Antigua March 15th to March 17th

March 14^th to March 17^th

March 14 to March 16^th L’Adagio arrived into English Harbour on the 14^th after their Atlantic Crossing. Robbie called them on the VHF to welcome them to Antigua. We had a pretty quiet day catching up on chores and maintenance.

Starlet arrived on the 15^th and anchored not far from us, on the edge of the anchorage. Today we received an email from Microsoft to say our outlook email account had been hacked and they had sent out a lot of spam so they blocked the account. We tried very unsuccessfully, to unblock it.

Robbie has now got the new internet up and running and its working well, but now we have no email. Sometimes you feel like you just can’t win!

We ended the evening with sundowners on Southern Star with Mark and Jennifer, Laust and Lars and Lars from L’Adagio, and two yachties, Walter from a Cat called “Allergic to Cities”, and Daina from another Yacht anchored near us. Daina is a born and bred Antiguan and has sailed all around the world, including New Zealand! It was a bit cramped on the fly bridge with all these bodies but we all enjoyed the company, the drinks and the nibbles including Australian Cracker Barrel Cheese from the St Johns Supermarket, which Laust found out is owned by an Australian!

March 16^th Robbie dropped Jennifer and I into the beach and we walked up and down a few times. It’s a lovely beach and there are all time share small houses right on the beachfront, with bigger ones set back on the slopes of the hill. Some of them are very big and very nice. It started to rain so Robbie came and got us.

I am still spending hours trying to get our email account unblocked and Robbie is doing all the small maintenance jobs he can find. We are both extremely frustrated and not very impressed with Microsoft! You cannot speak to a person, you can “live chat” online which I have now done a number of times with no resolution. It is sorely testing my patience. I gave up in the end and did 3 loads of washing and cleaned the boat to take out some of my frustration.

We were invited to dinner and a game of 500 on Starlet. We have all missed playing and we had a lot of fun, and a beautiful meal of Grilled Mahi Mahi, with a curry sauce, rice and salad. And Jennifer’s famous pound cake with Strawberries for desert! Very spoilt. Mark and I won the 500, 2 games to 1!

March 17^th The Cat anchored nearby drifted into us, Robbie and I fended it off and there was no one on board, just as Robbie was about to get into the duck to move it the people showed up in their duck. They did not speak much English, they were French. They didn’t pull up their anchor, they just dragged it and tried to reanchor. Obviously it’s a charter boat!

We went into the beach with Mark and Jennifer and walked around the point and then up to the flagpole on the hill. We sat up the top for about half an hour enjoying the views, it was very pleasant. Once we got back to the boat we had a swim. Robbie is fixing the door out of the cupboard in the shower and I again spent some hours trying to get our email account unblocked, still with no result.

Walter came over and gave Robbie the paddleboard to try – he was very good he has good balance and found it very easy. We went into Falmouth Harbour to sign some documents for the router that is hopefully arriving Friday or Saturday. It’s not a bad place to be stuck!

At 4pm we headed back to shore for Drinks on L’dagio – they are berthed in the marina. It’s such a beautiful boat and so much room. We enjoyed a lovely nibbles platter and Laust had also brought the Australian Cracker Barrel cheese and then we all (Mark, Jennifer, Laust, Lars, Lars, Robbie and I) caught a taxi up to Shirley Heights.

 




Again they had a live band and food and it was so much better than Sunday night as there were hardly any people and the sunset was much better as it was not so cloudy.






They had a small stall there and I brought some perfumed soap thongs (jandals or flip flops) We had a lot of fun we were dancing with one of the local ladies and even danced on the table!