What is the attraction in Antigua?
Oriole
Sun 10 Feb 2008 16:23
Falmouth Harbour Antigua 17:01.00N
61:46.40W
"Why are we still here?" you may well
ask. Prior to our scheduled departure last Thursday John was doing an
engine service and noticed that one of the engine flexible mounts was in a sorry
state and needed urgent replacement. This meant parts coming from the
UK. We found the parts OK and asked for them to be sent via Fedex which
normally takes about three days. Request not actioned! Sent
instead via TNT which are a disaster. So far our package has sat in
Southampton for 48 hours and is now spending the weekend at Heathrow. Heaven
alone knows when we will see it.
Meanwhile Antigua has lost none of its gloss and we
have been meeting up with friends and had a hilarious 60th birthday party
earlier this week. However it is blowing old boots (out of a clear blue
sky) which is likely to continue for a while longer so maybe we might have
been waiting anyway! We understand that Prince Charles and Camilla
Parker B are guests on Leander the lovely and enormous motor yacht
belonging to Sir Donald Gosling of National Car Parks fame which spends quite a
lot of time around here but we have not seen the Royals. Alfa
Nero (below) is a similar size but Leander is much more
beautiful
Even the superyacht crews are not
beyond a bit of horseplay - this grafiti was fortunately done with masking tape
but took a while to be noticed and
removed by the crew of Alfa
Nero!
We have now executed two rescues while at anchor
here in Falmouth Harbour. The first was when a 60 foot yacht dragged her
anchor onto the reef in the middle of the harbour. The skipper was away
skiing and had left her in the charge of a young lad who was busy
nesting and hadn't noticed their plight. It took quite a lot of hollering
at 10 o'clock in the morning to extract him and his young lady from their
recumbent posture down below where the atmosphere was distinctly alcohol
infused. John helped him re-anchor after 4 RIBs from nearby yachts pulled
them off the reef.
Rescued yacht being re-anchored (Name
witheld!).
No damage done and the couple disappeared down
below again! The second was when a locally owned yacht broke loose from
her mooring close by and we managed to get on board and put down an anchor
before she went on the reef too. The owner was soon on the scene and we
were rewarded with a bottle of extremely good wine for our efforts - perhaps an
attempt to persuade us not to claim salvage rights! Sadly before we got to
the drifting yacht she had collided with and damaged the yacht owned by the 60th
birthday boy which was not a welcome present.