Antigua still!
SV Jenny
Alan Franklin/Lynne Gane
Fri 9 Jan 2015 01:30
Antigua is a lovely place to get stuck so I am not complaining! It is fair to say that we would have moved on by now, had not repairs slowed us up. We may well be here until the end of next week.
The party (OCC) is going its separate ways, whilst others have yet to arrive, having left much later than us. We were pleased to meet up with Arena having heard them on our radio net on our trip over, a beach beer and BBQ on a little stretch of sand close to our moorings in Freeman’s bay, was a lovely spot to watch the sun go down, and chat with Margaret Wroughton, Sofia and Arena crew’s. The BBQ was a little hit and miss, thank heavens others were more organised than I was! Amazingly the water was really warm in the evening as we pulled the dingies back into the water, I still haven’t got used to that!
We were guests of the Tot Club, which is based on the old naval tradition of a tot of rum and the tradition of toasting. A tot is 3.5 measures of rum, a fair amount but less than the half a pint twice a day that was the ration in Nelson’s day. Although the loss of the rum tot was much lamented when it was finally phased out it made sense not to have the navy, weapons of mass destruction AND alcohol on duty.
The rum punches that followed were wicked though, beware the extra strength rum and the headache the following day.
We also did a fantastic walk around English Point, quite a rock scramble in places and a steep climb but the views along the coastline were fantastic, the flora quite unspoiled and the tropical butteries such vivid colours. As we walked clouds of white/ yellow butteries drifted up, so many, quite special. (Look out for more photos when I can get decent wifi, presently its terrible).
Boat maintenance has been our major activity, the generator hiccup was a left over from the dirty fuel and is sorted, the stainless cleaned, we appear to have a fresh water leak from somewhere so that’s the next task.
Back in Arrecife we met up briefly with Ian and Viv (ex Blue Water rally) who happened to be staying on the island (not on a boat), and Pam and John (boat Kaimin). Pam and John have sailed to English harbour so it was good to meet up with them today. Unfortunately we are now on the far side of Falmouth Harbour so its a good couple of miles walk but we need the exercise!
All our best to you,
Lynne and Alan