It's a solidly grey and rainy day in Antigua, and we're mooching around the boat feeling a bit offended by the weather. We're completely adapted to the tedium of endless sunshine, and we can get completely disgruntled when it changes for longer than a quick shower. We cheer ourselves up with the thought that the water tanks are gurgling near-full again, but that gets boring after about a minute, and it's all like a rainy day at the cottage, without tv or a car.

Sounds awful, eh? Thanks for the outpouring of sympathy. Our week-long subscription to the local wifi is about to run out in 35 minutes, and we'd figured that we'd be trading our anchorage in Falmouth Harbour for Jolly Harbour or Five Islands today - maybe if it stops raining. It was too nice yesterday and we just couldn't muster the energy to move, so here we sit now in the rain.

The attitude reflects that limbo time between cruising and hauling. It's too early to start very much in the way of cleaning or sorting or chucking, and it's too late to think seriously about going anywhere very far. We may head up to Barbuda for a week if this murk clears off in the next couple of days. We've met more new friends in the last couple of weeks - Pat and Geoff on Beach House, Ray and Genna on Nighthawk - and we got together and hiked up to Shirley Heights for lunch, and I found a button that belonged to someone in the Oxfordshire 52 Regiment. Couldn't find out anything about the regiment, but I googled the mark on the back, and it dates from 1797-1799. Old.

We had a quick jaunt over to Montserrat to provide the money-saving exit and re-entry into Antigua. No fish caught either coming or going. Randy did see a big mahi leaping out of the water, alas, leaping in the wrong direction.

"Come back! Come back!" he shouted. It was pitiful.

Earlier, I'd come leaping out of my reclining position when I saw big fish next to the boat, but it was dolphins zooming along beside for a few brief seconds before they peeled off to do something else more fun.

We've spent a fair bit of time in the anchorage at Five Islands Bay, just north of Jolly Harbour. Snugged in fairly close to a lovely little resort, which we think is called the Hermitage, we can get wifi, there's no roll (even if it's rolling in Jolly Harbour) and there's four or five beaches linked by paths. Mostly deserted, we've had clothing optional strolls and swims and I found a nice king helmet shell partly buried in the sand. During one of my snorkels, I plonked myself down in about three feet of water and floated off the bottom. About 10 feet away, completely still on the bottom was a Southern ray, about five feet across. I had a really good look at it, then backed up and got out of the water. Who wants to find out if he's grumpy when awakened abruptly.

That's the news. Hauling on June 17th. See below for photos. More to follow.

Ray and Genna (and Geoff)

Pat and Geoff

Photo by Geoff (as we stomped by)

May 17th - we haul one month from today. Already, my brain is fully occupied with other areas of the North American hemisphere. My body is still rowing and picking up shells, but my brain is trying to help plan a wedding party (Anna and Andy - we had a chat this morning about chafing dishes) and following Tom on his motorcycle trip across Canada.

Had an email from him yesterday from Quebec City. Few details, other than saying the safety level was about the same as our passages from Bar Harbour to Cuttyhunk (here's me, trying to remember that bit of the trip), and he closed by admonishing me to "be safe, wear a life jacket,wear sunscreen, keep the two way radio with you, and the flare gun, don't talk to strangers, shower and brush your teeth." Smartypants.

Friends from Halifax, Kim Shaw and Jim Riley, left yesterday after a great visit. The weather was a bit wet, but there were enough sunny days to ensure that they went home with good Caribbean tans (Kim is darker than me, how does that work?!), lots of shells and lots of photos of snorkelling on the wreck in Deep Bay, hiking in English Harbour, and the view from Shirley Heights. Great meals, lots of wallowing about the in the hot tub at their villa, and lots of wine.

Their flight was unceremoniously shifted from Sunday to Saturday, so we took advantage of their villa Saturday night. Nice bed that didn't move, no mosquitoes, and flush toilet on demand. Showers every hour. Ice cubes in everything and microwave popcorn (I crave it from time to time, but you know, it's not that great once you get your face in it. Too many chemicals?) We watched large hunks of movies on the TV - North by Northwest with Cary Grant, Superbad, Get Smart, and Harry Potter. I feel as though I've had a huge dose of popular culture, such as it is, and I'm good for another six months without it.

In the meantime, we've got a month left and we'll likely spend it talking to strangers, not showering particularly often and neglecting to wear sunscreen.

See below for photos.

Now there's a barbeque..

Alice Teehan's "Piedmont Peppers"

Eric Clapton's house

Cactus spines. No touching

Jim and Kim

Best shell beach ever

How did she get so brown in five days?

Shirley Heights, sans mobs of tourists. Just us.

Bits of pipes and pottery found on the fort site

more cactus, blooming

Sharing the road.

Here's a ton of pics, in no order whatsoever. Click on photos for larger version. Above, Alice, with Brian and Andy aboard. Nice guys.

Lazy Leg and Astor. Astor got a lot of prizes - very fast, very beautiful Fife schooner

Carriacou boats: chunky, cheerful, traditional work boats that sail very well

Zeevonk dismasted before a race. Nasty collision

Relaxing in the dockyard with our peeps

Eleonora, and the little black boat on the right is us.

Galatea, zooming by. We coulda passed them a beer

Getting ready for the gig races. I didn't come in last, nor did Randy, but Tara saved the day with a second place in the Ladies Rowing. Talk about collisions....

Randy, showing good form

Tara and Stewart, Falmouth Harbour

Home Sweet Home. Doesn't look exactly like this today.

Kate and Charm III - possibly taken just before they collided.

Mistral

Look who won 2nd prize (better than 3nd)

Crew in Panerai shirts (they just kept bringing stuff to the boat - hats too)

Looking relaxed, right?

Randy and George, from Newfoundland, another NBF

The reviewing stand for the Parade of Sail in English Harbour - the girls in the dinghy were throwing buckets of water on everyone as they sailed by.

Yes, this is what's under our kilts.

Official salute

Race three

Concourse d'Elegance prize giving

Springtide, smallest in the fleet at 24 '

Champagne, again

Ruffian

Stopping traffic on the way to the gig races

Sue and Stewie at the Pimms party

Stormvogel and some other schmuck getting yelled at. God, these were tense times....

Crazy crossing tacks. I hated this bit.

Tara, on the other hand, loved it all

R&R

Getting ready

Race day with Bill and Leona on board

Ted Martin photo. Nice butt, Capt.

Velsheda's gear

Veracity crew - they won a bunch of prizes and had a great time

Tara, doing her thing.

Big sleep last night, broken only by shouts from an American boat nearby as the crew headed ashore at midnight: "You hold the fort Trent!"

Also a nap this afternoon, a shower, a couple hundred pages of a new novel, and I'm feeling a new woman. Classics Week was fabulous. Tara and Stewart are more fun than kittens, birthday parties and Christmas, and they can tack headsails like hopped-up grizzly bears with opposable thumbs. Power, style, speed, wowser. Tara occasionally dabbed her upper lip discreetly with a sleeve. Thank goodness for those long windward tacks, or they might have been too tired to party.

But man, those windward courses killed us in the races. Four races, millions of miles of close-hauled tacking. On the few reaches, we were out in front, giving all the boats in our class a run for it. We even got some really good pictures of the front of the boats that were behind us for a change, but then we'd round the mark and head up for the windward leg of the course, and it was, so long fellas. No matter, we were stylish and had a great time.

We went to parties every day, sometimes two. And they weren't of the beer tent variety: there was the welcome party; a party for the single-handers; a wine tasting; a Pimm's party on the lawn, complete with cream tea and cucumber sandwiches; a 110th birthday party for one of the local boats; a musical night; a champagne party; a lobster and rum punch party sponsored by Portland Yacht Services from Maine; the gig racing and cream tea, and the final prize-giving night at Nelson's Dockyard. All in five days. You can gauge the depth of our fatigue when you factor in four races averaging about 4-5 hours each. But what a great time. Everybody talks to everybody, and if you're wearing a Nova Scotia tartan kilt, you really get to meet a lot of people. Funny, they all want to know what you've got underneath. We alternated our answers, and we only flashed a couple of times. Once, memorably, on our second pass of the reviewing stand during the Parade of Sail. We had the cockpit speakers playing our CD of the Shantymen from Yarmouth, and when someone shouted "what's under yer kilts???", we went for it. Tara and I had proper lady underpants on, but the fellas were wearing our flowered bikini pants.

We went into the photographer's place this afternoon to look at some of the professional shots of Nancy D, and when we said which boat we were from, he cracked up and said, "Want to see my screensaver?" The underpants shot.

The kilts were a big hit. When the kilts went on and the Nova Scotia flag went up the main on the pigstick, the Bluenosers started coming out of the woodwork. Young guys that were working as crew, tourists, cruisers, a few Newfs, lots of other Canadians, we talked to dozens and dozens of people strolling the docks.

The day after Tara and Stewart arrived was the Concourse d'Elegance, the beauty contest. Kim Saunders told us to clean the boat like "your first mother-in-law was coming." Nancy was looking snazzy as hell, and that morning, everybody polished and tidied and dressed up in our kilts. There were judges going by on the docks making notes, and then one came aboard and had a look around in the late morning. I checked with the yacht club, and they said, you're clear, go ahead and let the crew mess things up. So we had lunch, drank a bottle of champagne (just for kicks), read our new magazines, didn't do the dishes, and got ready to go to the beach. Then Stewart sticks his head down the companionway to tell Tara and I that the judges were back. I said, Stewart, you bastard, but he said, no, really. Tara and I went into overdrive, and tidied everything up again, and two guys went through again, and another judge chatted with Randy on deck about all the people and boats they both knew.

Then we went to the beach. That night we picked up second prize in the Concourse d'Elegance, and it's not just for our racing class, but for all boats built after 1950. Gotta check how many that was, but third prize was Metani, and first was Stormvogel. Are we chuffed?!!

The races were exciting. There were bits where there were boats, huge boats, medium boats, small boats, all zooming around in close quarters, and there were some great photos taken. Guest crew Bill and Leona (race 2) and Dave and Michelle (race 4) took some great pictures. Before the start for race 4, there was a horrific collision that resulted in a small Dutch boat being dismasted. We were close by, heard the shout, and Dave started shooting pictures immediately. We handed off a CD of the photos to the captain yesterday, and Dave's quick shots will make a big difference in resolving the insurance issues. It was an upsetting way to start a race, and there were two other collisions later in the day: Kate and Charm III, and two of the big J boats - Ranger and Velsheda "touched" and both retired from the race shortly after.

We managed to stay out of the really close calls, but we were more than close enough for my personal space issues. Randy kept us out of trouble, and every day, backed us into the dock at the Antigua Yacht Club with skill and aplomb. Never failed to impress the onlookers. Particularly the owners of the incredibly expensive boats on either side of us.

Prize-giving night, we went out for dinner at the Gallery, ate fabulous tapas, and sauntered over to English Harbour. Best dressed went to the crowd of pirates on the purple Cornwall (Cornish?) Lugger, Veracity, and they also got the Spirit of the Regatta. Lots of other prizes, but we went home satisfied with our beauty contest win. You just can't race with the big boys and expect to win when you're racing your house. Beautiful house though!

Tara and Stewart are home in one piece, we've had a couple of nights of 10 hours straight in the bunk, and things are back to semi-normal. It was an absolutely great regatta - well organized, incredible free stuff (tshirts, hats, rum, magazines, croissants/juice/newspapers delivered to the boat every morning!), and snazzy parties with hundreds of friendly people. Having Stewart and Tara here was the icing on the cake, and they're responsible for the kilts and crew shirts and so much more. They really made the whole experience, um, FUN. And now that we've done it, we never have to race again.

I'll post a million more photos as soon as I can.

Ready for Saturday's race

Chasing Andy on Alice of Penryn

Big boys

Bill and Stewart (Bill and Leona from Voyageur C joined us for this race)

Kate coming by inside at the mark

Pasha

And after an excellent day on the water, Pimms Party on the lawn at the yacht club

A quick review of the last couple of days. Here's the lads getting togged up.

Preparing for the Concourse d'E'legance

Tidy boat!

More tidy boat

Champagne post-judging

Getting ready for race 1

Mistral, with Chloe from Lunenburg aboard!

Terrifically intense racing team....

June, thundering by. They all thundered by...

Kate, also going by.

Happy Capt. Great race, great day on the water, and we only came in last by about 20-odd minutes.

And so it begins.

Yesterday was the judging for the Concourse d'Elegance, and last night we came home with 2nd prize in our class!

More news and lots more photos later. The first race starts at 10 this morning.