January 18 Hanging out in Antigua

We spent several nights in the marina at Nelson's Dockyard. Brian and Taffy arrived on Friday, January 15th. On Saturday we explored a bit more of the dockyard and Fort Berkeley which overlooks English Harbour.

This must be the first ever swingbed in existence. For those of you who do not know, and based on a picture I saw in a decorator magazine when I was 4yo or so, my fabulous daddy built me a swinging bed as a surprise while I was gone off to camp or something that I slept in until adulthood. He cut off the legs of the bed, welded chains to the frame and suspended the whole works from the ceiling. My mom sewed me a delicious bed linen ensemble out of jungle fabric that I got to pick out. It was THE BOMB. I swang myself to sleep every night. So, for those of you who continue to wonder how I can sleep on a swinging boat now you know....

Another interesting find at the dockyard were the remains of the sail loft, seen in the picture of the columns below. The loft was built over the top of the columns. A smaller ship would gather the sails off the big ship and come into this little canal (no motors...how?). From there, the sails were hoisted up into the loft where they were repaired.

This is overlooking English Harbour from the fort:

An Antigua shack, Brian crawling about the rocks and shot of Brian and Taffy:

We left the dock on Saturday afternoon, hit the local fuel dock and then went back around the corner to Falmouth Harbour to anchor. Craig went for a swim and caught oodles of conch. It was late in the afternoon so we hung them off the boat in a net bag to save cleaning for the next day. Sunday night was a conch feast. I had salad, plus two bites of conch. Not sure how many times I have to learn that lesson....

On Monday we went to the Antigua Rainforest Company for a much anticipated zip line tour. We did 9 zip lines which took about an hour. It was great fun. No cameras allowed on this one, so special thanks to Brian for ponying up for the professional shots of the four of us in action:

We survived the adventure. Brian had earlier taunted me with claims of fabulous guacamole. A search through this little harbour (a taxi to the grocery store is $25 each way) surprisingly produced fresh avocados, cilantro and all the required ingredients. Brian is king. We think it was the best snack we have had on the boat to date.

We are leaving in the morning around 10am to run around the corner to Jolly Harbour. We will check out of Antigua and the following day will make the 50 mile run to Nevis. We plan to stay there a day or two and then proceed to St Kitt.