More Antigua – RORC 600 & an unexpected (but welcome) guest…

Since our last blog we’ve given up on a passage to St Martin for now. The weather has been pretty rough up there too with Simpson Bay having to be cleared out due to westerly winds. In the end our main reason for wanting to go was to source parts for our solar upgrade and for our proposed bimini. Instead, we spent time getting solar panels delivered to Rodney Bay, St Lucia and sourcing bimini fittings for my in-laws to bring out from the UK (and sorting a rather large online Boots order also to be couriered out! [Mate]). We’ve also managed to do some exploring in the lulls between windy periods.

Above the entrance to Falmouth harbour

Can you spot SG…?

Being in Antigua did give us the chance to see the RORC 600 race. This is organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, based in Cowes, Isle of Wight. They are famous for the Fastnet Race amongst many others and this race is a 600 NM race starting and finishing off Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua. The best viewing point is from Fort Charlotte on the headland outside English Harbour, which entailed and early-ish (for us) start and around an hours walk, predominantly uphill. It was all worth it though, the start was spectacular and it was wonderful to see some of the fastest boats in the world sailing so close to where we were standing. To give you some idea, the fastest multihull finished the six hundred mile course in a little under one and a half days and fastest monohull finished in two days. Putting this into perspective, Stargazer would take between four or five days to sail the course (four would be very good indeed).

Pre-start melee

And they’re off!

Not everyone was interested in the racing…

The other day, as we were in the dinghy going ashore a little blonde head was waving at us from another dinghy. We identified her as my old friend Louise – we did know she was coming to Antigua, but we weren’t sure where or what boat she was going to be on. She had originally asked to be with us, and she would have been very welcome, but we didn’t know whether we’d be in St Martin or Antigua on the specific dates she wanted to come. But there she was, about to join a boat nearby for 10 days or so. I’d actually seen this boat come in a few days ago, it was a Rival 36 – not too bad a boat in my opinion and the skipper turned out to be a very nice chap in his early 70s called Martin. Martin had his dog with him, which was a very well behaved dog, just maybe a little large for a Rival 36…

Louise and Martin did some local sailing and Louise sent a message to us that she wanted to leave the Rival and come over to us, she’s also extended her holiday so that she could have more time here. The mate and I were pleased at this news and Louise will be joining Stargazer on Tuesday 5^th until she leaves on the evening of the 10^th. We’re not 100% sure what we’ll do in that time as the weather, you’ve guessed it, is blowing ‘hells bells’ again, but we’ll see.

There hasn’t been that much happening other than that apart from the normal routine of boat life. The mate, though, has started a new* yoga programme and what a change we find – she feels fitter, livelier and generally a whole lot better. Maybe I’ll take it up too…

*not an entirely new programme, though I had fallen off the yoga wagon somewhat as boat jobs and maintenance got a bit in the way! I have now reclaimed my small (a bit too small sometimes) patch of floor in the saloon to spread out my yoga towel so I can spend some quality time with Adriene :)