Travels with great friends!

We were joined by friends who escaped the clutches of Montreal winter, to come play with us on board Ambition in the Caribbean. 

A quick tour of Antigua’s highlights including a walkabout through Antigua Yacht Club, English Harbour and a trip up to Shirley Heights for Sunday BBQ dinner and great steel drum music.

 

Nelson's Dockyard

Shirley Heights

Eric Clapton's Retreat

Off to Guadeloupe along with a tour of the island.

Guadeloupe Rain Forest

A stop in Les Saintes….

 

Part of the grass cutting crew

Greens Keeper in training

Fort Napoleon

Back to Jolly Harbour Antigua . …more work than taking Ambition out for a sail!

In this picture you will see the motor yacht Ace which is 285 foot long and the rather utilitarian yacht close by is a tender for Ace … it carries the helicopter as well as all the extra toys that do not fit on Ace!

ACE

ACE and her toy box

A couple of boat projects … the wind generator was not running up to spec so I needed to determine if it was a wiring issue or a fault in the unit. Of course to figure this out properly, it required the complete removal of the unit from the arch. Well it turns out that it is the unit that is defective! I can continue to use it, albeit at reduced performance plus extra vibration at higher wind speeds … it still provides us battery recharging at night when the wind is strong.

The second project was to correct an error I made when we bought Ambition. I choose an anchor based on the weight of the boat that I read in the brochure … well that was a mistake! I originally sized the anchor for the boat weighing about 28,000lbs.  All was good until I discovered that Ambition’s cruising weight with full water, fuel, provisions (and yes all my spare parts and tools) tips the scales at a portly 50,000lbs. As you might expect – not the same anchor sizing. Well we fixed that with a new Rocna 80lb anchor instead of the 45LB Manson that will now be relegated to a backup position on the team! The two fit nicely on the bow rollers which is a plus!

This past week was also the special Super Blue Moon … a beautiful sight!