Antigua better than ever
Pelekan
Tom & Jos Hollway
Tue 27 Nov 2012 12:04
Tom and I are sitting in Freemans Bay, English harbour in glorious warm sunshine, with a cooling breeze drifting through the boat. Near perfection.
A very short lived generator miracle occurred last Thursday. For some reason one of the multiple "treatments" caused it to run for two hours without overheating X 2. We shot off to West End in the afternoon, cleared out and sailed out of the marina at 06.15 on Friday- what a relief! We had a fabulous sail for 15 hours then had to add in the engine as the wind had dropped. The 170 miles were covered by the afternoon on Saturday and, as we anchored, heads popped up from a couple of other boats to shout welcome backs. This is, of course, because Tom spent nearly all last winter anchored in the bay, drinking rum at the Antigua and Barbuda Tot club!
I have managed a whole paragraph without a mention of the generator. It ran like a dream on Sunday and Monday morning BUT on Monday evening it overheated and stopped in a cloud of steam and burning smells. The fan belt had melted and the alternator seized. We have no idea whether it will be fixable, or indeed the true extent of the damage. Anyway we are now in Antigua and I have no intention of leaving other than by courtesy of British Airways.
Awful stories of the weather in England are causing a little guilt- but not too much!
Tom and I send our greetings.
Jos