Rockin’ and Rollin’ in Beautiful Antigua

View from Shirleys Lookout, looking over English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour

One of the appeals of the Caribbean is that there are so many islands, most just a day sail away. You enter a new island and it is also a new country with different foods, languages, history, money, and traditions to explore. Since mid-November, when we left Puerto Rico where our boat was stored over hurricane season, we have sailed to the Spanish Virgin Islands (part of Puerto Rico), US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, St Marteen (Dutch side), St Barths (French), St Kitts (French), Nevis (French) and now Antigua (British).

Unfortunately, before you can start exploring, you have to check into each country. This involves flying the yellow Quarantine flag as you enter a new harbor, and then putting the dinghy into the water and going into Customs/Immigration/Port Authority with your passports and boat documentation. You are not allowed to get off the boat and go anywhere until you are checked in and you must check in within 24 hrs. of arrival (sooner is better). The process often takes an hour to an hour and a half and consists of visiting three or more separate offices, filling out the very same information on different forms for each and paying small sums to some or all. You usually must fill out the same information online on at least one site and sometimes two before going in. This is supposed to make the process more streamlined...ha! They want to see your clearing out paperwork from your last port of call and know when you left and when you arrived to make sure it is a reasonable amount of time, and you did not sneak off to some other island in between! Then when you are leaving for the next island, you must go back into Customs and get your clearance paperwork and sometimes pay another small sum. You must check out within 24 hours of departure. There are only a couple places on each island where you can go to clear in and out. In Nevis, there is just one port of call and there is no place to land your dinghy. We finally found a beach, beached the dinghy and walked 15 minutes into town. Frankly, all of the checking in and out is a bit tedious...but I understand why the countries want to control and track who is coming into and out of their country and really, it is a small price to pay to have this kind of experience.

We are currently in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua. It is a lovely, protected harbor surrounded by mountains, and almost joined (10 min walk) with nearby English Harbour which is a national park including Nelsons Dockyard, a World Heritage Site. Nelsons Dockyard is a restored Georgian era British naval dockyard that dates back to 1725 and was in use until 1889. It is named after the famous British Naval Officer Horatio Nelson who was a young naval captain stationed here in the 1780’s. It really is a beautiful area to stroll around, have lunch, visit the museum, view the mega sailing yachts, and go for hikes. There are lots of fort ruins with amazing views on the hills surrounding the harbor. We strolled around on Christmas day and enjoyed the festive atmosphere and the steel bands.

Nelson's Dockyard, beautifully restored.

Entrance to English Harbour

Fort ruins

Pictures from hikes around the harbor. There are goats and cactus everywhere on these islands.

There are a lot of mega yachts in the Caribbean. Here so many of them are sailing yachts. All of the lights on the masts helped make it seem Christmasy.

As is often the case in the Caribbean around Christmas, the winds have been "blowing stink” the last several days. This makes for a rolly, not very comfortable anchorage. It seems the winds always blow up more at night as several squalls blow through. As the wind blows and swirls down the sides of the mountains into the anchorage, the wind howls in the rigging, the halyards slap no matter how many bungies David has put on them, the boat hunts back and forth on the anchor and occasionally “snaps” around as a particularly strong gust comes from a different direction and we don’t get much sleep! As the squalls blow through, we have to get up and close all of the hatches and portlights (side windows) so the inside of the boat doesn’t get soaked. It gets pretty warm with the boat all closed up, even with fans, so then we have to get up and open things back up until the next squall! We do trust our anchor, thank goodness, and she has held fine, but it does make for sleepless nights worrying that we may drag or one of the boats around us will. The wind is finally calming down and we have slept well for the past two nights. We will wait a couple more days for the seas (waves) to calm down before moving on. The seas outside of the harbor are currently 10-12 feet high!

David NOT enjoying one of the many short rainstorms! Luckily we have enclosure panels for our cockpit and these keep us (mostly) dry.

In between the squalls, the sun shines brightly, the temperatures stay around 82 in the day and 77 at night and we are surrounded by gorgeous scenery! In contrast to the life-threatening freezing temperatures most of the country experienced this week, we have nothing to complain about! We are very blessed to be able to live this cruising life!

Some pictures from St Barths: