Dear Readers: May we present our friends Traci and Joe. Recently married, they chose to honeymoon and vacation with us in Antigua over the the Christmas holidays and we asked them if they would be keen to write a Guest Blog for us. They were, they did and Voila... here it is.
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Hey! Many of you may not know us, but Traci and I (Joe) just spent a wonderful week with the friendly Captain and First Mate of Banyan. Alex invited us to do a guest blog and it sounded fun, so here I go. Traci figured I would be better, though I am not a blogger and have never blogged, so please be kind ☺.
As with many of you, we’ve been watching Banyan’s exploits online for over two years now. The cruising lifestyle looks pretty amazing from afar, despite all the hard work involved. One has to maintain a floating city after all! We just had to check it out for ourselves.
Despite the broad appeal of the cruising lifestyle, one of the most appealing images for us was a good morning coffee overlooking the ocean. At home, our favourite happy place is coffee on our back deck overlooking the “Rock” and the garden that surrounds it – the simple things in life. What could be better than to replace that with some K2 Espresso, a beautiful sunrise and the gentle rocking of a boat for a week? After all, our deck is a tad cold this time of year. Dave and Alex were kind enough to welcome us aboard for Christmas, so we hopped on a plane and the rest is history.
After a special welcome aboard Banyan for our Honeymoon cruise, we warmed up in the Jolly Harbour marina with supper and a couple of bottles of wine at the Akropolis Greek Taverna. The food was great and the company was better, as we caught up and discussed plans for the week.
The next morning, we casted off and headed up the coast to check out what we were missing, or not, at the Sandals Resort.
We had a nice sail and got some practice with the new camera harness and lenses.
After anchoring in Deep Bay for the night, we had our first snorkel and then enjoyed an amazing sunset with our neighbours silhouetted in the distance.
The next morning, we all couldn’t resist the temptation to rise above our fellow cruisers and hiked up to an old fort to take in the view.
The wreck of the Andes proved to be another treat as we swam with the many fish, though Traci wasn’t as keen on the Jelly Fish guarding this sunken treasure.
Later that day, we sailed down the coast taking in the old sugar mills and huge houses perched precariously on the cliffs, anchoring in Carlisle Bay for the night.
By this point, we were getting used to snorkelling, and Wizard, much to David’s chagrin - though the laughs were non-stop. But we couldn’t take too long for play, as we had a lot to get done during our short stay. The next morning, we weighed anchor again for the sail to Falmouth Harbour to get ready for Christmas.
Once all was stowed away, we had a beautiful hike and took the chance to see how the top 0.1% (0.001%??) lives, remembering that we mere peasants get to see the same sights and sunsets (and likely better coffee) from the lovely Banyan for much less cost.
The night routine was set with another game of Wizard aboard Nahanni River, where Wendy finally broke my winning streak after many more hearty laughs.
The next morning started, as all the best mornings, with a fresh cup of K2-powered coffee on Banyan, along with a special treat of Christmas presents and the team’s discovery (and recovery) of some sunken treasure during our Christmas swim.
Christmas in Antigua wouldn’t have been complete without chilled champagne and the many unique sites (and costumes) of Nelson’s Dockyard, including a ski past by Santa himself. This was, of course, followed by a special turkey dinner with Dave’s mom’s special stuffing and two kinds of cranberry sauce!
Our fun-filled stay on Banyan eventually had to come to an end, and did on Boxing Day when we made our way back to Jolly Harbour. The icing on the cake was that we would have another four days in a special cabin overlooking the ocean with a few more sunsets before returning to wintery Nova Scotia.
We had an amazing adventure and wish to thank Banyan’s Captain and First Mate for a first-rate vacation experience. We wish Banyan and all of their cruising friends calm seas and favourable winds.
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Thanks Joe and Traci for Guest-ing with us on
SV Banyan. It was a pleasure to have you onboard,
and Dave and I wish you a lifetime of Adventurin'!!