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Published: March 29th 2016
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Thursday 10th March, 2016. St John's, Antigua
We went down for breakfast and then M waited to see if she had a phone signal to call Sprout who had been advised that we were coming today. Once a signal was obtained M made the call but there was no answer so she left a message. Sprout got back almost immediately and said he was already in town and would meet us at the end of the quay in 30 minutes as he was just finishing the shopping.
Sprout was waiting when we disembarked some 35 minutes later. He took us to the car and then we drove over to his house. Riley, who was just a puppy last year, is now fully grown and absolutely beautiful. We had a catch up and a drink of water and M used the internet for a bit. Then we drove down to Little Learners, Anita's school, to deliver her lunch. The school is absolutely gorgeous. The kids were on their lunch break so we had a tour. The equipment is state of the art with touch screen computers. We saw a project on dinosaurs and fossils that the
kids had just finished. It was an absolutely charming place. We left the kids for their afternoon rest and Sprout took us down to Nelson's Dockyard. We did the same as last year - just cruised in without paying as Sprout is a local.
We looked at the The Transatlantic Row Boat from the 2005 race. The rower of this boat was James "Tiny" Littie from Norwich, England. On 21st January 2005 he bagan is journey of 3,479 miles from San Sebastian in La Gomera (Canary Islands) to Antigua in the West Indies. Interestingly, we had seen the preparations for this year's Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge while we were in the Canaries just before Christmas. Tiny arrived in Antigua on the 17th May 2005. The journey took 116 days. An incredible 8000 calories was required per day while rowing. A rower is expected to lose 15 to 20 kilos (33 to 48lbs) over a hundred day row. Tiny's daily timetable was pinned to the boat and was as follows: 0500 Stop sleeping and row for an hour: 0600 Take vitamins and clean teeth & eat breakfast: 0700 Row for 3 hours: 10;00 Mid Morning Meal: 10:30 Row
until midday: 12:00 Take position and plot onto chart and have coffee and snacks: 12:30 Row for 2 hours: 14:30 Lunch: 15:00 row for 2 hours: 17:00 Evening meal, emails, phone home, update website, use loo, scrub the boat and take a shower: 18:00 row for 3 hours and listen to music: 2100 stop rowing, secure boat for the night and retire.
Rather him then us! Sprout informed us that the last rower from this year's race had arrived last night. He was not still in the competition as his boat had to be boarded when he became ill but he continued on nevertheless and had now completed the challenge. We went down to the marina and strolled along. The said rower was just cleaning and emptying his boat after having caught up on a few hours sleep. His boat could be rowed by 1,2 or 4 rowers. We took some photos of the boat and the support boat which was moored next to it.
We strolled around the dockyard taking some photos before arriving at Dave's place where we had lunch. We returned to the car where we met Anita who had finished school.
Sprout suggested we took a walk to Fort Berkley as it was still a bit early to go to the pub. This was a pleasant 10-15 minute stroll starting behind the Copper and Lumberstore Hotel in Nelson's Dockyard. Sprout always finds somewhere to take us that we have never been before! This is a small fort, which overlooks the western entrance of English Harbour. There were goats and kids running wild on the path. The fort dates to 1704 when it served as the harbour's first line of defense. It boasts a pretty intact powder magazine, a small guardhouse and a solitary canon, which is the last of 25 that once lined the fortress walls. We had good views across to Shirley Heights and to the house where Sprout lived when he first came to Antigua. Sprout pointed out the muzzle of a canon protruding from a large rock and explained that this was used to support one end of a protective chain that was stretched across the mouth of the harbour, just below the surface to impede invading ships. We strolled back towards Nelson's Dockyard passing a small cannon that Sprout had help to relocate to its current position
several years ago. It took about 12 strong men to move it. Anita commented that nearly every child in her school had had their photo taken with this canon.
We headed to the drop in where Manny was still the proprietor. Pete was there too. We had a drink and a catch up before driving to the Antigua Yacht Club where we had some wine. JB came to collect us in his cab at 6.15. Anita gave us a lovely 2016 calendar which was made up of photos taken by the children from Little Learners. They were really very good. We said our goodbyes, promising to return for longer next time.
After dinner we gave the show and the cabaret a miss as M was still very under the weather.
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