Position: 17:00:32N
61:45:67W
After our long slog to windward into
Deshais, and a carafe of red wine, we got up late. However, once we’d looked at the
forecast, which showed NE’ly wind today, but N’ly wind tomorrow, and knowing
that Antigua is 42M directly to the North of
Deshais, we knew that we needed to set off again as soon as possible, and so we
upped anchor at 1000. We saw a
turtle on the way out, and said hello to our friends Ed and Sam, and met a
family boat just as we were leaving – a bit like when we first met Brimble back
in Madeira!
We had a long beat to windward. For the first few hours, we could just
lay English
Harbour; in the afternoon
the wind backed and we couldn’t. We
pointed as high as we could and ended up about six miles down the island and had
to tack up with a frustrating last few miles when you can see where you want to
get to, but it just doesn’t seem to be getting any closer!! This sail also showed how baggy our
mainsail has become – it is pretty useless for windward work now.
In my indecisive state, we changed
our minds about whether to aim for Falmouth or
English
Harbour several times, and
eventually settled on English for no real reason. We came into Freeman’s Bay, the first
bay within English
Harbour, saw our friends
Yara; and dropped anchor near them just as the sun set.
My good friends who have pointed out
that Nutmeg seems to do five knots whatever the weather will take great delight
in the timing of this passage, given that it took exactly eight and a half hours
and was 42M. All I can say in
defence is that Nutmeg has an entire ecosystem growing on her nether regions and
barnacles aren’t designed to go upwind!!
Our first impressions of Antigua were mixed.
It was a little like the Solent. As we motored in in the twilight, I cut
close under the stern of an English boat’s dinghy, which was tied to their
transom. A head appeared from the
companionway and said “Are you trying to run my dinghy over?” To which I replied
“I’ll do my best”. However, we
anchored off a stunning sandy beach, one of the most beautiful we’ve seen – we
weren’t expecting this right in English Harbour – which went some way to
nullifying the rather Cowes-like greeting from our new
neighbour.
Chilling out at anchor in Freeman’s
Bay, English Harbour
The following day was a definite day
off after a couple of upwind sails (this is family sailing, after all!!). We took the boat down to Antigua Slipway
to fill up with fuel and water and admired Nelson’s Dockyard from over the
water. The whole place is smaller
than I had imagined.
Filling up with fuel and water at
Antigua Slipway with Nelson’s Dockyard in the
background
On returning to our anchorage spot
in Freeman’s Bay, we had one of those tragi-comic moments when we realized that
an American yacht was making a beeline for the same anchoring spot – about the
only one left in the bay. Obviously
ignoring eye contact, we both went for the same spot, with him dropping his
anchor whilst still doing about 5kts, just behind us. Being British, we ignored him totally,
and anchored just in front of him.
We started to chat to the next-door boat – another British family, on a
catamaran called “Double Helix”, and in the meantime, the American was on his
bow shouting to us “You’re really crowding me!” every few minutes.
Eventually we deigned to speak to
him, and with Sarah telling me to remain civil, had one of those anchoring games
of bluff, where he says we are too close, and we say we are not, we argue about
who anchored first, he says well we are leaving this afternoon so you’ll need to
stay on board in case our anchor is underneath you, and we think he is just
trying to make us feel so uncomfortable that we’ll leave. Anyway, we stayed put, and in the early
afternoon he left, without needing to come anywhere near us. What a prat. So now, if anyone says “You’re really
crowding me” in an American voice, Sarah and I are liable to crack
up!
We spent the later afternoon rowing
about the harbour. This is just one
of those places where you must try to come once to in your lifetime if you are a
sailor. Although Nelson’s dockyard
reminded me of Buckler’s Hard, it is a visually impressive set of historic
buildings and the classic yachts which are tied up around it are
mind-blowing. Everything from huge
wooden schooners to Steinlager II, the big red ketch which won the
Whitbread. And Buckler’s Hard
doesn’t have palm trees.
Rich boy’s toys in Nelson’s
Dockyard, English Harbour
A proper tender to a proper
boat!
Rowing about was great fun and gave
the girls a chance for some rowing practice. Millie gets bored with it quite quickly
(although she is quickly learning the technique), but Jemima gets extremely
stubborn and will not give you an oar back, insisting on doing it her way. So we went round in circles a lot! But rowing as a family around English Harbour, with the sun setting, pelicans
sitting in the mangroves and so many classic yachts as a backdrop, was a moment
to treasure. The hilarious
thing was that four sets of people tried to rescue us! I don’t think they see many people rowing
these days and thought that we had broken down.
We spent a lovely couple of days in
English
Harbour, relaxing and
looking around. The girls were
happy with Nelson’s Dockyard as there is a good grassy area at the front of the
buildings, which mean that they could have a run around. We checked in with Customs &
Immigration, which took a couple of days because Antigua’s election was on, and Customs appeared to have
cleared themselves out for a few days.
Whilst I was in the Customs office,
I saw a smart-looking chap whose T-short was embroidered with the name “Erica
XII” and he looked just like Jan Thirkettle from Shoreham. It turned out that it was Jan’s brother,
who is captain of Erica, a hundred-and-seventy-something-feet superyacht! We knew that he was in the Caribbean but it is a coincidence to bump into
him.
Girls and their pushchairs at
Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour
