Log 20th - 22nd April 2019 - "First guest trip!"

s/v Safena's blog
Simon Ashley
Mon 22 Apr 2019 15:30
Saturday 20th April 2019
We returned to Antigua on 20th April to make preparations for our guests, Carl and Julia Mayer, to arrive.  Very sensibly, for the week before they joined us on Safena they had rented a beautiful Air BNB villa with its own pool just behind the marina.  They also rented a car and kindly met us at the airport!

When we got to Jolly Harbour marina we were very pleasantly surprised to find Safena in very good shape inside and out.  She looked remarkably clean, unlike when left in the Canary Islands only to be covered in rust-coloured sandy dust from the Sahara.

It took a while to get things hooked up, including the gangway so that we could get on and off the stern.  It is amazing just how long it takes to get the yacht sorted for living aboard even though we had only been back in the UK for 4 weeks!  We had allowed ourselves 2 days to prepare for the Mayers.

Late afternoon we retired to the Mayer’s villa and cooled off in the pool.  Julia had clearly perfected Pina Coladas in the week before we arrived and after a couple of these Nina and I definitely felt extremely happy to be back in Antigua!  That evening we ate at Akropylis which is superb.


Sunday 21st April 2019- Easter Sunday!
The big clean up day!  
Max, our day-worker, met us on Safena at 0830.  He did the teak (Scotch Pads and Ariel powder), and then cleaned the superstructure and topsides with wash n wax.  It was tremendously helpful having Max do this as Nina could concentrate on preparing the interior and I could fix a few things including doing a dreaded software update for the Raymarine electronics.

I had downloaded the new firmware on a micro-SD card in the UK before we  left.  As I was inserting this into the card reader of the MFD at the helm, the bloody card pinged out and ended up in the sea!  Thank goodness it was not the Navionics Platinum card - that would have been an expensive mistake.  Fortunately I had another micro-SD card and backup copies off the  software so I got there in the end.  It is always tense updating the software as one never quite knows what will happen but all was well.  I am looking forward to using the new sailing information including lay-lines.  Also, the collsion avoidance graphics have been updated and look very good.

It was an exhausting day but by the end of it Safena looked ship shape once again.  We met the Mayers for a sundowner at Castaways beach bar and then went to the amazing Miracle’s restaurant for Easter Sunday dinner.  I had one of the best Bloody Marys ever and then the incredible Lobster Curry! Unfortunately Nina struggled with the Jerk Chicken which was seriously hot!


Monday 22nd April 2019
Final preparations aboard Safena followed by a trip to Epicurian for provisioning with the Mayers.

In the evening we had a pre-dinner drink in the Westpoint Bar then all went to Sheer Rocks for dinner.  This was preceded by sundowners with our own “day bed”.  What an absolutely beautiful spot!