoys on your "right". Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn't it? It could be, but that system is only in play in the "the Americas", which is in Region B of IALA Maritime Buoyage System. If you're in Europe - Region A - you use the exact opposite convention! And if you're somewhere else...well, you'd better check. Turns out, prior to 1982 there were 26 different systems in use! Can you imagine how chaotic that would be? It seems all 24 regions acquiesced except for the United States and Europe, so now we have 2 opposing systems. Sound familiar?
Anyway, we're in St. Croix approaching the channel, and the buoy marker is green - no red - no, it's both green AND red! What the heck does that mean? The red is on top, and we're in St. Croix, a US territory, so I guess that means we follow the red, right, return convention? But, we're not on or anywhere near the American continent... we're in the Caribbean. So which system do we use? We decide to let our eyes be the judge and we bear left, away from what appears to be a reef lurking under the surface. Good thing, as the next day we watch a beautiful 70' yacht ground themselves on that very reef! Talking with the locals, we learn that they regularly pull boats off of this reef - not to mention the wrecks below.
Sounds like the dual Maritime Buoyage systems might be a good thing for the local tow boats anyway!
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The weather is still bad for our crossing to Antigua, so one afternoon I decide to explore some of the art galleries of Christensaid. (Louis passes). As I'm walking along I'm distracted by a sign advertising the cheapest and best selection of rum in the Caribbean, coupled with a high-end jewelry shop. I guess these shops are targeted at cruise ship customers, who apparantly like to buy a lot of gold jewelry and duty-free liquor. I forego the bling (same shit, different island...and I'm more of a silver-girl anyway), but I do have fun stocking up on Bombay Sapphire Gin and Absolute Vodka at $12 per liter. And then I spy what I'm really after: RUM. Now, I've never been much of a rum-girl but last year our friends Stefan and Monique from "Lazarina" shared some special Martinique aged sipping rum with us. Wow - it was incredible! I've been in search of that bottle ever since. And there it is: a beautiful - and huge - bottle of rum from Martinque at a mere $180! Hmmmm....I'm not sure I liked it THAT much, and we're headed to Martinique shortly, so I shift my gaze to a slender bottle of 10-year aged rum from Anguilla called "Pyrat". It's in my size and price range, but the girl behind the counter can tell me nothing about it. Curiosity and the Christmas spirit get the better of her and she opens up a little sample for me - and shares it with me, of course! It's quite tasty so I add that to my growing collection of liquor and wine piled on the counter. I never did make it to an art gallery, but our liquor cabinet is well stocked!
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