The Horde Descends

On Friday, February 19, we moved Django into a berth at Nelson's Dockyard, making for easy entry by persons not entirely at home on boats: Dan (my son), Genevieve (aka GG, his lady) and Maia (their friend). This would be our first experience of having five aboard, with Maia crowbarred into the berth that usually serves as my pantry. She was extremely congenial about it, permitting me to crawl over her mattress to access important supplies like, say, tuna.

Dan and GG on Django's foredeck.

I am not going to go into gory details. You can get those from GG's blog:

genevievesadventure.blogspot.com

She swears the posts will go up as soon as Maia sends her the photos. I need to warn you...they took over 600 photos and shot 18 video clips.

I will restrict myself to a brief summary and just a very few of all those photos.

Day One: installed on Django, tot in the evening and dinner aboard (butter chicken)

Day Two: roaming and exploring, the ladies having a dip and a sun at Galleon Beach (one would not wish to swim off Nelson's Dockyard...ew). The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) held a party in the evening to launch the RORC Caribbean 600, a 600-mile race from Antigua as far north as St. Martin and south around Guadeloupe, over to Redonda and back to Antigua. Over the course of the evening, Dan looked increasingly unwell. From 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., he visited the loo about every 45 minutes. Poor guy.

The ladies' first Antigua swim at Galleon Beach.

Day Three: Dan in recovery, sipping flat soft drinks and overly sweet smoothies. In the early afternoon, we moved out into the harbour. Maia and GG immediately donned swimsuits and split their time between sunscreen applications, swimming and sunning.

Day Four: the start of the RORC race and a long, hot, sunburn-y hike up to Shirley Heights for lunch. A cooler hike down the Jones Valley Trail after lunch.

Maia and GG at the RORC Caribbean 600 start.

Maia, Dan adn GG on the hot, dusty trail to Shirley Heights.

Day Five: car rental and island tour. Devil's Bridge, Betty's Hope, St. John's, Jolly Harbour.

Day Six: someone's birthday. The boats in our part of the harbour started threatening to bonk into each other due to wacky airs. It was touch and go whether we'd make it ashore for the gala birthday dinner at Trappas. We managed it in the end. The birthday girl was a good sport about everything, including not being able to bring her hair into correct alignment for the event.

A boat too close...WW copes.

A newly minted 26-year-old appears to approve of Trappas fare.

Day Seven: a total day of lolling broken only by the arrival of the winner of a trans-Atlantic rowing race. He'd done it in under 60 days.

Day Eight: cruise to Green Island. Dinner of lamb biryani and curried eggplant. Not bad, if I say so myself.

Day Nine: back to English Harbour. Farewell dinner at Johnny Coconat's. Pizza was judged "as good as or better than Pizzaiolle's." High praise.

Day Ten: tearful farewells.