Persephone... Cruiser/Racer

Jolly Harbour

Nigel & Karen Goodhew...

Wed 15 Mar 2017 12:26

A week ago, we hauled up the anchor off Galleon Beach, and made our way around to Jolly Harbour on the west side of Antigua. The plan was to rendezvous with Paul and Debra on Tumi....they have been working their way south from the Chesapeake, back to the Caribbean, to haul out for the summer months in Grenada.

The approach to the harbour here is spectacular. The water is so clear that you can see the bottom in detail, even though the water is 14 metres deep. The bottom is sandy, so under a blue sky, the effect is amazing, with the water a luminescent aquamarine.

We anchored next to Tumi, just outside the entrance of the harbour / marina, in 3 metres of water.

Then the parties started! Round to Tumi for supper, then out to the Italian restaurant in the harbour for supper the next night. All over to Persephone for the next night.

Then John and Sandra Pickles arrived in their Discovery 55. John came over in the dinghy to chat as he, a fellow RORC member and a Royal Southern member too, recognised Persephone from the racetrack. Next thing, we were all enjoying (more) sundowners aboard Eupraxia.

So the bottle count has been formidable.

It was lovely to catch up with Paul and Debra again. Paul has been taking it easy here to let his back recover from some over exertion, possubly anchor chain related. They have been encouraging us to visit the Bahamas and the Exhumas, so we now have some ideas to absorb about that. I am rather conservative when we sail short handed and i have to say, I don't like the look of the charts....there's no water there, but now we have some advice, we will consider it again.

Jolly harbour is a little bit like a Caribbean version of a cross between Poole Harbour ( theres a sandy isthmus a little bit like Sandbanks, with luxury houses and infinity swimming pools) and Hythe marina....a lot of private houses with their own pontoon for the owners' yacht, plus a marina, very good shopping and a big chandlery.

Few people seem to leave the complex, though its within easy striking distance of the islands capital, St Johns. Clearly, there were grandiose plans when the place was designed, and shoreside is dominated by an abandoned but originally very ostentatious casino building.

Jolly beach is superb. On the seaward side of the isthmus, its a 10 minute dinghy ride from our anchor spot, around the rocky headland, and is straight out of the brochure; long expanses of white sand, a little bar serving rum, and the astonishing pale blue water, lapping gently at your toes as you stroll nonchalantly along the millionaires row, set discreetly back from the water, behind glass walls.

Yesterday, the call came in from Marko; there's space on the 100 foot superyacht l'Ondine, he is crewing in the St Barths "Bucket" regatta. We are invited. Its a 10 hour sail down to Gustavia, so we are provisioning today and will set off at first light in the morning, for a spot of gentlemans racing over the weekend. What's not to like?

The only little fly in our perfectly anointed world is a tad of outboard unreliability. So this morning, I am going to try and sort that out. If you are able to read this on 15th March, I sorted it and dinghied in to Jolly Harbour marina a mile away to find internet.

Sent from my iPad