arriving back for new year 2010

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It was actually December 30th when we arrived back in Antigua. The boat was waiting, tied up in Jolly Harbour, and within 15 minutes Alan was off having drinks with some friends of ours! Of course I joined him, so not much got done. Trevor came round as well and then we went for a meal, just for Colin, I had lasagne and Alan had a pizza!
The next morning we got up early, Alan had a terrible cold and coughs and had been awake most of the night but felt a bit better by the morning. We cleaned, unpacked, put the sails on, put the spray hood back on, tested all the electrics, generator etc, everything seemed to be working. Then a big shop up, and a sail down to Falmouth Harbour. We anchored in the same spot as before, but not quite. When it got to about 7.30 pm the rain was lashing down in torrents. The wind started to howl. I had just washed my hair and put some make up on ready to go out, when we started to drift too close to an adjacent boat. We decided to move a little so then I was on deck, full waterproofs with the rain washing my face of every scrap of makeup, the wind flapping at my clothes, and the water seeping through my ‘waterproofs’. We managed to move in the dark and wind, and let the anchor out again, but by the time we had finished it was 8.30pm, just when our table was booked for. I quickly rang the restaurant and we bundled into the dinghy, and getting completely soaked drove to the dock. The meal was lovely, once my hair stopped dripping on the table, and they had saved us a place, which was good. I felt a complete wreck, my clothes were soaked, and my hair like a wild woman. Still never mind. I had a kind of boulibaisse with scallops, green lip mussels,prawns and rice, Alan had a steak.
We had arranged to meet our friends on the other side of English harbour, so when we bumped into Trevor he drovc us across in his big rib, and then we drank champagne etc, we went back to the quay, and then to a night club where we all danced, and this morning I have suffered for it!
The sea is very blue, and fairly calm, if we did not have such bad colds and coughs we would go for a dive but will make do with a snorkel on the reef this afternoon. The boat is beginning to look more organised, and we are feeling a lot less tired. The temperature is 28 degrees and the wind is blowing about 15 knots. More later.

So a good start but then disaster! We have both had really bad flu, and have been confined to the boat. Big temperatures, bad chesty coughs and still feel really bad. No jobs have been done, only the turbo which was sticking, and now the stern gland is leaking.

We were walking down to English harbour today, first time out for a few days and a mini bus stopped beside us. It was Ray and Julie hankey who were on a cruise, with some friends, we stopped to have a chat and a photo taken, it was nice to see them. Sounded like they were having a lot of fun.

We snorkelled the reef today, there is no wind here at all, it is just like the med, very hot and still.

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Comments

[Philip Hardy]

Happy New Year
Alan and Eleanor, wishing you a happy new year from snowy Saltdean - more sledging again today adn everything shut (Wednesday) going to be like it for next 5 days - sorry to hear you were both poorly - glad you are over it now - weather and boat sound great ! Look forward to reading your blog - have fun ! love Philip Tara Taia and Noah x

[Yacht Breeze of Weymouth]

Tha nks ! hope the snow has been fun for the kids. Tell Taia that the dogs here are all identical!! very strange.