Falmouth for orders

Oriole
Tue 10 Feb 2009 20:16
Falmouth Harbour, Antigua 17:00.94N 61:46.39W.

The old square rigged sailing ships used to call in at Falmouth, Cornwall for orders having beaten down the English Channel.  We are back in Falmouth to re-group and organise our own orders after a most entertaining 10 days with Frannie and Erik mostly inside the reefs on the north side of Antigua visiting 8 different anchorages.
 
 
Oriole at Great Bird Island, Antigua
 
We have had some excellent sailing mostly in smooth sheltered water, lots of swimming and snorkling and great things from the galley and the new bbq from Frannie and Chris.
 
 
 
Oriole left below the home of Peter Deeth RCC.  Above right
is The Inn where we were very generously wined and dined
by Erik and Frannie on their last night.
 
The weather has been excellent here but very wet in the south east Caribbean  so we have been lucky.  Today is unusually overcast so far but with the promise of clearing through this afternoon.  However the stories of snow and ice in the UK have filtered through and we are counting our blessings. Meanwhile the local police have charged a 21 year old local man with the murder of Drew Gollan and attempted murder of his girlfriend.  Drew was the skipper of the 50 meter Perini ketch Perseus which left Falmouth 10 days after his death.  The noise from the sirens of all the other yachts here as Perseus slid out down the approach channel was deafening and very poignant. Andrew witnessed her arrival in St Martin and the same salute of sirens sounded as she came through the bridge into the Lagoon there. What a waste of a young life through the hasty thoughtless and selfish action of one young thug.  There are certainly fewer superyachts here now but whether this is because of or inspite of the events is unclear.
 
 
Take those caps so we can see the skipper and mate.
 
We have a few jobs to do on Oriole and then plan to drift slowly south giving us plenty of time to visit some of our favourite haunts.  However Antigua is a difficult place to leave as old friends keep arriving, so on Saturday night we had drinks on one yacht and then went for dinner with the crew from another.  On Sunday evening we met up with Howard and Amanda Allum ex Newton Ferrers here on holiday at the weekly party on Shirley Heights and then returned to their hotel for supper.