11 January 2014 | Deep Bay, Antigua 17’07.57N 61’53.18W via Jolly Harbour, Antigua & 5 Islands, Antigua
They say that a little bit of kindness goes a long way on a little boat and on Ruffian we have found that there are many other little things that go a long way. There is the bottle of Tabasco, which lurks at the back of the cupboard and takes forever to get to the bottom of and there are also the last few miles in a big crossing that seem to be endless. This week on Ruffian we have discovered something small that goes on forever and that’s concentrated shower gel in the forepeak, but more of that later.
We were anchored in the picture perfect Deep Bay where the glistening water gently lapped the velvet soft sand under the shade of palm trees which, instead of being wafted by a cooling breeze, were being shaken ferociously by the howling winds. Next to us was Serafina and they were joined by friends from home in the form of Beaky & Ma’am (they do have real names apparently).
Beaky & Ma’am were in Antigua for a week’s holiday and they had hired the smallest 4x4 in the world. A car is much quicker than walking and as they were passing through town they generously offered to run us all in and back. 6 people, plus shopping in a tiny car: This sounded like a challenge.
First of all we played the sardines in a car game; we tried Sarah in the boot, fail; 4 in the back, fail and came up with the winning formula of 3 in the back and 3 in the front. We then negotiated the bumpy tracks enroute to town and all was going swimmingly. With town and the finish gun in sight we were about to come unstuck. In front of us were was a check point being manned by scary looking uniformed mamma’s with whistles, batons, guns and handcuffs all on hand. With Sarah and Ma’am in the passenger seat we were sure that Beaky was about to spend the rest of his vacation looking at the blank 4 walls of a prison cell.
We gingerly approached the checkpoint and the sight of a hugely overloaded car seemed to be the least of the mamma’s worries as she waved us through without a care in the world. The collective sigh of relief was almost audible as we started hurtling around the very overcrowded streets of St Johns. The return journey was even more of a squeeze as we were now laden down with produce from the thriving market.
The only problem with Deep Bay was its lack of internet connectivity and consequently we couldn’t get any emails or more importantly any weather. We had a cunning plan to fix this. Armed with Rob’s supersonic Wi-Fi aerial we scaled the Fort Barrington and setup a mini office on top of this tourist attraction. We were then joined by a tour group full of America sightseers who seemed more interested in our bizarre setup than the delight that the fort had to offer.
Now the proud purveyors of new weather we were certain that moving to another island would be off the agenda for a few days early the next morning we set off on one of our romps complete with Sarah from Serafina. As there was lots of roadwork on the way to the village of 5 Islands and the viewpoint over looking Deep Bay Sarah introduced us to her favourite game which is aptly named ‘Name That Roadkill’.
Sarah was clearly well versed in this game as she was able to spot from afar potential targets and then her imagination worked overtime to figure out what the squished creature was. All in all a fascinating little game, in which we think we’ll leave her to be the sole competitor and thus crowned ‘Champion of the Flat Animals’.
Looking down from the viewpoint we were able to see our fine little ships and also look into the houses at billionaires’ corner. We could see how the rich and famous lived with their infinity pools, houses in their gardens for guests, little pagoda’s at the end of their properties to get the best of the view and bedrooms the size of ballrooms complete with mirrored glass.
After taking in our hard worked for view and getting back to Ruffian we got down to the difficult question as to what our plans are for the coming months. Out came the charts and pilots books and then we discovered the shower gel. Just a single bottle of this stuff had emptied itself in the forward locker but had covered everything with a smooth silky slime. The more we cleaned the more foamy things became and the more we had to clean, it was like the worst of catch 22. Finally after hours of wiping and re wiping we were able to get on with the job in hand and look at our huge library of charts and pilots books and start to make some form of tentative plan for the next year.
St Johns, the Capitol, is only a bus ride away and magically the bus stop was only a hot 1 mile walk away from Ruffian. Seconds after arriving at the bus route, going the wrong way a bus screeched to a halt and offered us a ride to town. We took the scenic route into town as 20 minutes after boarding we were back at our starting point and so for $1 not only did we get into town we also saw most of the island.
The phrase faded grandeur goes a long way to describe St Johns. The cathedral, when it was built, must have been spectacular, but now the foundations are crumbling and the graveyard was the no1 hang out for the destitute of the town. The botanical gardens were no different; in between all the weeds and undergrowth you could see what were once rare and mighty specimens. Among all this crumbling architecture the town was very alive with vibrant beats and vivacious vendors on every street corner.
We have been in company with Serafina since Christmas and have been talking about swapping crew so that we can get a chance to sample either the life of luxury (on Serafina) or sailing by the seat of your pants (on Ruffian). We were all a little nervous about this as it transpired Iain & Fiona didn’t know the ins and outs of each other’s jobs and the same was the case on Serafina. We both then made the decision to have a couple of days where we would reverse roles. In the days to come Fiona will have the physical tests of pulling up and setting anchor and Iain will have the mental strain of working out where to put it.
Just to prove that Iain does do flowers and it’s even a pink one.
The dilemma’s of where to go and what to do.
Larry’s portrait gets pride of place on Ruffian.
Rob gets all thoughtful looking at the white horses.
A framed Ruffian and Serafina.
It’s just like Carlisle Bay in Scotland.
Wet charts are not happy charts.
Redonda puts paid to the green flash.
This is what happens if you go walking in flop flops and kick a cactus.
The tree’s tell us that the prevailing winds are from the east.
Another day, another hill, another view.
Pensioners corner. Brilliant.
Larry was not impressed by his ‘bath friends’.
Just another day in the office being online.
Is this a stylised statue or just plain bad?