This unknown (to us anyway) beauty appeared to be the self-proclaimed Queen of the Sea for the Classic Yacht Parade of Ships.

As the lead in the Antigua Classics Parade of ships, Columbia (141" long), hailing from Panama City, FL USA passes us by as we watched from an Italian restaurant in English Harbour.

After watching the classic yachts race from on high, we went down into English Harbour to the AYC to have lunch and to walk the docks to see these monster ships close up.

Here is one of the medium sized classic participants - the 103' staysail schooner EROS built in 1939.

See more photos under the gallery section which will be under construction for a few days.

Here is the tall ship Rhea and tall ship Chronos, both 156’ long and both with wishbone sails going neck and neck.

We had a great view of the racing from high up above English Harbour on Shirley Heights.

It was a long day, the Thursday before Easter and we were glad to have it behind us.

Up around 0500, onto the boat in her berth for last minute preps, off to the marina office to pay our bill and finally the transit to the fuel pier where we topped off the tank.

Although we were scheduled for a 1330 pull, the travel lift had earlier ruptured a hydraulic hose, so we were delayed (in the very hot sun) in the lift process until about 1500.

Afterwards we returned to the villa we’d rented and crashed – sleeping almost non-stop for 10 hours!

Taking a break from our work schedule to enjoy probably our last dinner at Castaways for this season anyway. Genie & John of Island Time joined us.