Hello Folks,

The title kind of sums up the main themes for this blog so any questions? I suspect there are, so let me continue. The lead pic is an all to familiar sight for those folks back home as Halifax is in the grips of a truly miserable winter; or so I hear. Well to show our empathy with our family and friends suffering in the snow, cold, and flash freezes (flash freezes for God's sake) in our native land we decided Debbie should return to the belly of the beast so to speak. She has gone home to Halifax to deal with some condo/ tenant problems we are having due to the shitacular weather of late in Halifax. I would have went myself but someone has to take care of the boat (cough, cough) and tenants/ condo maintenance are Debbie's department. So I sit here in Jolly Harbour in what has been a horrible day with no less then 3 showers during the day and temperatures actually going below 80F, crazy I know but don't worry I'm OK. Debbie will be back on Sunday so I got to get on with this blog as apparently I may have a little cleaning to do. Enough weather stuff, as in all seriousness we do watch the weather back home and hope things improve for everyone soon, but until then stay safe. Salt, sand, winter tires, warm rum, etc. etc.

On a more positive theme we had our second set of friends visit since the last blog and I think we all enjoyed our time. Spence and Sue sailed with us last year around the south coast of Puerto Rico and are to be given bravery credits for coming back . Their time onboard was less then optimal from a sailing perspective as we bashed into the waves pretty good for most of the time they were onboard. We were determined to provide them a more enjoyable experience in terms of weather and sailing this time around. I believe we accomplished that in spades this year as the weather was great and we got some excellent sailing in as we circumnavigated the entire country of Antigua. Sounds more impressive then it really is, as remember the entire country is only about 10X15 miles. That being said this was another first for Seasparrow as we visited places we hadn't previously gotten to, so it was fun for us as well. To prove my story regarding weather and sailing, here is a great shot of Sue on the bow pulpit enjoying the beautiful Caribbean sun and colours.



As this island is small, we have and will continue to do a bit of rinse and repeat routine with our guests. There is only so much to see and do in the small time afforded so we try to take our guests to the places we know are enjoyable. This includes snorkelling on Cades reef, a visit to English Harbour and Shirley Heights, and taking a mooring ball at Green Island. Here are some shots to remind everyone of these places.

Spence and Sue at The Pillars, SeaSparrow in the background:


Shirley Heights With Rum Punches


A couple of additional pics of Nelson's Dockyard as this place is very cool:



Me and Spence doing bean bags and Tilley hats at English Harbour:


Spence likes to fish. Last year he had great success in catching barracuda and landed some real big ones. After this visit I'm starting to think he's some kind of fish whisperer because as soon as we got to our first reef we started catching fish. Here's a picture similar to one from the last time Spence visited but this is from his most recent visit. We measured and this guy was 45 inches long and he was thick.



Barracuda in this area are great for photo ops but you really can't or shouldn't eat them due to a very high risk of contracting ciguatera poisoning. This is a very real and dangerous issue associated with large reef fish like barracuda that if contracted will screw up your nervous system. The poison never leaves your body and symptoms can last from weeks to months and even years. In addition, it is cumulative so if you get it once the next time is even worse. Bottom line is we don't eat barracuda in the Caribbean. Anyway, while catching big fish is cool and all, we wanted something to eat. Shortly after releasing the barracuda we caught a yellow jack and bar jack which were fine for dinner. This was another big first for SeaSparrow as this was Debbie's first fish she brought in. A little joy in this pic, uh.



Not wanting to be satisfied with a couple of small jacks, the next day Spence hooked a large fish that wasn't a barracuda. After consulting our books we determined the catch to be a Spanish mackerel, which are also good to eat. We then managed to catch another Spanish mackerel and a bar jack so we had plenty to eat plus some fish for the freezer. Here is a shot of the catch. Note the iphone in the pick for size reference.



For those that may be wondering the Spanish mackerel is a white fish and tastes great which differs immensely from the mackerel back home. I would guess it is closer to haddock/halibut then what we would call mackerel, although I still prefer halibut over any other fish I have tasted. Spence gave me a lesson on proper fileting technique and while I hacked them up pretty good in the beginning in the end I saved enough to eat. Thanks for the new skill Spence.



Having caught our fill of fish we made our way to the north of the island to a place called Great Bird Island. This is a nice secluded spot protected by reefs. There were a couple of other boats around but this was a great spot to relax for the evening and eat the bounty the sea provided.



We only spent one night at Great Bird Island and had to leave to complete our trip around Antigua and get back to Jolly Harbour in time for Sue and Spence to get to their resort which they booked for a couple of nights. On the trip back we spotted a whale which was really cool as this is the first one I have seen anywhere in the Caribbean.



The other big news on SeaSparrow is we now have a movie theater. Let me explain. We have a ton of movies and TV shows on hard drives but really didn't have anything to watch them on other then a laptop. We looked to find a 12V dc monitor but were unsuccessful and to run a normal monitor or TV would consume too much power. Instead we decided to buy a projector that could hook to my laptop and find a suitable screen (i.e. a sheet that Spence scrounged from a local boat charter company) that we could project movies on. We found a suitable projector online and Spence went out to a local store in Ottawa, picked it up, and brought it with him. After a bit of engineering, both mechanical and electrical, we managed to make it work and we now watch movies in the cockpit of SeaSparrow. This is really cool and works great visually. The sound systems needs work and if Debbie brings back the new marine stereo I ordered via Spence again, the audio issues will be solved as well. Stay tuned for SeaSparrow's next upgrade. Here's some shots of the movies being projected outside on a sheet hung above the door to the salon.

Movie - B&W "Sailor of the King"

Movie - "Searching For Sugarman"


Speaking of the audio world I am adding a new feature to the old blog starting today. Music is a key part of our lives here on SeaSparrow so at the end of each blog I will list three songs that are currently being played on the Ipod. Many thanks to Denis and Francis for the mountain of tunes they left behind for us to enjoy. I'm up to the J's now and hope to check out the remainder before the end of the sailing season. If you want to check the listed tunes out I'm sure they can be found on Youtube. If you like the music we're listening to great and if not that's OK too, we'll fix you later. We also welcome any suggestions you may have along the lines of listed tunes.

That's it for the happenings down south. Debbie should return on Sunday to get things back to normal then cousin Noel should arrive a couple days later. Rinse and repeat and maybe a trip to Barbuda as well. We'll see.

Take care,

Jeff


What's Playing On SeaSparrow's Ipod

- Beth Hart - "There In Your Heart"
- Fred Eaglesmith - "Rough Edges"
- Alberta Cross - "Low Man"