Antigua

Our original plans were to sail direct for Guadeloupe from the BVI, a passage requiring two nights at sea. However, since we're not in a hurry and the winds were right for it, we decided on stopping in Antigua for a few days. This shortened the trip from BVI to only one overnight, and then a day sail to Guadeloupe.

Antigua is a fun place to stop. We've been here twice before and are pretty familiar with it. On previous visits we visited Jolly Harbor, St John, English Harbor, Falmouth Harbor, and some anchorages on the east side. On this visit, we limited ourselves to Falmouth and English Harbors.

English Harbor was at one time a key port for the

English. It was strategically located to provide for easy harassment of the French islands as well as an excellent anchorage for weathering hurricanes and performing major refits on the ships.

These days it is a haven for sailors of all sorts. There are live-aboard sailors with three anchors down who haven't moved their boat since three or four hurricanes ago, cruisers like us, racing fanatics, and of course the super-yacht and mega-yacht crowd. If you are into sailing, racing sailboats, or just checking out the yachts of the filthy rich, you can find it here.

In between regattas, it's pretty quiet, but still interesting. There is a lot of history here to discover and some pleasant places to kick back and relax. The cruise ship crowd isn't much of a presence here since the ships dock in St Johns, which is on the other side of the island.

So, we arrived, checked in, did some boat maintenance, some relaxing in the shade and some hiking and touring. Quinn won a wager on a crab race at a charity event and came out with 20 dollars. He promptly spent 5 of it on ice cream and socked away the rest in his allowance jar. Good man!

We heard good things about the zip line here and decided to give it a try. You strap yourself up to a pulley on a cable crossing a 300' gorge in the rain forest. Sounds like fun! Quinn and I are admitted adrenaline junkies. Jen is adverse to heights, but a good sport. So, accompanied by Kathy and John from Oceana, we tried it out. I was a little concerned about Quinn freezing when it came time to step into the void, but he was a trooper as usual. Nothing but giant grins from the whole crew.

About six days after arrival, the weather looked good for the run to Guadeloupe. Deshaies, Guadeloupe is about 45 miles due south from Antigua. It was a great sail. We were doing over 7 knots most of the way on a beam reach in 15 or so knots of wind.