Deep Bay Antigua - Good Day

March 29th 2015

We pulled into this small bay yesterday afternoon. It was rather crowded with 14 boats anchored but we found a place.  The winds were still up around 20 knots.  They dropped off in the evening some and stayed down until mid morning.  

This morning we opted for water toys early to beat the winds.  After the morning Coconut Net (8am frequency 8170) I hopped on the SUP board and paddled ashore for some yoga on the beach.  My version of yoga - stretching, breathing, looking around, poking things in the sand as I do various poses, and happy thoughts combined with some therapy moves for various body parts.  I certainly have my share of those Physical Therapy sheets from all the surgeries and issues through the years!  This morning was great because no one else was on this beach.  No one to critic or laugh at my my yogie bear style yoga...not that I care....it was just nice to have it all to myself.  Tom launched the kayak and paddled by as his explored Deep Bay via that particular mode of transportation.  We both returned to the boat mid morning via quick downwind runs - winds were building.  Tom decided to work on the teak eyebrow on deck.  I got busy cleaning and waxing the port topside.  Last week I did the starboard side.  Remember dear readers.....cruising is fixing your boat in exotic locales.  This includes basic maintenance like sanding, cleaning, polishing and waxing.  In the mean time many boats cleared out and only a few arrived to take their place.  

After lunch we decided to check out the shipwreck in the middle of the enterance of the bay.  

The Andes , according to the Doyle Guidebook, it is a three masted iron barque that caught fire in 1905 and sank upright on the bottom.  A mast stump can be see just above the surface on most days.  I have never snorkeled a wreck and asked Tom to stay near by as I thought it might freak me out.  I generally don't like seeing wrecked boats whether in the lagoon in Sint Martin, on a windward beach or otherwise.  FYI -  I don't like reading sea stories where the boat is wrecked or sinks either.  Sure enough, it was a bit alarming at first.  The hull just suddenly appears.  Ugh!  Even Tom admitted it was a tad creepy at first.  But as we swam along I became cautiously used to it.  As you can imagine, it has turned into a reef of it's own with coral fans waving and schools of small fish floating this way and that.  

We rounded out the afternoon in the cockpit listening to my newly returned iPod aka MY playlists.  Special note of thanks to friends Michael Goff for picking it up from the repair shop and to Kevin and Lisa for delievering it down to me.  We watched a lovely sunset and enjoyed dinner in the cockpit as usual.

March 30th

When we went to raise the anchor this morning it was stuck.  I mean really stuck.  Finally Tom decided that we had snagged a cable of some sort.  We didn't see it when we dove on the anchor so we must have stirred up the sand trying to raise anchor.  Driving forward over it did not do the trick.  We were stuck good.  Tom grabbed his fins, mask and gloves and jumped in the water to see what he could do.    I worked the windlass at the bow, letting more chain back out so he would have slack.  Tom dove down over and over trying to wiggle and pry it loose.  It is a big anchor, heavy chain and a big cable = stuck.  Finally Tom got it to where he thought we could get free.  He had me drive forward while raising the anchor using the windlass switch in the cockpit.  We don't use that because when we do we are basically anchoring blind.  However, it was the only way I could raise the anchor since Tom was in the water.  Oh yeah.....and I had to be sure I didn't run over Tom in the process as well!  But he stayed off to the side and gave me hand signals on the progress and it worked, we popped free.  No, we didn't cut some cable carrying power or phone ashore.  Tom said it was really old wire cable, like the cable used to tow barges and such.  It was not on any charts we had.  *Note - if there is an underwater cable, the chart generally shows the approximate area.