Update

Mor Toad / Moy Toad
David and Jocelyn Fawcett
Sun 10 May 2015 10:27


David and I flew to Antigua yesterday from Tortola on two planes via St Maarten each journey taking half an hour - amazing to think that we have taken around 6 weeks to get from Antigua to The BVI covered several hundreds of miles by sea and visited a number of islands on the way and suddenly it's gone. Little excitement at St Maarten as The French President apparently had just arrived in a large plane (apparently he visits the French Islands very 4 years) and there were a lot of press and policeman around and flashy cars waiting for him which seemed to be causing some consternation amongst the ground staff so it was quite difficult to find out exactly what we should be doing. We had had to get off the first plane get on a bus to go back through security before finally being taken by bus to the ongoing plane which had only been parked next door to the one we got off! We were relieved to see our bags here in Antigua we weren't that convinced they would be as trying to get information from anyone in either in Tortola or St Maarten was a challenge. We will have to admit by the time we got to the hotel we were pretty shattered. 

So back to the real world after our 5 months on the boat. We were all very sad to see them leave last Sunday but as far as we know they are nearly in Bermuda where they apparently will refuel and carry on. Slight change of plan owing to little wind - they weren't going to go there when they set off. Hopefully we should get an update in the next couple of days.

Alex and Dan and the children are having fun staying with her  cousin, husband and children and spending quite a lot of time on the beach or down at the marina and the pool in Nanny Cay where we were staying in the hotel. Alex has started her PADI course and done all the theory,  a number  of dives and just has one left to do on Monday and she is going to The Rhone  - the wreck of a mailboat. We did this quite a number of years ago on a dive holiday out here and Dan and Grant are doing the dive on Sunday. 

David and I did two dives on Wednesday near Norman Island so that was good and we also went back to Peter Island for a  Spa day at the hotel there - very relaxing. It was good being back on the water albeit on ferries or the dive boat. We also took the ferry to Jost Van Dyke as this was the one island we didn't have time to visit on Mor Toad. One day we went with Dan and the children to a different beach again as Alex was away diving. We have generally explored Tortola and its various beaches in a hired car. Not an easy island to drive around as many of the roads are either In a state of disrepair or have been dug up as replacing the sewers. The roads are also incredibly steep with bends right back on themselves. The drive into Sarah and Grants house was a challenge too 1:2. One can see why most of the cars are 4 wheel drives. But interestingly although they drive on the left the cars  imported from the States are left hand drive which is OK except trying to drive at night the headlights all dipped the wrong way so you were always blinded by the oncoming cars and we found we just had to stop as no white lines and we didn't know the roads. They also like speed bumps on any flat road. Challenging - sailing was easier! 

So we fly home this coming Tuesday which I am sure will be a shock to the system but we are looking forward to catching up with everyone, Alex and family fly home the following week and hopefully Mor Toad will be on its way back to Cornwall from Bermuda