Leaving Road Town, Tortola meant one thing to me. My first ever over-night passage, and also my first ever two-night passage. To be honest I wasn’t looking forward to the event; however, the trip was really quite spectacular. I might have missed some of the trip due to some well timed gravol. The weather doesn’t seem to be changing, much. Just getting much hotter.
We arrived in Antigua just at the end of the Classic Boat Racing and the good people co-coordinating the events were already preparing for the influx of sailors and on-lookers for the racing week to begin. We took a spot in the anchorage at Ordinance Bay which was beautifully surrounded by mangrove trees. I had never seen a mangrove tree before and it wasn’t until sundown when I learned where all the night biters lived. It quickly became less beautiful. But life is an adventure. And where were the trade winds that keep everyone so even tempered? It was so hot in Antigua that even the locals were dropping like flies. One woman warned me about the gray and white striped mosquitoes that carry the dengue (sp) virus, which makes you very sick. I can’t see with my glasses on, and I thought gray was a shade of white. Allan is bitten from his feet to his knees and neither of us took note to the biters' colour. He could be getting very sick. Yikes!!
English Harbour was very nice. Nice like Citadel Hill and King’s Landing, only warmer. We ate out at some of the eateries, which were all very good but I am getting a hankering for some galley-made food. I am going to start cooking as soon as this heat wave subsides. We did a little shopping which consisted of a t-shirt each. Mine reads “Antigua, Wind Chill Factor 87 degrees”.
I just happened to have a ring side seat when the sailors began arriving for the races. There was a time when I could have imagined what fun it would be to be out partying with a group like that. Now I imagine what fun my kids could be having with a group like that. Have I mentioned the heat yet?
Al talked to his mom and dad, and I talked to my kids. Allan’s parents are doing well, as they always are. Shout out to you Orva and Gerald! My son leaves for Afghanistan on May 3rd. How quickly I am learning all of my prayers. My oldest bought a new house, and my baby picked out kitchen cabinets for her new place. Wonder who is financing this luxury? And there’s a saying about not having a pot, to….throw out the window or something like that.
With the bugs and the heat, I was ready to move along to Guadeloupe.
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