7 February 2012 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
It was a very grey morning with showers, so I did some administration. I'm still trying to sort out various bank accounts and transfer money about – it’s so frustrating. Glenys sorted through her provisions and decided which meals she’s going to prepare for Andy and his family when they arrive in four days time.
After lunch, we went ashore and booked a scuba dive trip for Andy, Jake and Tyler, a couple of days after they arrive. Tyler's been doing a PADI Open Water course in a quarry in the UK, but has only managed to do two of her four qualification dives, so she’ll have to finish her course over here. Andy acerbically told me by email that she couldn't finish the course because the gay-boy instructors refused to let her dive with “only” one inch of snow on the ground…
We had a quick stroll around to Nelsons Dockyard in English Harbour and walked along to the old fort overlooking the entrance to the anchorage. There are only twenty or so boats in the outer harbour, but it looks crowded. We've decided that we’re not going to bother trying to anchor in English Harbour – the wind swirls around and the holding is poor. A friend of ours (who shall remain nameless) anchored there a few weeks ago and, while they were out for the day, their boat dragged into an American catamaran. They ended up with a bill of over $2,000 US to pay for a dive company to re-anchor their boat and to repair minor damage to the American’s boat – what happened to cruisers helping each other out?
8 February 2012 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
It was a jobs day today. We did a bit of admin and then tackled a few small jobs in the morning.
In the afternoon, I tried to get our automatic bilge pump to work. The switch that detects the water level is a clever design with a micro-switch that is actuated by the air pressure in a tube going down into the bilge. When the water level rises, the air pressure increases in the tube pushing out a diaphragm which activates the switch. The air pipe had cracked and wasn't holding the air pressure. Having repaired the switch, I still couldn't get the bilge pump to suck the water out of the bilge. I’ll have to finish off tomorrow – another day of stinking bilge water – lovely. Glenys spent the afternoon cleaning and sorting out the boat ready for our guests.
“Notre Vie” arrived from Guadeloupe, so we invited John and Sunny over for sun downers and caught up on what they've been doing.
9 February 2012 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
We feel that we’re in limbo while we’re waiting for Andy to arrive and don’t want to start any big jobs in case it goes wrong. Well, that’s my excuse for not sorting out the bilge pump today. Instead, I wasted the day away reading and sorting out some administration.
Glenys was similarly lethargic and read a book.
10 February 2012 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
Glenys went off to do some shopping to provision for the arrival of our guests tomorrow. I did a few small jobs while she was out.
We spent the rest of the day tidying up and waiting for our guests to arrive. I'm looking forward to them being on board, but I'm not sure how they are going to cope with our slow lifestyle. Jake is 19 and at university and Tyler is 17 studying for her A-levels, so I hope that I can find enough to keep them occupied.
11 February 2012 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
We hung about in the morning and then went to pick up Andy and his family. We caught a bus over to St Johns and had a walk around town for an hour before catching another bus out to the airport.
Our timing was about right because the plane was just taxiing into the terminal as we arrived. An hour later, we were all in a cab heading across the island, which took us on a scenic route across the island to drop off another couple at St James Club in Mamora Bay.
Back in Falmouth Harbour, I ferried everyone back to the boat with all their bags and we settled down with rum punches to catch up on the news. Not surprisingly, they were in bed early after their long flight.
12 February 2012 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
We went for walk to Nelsons Dockyard, called in at the museum and then walked over the hill back to Falmouth Harbour. It was a bit of shock for Andy and Gill to come from snowy England and then go walking in the beating sun, but I think that it was interesting for them. We came across a goat that was balanced precariously up a tree, reaching for some tasty leaves, which gave us five minutes of entertainment.
After calling back at the boat for our swimming things, we went to Pigeon Beach and had lunch from a lady selling barbecued food with rice, plantains, etc. Then we went snorkelling on the reef, but the visibility was poor and there wasn’t not much coral or marine life.
In the evening, as we were chilling out with a beer, we were invaded by flying ants which seemed to be attracted by our cockpit light, so we had to beat a hasty retreat down into the saloon, where we had dinner.