Sunday, March 2 — Tonight was a rare astronomical event — a seven planet alignment, with several of the plants visible to the naked eye. But sadly, the seas were too uncomfortable for us to even consider sitting outside to see it.

By midnight, we could see lights from southern Jamaica in the distance. By dawn, we were close enough to be in the shelter of the island and the waves became a little smaller. We could also smell smoke – not an unpleasant smoke, like a fire, but like smoking food. 

Shortly after dawn, we rounded the western corner of the island. Our change in direction meant we went from head seas to beam seas. Eric’s seasickness instantly vanished. As we trekked north, we ran close to shore. From what we could see, Jamaica was mountainous and lush.

It only took a couple of hours to go from the southern side of the island to Port Antonio, located on the north-eastern side of the island. We turned into a bay named East Harbor, then immediately turned into a channel between the tip of the mainland peninsula and Navy Island that led into a bay called West Harbor.

Anchoring was allowed in East Harbor, and it was free — but since East Harbor was rolly, most cruisers opted for West Harbor, even though there was a fee to anchor there. Some cruisers that we’d talked to in Panama had recommended that we stay in the Errol Flynn marina (the only marina in Port Antonia) because the marina fee of $47 per day for a boat under 50-feet wasn’t much more than the anchoring fee (note: the marina fee doubles at 50-feet). 

We approached the marina at about 0815. We’d traveled at high RPM’s for the majority of the passage, so we’d arrived about 6-hours earlier than originally planned. We’d also run the generator for the majority of the passage. Eric estimates we burned close to 400 gallons of diesel, making this far and away the biggest fuel burn we’ve ever had in a passage. But Eric didn’t care. It was worth it to him to be out of the miserable seas ASAP.  

The marina didn’t open until 0900. We’d called ahead to book a reservation, but we hadn’t been assigned a slip number, so we just tied up on the concrete sea wall. We were greeted by a couple on a Kadey Krogan, who helped us tie up. 

Since it wasn’t a floating dock, we had to be a little careful with how we tied up to account for tide swings. However, since the tide swing was only two-feet, it was not a major concern. Getting off was a little tricky, since it was a big step up to the dock from the cockpit, but it was manageable. 

Within minutes of arriving, the marina security guard came to greet us. We explained that we needed to check into the country. She told us the officials would come at 0900 and that we could check into the marina after we’d checked into the country. 

We hurried to take quick showers and tidy up before the officials arrived. At 0900, someone from the marina office brought us a stack of paperwork to fill out for the various officials and for the marina. 

The first official, from the health department, arrived closer to 10:00. Not long after she left, another official from immigration arrived. Not long after he left, a duo from customs arrived. The agents were all super nice. Since we were checking in on a Sunday, we had to pay an extra $50 to cover overtime fees.

By 1245, Eric was at the marina office to check in. There were a couple of small challenges. The power was 50-hertz (Kosmos is 60-hertz), which meant that our appliances worked less efficiently and sounded funny We didn’t even try to run the microwave, as the manual had indicated it wasn’t compatible with 50-hertz. They did charge 85 cents per kw for electricity. Water was only allowed to be used from 0900 to 1700, and it was only turned on upon request. Water was sixteen cents per gallon.  

We were in exhausted and rain was in the forecast. Even though Kosmos was completely encrusted in salt – even on the boom — we decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of having the water turned on, and decided to let Mother Nature wash Kosmos for us. 

The marina was a lovely plantation style building, named after famous actor Errol Flynn. Flynn had come to Port Antonio on his sailboat, the Zaca. Flynn loved Port Antonio so much that he bought a lot of land in the area, including Navy island, and eventually settled here. Flynn was credited for increasing the popularity of tourism in Jamaica. 

We had been warned that not much was open on Sundays, but we decided to venture into town anyways to see if we could find some authentic Jamaican cuisine. If we couldn’t find anything, our fallback plan was to eat at the marina’s pool bar and restaurant, the Zaca.

We walked along the neatly landscaped road paralleling the bay, which we found out later was a public park. There was a police station in the park, with an adjoining police dock.

Few people were out, and they were mostly women with children. Near an ice cream shop (which was open), we met a nice lady who told us that the only restaurants open right now were KFC and the Portland Jerk Centre. She gave us directions to Portland Jerk — turn around and take the road out of the park near the marina, turn right on the first road, and it was a couple blocks down. 

In our short walk through town, we saw that there were a few old colonial and plantation style buildings that were lovely, though most needed some TLC. Except for the building in the first photo, the newer buildings were mostly blocky concrete. 

Again, few people were out, but oddly, on this road, it was only men, and most appeared inebriated. One man was panhandling, but we think he was asking everyone for money, not just us. We’d been assured by everyone that we’d talked to that Port Antonio was totally safe for tourists – the hazard here was that the locals were too nice, but seeing the inebriated men did make us feel a bit vulnerable. We found the chicken place with no problems.

The tiny restaurant was packed. The patrons were all men. We all ordered jerk chicken (jerk was the name of a specific blend of spices), which was served with vegetables and your choice of rice and beans or fried rice. The chicken was delicious. Since we knew scotch bonnet chili peppers was one of the ingredients, we’d expected it be spicy hot, but it was only moderately hot. The seasoning was complicated and flavorful, so we suspect there were a myriad of herbs and spices that balanced out the chili pepper. The vegetables and rice dishes were okay. The portions were huge and it was excellent value for the money. 

After lunch, we went back to the ice cream shop along the waterfront, called Devon House Ice Cream.

Clearly, church had just gotten out, because now there were quite a few families dressed up in nice clothes who were hanging out in the park.

In the evening, Christi was too tired from the passage to cook, so we had dinner at the marina pool bar. Eric ordered a jerk chicken hot dog, which was great. While the sunset was blocked by the mountain, It was a gorgeous twilight.