17 February A round island dash

With cases of Coronavirus continuing to rise on island there are new measures in place from today until 21 March. 

We all have to be home, or on our boats, from 6pm in the evening and gatherings are capped at 5 people.   Bars remain closed and restaurants can only serve take away.  In practical terms the 6pm curfew means shops are closing by 5 or 5.30pm.   

How does this affect us?  Not significantly.  It would have been nice to have a take away from our favourite Indian restaurant one night.  I'll create on board instead.

We rented a car yesterday, and to ensure we complied with being home by 6pm, we were at the door of the rental office as they opened.   Our 'to do' list was long and took us to the extremes of the northern part of the island.  We had gas bottles to be filled at West Indies Gas Company north of St Johns and they had to be dropped off by 10am to ensure a same day pick up.  David was hoping to find a two radiator caps for our engine and generator, both had developed leaks, both were of the larger, older style than are found on modern cars.  We were lucky and found them at the first shop we went to.

Finding a stock of spare bridge rectifiers (converts AC to DC) for the generator was easier then we had expected.  The first shop we had been advised to try didn't stock them. However, the supplier they recommended to us did and sold them to us duty free.  I'd brought our check in papers which gives us yacht in transit status.

During the day we also had to drive out to North Sound marina, a twenty mile round trip from St Johns, to deliver our old Raymarine chart plotter, old AIS to their new owner.  Two weeks ago on the Antigua FB group someone had asked if anyone had a second hand Raymarine E80 to sell.  We did and agreed a price.  All we had to do was deliver them to him.  Except the buyer changed his mind and we brought them home again.  On the plus side we saw a different part of the island and North Sound marina and decided it was too remote to consider as a place to haul Jackster this season.

The penultimate item on our list was buy food at the large Epicurean supermarket. I found most things and we loaded the (small) car loaded and were on our way to pick up the gas bottles from West Indies Company, conveniently sited half a mile up the road from the supermarket.  We arrived ten minutes after the designated 3pm pick up, paid and were almost ready for home.  There was still enough time to take the scenic route via smaller Epicurean at Jolly Harbour in the hope of finding the remaining essentials which the larger market didn't have in stock.  The detour was worth it as I found what we needed / wanted.

We were back at the car rental shop in Falmouth with thirty minutes to spare and back on Jackster before the sun set for the day.  We'd found radiator caps, electrical parts, provisions and seen more of Antigua.

Finally, after we'd stowed everything, we sat in the cockpit with a gin and tonic and toasted a job and a day well done.