For various reasons, not the least of which are the howling Christmas winds and high seas, we're still hanging out in Antigua. We're in good company here and content to stay put for the time being. There are always odd projects to do on the boat and beaches that need to be visited for daily swims.
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| Slinky, one of three black cats in Melini's dockside restaurant, is also content to stay put. |
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| View from Saralane in Jolly Harbor |
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| Replacing our balky windlass switch |
Occasionally we move from Jolly Harbor over to Five Islands or Deep Bay and our view changes a little. In Five Islands we watched some filming going on with this big motor yacht 'Slipstream' and her toys. The helicopter chased the tenders and jet skies endlessly, swooping off from time to time to reposition. It was all very James Bond. We looked up Slipstream and found that it belongs to Simon Cowell. I guess judging/crushing aspiring talent has it's upside.
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| Faster faster! |
John H was in need of some TLC again and we're doing our best to keep him looking stylish. In addition to his ID numbering needing a refresher, he's starting to get a little squishy in his old age (as are we all) and we finally got around to using the
patching material we snagged in Virgin Gorda to help puff him up.
We reinforced the main areas with two big fancy pieces we scavenged from the ruined beached dinghy in North Sound. First we patterned the sections with paper, then cut and contact cemented them in place with special glue meant for use on dinghies.
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| Port side |
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| The tape barely keeps the paper in place with the wind blowing |
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| Sticky stuff goes on here.... |
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| ...and here. |
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| Finished! |
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| Fancy eh? |
Repeat the same process on sections on the front and in the back....
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| Looking good! |
Skip added the extra little flashy red pieces which I'm trying to convince him to remove, though it does make John H easy to spot in a row of dinghies.
Each year around this time there seems to be some sort of massive hatching of butterflies in the north east Caribbean. We've seen it in St Martin and in the BVI and this year in Antigua. It may be hard to see how many butterflies there are in this shot, but I can tell you there were zillions of them.
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| The little white specks are butterflies |
Our buddies Simon and Hilda on Brisa did in fact
bring us cheeses from Guadeloupe (thanks!) and we dinghied alongside them when they returned to Jolly Harbor with engine trouble.
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| Brisa makes her way to the customs dock in Jolly Harbor. |
Other friends have arrived from St Martin and we've met some new people who are sitting out the weather here too.
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| Having a dinghy chat with Fred and Dorothy from Aviva |
A Christmas day gathering on Q Queenie included, Simon & Hilda (Brisa), David & Jennifer (and furry dog Crew, from Triple Cream), Stefan & Lynne (Beyond). Q Queenie is a beautiful and spacious catamaran belonging to Barbara and Steven (that's Barbara in the dress and white flip flops; Steven is to her left).
