SeaSparrow

Hello Folks,

SeaSparrow remains firmly entrenched in Antigua and we're kind of really enjoying life here. We have been here for almost a month and plan to stay for another month and a half. This is a new experience for us as to date we have been pushing hard to get from one location to another while trying to meet fairly tight timelines depending upon weather conditions. I no longer immediately check the wind and wave forecast as soon as I wake in the morning as if we don't like the weather on any given day we just stay put and wait until it is more to our liking. This was the point of coming to Antigua in the first place, as it is here that we will meet our guests that are coming to visit this season. The entire island is only about 10 x 15 miles so our guests can join or leave pretty much anywhere on the island and still get to the airport easily by taxi.

Speaking of guests this is now officially the tourist season on SeaSparrow as we have just said goodbye to our first non-family visitors (the boys don't count as visitors), Denis and Francis, and expect our friends Spence and Sue to arrive today. Of course the obligatory bean bag photo with G&T sundowner in hand.

Although Antigua is small it is great for our plans as it has many beautiful anchorages and places to visit and we don't have to beat ourselves and the boat up to get to where we're going. The picture at the top of the blog is one of our favourite places so far because of its history, beauty and great protection from wind and waves. In the picture we are located in English Harbour just beside Nelson's Dockyard. This was a key port for the Royal Navy in the days of Nelson and many of the buildings have been restored or remnants of the past lurk everywhere. The photo shows pillars in the foreground and SeaSparrow in the background. These pillars are what remains of the sail loft. The pillars used to support a roof and a second story that had a gap in the floor. The warships would drive into the building with the mast fitting in the gap of the second floor allowing easy access for the sailors to work on the rigging and sails. Really cool and our anchorage in English Harbour is only about 100 feet from this structure.

The other catamaran in the picture is that of our friend John on Puurfect. It was this boat and with John that Debbie and I first tested the waters of this sailing lifestyle as we chartered with John three years ago. Must of enjoyed our trip as after our time on Puurfect we bought SeaSparrow a year or so later and the rest is history. This is one of the great parts of cruising as even though you say goodbye to people you usually cross paths again somewhere down the road.

To back things up a bit, although we love English Harbour we are using Jolly Harbour as our home base to meet and say goodbye to our guests. Jolly is a great place as it has an excellent anchorage, good marina and tiki bar, easy access from the airport by taxi and a very good grocery and marine supply store within easy walking distance for provisioning. This meets all the important criteria we considered when looking for a place to call home for several months. Also who doesn't like a place that presents one with these sorts of options.

As mentioned our first guests, Denis and Francis, arrived about 10 days ago and left last Sunday. Denis has a better eye with the camera then I do so here are a couple of his shots from SeaSparrow while anchored here in Jolly Harbour.

We took Denis and Francis from Jolly Harbour to a place called Cades Reef, which is only about a four mile trip. The reef is great for snorkelling but reefs can be dangerous if one doesn't pay attention as evidenced in the pic below. What was once a sailboat is now a reef attraction.

Following the swim on the reef we anchored for a night in a nearby bay and went to English Harbour the next day. One of the not to miss events while in English Harbour is an evening at Shirley Heights. Shirley Heights towers over the harbour and served as a lookout for the English Navy as well as a fortification to repel any attacks. Now it serves an even more useful function in that it is a restaurant and bar and on Sundays and Thursdays Shirley Heights holds a large outdoor BBQ with great music including a steel drum band. We walked up a trail from the beach to get to the heights and it is about a 25 minute climb straight up. By the time you get to the top your ready for a beer or two but the views along the way and at the top are awesome. A couple of pics

During our sail around we did hit a bit of swell that caused the boat to bounce, which isn't uncommon. What was strange was that we picked up a guest along the way - this squid didn't like SeaSparrow as much as we do and decided to provide us some ink in case we were running short.

As just in case you think as a guest you get a free ride on SeaSparrow, not so. Here is Denis getting to work trying to remove the squid mess and of course Francis as supervisor.

Cleaning tip for those that may have to remove squid ink in future the best way to get it off is Magic Eraser. This eraser thing is magic as it worked great when all our other cleaners failed, so it's magic eraser on everything now.

Just so you don't think things can't get exciting in the laid back Caribbean world we now find ourselves, have look at these pics. While in English Harbour, anchored by Nelson's Dockyard, I heard two explosions and then a couple more. Looking from the boat I saw a bus blow up with impressive flames and smoke. Fortunately no one got hurt and the fire department quickly got things under control. I suspect this may be the English Harbour fire department's quota for the next several years as I don't think this is a common event.

Thanks to our friends Dave and Alex on Banyan we are now Wizard card players here on SeaSparrow. Here is Debbie and John from Puurfect showing that we are using the cards Banyan gave us and they are much appreciated. I know the folks down at our cottage play this game as well but I didn't realize how good of a game it really is. Watch out in Liscomb because by the time we get back we're gonna be Wizard wizards.

During this blog period also saw another first onboard SeaSparrow in that I finally got Debbie up the mast in the bosun's chair. We needed to repair the halyard that our Nova Scotia flag flies from and Debbie volunteered to go aloft this time. I think she enjoyed the experience and in the end got the job done as our NS flag is flying proudly once again.

Time to wrap up as we have some final work to do on the boat in anticipation of Spence and Sue's arrival in a couple of hours. Not sure of the plan while their here, but I am sure we will repeat some of the activities we undertook with Denis and Francis plus I suspect a few new adventures thrown in as well.

In following the weather I see the snow has arrived back home. I know this comes with certain cautions with respect to slipping, driving etc. but we have to be careful down here as well as danger lurks around every corner.