1st November, 2016

It has been a long while since I last did a blog.  We laid up Aqualuna in Bailies Yard in Falmouth Harbour last Easter before returning to England to start seriously house hunting.  We rented a bungalow whilst doing so.  Sadly the house hunting was to no avail.  We had an offer accepted on one but after three months of messing us around they withdrew the house from the market. I also fell in love with another house and in many ways wanted it, it was an old Palm House for an estate near Exeter and beautifully converted with more plans approved to add on a large drawing room and two more bedrooms.  It was really beautiful but with a garden that needed somebody to look after it for more than two days a week and the fact it was not in walking distance of any shops etc. we decided not to go for it.  We are still looking and hopefully something will turn up in the next year.  Meanwhile we are back on the yacht in Antigua and we are going to be heading down to Grenada to meet up with the ‘offspring’ who are joining us for Christmas.

Back on the yacht after launching her last week we had Mark Plummer from Discovery Yachts staying with us on board.  He is the first Discovery guy who will not accept the ‘that will have to do attitude’  His heart is in his job, he loves perfection and at last, after five visits from various people, over the last year he appears to have solved the majority of our snagging problems. He worked, just about, a 12 hour day and would not finish until he had got to the bottom of the problem, we had to make him relax in the evenings and took him out to dinner a few times as well as eating on board.  Jobs done and completed on his last night we all went up to Shirley Heights to listen to the bands and have a few rum cocktails. Photo of Mark and Jonathan below. We took the yacht out for a couple fo test sails in rough sea and Mark confessed he was not a sailor and had never been out on a yacht before…… I gave him some Kwells to take before we set off as his job was going to be below to identify the problems and sort them out not much fun having your head down in lockers when you are bouncing along over the sea.  He did very well and volunteered to help take warps when we came back along side following our instructions.  We also put him up the mast to fix the new foredeck light on I’m not sure he was that keen to go any higher than half way.

Whilst we were along side for the week in Catamaran Marina, we met up with Budgie and Barbara, old HK friends, and had lunch with them and their friends. a very boozy one. The first time I have ever had an Expresso Martini……  just one was enough I was nearly floored by it.  We wondered back to the yacht and just as we arrived near Aqualuna we were hailed by the Pickles who had just returned to the Caribbean from the States in their Discovery 55 ‘Euphraxia’  We invited them to stay on board for an impromptu dinner, fortunately I had enough chicken breast marinating in a Thai sauce I had made to feed us all, it was a very good, fun evening and it was great for Mark to meet fellow Discovery owners.

The sun shone the whole of our first week whilst I was below decks sorting lockers, killing and chasing pharmaceutical beetles, I had made the mistake of leaving some flour on board quadrupled wrapped but the flour (locally bought) hatched not weevils but little beetles which flew around.  Nothing for it but to go through every locker, throw pasta and flour out and some spices, clean each locker, spray and then repack checking all food. Lesson learnt do not leave such products on board for 6 months in hot summer and humidity.  Above decks the sun continued to shine.  A week later the day Mark left to visit his Mother in Jamaica the heavens opened it was the greyest, wettest day I have seen out here.  The wind howled, and the bucket filled up with over an inch of rain in one hour, the rain carried on all day.  We took Aqualuna off the marina and out to anchor having decided it was not the best time to sail up to Jolly Harbour.  We hunkered down and watched one of the CD of ‘The Night Manager’  

The following morning we set sail in much fairer weather.  Dropped anchor just outside Jolly harbour and took the dingy in to visit Budgie and Barbara in their Antigua home.  Had supper with them then the next morning which was bright and sunny, so I got lunch organised on board, Jonathan went in to fetch Budgie and Barbara and their friends Tiggy and Nick (also ex HK) we set sail for a lovely bay to Deep Bay and dropped anchor.  All had a swim before lunch, I snorkelled with my new full face mask, it is amazing, you can breath normally and see so much, although it does make one look a bit like something from outer space.  Having confronted five large jelly fish whilst swimming around an old ship wreck I decided to head back to the dingy.  A long lazy lunch followed on board in perfect weather, see photos below.

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