Loch Spelve Mull Scotland

When we had returned to BV the previous evening we had kicked ourselves for forgetting to take to the barbecue with us an OCC burgee for John (at that point the newest member of the OCC).  So we hatched a cunning plan to hand one over as we left Craobh Haven Marina.

Nicky handing over an OCC burgee to John Blair (Ballyhoo).  It was a windy and drizzly morning so she tied it
onto a boathook to give a little more reach and to reduce the risk of that fender actually being needed!

Sunday 7 August dawned drizzly and wind, and the wind was now blowing directly into the bay where John was anchored, not ideal conditions for doing a slow ‘drive past’ an anchored yacht to hand over a burgee!  But with the aid of a boathook to add reach, and large fender to hand, Nicky managed to pass the burgee across whilst I got BV as close as I dared and held her there a short time until the wind necessitated I back out.

A brisk sail towards the south tip of Luing

We had debated whether to go into the Firth of Lorne via the Sound of Luing (to the west of Luing), which would necessitate a short leg south from Craobh Haven or whether to route through the Cuan Sound to the north of Luing.  The pilot book’s description of the Cuan Sound, featured dire warnings about the speed of the tidal flow, the imperative need for accuracy in your course, and concerns about a couple of rocks at a steep turn in the passage.  Plus we certainly wouldn’t be sailing through Cuan Sound (too narrow, too ‘dire’) but with the wind direction we should have a good sail taking the longer route.  We opted to go south to go north.

Smoky McSmokeboat

We had a brisk sail, hard on the wind down to the south tip of Luing and as we prepared to turn north up the Sound of Luing a small vintage fishing boat appeared from the south heading up the Sound.  Periodically, the funnel pushed out clouds of evil, black smoke for a good 5 mins, before the effluent became a more reasonable grey for a short while…. And then reverting to deepest black again.  Presumably, the black smoke was generated by the crew throwing a few shovels of coke into the boiler but, boy, did it look unpleasant.  In fact it looked so bad that one large motoryacht called up the vintage fishing boat to ask if there was a problem, to which a broad Scots voice replied laconically that everything was fine and that the fuel with which they were feeding the boiler was ‘a wee bit smoky’!  Understatement of the century!

11.9 knots SOG (speed over ground) with only about 6 knots boat speed as we headed through the top end of the Sound of Luing and into the Firth of Lorne

Towards the top end of the Sound of Luing, the channel narrows and the large volume of water flowing through the narrow gap results in a huge increase in speed.  As we passed through we saw 11.9 knots over the ground – a tidal flow of around 5 knots – not bad given that we were going through not long before slack water.

Entering Loch Spelve

Our destination was Loch Spelve, a large, deep loch on Mull, with a narrow entrance and good number of mussel and fish farms along the shoreline.

Anchored in the northwestern arm of Loch Spelve

Once through the entrance we headed up to the northwest arm which the pilot book recommends as the best anchorage and which the Cruising Association’s CAptain’s Mate reports recommend, due to the presence of the mussel farm HQ and an honesty box system for buying mussels.

John anchored by the mussel dock

We anchored as far up to the west as we could, John on Ballyhoo (who’d come the shorter route via Cuan Sound and had caught up with us at the entrance to Loch Spelve) anchored a little closer to the mussel farm pier.

There’s a huge mussel farming operation in Loch Spelve

John had his dinghy on davits which made it easy to launch; ours was rolled up on the deck and a half hour evolution to launch.  So he picked us up and we all went ashore for a look-see and to find out if there were any mussels left to buy.

The sign says it all – and the mussels were delicious!

Being a Sunday we didn’t expect the that the cool-boxes would have been replenished but there were plenty of bags available so we splashed out on 5kg of mussels, had a chat with a couple of other yachties doing the same thing, and returned to BV.

View out to the anchorage.  Ballyhoo in the middle BV somewhere behind

Toasting the Queen with a tot

Our last meeting before this year had been in Antigua in 2019 where we had drunk a tot (or more) of rum at gatherings of the Tot Club.  So it seemed appropriate to have a tot together under the Tot Club pennant…..

A mussel feast

…..as well as a slap-up moules feast – and, no, we didn’t cook all 5kg but we all probably ate more than we should have!

John’s present to us – a replacement GPS antenna for the AIS

As he left John said that he had a present for us.  It turned out to be the exact AIS GPS aerial we had been trying unsuccessfully to find in Scotland.  He had a couple of spares on board Ballyhoo and very kindly gave us one so that we could get our AIS working properly again.  It was a very thoughtful and much appreciated gift and one that, every time we switch on our AIS, will have us remembering a lovely day with John eating mussels in Loch Spelve.

Loch Spelve, Mull, Scotland

Michael Rock (Part 1) Guanaja Honduras Bay Islands

Outside the reef, Bonacca behind us

On Sunday 9 February we decided that we should take advantage of the easterly wind to sail around to the west side of Guanaja and to anchor off Michael’s Rock.  Our dive map shows many good dives on reef around here and the anchorages on the west side are a lot more sheltered than those on the east, albeit that there can be strong katabatic downdrafts off the high ground.  So we left Graham’s Cay at 1015hrs….. 

Top: Guanaja with the reef, and the shallow water inside it, standing out clearly.  Bottom: We passed between Southeast Cay (in this picture) and Guanaja as we headed south

……and once out from the reef set off on a fun and fast broad reach towards the southern tip of the island.

Looking NE up length of Guanaja

We had to avoid the reef at the southwestern end of the island which put a couple of miles onto the passage but we had a great view along the length of the island at our gybe point.  From there we had another good sail, close-hauled this time, up the western side of the island.  We stayed a short, but safe, distance outside the fringing reef and saw a good number of large, bright orange dive buoys marking the areas we hoped to explore over the next few days.  It wasn’t all sunshine, though, and as we approached Michael’s Rock area a large black cloud bubbled up over the island.  As the heavens opened, the wind howled and the visibility reduced to virtually zero, we hove-to, pointing out to sea, and waited for the squall to pass rather than risk getting too close to the reef.

Top: looking east from the cut through the reef.  Bottom: view to the southeast from the cut through the reef. (Both pictures taken as we left Michael’s Rock several days later: we were quite busy during the approach)

Passing the End of the World Resort 
(Photo taken as we left Michael’s Rock)

When the rain had stopped the sky remained pretty cloudy, which was not good for making an entrance because it the light not strong enough to penetrate the sea and light up the sand and coral heads.  [Ed: in the end, the clouds cleared away entirely about an hour after we dropped anchor but it didn’t look as if that would be the case when we started our approach through the reef].  From our pilot book we had a transit to follow for the transit through the reef but after that we only had the pilot book’s (good) sketch map, nothing more detailed.  [Ed: Here, as we have subsequently found elsewhere in the Honduran Bay Islands, our (electronic) Navionics charts are really rather poor and definitely not worth relying on or, at times, even having open.]  We worked our way in slowly with Nicky on the bow trying to see down through the water using polarised sunglasses but the light was very flat and it was very difficult to judge depths.  Steering, I tried to follow the directions in the pilot book but actually turned right too soon and got too close to the corner of the reef so we reversed out with the keel just touching the coral as we did so.  We tried again, heading further in towards the shore to where, a fortuitous gap in the clouds showed the water to be deeper.  That worked and from there the directions in the pilot book made sense and the light improved too.  So we made it around Michael Rock safely and into the anchorage just to the south of the rock, though it took a long time as we stayed below 2 knots throughout.

Anchored south of Michael Rock, which is out of the picture to the left.  (Photo taken a few days after arriving)

Once around the rock and into the anchorage we found good depths.  We were the only yacht on this stretch of coast but we were not the only people using this beach.  There were several small pangas with day-trippers, mostly local people by the looks of things, all enjoying the generally good weekend weather (now that the rain squall had gone through).  But they all left before dark – though some didn’t leave until after sunset which made us wonder how they would get back to Bonacca through, what we thought, was an unlit passage inside the reef.  The anchorage is absolutely beautiful.  There’s no mobile phone signal at all and, when darkness fell we could only see one light – and that was on a dock about ¾ nm away.  We used the rest of the previous night’s dough and finished the off the (very elderly) mozzarella on another pizza, read our books, enjoyed the sound of tropical birdlife in the trees and planned a trip to go diving the next day.

Michael Rock, Guanaja, Honduras Bay Islands

Port Antonio Jamaica Part 3

Roasted breadfruit for dinner

And, as a part of that quiet evening, we broke into the roasted breadfruit that Nicky had bought the previous day.  Karl and Conner recommended that, having taken off the outer burned skin, we then either eat the insides as they are or, better, lightly fry slices.  We did the latter and thoroughly enjoyed it with our pork stew.  Next up on the Jamaican cookery course – run-down!

Gluing the plywood pad onto the dinghy transom

The next few days were filled, primarily, with boat jobs and catching up with admin from home.  I glued a larger plywood pad on the outside of the dinghy transom where outboard attaches to supplement the small one I put on the inside in St Martin.  Then, with the glue dried, I painted both.  Hopefully the now 2 new large pads will spread the load of the engine better than the one original small pad and will stop the small crack in the transom from spreading.

I also fitted replacement cockpit speakers and wiring (the salt air had killed the last ones), sorted out a problem with the gooseneck split pin, lubricated the anchor windlass and (oh, the joys of yachting!) the toilet pumps.  The Marine Police visited briefly and checked our papers and we had a few minutes of concern at the news of an underwater earthquake between Montego Bay and Cabo Cruz, Cuba.  This news brought with it tsunami warnings but NOAA said that the risk was ‘only’ for a tsunami of between one and 3 feet, and that risk soon passed.  Of the earthquake itself we neither felt nor saw anything in Port Antonio, despite it reaching 7.7 on the Richter Scale and being felt in Florida.

New arrivals at Port Antonio

Meanwhile, having completed a vast amount of computer-based admin (and having come away with very square eyes!) Nicky set to with varnishing several bits that were missed when she did her mammoth varnishing session in Deltaville, including the dinghy oars which have taken an absolute hammering since she last attacked them a few years ago.

And in the midst of this there was a frisson of excitement when a small blue British yacht was towed into harbour by the coastguard from about 70 miles out.  It turned out to be a very sad story.  The yacht, with a lone sailor aboard, had been reported missing since 20 December 2019.  Unfortunately for the sailor’s family, and those who found and had to deal with the yacht, the sailor’s body was found on board the vessel.  The yacht was towed in to a remote dock, met by a fire truck and ambulance crew in full HazMat clothing to remove the body and then transferred to a mooring buoy and left with ‘Do Not Enter’ tapes all over it.

Ackee on one of the trees by the marina.  They are poisonous when not open

All work and no play makes a dull life so we took daily outings into the town.  We made a Jamaican-style run-down which we very much enjoyed and, consequently, stocked up on powdered coconut milk.  We also found powdered coconut cream which might be easier for rum cocktails than the tinned stuff – certainly less storage space required and better for using small quantities.  We also shopped for ackee, a Jamaican speciality, delicious small pineapples and sweet and tender mangoes.

Ackee on display at the market – open and safe to eat.  It sells for about 200JMD for a dozen.  The ackee we bought was already peeled.  We just took out the black stones and small amount of red membrane then steamed the yellow flesh until tender before lightly frying with onions.  It’s very tasty and resembles scrambled egg

We spent a somewhat frustrating afternoon taking part in an online meeting with the Commodore, Regional Co-ords, Regional Rear Commodores, and other Roving Rear Commodores of the OCC.  The marina’s internet wasn’t really good enough for us to properly participate (we should have bought a local Digicel sim card) but what we did hear made it worthwhile, as did the notes afterwards.  But the frustrations of technology we ameliorated by a fun evening on board Contigo with Karl and Conner and Jared.  It was a pot-luck supper so we made a vegetable run-down which went down well, Karl cooked a variety of locally-inspired dishes including some excellent Costa Rican arepas and Jared brought jerk pork from one of the local street stands – delicious!

Chicks for sale …….. at the hardware store!

We had planned to depart on Fri 31 Jan but the forecast on the Thursday suggested that we would be better off leaving on the Saturday, so as not to end up stalled for 24 hours in an area of calm.  We still refuelled on the Thursday as we had previously agreed with George, the marina manager we would, and did some provisioning, but left most of the fresh food shop until the Friday.

This turned out to be an inspired move as, just as Karl and Conner had said when we arrived, the market is at its best and busiest on Friday and Saturday.  There were stalls open on that day that we had previously never seen open and the choices of fresh food were very good.  We also bought a large lump of pork from the meat section – shades of shopping in Cuba the previous year and, yes, we did have plastic boxes with us.

In the afternoon, I got talking to the Vim and Marge on Duppy, a Dutch yacht in the marina, who were having problems with their freezer.  I gave them some P-clips to help hold the refrigerant pipe runs in place and we talked about Cuba and the OCC and discussed boat maintenance issues, whilst a local contractor tried to fit and fill their new compressor and pipes.

Final night in the marina

Saturday morning dawned overcast and looked as if Jamaica would see us off with rain, just as it had welcomed us with rain.  We prepared for departure, including refilling the water tanks and were not long from departing when Bjorn and Nella on Think Twice arrived from Santiago de Cuba.  What a surprise!  With our paperwork for departure all completed the previous day and our marina bill paid we couldn’t stay to catch up properly with them but we chatted for a while and got the expurgated version of their season so far.  They said that they planned to head to the Caymans and then the Bay Islands, so hopefully we’ll meet up with them again properly further along the line.  And then it was time for us to head off after a wonderful, unexpected stay in Jamaica.  It’s certainly somewhere we’d return to visit and there’s definitely more to see but, for this season, the Bay Islands beckoned.

Port Antonio, Jamaica

Port Antonio Jamaica Part 2

Left:  Star apple.  Right: Jackfruit

Monday 27 January began with a selection of the tropical fruits Nicky had purchased at the fruit and veg stalls the previous day, on our return from the Blue Mountains.  We’d not eaten either star-apple or jack fruit before so this was very much a new experience.  The former is very soft and squidgy, with quite a subtle flavour, the latter more like pineapple in texture but less sweet and juicy. 

We had decided to use our final day with the hire car to drive up to Moore Town, towards the eastern end of the Blue Mountains National Park, and had asked Jared if he wished to join us.  It was about a half hour drive on, mostly better roads than we had driven over the weekend, so we arrived rather sooner than we had expected.

The Maroons are descendants of slaves who escaped the plantations and disappeared into the relative safety of the John Crow and Blue Mountains.  By 1739, after about 80 years of warfare with the British (the First Maroon War), they controlled a sizeable portion of eastern Jamaica.  One of their leaders Cudjoe, signed a peace treaty recognising the independence of Cudjoe’s Town (now Trelawny Town) and Accompong, and allowing them numerous benefits, including tax-free lands throughout the island, which are still home to succeeding generations.

Nanny Bump (allegedly the location of Nanny’s grave), with its monument to Nanny of the Maroons

Moore Town was founded by Nanny, another of the Maroon Leaders and sister to Cudjoe.  She refused to sign the 1740 Peace Treaty but acquiesced in the truce that followed.  Nanny’s people split into 2 groups, one following another of her brothers, the remainder staying with her and relocating to New Nanny Town (now Moore Town).  By 1760, Nanny’s successors had lost control of Moore Town to the white superintendents, who were supposed to be diplomats, acting as liaison between the Maroons and the British authorities, and who commanded Maroon warriors in fighting other Maroon revolts.  In 1850 the British authorities abolished the role of the superintendents and the Maroon Towns were once again fully controlled by the Maroons.  Since Jamaica’s independence, the government has recognised the sovereignty of the Maroons and their right to self-government in local affairs.  Moore Town’s head of state is called the Colonel and the community is governed by him/her assisted by a 24-strong Maroon Council.

Monument to Colonel Harris the previous Colonel.
He was well-loved, well-respected and
an effective colonel of Moore Town

The system for electing the Colonel is unique in that an individual does not pursue the position; instead, they are approached by their public and elected through acclamation.  The current Colonel of Moore Town is Wallace Sterling, elected to the position in 1995.  Before him Colonel Harris served for the period 1964-1995. Colonel Harris was a well-respected figure, a teacher and a member of the Jamaican Senate.  So influential was he that he was buried on Nanny Bump, close to the alleged grave of the National Hero.  Which is rather appropriate, given that Colonel Harris was instrumental in the campaign to have her added to the register of National Heroes.

Jared, on Nanny Bump, next to the monument to Colonel Harris, surveying the sports pitch which the villagers of Moore Town are in the process of levelling

We were fortunate enough to meet Wallace Sterling, current leader of the Moore Town Maroons, during our visit.  He was clearly busy, on his way out to his fields, and his phones rang several times whilst we spoke with him.  We asked about Moore Town and his post and he explained that his main role was to try to ensure improvements for the people in the town.  His prime concern at the time was water.  He explained that the whilst all homes now have electricity, not all homes had running water.  He was working to have a new cistern built further up the hill which would provide an appropriate head of pressure and sufficient volume to enable this.  Amongst, his other ongoing, lower-level projects, was one to level the town’s playing field (previously on a crazy slope) to make it more suitable for its intended use.

Moore Town Primary and Junior High Schoo

Terrible out of focus picture of Nicky and
Jared with the current Colonel of
Moore Town, Wallace Sterling

He talked about schooling: after the age of about 12 the children go to schools in Port Antonio and Bluff Bay, but the town now has a Basic School (early years school) to feed the Primary and Junior High.  One thing that came out from our conversations with Colonel Sterling and, later, with Theodore Wallace who took us to Nanny Falls, was that the Maroons do not pay tax, either to the State government or to the town.  Nicky wondered where the money for projects comes from and this, it seems, is the main source of the Colonel’s work – fundraising.  There is a Jamaican Government fund for the Maroon Towns to which the Maroon leaders can apply for funding.  Similarly there are international programmes, including UN programmes, to which they can apply for funds.  It seemed rather as if the townspeople were entirely dependent on handouts to maintain their life in the town, with land for housing and agriculture being free and the only people allowed to live in the town being Maroons, but then it was also not clear to us how much work for monetary recompense there is in the area.

However, one person who definitely does work for monetary recompense is Theodore Wallace, who acts as a local guide (for a fee which, apparently goes to the community fund).  He also runs a farm.  He showed us around Nanny Bump and gave us a brief overview of her and Colonel Harris and then took us up to Nanny Falls, a popular waterfall close to the town.  Another of Colonel Sterling’s projects is to improve the access to Nanny Falls and he has a further project to build a walking trail in the hills around the town.  Both, doubtless, spurred by an increase in tourist numbers to see the town and to enjoy the surrounding mountain scenery.

We had a delightful short stroll through the forest, talking about the various trees and other plants we saw en route.  We saw akee, pears, breadfruit and jackfruit and also found a ripe nutmeg, complete with bright red mace.  The stony track ended at a locked gate blocking the entrance to the path onwards to the Falls.  But the padlock on the chain securing the gate had seized (most likely a year ago or more) so Theodore pushed on one of the gate posts to open up a hole large enough for us to scramble through.  Task one on the jobs list for one of Colonel Sterling’s minions:  buy a hacksaw, a new padlock and some WD40.

Nanny Falls

The Falls are delightful and, had we thought harder before setting off, we’d have packed swimsuits and towels.  But we hadn’t, so we hadn’t, so we just paddled instead.

The grounds of Likkle Porti

Theodore talked about a traditional Jamaican dish – run-down – essentially a stew based on coconut milk and took us to a local shack where they serve it.  But it was closed.  So we bade him good-bye and headed back to the coast.  With several hours still to run on the hire car, we decided to head out to Likkle Porti, a restaurant recommended by Birgid and Richard to Karl and Conner and by the latter 2 to us.

The kitchen at Likkle Porti

It’s a lovely place, right on the coast but with a fresh water river running through the grounds to the sea.  We arrived shortly after the restaurant had opened for the day and the smell of the kitchen’s wood fire was enough to get us salivating!

Left: Lunch – Fried fish, festival (a sort of fried dough in a sausage shape), fried yam, some salad and a local beer.  Right: the fresh nutmeg we found on the trail up to Nanny Falls.  The bright red is mace and the nutmeg is inside the brown nut

We had a delicious lunch, albeit with lots of fried foodstuffs, partly because we had been recommended by Conner to ask to try festival – a sort of fried dough. 

Views around the area at Likkle Porti

And then we enjoyed the surroundings for a while before, reluctantly, heading back to Port Antonio.  We made good use of the final couple of hours of our hire car by doing a beer run to one of the supermarkets before returning to BV for a well-earned quiet evening after a busy few days.

Port Antonio, Jamaica

Port Antonio Jamaica Part 1

Errol Flynn Marina at Port Antonio.  Left: the excellent dinghy dock

Errol Flynn Marina at Port Antonio

We arrived at Port Antonio at 0910 on Monday 20 January out of a torrential rainstorm.  Even in the rain, the harbour and marina were attractive, lush and green, doubtless as a result of weeks and months of similar downpours.  We were met by the marina manager, George, who was very helpful and efficient and who gave us a huge pile of forms to be completed for quarantine, customs and immigration.

Buying fresh nutmeg and mace

After a couple of hours we’d been cleared as safe for Jamaican soil by all the officials so we wandered into the town to get some local currency (the Jamaican Dollar can only be obtained in Jamaica) and stretch our legs.  When in Jamaica one must eat Jerk meat, so we had jerk chicken with rice and peas for lunch at food place near the town centre and then took a look at the market.  Even though it was after lunch, it was still going reasonably strong and there were some fabulous looking fruit and veg on display.  We still had plenty of food left over from our supermarket run in Road Town so didn’t need to top up the fridge but we did buy a bag of nutmeg, complete with its mace, as our Grenada stocks were beginning to run low (down to our last 3 or 4!).  We also purchased a Jamaican flag to use as a courtesy ensign as the flag we had used on entry was really far too small to keep flying.

Linde at anchor close to the marina

There were several other yachts in Errol Flynn Marina that we had met previously: Linde, with a Dutch couple whom we had met in St Peter’s and then Halifax in Nova Scotia in 2018, was at anchor off the marina and Incentive with Rik and Sanne, friends of Steve and Carol on Innamorata II whom we had we met in Beaufort NC, was in one of the marina berths.  It was good to catch up briefly with both crews, but they had each been here for a week or more and were planning on moving on now that the wind had died down.

Beach just east of the cruise ship dock

We strolled around the marina facilities and out to the small cruise ship complex close north of the marina.  It’s not used that much anymore.  George said that the next ship wasn’t due in until 9 February and the last had visited in mid-January, presumably because so many cruise ships are just too big to use the facilities here.  The passenger complex was closed up but the beach alongside is very attractive, if one ignores the concrete backdrop.  It reminded us rather of the large cruise ship dock on Grand Turk, where too the passengers are expected to use the beach right adjacent to the ship’s berth.  It seems a little odd to us.  Hardly an idyllic tropical island outlook from underneath your idyllic tropical island palm tree.

View out along the channel between West Harbour (where Errol Flynn Marina is located) and East Harbour towards the entrance to Port Antonio and the Folly Point Lighthouse.  Navy Island, which provides significant shelter to West Harbour, is on the left of the picture

Errol Flynn Marina from the cruise ship dock.  BV is mostly hidden behind the large motoryacht but you can see her mast with the OCC burgee at the masthead

Looking through the planting to the swimming pool at Marybelle’s, the marina bar

From the cruise ship dock we wandered back along the foreshore to the marina complex, ending up at the Marybelle’s, the marina bar.  Here we had arranged to meet Conner and Karl from Contigo, an American flagged Beneteau 423 a couple of berths down the marina from us.

A more conventional view of Marybelle’s, the marina bar

We had a lovely evening with the two of them hearing about how they started sailing, the places they have visited and some of their plans for the rest of this season.  It sounds as if we might well end up meeting them in several places along our route this year, particularly over the next few months where it seems as if we have almost exactly the same plans.  But, like Linde and Incentive, they had been in Port Antonio for an extended period and had plans to move on in a couple of days’ time.  But that would give time enough to meet up again and swap further notes on places to visit both here and further afield.

The West Harbour anchorage from Marybelle’s

The next day (Tuesday 21 January) we moved out of the marina to the anchorage, saving ourselves US$15 a day in the process.  The charge for a marina berth is US$0.95/ft/night, about US$40/night for BV, whereas the charge for the anchorage is US$25/night.  (To these you also need to add an additional US$3 environmental/rubbish disposal fee for each night you are in residence on the boat.)  For every 2 nights spent in the marina, we could have 3 at anchor and have the benefit of a quieter time (no squeaking fenders) and better airflow, albeit at the expense of less convenience in going ashore, though the dinghy dock is excellent.

Shades of a year ago in Cuba…...  We’ve removed the saloon table to expose the top of the aft fuel tank and all its feeds to the various diesel users (engine, generator, heater) as well as the priming pump for the generator

We spent the rest of the day working on the generator to see if we could find the reason why it failed to keep running.  Ironically, the last time we had a problem like this, in Cuba and the Bahamas last year, I spent ages working through all the likely sources of a fuel supply blockage but it turned out to be a couple of faults in the wiring.  This time, with the generator firing up, running for a few minutes but then shutting down, I assumed that we had a loose connection in the control circuit again.  However, after hours of work in the machinery space, it turned out to be a fuel supply problem with a blockage in the fuel line priming pump.  After running various tests we removed the pump (it’s a sealed unit and can’t be opened and cleaned) and the generator ran perfectly once again.  I made a temporary bodge connection in the fuel supply line for the short term, awaiting a proper fix using some copper tubing once I’d sourced some of the right size from a hardware store.  So, a success, albeit a lengthy time in getting there.  On the down-side, we can’t find the replacement plugs for the generator fuel supply relay (the plug that was a problem last time).  Whilst I was busy checking wiring looms etc, Nicky searched high and low for the spare plugs.  Somehow, they’ve not made it onto the spares inventory which, given that they were delivered to us at Phil and Lesley’s home last June, means that they could be almost anywhere on the boat.  Oh, we are so looking forward to pulling BV pieces some more to find them!

Night-time view across the anchorage

We had a peaceful evening at anchor, enjoying the airflow through the boat, despite the very settled conditions.  However, at 0230hrs I was woken by some splashing and talking, and found that 4 locals had paddled out on a bamboo raft and that one of them was trying to climb up onto the back of BV.  Happily, shouting at them and waving a bright torch (flashlight) scared them off.  I tried taking some pictures but, unsurprisingly, nothing came out, though the flash helped to discourage them from returning.  They then paddled across to the other yacht in the anchorage.  Shining the flashlight at them again dissuaded them from going too close, though there were protests of innocence “What’s up, mon?”  We spent the rest of the night holding an anti-burglary anchor watch (which allowed me to sort out some photos for the blog) and moved back into the marina when it was light.  Spend to save!

Looking for hardware stores in Port Antonio

Street vendor

With BV back in the marina we continued our exploration of Port Antonio, primarily its shopping opportunities.  We visited various hardware stores and bought a length of copper pipe to fit in place of the priming pump in the generator fuel supply run.  In the process of finding hardware stores we checked out most of the town’s ‘super’markets, revisited the market and noted the local street vendors.

The patty cabin at the bus station

Most of the school population of Port Antonio seems
to frequent the bus station’s patty shack

Importantly, we also investigated some of the street food – in this instance the bus station’s patty-shack.  We found the patties here to be excellent and went back several times during our stay in Port Antonio for a quick and easy lunch.

In the evening we invited Karl and Conner from Contigo and Jared from Snoepje (single-handing in a Pacific Seacraft 24) for drinks on board BV.  They were fun company and we talked long and late, in and amongst some of which lots of good information was shared around.

Saying goodbye to Karl and Conner

Sadly, that night was Karl and Conner’s last at Port Antonio so first thing in the morning of Thursday 23 January we waved goodbye to them as they set off for Grand Cayman.  Then we headed ashore to explore transport options for a trip into the Blue Mountains at the weekend.

The park in the marina grounds was very lively with a schools outing

We visited the taxi stand, the local route bus station and the larger coach station to size up all of the options available to us.  It looked as if we would need to take a route bus or a coach to Kingston and then either a taxi or a series of buses from there up into the hills.  After that we expected to walk from the end of the road to the accommodation at Whitfield Hall, from where we would hike to Blue Mountain Peak.

The Errol Flynn marina main building

Returning to the marina we saw that Karl and Conner had returned; they had found a crack developing in their pushpit/davits and so turned back just an hour into their passage towards Grand Cayman.  Happily, the next day a local welder was able to help them to ameliorate the problem until they can have it fixed properly by a specialist marine stainless-steel welder, probably in Grand Cayman.  In the meantime, we discussed our plan for the Blue Mountains with them and Jared and they all said that they’d be interested in joining us.  Cue a bit more detailed planning – but at least the costs suddenly looked a lot more reasonable!  We spent the remainder of the day in a flurry of planning and bookings – car hire (with 5 people a car was more cost effective than buses and it would give us the flexibility to visit a coffee plantation too), accommodation, food and a guide, and a visit to the aforementioned coffee plantation.  It was shaping up to be a good weekend.

(Left) a carpenters’ shop we visited on Titchfield Peninsula.  (Right) Colourful local bar we spotted on the way to picking up the hire car

Friday 24 January dawned overcast but the weather forecast was looking favourable for our dawn hike on Sunday.  We did some baking so that we would have snacks for the hill (flapjack) and something to eat with our coffee at our unfeasibly early wake-up call on Sunday morning (ginger cake).  Neither was a triumph!  I forgot to add the oil to the cake mix so Suzanne’s ginger cake was less cake-like and instead rather rubbery and chewy.  Meanwhile the BBC Good Food testers let us down with their flapjack recipes which turned out more like granola than flapjack.  So, to relax, we took a stroll around the Titchfield Peninsula, the high ground to the north of the marina.

An information board outside the marina informed us that “the Titchfield Hill Peninsula was first settled in the 1720s and was named after the English estate of the Duke of Portland, who was Governor of Jamaica at the time of the formation of the parish of Portland.  The peninsula contains Fort George, the old Military Barracks and a number of houses reflecting various historic styles of architecture from England and America.  Many of the houses were built in the late 1800s as residences for merchants when the banana trade made Portland prosperous.  Captain Lorenzo Baker, one of the pioneers of the banana trade, encouraged Americans to visit the island, travelling on his ships, and the merchant houses on the peninsula housed the few tourists who visited.  As the trips to Jamaica became more popular, Baker built the Titchfield Hotel, giving Portland the distinction of being the birthplace of tourism in Jamaica.  The peninsula remains residential though some of the houses have become guest houses.”

Tourism done for the day, at 1700 we headed across to the hire car company, finished off the paperwork and picked up the car in preparation for a prompt start the next day.  And to ensure that we were all happy with the weekend’s plan of campaign we had a quick team briefing in BV’s cockpit over a couple of beers before final packing and good night’s sleep.

Port Antonio, Jamaica