Quintessence III

The Caribbean is full of unique characters, maybe none as colourful as Jacko. A fixture in English Harbour for many years.

Only one leg and his faithful donkey Marina by his side, he was always on the move.

His passing yesterday was a bit of Antigua’s soul slipping away.

RIP

The community of English Harbour mourns the passing of a well known beloved character like no other, 'Jacko' and his faithful donkey Marina. | Superyacht Services Guide The community of English Harbour mourns the passing of a well known beloved character like no other, 'Jacko' and his faithful donkey Marina. 22 Sep 2025 Antigua / Caribbean & Central America Caroline Blatter 'Marina and Jacko' Oil painting on canvas by Dina Brozzi Goodenough The community of English...

Getting some love from St. Maarten Heineken Regatta

Thanks for the shoutout!

See ya in March

While not our best day on the water today, we took a solid 3rd overall for the week.

The trophy was cast from 120 recycled beer cans. Oh, and another bottle of rum.

A huge thanks to the entire team, but a special shoutout to Lisa Skluzacek for all your support and efforts on and off the boat.

Good day on the water today.

New hose for the vang held together. We took two 3rd place finishes.

Racing in driving rain got us totally soaked, but at then end of the day the results were worth it.

Tough day on the water today.

Not the best start but found ourselves in 2nd at the windward mark. On the downwind the vang started losing hydraulic pressure so we had no vang at all on the next upwind & downwind legs. We ended up in 4th.

Between races I saw the hydraulic fluid tank was empty. Seems it was leaking around the fitting on the new hose. Tightened them up, refilled the tank and the crew started to pressurize the vang.

All of a sudden the hose exploded off the fitting and sprayed hydraulic fluid everywhere. Instantly turning the floorboards into a skating rink.

We retired from race 2 and headed back to the marina.

Took almost 2 hours to clean sails, cushions, floorboards and bilges. Massive shoutout to our rockstar from Norway, Lise for scrubbing the bilges. A truely nasty job.

Removed the bad hose and waited for the owner of Antigua Rigging to finish his races. He will have a new hose made up no later than 0800 tomorrow.

Lighter winds on the forecast

Hydraulic system repaired and the vang is once again working.

In typical WWCD, I considered rigging up a 24:1 purchase system to control the vang, but settled for a 18’ piece of hose as an interim solution. For half the price of Harken gear and a bunch of line.