Making the most of an unplanned stop

      For a place we only intended to stop a little while to rest and recover, Jamaica held us tightly for quite a while. We checked in at Montego Bay on November 17, and finally departed on January 22. Did we enjoy our stay? That’s an interesting question to try to answer. On some days, we did, and on other days, it was a difficult time—that’s the short answer, I suppose, and I’ll try to explain better. 

     The original thought was that we would go straight from Panama to Port Antonio, on Jamaica’s northeast coast, to be best situated for a run through the Windward Passage on to the Bahamas. Everyone knows how that plan worked out and that we ended up having to aim for Montego Bay instead. After repairs done in Montego Bay, we were only able to move as far as Discovery Bay before the tradewinds picked up again and kept us from going further. At last, shortly after Thanksgiving, we got up in the middle of the night, and got out of there. We had realized that at night, wind comes off the island and counteracts the waves from the trade winds. Therefore, that was the right time for us to go. The end of a 12-hour motor run saw us arriving at Errol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio, where we would stay for nearly two months. 

     Boats came and went during our stay. A number of boats had come through the Windward Passage from the Bahamas, bound for Panama. Others came from Aruba and Curacao, with plans to go to the Dominican Republic, or west to Cayman, Mexico, or Central America. The Kyrie crew seemed to be the oddballs, trying to get through the Windward, at the wrong time of year. So we watched the boats coming and going, meeting new people and saying farewell, all the while waiting for our turn. 

     What did we do during that time? I wish we could have explored Jamaica more. What we saw was beautiful and we heard stories from others about the mountains and rivers and jungles. But we were pretty much confined to Port Antonio and where we could go in a day because we had Rio with us. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend visiting Jamaica if you have a dog. There are strict quarantine rules for animals coming in to the country and there aren’t any exceptions for dogs on cruising boats. We had friends who had been in touch with the Ministry of Agriculture, their dog had had the rabies titer test, they had done a bunch of paperwork, and the dog still could only be let off the boat to run on the dock—not ashore on the marina property, or anywhere else—and that was after three weeks of being in Jamaica. Because we hadn’t planned on stopping at any other island that required it (not to mention the cost and amount of time it takes), we didn’t bother getting a titer test done for Rio. As a result, our poor pup was confined to Kyrie the entire time we were in Jamaica. He did alright though. We played with him a lot and I think he got a lot more treats during that time than usual! 

     Port Antonio is a neat town. We discovered the culinary delights known as Jamaican patties (think Cornish pasties, but thinner), as well as various incarnations of jerk chicken and jerk pork, which ran the gamut of spice levels. Piggy’s was easily our favorite—look for the building in the background of the most recent James Bond movie. The cast and crew apparently ate there frequently while the movie was being filmed in Port Antonio! The people there were lovely. The workers in our favorite stores came to recognize us fairly quickly and said hello whenever we came in to shop. 

     Without a vehicle, however, it was difficult to go many places and see much, so we found our time a little boring. Our kids were the only ones in the marina, so they had a hard time. The weather forecasts were confusing and the windows to get through the Windward Passage would show up, only to rapidly shrink. In desperation, we utilized Chris Parker for weather routing. We’ve heard a number of friends talking about using his services, but never used him ourselves. I can highly recommend him and his team now! The forecast they ended up zeroing in on and giving us was almost spot on.

     As I said, we were able to check out and leave on the morning of January 22. The wind was a bit stronger than forecast, but the seas were manageable and we even sailed part of the time. We had friends say to expect at least a call on the radio from the U.S. Coast Guard while traveling through, but we heard from no one the entire trip. We chose to stick closer to Cuba and got through just fine, arriving at Matthew Town, Great Inagua island in the Bahamas about 50 hours after departing Jamaica.