Cabarita island is in front of Port Maria, on the North coast of Jamaica. We had to rent a car to get there. The roads in that part of the country were full of holes and bumps. Very slow driving and a hard test for the cars.

Once we got to Port Maria, I asked a fisherman to bring me to the island with his small boat. No questions, no hesitations ... he just said "Jump in man!"

Cabarita island is a very high island with dramatic cliffs. It was very hard climbing it, getting up to the top carrying a car battery, a radio and a bamby antenna in the backpack. But we finally made the effort and reached the top.

Once on the top we realised it was very soft due to the large amount of ground vegetation. We could set up the equipment easily, and attach the antenna to a nearby tree.

Unfortunately the propagation was not good at all. Only the Caribbean and South America were coming in. After a few calls, I could log in a few stations, 136SD136 was the first and the strongest signal, later 2SD101 and 215SD065, nice suprise to work Africa!

My last contact was 207SD101 and then decided to QRT because it was already too late for an opening to EU.

I am very sorry nobody in Europe could work this island. It would have been a very good one because I honestly don't think it will be active for a long time.

73's de Christian 30DX401