Antigua

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!