May 25, 2013-Anchored at Jolly Harbor

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Mountains Around Jolly Harbor.

I go on deck after dinner.

I have a glass of wine in my hand.

It is calm here in an easterly, which we have tonight, in the protected bay off Jolly Harbor. There are hills around this anchorage which wrap us like arms of a protecting father, leaving us open to only the West and Southwest although that is where the trouble would come from if there was trouble. From the weather that is. The storms often come from the SW.

But tonight there is no storm, only some gusty east winds which are blowing clouds rapidly past us and making a low moan in the rig. It is not loud enough to bother me tonight but I hear it; I hear every sigh and moan of that wind, even in my sleep. After 30 years on a boat you do that.

We’d like to be heading south but computer problems keep us here. Dell says we need a new mother board which sounds to me about as trivial as a heart transplant. The motherboard is being shipped. It all makes me worry.

And around us several other boats sit quietly. Late leavers like us, maybe also like us, anxious about the turn of the weather. Hurricane season officially starts in a week or two.

I look at the moon and see the speed of the clouds. I wonder if the gusts will be hard enough to flip up the dingy which hangs on the side of Wings. Then I would have to let it down to the water and to float astern. But now it looks OK.

In the moonlight I see those protecting hills standing like sentinels around us.

I remember other places where the hills surrounded us; Tanjung Ruh, in Malaysia, for one. That was a few years back.

At the head of the bay, behind some trees, there is the loom of some bright lights; maybe a sports stadium in the village in the back.

To the south, on the tallest hill, a string of street lamps snakes up almost to the crest where more lights indicate there are homes up there. I think they might have good views but if they look out their windows tonight, towards the bay where we lie, I doubt that they would know we are here. They wouldn't even see our anchor light.

As I sip my wine standing on the dark on the foredeck of Wings I wonder if we’ll ever get out of here.

Surely we will, but other problems could come up.

Well, we’ll see what they are in good time. For now I tip up my wine glass and go below.

Also

We went to Shirley Heights with some friends to see the sunset and hear some music.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Guitar Player

Click here to see a few more shots from Shirley Heights

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Jolly Harbor, Antigua