Antigua

Weather seems to be changing over here.  Last 10 days or so have been more blustery with rain squalls getting more and more frequent.  Not sure exactly what to expect from the summer weather here.  Believe we have these tropical waves running across the Atlantic and inpacting the Caribbean Islands every few days or so.  They bring the squalls with gusty winds and rain but in between times there is moderate to light weather.  It is these tropical waves that occassionally, when conditions are rights, turn into hurricanes.  

The hurricane season officially starts on June 1st and we are more and more cogniscent of the fact as we get closer to the date.  Our “hurricane plan” which was required by our insurers was approved a few days ago.  It essentially says that we will haul out at the first sign of trouble.  The worst months are August, Sept and October and these are the months we are planning to be on the hard in Grenada anyway.  We will all be glad to get there and ashore.

At least it is still warm so no one really minds a bit of rain now and then apart from the fact that it usually falls in the wee hrs of the morning.  As we usually sleep with all the hatches wide open to get good airflow into the cabins at night it means that we have to get up and scramble around to close all the hatches before we get soaked.  Invariably the shower only lasts a few minutes so then its back up to open the hatches again.  Its a hard life in the tropics!

We departed St Barths on schedule early on Monday morning and had a boistrous 70NM sail to Antigua.  The wind backed nicely for us so that we could lay a direct course to St Johns in Antigua.   We even managed to close reach for a good portion of the trip which was great fun.  The seas were a bit lumpy but once we came off the wind a bit it was fine.  All the way Pete had a fishing rid over the stern.  First catch was another baracuda which we threw back but about halfway through the trip he hooked three fish in pretty quick succession.  The first two were decent sized cero (mackerel like fish) and then finally we got another black fin tuna.  Fantastic haul.

The days catch

We pulled into St Johns around 15:30 with a squall blowing through.  We entered the harbour and had a look around but it did not look to appealing.  St Johns is a busy cruise port and commercial harbour and the anchorages were small areas and relatively shallow so we left the harbour and elected instead to anchor in a nearby sheltered bay called Deep Bay.  We found a lovely spot off the beach, ran up our quarantine flag and seltted in for fresh fish and a glass of vino.

Next day we sailed down to English Harbour / Falmouth down the south end of the island.  This is the really yachtie part of the island.  Everyone was excited to be here.  English Harbour and Falmouth are two very sheltered bays almost side by side.  The British used English Harbour as a major refit location for their fleet for the best part of a couple of hundred years over the 17th and 18th century and there is a well preserved naval dockyard still in existence named after its most famous Captain - Nelson.   The Nelson dockyards have been rennovated and are now a museum and marina.

English Harbour and Falmouth Bay

We anchored off in the mouth of the bay and Scott and Claire dingied into the marina to clear into Antigua.  Then we moved Dulcinea to the marina.  The mooring arrangement here is Mediterranean style i.e. stern into the quayside.  The manouvering into position for stern mooring is more difficult and Scott had not done this before although he has read plenty of horror stories about when they go wrong.  Usually this manouver occurs in a crowded harbour with plenty of onlookers which just exacerbates the situation.  The mooring procedure requires you position the vessel perpendicular to the wharf about three or four boat lengths off the quayside and then drop the anchor.  Once the anchor is dropped you reverse into the dock and come up on the anchor just as the stern nears the wharf.  Lines are then run from the stern onto bollards on the wharf to secure the vessel.  Easy.  Its kind of the marine equivalent to parallel parking.

Luckily all went well with the docking thanks in no small part to Pete, Nicole and Calley on deck, Sam in the dingy providing additional thrust where needed and Claire ashore.  After a bit of messing around we had Dulcinea secure and the passerelle (gang plank) run to shore for access.  The boat looks great tied up in this historic boatyard especially since there are not many other boats around.  In season this dock is full of mega yachts and we would be dwarfed.

Dulcinea moored at Nelsons Dockyard

Next few days have been catching up on school and a few jobs.  Finally had to send in the dingy for a professional repair and it has just come back so Sam and Pete are giving it a good clean.  For some reason we have developed a split in the toe rail at the stern where the passarelle attaches to the boat.  Really annoying for Scott as it is another repair job we will have to carry out in Grenada.

Nelsons Dockyard Marina onshore

Pete and Claire have been busy planning the wedding which will be in the dockyard on Saturday.  There is a bit of paperwork etc necessary to enable them to get a marriage licence.  They disappeared to St Johns and got that sorted out early so we are all set now.  They tried to get married in one of th French islands but “surprisingly” the bureaucracy and rules defeated them.  Scott has still not got over his Paris experience trying to get a work permit 10 years ago.

Typical Buildings in Nelsons Dockyard

We managed a trip into St Johns yesterday mainly to take the kids for a dental checkup.  Had a look around and it was interesting but not anything special.  We took a local bus to get there from English Harbour and the island scenery was very interesting.  Its extremely green and fertile and for us coming off the boat its a treat to sit on the bus and smell the land smells as we drive along.

So its wedding day tomorrow.  Scott and Sam are taking Pete out for a drink this evening and Nic and Calley are hanging with Claire.  Nothing too riotous.  We will have the wedding tomorrow and then look at heading to Guadaloupe on Monday. 

The old sailloft building columns