Jamaica

Our first stop in Jamaica was Port Antonio. Given that the bay is so small and we were required to take a mooring ball at the Eryl Flynn Marina which is in a small bay surrounded by mountains. The bay is very sheltered, its mirror flat water was in sharp contrast to what we had become accustomed over the last month. The marina is government operated. It has an amazing haul out facility (which we did not need) and a fabulous office, restaurant, bar, internet, beach complex. It seemed like we had landed in front of a resort. It is part of a gated park with a landscaped waterline that was safe and secure. Locals could enter, but the gates kept the impoverished out. Unfortunately, there were a couple local bars that were a part of the waterfront that played loud music until 3 or 4 in the morning. The music took some getting used to.

Port Antonio is a small town of about 1,400 people and it seemed like all 1,400 of them were out and about at any time, working or shopping in the stores or the market or standing on the street. The town has not yet been taken over by the tourist industry or modern retail for that matter. There were many poor people and lots of very thin dogs on the street. The streets were jammed packed full of cars, people, trucks, and goods for sale. Other than the fast food Jucei Patti restaurant (excellent jamaican patties) all other stores we saw were small locally owned shops (but we had heard there was a KFC somewhere downtown). The density of the downtown allowed us to go to 3 hardware stores, 4 grocery stores, the patty shop, the bank and a restaurant in about a 3 minutes walk. Vegetables were not available in the grocery stores, but 6 days a week there is an outdoor vegetable market. Port Antonio was far different than the Bahamas so we had culture shock on our first two outings. By the third day, we stepped over a man sleeping on the sidewalk without thinking about it. It reminded Steve of his years living downtown in T.O. You get used to things pretty quickly when you need to. It also took the panhandlers about 3 days to recognize us, before they started to ignored us along with the locals.

We had checked the exchange rate on the internet before we went to the bank machine (Scotia Bank is all over the Caribbean) but we must have slipped a digit somewhere. We took out $500 Jamaican dollars which we thought would be enough to last us for the week. When we went to the vegetable market, we found that it was only enough to buy a few things . It turns out we had only taken out $10.00 Canadian so we had to make the most of it.

Fresh vegetables everywhere, we were excited. We hadn’t seen this kind of selection for two months. Vendors were calling us from every direction. Lady Lady, Mister Mister. At the second or third stall in we stopped, so did all the bidding and calling out for our business. This stall had 15 carrots, one cauliflower head, a handful of soft beans and 5 or 6 potatoes for sale. Our first purchase was carrots and a cauliflower head. We asked the nice little old farm lady how much for the carrots. She scooped up a handful of the knarliest little twisted, bent and crooked carrots you had ever seen in your life into a bag and gave us a price. Not knowing what the value of the money was, we looked at each other what seemed like an eternity, trying to do some dollar conversion in our head, but with no reasonable idea of the rate, we trusted this nice short crooked old lady and said yes. She then asked if we wanted anything else. Not having seen a cauliflower in a dogs age, we asked to look at it. It was the smallest sorriest spot covered cauliflower I had ever seen, but it looked like heaven, so without knowing the price we paid up and moved further into the remaining market stalls with our change. As we got further into the market the stalls had more selection of vegetables, they were larger, healthier and cheaper. But weren’t sold by old ladies, we spent the remainder of our money at the stalls with the people that thought need a sale.

After 5 days in Port Antonio we sailed for a few hours to reach Ocho Rios (Eight Rivers). We had heard that the only place in all of Jamaica that we might be able to buy a dive tank was at the dive shop behind the Burger King in Ocho Rios. Ocho Rios is a tourist town, the streets were full of tourists from hotels and cruise ships. Lots of standard tourist stores selling tee shirts and sandals. Not that interesting compared to Port Antonio. After searching within a couple blocks in all directions of the Burger King (and asking lots of people for directions), we discovered that that dive shop had closed down last year. Oh well, we got a couple of Baskin & Robbins cones and Juici Patties and called it a day. However the night was just beginning. Again, we were kept awake by loud music until all hours of the morning.

We carried on the next day to Montego Bay. We were just going to stay a day or two until the weather looked good for our next passage but it was 12 days later before we pulled up anchor. We spent a couple days re-provisioning. A mile outside of town, we were surprised to find a big box development. But glad to walk through the air conditioned grocery store and hardware stores so we loaded up on lots of stuff. The marine supply store was only about 10 feet long and 6 feet wide but they charged twice as much just to make up for it. The one good thing was that they knew a guy who knew a guy who had a used dive tank he would sell us. Despite it’s questionable origin, we decided to buy it so that the next time we got caught up in a fishing net, we wouldn’t have to hope there was a fisherman nearby with a tank we could borrow.

One night, we had a torrential downpour. I awoke in the middle of the night and realized our dinghy which was up on the davits (bracket that holds it out of the water) would be filled with water which would now weigh hundreds of extra pounds. I went up on deck (in the downpour) just in time to see the seat of the dinghy float over the edge and away. I let the plug out of the dinghy so that it could drain while still in the air. The next day, we saw a Boston Whaler that had sunk at the dock overnight in the down pour.

When the cruise ships came into Montego Bay, they would come within 100 feet of our anchored boat. We could feel the turbulence from their bow thrusters rock our boat. It was amazing to see them dock in such close quarters. I found myself each morning having my breakfast in the cockpit and wondering what the people on the cruise ships were eating. The cruise ships would come in about 6 am in the morning and leave about 5 or 6 pm. We had about 3 hours of quiet before the bar across the bay (at least a mile away) started cranking up the tunes. The loud music lasted until 6 am in the morning. We realized after a couple days that we had arrived in Jamaica during spring break. If we thought we were going to get some sleep here we were sadly mistaken.

After a few days in Montego Bay, Stephen developed a really bad head cold. We decided we did not want to start out on our next passage until he was feeling better. It was over a week before he felt well enough to do the passage. After 12 days in Montego Bay, we set sail for Isle de Providencia, Columbia.

A couple of hours into day one, the wind speed rose to 30 to 35 knots, and remained there for 8 hours. It was ok since we were going down wind. The seas were very steep. We need to turn the boat into the wind to reef the mainsail, the waves were so short and steep our bow was buried by a breaking wave. We were very glad to have a boat with a very robust buoyant bow. Other than one short squall we had 3 days of excellent conditions…15 - 20 knots of wind and 6 foot seas on a beam reach. On the last morning, when the sun came up, we found 4 flying fish on the deck. These critters are fun to watch (when they haven‘t beached themselves). They launch themselves out of the water and fly for up to 100 feet in distance just inches above the water with their little fins flapping away until they lose height and crash into an oncoming wave. If we hadn‘t been just arriving in port, we would have hooked them on our fishing lines and used them as bait. Waste not, want not..

We arrived in Isle de Providencia, Columbia around 9:00 am. It is a gorgeous, lush mountainous island which we look forward to exploring. More on that later.