I have spent the last week alone anchored off Green island and mostly working on writing my next book. You would think my life would be very boring, but somehow it is not. Drama and action seems to find me. Or maybe my writers eye has an appreciation for stories as they unfold around me? I get a short visit from an Italian neighbor boat that surprises me. It seems there is a bunch of land drama following me, the FBI is after me?  I make a new friend who plays chess with me. Tomorrow I am going to sail away but undecided as to where at the moment.

 

 

Neighbors

I do admit that I usually try to anchor alone somewhere with a lot of open space around me. My sunset ritual of blaring my music and dancing on deck might be upsetting to any boomers that happen to anchor near. When they choose to anchor very near me however, that is their free choice. Usually if they do not like my sunset concerts they will up and move the next day. So for the first few days anchored here I was unsure about how the boat anchored near to my starboard bow might feel about the music, could he hear it at night?

 

 

I happened to notice that the old man anchored in front of me seemed to be an accomplished nudist. He was seldom ever wearing clothes and even left naked in his dinghy during the day to go naked to the beach in front of us. To each their own I figure.

 

I spend quite a bit of time naked and alone inside my own boat, as a solo sailor down here in the tropical heat I can understand the pure physics of wanting to stay cool. My Canadian blood is really not designed for tropical heat. It is hot here every single day above 30 degrees C and this is in the shade, go on deck in the sun and it gets much worse fast.

 

It was on my second day here when my neighbor dinghied over to say hello. I was wearing a bikini and working down below on the computer when I heard a voice call out very near WildChild. I stuck my head up and saw my Italian neighbor holding onto my starboard side. I greeted him in a friendly manner and was relieved when I saw that he had put on a blue swim suit.

I came up on the side deck and sat down to converse with my neighbor. Us solo sailors are sometimes hungry for conversation and often happy to have anyone to talk to. As I sat there it was difficult to not notice that old Italian dude’s schmeckle was hanging out of his very loose fitting shorts and laying on his thigh. We kept up the conversation in a completely normal way as one eyed willy was poking out for a little sun bath. I have not seen a weenie for over 2 years now and I was not exactly wanting to see old man weenie today. What is the proper way to handle such a social situation though? Nothing of my civilized life in Canada had ever prepared me for this scene.

 

 

Despite the ever present and intense gaze of his willy staring at me I tried to maintain eye contact with his big head and not look at the little head staring at me. I was relieved that my neighbor loved my music and his only complaint was turn it up louder. My little blue tooth speaker is really not that loud and does not go any louder. Trying to keep my eyes averted from the snake in the scene I kept a straight face and ended the conversation on a positive note.

Cruising life huh…   🙂

 

Land Drama

I do live a quiet life but I do also publish quite a bit about my little life publicly. I am very open about things. So as you read in my last blog the solo sail to get here was rather difficult for me and I did pass out a bunch of times. Nothing new for me, I have been passing out since I was 14 years old, I adapt to it, I know how to deal with it.

When I had arrived I had sent a short text message to a few friends letting them know that I had arrived and I was safe despite passing out 4 or 5 times on the sail here. One of the people I sent an “I’m OK text” to was Kevin.

Weirdly… on my second day here I got a bunch of strange texts from Kevin…

 

The whole thing seemed weird to me… private WhatsApp texts do not “go viral”… they are private messages sent to specific people. I had no idea what was going on with the land people but honestly… I was fine. Why would Kevin need or want a copy of my passport..? That seemed weird too.

Side story…

Now… in the background to this story…  on the terrible bad day at the beginning of March… as the ABSAR rescue people were about to take my friend Peter away… the nurse had removed Peters watch and handed it up to me. For the month of March I had no memory of what ever happened to that watch and thought nothing of it. I had assumed I must have set it down somewhere inside Peters boat. I was surprised when in early April I found the watch in my blue dry bag on my dinghy where I keep my flashlight.

Given that Peter no longer has any use for the watch and neither did I, I just set it on my NAV desk and forgot about it. About two weeks ago, when I went to meet Peters friend Kevin in Falmouth I brought the watch along to give to Kevin. Maybe he would like a token or memento of his friend too. I have kept Peters ball cap with his boat name on it to remember my friend by. It is like an emotional or spiritual token with Peters life energy in it. I thought hey… its a man’s watch… maybe Kevin might like it, I have no use for it.

When I gave it to Kevin he said he didn’t want it. He didn’t wear a watch. I was unsure what to do with the thing when Kevin told me it should go to Peter’s daughter Sabrina. I have no contact with her at all and would have no way to get it to her. Kevin said he would send it to her so I gave him the watch and left. I really thought nothing of it for the last few weeks. 

So fast forward to last Friday when I got these weird messages from Kevin all of a sudden. I had no idea about what has been going on in the background. The land drama is swirling around.

 

 

Imagine my surprise when the Antigua coast guard shows up the next day to board me for a sudden and random “safety inspection”. They came into the bay and came straight for me. They did not go to any other boats after me. They said they had received an anonymous report from a mysterious stranger who was suddenly concerned for my safety..  ?????

The coast guard people were very nice and it was clear the safety inspection was a ruse, for they did not actually check any of my safety gear just filled out a report.

I wondered… why me?

Next… later that day I get contacted via WhatsApp text message by the Canadian consular person for Antigua, some guy named Roy Benito. Also acting upon some anonymous concerned person’s worry about my safety. I assured him I was fine and I was wondering how and why all this land drama was finding me out in my peaceful anchorage.

The next day I get a WhatsApp phone call from a new friend I made last week who wanted to talk to me. I was happy to have a conversation with my nice friend and we chatted for about half an hour.

Imagine my surprise when he says… “Lexi I don’t want to alarm you but…”   the Antigua police are looking for you. The Canadian Government is looking for you. The American FBI is also looking for you. What have you been up to…?

Ummm… what..?  This is a big pile of crazy to land on me and given that I live a very peaceful boring life it came as quite a surprise to me.

It seems… according to the local Antigua land person’s rumor mill…  that gossip has been flying around me like mad recently….  it seems that the police are conducting an investigation about Peters death. They want to speak with me about it. This seems weird to me because they have my contact information from the beginning and they have never made any attempt to contact me before. There is land people concern about Peter’s wallet is missing…?  and someone has been using his credit cards..?   And it seems Kevin was caught trying to sell Peters watch..?

This all surprised me quite a bit and has little to do with me. I was surprised to hear though about Peters watch. I had never told anyone I gave it to Kevin so how would this guy know Kevin has it? Also it surprised me Kevin would try to sell the watch. I have the most expensive watch I have ever known, a Casio G-SHOCK dive watch and it cost me like $100usd. I admit on this I am naïve …  Peters watch was a ROLEX brand… and although that means nothing to me…  my friend tried to tell me it was worth thousands and thousands of dollars..?   That seems crazy to me… its just a freakin watch after all…  but it seems word is…  Kevin tried to sell it for $2000usd to some other American ex-pat here…?

The wallet… last I knew about it…. I had put it in Peter’s bag… and left the bag on Peter’s NAV desk for his daughter to collect thru the American consulate people… before I left Falmouth about 5 days after the bad day. I had gathered a bunch of Peters personal effects for Sabrina and was going to mail them to her when she told me the American consulate people would do all that. I have no idea if Peter had credit cards or where they might be. So I left everything right there on the NAV desk and locked up the boat… left the keys hidden… and sailed away two months ago.

Kevin then got the keys… hauled the boat to Sammy’s boat yard… and has been watching after the boat ever since.

My new friend was concerned that I was in trouble with the law.

None of this crazy mess has anything to do with me at all…  but it might explain Kevin’s weird behavior the day before with those bizarre texts he sent me that I showed you above. So I am unsure if the Antiguan police are looking for me or not. I am not hiding, never have been, and if they have been unable to find or contact me then they are terrible detectives.

My life is very public, my website live tracks my location all the time, the coast guard knows where I am. The Canadian government has contacted me and knows how to find me too. If the American FBI is looking for me they are welcome to come talk to me. I am not running from anything or hiding from anything. Although I would like to never talk about the death of my friend again, these memories are still painful and raw for me.

I have not done anything wrong…  but we all know that might not matter huh…

IDC

 

New Friend

Within ten minutes of my arrival here in the Green island anchorage a local guy named Devon showed up in his little speed boat and introduced himself to me. He gave me his business card and it seems he is the local provisions guy for this place. There is no land access here and no access for us sailors to be able to get rid of garbage or buy food. Devon offers these services for a nominal fee.

He is a very nice human being, charming civilized and polite, around my age…  (I think) and we had a pleasant conversation. I did tell him that I would love to be able to get some fresh refrigerated proper milk if possible… but I could not afford his $80usd delivery fee. He said no problem… he was going to be running for provisions for another yacht here and would just pick up milk for me at the same time, no delivery fee… the other people are paying it.

 

 

When I told Devon the mnemonic I use to help people remember my name (Captain sexy Lexi) he told me the mnemonic he uses is Devon from Heaven.   🙂     This made me smile. What a wonderful mnemonic device and for him, very apt. Devon is a very wonderful and nice man.

I had asked Devon out of the blue if he knew how to play chess. I have not had anyone to play chess with since Peter and I am looking for a new chess partner. Devon said he didn’t know how to play but was willing to learn. I invited him onboard and I began to teach him how to play chess. It was fun and he was wonderful company. I also introduced him to virtual reality for his first time and he loved it…!

We had fun.

 

Loneliness

I live a very isolated and lonely life out here on my yacht, but I am content. It is a good life. It could be made better by having someone to share it with. My Teddy bear is currently my best friend and as the loneliness creeps into my bones I find myself getting uncomfortably bonded to Teddy. Ever see the movie Cast away with Tom Hanks…  Teddy is becoming my mr. Wilson.

 

I talk to him all the time. I have been sleeping with him lately as I feel lonely and alone during the nights. Last night I cooked Indian butter chicken for dinner and sat Teddy down for dinner across from me so I would not feel so alone. I realize I am sort of pathetic but there seems to be little I can do about it.

People do go mad out here in the ocean and I can feel myself changing a lot inside. I am becoming a different person than the broken girl who sailed away from here to Europe a year ago. I am finally beginning to find a center of my being.

My life would be nearly perfect if I had someone to share it with. Today I read a bunch of stuff about Covid in Canada and India and I admit I feel very fortunate for the life I live out here. I do my best to combat the loneliness. I do seem to still be able to make friends and have normal conversations with people so I cannot be too crazy yet. Although I do joke around that sometimes I have arguments with Teddy… I am unsure how I will know when I have gone too far off the deep end out here alone.

In Canada you hear about something called “going shack wacky“… it is when people who live alone in log cabins out in the bush spend a winter isolated and alone in the snow… and eventually they go a bit nuts. They kind of step off the deep end as the social isolation destroys their soul. The isolation affects people in weird ways…

 

 

I have started writing my next book as I said I would in the last blog. It is going very well. It is very different from any of my previous books. It is a challenge to my writing skills to create this one, every word has to be carefully chosen and placed to fit in every sentence. So much craftsmanship and care into every sentence. You can see Teddy watches me work and keeps me focused.

Honestly for anyone ever inspired to write a book out there… the best advice is… be bored… stare at the ceiling… and let your imagination roam. I day dream and build each page in my mind for an hour before I ever type a word. Y’all have lots of free time too… you know you do. Why not use it productively?

I will need to find help from an artist for the illustrations for this book.

 

 

Next Plan

 

I have been here now a week as of today. I usually only stay in each anchorage about a week at a time then move on somewhere else. It is bad for your anchor chain to not get hauled up every so often. It is good for your engine to run every so often. It is healthy for a sailboat to stretch its wings every now and then and shake out the cobwebs.

This anchorage has been fine, I like the steady cooling breezes filling my hatches and keeping me cool. There are a lot of yachts here with kite surfers for the wind too. They are fun to watch zipping back and forth. The experts can do some cool tricks and I find myself rooting for the newbies to get back up when they fall.

Two days ago however… a huge field of Sargasso weed has come over the outer protective reefs and began piling up on the beach in front of me. It has also began to rot and is getting stinky. It is directly upwind of me.

I have been here a week, which is long enough. Tomorrow I will sail away for another anchorage but I am undecided as to where yet. I have not stepped foot on land for over a week and I have no particular need to. I still have enough provisions and some fresh milk left in the fridge. I will be solo sailing again, which we all know is dicey for me. I will probably pass out a lot doing it again, but maybe I should be keeping that secret from now on?

It really makes little difference how far I go, the hard parts are always raising the anchor and sails… then setting them both again at the end. Beginning and ends are hard… the middle is just long and boring. I am undecided about either going way out and around the north end of Antigua to Deep bay again. OR…. just using my windward advantage for a nice easy beam reach straight up to Barbuda for a week…?

 

 

Tomorrow I solo sail again. I am scared and nervous… but brave and strong.

You can watch from the Garmin tracking website and we will both find out where I will end up.

I am unsure how the seas will be and I am unsure how my heart condition will be. For me somedays have more passing out than others. If you see my boat go out of control and due east…  call the coast guard for me… I might be in trouble.

 

Cheers sailors and sailing fans

 

Captain Lexi

 

…  the lone sigma wolf  ….