Antigua is an extremely popular and well known yachting
destination. There are many beautiful anchorages, Antigua Sailing Week and for
its history – English Harbour.
Mel and I spent 10 days in Antigua in December 2012 – we actually
spent Christmas Day at Nelsons Dockyard, in English Harbour.
Falmouth and English Harbour are well protected ports and
have been used to protect ships/boats from Hurricanes since 1745. In 1789,
English Harbour was Britain’s main naval port in the Lesser Antilles.
Information taken from Chris Doyle’s The Cruising Guide to
the Leeward Islands – 13 edition.
“In 1784, Horatio Nelson was stationed here under Sir Richard
Hughes, who had recently blinded himself in one eye while chasing a cockroach
with a fork. Later, Nelson took over as naval commander but he did not enjoy
Antigua and did not get on well with the Governor General - Governor General
Shirley (after who Shirley Heights is named) or the plantocracy who did not
like the way Nelson insisted on enforcing the Navigation Act. This meant he
kept the port closed to trade for all but British ships. “
Nelson’s Dockyard is named after Nelson – obviously.
Sunday was a lazy day spent on the boat and going to the
local beach.
The celebrations for Jouvert actually start at 3.00am!!! We
decided we would be at the bus stop by 7.00am to catch a bus into St Johns to
see some of the celebrations.
We arrived in St Johns just after 7.00am to find it throbbing
with extremely loud music and hordes of people drinking and dancing in a parade
down the main street of St Johns – Market Street. We found a place to watch and
observe the whole festivities – well it was an eye opener as we felt that it
was just a public orgy. The “dance” moves were not dance moves – I am not
trying to be a prude but they looked more like a few positions out of the book of Kamasutra.
We stayed and watched for about 2 hours before heading back
to the boat.
The rest of the day was spent doing domestics on the boat.
The Jouvert festivities take place over two days – Monday and
Tuesday. Each day the festivities start at 3.00am, continue until about
10.00am, then the participants change into “elaborate” costumes for another
street parade later in the day – starting at about 2.00pm.
We decided we would go back into St Johns on Tuesday
afternoon to watch the street parade.
See photos below.
The rest of the week was spent on the boat cleaning, fixing and
catching up with the many chores that had to be done. We went for walks on the
lovely beach close by, going out for dinner at Shells, an outdoor restaurant
that has a London double decker bus where if you want to, you can sit and have
your meal. They serve English food – great fish and chips!
At the marina there is also cable T.V. which has been great
as I have watch a bit of cricket and tennis and a “few” of my favourite T.V.
series.
The weather hasn’t been great either as we have had quite a
few days of rain but then again it is the tropics.
Our plans are as follows – Sunday, the weather looks good for
us to leave Jolly Harbour Marina and head south and then east to Falmouth
Harbour and English Harbour where we intend anchoring until next week Thursday
or Friday when the weather looks good for us to sail south to Guadeloupe.
As you can see this week has been a week of chores on the
boat – not that exciting.
Until next time – take care, keep well
Love
Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx