Jurassic Antigua

It's been raining since the day after we arrived in Antigua about a week ago, dampening everything including our enthusiasm for sailing around to the North Sound and Barbuda. The forecast is beginning to look better though so we'll pull up the anchor and move along soon.

The trusty John H sits patiently in the rain

On the up side, we've got lots of water. Our tanks are literally full to overflowing and the bucket I always put out to catch the rain that drips off the corner of the solar panels as the boat rocks, is full too. Saralane's decks are as clean as can be from the heavy rains and with the abundance of water, we're all caught up on laundry.

Drying laundry is tricky in this weather though. It involves stringing many lines from various parts of the bimini frame and hoping the wind doesn't shift too quickly and let the rain blow in to soak things I've hung on the lines. It also involves some gymnastics when moving around the cockpit so as not to garrote ourselves in the process.

Those drips add up to four gallons

I've advanced my wildlife photography skills a wee bit since we've been here, though to be truthful it's due more to the fact that this specimen wasn't moving much than to any real improvement on my part. The mantra of one of my college photo professors that's stuck with me all these years was "F8 and be there". In other words.... it's less about the details of your camera settings and more about just being there with your camera ready. (See references to: 'best shots I didn't get', in multiple previous posts.) I was camera-ready for this guy.

This was the first thing we saw when we peeked up out of the V-berth hatch when we heard a noise. 

Looks kind of prehistoric

We set up an awning over the hatch to block the sun's heat during the day and so that we can keep the hatch open if it's raining during the night. The awning blocked our view of the whole creature, so we inched forward for a better view.

Prehistoric and BIG

You can just barely see the two thin plumes that stem from his crown and stick out a bit above his 'shoulders' (do birds have shoulders?). Our best guess, based on the bird books we have on board, is that it's a Night Heron. We're open to any corrections or additional information. 

Well the sun is up and the weather looks good, so we're off to new territory (North Sound/Bird Island area) and old territory (Barbuda) for a week or so. More soon....