Antigua Daze

The last week has been spent in Antigua dodging tropical depressions & storms. Sadly that has meant no trip to Barbuda as we aired on the side of caution over the weekend. It also means that the boat isn’t in Guadelope and I flew to get my Paris connection. Ironically Tuesday would have been a glamour day for sailing across to Guadelope.

We’ve filled out week with some exploration of Antigua. We ventured to the “Florida of Antigua” in the form of Jolly Harbour. I wasn’t quite prepared for how different it is to Falmouth harbour! Not as rustic by far, more resorts and cruise ship heaven apparently.

Chris made the most of the unsettled weather and got out surfing with Harry at Turtle Bay and Rendezvous whilst Lily a I did some serious beach combing. Not the day for her to ride waves, but the little fashionista is very proud of her new necklace and earrings. She also gave us a heart attack by upping her diving anti and randomly pulling out a back dive in a swimming pool!! No idea where it came from and even Harry couldn’t follow suit.

We also made it to Jabberwocky beach for some kiting. Once you got past the few feet of sargasso it was a glamour spot to kite in. I kind of forgot no kite instructor was there to massage my ego and pick up my board, so I left the board upwind for a wee while! It’s all part of the process I’m sure.

Harry’s been doing laps of Falmouth harbour surfing behind the tender at every given opportunity. This is proving a useful bargaining tool for school work & no hour is too early it would seem…light is preferable. I particularly love his need to sing as he does it. Chris tells me singing was an oppie sailing must for him, so the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The kids were delighted to head to the flicks in St.John and watch the Nut Job 2. It was a big novelty after 2 months without TV. I was sadly nearly as excited by a trip to the Epicurean supermarket (in “normal” life I am not obsessed by food shopping I promise). However, I’d still rate the local food and fruit & veg stalls as the top draw on the Island.

Harry’s been trying his luck at fishing. He can pretty much recite all the fish (400) we shouldn’t eat in the Caribbean for risk of ciguatera: A rather mean food poisoning which is accompanied by neurological symptoms which can last weeks or even years. Generally purported by locals not to effect smaller reef fish, eating them is probably not worth the risk! At 7 Harry’s taken it upon himself to try to provide for the family- a bit much to take on, but you can’t tell him. On one fishing jaunt up the dock Lily joined him. She evidently got a bit peckish so got stuck into the bait of raw bacon!! Following misguided old wives tales that makes Chris & I feel psychologically better when we’ve eaten something dodgey we fed our 4 year old coke….have you seen what that stuff does to old coins & rusty tools? Surely it can sort out some raw bacon. *i have no evidence this works at all *

With more time on land the kids have been playing with their new friends and haring around on scooters & skateboards. There has been a lot of tolerance around the marina-hooray for the low season!

The question is will family Draper ever leave Antigua? We’ll be hopping South for sure from the 2nd September, but definitely haven’t ruled out a return. Harry has requested a geography field trip to explore the volcano on Monserrat and we’d love to fit that in too.

Misadventures
*Daddy diving services were required off the dock.

*They have some furry friends here

*Lily is a bait eating monster.

*Picking up AC parts and hull filters in UK, barnacles don’t seem to filter things too well.