Back in the Caribbean

Karma Daze
Chris and Penny Manley
Tue 17 Mar 2015 14:36

Back in the Caribbean

We arrived back in Antigua 2 weeks ago.  The boat was out of the water in the boatyard so we stayed in a villa for 3 nights while we worked on the boat.  A patch of anti-fouling had disappeared so that had to be repainted before we were launched.

 

We were launched on Friday 6th March and decided to go into the marina for a couple of days to clean her, fill with water etc.  The couple of days has turned into 10 as the weather has been very windy and quite a bit of rain, so listening to the Ocean Cruising Club net on the SSB in the mornings we decided to wait in the marina for some calmer weather to arrive.

 

The weather is now much better and is forecast to remain so for a while.  The disadvantage is that the marina is now much hotter so we are planning to leave on Thursday.  Our friends, Gerry and Ian, arrived yesterday and we are planning to sail north with them.  Before that we will do a couple of interesting anchorages in the north of Antigua, and may go to Barbuda, weather and swell permitting.

 

We now have an uninvited guest on board – a small gecko.  He is living in/on/around the gantry on the back of the boat, and has even ventured onto the dinghy which is tied on at the back.  We have christened him Gordon.  Think he must have come aboard in the boat yard.  As he eats flies and mosquitoes he’s very welcome to stay.  That and the fact that we can’t catch him!

 

The OCC of which we are members, has quite a few members in Antigua – seems to be one of the places members congregate.  Last Friday we all got together for happy hour in the bar, and 8 of us went for a meal in one of the restaurants in the marina.  It was nice to meet people we had heard on the radio – nobody looks like you imagine them from their voice...

 

 P1030061  Gordon Gecko on our stern navigation light.