Back in Antigua

Our sail from Guadeloupe to Antigua was to say the least – uneventful. For the first 2 1/2 hours the wind struggled to stay above 10 knots and with all sails up we maintained a reasonable 5 to 6 knot speed. Unfortunately it did not stay – the wind dropped to 5 knots and coupled with a full 4 to 5 foot ocean swell, we rolled too much to keep the sails full. Furled the genoa and the staysail and left the main up to soften some of the rolling – fired up the engine and motor sailed the rest of the way to Falmouth Harbour, Antigua.

Made the hike to English Harbour to clear in through Customs and Immigration. Interesting that it costs 4 Euros to clear into the French Islands and here in Antigua it is US$85! Still a small price to pay for everything the island has to offer.

Antigua is really a yachting island and we were about to get a taste of what that would look like for December! As we sat at anchor in the bay, motor yachts and sailing yachts of all sizes and styles arrived and tied up to the docks at Falmouth Yacht Club and Antigua Yacht Club. It turns out that from December 4^th to 8^th it is Antigua Charter Yacht Show. An industry event for the brokers who recommend and sell charter vacations on these yachts. WOW is an understatement. A few pictures are really the only way to get an impression of what the event looks like.

This one is for Marc T

For Seb and Pascale...

A BEAUTIFUL J Class yacht

I even tried to get a picture of what it looks like at night with all the lights on but a boat at anchor makes a poor platform for a tripod night shot ….

If you can’t be pretty ….. you better be useful! No so sure about that!

Not the Belle of the Ball

Well just when we thought the all the big yachts had arrived …… when we awoke this morning someone had shown up in the night and dropped anchor just outside Falmouth Harbour – Just to show that she was still the most impressive of the group in town! Queen Mary 2.