Arrived Antigua

February 10^th 2009 we were finally on our way – I kept Charlotte at home with me the day before traveling to ensure no further mishaps! For anyone not familiar with travel to the Caribbean from Bermuda, whilst it might appear to be relatively close (1,000 miles – probably 2.5 hours direct flight), unfortunately that’s not the way the planes fly!! 8.30am flight to New York and then, 7 hours later, we fly back over Bermuda en-route to San Juan! At 10pm we finally land in Antigua, tired but pleased to finally be on the boat. Jimmy and Tim were there to meet us at the dock (bar).

Jimmy had grown a beard to show Charlotte – we both made sure he shaved that off the next day!!

The boat was moored in Jolly Harbor – a nice civilised spot in Antigua, – a bit like a little gated community with bars, restaurants, shops, supermarket, swimming pool , beach. There are lots of villas there, many owned by Brits. This week is school half term in England so good to find a few children around the pool. Unfortunately the broken arm does mean Charlotte is unable to join in with the other kids swimming and playing on the beach. We constantly try to ensure that she doesn’t get it wet around the pool as I don’t savor the thought of going to an Antiguan hospital to get the cast redone. The doctor in Bermuda had put a pink fiberglass wrap around the plaster cast to protect it a bit more from the water.

At the weekend we went over to Lewis and Eddie's (who live in Antigua) for a BBQ and a “sleep over”.

Lewis and Eddie BBQing:

The following day we introduced them to “Geocaching” – the worldwide treasure hunt – we found a couple of caches near where they live:

Engine problems meant we have not moved from Jolly Harbor yet (and now weather problems have delayed our planned circumnavigation of the island at the weekend as the weather forecast is not good – 30 knot winds). The fuel injector that I brought down (sent from New Jersey to New York, then to Bermuda then carried to Antigua) was the wrong size - fortunately Lewis was able to rebuild/combine the new injector nozzle with the old housing (not an item we would be able to find on the island).

Joe and Shawn on s/v Libertas arrived in Antigua on Monday. This was the first time we had seen them since Jimmy’s birthday bash last May in St Lucia. Needless to say, in order to catch up, Jimmy and Joe had to go out for a very long lunch (till midnight). Both were “a bit” slow the next day.

We did a bus trip over to Falmouth harbor one day – main purpose to try and get a new part from the rigging shop – no such luck – need to bring in another unbroken one for them to make one …

There have been a couple of murders on the island recently. One a few months ago at a nice resort near here – someone broke into a room and shot a honeymoon couple. The thief was caught. Apparently Scotland yard were involved but withdrew as they still have the death penalty here in Antigua and it looks like they are up for hanging. Another murder more recently involved a yacht captain being shot 3 times. The original story sounded awful but local insights say it was drugs related, happened in a “drug area” and the guy was chasing the villan who had a gun (as jimmy said –growing up in Brooklyn, rule 101 – “do not chase someone with a gun” ). Also locals have not been too helpful to Scotland yard, brought in again, as they want to downplay it to drugs related as they do not want to further hurt the current struggling tourist industry.

The last few days the big news has been Allen Stanford, the rich Texas billionaire tycoon who "supposedly" has fraudulent activities. He’s been known in Antigua for a few years where he basically gave the island a lot (and the government officials no doubt) and in return set up probably the biggest washing machine in the world... and has residency here. In his offshore banks, he guaranteed investors over 8% return on their money – all sounds good until you try and get your money back - the FBI are now looking for him in relation to an $8billion fraud - he's in hiding (Jimmy offered him $20,000 a day to hide on the boat but he declined). Plus he has banks in Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador - all world class banking countries (not)!!? Antigua is known for having the worst banking regulations (or best depending on what side you are on!). For a small country it probably has as many banks as Switzerland!

As far as Antigua is concerned, most of Stanford’s activities are offshore so don’t affect the domestic side. However the Bank of Antigua is owned by Stanford, so there have been 300 yard lines outside the bank for people wanting to withdraw all their money by the suitcase load. Not helped by a statement from the Antigua and Barbuda Banking Authority that said that there is nothing to be worried about, but if people start to take out all their money it will cause instability (and then a problem) – so guess what? – this made even more people withdraw!! This was not helped when the email that sent out the press releases to all the bank customers (with all the email addresses professionally put in the “to” box for everyone else to see!!!) was then followed up with another email saying they were withdrawing the first email!! We will wait and see if all this might bankrupt the country.

While all this has been going on, the next island down, Guadeloupe (which we were hoping to visit) has been on a general strike for the last month - banks are closed, they ran out of fuel for cars/boats, all the shops are empty as people bought everything up - so the shops are closed and boarded up (there have been looting and arson attacks). A couple of days ago a union leader was shot and the airport is closed as staff are unable to negotiate roads blocked by burning barricades.

So much for the idyllic Caribbean! But we did get out of Bermuda just in time to avoid strong gales which knocked down trees and disrupted services.

We will look to stay in Antigua until the end of February and then head up to St Martin in time for the annual Heineken regatta.

Send us your news - we love to hear from you all, as we sit here bobbing on the waves.

Our local cell number in Antigua is 1-268-785-3893. Also the USA number 1-718-312-8511 should get forwarded to us whereever we are.