Setting off from Granada on 27/3/14 with the focus on getting to Antigua, although still time to stop off in Marigot Bay St Lucia for couple of nights, and a couple of meals in the Rainforest hideaway,  followed by an overnighter in Martinique with Spent, Wolfhound and Satika for a break.

So finally into Antigua at 14:00 on 1/4/14 to a fanfare welcome from the other Oysters and Debbie and Eddie, wow seems only like yesterday that we set off on the world adventure, green and eager and now 15 months later still green and eager it’s time to decide what we do next!!!

But first a few parties, a regatta, the Antigua Classics, birthdays for both Nelius and me, a farewell to the other Oyster folk and friends and also to Nelius our crew and companion.…. O and did I say a few parties!? J

So started with arriving and an evening meal at Trappers with Dreams and Amelie, and a special white hairdo for me! And the evening carrying on well into the night with the crew of most of the other yachts!

Nelius’s birthday started with the usual opening of prezzies on board Babe followed by a lunchtime meal at Admirals Inn, where the majority of the Oyster crowd were. Managed to get him a cuddle with the waitresses which I’m sure he enjoyed by the look on his face in the picky!

The end of rally celebrations included a marching band and an awards ceremony around midday with the handing out of a silver bowl and a round the world rally world map showing all the places we’d been to. It started to set in that it was the end of an epic trip and we’d soon be saying farewell to the many very close friends we’d made on the trip…….but before all that the ‘end of rally evening party’ which was set at an Italian villa in the hillside overlooking English harbour, beautiful. We’d all grouped together to make the evening a world rally do, rather than an Oyster do, for which we asked all yachts to do a ‘little spot’, which could be anything including a song, poem, ditty, story or whatever……and what a great involvement there was from the vast majority of yachts!!! A very special and personal do, including Serendipity Dave in his frog outfit, Valentine Steve having his massive beard being cut & shaven off by his family, body pyramid from the crews, a special rally rendition ‘Star Trekin’ from Babe (even managed to get Nelius to sing, much to his annoyance!), and not forgetting the special ‘East to West’ compilation by Crazy Bob, with pre-recorded singing contributions from all yachts. In typical OWR style party continued including most of us ending up in the pool and almost wreaking the small raised dancefloor by hitting the resonant frequency and causing the floor to bounce up and down, bringing down the speakers – all good fun!!

The arrival of the OWR fleet back in Antigua also lined up with the Oyster Regatta week – another 5 days of racing and partying around Antigua, with a good few of the OWR yachts taking part and a range of other Oysters who had arrived for the event. In reality a right mix of entrants from extremely keen and focused crews (including an ex Olympic racer) to the usual Babe antic’s – which this time had us in pink T-shirts with suitable names  including Me (Captain Duckz), Trish (Lt Trish), Nelius (Mr Corndog), Kady (Dr Kady) and a few variable guests with Babe Magnet T-shirts! Other antics included hoisting our inflatable Kangaroo up the mast (Flamingo and blow up love pig both retiring though wear and tear!?). Anyway we gave it our best in a fun sort of way as usual and managed to get 5^th place (of about 12), which wasn’t bad, despite a protest from Wolfhound for using our orange storm sail and declaring it as a white water sail! Even got a goodie bag at the presentation ceremony!

In the meantime more parties and mental nights both on Babe and around Nelsons and Falmouth harbours, including the night Kinley allegedly swallow one of Hannah earrings on the Beach, a beach bbq with the crew from all the yachts … with a little help from my petrol can and getting dunked in the sea by them. Sadly many parties were to say farewell, but it won’t be the end!

Finally my birthday, not a special one by years, but certainly special! Starting with a champagne lunch at Hamilton’s with the remaining yacht owners and trying my best to get through an enormous lobster, followed by a birthday drizzle cake. The evening was also special with ‘Shaggy’ doing a 1-day concert at Shirley heights specially for me (um OK maybe not)! Managed to get VIP tickets, which included all drinks, although wasn’t expecting that to include Verve Clicquot, which obviously didn’t last that long once we were on it!!! Which is possibly not a bad thing as shaggy must have been at it as he didn’t actually come on till about 23:30, by which time we were….let’s say…. Merry! We believe Shaggy also rolled up at Hamilton’s for lunch with a couple of model types, but we decided not to have him join us! Anyway night rocked away with plenty of fun and frolics by all!!!!  was expecting a load of classics to sing to, but didn’t happen, guess he’s moved on?

Not sure where my head was the next day, but was time to get ready to leave Babe and Antigua for a 6 month break in Oz with the girls and Jude and Rafferty the grandsons…. More of that in the next update.

Luv & Hugs,

Paul & Trish