Blog #71 Deshais to Antigua
Cassini's blog
Simon and Sally, Nigel and Catherine
Wed 27 Dec 2023 11:12
| There’s been a problem with the blog servers over Christmas, but we carried on writing them. Here’s the first of four…. Deshais to Antigua A very early run ashore to the boulangerie in Deshais was made more tricky as the dinghy jetty had been partially washed away over night and Sally the gymnast required some nifty footwork to make it ashore; worth it though for the delicious fresh baked goodies. We arrived in Antigua mid afternoon on the 21st, having had to motor from Dominica as no wind. The anchorage in Falmouth bay is huge and not as crowded as Nigel had feared it might be. We set our anchor by reference to all the boats around us, were just settling down to a well earned drink, when an Australian couple came by in their dinghy, complimented us on our (anchoring) technique and advised that the wind conditions were a complete anomaly and that we might want to reset as the wind was about to change direction! We decided to leave it and do the next day... which we did, equally well!! Immigration and check in successfully accomplished at the very picturesque Nelson’s dockyard, 3 persons returned to Cassini to check on Catherine who had opted to stay aboard having taken a tumble down the hatchway stairs…..all ok thankfully. Frustratingly we couldn’t get any mobile data from the SIM cards we had purchased in Grenada despite specifically asking for one that would cover all the islands, it’s amazing how little you can do without data in this day and age and here in Antigua our UK O2 package is astronomically expensive. Friday dawned and we needed gas, dinghy fuel, to sort out phones and provisions… so off in the dinghy to see what we could find. Nigel took an early dip in the dinghy dock as the “ kill” switch on the outboard jumped off the engine and into the water…..sinking before we could grab it. 20 minutes later after a return to Cassini and mask and snorkel attired he located it straight away… phew!! Meanwhile, Catherine and I did a shop at Baileys supermarket. No eggs on the shelf and when we asked when more would arrive were told… when the fowl lay them😉. Mid afternoon we headed over to the Antigua yacht club where we had arranged to meet Colin and Jules. We sat and and had a drink, logged into the wi fi and waited, and waited and waited. Turns out 3 planes had arrived much at the same time and it all takes time... eventually the taxi pulled up and our weary travellers emerged. Catherine and Nigel had gone ahead to join the Tot club (more on this to follow). Simon and I whizzed back to Cassini with our guests and their bags where they swiftly freshened up and then we all returned ashore to the Copper and Lumber Hotel in Nelson’s dockyard to join the party… Sally |
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