For the first few days we were anchored in Falmouth Harbour, we considered English Harbour but it was quite full and some friends of ours on Sulana anchored there recently and are still trying to get all the muck of their anchor chain - yuk!

As it is time for Seaduced's yearly 'tart-up' we have been busy rounding up various contractors to work on the boat and trying to get our orders in before the whole of Antigua becomes manic when the racing starts next month.  Once the big boats arrive to get ready for racing getting anyone to do anything is practically impossible.

The last job we had to do before coming into the marina was to drop our sails ie take them down completely.  One of the riggers came to help out, as this is quite a big job for only 2 people as our sails are a reasonable size.  The previous two days the winds had been very light in the morning so we started early, sitting on the anchor, and managed to get the main sail down and the smaller headsail with no problem despite it being predictably windier than expected.  The problem came when we tried to get the big headsail down.  All was going well, but at the last minute the sail jammed and refused to drop - at this stage we had the whole sail out and the wind started to gust harder, within about 2 minutes the anchor had slipped and we were dragging very quickly, towards the reef - ooops!!  Eventually we got the whole lot under control, furled the sail, pulled the anchor up, which had reset and stuck, and set off to drop the sail out at sea. Half an hour later we were safely tied up in Catamaran Marina, with huge piles of sailcloth all over the decks!!

The rest of the day was spent bagging up the sails, cleaning the outside and generally sorting things out.  The weather has suddenly got very hot over here, even the locals are noticing it.  I took my thermometer outside and we had 29° at breakfast time today (07.30) and by lunchtime yesterday, the mercury had risen to over 40° - phew!! 

On Sunday we had some time off and had a fab day lunching at Catherine's Cafe, one of our favourite restaurants here, with Alan and Sue from Sulana, and then spent the rest of the day swimming of the back of their boat, and drinking rum punch, lovely.  Monday morning was hard work but eventually we got ourselves going.

While we were having lunch on Sunday, a canoe, being paddled by a lone oarsman came into English Harbour. The staff at Catherine's said that he had crossed the Atlantic in the canoe but, despite this, there was no big welcoming committee.  It turned out that this was in fact the case. When we went to drop off the bicycle pump we had borrowed, this is an essential bit of boat kit and used to pressure up the water system, Alan had met the guy and his wife ashore and he had actually paddled from Lagos, Portugal via the Canaries to Antigua.  It had taken 76 days in total.  His wife had been a bit worried recently though as when the canoe was turned over he lost all his communications and hadn't been in touch since the beginning of February. Now, if that had been you or me for that matter, and I had just done that trip, my first requirement on landing would have been a long hot shower, a massage and a very comfortable bed, but not this guy - he went straight to sleep in the canoe while his wife stayed ashore! This is the second time he has done this trip, the first was with his wife a few years ago, she clearly took the sensible option this time and flew!

One thing that I will be doing before we leave here is getting some lessons in traditional Antiguan cooking in preparation for the Coal Pot Regatta we are doing up to Maine USA, and I will fill you in on this later...

 The canoeist arriving in English Harbour

 Would you cross the Atlantic in this??

 Our mainsail on the deck - next job folding!!