Politics in Antigua and Anchorage Politics
10 March 2011 | Falmouth Harbor, Antigua
Jeff
A few days ago I was working on deck at about 0700 and I was amazed at what I heard. I couldn't see the vehicle but there was obviously one traveling up and down the road that runs along the shore of the harbor. All I could hear was what I can only characterize as an angry mans voice shouting over some sort of loud speaker system. The reason I say it was a vehicle is that the sound moved all along the harbor's edge. Given the distance and the West Indian dialect I was only able to understand a few words. I heard "Labor Party" and "come to St. John's". So, I figured that he was announcing some sort of political rally that was going to take place in St. John's the capital of Antigua. Later on I spoke with our friends, that live here on the island, about the seemingly angry guy yelling over his loud speaker system early in the morning. My friend enlightened me about Antigua's political campaigns. They do a lot of their campaigning by driving around the island with sound trucks. I asked about the Labor Party and he said they lost power in the last election after having been in power for a very long time. Perhaps this is the reason for the man in the truck sounding so angry, I don't know. The sound trucks help them reach the most voters and are used because other forms of media television and radio are not as effective. Remember, we were only able to pick up one television station and I don't know how many folks here in Antigua have televisions so the sound trucks are the best bang for the buck. But seven in the morning, really???
Then we have a completely different set of politics, the politics of the anchorage. One of my heroes, cruising legend Herb Payson, called it the battle between the OARs and the NARs. The OARs are "Old Anchorage Residents" and the NARs are, you guessed it, "New Anchorage Residents". The NARs are just looking for a place to drop their anchor after a long day and the OARs are basically defending the area around their boat. In other words, I don't mind if you anchor here but just don't do it right on top of my boat. Yesterday we had a boat from France come in and drop his anchor so close to our port side that I thought he was going to raft up with us. While the man was on the bow dropping the anchor I made eye contact with the woman that was at the helm. Primarily because the guy was avoiding eye contact, I have to admit that if I was doing what he was doing I wouldn't make eye contact either. The woman at the helm waved and I waved back, I could tell by her expression that she was nervous. And in true OAR fashion I had my most intimidating stare going. She must have been very uneasy because at one point she put the boat in reverse which caused her to get yelled at by the Speedo clad guy on the bow. For some reason these French guys like those Speedos and it generally comes with a bit of a belly over hang. Got the picture??? Well I gave it my best OAR intimidation and then got distracted and had to go below for something. When I came back on deck they were gone and ended up anchoring far behind us. Success!
Then we come to today's episode. Just about an hour ago this fifty some foot sailboat from where I don't know comes in, only one guy on deck, and drops his anchor basically right next to ours. This means that we are going to swing very similarly and if our scopes (the amount of chain we have out) are the same we might be alright. But I think he let out less scope than us so if we get a big wind shift there may be a problem. And to top it off this "hockey puck" didn't even back down on the anchor after he had let out his chain to make sure that the anchor was set. Very uncool, so I went out and did my OAR thing and this guy just ignored me. He's an elderly guy and I expect has a bit of experience at this thing so he has probably has seen the OAR stare before when he shoe horned himself into an anchorage. So we will keep an eye on this guy and see how things go, but if we get too close the OARs have priority so he will have to move.