Fizz in Antigua - Friday 26th Feb.

26/02/2010 by admin.

It’s 10:30 in the morning on Friday 26^th Feb at the end of another week in paradise. It’s 33’C outside, the sun is so strong it is too hot to walk on the teak deck barefoot. We are here in Falmouth harbour in Antigua, waiting to go over to the repair jetty to have the mast re-stepped. The good news is the inmast furling has been repaired and the mast is ready to be refitted. Hopefully by the end of today, the mast and sails should all be back on and Fizz should be ready to go.

A quick update on the last few days. We left Martinique on Sunday 21^st, after a fairly uninspiring stay at Fort de France, see last blog. Everything seemed to be shut,but we did manage to find a great little French restaurant overlooking the harbour for dinner on Saturday night. The run up to Prince Rupert Bay in Dominica was fairly uneventful, with the highlight being a visit from 2 large dolphins who kept us company playing in Fizz’s bowwave. We anchored overnight just off Portsmouth and were visited by a friendly tour guide called Fire, who tried to sell us a tour of the Indian River National Park, a sort of mini-Amazon. Unfortunately it was already getting dark and we had to head off to Guadaloupe the following day, so we had to decline. He did tell us that the second Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed in this bay.

On Monday 22^nd we headed out to Guadeloupe and with the wind coming from the South, managed to get the cruising chute up for much of the trip. After  a run of 55’ we motored into Deshaies Bay on the NW tip of Basse-Terre, where we anchored in a very busy anchorage. We went ashore to the little village where there were a few tourist shops and restaurants, very picturesque. We had a drink in a beachfront bar, where Pam and I tried  what we thought would be a rum punch. It turned out to be firewater,  neat white rum, about 80% proof, with some sugar in the bottom of the glass. This was the local take on rum punch, not for the faint-hearted. After a couple of those, you would feel no pain. We toodled back to the boat for supper feeling suitably refreshed.

Tuesday 23^rd was our final run up to Antigua, about 43’ north of Guadeloupe. We arrived in Falmouth harbour mid afternoon, and picked up a berth in the Cat Marina at the northern end of the harbour, ready for Antigua Rigging to start the repair on the in-mast furling on Wednesday morning. The sight of 30 plus superyachts berthed in Falmouth harbour was incredible, and made Fizz look positively tiny in comparison. Famous superyachts incuding Mirabelle V, Leander and Richard Branson’s new 100’ plus catamaran  were an amazing sight berthed at the Antigua Yacht club. Much of Wednesday 24^th was spent inspecting the damage to the in-mast furling and preparing the rigging for the mast to be removed. We moved over to the repair jetty on Thursday 24^th where the mast was lifted off the boat using a large mobile shore crane. The repair was completed yesterday afternoon much to our relief, meaning hopefully we should be ready to do some sailing when Jane and Richard Golds arrive on Saturday. They are with us until the 10^th March, by which time we should be in the British Virgin Islands. They are followed by Nick and Gareth and David Burnell who join us on the 11^th for a week’s sail round the BVI’s. .

Yesterday we hired a car and Pam and I went over to the main supermarket north of St John’s to stock up on food and drinks. We followed this with a drive with Stu over to Jolly Harbour where we met up with Bill, Laila and Tom on Kalandia for dinner. It was great fun seeing them again and catching up on news. Stu and Tom retired to the adjoining bar for a game of pool. It was also Karaoke night there, so we were able to enjoy (??) the local singing talent while watching Stu and Tom getting beaten by a local ex-pat , who managed to multi-task playing pool and doing a passable impersonation of Frank Sinatra at the same time.  

More to follow.

Chris & Pam  

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