Home on Sailacious
13 March 2013
Back on Island Time
It was an extremely long day getting back to Antigua but flying first class really helped. The complimentary food and drink were nice but I want to tell you those seats were awesome. On the one flight they were like recliners with buttons to adjust your feet or back, etc. And of course three checked bags of up to 70 pounds instead of one at 50 pounds in coach is the real justification of the extra cost.
We started early Monday on the boat and worked for a week straight. The entire inside of the boat had to be washed, including most of the boats contents. We had put all of our clothes in plastic bags to prevent mildew and all that had to be put away as well as everything we bought in the USA. The water tank had to be shocked and flushed, refiled and flushed again. We used that water for cleaning.
All the teak had to be scrubbed and cleaned several times and then re-oiled. We had the bottom painted as long as we were out of the water and then we cleaned and waxed the top sides. Then we started to polish stainless steel. Oh, joy.
Steve hooked up all the electronics, checked all fittings, etc. He had to work to get both engines running and did all the basic maintenance on all the blue stuff. By the way, blue stuff is guy stuff and I do the pink stuff. Did I mention the teak and stainless is pink stuff on our boat? We have made one bus trip to town to buy groceries but need to go again this week. I ran provisions pretty low before we left so there wouldn't be a bunch of rusty cans when we returned. Our only fatality was the freezer but I don't think the life expectancy of those stand alone freezers running 24/7 is that long. We will look into new options in ST Martin or ST Thomas.
Sailacious was in the water early Monday afternoon and rum drinks that night were heavenly! Yesterday we installed all of our solar lights and security lights and were organized enough to have guests over for sunset. Today was an easy day, we even took time to go to the beach. I figure by the end of this week we will be down to just routine boat care. Did I mention that the weather is PERFECT? Hot and sunny during the day and cool at night with low humidity. PARADISE!
Race week is Antigua's biggest event and we will stay here to the end of April for it. Many boat we know will be arriving in the next few weeks, get together and parties are plentiful. After that we head west, most likely as far as Puerto Rico. Hurricane season starts in July and it is up in the air where we will be this year. We had planned to be in Columbia for Christmas and then make a slow trek through Central America. Arriving back at this time of the year will cause us to come up with a new plan, there are many options available to us both north and south and every point in between.