Next stop after Ila a Vache, Haiti was Port Antonio, Jamaica, about 160 nM due west, As usually we had not much luck with the wind.
The wind was absent, but the sea was rather spectacular anyway.
We arrive Port Antonio at noon time, and expect clearing in to be rather fast, but as many official, Doctor, Port Polis, Customs, and Immigration wanted to visit Kerpa, and it was rather rainy, it is raining around 300 Inch a year or 7500 mm/year that’s a lot. Some officials came by bike they postponed their visit until next day. One is not expected to leave the marina until cleared in, so we had to stay at the marina over night at a cost of just below 100 USD per night. If one anchor it cost 28 USD a night and then one can use the facilities of the Marina including the dingy dock.
Kerpa at the Errol Flynn marina Port Antonio
Piggy’s the best Jerk chicken in Port Antonia we where told, and we had no reason to doubt it, it tasted very good, so while waiting for the final clearance we tried the Jerk chicken, the souse was very hot!
So, we needed a beer to put out the fire.
The next day we could lay at anchor
Port Antonio is a small town, who have seen its best days, but a bit charming and one feel very safe.
Very basic buildings, and as always, some business activity is going on, a barber in this house
Not a very posh law office
This business looks as it has most things for a home????
Some houses are very colorful
They had a nice fruit and vegetable market opened two days a week.
There was a local election in Port Antonio, the old mayor had been shot we where told! The engagement among the population was very strong, many people was out with flags either red or green. The day of the election, several heavy armed army vehicles patrolled the streets, as well as dozens of polis cars, but everything went without any violence. But I can’t say I felt comfortable with army vehicles with machine guns patrolling the streets.
Blue Mountain
We were recommended to visit Blue Mountain, the high land on the eastern part of Jamaica. We rented a car and set of across the mountain on the other side one find Kingston with a Bob Marley Museum also on our list of to do’s. It became a very eventful day.
The scenery was very beautiful with very green rain-forest
The roads were very narrow serpentine type roads
One does not want to meet a truck on the road.
Nor do one want to run into a road work, this was not the only one. At the next road work there was about a dozen workers putting asphalt on the road, the road was half blocked, and they started to vividly give signs that we should proceed forward and they stepped aside. It was still a very narrow passage for us between a big truck and the workers standing close to the edge of the road risking falling down the very steep slope. It did not go well, I manage to run over the foot of one of the workers, and he looked to have bad pain, the mode became very low and a bit hostile. It ended up in that I drove the man to a hospital just outside Kingston, I offered to pay for the hospital fee and as well as one week’s salary as I assume, he could not work for a few days. He was pleased with that and we parted without any hard feelings from any part. The foot was not swollen at all even after roughly an hour when we got to the hospital, so we did not expect it to be to bad with his foot. The other day we passed by the same working crew and they obviously recognized us and waved cheerfully at us and Kerstin though she saw the man whose foot we had run over. I do not know if they took us for a “ride” or not, but I felt we did what we could to take our responsibility of the incident.
While we were in Kingston we had time to visit The Bob Marley museum, it was the home that he bought in down town Kingston, “I get the ghetto to the uptown” he is claimed to had said. The house had his recording studio and it looks as he lived a rather plain life with his family and friends. He was a vegetarian and Bob cocked most of the food himself, but from the movie showed the smoke was very dense so despite the ascetic vegetarian life style I do not think he lived very healthy
Bob Marley home and now Museum
Paintings of his home where he was born as well as a replica of the home, Bob’s father was an Englishman who fell in love with a young girl and they got married.
After the Museum we found a Starbucks and had a good cup of Coffee and some internet
Kerstin is happy
The Lodge in the Blue Mountain
We had been recommended to stay at a lodge in the mountain, it was a very different and nice place.
The reception
Our cabin
At the sloop in the rain-forest
With great view
A fantastic place to enjoy both dinner and breakfast
Surrounded by humming birds
On the way back from the mountain the car started to give strange sounds and after an hour the AC stopped working and shortly after that the power steering did not work and it was hard work to steer the car. Finally, the car broke down totally and we were very happy that we this morning decided we had seen enough of the serpentine rods and had decided to take the coastal way back, the car broke down just in front of a gas station
We could just roll of the road and park beside the gas station
Just by this very basic bar that became our waiting space for just under two hours before the rental company delivered a new car to us. If we had kept our original plans to go further up the mountain, we have had to wait for probably 5 hours and then we would have had 5 hours night ride back to Port Antonio. So all in all an eventful trip that ended up rather well given the circumstances.
Reach Falls
Not far from Port Antonio there is the Reach water falls, we decided to pay a visit and rented a car now with discount from the same rental car company, this time we did the trip together with Colins and Kim from the English Catana catamaran by the name Umuya.
Our local guide “Stiches” who showed us the Reach falls.
Very beautiful
Soon the rain was pouring down, so we did get very wet
We had a very nice time navigation up the small river.
We ended the day by stopping at a famous Jerk place
But the chicken Jerk at Piggys is much better and that at only half the price.
Navy Island
Just outside the Errol Flynn Marina is the Navy Island, where Errol Flynn had his party place to which he invited friends and celebrities I assume they know how to party.
Not very much remain from the old dock
Towards the party….
But we came to late the party was already ended…
Not very much remains
Kerpa at anchor seen from the old restaurant
Another house on the island almost totally taken over by nature difficult to see, but one could sneak in
These buildings will soon be gone and forgotten, but I think Errol Flynn’s movies never will be
I remember seeing Captain Blood and other pirate movies with him when I was a small boy, that was really a moment of excitement It could not get much better in those days.
S/Y Kerpa 
You must be logged in to post a comment.