Our passage from Bermuda to Antigua was milder than our passage from Nova Scotia to Bermuda.  The first day was great sailing followed by a couple of days of variable winds making it hard to make good progress.  The weather front pushing out from continental US gave us a nice push day 4-5 – thank goodness we had made enough progress to stay out of the stormy weather in Bermuda.  The trade winds filled in steadily from the east driving us nicely almost to Antigua. The last day the wind shifted to the Southeast and we lost some of our East positioning and had to tack back to Barbuda to make the final south run to Antigua.

The crew was in much better spirits for this passage in the milder tropical conditions.  There was, of course, the daily belly aching about boredom and lots of “How much further dad?” and “Are we there yet?”  for the 7 day passage to get to paradise.

The crew was tested a few times as the boat had a few minor challenges along the way.  Day 3 our motor began to faulter and stunk of sulfur.  Seems the $2.50/litre fuel in Bermuda was not the highest quality.  I promply intoduced biocide into the fuel tank to kill the peskies. (Thank goodness we are a sail boat!) The next day our starter system died.  Dead starter battery and faulty ignition system (yes, luck always comes in 3s)  I used a few tricks my dad taught me on the farm and got it running again with a piece of spare wire to jump from the solar charged house batteries and a screw driver to the start solenoid. Very grateful for this knowledge Dad! Especially since we were 300nm from any repair facilities! We sailed the rest of the way and made it without further incident….. almost….  Our last final moment of excitement as we positioned Saphira Blue for anchoring amoung the 50 boats coming in from the Salty Dog rally, our engine dies.  Seems the expensive fuel plugged up our brand new fuel filter replaced in Halifax a week earlier.  Given the faulty ignition system requiring engine start to be done from the engine room with a screw driver, the excitement rose instantly! As we start to drift, the tired crew sprung to life in the last second scramble to get the anchor down before we started playing bumper boats.  The salty crew reacted instantly and contained the situation with minimal fuss.  A blissful long sleep in a quiet harbour followed immediately.

Clearing Customs the next morning felt kind of like a treasure hunt.  Lots of asking for directions and head scratching as I hunted down the little office in English Harbour.  I walked right by the unmarked office 3 times before finding it in what looked like a residential back yard.  The process was bureaucratic and time consuming as I went back and forth between the various windows in the same office – Customs, then over to Immigration, back to Customs then to Port Authority and finally Parks and Recreation. Lots of coffee drinking going on in that office of very pleasant and relaxed people.  Overall it was relatively painless albiet time consuming….. but what else was I going to do today besides fix broken boat parts and swim in the 28°C water!  It also gave Fanny the morning to clean up Katerina’s pet rats nest pictured above.

A trip into town for exploring the historic Nelsons Dock Yard.

And yes…… Antigua is exactly like the postcards.