ANTIGUA

Friday12/01/12Jolly Harbour                                                                          Log 5277      Miles Covered 12,849         

The skipper arrived on board first having flown direct from London instead of having to transit at Washington and Miami like the rest of the crew. Boat looked good but a tidy was needed after the quick departure before Christmas. Dinner at Sugar Ridge (great sushi)

Saturday13/01/12Jolly Harbour                                                                      Log 5277      Miles Covered 12,849         

Morning tidying and then saw family arrive by taxi. What a sight, we all had suffered terrible conjunctivitis over Christmas and everybody’s eyes were red. Lunch out got us back into the swing and we stayed three days in Jolly Harbour before moving around to our old home in English harbour.  It was great to be back in English harbour and the social whirlwind began, with nights at the Tot Club and many hours with the legendary Mike Rose and Anne, long nights and dinner aboard with Michael Briggs and endless conspiracy theories about Antigua, John Duffy and numerous projects and some special meetings with Alison and Colin, our good mates from ‘Antigua Nice’, there is never enough time!

My birthday fell on the 19^th and luckily our great friends James and Leslie (CobaLibre) and Andrew and Sue (Andromeda) were there to share it. Champagne in the water off Calabash beach followed by lunch at Catherines Café run by now good friends Giom and Claudine was excellent, even Max Clifford was there with friends and joined in, he now wants to sign Atlanta..I told him we couldn’t afford him.

It wasn’t all play I was working quite hard gaining information and meeting people related to a project to design a house for good friends Dean and Serena and this meant meetings, trips to St Johns to buy materials and print and trips to Nonsuch Bay to supervise site clearing and meet the owner. There were also more potential projects and for a while we could see work taking over and the trip on hold especially when we met Brian Dobbin and his beautiful girl friend Kal who had yet more exciting ideas about a new resort in Rendezvous bay.

And then of course there was the nightlife, Mark Smiths new band 1761 degrees who were everywhere and never better than at Hamiltons on a Saturday night, Pascha at Abracadabras…wild..it was all too good but it had to end so on 21^st February 2012 we finally set sail after several delayed starts.!!!

The delays were for  good reasons though, firstly the most important, Tot club member John,s memorial service at his and Claire’s house. John sadly passed away in January and tributes were payed on a very special Thursday afternoon celebration of his life by friends at each of Mark and Lindsay’s golf holes, scattering his ashes as we went!

Then there was Copper and Lumber on Friday and a Build a Wobbly boat event that in the end I didn’t have to do but thought I would have to, then weekend, then forgetting to pick up the washing (1^st Mate) by close on Saturday, waiting until Monday only to miss the fuel quay and then a wait until first thing Tuesday only to find that they didn’t have any fuel in Falmouth or English Harbours anyway!!!

So much for our intended cruise around the BVI’s. As Michael Briggs says Antigua is all sex drugs and rock and roll and it is more addicitive than nicotine. It certainly had its hold on us and we just decided, prepared or not and with a willing skipper or not (who was having far too much fun here) that we just had to leave for Boanmiare or else we would never reach Fiji, Australia or Asia.

Nelsons Dockyard and 'Vabene' Eric Claptons yacht

Graham's birthday with Coba Libre and Andromeda at Galleon Beach at 11am!!!