Hide and Seek
Location: Underway to Antigua
At several points in my time working at Seamester, I’ve been warned about the Nevis Black Hole, where the wind angle makes it difficult to make progress motoring from Nevis to Antigua. This morning, we were making only 3 to 4 knots as Nevis still loomed astern of us. It took many hours for the small island of Redonda to pass us, and finally, around lunchtime, we saw Antigua emerging from the clouds on the horizon. Three rainbows flanked the island, sunbeams piercing through the light summer showers blanketing the tops of the mountains. As we made our final approach in the evening, sheets of diagonal rain cooled us down and rinsed the deck of all of the spray we had taken on the way up.
We anchored in Falmouth Harbor at 6 pm and sat down to dinner and a Squeeze. I chose to end things in a less-than-traditional way: “To end, squeeze, we’re going to play hide and seek.” And then I covered my eyes and started counting down from 60.
Rowan was hiding above the fridge. Kate and Grayson were hiding in the engine room. Emma was hiding in a sail. Martin was hiding behind a dinghy. Sam is hiding under the bowsprit. Alexis, Bryce, and Chloe were hiding in their bunks. Mack was hiding in the chartreuse. Sasha was hiding in the galley bilge. Nobody was hiding in the anchor locker, surprisingly. It took me a very long time to find everybody.
Tomorrow we step ashore in Antigua.