We spent yesterday touring around the island with the local chap we got to know at the beach a couple of weeks ago. It was an interesting day seeing us visit Fort James just north of the capital, Devil's Bridge on the east coast (the sea was incredibly rough making this natural bridge all the more dramatic), Halfmoon Bay in the south and also having a typically Antiguan lunch at a roadside restaurant owned by a former Antiguan fast-bowler, now also a reggae star soon to be touring the UK with his group. All in all an enjoyable day.
I have to say everyone we have met in Antigua, and the wider Caribbean, has been very friendly and welcoming and all seem to share a very relaxed philosophy to life, something we could all possibly do to adopt ourselves. Typically they have far less materially than do we in the western world but yet they appear contented with their lot.
We're approaching the wind-down phase for our trip now with the haul-out of Pandora planned for the end of next week in time for all the servicing and repairs to be arranged, and some completed, prior to our return to the UK. We'll be staying at an hotel in English Harbour when the boat is in the storage yard, neither of us fancying the heat and mosquitoes associated with boats on land! It will certainly be novel to sleep in a proper bed again, on a floor that is stable, and will be interesting to see whether or not we have lost our "land legs"after 6 months afloat. I suspect we'll have no problem as any time we've spent ashore has felt perfectly normal but we'll have to wait and see.
29 Apr 2011
26 Apr 2011
[Captains Blog] English Harbour, Antigua
It's Antigua race week this week, and yesterday as we were sailing around the island, we found ourselves in the middle of a race. Not being overly competitive, and not having entered for anything, we continued on our merry way, trying not to disrupt the hardened racers, giving them a wide berth so that they could pile on all canvas and surf their way downwind with their spinnakers up and the entire crew adding their weight to the stern of the boat so that they could increase their speed.
As they turned around the race marker to beat back into the wind (which is what we had already been doing) the difference between racing and cruising became very apparent. The racing boats soon ate into the gap between us, and even though Pandora can point close to the wind, they were gaining on us quite quickly. We wanted to be in nestled down in harbour before the hordes of racing boats arrived, so we made all haste and managed to get there with a few minutes to spare. Then sure enough, they all trailed back into their dock spaces to debrief and then settle down to enjoying the beer tent and the night's social activities.
There is a real buzz about the place, helped greatly by the fact that having been becalmed for a week, the wind is back with a vengeance. We were out in 20+ knots again heeling over close hauled with reefed sails making on average 7 knots of speed, and it was very refreshing! We don't like the calm weather when we can't sail, and for us motoring is not an option. There are many sailing boats (mostly bareboat charter catamarans I have to say) that never seem to put sails up - they simply motor everywhere. What is the point? To us, the sheer bliss of silent running under wind power is everything, and the motor is there for the convenience of manoeuvring in tight harbours or in case of emergencies. We like to sail, no, we LOVE to sail!
As they turned around the race marker to beat back into the wind (which is what we had already been doing) the difference between racing and cruising became very apparent. The racing boats soon ate into the gap between us, and even though Pandora can point close to the wind, they were gaining on us quite quickly. We wanted to be in nestled down in harbour before the hordes of racing boats arrived, so we made all haste and managed to get there with a few minutes to spare. Then sure enough, they all trailed back into their dock spaces to debrief and then settle down to enjoying the beer tent and the night's social activities.
There is a real buzz about the place, helped greatly by the fact that having been becalmed for a week, the wind is back with a vengeance. We were out in 20+ knots again heeling over close hauled with reefed sails making on average 7 knots of speed, and it was very refreshing! We don't like the calm weather when we can't sail, and for us motoring is not an option. There are many sailing boats (mostly bareboat charter catamarans I have to say) that never seem to put sails up - they simply motor everywhere. What is the point? To us, the sheer bliss of silent running under wind power is everything, and the motor is there for the convenience of manoeuvring in tight harbours or in case of emergencies. We like to sail, no, we LOVE to sail!
23 Apr 2011
[Cruise News] Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Well the wind hasn't returned as yet and so we're still stuck in Falmouth Harbour waiting for conditions to change .... I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be hoping for more wind after all we've sailed through in the last few months! But wind is what we need if we're to be able to hoist the sails again. Meantime we're filling our time with walks ashore and trips to the capital, cocktails and lunches, all very enjoyable but enough is enough!
We met a former Antiguan and West Indies cricketer earlier in the week who has kindly offered to take us on a tour of the island on Wednesday next week to see "the real Antigua". Should be good. And lo and behold on the same day we met him, we also met the wife of another retired cricketer (Andy Roberts, a West Indies fast bowler) who also used to be the girlfriend of David Gower in years gone by ... definitely a day for cricketing contacts!
One thing we have noticed in the last few days is that the volcano on Montserrat looks to be more active that we've seen before and we're wondering if it is building up for another magma dome collapse - there definitely looks to be more ash/smoke in the air which has resulted in some glorious sunsets. We've heard stories about one yacht visiting the island when the prevailing ash-laden wind was blowing over the anchorage and the following morning when they hoisted their sails they noticed that they were peppered with myriad small holes where the settling hot ash had melted them! Thank heavens when we visisted the island we had a north-easterly wind which blew any ash away from us!
And to close on a wind-related theme, a little sailing ditty from years gone by that Paul has told me about :-
When the wind don't blow and the ship don't go,
You get carter the f**ter to start her!
Well we've no carter on board so we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that nature helps us out ......
We met a former Antiguan and West Indies cricketer earlier in the week who has kindly offered to take us on a tour of the island on Wednesday next week to see "the real Antigua". Should be good. And lo and behold on the same day we met him, we also met the wife of another retired cricketer (Andy Roberts, a West Indies fast bowler) who also used to be the girlfriend of David Gower in years gone by ... definitely a day for cricketing contacts!
One thing we have noticed in the last few days is that the volcano on Montserrat looks to be more active that we've seen before and we're wondering if it is building up for another magma dome collapse - there definitely looks to be more ash/smoke in the air which has resulted in some glorious sunsets. We've heard stories about one yacht visiting the island when the prevailing ash-laden wind was blowing over the anchorage and the following morning when they hoisted their sails they noticed that they were peppered with myriad small holes where the settling hot ash had melted them! Thank heavens when we visisted the island we had a north-easterly wind which blew any ash away from us!
And to close on a wind-related theme, a little sailing ditty from years gone by that Paul has told me about :-
When the wind don't blow and the ship don't go,
You get carter the f**ter to start her!
Well we've no carter on board so we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that nature helps us out ......
21 Apr 2011
[Captains Blog] Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Mother Nature can be a real harridan - one moment we are battling against raging winds, high seas and otherwise uncomfortable sailing conditions, the next, we are totally becalmed. Unable to sail in the slightest of zephyrs we wallow at anchor in the bay at Falmouth Harbour among the racing yachts hoping to see a change in the weather before race week starts on Friday. Some hope. We downloaded the Grib weather files yesterday evening and the forecast is only for 5 knots of wind for the coming few days. Still (a good word to use here) it gives us the chance to remind ourselves what our legs are for and do some walking ashore.
Speaking of this, Ian (a sailing friend) and I went looking for a watermaker services company to get some cleaning solution for the watermaker yesterday. I had noticed one previously on the side of the road as we passed on the bus, and knew it was somewhere on the left side of the road. Off we went, two mad Englishmen (sadly no dogs to be found) walking out in the mid-day sun on the campaign to acquire said cleaning solution. Three miles later, which seemed to us that we were half way nearly to St John's, having looked at every sign appearing in the distance on the left had side of the road, we chanced upon a police station. We went in and asked the very laid back police if they knew where the watermaker services people were. 'No, there's a water company a few miles up the road, perhaps they will know' came the non-commital reply. We decided that we were not going to find it that way and duly left to head back towards Falmouth Harbour and wait at the next bus stop for a ride.
Flagging the bus down we boarded and headed back in a very convoluted way to Falmouth. The buses here are not like in the UK. The drivers will turn off their normal route to drop passengers at their gates if they have shopping to carry. Perhaps a lesson for the independent UK bus companies to improve their service and customer satisfaction ratings? Sure enough, on the bus I saw the offending sign flat against the front of the building, and not sticking out into the road as I expected. 'Bus Stop!' I shouted. Another good feature of the service, they will stop where you want. Off we got, and within minutes had done the deal and were walking the relatively short distance back to the dinghy dock via a bar where we had to slake our thirst and the mini market to get some provisions. So what should have taken 30 minutes to achieve, we managed in two and a half hours. But that's the Caribbean for you ....
Speaking of this, Ian (a sailing friend) and I went looking for a watermaker services company to get some cleaning solution for the watermaker yesterday. I had noticed one previously on the side of the road as we passed on the bus, and knew it was somewhere on the left side of the road. Off we went, two mad Englishmen (sadly no dogs to be found) walking out in the mid-day sun on the campaign to acquire said cleaning solution. Three miles later, which seemed to us that we were half way nearly to St John's, having looked at every sign appearing in the distance on the left had side of the road, we chanced upon a police station. We went in and asked the very laid back police if they knew where the watermaker services people were. 'No, there's a water company a few miles up the road, perhaps they will know' came the non-commital reply. We decided that we were not going to find it that way and duly left to head back towards Falmouth Harbour and wait at the next bus stop for a ride.
Flagging the bus down we boarded and headed back in a very convoluted way to Falmouth. The buses here are not like in the UK. The drivers will turn off their normal route to drop passengers at their gates if they have shopping to carry. Perhaps a lesson for the independent UK bus companies to improve their service and customer satisfaction ratings? Sure enough, on the bus I saw the offending sign flat against the front of the building, and not sticking out into the road as I expected. 'Bus Stop!' I shouted. Another good feature of the service, they will stop where you want. Off we got, and within minutes had done the deal and were walking the relatively short distance back to the dinghy dock via a bar where we had to slake our thirst and the mini market to get some provisions. So what should have taken 30 minutes to achieve, we managed in two and a half hours. But that's the Caribbean for you ....
20 Apr 2011
[Cruise News] Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
It's been the "Antigua Classics" race week this week and so we have spent a few days in Falmouth Harbour to enjoy the racing and sights - some lovely old boats. Sadly for them and us there's been very little wind and so sailing any distance is a time-consuming business unless you're prepared to motor to your destination, something we don't favour. We had planned on a return trip to Barbuda this week, actually staying this time so we could visit the Frigate Bird colony up there (supposedly rivals the Galapagos!) but the absence of wind has put paid to that for the moment. So instead we spent a couple of lazy days back in Nonsuch Bay, which has to be one of our top ten anchorages out here, before returning to Falmouth Harbour to stock up on provisions and check the weather forecast.
It's surprising how much hotter it feels without the steady breezes we've experienced all the time we've been out here and Pandora's teak decks have become somewhat painful to walk on without that cooling influence. We'd thought our feet (and bodies) had become acclimatised to the heat! Regular dips in the sea are the perfect antedote other than we seem to have a large barracuda who has taken up residence under the hull and I'm somewhat cautious about swimming with him. Swimming with turtles, dolphins or even rays is one thing, and is on offer to the tourists, but I haven't seen anyone advertising swimming with barracuda opportunities. Anyway, Paul's named him "Barry the Cuda" and joined him in the sea on a number of occasions but he's a lot braver than me!
It's surprising how much hotter it feels without the steady breezes we've experienced all the time we've been out here and Pandora's teak decks have become somewhat painful to walk on without that cooling influence. We'd thought our feet (and bodies) had become acclimatised to the heat! Regular dips in the sea are the perfect antedote other than we seem to have a large barracuda who has taken up residence under the hull and I'm somewhat cautious about swimming with him. Swimming with turtles, dolphins or even rays is one thing, and is on offer to the tourists, but I haven't seen anyone advertising swimming with barracuda opportunities. Anyway, Paul's named him "Barry the Cuda" and joined him in the sea on a number of occasions but he's a lot braver than me!
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