Position 16:47.9N
62:12.5W
Ah, well, plans are
subject to change…having met up with Malarkey again in Antigua we learnt that
they, and everyone else we know, are not going any further north as they want to
get down south well before the hurricane season. This left us with the option of
being Norman-no-mates as we headed up to St Maarten/St Martin and all the way
back down south again, or giving up on going further north and having some
company for the next month or so. So we’re heading south.
Anyway, we spent an
enjoyable time in Antigua, in fact longer than planned due to a combination of
apathy and my (Neil) getting a streaming cold for a few days which knocked me
out a bit. We managed to get up and see some of the north coast before heading
back down to Jolly Harbour on the west coast to rejoin Malarkey who had stayed
in Falmouth Harbour while Trevor took part in the Classic Regatta as crew on
“Nordwind”, an 80ft yacht from 1939 that was owned by Admiral Doenitz. These
sailing types, they just can’t get enough of it…we decided to skedaddle after
the Classic Regatta as the next week was “Race Week” which would have meant even
more people and yachts and sailing stuff, not really our cup of tea. A lot of
the people taking part in all this were the type that take part in Cowes week
and similar, and I reckon if you wandered around English Harbour and yelled “I
say, Archie!” you’d get the attention of at least a dozen cravat wearers. It’s
that kind of place, and a popular spot for the super rich and their super
yachts. Here’s one that apparently belongs to Roman Abramovich, complete with
50ft yacht on deck and a 50ft motor boat on the other side in case one
tires of the helicopter and jet skis:
My favourite though
is “Maltese Falcon”, a $100 million – yes, that’s right, $100 million –
superyacht with three rotating masts with furling square sails, that are trimmed
using sensors fed via fibre optics to a central computer. Interested? You can
charter it for $350,000 per week. You either love it or hate it, personally I
think it’s stunning – the second pic shows the masts from the front, a real work
of art:
And so off to
Montserrat, which as I’m sure you all know isn’t all it used to be due in no
small part to the volcano that erupted in the ‘90s rendering the southern half
of the island uninhabitable. There’s only really one usable anchorage here
(Little Bay / Carrs Bay) which suffers from northerly swell and makes yachts
roll about a lot, unless of course you’re sensible enough to have a catamaran.
That’d be us then. We had a couple of nights there so we could do a tour of the
island and see the destruction wrought by the volcano (from a distance – you’re
not allowed too close as it’s still smouldering and might go off again). Not a
great picture due to all the ash and dust, but here’s the culprit:
I didn’t visit
Hiroshima in 1945, but would imagine it looked similar - almost the whole of the
southern half of Montserrat, including the capital, Plymouth, is under a thick
layer of ash and mud and looks like the surface of the moon (I haven’t been
there either – yet – but you know what I mean). Otherwise the island is really
pretty, very hilly and green, friendly people, but no apparent sign of much in
the way of employment. Tourism, which used to provide 30% of the islands income,
has dropped right away not surprisingly and not too many yachts visit because of
the rolly anchorage. Interestingly lots of new hurricane-proof housing is being
built in the apparently volcano-safe north, paid for by the UK and the EU and
others, which means that the people appear to have better housing than many of
the other islands which is a bit ironic. A fascinating place and we’re very glad
we made the effort to go.
