Visiting the sail loft in Nelson's Dockyard
While crossing the Atlantic I realised that heading straight down to Panama and crossing the Pacific almost immediately was going to be too much for me. So we have decided to stay in the Caribbean until just before the hurricane season when we will head south to Costa Rica and Panama. We will cross the Pacific next year as due to the hurricanes is too late to cross now.
The day after we arrived in Antigua Charlotte & I were having lunch in a cafe in Nelson’s Dockyard when a voice said, ‘hello Sara!’ Our friends, Janette and Paul from Guernsey were here on holiday. We were lucky enough to catch up with them the following week in Jolly Harbour and to enjoy a barbecue at their holiday home.
Harry taking Sara ashore for her birthday!
We then had 10 days exploring Antigua and Barbuda, anchored in beautiful bays, navigating through reefs and swimming and snorkelling off the boat. There are no charts to show all the reefs, so you have to make sure you approach with the sun high & behind you, otherwise they are invisble. There is a big colony of frigate birds on Barbuda and they are huge, like daytime bats as they cruise overhead, so they were great to watch as well as my favourite pelicans.
Harry got some photos of the dolphins that came through the reefs with us in Barbuda
Mending sails again.
A few days in Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua, saw us tucked in, tied stern-to the hard, between lots of huge super-yachts. Tourists were ambling past, the crews on the mega-yachts seemed to spend all the time washing and polishing the shiny vessels, and Harry had to learn about Nelson for his history lessons! Another friend, Barbara, is Captain on the sailing ship Tenacious, which is designed to take crew with disabilities. We went to sea together, doing our first 2 voyages on the same ships, and it was great to see her when they came into Falmouth harbour, and to visit Tenacious again.
Beautiful Green Island, where we could snorkel to reefs from the boat
