On Wednesday 9 February Tom and Carol flew in from Denver to join us for 4 days.  Our planned departure fom Nelson Dockyard was delayed until Friday by strong winds and high swell, when we sailed round to Jolly Harbour Marina on the west coast.  Carol's commentary follows:

 

"Carol & Tom arrived in Antigua Weds afternoon to find Ross waiting for them at
airport having rustled up a cheaper than taxi ride for all back to Nelson's
Marina from a moonlighting dockyard worker who noticed the logo on Ross's shirt.
A round-about route back avoided St. John's traffic while giving us a tour of
the island and its many wild goats.

After a tour of the historic marina facilities and Happy Hour on the yacht, we
all ambled to a nearby local Caribbean restaurant, Trappas, where the waitress
brought one menu to the table - in the form of a large chalkboard. Food was
yummy!

A good night's sleep, for all but Ross, anyway. Ross was troubled by the loo's
inability to take in seawater, so he switched off the refrigerator pump (Carol
finds it worrisome that the two are connected). In the light of morning Ross
finds and removes the bit of plastic harbour trash that got sucked into the
line. All is working again.

After breakfast on the boat, Tom & Carol took a walk to Ft. Berkeley while Ross
& crew prepped Starcross for sailing. But the wind did not co-operate. The sea
was very choppy in the morning, and did not calm down as predicted in the
afternoon, so we aborted plans to sail and simply (well, it wasn't very simple)
moved to a new berth 'round the calmer side of the marina.

In the afternoon Ross, Carol & Tom took the dinghy across English Harbour to a
fabulously unused beach! Carol worked on beach bum skill building while Tom &
Ross climbed a small mountain. Ross uneventfully rowed us back in the dinghy.
Meanwhile the Als walked around the harbour to the same beach (arriving after
we'd left). Back on the boat we had a roasted chicken dinner and lots of wine,
which put the old folks to sleep, while the Als went over to the local bar.

Friday morning after breakfast we prepped to sail again. We sailed out around
the southwestern part of Antigua up the west coast to Hermitage bay where we
anchored for lunch. (During the sail, Alastair had a go at cleaning out the frig
drainbox and bin under the sink. Details are sketchy, but an awful lot of
disinfectant was involved). The wind remained rather strong - 20-25 knots - so
we didn't swim. We then headed to nearby Jolly Harbour, where we docked for the
night. Alex whipped up a super tagine and roasted veggies for dinner. We
showered while it was cooking - the showers at this marina being both free and
having hot water. We also have a quite good WiFi connection here, so Carol was
able to see that her children are still not communicating with her.

Today we are planning to sail to Deep Bay. We'll be back at Jolly Harbour in the
evening so Tom & Carol can get a taxi to the airport and on to their next
adventure in paradise. Starcross will stay here another night and try to explore
Barbuda next."

 

Tom and Carol eventually departed Antigua on Sunday night, arriving just in time to join their cruise ship in San Juan Puerto Rico, their morning flight delayed by the need to replace a burst tyre.  Today, Monday 14th, we are still enjoying Jolly Harbour and plan to depart tomorrow.

 

Ross, Alastair, Alex