We are now almost 3 weeks in Antigua and it does not seem to be that long. We are having a great time we enjoy the island, its people and all the events that are taking place. English Harbour in particular Nelson's Dockyard is a very nice place to be. It's beautiful restored buildings by themselves are already a reason to be here, but it is also the center of sailing activities and a lot of tourists come to visit or stay in the Admiral's Inn or Admirals' Gunpowder House & Suites. Large yachts like the Seawolf and Leander are docked in the marina and bring small groups of guests who are using tenders up to 26 ft. and all kinds of other play toys for the water. The Seawolf is a 193 ft. motor yacht that accommodates 12 guests and you can charter it for US$ 180,000.00 per week. The Leander is 246 ft. motor yacht that accommodates 12 guests and you can charter it for US$ 490,000.00 per week. But we are not impressed since Island Girl allows us to visit all the beautiful places and enjoy the same locations at a much more reasonable cost. Next to English Harbour is Falmouth Harbour that is a lot bigger but also very crowded with visiting sailboats and large yachts. In Falmouth Harbour is the Antigua Yacht Club that organizes many of the water sport events in Antigua. For many of these events participating boats need besides the normal crew additional crew, so you find a lot of mostly young people on their own boat or staying in the low cost hotels and rental places waiting for an opportunity to participate. During the 3 weeks we were here we had the "Oyster Regatta" and the world famous "Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta" and this coming weekend the "Antigua Sailing Week" will start. Since we expect that the anchorage will be more crowded than it is now already, we will leave (tomorrow 04/25/14) and sail back south to be able to spend time in a marina with good cable TV so we can watch the "World Championship Soccer" that will be played in Brazil from June 12 to July 14.

Antigua is a lot different than the other Caribbean Islands. The reason is that it is a much older island than any of the other islands. The northern part of the island has high hills that are remnants of the volcanic eruption caused part of the island to rise out of the sea. The erosion of this area created a plateau in the sea in the center and north side of the current island. Since the area was in that time still under water it now consists of limestone with in the center of the island covered with fertile clay that allows good agricultural use. The lime stone area looks very much like west Texas especially this time of the year being the dry season. The bays on the south side like English and Falmouth Harbours are very hard to see from the sea and are surrounded by high and rugged hills, remnants of the old volcanic eruption with inside the best protected anchorage a sailor can wish for. The south side offers a few other very protected bays if you are looking for a more quiet area without all the activities and events. The east side also offers a few bays protected by reefs with the best called "Nonsuch Bay". North of this bay is the famous "Devil's Bridge". Devil's Bridge is a limestone bridge forged by the power of the waves of the Atlantic Ocean's. The waves crash in underneath the bridge and the water blows up through the hole between the bridge and the land. Devil's Bridge is a windswept spot, and is a location for Antigua's annual Easter kite festival. The leeway of the island offers beautiful beaches with very nice but sometimes rolling bays. This part of the island has several islands, reefs and rocks and has a lot of shoal areas and this gives the seawater a wonderful turquoise color. A new marina and condominium development have been created with over 7 miles of dredged waterfront. The name of the area is Jolly Harbour and it is very well protected even during a hurricane. A lot of the cruisers spend some time in this bay and marina, but Dorothy and I decided to stay in English Harbour and visit all the other places by car.

So what did we do in these past 3 weeks? We walked around the historic English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour and did some light hiking along the beaches and the surrounding hills. We used the local bus to visit St. John to do some shopping and took money from one of the few ATM machines that still accepts the American cards with the strip bar. Most ATM machines only accept the European cards with a chip that contains the bank information with a pin number. We had some good lunches from local street vendors who prepare the food in a full kitchen behind a pickup truck. We visited the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda. We also used the local bus to go to the many beautiful beaches and enjoy the beautiful color of the water and all the activities from the hotels along the beaches that are offering mostly free use of non-motorized water toys. We rented a car and met an old business associate who was vacationing in Antigua together with his wife. We met Allison and Andy close to their hotel at "Devil's Bridge" and took some impressive pictures of the wave actions on this part of the beach. We drove around the island and visited many nice places including the Betty's Hope sugar plantation that was established in the 1650's by Sir Christopher Codrington, who named it after his daughter. Today it has been partly restored as an open air museum. Andy and Allison visited us on our boat and together we had a great time on top of Shirley Heights to attend the famous Sunday BBQ with both Pan and Soca live music. Shirley Heights is full of history, and has some of the finest views of Antigua. With excellent views over Nelson's Dockyard and the surrounding inlets, Shirley Heights was originally a key part of the defenses for English Harbour as it is one of the best spots on Antigua to watch boats sail by.

Three days in a row we hiked up to English Point to watch from high up in the hills the start of the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta and took many pictures of these vintage and/or beautiful restored or replicas of classic sail boats. For 2 of these days the wind was strong 26 to 30 kn. with 8 to 10 ft. swell and wind waves. A few of these boats had reefed sails but others went out with full sails and it was very exciting to watch. The 2 Dutch flagged yachts were very impressive; the J Class yacht "Rainbow" was an incredible sight, smashing through the Caribbean surf, with water cascading down the decks. The Chronos a custom built 179 ft. ketch was also very impressive with the entire crew dressed in special striped shirts (see our pictures). But that is of course our old Dutch chauvinism, as all the yachts in their own rights are beautiful to see in full action. After the race on Sunday was the customary parade when all the yachts with their crews in fancy dress sailed into English Harbour with bursts of cannon fire. They were acknowledged by an enthusiastic audience not only ashore but also in the anchored boats. Since the final party was in the Nelson's Dockyard marina all the participating yachts received one free berth for the night that gave us the opportunity to see most of the yachts from up close.

In Antigua like in most European countries the Monday after Easter is a holiday called Easter Monday and this was the day of the last race in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, but also the last day of the International Kite Festival and after we returned from our hike, we rented a car to drive to "Devil's Bridge" to see the kites flying. It was a very windy day and many kites where flying high, but you needed good line and strong hands to hold the kite and if something went wrong the wind took the kite and it disappeared miles away. The most impressive kites are very large and anchored onto large car tires buried in the ground anchored with rebar rods and filled with concrete. What I used to call messages, are nowadays many inflatables that are tied to the kite line that are moving in the wind. So the swimmer is swimming and the soccer player is kicking the ball etc. (See our Pictures). This day is for the local population the day to have a family BBQ and it seems like you can smell the delicious aroma over the entire island.

And we partied, with the highlight a free party in front of the Copper and Lumber Store Restaurant. The stage and tents where left behind by the final party of the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta from the night before and during the first few hours all the drinks were free. We shared a table with two English couples and our Norwegian 'neighbors' in the anchorage with their daughter and son-in-law. We stayed and had a good time even when there were no more free drinks to be had. Before we went back to our boat we were invited by our Norwegian neighbors for a night cap. We slept in this morning and have been preparing Island Girl to leave early tomorrow morning to Guadalupe. This means that we did not visit Barbuda and the reason was that on the day we planned to go the weather was bad with high waves and strong wind. It is a pity to miss this opportunity, but that gives us a reason to come back next year or so.