Cruise news again

March 18: The forecasts for this week are that the northerly swells will build this week to the highest they have been in several years – 15 feet or so.. All the boats who can are planning to remain in protected harbors this week, and we will do the same. Today we confirm with the Jolly Harbour Marina that Singoalla will be hauled on March 31 and stored on jack stands that are welded together and strapped down with heavy duty webbing to large chains anchored in a reinforced concrete slab. This form of storage is approved by a number of insurance companies. Today turns out to be a national “holiday” in Antigua, in honor of the funeral of a former prime minister. We spend some time ashore working on the blog, with mixed success as usual, then return to the boat. It is hot here, so we decide to erect our awning to provide more shade. We work to figure out how to accommodate the Dutchman system of flaking the mainsail so that the awning will be easier to set up. We find that the Hall Quikvang will hold up the boom so we can move the topping lift out of the way. By adding a zipper at the forward end we believe the awning will be much more useful in the future. The rest of the day we read and do minor maintenance and cleaning chores. After a light supper of soup and French bread we read until it is time for lights out.

March 19: Today the Anjo Insurances office at Jolly Harbour is open. The lady here is knowledgeable about marine insurance and is very helpful. We are able to obtain the necessary insurance to store the boat here on Antigua, and she makes a number of suggestions that save us money. We check with customs and immigration to see if we have any issues there, and discover that we should have gone to immigration to remove the family Helgius from our crew list when they departed – or perhaps we should have listed them as passengers instead of crew. Fortunately Elisabeth has the flight number on which they left the island, so the immigration officer is able to confirm that the Helgius are not likely to become a burden on the local economy. We can now leave the island in good conscience, as long as we return together next fall. If only one of us comes down, we will have to bring a letter showing that the other one is not on the island. We are beginning to get used to bureaucracy running rampant, so we agree with the immigration officer that we will not get divorced between now and then. We pick up our laundry and return to Singoalla for a strenuous afternoon of heavy reading. Elisabeth prepares a delicious chicken dinner and we manage to stay awake until almost 9:00.

March 20: We conclude that we have been entirely too sedentary this week, so we will go for a hike. After the morning’s frustrating attempt to upload pictures to the blog and a nice lunch on board, we go ashore in walking shoes and look for a place to go. We go to the security guard at the entrance to the harbor complex and ask for a recommendation for a nice walk. We should add that a requirement to be hired as a security guard here seems to be a waist dimension at least equal to height. After expressing astonishment that anyone would ask such a question she suggests that we go down towards the Castaways Beach Bar, which sounds like it must be a couple of miles away. We follow her suggestion and in five minutes are standing on Jolly Beach in front of Castaways. Not satisfied that we have gone far enough, we walk up the beach and up a nearby point of land where waterfront lots are being sold. The view is terrific, and we are able to see the swells as they roll by -- although they do not appear to be as dramatic as the forecast indicated. We wonder what kind of architecture is going to be needed to put homes on the steep lots, most of which have already been sold. We are reminded of some of the steep sites in the San Francisco area. We return and go to the other end of the beach were the Jolly Beach Resort is located. We admire the various shades of white to lobster red of the bathers along the beach, and wince at the thought of how some of them are going to feel tomorrow. We return to the marina and celebrate our healthy walk with a beer at the waterfront bar there. We return to Singoalla and Elisabeth prepares dinner of pork chop with papaya and boiled potatoes. MMM!