Welcome to the first—and possibly only—issue of the Leeward Gazette, where we make old news look new.
Weather
“I have never in my life experienced a February like this one”, said a local who spoke on condition of anonymity. He shouted above the howl of the wind, almost losing his balance (well, not really, but here at The Gazette we allow for some journalistic licenses).
The wind rose in the figure shows “the distribution of winds that have prevailed in the area over a considerable period of time”. I’m not going to go into the details about how to read that rose, but it does say that, in this corner of the woods, winds in February average no more than 15 knots, which is a perfect breeze for smooth sailing.
Well, here’s the wind we’ve had for each of the past 30 days, where 22-30g38 means 22 to 30 knots with gusts to 38 knots:
18-24g30 22-27g35 25-30g40 25-30g40 18-23g30 14-18g23 12-20g26 12-18g23 12-20g26 12-20g26 18-24g32 18-24g32 17-24g30 17-24g30 17-24g30 20-28g35 20-28g35 22-30g38 22-30g38 18-24g30 16-22g28 14-20g26 17-23g30 22-30g38 22-30g38 20-26g32 20-28g35 20-26g33 18-24g30 16-22g28
In summary, the wind’s been rarely below 20 knots and most days have seen 30 knots or more. To give an idea to those who are not familiar, 35 knots (40 mph, 65 km/h) start breaking twigs from trees. That’s a lot of wind. And a lot of noise and rocking, day and night.
Lifestyles
On a “calm” day of February (i.e., with not much more than 20 knots of wind), we paddled to the nearby beach to go for a stroll after too many days trapped in the boat by the relentless wind. That beach can only be accessed by boat; other than us there was just one couple on the beach in front of their small boat.
A couple sunbathing on the beach. [We take some steps.] A seemingly naked couple sunbathing on the beach. [We take some more steps.] A most definitively naked couple sunbathing on the beach. We pondered sticking just to our half of the beach, not because we minded them being naked, but not to ruin their experience. We really needed to stretch our legs, so we marched on, and said a brief and shy hello while passing by them.
On our way back they engaged us in chatting. They were a Mexican-Dutch couple who live in Antigua. We told them we frequented clothing-optional venues, and we ended up all naked sharing drinks. The next day we got all together to repeat the experience in what we declared the second nudist beach of Antigua.
Technology
Our long-awaited new diesel engine finally made it to Antigua. As you may know, it lost one week because the truck delivered the engine to the freight company one day after the ship departed. The precious cargo missed the next week’s ship because of a missing invoice. And the next next week’s ship too, out of sheer human stupidity; they just didn’t load it in the container.
News regarding the engine installation are too fresh for this gazette, so the report will have to wait until they become old news.
Now, in the meantime, our formerly trusty old electric outboard followed the path of its diesel relative: it burnt itself to death while pushing our dinghy against the now-usual 30-knot February winds, on our way to the grocery store. By the time we deployed the oars we had lost most of the distance we’d made so far. I was able to control the dinghy, but there was no way I was going to row one full mile to town. Thankfully, good Samaritans towed us and we could replenish our bar. I mean, pantry. The return trip was a fast and effortless downwind row, where the only critical part was not to overshoot the mother ship.
So, that’s two out of three engines busted. No room for more mishaps.
Travel
Covering more of Antigua’s points of interests in this issue.
Arts and Entertainment
Animal Kingdom
Oliver started getting very picky to eat. So much so that, for the first time in his life, he lost weight. A bit too much, actually. He refuses to eat the fancy stuff that Kathy provisioned for him in Virginia. The solution? Cheap, junk cat food we can find almost anywhere. He loves it. Now, what do we with the several months worth of the expensive food we still have?
Sports
The Atlantic Challenge is a 2500-nautical mile annual rowing race from Canary Islands to Antigua. Teams of four take about a month to cross the Atlantic, while the crazy solo guys take two months or more.
Gossip
While our new engine was stuck in Miami, the critical spare part for our good friends of The Norm was stuck in some French airport. Their part won the other race to Antigua (see sports section) by almost one week. They were ready to leave Jolly Harbour in search for greener pastures, but the weather forced them to stay yet another week. And then, ready again after seven weeks in the same anchoring spot, they discovered they had a problem in one of their props. It’s the norm.
