Antigua again!!!!!

Yes I know that we have not posted anything for a long time! I guess we have been too busy or lazy or partying too hard.

The last blog had us heading up to St Martin which we did with a great sail of 100 miles. Here you enter a lagoon through a bridge that opens three times a day. Half the island is Dutch and the other half French. The Dutch side is best for boating stuff and grocery shopping and the French for dinning and ambiance. As we were in need of batteries for Kilkea we went straight to Budget Marine. Once there we found they did not have the batteries that we needed but hoped they would be in soon??? So seeing as how we were in a marine store we bought a few things for the boat. We ended up coming home with a new nine foot AB dinghy with a new 9.8 hp Tohatsu engine. Now we have two dinghies and two engines for them!! It ended up that the batteries were not going to arrive anytime soon so at another marine store we bought twelve AGM batteries and installed them which took considerable effort. Dammed heavy things batteries, especially when you have to take out twelve and then install the new ones. The good news is that we now have power that works and we can leave the boat without worrying that the fridge or freezer will go down. We spent a week there before spending a couple of days at a small islet, Tintamarre, with friends just swimming and walking around the island. We left here for the BVI's at 0300 and sailed another 100 miles with favorable winds.

The BVI's are a number of islands much like the gulf islands in BC. The week we spent here the weather was not good with big winds and lots of rain but this did not stop us from having a good time and meeting new people. Cruising life is very social. Actually just had to stop writing this as we had company we have not seen since Turkey. This is why not many blog entries!! Anyway, after a week is was time for us to return to Antigua via St Martin, St Barts, and then back down to Jolly harbour in Antigua.

We arrived at sunset, saw another green flash, and had a quiet night before heading into the marina in the morning to clear in with customs and clean up Kilkea before Lorne and Gwen arrived in the afternoon. We needed to pick up a few things and rented a car and met them at the airport. Good thing we did as they were held back at immigration because they could not tell them where they were staying. So we had to go inside customs and vouch for them. All ended up well and we had a wonderful time. We went up to Barbuda which is the northerly island of the country. This island is low and has miles and miles of empty pink coloured beaches with no houses, hotels or people. It is wonderful to walk for an hour or so and see no one and to see no footprints. There is a small town on the top of the island inside a lagoon and you need to take a water taxi over. This we did and had a tour of the island and then out to a Frigate bird breeding ground in the mangroves. The males have this red pouch that blow up to a huge size to attract the females. We spent a week around Barbuda swimming and snorkeling and enjoying BBQ, beer and wine. Not too tough. We then came to English harbour for a couple of days then to Carlisle bay for a few days of swimming and watching the turtles swim around the boat.

On Sunday the 5th of April L & G left and Marian went with them back to Vancouver for a couple of days then over to Calgary to see Natalie and lend some support for her wedding arrangements in August. I had a quiet time and managed to do some of the boat list jobs that had been on hold. Marian returned the next Sunday and I jumped ship and went to Sea Mist on Monday for a week of racing in the Oyster Regatta. This was my first time racing so it was all new to me. It is supposed to be a friendly race each day but from what I saw it was flat out racing with some of the bigger boat with Olympic crews on board and they only sail one way. It was great fun and I learned so much about sailing which will benefit Marian and I in so many ways in the future. There were six guys on board and all were needed to operate Sea Mist a 56 foot Oyster and each day we were in a different harbour with big receptions each night and even an afternoon of golf!! Just to see how competitive this was out of thirty boats one was T-boned, two others ended up on reefs, two arms were broken and one person sent to the hospital with bad rope burns. For us we blew out a clew on the fore sail which ended our first day of racing but after that we finished with two seconds and a first place finish. We all had a ball.

So now that we are recovered we will leave and start to head south to Trinidad where we will be by June 1st. We will pull Kilkea out of the water and park her on land while we come home for the next few months. We plan to be back on board in November to start making our way to Panama and then the south Pacific.