16:59N 61:46W Antigua and Sunshine at Last
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Sun 17 Apr 2011 11:46
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Hi there,
We are a bit behind on blog entries so here is our
catch up. Having left Guadeloupe we arrived at a finally fairly sunny
Antigua anchoring in English Harbour packed with boats ahead of Antigua
Yacht Week. In fact we arrived instead at the start of the
Classic Mega Yacht Regatta, which was quite impressive with the J Classes
and other mega yachts going through their paces. You would need a
power boat to follow them they are a quite an impressive set with speed to
match.
Back tracking, on our way out of Guadeloupe we
caught our first fish, I am happy now that we have a set up that works well and
our first victim was a Spanish Mackerel. Unfortunately we did not
venture to eat it since we are now given to understand that many fish
around Guadeloupe have fallen foul of a toxin found in Coral called Ciguatera
which some fish eat or absorb and can be passed on to other predatory
fish. Some species are worse than others, the Spanish Mackerel
in question is debatable so given the location (the worst possible
place) we decided to err on the side of caution. Clearly we need to do
some more research on this before eating our fill of the local fishy
fare!!.
On Friday we spent the day in Antigua, we
breakfasted in English Harbour, following an interminable delay in
customs. Checking in and out in the Caribbean is never much fun but
in English Harbour they seem to have made a dance of it. There were
three windows 5 forms (I think) and each window had to be visited several
times. The Customs official seemed to take delight in sending you away to
another window then vanishing for 15 minutes or so before popping back up again
for a fleeting moment. It was also the most expensive customs process I
have encountered so far. The day however cannot be spoiled by this as
it is our first proper day of full on sunshine. We upped anchor
and motored into the wind around to Green Island and N onesuch Bay, very
pretty and reminiscent of the Tobago Keys though without the teaming
wildlife. A lovely lunch spot for our prawn salad (sadly Mackerel was
off the menu).
Back to English Harbour again for the night
with an intended early start in the morning to take us to St Kitts, highly
recommended by Cleo from her Caribbean cruise (in a slightly
bigger boat).
Another high point for English Harbour was the
restaurants there. While rather expensive the food was excellent. On
Thursday night we dined at Hamilton's in one of the historic buildings in
Nelsons Dockyard and had Tatar of Tuna followed by seafood platter
which included Lobster and crab cake. Milo tucked in to his
lobster and chips special with delight. On Friday we went to Catherine's,
a fine French restaurant where we variously enjoyed lobster salad, Seared
Foes Gras, Tornados Rossini, and Mahi Mahi. A delightful evening
though slightly marred by the return of the rain, this time huger thunder
shower rather than the constant drizzle. We got lucky though as the Bimini
held (just) under the weight of water and while the anchor
dragged we did manage to avoid collision with other boats in a packed
harbour (the holding is dreadful)
We were up early the next morning
for the trip to St Kitts (see next entry) leaving at 05:20
am.
Ben and the Crew of The Snark
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