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BILLS POST

 

Ahoy again - long time no blog! Sorry we have been so quiet lately, but it has been an incredibly busy few weeks.

 

Since arriving into Antigua, we worked like mad to get the boat ready for the show. There were a lot of 'little things' to fix, a lot of things  to buy, and of course lots and lots of cleaning. Fortunately, Dan decided to stick around for a while after the delivery before fliying back to England. He is a super guy, and quite handy with everything on the boat. I'll be indebted to him for a long time for all the work he put in to help get us ready. We started off by trying to fix everything - with a 2 week owner-guest trip starting the day after the show, followed the owner's arrival 4 days after the end of that trip, I knew we wouldn't have time to fix anything afterwards. We made decent progress for the first few days, then hit a wall with the projects. Antigua is a nightmare of an island when it comes to sourcing parts for the boat. The chandleries are laughable, the companies that can order parts take weeks and weeks to get them in, and if you actually do manage to find or order what you need, it is outrageously expensive! Anyhow, little jobs turned into day long jobs, or 2 day, or sometimes 3 day jobs as we got into the week. On Wednesday, we had to start priotitizing what needed to be fixed and what 'had' to be fixed for the show. We carried on with projects through Friday, then started the cleaning process. Since the boat had never had full time crew onboard, there were lots of areas that not been properly maintained or detailed - the teak decks for one. After 5 or 6 loooonnnggg days in a row, we were pretty beat when Sunday night came around but the boat was finally looking good.

 

Monday morning brought rain. Rain is about the most annoying thing that can possibly happen at aboat show. Every time it showers, you have to go shammy (dry) off the deck and the fiberglass and the stainless - it is incredibly silly but the 'standards' of a boat show dictate that brokers will not step foot on a wet boat. Despite the on & off showers, we had a nice turnout of brokers in the morning with great feedback from all of them. Nathalie hosted a broker lunch, and of course wowed everyone with her cullinary prowess. In fact, for the next few days, we had brokers coming by the boat saying 'ohh, I heard the food was excellent on this boat - may I come aboard for a 'tour' ie: free samples?'. Tuesday and Wednesday were packed again with lots and lots of brokers coming on and off the boat all day. I felt like a walking Discovery advertisement, giving a similar 'pitch' over and over to about 60 different brokers throughout the week. Most of them are incredibly nice and laid back - happy to be at a boat show in the Caribbean instead of in the offices in New England - but there are always a few of them that feel the need to verbally critique a 67 foot, 2 crew sailboat as if it were a 300 foot, 25 crew mega yacht. Wednesday night Nathalie impressed again with about 6 different savory and sweet hors d'hourves during our marina's designated 'yacht hop' night. Brokers tended to stay put once they had sampled the frois gras & onion marmalade pastries, and had no choice but to stay put once they had sampled a few glasses of the 'Chilly Mint' (our new signature cocktail) - the last brave few stumbled off down the dock around 10:30. After another great lunch Thursday, and another busy day Friday, it was on to the 'micro charter' Saturday. This is an idea surely invented by the greediest of brokers - pitched as a 'marketing opportunity' to the yachts - but actually intended to provide the participating brokers with one final party at which to be waited on hand and foot before they have to fly back to whatever miserable place they will have to workin for the next 6 to 8 months. The basic idea is to invite as many brokers as possible, stay up all Friday night transforming the boat from a show boat back into a sailing boat, then take them out for a daysail on Saturday and feed them as much premium food and booze as possible. Fortunately, we had a cool crowd of guests. Unfortunately, we had horrendous weather. We had beautiful sunshine and light breeze behind us as we motored out of Falmouth Harbor, then got hit with a 'squall' that turned out to be an 8 hour storm carrying 35+knots of wind and icy sideways rain. We sailed for about 2 hours before everyone had had enough, then turned around and retreated to the dock again. Nathalie came through as usual and won the mood back with some amazing grub, and everyone was happy again. The day and the show came to a successful close around 4PM and we promptly passed out on the bed.

 

So now we are on a 2 week 'charter' with friends of the boss. The family of 4 arrived on Sunday around 4:30 PM, to the dock in Falmouth Marina. There are 2 parents, a 10 year old girl, and a 7 year old boy. Everyone is really nice and laidback, and a pleasure to be around. They have a yacht of their own and are used to sailing and being on a boat, which makes it easier on us. We spent 1 night at the dock, and then moved around to an anchorage called Carlisle Bay on the South End of Antigua for the second night. The bay was picture perfect - beautiful and calm and empty of other boats - the only problem was the ants. We sat out in the cockpit to eat dinner, and were completely swarmed by an army of flying ants - I'm still washing them off of the boat every morning. It was quite weird and I've never seen that before. The next day we set sail for Barbuda - about 30 miles North of Antigua. Barbuda is a small, flat, sandy island with miles and miles of un-inhabited, untouched beach. The navigation in tricky here as itis very shallow and full of reefs, but the rewards of perfect anchorages make it worth while. I took a trip into town to pick up some gas and groceries, and was pretty shocked at how desolate the place was. It is truly village rather thana town, and it seems time and technology have forgotten it. The only place I can compare it to is Vieques - or maybe Africa - I've never been but it looks like what I imagine a rural African village to look like. That being said, all of the locals were friendly, helpful, and as laid back as any other locals in the Caribbean - I even managed to score some just-cought lobster for $6 per pound - no I didnt forget any zeros there... As I write this, we are anchored off the Southern end of Barbuda in Gravenor Bay - justin the lee of Spanish Point. There is a bit of a weather system that started up this afternoon, bringing NE winds and swells. We plan to sail back to Antigua tomorrow and find some better shelter in the deep harbors behind big mountains. Stay tuned!

 

NATHALIE'S POST

 

Apres quelques semaines de silence radio, nous voici de retour sur les ondes ! Depuis notre arrivee a Antigua fin novembre, nous avons pris environ zero jours de repos. La premiere semaine a ete un marathon visant a preparer le bateau pour le show, et dieu sait qu'il y avait fort a faire, tout en essayant de localiser les meilleurs endroits pour s'approvisionner et acheter les derniers elements cruciaux avant l'arrivee des brokers a bord. Bill a passe la semaine a parcourir l'ile a la recherche d'introuvables pieces de rechange, qui coutent de toute facon un prix exorbitant lorsque l'on met finalement la main dessus. Antigua est un cauchemar administratif et douanier rendant toute importation quasi impossible, ou tout du moins extremement couteuse. Le carton d'uniformes livre depuis l'Angleterre en 4 jours pour la modique somme de 80 euros nous a coute 60 dollars et 6 jours pour le sortir des douanes locales. Trouver les produits adequats pour les repas que j'avais prevus pour le show s'est egalement transforme en parcours du combattant. Pour trouver un supermarche digne de ce nom, il faut traverser l'ile (30 minutes sur des routes dont je ne prefere pas vous decrire l'etat...), ou bien se rabattre sur une livraison lacunaire et toujours hypothetique. Exemples de conversation avec le-dit service de livraison: "- je voudrais du poisson frais - Ah ben le pecheur n'est pas venu, y'en a pas. - Vous en aurez quand ? - Ah ben on sait pas. Allez voir les pecheurs sur les quais ils auront peut-etre quelque chose..." Une autre : "- votre livraison de mercredi n'arrivera que jeudi matin, ca pose probleme ? - Tant qu'elle arrive avant 11h c'est bon, j'ai besoin des champignons pour le dejeuner" Le lendemain, a 11h30: " - Alors cette livraison ? - Pas de probleme, on part apres la pause dejeuner. -Bon bah laissez tomber les champignons, hein..." Bref vous l'aurez compris, ici rien n'est jamais simple !

 

Apres tout ce negatif, voici quand meme du positif : nos efforts ont ete payants puisque la semaine du show s'est extremement bien deroulee : nous avons accueilli pres de 60 brokers a bord, dont une quinzaine qui ont dejeune ou dine sur le bateau. Ils ont tous admire le bateau - qui etait plus propre et brillant que jamais - et ma cuisine a apparemment fait le tour de la marina. Apres notre premier dejeuner, certains brokers arrivaient a bord en demandant si il y avait des echantillons a deguster...!

Malgre toutes les complications locales, Antigua nous a quand meme offert beaucoup de bons moments : le vieux rasta qui propose aux touristes un "donkey taxi", soit litteralement un "taxi ane", la delicieuse cuisine franco-italienne a la mode caribeenne de "rumbaba", dont le chef (francais) m'a gentiment refile ses trucs pour l'approvisionnement et quelques recettes aussitot mises en pratique, le tout nouveau bar lounge de la marina qui se veut tres chic, avec carte des vins bien fournie et serveurs gantes, mais visiblement pas encore completement au point - en tongs et shorts sous le tablier, avec dreadlocks bien sur, et incapables de se servir d'un tire bouchon ! Et n'oublions pas le vendeur de palourdes - rasta egalement - qui se promene sur les quais tous les matins avec un sac plastique sur la tete en criant "palourdes fraiches !!".

 

Le samedi soir le show s'est termine, et dimanche apres-midi des amis du proprietaire sont arrives pour passer 2 semaines a bord. Une famille de 4 personnes - les parents, une petite fille de 10 ans et un garcon de 7 ans, fort heureusement pas trop compliques et avant tout contents d'etre sous le soleil des caraibes plutot que sous la pluie londonienne. Apres 2 jours a Antigua, nous avons mis le cap sur Barbuda, une ile tres faiblement peuplee et hors des sentiers battus a 2 heures au nord d'Antigua. La, nous avons decouvert les Caraibes des cartes postales. Eau bleue turquoise, ile presque plate - rien de plus haut que les palmiers - et kilometres de plages de sable blanc et rose, le tout bien sur encadre de recifs coraliens peuples de poissons multicolores, raies et tortues... Et le meilleur : pas un seul bateau en vue a notre arrivee. Hier matin, Bill a rendu visite a un pecheur sur sa barque et lui a demande si il pouvait lui acheter du homard. Le pecheur en avait une trentaine a bord, et n'etait visiblement pas habitue a vendre aux plaisanciers... Il lui a donc propose le prix exorbitant auquel il les vend aux restaurants, soit 6 dollars pour 1 livre. Bill, choque par un tel tarif, a negocie et nous a rapporte 4 magnifiques homards ayant finalement coute 5 dollars piece... Nous les avons manges hier soir a la lueur des bougies avec un risotto, avant de terminer par de petits fondants au chocolat et glace vanille...

Aujourd'hui nous avons finalement reussi a expedier nos hotes sur la plage pour prendre un peu de repos, ouf ! Encore 8 jours et nous les deposerons a Antigua, d'ou nous partirons immediatement pour St Thomas dans les iles vierges americaines. La, le proprietaire et sa famille prendront possession du bateau pour 10 jours, ce qui nous permettra d'aller passer le nouvel an a Charleston avec la famille de Bill et de nous reposer un peu !

 

Voila pour le moment, photos a suivre des que nous recuperons une connection Internet decente...