Lance and the people of Antigua

So far, I’ve found the people of Antigua to be very friendly and resourceful. For instance, we met this fellow Lance (otherwise known as Sir Nelson) on our very first day, while the proprietor took lunch at the fuel dock. Lance is a tall, thin, handsome black fellow with a big smile and beautiful teeth. Wearing his signature aviator glasses, he sauntered up and sat himself on a piling next to our boat. He asked how we were doing, where we were from and soon we were engaged in a conversation about our sail from Hampton, Va.

Eventually, Lance got around to asking if we needed any boat work done and we learned that he could be a provider of all things including a boat wash, connections to electronics support, help fixing a broken water pump, etc. The last few days we have had Lance and/or his associates employed in one way or another. On Friday, his team cleaned our topside. On Saturday, his friend Erica, who runs Crab Hole Liquors & Grocery, also sells SIM cards and helped us with cellphone issues. On Sunday, Lance connected us with Cheryl, with her bright red hair and infectious smile, who made our boat sparkle below, while her husband Kevon, stuffed our cushions in his mini Kia so that his sister could clean them. Later that day, Kevon was back with his mini-

car to take Doug and three others (with luggage) to the airport. Today, Lance has us working with Ivan to fix and/or order parts for our broken water pump.

Aside from the aforementioned boat chores, we have been enjoying cold Wadadli beers & mahi mahi burgers at Skullduggery Bar & Restaurant, rum punch from the Galley Bar and a wonderful fish fry at at Copper & Lumber Restaurant, complements of the Antiguan government. Before Doug left, he rented a car to drive us to Jolly Harbor & St. John’s in search of toilet seat hinges (the only thing we broke on our offshore excursion) and a metal file for another boat. We had a nice lunch at Hemingway’s, a cute pub with green wood trim to match Doug and Andrew’s shirts.

St. John is a busy harbor town with not much to it other than street stands and duty free shopping. It was quite an adventure driving in this tiny car, trying to avoid the many potholes and deep trenches in the road, while noticing the number of missing side mirrors on most of the cars we passed. We got a little lost using the hand drawn map from the car rental agency, when one of the roads turned into mud. A nice Rastafarian fellow in an old beat up truck, advised us not to venture any further. “Turn around now” he said, with a slightly glazed look in his crystal blue eyes. I was personally thankful for this advice since I think Doug was having fun treating the rental car like a forerunner.