Wendy and Peter's travels

We arrived back in English Harbour in Antigua feeling pretty upbeat and had a splendid reunion with Ed and Rori on Swept Away.  At this stage we were still considering our options on what the future would hold – and a good possibility was after a six month stay back in Europe, we would come back out here (assuming of course that Keesje II had not sold) and take off for the Western Caribbean next year, perhaps for another year and a half.  However, we woke up next morning to be greeted with a plethora of emails, all with the theme of … so sorry to hear,  gosh what a catastrophe, etc etc, and we eventually found out that one of our cottages in Devon had burnt down overnight.  We still haven’t found out exactly what happened, but thank goodness nobody was hurt  although the tenants were there at the time. 

So this has thrown a huge spanner in the works.  We have no choice now but to go back and start the rebuild process, when we are allowed to do so.  We are spending these last few weeks on board cleaning and scrubbing etc etc, getting ready to put the boat on the hard at Catamaran Marina in Falmouth.  She is definitely for sale (although we still secretly hope she doesn’t sell!!) and then we  return to UK to try and re-instate the cottage.  There are so many legal and official hoops to jump through that it will be months and months before we can start work.  Peter was complaining that he didn’t know what he was going to do when we got back, but now he has his answer!  Luckily we both enjoy renovating these old cottages and we are good project managers ( not modest either!), so once we get used to the idea that sailing again is probably not an option, we will cheer up and enjoy ourselves.

This is a somewhat unreal time here at the moment.  Although we are still living on a boat and the weather is warm, but windy and rainy, our hearts are no longer wholly in the Caribbean.  We have visited Shirley Heights again and enjoyed the BarBQ with the pan music, we have had an excellent hike over from Fort Berkeley to Falmouth harbour where we had fantastic views of how the English were able to spot the French approaching English Harbour and Nelson could deal with the threat of attack so easily, we have had the occasional Expresso Martini, but we still feel we are now marking time until we leave next week.  The plus side is that Ed and Rori are still here and we are able to enjoy their company far longer than we had anticipated.  They finally left, with their engine purring prettily, the day after we came out of the water.

Actually we did find an interesting project for the last week – the Royal Navy Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda.  We had heard about this club and we were invited to attend a meeting.  There is a meeting every evening at 6pm – one of the aims of the club is to enjoy a tot of rum at 6pm at the end of the nominal working day with a group of like minded individuals.  This club was started in 1991, twenty-one years after Black Tot day which was the day that the Royal Navy officially abolished the issue of a daily tot of rum to all navy personnel.  A group of ex-servicemen in Antigua decided that they would like to continue this tradition and so founded the Tot Club.  The inauguration procedure requires prospective proposed candidates to join the meeting and take a full tot of rum (two and a half fluid ounces) for seven sessions within fourteen days.  On day six there is also an oral examination for an hour on the life and times of Admiral Lord Nelson.

Peter decided that as an ex-naval officer, he should partake of this ordeal.  As we only had eight days left, this meant a full tot every evening at the daily gathering, followed by his exam – being Dutch Navy of course meant that he was not as familiar with Nelson as most of the members, so he had to work and cram hard!!  Not easy along with all the boat cleaning and preparations for our departure.  However, never in doubt, my hero passed with flying colours and is now a fully fledged member of the Royal Navy Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda!!!

He has now decided that he has to dry out for a week or two!!!

We leave Antigua on 27^th May, have a few days in Atlanta when we will arrange shipment of my Detonator yellow Jeep Wrangler back to UK.  Of course I am not going to have a quiet discreet car!   We arrive on 4^th June.  This email address continues, but from 27^th May, the keesjecrew@skymate.com address will no longer be active. 

Phone in UK is: +44 (0)7887 932212

We have now put Keesje II to bed in her concrete hole, supported by tractor tyres.  Everything that could possibly flap in a hurricane has been removed or tied down,  all personal touches inside have been packed and shipped, fridge and booze cupboard  emptied – just like moving house really.  I had to drag Peter off – he just wouldn’t let go – and we are now sitting at the airport as our plane has a problem and we cannot leave Antigua yet…!!!

We arrived in St Martin, full of apprehension.  We envisaged the repairs to Keesje II taking a long time to organise and implement, possibly with the involvement of a project manager.  However, our surveyor was on board within two days and our insurance company authorised the repairs to go ahead as soon as possible.  We had not anticipated being able to get the repairs done in St Martin, based on our previous experience, but as it was now near the end of the season, workshops were not at all busy and we were able to slot in straightaway.  So just two weeks after arriving at the dock in Simpson Bay Lagoon, we left with shining new port side stanchions and lifelines, new shrouds port side, new stainless steel handrail, newly repaired teak caprail, new stainless steel strip and a completely new dodger.  All in all, to say that every cloud has a silver lining is probably an understatement as Keesje now looks fantastic.  So for the price of our deductible we have had done all that we would have liked to have done anyway but did not want to spend the money.

We made the most of our stay in St Martin, both on the French side in Marigot Bay and on the Dutch side in the lagoon.  We met up with David and Annette, our co-congregationalists in St Barths – but they are bad news really as they have been cruising for nine years and have been around the world and they fill us with more ideas with all the stories of the places they have visited.  They have now left to sail back across the Atlantic to UK, so we hope to catch up with them there. 

We also went into Phillipsburg to watch the children’s carnival.  It was wonderful and the costumes were the best we have seen in any carnival.  The Dutch here have their carnival at the same time as their Bank Holiday for the Queen’s Birthday and for Labour Day, so the whole of the Dutch side of St Maarten closes down for those three days.

We also found out that Sam and John on Imagine were here in town so we had one or two very enjoyable drinks and meals with them.  As they are house sitting for some friends of theirs, they have the use of their mighty powerful dinghy, with 50hp engine, so we zoomed across the lagoon – fun toys for boys!

Peter excelled himself by YET AGAIN managing to forget to tie our dinghy to the boat and of course when we need Tinkerbelle, she is not there.  Luckily this time someone had caught her and tied her to the dock!  But I wasn’t so clever either as I had trouble getting off the dinghy in wet windy rolly conditions and of course ended up, fully dressed, in the water.  But I had the sense to hang on to the dock and therefore was able to haul myself back into the dinghy, so that I could try again (successfully) to get out and get on with the shopping, albeit looking like a drowned rat!  The only thing that was really damaged was the cell phone in my pocket – first time it has been off the boat!

Once Keesje was restored to full beauty, we left St Maarten and felt we had to make one more visit to St Barths, to lay the ghost.  We had been twice and both times we had had a trauma, so we felt a third time was imperative.  We came away unscathed, and saw a few turtles swimming around the boat, and so felt that had been the right thing to do. 

Now onto our final voyage – left St Barths for Nevis on our way to Antigua where we will leave the boat when we return to Europe, awaiting her sale……or our resumption of sailing?

We spent a very pleasant day on Nevis, doing an island tour.  Saw lots of interesting sights and had a history lesson from our guide.  Horatio Nelson was married here, under a fig tree, and there are about four fabulous old plantation houses which have been converted into exclusive and expensive beautiful hotels.  People are very friendly and it is an island which caters for its residents as well as the tourists.  Found an excellent beach bar called Sunshine which serves wicked “killer bees” – celebrated our fifth anniversary there.  I was suitably  rowed back in our dinghy to Keesje – and not because the engine failed, this was just my man being romantic, under the not quite full moon.

We decided to return to Antigua via Montserrat, the island lying just thirty  miles south of Nevis.  The Soufriere Volcano first erupted in 1995 and it has been gurgling ever since.  There is an ever present threat that it could erupt in a major way again, and the whole of the south of the island is in an exclusion zone, extending two miles off shore.  Unfortunately because we could not clear customs, we could not go ashore, but we anchored in Little Bay on the North West corner of the island. 

We wanted to enjoy just a little more sailing before we set ourselves to cleaning and scrubbing the boat prior to leaving her in Antigua, on the hard, ready for selling.  So we took ourselves round to Jolly Harbour one afternoon in preparation for a long day ahead motorsailing to St Barths.  We don’t particularly like Jolly – it does have a beautiful beach but that is a long dinghy ride out from the dock, so we picked up a mooring buoy instead.  The marina itself is big and busy and the resort seems as if it is just out of Florida – it almost doesn’t seem to belong here in the Caribbean.  However, we bought a few things in the big American style supermarket and then had a farewell very potent Brazilian cocktail with Andy and Ros, after which we somehow managed to somewhat hazily cook our supper!

A passage of 73 miles took us twelve and a half hours motorsailing but we arrived in good light in Gustavia, the main port of St Barths.  It is a very crowded anchorage so we stayed on board to make sure everything was safe and secure.  Next morning however, we enjoyed a French breakfast ashore and a few hours of wandering around the wonderful up market stores, oohing and aahing at the expensiveness of it all!  Luckily one or two stores had promotional sales on, so occasionally looking could progress to more action, but as far as I am concerned, Peter says I am only allowed to buy something new if the old version is chucked out!  Happy to oblige.  We ended our morning with a glass of Kir at a port side bar – very civilised.  It is undoubtedly a very smart island, where the A list celebrities congregate and people definitely want to “be seen”.  Not really our scene, but enormous fun watching and partaking for a few days!

Unfortunately, when we got back to the anchorage, we were dismayed to find Keesje had gone from her previous spot.  Apparently the anchor had been dislodged by a passing vessel and Keesje had travelled through the anchorage, impaling herself portside onto a catamaran and only being rescued 30 metres from the rocks by a vigilant Brit and a brave Dutchman.  They had attached her to a mooring buoy and we arrived back in time to meet our rescuer and hear what had happened.  A certain amount of damage had been sustained, but she was quite safe to sail.  We were very disappointed that such a thing could happen at this late stage in our trip, after having had three years without a scratch on the boat.

We took a trip round to the north side of the island to Columbier Bay where there are lots of turtles.  Apparently these Hawksbill and Green turtles were practically extinct in the 1980s but since the inception of a National Park and protected status, there has been a definite increase in their numbers as well as other threatened flora and fauna.  It is a beautiful bay with astonishingly clear blue-green water and we enjoyed a couple of snorkelling sessions and were able to watch the turtles playing around.

Back to Gustavia for church on Sunday morning, Easter Day.  As last year, it was the most delightful service.  There was a fantastic choir, singing amongst other music, the Alleluia chorus from Handel’s Messiah and Ave Maria and the whole service was one of joyful celebrations.   Amazingly on a French Catholic island, this Anglican church with its very English vicar, Charlie Vere Nicholl, was once again packed with locals and visitors.  And the best bit of all, and an idea which we think could increase the congregations at churches throughout the UK, was a party afterwards in the churchyard, in the wonderful sunny weather, where Tattinger champagne and fantastic canapés were served!!  Now that is high class living!

We have now sailed up to St Martin to have the damage assessed and have the repairs done, so will probably be here for about three weeks – and it’s an OK place to be.

Back in the 1970s, three young men playing rugby for Rosslyn Park Club became extremely good friends – Pete, my brother, Pat, now in America, and Paddy, our now wheelchair bound resident friend in Antigua (as a result of a boating accident).  They were the wild days, especially as the three of them had birthdays on consecutive days in March with plenty of celebrations.  This year it was Paddy’s 60^th birthday and Pete and Pat decided that they had to be here in Antigua to help Paddy celebrate.  Judging from the amount of parties during the week, they had certainly not forgotten how to celebrate!!

Pete and Sal and Pat and his wife Sam were staying at the The Inn at English Harbour and we managed to anchor just about a hundred yards off shore.  So all very convenient for communicating and socialising.

Pete’s birthday was first, and we had a splendid lunch at Catherine’s Café – wonderful French food and wines, especially champagne.  As I am particularly partial to a spot of bubbly, my intake was quite substantial, resulting in an unscheduled fully clothed dip in the swimming pool, together with trouble-maker Pat.  Unfortunately, because I was a little wobbly on the pins, my walk through the gardens of the hotel (where Pete and Sal were staying) ended up with me crawling through the flower beds – my lovely smart white trousers were a real wet muddy mess!  My Peter did nothing to help, so I was quite delighted to hear a loud splash as he tried to get back into the dinghy – he missed it completely and was also soaked!!

We had numerous dinners and lunches with Pete and Sal during the week and Pete came for a sail with us, with Paddy’s sister Nicky and husband David.  And finally we all gathered at Paddy and Netti’s wonderful house at Willoughby Bay for Paddy’s 60^th.  It was a splendid party, with a fabulous curry and a sensational band.  We all had plenty to drink and danced the night away with the  energy of our younger days, but at least we managed not to go swimming again!

We left Antigua early on Saturday morning, before the hotel incumbents had surfaced for breakfast after that party.  We had a boisterous sail down to Deshaies and arrived in time to join Tim and Linda on Matsu for our final dinner together.  We shall really be sorry not to sail alongside them again for a while as they are a great young couple and we have had some wonderful times together.  But with any luck they will be coming to England for a while to find work.

Another challenging sail as we sped onto the Saintes for Peter to continue his dental treatment with Xavier.  All going OK so far.  Then to Portsmouth – and as we arrived, we heard “Keesje II” being called across the anchorage, and there were Andy and Ros on Barbaro and we hadn’t seen them for over a year, just as we were leaving Georgetown, Bahamas.  Another jolly reunion took place on Barbaro, this is what is such fun, meeting wonderful people, and then seeing them again and renewing friendships and catching up on adventures.

Next stop Roseau with a fantastic sail, hard work in 25-30 knots, but I did it all which is just wonderful.  I love it!!  We were in Roseau to meet Dick and Ineke who came out for their third visit.  We had a great time with them, taking them to some of our favourite places on Dominica and the French islands.  We took a day tour around the southern part of the island with Harrison.  The Victoria Falls were our first spectacle and we had an hour’s trek to get there, clambering over boulders and through the river up to our hips in water, at least five times on the way there and again on the way back.  Enormous falls, with terrific spray, quite dramatic.  Then we had a fantastic vegetarian lunch, specially prepared by Harrison’s cousin Moses, all with the local vegetables growing right there in the rain forest – egg plant, yams, dasheens, coconut etc.  Most basic cooking facilities over a little wooden fire, and eaten out of calabash shells with coconut spoons.  It was absolutely delicious.  There were more of Harrison’s family there, all preparing and smoking their ganja (pot).

I came away with some seeds, but Peter made me throw them overboard!!

Back to the Saintes, for, guess what – more dental visits!  But as we arrived in the anchorage, we saw Ros and Andy again and also Ed and Rori on Swept Away – great to see them again.  And we had a splendid impromptu evening (the first part of which was while Peter was at the dentist!) – a quick sundowner ending at 11pm!!

I hope Dick and Ineke enjoyed the Saintes as much as we did.  We walked up to Fort Napoleon again, had a bar b que on the beach and had the wonderful coconut sorbet.  Plans were slightly unhinged as we had a massive blockage in the arterial system of the head (i.e. couldn’t pump anything away from the loo).  The boys worked on it all day long (deserve a medal) but could not solve the problem – it’s OK for the chaps, but us girls have a slightly more difficult logistical problem with peeing overboard!!  So next day we set out for Pointe a Pitre on Guadeloupe as it has the best marine repair facilities.  And it was so proven as Fred Marine and his cohort Fabien eventually managed to replace all the ten year old pipe as the original was absolutely totally and completely solidly blocked.  Peter had told me that as a young Naval officer, renting yachts from the Naval Yacht Club, he had become quite an expert on unblocking loos on board of the yachts – he, however, has never told me the details of his findings in these loos!  I don’t actually think I want to know!

Unfortunately we had an unpleasant and quite scary experience in Pointe a Pitre.  Peter and I set out to get some money from the only ATM machine near the marina.  As we approached it, we were asked by a student looking young man for money for a cup of coffee which we declined.  We took money out of the ATM and as we stood there putting it into the wallet, a big black hand come over between us and snatched it all away – 350 euros and the wallet as well, complete with credit cards and driving licence.  There were two men involved and both sped off on their bicycles.  The local hairdresser who had witnessed this robbery called the police and they were there within 10 minutes.  They were terrific and drove us around some very shady neighbourhoods looking for the criminals.  Regretfully to no avail, and we ended the evening in the police station, looking at photoshots and giving statements. 

We hopped over to Marie Galante and once again toured the island on scooters – great fun.  It’s a lovely friendly island, gentle people and gentle landscapes and magnificent seashores.  Then on to Deshaies so that Dick and Ineke could visit the beautiful Botanical Gardens.  We in the meantime, took the bus to Pointe a Pitre as we had had an email telling us that the wallet had been found, complete with all credit cards (which we had of course immediately stopped) and driving licence. 

Finally back to English Harbour where we showed Dick and Ineke the delights of Nelson’s Dockyard and Falmouth Harbour and the Skullduggery café with the fabulous expresso martinis, before they headed off to the airport for the journey back to Holland.  Ed and Rori were there, having had to be towed in as their engine had completely failed.  And Andy and Ros arrived a day later, so the six of us were able to enjoy each others’ company for another few more days  with plenty of socialising, including guitar strumming and humming, and actually quite a bit of boat manoevering too.  This has been a great group of friends – Andy and Ros are heading home to Minorca and Ed and Rori are having to stay in English Harbour until their engine is mended, so we may catch up with them again when we return from our final weeks of sailing.

We had an excellent weekend with Bill and Sherie, our friends from Atlanta, although unfortunately their American Airlines flight from Miami to Antigua was cancelled and they arrived the next day.  So an already relatively short trip was truncated even further.  We showed them English Harbour with the historic Nelson’s Dockyard and wandered over to Falmouth Harbour so we could all drool over the megayachts, especially the Maltese Falcon which is a totally modern concept vessel, operated entirely by computers. 

We took them up the hill to Shirley Heights on Sunday evening to enjoy the BarBQ and pan music with the fantastic view over the whole of English and Falmouth Harbours.  Then, of course, after the customary few drinks, back down the trail in the dark with the nerd lights and torches!!

To give them a short sail in Keesje, we went round to Carlyle Bay and had hoped to go on to Jolly Harbour, but the navigation system suddenly packed up and as we had not crossed the reef passage before, we decided to come back to English harbour – but not before we had had a swim and lunch aboard.  We really enjoyed having them with us and we hope they enjoyed their visit, albeit so brief.

The next excitement was the Test Match at the new Sir Vivian Richards ground.  There had been much speculation in the media about the suitability of the outfield, but assuming all would be OK, eleven of us set off in a cab on Friday morning, the first day.  England came in to bat, five balls later rain stopped play, resumed 45 minutes later, another five balls bowled and the game was abandoned as the bowler’s run-up was so scuffed up and quite dangerous.  This ground is grass on sand and is therefore incredibly loose and rough and readily torn up.  However, as ten overs had not been bowled, our entry tickets were valid for when it was to be re-played.  Rumours abounded around the stadium, even suggesting that the venue for re-play would be Barbados!!!  There were no announcements to all of us in the ground, and we were getting updates via text messages from England where there were reports of live commentaries and interviews – we could see all these interviews taking place, but it was at least an hour and a half before the announcement was made over the tannoy system – the next test would start on Sunday (two days later) and take place at the old ground here in Antigua, the Recreation Ground. 

As some of our group had tickets in the Party stand, where there was “free” food and drink all day and these bars were staying open, we all congregated there and had a big party for the rest of the day.  And Freddie Flintoff came round and chatted to all of us and signed various shirts and hats and anything else that came to hand – it was an excellent PR exercise and he was much admired and patiently had masses of photos taken, (see photo section here!!).  Altogether, it was a superb day!

So two days later we all set off again for the Antigua Recreation Ground and saw a marvellous day’s cricket.  There was a wonderful atmosphere, and all round the ground, below the stands there were open bar-b-ques – something that would never be allowed in England or USA, Health and Safety and Fire Regulations and all that!  But there were no accidents, and lots of superb local food.  The most excitement and consternation amongst the spectators was the arrival of a hawk who attacked a dove in mid-air – the dove fell to the ground, to all purposes as dead as a do-do, but after 15 minutes he did his Lazarus act and gradually staggered to his wobbly little legs and eventually managed to fly away, to loud cheers from all around the ground!  Two days later, the hawk appeared again and this time got his prey and flew round on a lap of honour with his prize in his claws – to great boos from the crowd.

After our day at the Test Match, we had our last evening with Bob and Margo, our good rum drinking friends!  We refuse to say good-bye, just au revoir as we are determined to stay in touch and meet up again sometime somewhere, but they are Northward bound, aiming to be back in Florida by 4^th July.  We will miss them, but such is the effect of this cruising game – by the sheer nature of the lifestyle, we get to know people really well in a relatively short time with an intensity bred of both physical and emotional closeness as we have all met simply because we have all decided to get off our butts and do something different, outside of the box – so there is an immediate rapport and understanding.

We left Antigua next day heading south for Guadeloupe or Martinique as we wanted to see Carnival there.  Unfortunately there is much unrest in these French islands at the moment as a protest against mother France re their response to the global monetary problems.  Youth gangs rioting, shootings, cars overturned and set on fire, airports and ports blocked, roads blockaded, services halted, ie no money in ATMs, no post office facilities etc etc.  So that was obviously not the place to be.  We decided to just stay overnight at Anse La Barque in Guadeloupe before going straight on to Les Saintes – we wanted to set off relatively early, but just for once, the anchor would not budge.  It took an hour of wiggling back and forth, another dinghy came and pushed us round in a complete circle, the theory being that the anchor chain had got wound around a rock, with the anchor itself stuck under the rock.  There had certainly not been any fear of dragging anywhere that night!

Les Saintes was absolutely fine and quite delightful, except the locals were beginning to feel the pinch as no provisions were coming in and there was no money in the ATMs and the supermarket shelves were emptier by the day.  But Peter had a dental appointment with Xavier on Saturday, by which time the weather had turned nasty and we had to stay another day.  We decided to try our luck on Sunday, heading for Dominica, next island South, to enjoy Carnival on Monday and Tuesday.  But the wind was a steady 30 knots and the waves were enormous – quite the worst conditions we had encountered in our whole trip.  We were halfway there, and although double reefed we were having to motor sail to try and cope better with the waves and swell, when the engine lost its cooling water and we had to turn it off.  So we continued sailing for a while, but were being blown so much off course that without an engine we would not have made it into Portsmouth.  So there was no alternative but to turn round and sail back again to Les Saintes.  This was slightly more comfortable and we were able to sail with just the staysail at 8 knots.  As we reached the somewhat calmer waters between the small islands, we tried the engine again, and lo and behold, it sounded completely normal with plenty of water for cooling.  We therefore presumed that it was because of the huge rolling around due to the waves that the water to cool the engine could not get into the intake hole in the hull.  And then, whilst furling the valiant staysail, the furling line broke and we were battling with white canvas all over the deck again, at the same time trying to avoid being flailed by whipping lines!  Finally, our favourite anchor spot had been taken by another boat, one of those floating caravans, (ie a catamaran!), so it had been quite an adventurous afternoon, not even with a satisfactory finish.

But next day, we sallied forth again and although conditions were still very boisterous, we arrived safely in Portsmouth after an exhilarating sail.  Onto Roseau, the capital of Dominica, where we eventually enjoyed Carnival.  We had arrived just in time for Mardi Gras, and it was a good fun evening.  We wandered around the streets, watching the performers and getting deafened by the music, drinking rum or beer and eating bar-b-qued fish and chicken from the local street stalls.  We still didn’t feel we had really seen a proper Carnival, so maybe we will have to come back to the Caribbean next year!

Roseau is a fascinating mixture of the old and the new.  Most goods seem to be available there and there does not seem to be any lack of food, although we did see quite a lot of begging and several “down-and-outs”, sleeping on the streets.  Most of the women were the largest we had seen any where – there was a distinct lack of the slim gorgeous creatures that adorn the other islands and who make “people watching” so enjoyable!

Back to Les Saintes for more dental treatment, which is progressing according to plan.  Peter refuses to have any injections for dental work, which every dentist, including Xavier, thinks is “nuts”. 

We had a delightful evening with Xavier and Vannina for l’aperitif at their home up in the hill above the town.  We thought we would just be having a drink or two with a few nibbles, but as the evening wore on some more friends came over and plates of wonderful French smoked fish and pates and meats appeared, to accompany the champagne and superb French wines.  To reciprocate their hospitality, we invited the whole family aboard Keesje for a sail and lunch.  This also worked out well as Tim and Linda from Matsu  were in town and with the French connection (Linda is French Canadian and Tim speaks French to keep up with her!), everyone was able to converse with ease.  The three children were not so sure about the sail, but once we anchored, they just loved jumping in off the boat and swimming like fishes all over the bay.  We tried to make the day “English”, so we started off with Pimms and that was a great success; followed by a BarBQue and key lime pie.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and Tim had an appointment to see Xavier next day!!

For our last day in the Saintes, we went on another hike over on Terre d’en Bas, this time with Tim and Linda.  We hiked almost right round the island, taking about four hours, but no real rain and we ended up, predictably, at La Belle Etoile for lunch again.  Another excellent day.  We sincerely hope this is not the last time we see Tim and Linda for a while, although our paths are going in slightly different directions for the next few weeks, but I know we will meet up as this is far too good a friendship to disappear.

We had a fantastic sail back to Guadeloupe, and yet another fantastic sail to Antigua the following day.  These are the sort of days that make the horrid ones totally forgettable!  We are in Antigua now, waiting for little brother Pete and wife Sal to arrive tomorrow.  I am so excited as this is the first time any of my family has been out and will be able to see exactly what we have been up to over the last two years.