Antigua again
17:03N
61:53W Antigua Saturday 5th April 2009. Hi
to all you at home, First of all I would like to send our best wishes to Chris
Cook and I hope he is recovering from the operation well and will soon be home
with Pat and Emily. I would love to get an e-mail from you when you feel
strong enough. As
can be seen we are back in Antigua to see Tim on his way home after five
weeks of sailing Libertad in the Caribbean and adding another seven hundred
miles to his already impressive log of twelve hundred miles from Falmouth
to Lagos in Portugal last year, thanks for all your help we are missing you
already, you’re the best! Corrie
and Emily flew in to Antigua last Saturday afternoon; the crew had been slaving
away cleaning the boat in readiness for their arrival. Although a little late
they landed safely and we whisked them away to Jolly harbour and dinner ashore
to celebrate. Jet lag was having an effect and they rolled in to the bunks by
10:00 pm. We
had been busy doing some repairs and serviced both the generator and main engine
whilst we were in striking distance of a chandelry.We decided to give them
a rest day on Sunday before sailing for Nevis and St Kitts on Monday. The
downwind passage of 50 miles with a northerly swell gave some the
opportunity to revisit their breakfast and others to catch up on some sleep and
get their sea legs. We picked
up a mooring off the capital on Charlestown on the leeward side of the
island, arriving too late to clear customs and immigration we took the
dinghy ashore
to explore the beach. We discovered that the Four Seasons resort on Pinney's
beach had been badly hit by a hurricane in October 2008 closing down this
magical resort until extensive repairs can be made. The
following morning I spent a happy hour scraping bread dough from the air filter
after Sarah and Corrie had been attempting to prove the bread on top of the
engine prior to baking, not being the best start to the day I then went
ashore to clear customs and immigration . The customs office is
conveniently situated on the dock in Charlestown and completing the
obligatory forms in triplicate I was told that I then had to go to the Police
station to clear immigration, after a short mile walk through this capital I
entered the main entrance and asked he desk sergeant for the form to
complete in triplicate. I was in a crowded front office with people jostling for
attention and two very subdued prisoners in hand cuffs waiting for
the Magistrates to determined their fate, One had brought his mother with
him, I assume as a character witness or just for support, unfortunately she
spent most of the time wailing and beating her chest, she maybe new more of her
sons fate than the prisoner. After an hour I walked back to town to find the
port authority office to pay harbour dues and a green tax to help
with a recycling campaign. I then had to return to the Customs office to
collect the clearance papers. This operation has to be completed in reverse when
leaving so time for sightseeing is limited. Returning
to Libertad after two and a half hours the crew were restless to get ashore, Tim
Emily Sarah and Ewan opting for a walk along the beach, Corrie and I decided to
take Nicholas and his Taxi for an island tour visiting the famous Montpelier
Hotel, and old plantation house set high up in the rain forest overlooking
the sea. We were told that Lady Diana the Princess of Wales was a guest at
one time, with that reccomendation we decide to invest in a morning coffee
at $20 a throw,
we
savoured each sip, enjoying this $500 a night luxury. It
was a half day holiday due to the local schools having a sports day so finding a
restaurant for lunch was a challenge. We returned to the boat for a cup of tea
and a rest, spotting a turtle slowly swimming by from the cockpit. The rest of
the crew came back an hour or so later and were collected from the beach. After
a Lasagne dinner we headed for the bunks to read. Tim and Ewan preferring to
watch a film (Pirates urrrrrrah) in the T.V. the title doesn’t really
describe the true nature of this block BUSTER. We
let go the following morning by seven and headed south to return to Antigua,
with wind on the nose we had been motor sailing until the engine died on us and
despite my best efforts at bleeding the system ( that’s a technical term not an
abuse) it refused to start ,so we decided to set genoa and test our
windward sailing skills, tacking back and forth for the next six hours to round
up in to Jolly Harbour Bay and request a tow to an alongside berth from the dock
master. I had text John and Jackie on Ula knowing they were in port, not
surprisingly John came out in the dinghy with the dock master and the rest of
his crew waited patiently for us to come alongside and take our lines,
thanks guys, Talking of Ula and her crew, they flew back to the U, K. today
leaving a pristine Ula to the delivery crew to return to Portsmouth for the
middle of June. We have had some great sailing since meeting up with John and
Jackie in Falmouth all those month ago, we will miss your company and friendship
but look forward to seeing you in Sovereign harbour later in the
year. Ewan
is cooking dinner tonight and it smells great (Chicken stir fry) we intend to
sail in the morning for Montserrat, yes the island with an active volcano, and
then work our way north to St Kitts’s Martin, Anguilla and Tortola in the
British Virgins. Corrie and Emily will fly out on the 16th April to Antigua and
the U.K. We
will keep you posted as often as possible with the voyage north.
Regards
and love to all Paul, Corrie, Sarah, Emily and Ewan. |