We are still in Antigua, but are making progress.  

As far as the boat is concerned, we are just about ready to leave.  The anchor locker has been re-glassed by Woodstock, tested with a hose, and seems to be fine. 
We decided to get divers to clean the bottom, and particularly the folding prop.  After leaving the tender in the water for 10 days the bottom was covered with weed, as was the outboard motor and took some cleaning, so we had a team of 3 divers yesterday scrubbing and cleaning True Colours below the waterline;  they report all is now good, and that the prop anodes are still in good condition.

With regard to the crew, Toby has now left, flying to St Maarten to join the boat Global (ex  Kismet) a 67m motor yacht.  Nadine is still on the crew list;  we’ve not quite got all the paperwork to satisfy Immigration, but that should be fixed either today or tomorrow.

New hobby is star watching.  We have eaten on the table next to Pete Townsend (he owns the yacht Gloria, currently in English Harbour) and last night when we ate  at Trappas Bar, Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Strictly Come Dancing 2013) and her husban Richard Jones (The Feeling) were close, they spoke to another couple on the next table to us – we all sort of recognised him but could not put a name to the face, looked a bit like Gavin Henson.

But in case anyone reading this believes that life is perfect in the sun and sea, mingling with the stars, there are downsides.  Heat can be oppressive, particularly around midday and when trying to sleep (a local sign today showed “New York -6, London +11, Antigua +28”;  during the day we can swim and at night we try to sleep with all hatches and vents open, but then a squall will come and we have to dive out of bed to close everything up;  5 minutes later it’s passed, so out of bed again to open up.  This can happen 2 or 3 times a night.  And then there are the mosquitos;  we have all been bitten to some extent, but reactions have varied from almost no effect to serious swelling.  We are getting better at arranging mosquito netting, but it’s not perfect yet, and the netting also reduces the air flow making it hotter.  We have fans in all cabins but they are noisy at full flow.  We know the answer to this – win £10m on the lottery and have a boat with aircon and a genset – but then we are not allowed to play the lottery as we are out of the UK (and their computer recognises this when we try to play online).  We hope that when we move to moorings, and fit a wind scoop with mosquito netting (St Maarten shopping list) this will get better.