It’s December

Our winter season in the Caribbean is well underway. After arriving in Antigua and taking care of some boat issues (see the last blog entry) , we have been kept very busy with activities of the Salty Dawgs. This group of nearly 90 boats that came down from the East Coast in November and kicked off the season here with cocktail parties, dinners, a dinghy drift, small boat regatta, meet and greets with local businesses on an almost daily basis. We participated as the “southern contingent” as we sailed up from Trinidad and not in the rally from the East Coast.

My participation has also been as the Net Controller for the daily 8:30 AM morning VHF net with Lynn on ROXY. She is the social director here for the Salty Dawgs. The net could also be called the Daily Calendar with Bad Jokes and Puns.  

So, it has been a whirlwind of activities almost every day. We do manage to get in the water for some swimming exercise to work off some of the rum punches. We have also organized a few musical jams which are fun, and even melodic at times. Dave and Trudie on PERSEPHONE add a layer of professionalism, Mike on MERMAID is giving me harmonica lessons, and Lynn on ROXY is keeping me away from the mike.

After we arrived in Antigua and were in English Harbor for few days, we moved over to Falmouth Harbor. There is more room to anchor there and is closer to Pigeon Beach to swim.

The weather has been warmer and dryer than normal. The water temperatures are even warmer than usual. This was true even in Trinidad. Climate change? Who knows?  Nonetheless our water maker (rain collection system) stores 15 gallons for our on deck fresh water rinse off, even with light rainfalls.

                                     
We had an ex-cruiser friend Mary stay aboard Kalunamoo a few days. She caught up with other Salty Dawgs and it was good to see her again. She lost Doug a few years ago to cancer and we miss them both sailing on Zipporah.

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This week the Charter Boat Show in Antigua takes place. So, after the Salty Dawgs showed the way to Antigua, the Big Boys arrived. If you don’t have a boat to sail down on, you can always charter one of these and enjoy the island like we do. There are over 50 here now. They are big enough to invite your friends and family aboard. I suggest The Maltese Falcon to charter. It accommodates 12 and only costs $500,000 per week excluding fuel.

Time to get ready for Christmas as we fly to New York to be with family and Friends. Tree lightings and lights are out and about, but alas, no forecast for a white Christmas down here.