There’s an old (and oft repeated on Cassini) saying: A plan is a basis for change. Never so much so than when navigating (or not navigating) the seas! Our original plan was to land in Antigua, spend a couple of days relaxing there, and then head up to the BVI’s for the duration of our stay before taking a short hop flight from Tortola back to Antigua and onwards home. That plan as you may have guessed went out the window fairly quickly. As you’ll have been reading on the blog the echosounder went, so without a depth gauge, we were stranded… in Antigua…. Cue very small violins….! Ha!

Not ones to stick to an original plan anyway we rented a car; or a pickup truck, to be more accurate! To those who think watching 6 of us make it across the harbour in a small dinghy was amusing, this was the original clown car scene with Mum ducking down at the sight of any police car we crossed paths with…. I’m still not so sure it would have been a punishable offence but ‘better safe than sorry….’

Bruce (the pick-up) was fantastic! We had him for 3 days and got out and about around the island finding beautiful beaches, delicious food and drink, and adventure at every turn! We witnessed a squadron of Pelicans dive bombing in one bay, a big game of beach football on the next, and some tremendous crashing waves at the Devil's Bridge! Really great fun and I think the boat owners appreciated a day away from some of the trials and tribulations of boat ownership when things aren’t quite going your way and the fix is coming in ‘Caribbean time’.

We had a wonderful Christmas day down in Nelson's Dockyard and a riotous New Year at Shirley Heights, both of which I think have been picked up in prior blogs, but safe to say I’ve never seen Dad or Nigel move with such vivaciousness!! That rum punch does wonderful things for your rhythm! (There is video evidence on request but 'too much to upload on the blog' – so I’m told…)

Eventually the boat was lifted out, the echosounder replaced, and we were off! Sunshine, great winds, what more can we ask? We all decided rather than take on a big sail to the BVI’s where we'd lose a day or two, we’d sail for fun, ‘out there and back’ around Antigua; settling down in a lovely secluded bay for lunch, swimming, sundowners and dinner… not an unpleasant routine…!  

Getting all the sails out, banging up wind, sliding down wind, a great chance for Jules and I to have a go at everything, and honestly can’t say thank you enough to the Cassini crew for your time, efforts and confidence in getting us shipshape! It’s a long time since I took a boat out with my Uni mates (almost a decade…..!) and I was starting to think Jules and I might not experience it given the giant gap in my practice, but after this trip we can’t wait to get our own band together for a bare boat/flotilla! 😊

A fabulous holiday for us, and some lovely memories which will last a lot longer than my already fading tan…!
Colin and Jules
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