Back to Antigua, and then South to St Lucia

Falmouth Harbour, Antigua was packed when we returned from our three week absence - not only with the competitors for the 49th Antigua Race Week but also many of the fabulous classic yachts from the Antigua Classic Week that had just finished and also a few stragglers from the St Barts Bucket which is only open to yachts of 100ft and above. An awful lot of wealth sails the waters round Antigua!  Within a couple of days of the end of Race Week it was empty - the marine equivalent of tumbleweed blowing down the pontoons and across the bay.  The Mediterranean and North American Summer sailing season was about to start.

Race Week itself was great fun - there were yachts ranging from 6 metres with a crew of three to a Volvo Open 60 with a crew of about 20.  We were again crewing on Sandy Mair's Beneteau First 35, a cruiser/racer.

The series consisted of 8 races - the first very memorable moment was a whale breaching just off the start line on day 1.  Sadly no photo to prove it, but there were many witnesses!

During the week two yachts in our class shredded their mainsail, and the photo above shows a local competitor on the start line just after he was dismantled.  

There was some very close racing - although we did manage to get on the podium twice during the week, overall we finished fourth in our class.

And of course there was another Red Cap to add to the collection.

After Race Week we headed back south to Martinique, stopping overnight on Guadeloupe and then Portsmouth, Dominica where we had previously visited the Indian River in a water taxi.  This time we decided to brave it on foot - the path was difficult to find, and it did involve wading across a stream, but was worth the effort.

The forest is spectacular - Portsmouth, Dominica.

The path follows the remains of a British built railway.

It seems the Engineers of the time had not fully understood the local conditions - the railway rapidly fell into disrepair.

The way out - we crossed in single file - not sure whether this will withstand another rainy season!

Our next stop was Le Marin, Martinique which is a veritable Mecca of chandleries and Marine businesses.  We had to collect our repaired Parasail and VHF radio and bought Scuba gear,  but we were also hoping to have a steel davit custom made for lifting the dinghy engine on and off the boat as our current method certainly does not conform to any health and safety.  No problem, Mr Kashmir of Equinox Steelworks made one in a couple of days and it does the job perfectly.  

The other issue we needed to resolve was the charging of a Mac laptop - having actually melted a 12v cigarette lighter socket using a 150w inverter to charge it previously, it clearly was not the way to do it!  We have now had a 1200w inverter fitted directly to the boat's batteries - problem solved.  And ... we can also plug in our new luxury item:  the portable ice cube maker!

Having emptied our wallets in Le Marin we headed on south in convoy with our German friends Bernd & Birgit to Rodney Bay, St Lucia to catch up with Steve and Lynne on Aztec Dream, who had finally escaped the clutches of Antigua having had a complete rig overhaul and also to  see our mutual friend Peter Dickens who will be staying with them for a 10 day holiday.  We plan to go back to Martinique in convoy with Aztec Dream.....actually we will be playing catch up with them as they now have new sails and tuned rig!

Our plan is then to head back to Beautiful Bequai, Carriacou and the Tobago Quays.