Still in Jolly Harbour – let’s explore by land not sea – February 19th-27th 2009

As the winds persisted to blow, we stayed put on our mooring in Jolly Harbour and rented a car to explore by land (rather than sea). Although we have been to Antigua many times before, it’s still nice to drive around and explore (and get jobs done with the ease of a rental car rather than a bus or taxi).

First we headed across the island to Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour (built in 1745 as Britain’s main navel station in the Lesser Antilles) and met up with sailing friends from Bermuda, Bob and Betsy Bailey. They like us, and many others, were staying put in the anchorage, waiting for the winds to subside, rather than go out sailing and get battered. Next we found another geocache up at Fort Berkley, which overlooks the bay, and finally, headed up to Shirley Heights for the weekly Sunday BBQ - about 400 tourists/cruisers/locals go up to see the sunset and great views, whilst listening to a big steel band. As the night goes on, the steel band changes to a reggae band, the crowd becomes younger, and dancing continues till about 2am (so we’ve heard!). While watching the sunset, the massive sailing boat Maltese Falcon, sailed past, giving a nice photo op.

From Heat Wave - bobbing around in the Caribbean

On Monday, we used the car for some shopping (Charlotte got her first pair of high heeled shoes, but soon realized that they are not always the best shoes to wear!) and some sightseeing:
Devil's bridge.

Another 2 geocaches at Half Moon Bay:

As the winds started to subside, a dinner out with friends before going our own ways: Lewis and his son Eddie (who live in Antigua), and Joe and Shawn (sailing friends off S/V Libertas, a Leopard 47)

While eating dinner Charlotte lost her second tooth! She wrote another nice letter to the tooth fairy, who found her way to the boat in Antigua! Unfortunately she didn’t have any more pink fairy dust but did manage to find some nice little pink shoes for Charlotte’s Polly Pocket dolls! Charlotte woke us at 6.30am so excited to let us know that Tinkerbell had visited again!!

Subsiding winds and the boats started to venture out - Bob and Betsy made it over to Jolly Harbour from English Harbour, we finally left the mooring (after 18 days – a record I think!) and anchored out in the bay. Interestingly, people have been commenting how the water has been markedly colder and the winds stronger for longer this and last year. A blanket at night instead of an open hatch (everything is relative I guess!). Sunset cocktails on the beach for the first time this year.

Having done 3 of the 16 geocaches in Antigua and noting none nearby, we decided to set up a new Geocahce in Jolly Harbour “Relax on Deck at Jolly Harbour” – with the cache being hidden below the decking of the Fore Deck bar. We had to convince the “vetting committee” of http://www.geocache.com/ that, despite living 1,000 miles away, we would be able to maintain the cache (a job for the new geocachers “Blue Pirates” (a.k.a. Eddie and Lewis)), and they finally approved it.

Charlotte continues to do great with her arm in plaster – less than 2 weeks to go before the cast comes off (a cause for celebrations and a swim!!), although we often have to wrap it in a towel, to protect the wood on the boat from getting scratched by the pink fiberglass covering (especially when doing home-school). We have settled into home school, which tends to take up about 2 hours (plus breaks) each morning. One on one and working directly at that child’s level does mean that the actual teaching side can get covered in a far shorter time than the regular school day. Some days are better than others and a continual challenge is how to maintain Charlotte’s interest and attention for that length of time.

On Thursday, our last day in Antigua, we took Eddie, the avid fisherman, out trawling – we went out to the banks (where the water drops off sharply from about 70 feet to 700 feet) – supposedly a good place to catch fish … but we went hungry that night!! We have not been that successful with fishing over the years.

The Stanford crisis seems to have quietened down a bit. The Antiguan government have seised all of his assets in Antigua – The official story is to ensure that the employees get treated correctly. However, the skeptics view is that they seised them before the USA did, to protect them (and when it’s all over they will sell them back to him!!) Oh the corruption of the Caribbean!