Antigua 2/13/18

Alett sure makes getting up early a wonderful thing!

After the obligatory Tradewinds meeting with Captain Ben, we motored to a spot to snorkel called Carlisle Bay. The two dolphin chairs are great seats!

Victor, "Mr. Clean", loved to keep the boat in tip top shape.

More fishing. More barracuda

Happy Hour is at 4:15 and then we went in to Falmouth Harbor for some shopping and dinner. We found a fun shop where I bought a turquoise wrap and an elephant necklace for Mary Lynn. Drinks were at Cloggies. We all had a nice dinner of wood fired pizza at Paparazzi.

Victor and Tom traded shirts. Ruth let Tom wear her pareo.

When we returned to the boat, George had all of the liquor displayed on the table. Very impressive! George is a great First Mate.

Antigua 2/12/18

We woke up to more wind, but the breakfast was great!

Captain Ben showed us where we would be sailing. 

Amir, the base captain, had taken his family to the north side of the island where we would normally have gone, but it was very windy there. As a result, we are turning around and heading right back to Valley Church Beach where Bill and Barb Robinson stayed and Jolly Beach where we stayed. We passed Frog Rock - aptly named.

First we stopped at Crab Hill Beach for lunch.There are several all inclusive resorts on the beach. We took the dingy into a beach bar called Rum Bus. We got a cabana with a hammock, but ended up near the bar for the WiFi. The bar was so cute. They had bus seats set up like you were actually on a bus. Sandy, Victor and I swam back to the boat. 

Rum Bus Beach Bar

Our cabana

It was her birthday!

The bus

The plan was to anchor at Valley Church Beach, which is very close to our Jolly Beach Resort. After arriving to lots of wind, George bought ice at the marina and we returned to Crab Hill Bay.

Victor got some fishing in. We wish that those lobsters belonged to us!

We got word from Captain Ben that we all would get our full point reimbursement. Great news! Thank you Tradewinds!

Antigua 2/11/18

From Jolly Harbor we went around Sandy Island to Deep Bay. Fort Barrington, a steep hike with a 360˚ view, was built to protect St. John. Further is the big catamaran in the middle front.

Our first breakfast was amazing. Alett is an amazing chef!

The pre-dinner cocktail by George was a banana rum daiquiri and it was very delicious. Rick and I had a tequila and Ting. There is no Ting on the island due to a shortage. We managed to buy four bottles in St. Johns a few days ago and we brought two bottles with us to the boat. We had requested Patron, not thinking that they would actually have some on board, and low and behold, we have two bottles. What a great Happy Hour for the Wades and Robinsons.

We had an amazing dinner of filet mignon. It was so tender and delicious, the meals have been excellent.

Our boatmates:

Bill and Barb CA

Tom and Pat

Bill and Barb CO

Sandy and Victor

Ruth and Rick

Tom gets along with everyone!

Antigua 2/10/18

After a day at the beach we walked our suitcases over to the Tradewinds Marina for check in. We were told that our intended Flagship boat, New Beginning, had a broken engine, so we were moved to Further, a 59 foot luxury boat. Needless to say, we were not too happy, but our wonderful crew made up for the change.

Ben: Our 25 year old Captain from Ireland who will also be our dive master.

George: Our Romanian First Mate and mixologist.

Alett: Our South African chef extrodianare

After the spread that Alett had set out for us in welcome to Future, we enjoyed some wine and learned about our crew. They each told their story of what led them to Tradewinds.

Our friends Pat and Wands from our St. Martin cruise last year brought Boat Shirts for all of us! I brought ocean themed bracelets for the ladies.

Here is a typical cabin on Further.