Antigua for Christmas

Tucanon
Dick and Irene Craig
Sat 26 Dec 2009 15:04

The ARC 2009 prize giving ceremony didn't award a prize to all the boats, although some boats received several prizes, which was totally different from the way it had been done on Rally Portugal and thus an interesting surprise. A lot of the prize winners had already moved on to cruise the Caribbean or return home to work and/or their families.
Chris, along with the volunteer net controllers from other boats, received a bottle of rum and a big thank-you for their efforts.
There was much revelry at the prize giving cocktail party which was still in evidence in the early hours of the morning on the pontoon, when Erasmos 1 arrived, having missed the prize giving and the finish of ARC 2009 but nonetheless received a prize in their absence, collected by the wife of the skipper. They had been delayed because they had to detour to the Cape Verde islands with problems. A collision at the start and subsequent rudder problems.
Dick repacked the Jon buoy which had been deflated on arrival in St Lucia and put a protective guard over the activate button so that hopefully, the Jon buoy wont be launched accidentally again.
The formalities to check out of St. Lucia were completed Monday morning, the 21st December and we were able to get away from the marina soon after 10am, to commence the 187 nautical mile trip to English harbour, Antigua, where we hoped to meet my daughter for Christmas.
We only received an email from her the morning we were leaving Rodney Bay, to say that they had now arrived there, in their sailing boat. However, whether they had been able to get to Antigua or otherwise, we were committed to go there, as Chris had already booked a flight back to the UK, departing Antigua 23rd December.
The wind was blowing force 4 as we left the marina and we were sailing at over 8knots at times. Sadly it didn't last and by 2200 hours, the wind was down to force 2 and that is where it stayed for the duration of our passage, making it necessary for us to resort to using the engines all the way to our destination.
Two of the basil plants were left behind. Annie has joined a herb garden on another boat whose basil plant had not survived the Atlantic crossing. Connie was a gift to Olga and Sreco on Ciao, taken with us, when we joined them on their boat for drinks, the night before we left St. Lucia.
On arrival in Freeman Bay, English harbour, around 17.30 we managed to set our anchor on the third attempt.
We had been unsuccessfully calling my daughter over the VHF, as we neared English harbour but by coincidence ,unwittingly, we had anchored no more than 50 metres from their boat.
Within half an hour from dropping our anchor my daughter Caroline, her boyfriend Igor and their dog Laika arrived from the shore, in their dingy. We hadn't seen Caroline since last Christmas which we had spent in Barbados together. This was the first time that we had met Igor and Laika.
As the evening progressed and more alcohol was consumed (Chris was determined to drink the bottle of rum he had been given at the prize giving, before he left our boat), the five young folk went across to Caroline and Igor's boat where they partied the night away.
Next morning we completed the formalities of checking ourselves into the country and arranging for Chris to be signed off our boat then caught a bus to St. Johns where we spent a couple of hours exploring.
However you spent Christmas Eve, I do believe that the prize has to go to Austin who spent the morning with his head down the toilet. This had nothing to do with over-indulgence, just the matter of having to unblock his toilet, with a little advice from Dick, who then went ashore to get the Hotspot password, so that we might access WiFi from the boat.
We met Caroline ashore early evening for a drink in the Galley bar before returning to our boat for more drinks and a supper of barbecued steak. We had bought the steak while we were in St Johns the previous afternoon.
Christmas morning Caroline, Igor and Laika called at our boat to wish us Christmas greetings and to collect Austin to take ashore for some socialising where everyone, from the super yachts to the 20 year old, 29foot monohull, were celebrating Christmas together.
Dick and I, ever the party poopers, stayed on board and indexed the charts which we will need for our circumnavigation. There are still more charts which need to be indexed but not that we need for the next part of our adventure.
Not to be thwarted by the restrictions of a galley, we all ate heartily of our Christmas fare consisting of roast chicken and stuffing balls, bacon rolls and sausages, baked ham, roast potatoes, broccoli and carrots followed by lemon flan, mince pies, sweet oat biscuits, chocolate bars, a selection of cheeses, savoury biscuits and freshly made coffee.
Depending on taste, we drank beer, red wine and water with our main course and Moscatel and Port with the dessert and cheese.
It was a very merry Christmas for us and we hope that your Christmas was as much fun and as successful as ours.
Pictures are as follows:
Fort Berkeley, entrance to English Harbour, Antigua
Head down toilet in heads on Christmas eve
Customs and Immigration, English Harbour
Sorting out pan in cockpit





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