Dear friends

Thank you for your kind messages and updates, and I must apologise, my laptop has had to be wiped clean twice and I only just have Mailasail and Outlook working again and I have seen all of those messages for all of you, I hope to reply individually over the next few days, but thank you!   Oh and well done Gerry for getting back, Triple D’s nearly there, hope the gale has subsided!, Sulana, we will be catching up soon, Karinya….next year in Australia perhaps, Alan/Mary see you for a holiday later in year and Rainmaker, may catch up in August when we are back…

Well we are back at sea….finally… 18 44N6205W, it is a beautiful moonlit night and we have been averaging 9 knots for the last four hours on a reach…it doesn’t get much better.

It is marvelous to be at sea again and I have been feeling very ‘left behind’ catching up with your messages.

Nakesa has been in Antigua since April 1^st and I was worried that the anchor had taken root as seems to be the case with all of those who arrived for 2 weeks and stayed for 30 years!! Our extended stay was due to a number of reasons,

1)      Firstly we had a new generator shipped there and waited a while for it to clear customs and get delivered..I then went through the farce of waiting for engineers to help fit it before finally giving up and doing it myself ( which I confess I am rather proud of..even more so because it actually runs and doesn’t leak!!

2)      Disasterous Race week, I can only just start to talk about it as I was so upset!!, a ripped sail on day 1 followed by a broken top mainsail swivel stopped us racing all week!!!! We had to wait then for a swivel to arrive from HOLLAND..more waiting and great expense..Antigua is NOT the place to have work done or buy parts!!!

3)      Phaedras Mum had a health scare and P and Aston and Atlanta went back to see her..false alarm, my Mother then got seriously ill but also recovered so all is well except that family are apart and I very sadly missed Astons 12^th birthday, however we will all be re-united in Bermuda on the 19^th, if this wind holds and I am sure we will make up for it.

4)      Waited for crew to satisfy insurance who could only arrive on the 10^th

Whilst waiting I had a great time though, Antigua just got better, the longer I stayed and I made many, many friends, I ended up in a social whirl of lunches, dinner parties, conservation work and being asked architectural advice by everyone, I could easily have set up a new office!!!! Heaven forbid, I looked at properties, land and hotels for sale and generally got myself very involved in Antiguan life..it looks like a good one and we may well be back!

But oh what a joy to be back at sea, we had a quick sail to Barbuda catching 6 fish although 3 were big Barracuda and one, a large tuna suddenly stopped struggling and when hauled in we found that something very big had bitten clean through the body whilst we were pulling it in!! We also caught a fish whilst re-setting a line. We eat tuna sashimi and wondered on whether we would have had a chance in the Sport Fishing competition which is going on in Antigua at the moment. Nakesa did start smelling a bit like a fishing boat though!

We are now heading directly for Bermuda and then on to Halifax, Nova Scotia,

Will keep you updated and thanks again for your kind thoughts and messages

Graham

Nakesa