More March in Antigua

So here we are, another few adventurous weekends and working weeks in Antigua

Deciding to get a bit of fresh air and exercise we pulled ourselves away from cable tv and hiked Jones' trail from Galleon Beach to Shirley's Heights.

Some of the strange vegetation climbing up to Shirley's

The vegetation is rather strange, changing from what look like Gum Tree forests to cacti then ferns and back again, with every step up the hill.

View of English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour from Shirley's Height.

Even if the chicken wasnt really worth it, the hike itself and the view from the top definitely were! Its a bit difficult to distinguish from this angle but the bit in the foreground with all the yachts and the sort of C shaped bay above and to the right of it are joined and make up English Harbour. The Bay above that is not joined and is the massive Falmouth Harbour. Stunning, Home Sweet Home.

Work Day Lunch. Note the bananas (yes AND plantanes) in the cow hoof stew.

We spent a week sorting out the container where everything is stored. Living in the house, priority being the boat and working in the container can make organising lunch interesting. One day we decided to try the local flavours. Mmmm yummy cow hoof stew, of course with an unpronounceable Antiguan name.

The Container..........DumDumDaaaaaaaaaaah

A 40 foot container to store the extra stuff from a 60 foot yacht... I know, I know. But the thing is that she is a racer cruiser. So we have two of everything. 2 sets of lines, 2 sets of sails, 2 sets of stantions...then of course all the spare parts....and the things that the present crew doesnt deem necessary to have on board but previous crews felt was vital. Of course all too valuable to throw away as you really might use them some day...or maybe the next crew will.

Anyway, after a week of sweaty, back breaking tidying and organising it is way way better. We can actually find stuff, get to stuff and stuff is positioned according to the order in which we will need it next. Good huh?

Another weekend, another hike. Windmill from an old sugarcane plantation press

We were looking for a mountain to walk up with the promise of some interesting rock formations at the top. Well we were following an Antiguan map (need I say more) and eventually realised we were in the middle of nowhere and our car could definitely go no further if we wanted it to make it back without pushing/towing/levering etc. But it was a pretty enough place to be lost in so we put the car in the bushes, off the path and went exploring.

It must've been an old plantation as there was evidence of commercial agriculture but it is now a sort of jungle with small plots of subsistence farming going on. We even came across a substantial dam which, judging by the vegetation, had been there a long long while.

It was rather different, one minute walking between jungle type vegetation and the next being flanked by banana trees followed by a field of sugar cane, etc. The only thing i really could have done without was a nasty guard dog that wanted all passersby to know its territory but thankfully had no chance of extending its borders due to a substantial leash and tree!

Just another Caribbean Full Moon

A few months ago the Captain and I decided to do our open water 1 diving course with a lovely South African instructor based on the island. Due to everything going on we were doing it when we got the chance. Finally we were down to our last two dives before getting the ticket. We had the weekend free so phoned the instructor on the Thursday to organise everything. All was planned for that Saturday morning 9am. Sat 9am and there we were, sitting in the car waiting for the instructor. Finally 9.30 ticks by and a few young gents arrive and open the dive shop, but still no instructor. Confused we decide to ask. "Um well sorry" they said, "Brian had to leave the country quickly and unexpectedly and with no chance of contacting anyone" Weird, we thought. "Try phoning again next weekend" they said. Um ok, we thought, maybe it has something to do with the nasty divorce he was going through.

Back to the boat we went. Confused. But on chatting to a fellow yachty we discovered that a South African dive instructor was out fishing on Thursday and had decided to go diving. Something went wrong and he ended up 100m deep AND surfacing too fast. Thanks to the swift, skillfill reactions of the ABSAR team they managed to get him to the decompression chamber in Guadaloupe, alive.

Finally information and rumours begin to surface. Story goes that he was wearing a friends dive computer which was metric as opposed to his imperial one. BIG difference between 100m and 100ft...

Anyway, he is now recovering but will never dive again. After some typically American emails ("No legal obligations" and all that) from the company that took over his company, followed by some phone calls and meetings we finally persuaded the gents at Extreme Marine to help us out. They very kindly took us for our final two dives and signed all our papers (after redoing some of the exercises) and to end this long winded story...we are now, finally, qualified!

But the point really is that our two dives with Chris were AWESOME!!!! He took us to some stunning reefs where we saw massive fan coral, brain coral (all other coral), funny big eyed orange fish, a shy eel, school of snapper, a serving dish size common ray and the cherry on the top: a MASSIVE person sized spotted ray. And all the rest of course.

Pillars of Hercules outside English Harbour

Inspired by the diving and due to the recent launch of our big dingy we decided to venture out on a morning of snorkeling (without the snorkel of course). So out of Falmouth we went to the beach between Falmouth and English Harbours. Anchored in 3m deep crystal clear waters we dived into the best kept giant aquarium ever!!!! Aah it was incredible. The water was perfectly clear and wonderfully cool. Diving down and swimming among fearless fish between coral covered boulders was like getting an energetic, cool all over body massage with an interactive view.

Enough said.

Look closely, it is a turtle, i promise.

After our cooling adventure we took on the substantial rollers to get to English Harbour where we made the acquaintance of Myrtle the Turtle and a few of her friends.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, more snorkeling may be in store (maybe this time with a snorkel - all that underwater time has resulted in an ocean in my head)

Yip, Mom, thinking of you with every swim and really wishing you were here!