Antigua Classic Regatta 2010
Catacaos
Graham Shaw
Fri 16 Apr 2010 22:16
rowing boats in, from rowing across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to
Antigua - raving mad people if you ask me. There's one boat from Jersey, an
all girl
crew. They've all been rowing since 16th December - mad mad mad. They
cannot
walk when they get ashore, and look very thin - maybe I should do this????
I'm sure there are easier ways to lose weight. What an achievement, you can
see how small these rowing boats are, out in the big sea, scary!!!
All the classic yachts are here, as it is the start of the Antigua Classic
Regatta, a world famous annual event. I managed to get a picture of
Fleurtje still under sail on the way in. They parked themselves next to our
friends Mikey and
Nicola on Panadora, which is a large boat, but looks positively dwarfed by
Fleurtje and Vabene. Vabene is the big power mega yacht on the right of the
picture which belongs to Eric Clapton, and yes, while we were on Pandora he
walked
past. Thankfully for Nicola, as I would have not recognised him, she
pointed
him out, well not pointed but you know how it goes. Anyway Mike is musical
and composes his own music, so decided to send him over a copy of his own
CD, the
neighbourly thing to do, and guess what? - Eric liked it. I think if I was
Mike
I would live on that claim to fame for a long time. If you want to see Mike
playing he will be live at the Life Bar on Sunday (in Antigua), get in quick
before Eric nabs him. Back to the picture, it shows how huge these yachts
are up to an already very reasonable size yacht. Apparently we could
probably
afford a day on charter on one of these boats if we sold our boat. Different
world.
We met up with Annalea and Chris, and Lucas' friend Marlin, so we've all
been
having good fun. Lucas so excited about Marlin coming to play, he was
almost
smothering him - poor child.
Not all good new from Antigua, two children have died in the last two weeks
from meningitis, two children not connected, but all the schools have been
closed down. First one a baterial meningitis the other viral meningitis, so
all the children in isolation from each other, which was fortunate for us as
Marlin had not seen any children for days, and as we had come from
Guadaloupe it was okay for Lucas to come and play. Also another woman was
murdered in January on a beach not far from here, not even 1/2 mile from the
harbour. Even
though it is the sunny Caribbean you still have to be so careful.
The weather has been great until the other day and the heavens open all day
long, (see photos)which was very hard going as we are not used to this, the
only thing I
had to do was baking and cleaning.
We also met up with Arabella folks from Jersey, which was lovely to catch
up. Off to Antigua Yacht Club tonight for music and party. The first day of
proper racing is tomorrow, which we can see from the harbour. Should be a
good night.
Off to the BVI in the next couple of days, my mummy coming out to play
hopefully - if the Icelandic ash clouds has disappeared!!!
