Pirate Returns to the Caribbean

After spending the past 2 Christmas seasons in the Caribbean, we decided to mix it up and stayed at our house in Marco Island this year.  We were joined Christmas Day by some good friends for a delicious rib roast dinner with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings.    

Several days later, our friend Jimmie B, kindly dropped us off at the Miami airport - a 4 hour return trip - thank you JB!  We headed out on a plane bound for Antigua where Adventure I had been 'on the hard' for the past 8.5 months.  Pirate was greeted at the airport by Dr. Edwards, the local veterinarian, and her entry was approved.  We were able to find a dog friendly taxi who transported us down to Jolly Harbour where, thanks to all Roger's hard work, Adventure I was already in the water at the dock waiting for us to arrive. 

In early December, Roger had flown to Antigua and spent a week getting the boat ready for our next adventure.  Even though he was staying at an all inclusive resort on Jolly beach, Roger spent his entire time working on the boat - sun up to sun down.  This entailed sanding and painting the bottom, and polishing the topsides, - a huge project for just one person on a 47 foot boat! All of this was done in the blazing sun, while wearing coveralls and a respirator. Even the local yard workers commented on his level of enthusiasm and commitment (perhaps actually questioning his level of sanity). The yard boss, who was 55, commented that if it were his boat, he would have hired the work out. One evening, after a day of sanding toxic antifouling paint, Roger was completely covered in blue dust. When he returned to the resort, security stopped him at the gate. Before reluctantly allowing him back into the hotel, a rather surly guard asked Roger if he was in fact actually a Smurf. 😀

When the boat was finally ready, the workers had to shut down the main road to move Adventure I across to the launch area.  You can see how nice and shiny and freshly painted she is. 

The day after we arrived in Antigua, Roger continued on some boat projects while I went grocery shopping - a 3 day event.  I started with the dry provisions the first day, filling up a large roller hockey bag and 4 other large grocery bags.  Fortunately, one of the gentlemen from the store volunteered to help me wheel it all across the road and down the dock to our boat. I went back the next day for fresh foods hoping that some new stock had arrived.  Finally, I filled in the gaps on the last day.  Given that Christmas had just passed and new shipments had not yet arrived, a few items were nowhere to be found on Day 1, notably French's mustard and white sugar.  On day 3, the mustard was back in stock but I never did get the sugar 😀. I did however find real Canadian maple syrup and local Antigua honey, so all good. 

On Saturday January 3rd the typically chaotic charter yacht dock fell eerily silent as did the sky above Antigua. Confusion reigned supreme. The news began to trickle in that the entire Caribbean airspace had been closed as the US was using Puerto Rico and the USVI as staging areas for their strike on Venezuela. As a result, no one was coming in and no one was getting out. Apparently even poor Leonardo DiCaprio missed an award ceremony in Palm Springs as he was stuck in St. Barts on Jeff Bezos' yacht. In late afternoon a conga line of commercial jet liners flew over the marina and several hours later, the charter customers poured in. 

While staying in Jolly Harbour, we got together with our sailing friend, Dr. John Hagen, and his wife Ileana.  John had recently sailed his boat more than 1200 miles from Hampton, VA to Antigua as part of the Salty Dawg Rally.  His boat, a Hanse 50 named Ileana, had been pulled out for a few repairs and was just being relaunched for them to enjoy in Antigua for a couple of weeks.  John's plan is to come back down with a friend to sail it northward to St. Martin.  Roger and John swapped sailing stories over a lovely dinner at Sea Dream Restaurant in Jolly Harbour.  Here is a link to John's blog and what he captured during our lively dinner. 

https://dreamingofileana.com/sailing-tales/

Before his retirement, John was an accomplished surgeon and chief of staff at Humber Hospital in Toronto.  He is now an author of a number of books that incorporate his experiences as a physician and his love of sailing.  I was fortunate to get 3 autographed books from John while we were in Jolly Harbour.  Looks like I have some great reading ahead of me!

After a memorable evening, we made our final preparations and headed out of Jolly Harbour for a 'shake-down' sail around Antigua to Falmouth Harbour.  While the forecast was for light winds, we were pleasantly surprised to be heading upwind at 6-7 knots in 15 to 20 knot winds and brilliant sunshine.  After a 3 hour sail, we had re-familiarized ourselves with the boat and instrumentation, and we pulled into what has now been rebranded as the "Antigua Superyacht Marina".  Our friend Tommy, the manager of the marina, came out in a RIB to meet us, and helped us to our dock. It is always good to have assistance while docking in and around the gleaming 150 to 300' multi gazillion dollar Super Yachts.  Good old Tommy, a fellow Canadian, even gave us the pole position in front of the Antigua Yacht Club. Sorry Jeff Bezos! 

Roger always enjoys walking the docks to look at the Super Yachts.  However, with Pirate on board, Adventure I gets lots of attention too as the crew and owners of the Super Yachts frequently drop by to pet her.  Everyone has a story about their dogs back home, and how much they miss them.  They are all happy to get some loving from Pirate.

Since it was Sunday, Roger and I also took in the beautiful views and activities at Shirley Heights (that is English and Falmouth Harbour in the background of the picture below). While listening to the fantastically talented 20 person steel drum band and eating Caribbean jerk chicken, we met several other vacationers from the UK and the US. Such a friendly, happy place full of people from around the globe!

On our final night in Antigua, we went to Indian Summer, our favourite curry restaurant in the islands. This restaurant is always full, so we were lucky to have a reservation. Like most Caribbean restaurants, it is not that fancy but the view of all the lights on the yachts in the marina is amazing. 

The next morning, Roger greeted me with 2 fresh croissants from the local French bakery, a sign of things to come as we were casting off to sail south to the beautiful French island of Guadeloupe.