Blogs from Antigua & Barbuda, Central America Caribbean - page 4

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Antigua reminds me of a beautiful woman who is having a quiet night in, and you are fortunate enough to meet her for the first time. There is something about her, no doubt, but it is an understated beauty. Hey, need I remind you this is the Caribbean, so the island is bound to impress right? That being said, Antigua has 365 beaches which is the most in the Caribbean, and one for every day of the year as the locals are fond of saying. This Caribbean pearl is a regular stomping ground for the rich and famous for very good reason. When you first lay eyes on the beaches of Antigua it all comes into focus, as this stunning island is the most beautiful beach destination I've ever had the privilege to visit. Antigua, my ... read more
Sir Viv Richards stadium and statue
Fort in St John's
English phone booth … on the beach!


10thApril Arrived Antigua after a good sail from Guadeloupe and a 0600 departure. Got a few jobs done on the boat, the main one being to fix the anchor winch, hence staying in the Jolly Harbour Marina. Also had a teak grate made for cockpit floor to keep my feet dry on long passages. Few more bits and pieces done while we’re next to a chandlery. Hired a car for a day and circumnavited the island. Went to Falmouth Harbour and English Harbour where Nelson’s Dockyard is – a historic harbour, the main one used in the Caribbean. Went on to see Devils Bridge and then Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground. Here we met Mervyn Richards – Viv’s younger brother. He was very keen to chat to us about our sailing and showed us around the ... read more
The real colours, not edited at all
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Jolly Harbour Marina


Day 5 Jackie & I were first up as usual, so we got to see the beautiful sunrise over Deep Bay. In fact after discussion we realised we had shared quite a few romantic moments together, in between showers on the transom together, sunrises and sunsets! My husband will be very jealous! After saying goodbye to Lily Maid we sailed out towards Sandy Island. We then experienced the best moment of our trip - 2 Dolphins joined us for a few minutes, they were swimming under the bow of the boat, we were all so excited, (unfortunately the photos didn’t come out well). Back to reality, we short tacked around Sandy Island, Heidi then set a challenge for the 3 novices – a figure of 8 course. We worked together each taking turns at the helm ... read more


Day 4 The last thing Heidi said to us before going to bed was that if any of us woke up in the night to go to the toilet, we should check our position relative to the island and other boats – this led to me having dreams about us floating away during the night. Jackie woke at 4am but was happy to report we were still at anchor and in the right place! Our homework last night was to write a Mayday call. Heidi gave each of us a boat name to use, I had Mary Rose, Jackie had Titanic and Jo had Costa Concordia: Hopefully not a bad omen we thought! So after breakfast we performed our Mayday calls. Jackie, Jo, Heidi and myself took the dinghy over to the island again for a ... read more


Day 3 We started the day with a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. Every morning we have to obtain a weather forecast, this is of course hugely important – today it was Jo’s task to find the Marina office before we left to get a forecast report. On our way out of Jolly Harbour we all practiced motoring Zigzag style through the buoys forwards and in reverse! When out of the harbour the next task on our list was to practice Man Overboard again. Heidi gave us the tasks again, however this time we accidentally had a double man overboard when one of the girls dropped the boat hook in! So we circled a few times to pick that up and then went to get the “man”. To be honest we were distracted by ... read more
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Day 2 Jackie & I spent the night under the stars, there was a nice warm breeze and we were prepared to be a bit cold so were wrapped up. I slept very lightly to be honest but then again that is normal for me! There are so many new noises to get used to on the boat. Having slept outside we were the first to wake up as the morning light hit us first of course! Once the others all woke up, the students made a quick trip to the Dinghy dock at Antigua Yacht Club to drop off rubbish and CV’s for Natalie. Just before we left Falmouth we took in a Superyacht Tour, we saw “A” which is a mega yacht; The Maltese Falcon was also back in town and was anchored just ... read more


After living in Antigua for a year I decided it was time to learn to sail! Antigua really is the Mecca of sailing in the Caribbean, so this was the place to do it I thought. After making some enquiries, I decided to make a booking with Miramar Sailing – a company based in Jolly Harbour where I live. Being a complete beginner, I was advised to book the RYA Competent Crew Course; there was also the opportunity to book this for a “Ladies only week”. Sounded like lots of fun I thought. As the date was getting nearer I had a couple of apprehensions: maybe I will get seasick, maybe I would miss technology (especially Facebook and email!) and how am I going to remember all the knots (making knots was never my strong point ... read more


Alors oui, la houle s’est levée et nous décidons que nous voulons un minimum de confort; donc nous décidons d’aller prendre un « mooring » à l’intérieur du lagon. Intéressant ce lagon. Nous mettons l’annexe à l’eau, mon capitaine met une belle chemise pour aller aux douanes (il paraît qu’ici ils sont plus titilleux alors ça fait bonne impression d’avoir une chemise) et nous voilà partis! Heu… presque. Quoi encore? Le levier d’embrayage du moteur hors-bord est figé, impossible ou presque d’embrayer le moteur… C’est quoi ça encore! Il semble que cela fasse un bout de temps que l’embrayage soit difficile à passer; c’est vrai que nous avons dû mettre du WD40 et de la graisse avant de quitter St-Martin mais je croyais le problème réglé… Finalement, nous usons de la force (bête et méchante) et ... read more
Le moteur le matin
Du vélo enfin!
Absaroque attaché à sa boule


Antigua We arrived after a gentle sail from Guadeloupe in Falmouth Harbour with the wind dropping fast. It has been a strange few days for wind. The Caribbean Sea is flat calm and the wind is starting to come around to the west and lighten – the opposite of what you would expect at this time of year. The rain that falls on our first morning in Antigua deposits ash from Montserrat’s volcano. We anchored in Falmouth Harbour, a wide and well protected bay that I remember well from 20-odd years ago. It has changed greatly. The bay now has 3 marinas in it and quite possibly the largest collection of superyachts anywhere in the world, with the possible exception of Palma, Mallorca. Adorning these massive boats are helicopters and even a mini-submarine in ... read more
Nelson's Dockyard tour
Open Blue, Fabiola and Progression
Jolly Harbour




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