22/12/02 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Oriole
Sun 22 Dec 2002 22:23
a local competition for the most lavish fairy light decorations, sometimes
you cannot even see the house. We have spent the week soaking up the
atmosphere, and preparing ourselves for Christmas. The best supermarket in
St John's has a much more international flavour than Tesco or Sainsbury and
has provided all our needs and a bit more besides. Robert flew in from
Gatwick having been flown home from Trinidad via Antigua by his company. If
he had been quick enough he could have got off in Antigua and saved a two
way transatlantic flight but unfortunately there were things he had to do
before he clocked off. He is now with us for a month and Andrew has moved
ashore on the hunt for work. He has already been paid for going sailing on
some smart American yacht but is looking for something a bit more permanent.
We are extremely fortunate to have left the Canaries when we did as a
fortnight later the tradewinds disappeared and some yachts coming behind us
have had very slow passages and headwinds. I am sure this sort of thing
never used to happen. We had been helping one yacht on passage with as much
weather routing information as we could glean but they were effectively
becalmed for a week. They have been dogged with bad luck starting with a
broken engine cooling pump in the Cape Verdes which delayed their departure
until the wind had disappeared. Now they have lost their towed generator
and have had an engine fire so have no way of generating power so we have
not been able to speak to them on the radio, but understand that they are
likely to reach Barbados on Boxing Day. We have spent the week anchored out
in the approach to Nelson's Dockyard where there is more wind and the water
is great for swimming. We went alongside one of the old quays on Wednesday
where our backstay was repaired very efficiently and we hope and trust
reliably. John watched them like a hawk as they made the wire joints! A
deep low in the North Atlantic has sent down a bit of swell in the last few
days so we have vacated our anchorage in English Harbour and have moved
round the corner into Falmouth where we are rubbing shoulders with the
superyachts in calm but still crystal clear warm water. When all the
Christmas festivities are over we plan to move north for a while before
moving gently south towards Trinidad, but more of that anon. In the
meantime we hope everyone has a very happy Christmas and many thanks for all
the email greetings.