We arrived in Falmouth Harbor, Antigua after noon on 12/4 to a harbor filled with boats, big and small and lots of Salty Dawgs among them. Caught up with Bill and Maureen, whom we originally met on the Salty Dawg Rally in 2019, on their newly painted Kalunamoo.
The next morning, we dinghied in past the really big boats (300 ft. plus) that were in town for the Charter Boat Show and went ashore for breakfast at the Skullduggery. We washed our egg sandwiches down with a Trump Punch (because we couldn’t resist). Walking in to Nelson’s Dockyard National Park, a stronghold for the English in the 1780’s, we showed our crew the Copper & Lumber Pub and the stone wall docks, among the other historic places.
That evening, the town was all lit up for Christmas and these colorfully dressed young ladies (ages 6 to 15) were strutting about on 2 to 4 foot stilts to entertain the boaters.
On 12/6, I got to join the Salty Dawgs ladies drinking espresso martinis, eating a fabulous seafood salad and luxuriating in the infinity pool at The English Harbor Inn on Gideon Beach.
Christian, one of our crew from the trip down, and his girlfriend rented a sweet cottage on Falmouth Harbor and invited the gang over for cocktails before our final crew dinner. We had drinks on their back porch before walking to the Island Fusion Cafe next door. I’m not usually big on ordering things with eyes and tails but my curried wahoo was totally worth it!
One evening, Andrew and I treated ourselves to sharing the mussels and spiny lobster at Abracadabra, an Italian restaurant just outside of English Harbor, that is run by an energetic Italian couple with their 20 year old chef. The bread served with the mussels was to die for and the lobster was exquisite!
The next day, we reunited with our friend Antony from Dominica. He was our guide there in 2019 and we spent a lot of time with him then. He moved to Antigua and found out we were coming back so we made a point of re-connecting. Antony is always willing to work and helped us get our topsides cleaned once we moved the boat to English Harbor.
One night, a group of Salty Dawgs got together at The Antigua Yacht Club for all you can eat sushi. The restaurant serve us everything on the menu in these large wooden boats that kept coming as long as we wanted more.
On 12/13, Andrew and I sailed around the south end of Antigua to Green Island, buddy boating with our friends, Chris & Kelly on Fayaway. We dropped our hook on the leeward side of the reef that protects the anchorage from ocean waves and provides a huge playground for windsurfers. Around the corner, in Rickets Bay, the snorkeling was decent but the Bay itself was too full to anchor. We took a dinghy tour around NonSuch Bay to get a close up view of the fancy resorts that surround it.
On 12/17, we left for Carlisle Bay on the western side of Antigua. It is a pretty anchorage with an award winning resort dotting the shoreline with beach chairs and bungalows. The bay was busy with vacationers on kayaks, paddle bikes, sailboats, snorkelers and a speedboat flinging kids around in a blowup couch. We walked through the lush resort and out to the bluff for a tasty lunch of fresh fish at Karpagio. From our perch, we could see our friends on s/v Valianna, with her distinctive double foiling masts, sail in from the north.
The next day, after a frittata made from an assortment of leftovers that we shared on board Valianna, Andrew and I left for Jolly Harbor, arriving around noon. Here we are prepping the boat for our two week holiday back in the USA, where we hope to see many of our truly missed friends & family!
Happy Holidays everyone!!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please include your first name or initials with your comment so we know who you are. Thanks.