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We had a quiet day on the Friday with a last swim on the beautiful beach and shopping to restock the cupboards.  On Saturday 12th we left Jolly harbour after refuelling and motored around to English harbour to join some of the other rally boats for a barbecue on the beach.  We had just put our anchor down when we heard a distress call from one of the rally boats.  It was our friends Steve and Katrin in Island Kea II and they had been dismasted.  We didn’t have strong winds but they were drifting towards the land and the shrouds had gone round their prop and they were unable to motor.  Bill set out in Camomile with Mark from Blue Magic and Richard from BWR to offer assistance but when they got to their position a large fishing boat was there negotiating a salvage fee (whatever happened to helping each other out?)  The fishing boat was stronger for towing so after checking with his insurance co Steve accepted their terms.  Bill and Mark came back to the beach where we had saved them some food.  We spent the night at anchor in English harbour but the next day we motored round to Falmouth harbour where Island Kea II had been towed to see Steve and Katrin.  Island Kea II has been in the Caribbean for several years and Steve has just had her re-rigged. It’s since been established that they have a clear case for negligence against a local company (they forgot to replace the split pins!) but they would prefer that everything is done so they can continue with us on the rally instead of a long drawn our legal case so I won’t say any more.  Fingers crossed for them.  

Monday 14th we motored back round the west coast, past Jolly Harbour and on to St John’s the capital of Antigua.  We went right up to the waterfront and anchored. We were lucky there weren’t any cruise liners docked but that meant a lot of the shops were shut. We wandered around the streets and found the National Museum housed in a large room of a Neoclassical 1747 courthouse.  The exhibits showed the islands’ early geological history and moved onto extensive coverage of its first Amerindian inhabitants.  It touched on Columbus, the European invasion and sugar production. It was all very interesting.  We continued down towards the older part of town where we had been told there was a good covered market.  The further we walked the tattier the town became and we quickly realised we were the only white people there but we didn’t feel threatened, everyone was very friendly.  It was fun walking around and bartering for our purchases.  We went back to the boat and anchored further out for the night so we were ready for our sail the next day.  

We got up and left at 8.30.  We always travel with our VHF radio on CH72 because all the other BWR boats do the same.  We heard Lucy Alice and Jackamy talking to each other in the next bay sailing to Parham between the reefs.  Then disaster struck, Jackamy hit a reef.  That usually means certain death for a boat but luckily Miss Tippy, the big Oyster, was in the next bay down and heard their call for help.  They motored to their aid within an hour and, even though they were dangerously near the reef themselves, they managed to pull Jackamy free on the second attempt.  We were listening to the rescue on the VHF on our way to Barbuda; it beats the radio any day.  We have since heard of a BWR boat that has sunk (not anyone we know) so as that makes 3 disasters hopefully there won’t be any more.  We continued on our sail to Barbuda, which turned into quite a beat with the wind in the NE.  Barbuda is directly north of Antigua and they are joined together politically although no longer physically.  The sea between them is only 30m deep.  At 8 miles by 5 the island is little more than a large sand dune with only one main town, Codrington, in the centre.  We anchored off the SW corner called Coco point.  We had the anchorage to ourselves. Pete and John on Fai Tira joined us that evening from the other anchorage having been to the Frigate bird sanctuary. The next day we took the dinghy to the beach, it was glorious just how you imagine a Caribbean beach to be.  There was one resort open waiting for the Christmas trade but another one along the beach had long since closed down.  We walked along the beach alone with only our footprints in the sand.  We swam out to the reef near the beach that had some magnificent coloured fish darting in between the coral garden.  We spent several hours snorkelling it was wonderful. Having spent 2 nights at Coco point we motored around to Low bay where we hoped to get across the lagoon to Codrington.  We managed to land the dinghy, which wasn’t easy in the swell, then we dragged it across the strip of palm beach to the lagoon on the other side of the beach, then we motored across the lagoon to town.  Codrington was a small fishing village where everyone knows each other but it was very friendly.  There was a church, a bank, a school, a doctors, village hall, a few restaurants and several supermarkets scattered across the village plus more besides.  I gave the local children in the photo a dollar each to watch the dinghy but it was quite safe.  We spent several hours walking around admiring the colourful clapperboard houses although there were quite a few in between that were in disrepair.  

The main reason for going to Codrington was to go and see the Frigate bird sanctuary with one of the local boats.  We spoke to ‘King Goldilocks’ who agreed to take us up there for US$50.  Although this was a lot of money the local government sets the price.  We got into his boat and then we were whisked away at tremendous speed.  The sanctuary is at the top end of the lagoon that is an expansive area of green brackish water fringed by mangroves.  It’s the largest group of Frigate birds in the Caribbean and there are reportedly about 1900 pairs.  The sight as you approach them is quite spectacular.  The display gets even more dramatic because as it was mating season thousands of the males put on a show by puffing up their bright red throat pouches as they soared through the air above the females, who watched admiringly from the bushes.  Goldilocks tied his boat to the buoy marking the outer edge and we sat for about half an hour as the birds flew all around us.  Apparently they can’t land on the water because they can’t fly off again.

Friday 18th was a very sad day for me - the last Terry Wogan show and, despite being anchored in the middle of no where, we managed to pick up a wifi signal from the resort we were anchored off.  I listened to Terry’s last show with a lump in my throat as I expect many of you all did.  We motored back round to Coco point in the afternoon because there was a lot of swell in the second anchorage we had chosen.  When we got there we found Miss Tippy had arrived with 2 catamarans that their friends had chartered.  We all enjoyed more snorkelling followed by drinks on board Miss Tippy.