Clark! I don’t want to spend the holidays...dead!

It’s been a fun few days in Anguilla! After a 60+ hour sail (two nights underway)in the open ocean we approached the island in dramatic fashion. The Captain, who naturally sleeps very little while underway, decided to catch a little shut-eye in the early morning hours of January 8. He set the auto pilot heading for the SW portion of the island and curled up on the floor of the cockpit. Around 6:55am I awoke to a loud constant beeping, much like a fire alarm. I jumped up and ran up to the helm to find Lee DEAD asleep and the boat rapidly approaching the Four Seasons Hotel (formerly known as the Viceroy) on the cliffs of Meads Bay. In his deep sleep he did not hear it. - Sidenote. This sort of reminds me how the dad never hears the baby monitor when you have an infant. He was 4 feet away from the beeping and I was in the forward port cabin and heard it and he did not.??? whatevs!!- Anyway I rushed to the helm and kicked his foot.. He awoke very disoriented asking over and over what time it was, which CLEARLY was NOT the immediate concern at that point. Thankfully, we had time to alter our course so that we made it more than four days on our big adventure. Reminds me of the quote from Christmas vacation when Clark gets caught under the lumber truck OTW to get the Christmas tree, “ I don’t want to spend the holidays dead.” - We are all alive!

We anchored in Road Bay. Interestingly,  its the only place on the entire island that is free to anchor. In order to go anywhere else you have to purchase a cruising permit. I have quickly realized that this trip is an opportunity to enlighten my children on basic economics. We dinghyed (is that how you spell it?) to immigration/customs to check in and instead of paying $25 a person they bargained with us to buy a $60 cruising pass. So we saved $40 whether we decide to cruise to another anchorage or not?? Kids thought that was was crazy.. i explained that it’s the islands’ way of promoting local tourists to spend money in other places. Win-win, right?

The first day we just explored the beaches of Road Bay (after schoolwork, of course) which were lovely .. giant connect four games, more tiki toss for Charlie, (now 24 for 409) and had an easy dinner on the boat. We had lunch at a place called Elvis Beach Bar and later learned that it was in fact Elvis Presley’s birthday. True! 

Jan 9: Day two we had to investigate a way to get our Jib repair complete. Lee rented a car to transport the jib to the sail repair guy. (His name was Jimmy Carter.. but he was not a former US president) The fun part was trying to fold up the jib which is around 1200 ft.² and put it on our small dinghy to shore, carry it down the dinghy dock and shove it into the trunk of the rental car, in which it really did not fit. (See pics!) 

While Lee was dealing with those logistics, I tried to figure out our washing machine that was graciously given to us by the Fuquas and Owens’s family for Christmas. By the way, raise your hand if you’ve ever checked a washing machine on an airplane? ✋🏼🙋🏻‍♀️ We have! Not a joke. And it was lighter than all three of our suitcases. Lol 😂 We got a few loads done and the school work for the day was all complete by the time Lee came back around 1 PM. We all headed in the rental car toward Crocus Bay for a quick visit (and to look for Harry Styles and Adele) then ultimately to Shoal Bay for the rest of the afternoon where we learned another lesson in economics. Four beach chairs for the day for $20 in exchange for free parking?  Thanks to “Ray da Man.” Still looking for Harry and Adele.. and no luck but we did find some really amazing calamari rings.

Our goal was to make it back before dark... as I mentioned it gets pitch black promptly at 6:30pm. We made a stop at the grocery store for some items we had been needing including a cutting board and a new spatula and brush (please reference things committed to DJL day 2). Grocery stores in Caribbean islands are weird. Also you have to bring your own bags which we clearly did not do from Greenville. (The store was not AldI or Lidl so how would I know this?)But we now have several reusable grocery bags for a future shopping experiences.

Made it back to the boat in time to give Mills her spelling test, Charlie his worldly wise test, do a few more loads of laundry and map out a plan for the next few days. 

Also we are considering adopting (stealing?) a baby goat 🐐 for the rest of our travels. They are really really cute and we found one wandering around lonely. We might go back and get him/her tomorrow. Mills really wants one for her birthday..!

I’m still going strong on the journaling. Lots of documentation needed on this journey.

HOS Lesson of the Day: “The highs and lows of the day ebb and flow much like tides, and we must adjust our lines (and attitude) for success. ”

Peace out for now ☮️ ✌️ ... thanks for following!!

List of things committed to DJL (See prior post for reference)

1. Deck chair (overboard in night squawl)

2. Brush (overboard during outdoor shower)

3. Spatula (overboard grilling burgers)

We’re averaging less than 1 item a day.. not bad!!