We took an easy 2 day sail up
to Antigua, stopping overnight in Portsmouth, Dominica. The second day as we
were passing Guadeloupe, with all three fishing lines out, a small fishing boat
powered up towards us and passed straight behind our boat, snagging two of our
fishing lines. The boat kept going and we eventually had to cut both our lines,
needless to say we were not impressed. We went through quite a lot of squalls
on our way up to Antigua, and had barely any wind on the crossing between
Guadeloupe and Antigua so once again, as usual, we arrived in Falmouth Harbour
late in the evening. The harbor was stacked with boats due to the upcoming
classic yacht regatta but we managed to find a spot.
Our watermaker failed and we
were supposed to pick up a new system in Antigua, we had a few days to wait for
the parts to arrive so we put the spinnaker up and had a nice sail to Jolly
harbor to fill up with water, and then moved to Hermitage Bay to meet up with
our friends from Secoudon and to get really great, free wifi. We spent the
night there, and it rained earlier the following morning. We had a lady named
Mary come over to inform us she got a fantastic picture of our boat under a
rainbow and that she just had to send it to us. And I must say, what a
fantastic picture it was! It is so nice to meet friendly people like this.
 |
| Jangles under the rainbow |
The swell picked up in
Hermitage so we moved back around the corner to Jolly again. Secoudon had some
guests arriving and we all went out for some pizza onshore that evening. The
next day, after we filled up with water again, we followed them to Bird Island
in Antigua, as numerous boats have raved about it. It was a quick hour and half
trip, and once we arrived, well worth it! Bird Island was super calm, the water
was like glass. It was also very quiet with only 3 boats in the bay. We had
Secoudon over for dinner and enjoyed some bobotie and milk tart!
The next day we went for a snorkel. We attached
our dinghy to a buoy and dove in. There were some fish, with the best sightings
being a squid and a very scary looking stingray (definitely kept my distance).
Later I went for a swim while my mother was doing water aerobics with Krista. I
didn’t swim very far after I almost landed on top of 2 stingrays! The next day we were set to
depart but before we left I went for a long kayak. I spent the morning going in
and out of the mangroves, onto the beaches to pick up shells and sea urchins. I
found a big and beautiful sea urchin which I promptly threw overboard after
noticing the giant hairy spider inhabiting it (in hindside I should of just
shook it in the water and kept the urchin haha). I came back to the boat with a
kayak full of shells, but only kept 2 perfect ones.
We headed back to hermitage
bay for the night where we were lucky enough to have a dolphin swimming around
the bay! The next day we filled with water again, did some provisioning and
headed back to Falmouth for the start of the classic regatta.
We took our dinghies
(Secoudon and Jangles) out of the harbor to watch the start of the races. It is
a lot of fun watching the boats come and go and it still amazes me how they do
not collide! Afterwards we got our watermaker parts and now have a functional
watermaker producing 58 litres an hour!
On the last day of racing, my
mom, Krista and I did a small hike to a cliff between Falmouth and English
harbor to watch the race. We had a fantastic view and got to see all the boats
perform, mind you we all got a little sunburnt! Afterwards, we ended up at
Catherine’s on the beach for some cocktails, and before we knew it, it was 4pm.
. . gotta love days like that.
The weather has been overcast
and rainy for a few days, and is forecasted to stay that way for a while. I
took a mile trail this morning between Falmouth and English harbor, which was a
lovely walk with stunning views. Tonight is the red hat party, the opening
party for race week. Free rum between 7-8 . . . gonna be a party!
