First a rant …. Antigua Race week
What can I say, who the hell lets these people hire boats and allows them out on the water unsupervised! Never have I seen such a large bunch of wankers in one place. These monkeys fly in, jump on their charter boats, go racing then descend on the anchorage. Most have never spent a night at anchor being marina creatures and weekend race heroes. Trying to steer into gaps going astern (full speed) after dropping the hook and hoping to stay in that gap despite the wind being on their beam. They religiously drop their 12m of chain (or worse warp) in their 4m of water (usually in a pile) and can’t understand why they pull every 5 minutes. They have no concept of a swinging circle and even less idea of a safe anchoring distance.
The morning began for Otahi with a loud ‘crunch’ as a 50ft yacht had squeezed itself in the smallest of spaces and swung alongside Otahi crushing Freya’s beloved wooden dinghy. The reply, well its Classics Week what do you expect….
Later in the day I gave my stare from Hell at a boat full of women dropping their hook to rest almost alongside me. ‘We are just staying for an hour to swim’, 10 minutes later their stern is against my bow as the skipper revs the nuts of the engine towing me around the bay. They have pulled up my chain and have no clue what to do… after securing them alongside and informing the skipper to hold us in open water long enough to untangle the mess and sorting them out its up to me to be as rude and threatening as possible to defend my ‘castle’.
What can I say, who the hell lets these people hire boats and allows them out on the water unsupervised! Never have I seen such a large bunch of wankers in one place. These monkeys fly in, jump on their charter boats, go racing then descend on the anchorage. Most have never spent a night at anchor being marina creatures and weekend race heroes. Trying to steer into gaps going astern (full speed) after dropping the hook and hoping to stay in that gap despite the wind being on their beam. They religiously drop their 12m of chain (or worse warp) in their 4m of water (usually in a pile) and can’t understand why they pull every 5 minutes. They have no concept of a swinging circle and even less idea of a safe anchoring distance.
The morning began for Otahi with a loud ‘crunch’ as a 50ft yacht had squeezed itself in the smallest of spaces and swung alongside Otahi crushing Freya’s beloved wooden dinghy. The reply, well its Classics Week what do you expect….
Later in the day I gave my stare from Hell at a boat full of women dropping their hook to rest almost alongside me. ‘We are just staying for an hour to swim’, 10 minutes later their stern is against my bow as the skipper revs the nuts of the engine towing me around the bay. They have pulled up my chain and have no clue what to do… after securing them alongside and informing the skipper to hold us in open water long enough to untangle the mess and sorting them out its up to me to be as rude and threatening as possible to defend my ‘castle’.
My walls have been stormed once and it’s not going to happen again!
I’ll be glad when these pastey assholes go back to their day jobs – Rant Over!
Ok well what’s been going on around here? Marcus & Jess have flown back to the UK for a month or so and left Veracity in the charge of James (previously Otahi). Freya is taking Otahi back to the UK with two new crew, Ben (a friend of her brother) from the UK and Medi who was previously crewing for Greg of Carina who I first met back in Medeira. James is staying in the Caribbean to work and look for his new boat.
Otahi and Doris intend to leave Antigua via Green Island (10nm) and the island of Barbuda (40nm) before setting sail for the Azores (~2155nm). A full moon is approaching and the weather is starting behave itself out in the Atlantic with the Azores high being more predictable. At the moment we are looking to leave English Harbour around Sun or Mon.
I’ll be glad when these pastey assholes go back to their day jobs – Rant Over!
Ok well what’s been going on around here? Marcus & Jess have flown back to the UK for a month or so and left Veracity in the charge of James (previously Otahi). Freya is taking Otahi back to the UK with two new crew, Ben (a friend of her brother) from the UK and Medi who was previously crewing for Greg of Carina who I first met back in Medeira. James is staying in the Caribbean to work and look for his new boat.
Otahi and Doris intend to leave Antigua via Green Island (10nm) and the island of Barbuda (40nm) before setting sail for the Azores (~2155nm). A full moon is approaching and the weather is starting behave itself out in the Atlantic with the Azores high being more predictable. At the moment we are looking to leave English Harbour around Sun or Mon.
I have plotted the Great Circle route purely as a reference and intend on sailing north towards Bermuda but staying south of the classic route preferring light airs against possible storms etc. Doris is perfectly suited to pointing high in light airs and hopefully I can keep her moving in the right direction under sail. Motoring for me is a complete nightmare due to the lack of an Auto Pilot which translates into no sleep. I will have my Sat phone turned on throughout the trip (so feel free to drop me an SMS) and I will use it to download GRIB files and hopefully not get becalmed (at least for too long). I will also post position and blog updates to Crutey (my ground crew) for you avid readers.
I have been doing small jobs like ‘end for ending’ the 2nd reefing line and replacing a few blocks, but to be honest she is more or less ready to go. She’s full of fuel (110L) with a few extra cans (50L) just incase. I have done a last shop and loaded with more than enough food. I will top up with water (260L + 100L in cans) before leaving. All that remains is to do a last scrub of her bottom before we depart.
As for sailing Single Handed - A few nights ago after shaking my ‘booty’ at Shirley’s, I decided to step backwards off the steep path in the dark and plummeted to a painful landing among several Cactus. After removing a large number of inch long spines from both arms, hands and legs continued out on the town. It wasn’t until the next morning when the influence of alcohol had obviously worn off I discovered that I was unable to use my left thumb and therefore hand. I couldn’t even tie a knot! Not the best injury to have a few days from setting off across the North Atlantic alone! It is healing slowly and should be (fingers X’ed) be fine before I leave.
Nothing else to report at this stage… and besides the racers have just returned so I dare not drop my guard!
I have been doing small jobs like ‘end for ending’ the 2nd reefing line and replacing a few blocks, but to be honest she is more or less ready to go. She’s full of fuel (110L) with a few extra cans (50L) just incase. I have done a last shop and loaded with more than enough food. I will top up with water (260L + 100L in cans) before leaving. All that remains is to do a last scrub of her bottom before we depart.
As for sailing Single Handed - A few nights ago after shaking my ‘booty’ at Shirley’s, I decided to step backwards off the steep path in the dark and plummeted to a painful landing among several Cactus. After removing a large number of inch long spines from both arms, hands and legs continued out on the town. It wasn’t until the next morning when the influence of alcohol had obviously worn off I discovered that I was unable to use my left thumb and therefore hand. I couldn’t even tie a knot! Not the best injury to have a few days from setting off across the North Atlantic alone! It is healing slowly and should be (fingers X’ed) be fine before I leave.
Nothing else to report at this stage… and besides the racers have just returned so I dare not drop my guard!