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| English Harbor, Antigua. Tropic Moon, front and center |
English Harbor, on the southern coast of Antigua,
is one of the most beautiful and popular anchorages in the Caribbean. The
bay goes well inland with several twists and turns. For the
Christmas season, 1979, we left Tropic Moon in English Harbor and flew home to
the States. We moored Tropic Moon, tied to the roots of mangrove trees,
in one of the smaller inlets at the head of the bay. We left our dinghy
with Ted, a fellow on another sailboat.
He kept an eye on Tropic Moon while we were away.
We were in the States
for almost three weeks, spending part of the time at my sister’s in Arlington,
Virginia, where my parents joined us, and part of the time with Ed’s folks on
Long Island. It was nice to have “a
vacation from our vacation,” and see our families again. We slipped in and out of winter without
seeing any snow, and with a low temperature of 25 degrees. The cold didn’t bother us nearly as much as
we had expected. We returned to Antigua
laden with new paperback books, cassettes for the tape deck, and film for the
camera.
The day we returned to Antigua, by the time we reached English Harbor, it was already dark. Some nice people with a dinghy ferried Ed out to Tropic Moon.
I sat down with the luggage to wait.
Ed suggested that if he didn’t show up in an hour, I should try to find
my own ride out to the boat! I waited about twenty minutes before some guy asked me if I was going to sit on the dock all night. I explained my
problem. He very nicely offered me a
ride in his dinghy. He took me - plus
my tote bag, the duffel bags, and the new solar panels - out to Tropic Moon.
The only evidence we
found of Ed on the boat was his shoes and socks. The boat was locked, so I had another wait. When Ed had reached Tropic Moon, he found
the dinghy gone. We had told Ted he
could use it while we were away, and we'd come back a day early. The people who ferried Ed to Tropic Moon
then offered to take him to Ted’s boat.
Ed found Ted, our dinghy, the keys for our boat, and some of our
laundry - which Ted had sent out to be washed.
Ted had stripped the bunks, and also found some other dirty sheets,
which I’d stuffed in the hanging locker in the aft cabin. I guess things had started to smell; I’m
afraid his nose must have led him to them….
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| Tropic Moon is on the far left. Orange nose (sail bag) and blue awning |
Our experiences of going without electricity when the engine
wasn’t working, and Ed’s general dislike of running the engine to charge the
batteries, helped us make the decision to give solar energy a try. We purchased two solar panels while in the
States, and have been using them to charge the batteries since our return. They charge at the rate of one amp when the
sun is shining. It’s fun to watch the
effect of passing clouds on the amp meter Ed constructed. Ed decided against attaching the solar
panels to the cabin top, as it's advantageous to be able to prop them up, and turn
them to catch the full effects of the sun.
So far, the solar panels are keeping the charge in the batteries,
despite increased use of the lights and tape deck. The engine will be relegated to getting us in and out of harbors.
