Antigua again

CuriousOyster
Steve & Trish Brown
Sun 29 Mar 2009 18:43

17:01N 61:46.5W

We have sailed from the Virgin Islands to Antigua, via St Maarten and St Barts.

It was great to rendezvous with an old friend, last seen in Lanzarote on the other side of the Atlantic back in October. Since we last saw him he has got married and now has his new bride as a shipmate for his travels on land and sea.

Lots of cruisers like St Maarten as it has many of the facilities that cannot be found elsewhere in the Caribbean, excellent chandleries, lots of bars and good restaurants, shops, etc. St Bart's is very French and feels like it belongs on the French Riviera, smart, chic and expensive. We were there for the first day of the St Bart's Bucket. An invitation only race for superyachts. You cannot even be considered for the race unless your boat is 100ft or more! The boats are fully crewed, anywhere from 20 upwards, and the event is run over 3 consecutive days. Yachts of this size make a fabulous sight as they sail by with all sails set. (Check out the number of crew sat on the windward rails on the J5 Ranger!)

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Probably the most unusual yacht there was Tom Perkins’, Maltese Falcon. At just under 300ft long and designed with a revolutionary junk rig and rotating masts, it is a technological marvel.

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We were joined in St Maarten by our daughter Katie and her husband Yann who have decided to give the rat race a miss for a while and take up our offer to come sailing. After our brief stay in St Bart’s we made the most of some ENE winds to make the passage to Antigua where the boat has to come out of the water again to have a new bowthruster fitted. Trish and I have also accepted that we need Davits to make handling the Rib easier so these will be fitted at the same time. Once Curious is back in the water we will use the time to train Katie and Yann how best to sail the boat before we are joined by Adrian and Helen for the Oyster Regatta over the Easter period.



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