Friday 17 January 2020

Oddly enough the passage yesterday was (guess as hazarded using weather weasel
guidance) nearly perfect. Seventy five nautical miles from Antigua to Gustavia
in just over twelve hours. Not bad with aquaculture that makes the bottom look
like a large furry cheese grater. Since we're getting redone in Trinidad and
don't mind if a diver scrapes off all the anti-fouling perhaps we'll expend a
quid or two on professional cleaning. Anchored off Gustavia with sun still up
for dinner and episode three of Sharpe. Expect to clear in tomorrow.

As mentioned previously, American half of crew sounds, well, American. Yes,
absolutely true. Those people, while exhibiting regional differences, all seem
to have a particularly North American accent (English Canadians will probably
take offence, but while they can, to the discerning ear, be distinguished from
their more southerly (mostly) brethren (what's that aboot, eh!) the basic accent
bears a striking resemblance - French Canadians, by the way, also have this
characteristic and are apparently difficult to understand by people from other
French speaking countries). The aforementioned crew, who was born near Boston
into a military family and lived, at least some of his formative years, in other
than the south, when he talks is usually assumed by people everywhere around the
country to be from somewhere else. This is particularly curious because he is
trying to teach other half of crew, a Canadian as it happens, to speak Southern.
What do you call officers of the law? PO-leece. It's a work in progress.

We love boobies; look at them all around the world. Never play boobies,
however, because sticking your head in a hive and hollering "boo bees" is
dangerous. But that's not what we're talking about here. We mean a type of
gannet with brightly colored feet. Blue, yellow or red footed boobies are
nearly everywhere we've been. Good looking birds, they seem to have a
fascination with sailboats, often landing on a rail or the dinghy to gift us
with fish poo. They may love Canadians, nearly everyone does, or perhaps the
boat passage scares up fish they can catch, but suspect they're just curious.
If you meet some ask if they've seen us: dark blue hulled, cutter-rigged sloop
with large US and Canadian flags flying from the backstay. They'll know the
one.

Jack & Jan