We said a very sad goodbye to Travis in St Lucia. His
company and energy and most importantly his sailing skills on the boat are
missed.
After consulting the weather the Captain decided that due to
consideration for his two crew
member’s we would spend a few more days in St Lucia as the sailing conditions
were not great. This enabled us to catch up with a lovely lady called Fiona who
we met the last time in St Lucia her presence at Rodney Bay Marina was sorely
missed. We did manage to get noodles for supper at Starfish restaurant as
promised for Rebecca (her staple diet in St Lucia during our last visit).
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| Jess with the kite |
We were introduced to Beth a kite boarding instructor by a
wonderful couple on the boat called Pocohantas who convinced us that if they
could learn and master this at nearly sixty years of age there was hope for us.
We spent three fun filled and scary afternoons at Cas en Bas beach/bay being
taught the fundamental kite flying and dragging in the water. It is with great
pride that I can announce that between the three of us we managed to avoid
killing any of the locals that were on the beach with diving and crashing kites
controlled with little or no skill.
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| Me with the kite |
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| Dad up on the kite |
Ian managed amidst roars of encouragement from the
cheerleading team to get up on the board for a brief few seconds before a
spectacular submarine entrance back into the water. Jess and I were very excited on the morning of day four as
this was the day that two blondes were going to attempt to put kite skills and
board skills together unfortunately for us the weather wasn’t playing along and
the beach was full of locals enjoying the Easter holidays so it was a not
advisable for us to attempt controlling kite and board. This will be something
that we will continue with, as it was great fun. It is definitely not as easy
as it looks. We bumped into our “neighbour” David while having lesson’s, whose
parents were anchored next to us in the bay. They were from Zimbabwe and we
were invited aboard for drinks and snacks on the lovely boat Ngoma which means
“the beat of the big drum.”
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| Ngoma |
We lifted the anchor and set sail for St Lucia with a
planned sleep over stop in Dominica. I can report that with two rusty crew
member’s and winds that refused to play along the mantra that we had learnt
from the lovely Zimbabwean couple came in hand to avert a mutiny or some forced
plank walking “ what happens on deck stays on deck”
We were once again blessed with sightings of turtles,
dophins swimming alongside our boat and humpback whales.
It was the end of classic race week in Antigua when we
arrived late on the Wednesday evening, fortunately with barely enough light to
avoid all the boats anchored off Pigeon Beach in Falmouth Harbour.
Thursday was time to check in at customs and once all done
we headed off to Hamiltons restaurant for Jess favourite house salad for lunch.
We managed to catch up with Lauren Everett a wonderful young lady who we knew
back in South Africa and whose family were close friends of ours. Lauren has been
working on super yachts as a chef for quiet a few years but we have always
managed to miss her by a few days. We were given a tour of “Athos” the boat she
is currently working on. “Spectacular” is all I can say.
Friday was the famous “red hat” rum party; which heralded
the start of race week. Our
friends on s/v Secoudon, Bill and Krista, arrived in Falmouth from Barbuda with
friends of theirs from back home Grant and Bev. We had managed to scrounge
entry tickets for the party (without having to drink copious amounts of rum),
which allowed us each a red hat. So armed with our tickets off we went.
A great time was had by all and we managed to collect 9 red
champagne glasses 5 for Jangles as we don’t have any on board and 4 for
Secoundon. Unfortunately I was not able to get an even 6 as the lady serving
the champagne would only serve us the champagne in plastic cups after a while.
Thank you friends for helping in adding to my glasses collection for
Jangles. After some dancing and a
few rum punches we headed off to dinner where Lauren joined us as well. It was decided after dinner that we
needed to pay a visit to the yellow hat party in English harbour to see whether
we could procure ourselves a yellow hat. I can report that this goal was
achieved without the required rum drinking.
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| Champagne glasses |
Saturday saw Bev and Grant depart for home. Saturday was a
quiet day with some time relaxing on the beach and dinner of fresh Wahoo on
Jangles compliments of Lauren. Sunday was a truly awesome day with fabulous
snorkeling, hiring of paddle-boards, lunch at Katherines restaurant chilling on
the beach some more with Bill, Krista and Lauren. Loads of fun was had by all
especially with attempting yoga classes on a paddle -board after an expresso
martini or two.  |
| Lauren doing a back bend |
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| Jess doing downward facing dog |
Monday we hired a van and we were off to our favourite place
in Antigua C C wine bar. Cutie made us so welcome as always as we introduced
our Canadian friends to some yummy food and good South African wines. In the evening
we got to hear and see Lauren sing and play the ukulele at the little Lime bar,
so truly talented. The local reggae band that followed was also excellent. We
said a very sad goodbye to Lauren who’s boat was leaving for a charter. She is
a very precious young lady and we hope to catch up again sometime soon.
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| Lauren singing at the Lime |
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| At CC wine bar with Cutie |
Congrats to Josh and Rebs on great reports for Uni and
school. We are so proud of you but wish you were here.
We were heading out on Tuesday with s/v Secoudon who were
told that their new hob that was ordered in January was finally arriving in
Antigua later on in the week so we went off to Hermitage bay for a few days. Not
bad sailing with photo opportunities of each other boats. Jangles looked fantastic with her Spinnaker
flying.
Krista introduced us to noodling at sea, water aerobics so
lessons were held behind our boat.
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| Noodling |
We motored around to Jolly harbour and hired a car to drive
back to Falmouth to collect the infamous hob (replaced three times) the package
was collected all safe and in one piece.
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| remora |
Off to Barbuda with some reasonable sailing. We had some
more turtles and dolphins on our trip This is truly an incredible and beautiful
un-spoilt little island with miles and miles of white sandy beaches.
More noodling lessons, snorkeling, walk and sundowners on the beach. Truly a chilled few days. Jess was
laughing at us oldies with our version of YMCA
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| Secoudon & Jangles |
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| YMCA |
As the two boats were having such fun together we decided to
head off to Montserrat for a few days. Jess took some great photos of Secoudon
in full sail with Captain Bill doing his famous pose…..
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| Captain pose |
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| Secoudon |
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| Jangles with the screecher up |
Jess has done a video of our tour of Monseratt. We ended off
a wonderful week of sailing with
Bill and Krista by having a delicious Bobotie dinner with good South African wine on their boat.
We had a very interesting experience later on in the
evening. A high level low pressure system moved in with some extremely rough
and rolly seas. We were up from midnight till just before six. We had to close
our emergency hatches to prevent waves from coming into the boat. All the people on the boats around us were up and keeping an
eye on each others boats. The one mono hull in front of us was eventually only
10 meteres away from Jangles. We experience the worst sailing conditions to
date and we were under anchor.
An early departure was made and we headed off back to
Antigua. Jangles ever fluid decision making process. Good sailing friends of
ours Robert and Jodie were in Antigua for the evening so it was back to Antigua
for dinner with them before they flew back to Canada. We got to cuddle the new
addition to their family baby Genoa
It has been a wonderful few weeks catching up with old friends and
making new ones…
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| Robert, Jodie, Jarret and Genoa |
As we had no internet for a few days we want to wish our
beautiful niece Shannie a happy happy birthday for the 9th of May.
We hope you had a amazing holiday in Thailand.
To my mom who always reads our blog we wish you a wonderful
and blessed mothers day. We love and miss you heaps…
To nana we also wish you a wonderful and blessed mothers day
and a huge thank you for taking such wonderful care of Rebecca for us. We love
and miss you too…
