ANTIGUA
We sailed from Guadeloupe to Antigua in great conditions. It took us 6 hours with an average of 7 knots, and we cleared in at the beautiful Jolly Harbour.
We sailed on to Falmouth Harbour and were greeted in the bay by fleets of magnificent classic yachts, sailing in the annual Antigua Classic Regatta. What a beautiful sight.
As we came into the anchorage we saw ICAP Leopard and were so excited that we took Katz alongside immediately and said hi to our old friend, Paul Standbridge who was working on deck. We were so happy to see him, it is just the most amazing feeling to see friends from home in these faraway places, it always gets me teared up! Paul and two crew from Leopard came for drinks that evening and we celebrated over a few cold Caribs.
We are so out of touch that we had no idea the Easter Weekend was approaching. It was not entirely our fault because there were no Easter eggs and not even a hot cross bun to be seen in the shops. Paul had the long weekend off so he joined us as we headed around the island. It was great having with us and we left on Friday morning and sailed in a really big 2m swell to Green Island.
Green Island is a beautiful island and the entire family (for once), and Paul did a great 3 hour hike after anchoring. Looking down on crystal clear, turquoise water and walking through rocky areas and thick shrubs, we discovered we had walked around the entire island without realizing it. There is magnificent kiteboarding here and Michaela dusted off her kiteboard and went for a really nice kite from a small launching beach.
The rough sea conditions and big swells had not calmed as the weather forecast predicted and this concerned us as we had a 2 hour sail up the coast to meet Pat and David Isenberg at the airport. We got to a point when we realised it would be too hairy to attempt this and arranged for a taxi to collect them. It took us most of the day to find a point where we could fetch them on a dock, with the dinghy.
After much negotiating and liaising with Glenroy, the taxi driver, we met Pat and David on the side of a deserted road at 11pm, waving a torch light so they could see us. Stephen and I were waiting in the pitch dark and we were so excited to see them that we jumped in the taxi with them to the fishermans dock, down a dark little dirt road. We had to pile all their luggage into our dinghy and the 4 of us chugged off to Katz, anchored in the bay. Michaela welcomed us with Rum Punch and it was like Christmas with David hauling, gift after gift from SA, out of his suitcase. I got hair colour, we got tablets, we got sjamboks (for down south), we got coffee and spray butter, Michaela got sunglasses and Stephen got a new windvane for the yacht. It was crazy and after lots of laughs and even tears, we had to force ourselves to go to sleep at 2am. It is wonderful having our old East London friends share this experience with us!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment