Christmas Greetings from Antigua! May your New Year and 2007 be happy and successful!

We haven’t written lately because now that we have stopped travelling for a while, there isn’t quite so much to tell you, or to show you. The building of the two houses is coming along well, however, and we hope to have the first floor concrete poured by Christmas, in fact the Contractors bonus depends on it!!

The bureaucracy of Antigua has meant that the legal issues are not fully finalised but are ‘coming soon’. You may recognise the ‘coming soon’ as an Antiguan statement of fact. In many countries ‘manyana’ is prevalent but in Antigua it is ‘coming soon’! It means much the same thing, which only goes to show that Antigua is not so very different from other places we have been to in our travels so far. We think, however, that we have found an unusual phenomenon for the world, a building contractor who has reliable, trustworthy employees, mostly keeps the client advised of what he is up to, and is cheerful and smiling almost all of the time, even when pouring concrete at 8.30pm when it has been dark for three hours. The ability and cheerfulness of our men on site never ceases to amaze us. A rare find indeed and one, which we wish to keep a close eye on!

The weather they have had to work through, since they started at the beginning of October has consisted of rain, most days, perhaps for half an hour at the most, fierce sunshine, although that is less obvious at the moment, since we are near to mid winter, and the temperature has dropped to a fairly constant 28 degrees C. during the day, and a delightful cooling breeze of about fifteen to twenty knots. The breeze which comes almost entirely from the east was much in evidence yesterday, when we went for an invigorating sail in Atlantia, with our next door neighbours, Tom and Sylvia and their visitors from England, Roy and Marg.

After displacing a chickadee from its perch on our staysail sheet,

we beat up to Dickenson’s Bay, where Sandals ( a couple holidays group) are building a new six storey hotel, close to the beach. It looks a bit of a monstrosity at the moment and the structure is apparently suspect in one area, due to substandard concrete. They are having to rebuild that part, so it doesn’t look as if it will be ready for the world cup cricket in March next year. We think they could do with a good Civil or Structural Engineer on the job! Quality control in Antigua is a little sparse. It is different for our two storey houses, where there is a Resident Engineer, Resident Architect, Clerk of works, Night Watchman and Paymaster all rolled into one, but we are not sure of the professional abilities of those building a six storey hotel.

It has been a promise, set in concrete, that the roads will be upgraded before the world cup next year. The new cricket stadium, called the Sir Viv Richards Stadium, holding about 30 thousand spectators, is absolutely beautiful and will be finished in time for the cricket.

The new roads round about the stadium will be tarmac.

This will make a change from a considerable number of roads on the island which are dirt roads. It is unlikely that anyone will be allowed to use the new roads until the day of the match, lest they turn into a potholed quagmire, like the majority of the rest of the roads here.

We can only wait and pray that the government’s promise for the upgrade will be kept. We understand Cuban Engineers are on the job! The stadium is being funded and built by the Chinese. We are hoping the space between the rows of seats will be big enough for Will’s legs!! Perhaps the Chinese are learning to play cricket, but we think maybe the construction is most likely to be a trading item, with the Chinese hoping for more votes in the U.N. Assembly.

We have to keep up with how the West Indies are performing in the world at their cricket, since Joe, one of our site workmen, is fanatical about the sport. The only voices we have heard raised on the site, have been in lively discussion about cricket!

The ‘season’ has just started here. The holiday season that is. Outside the season most places are closed, especially around English Harbour and Nelson’s Dockyard. Now, however, the large charter yachts are at the docks waiting for their first charters. For a mere 350 thousand euros a day you can charter the ‘Maltese Falcon’, an ultra modern Perini Navi Ship, with three unstayed masts (which revolve), and fixed yard arms, presumably all made of titanium. Of course the cost excludes food, drink and a tip to the crew, which is usually 20% of the charter rate. (They have a website).

We have carried out two charters on Atlantia this season, through Horizon. Both were highly successful, despite a small mishap to the dolphin striker and bobstay on the last charter, when reverse gear didn’t engage as we were making sedately for our dock at the end of the day. Margaret leaped onto the dock smartly and tied the spring to the mooring post amidships of Atlantia. Regrettably, Atlantia didn’t recognise her rope too well, and continued onwards, all 24 tonnes of her, breaking Margaret’s beautifully tied warp in the process, with the engine revving and with the gear lever astern to no effect. The concrete sea wall at the inner end of our dock has not a sign of the bobstay and dolphin striker absorbing the energy!! All was mended within a few days, however, with the help of Carl in the boatyard, who straightened out a rather bent bobstay, and found a new gear lever with some splines!!

Antigua is fairly calm with its attitude to Christmas. It is fortunately still a religious festival here rather than an excuse for hype and excess. It may have something to do with the weather which is so benign at this time of year. (Hurricanes are usually June until October, if at all!) In Scotland it seems as though Father Christmas and his cheer is an absolute necessity! Here sleigh bells and holly are rather out of place. There were however carols around a real (and very expensive) Christmas tree at the centre of Jolly Harbour complex last night. This was followed by fireworks, which were splendid. They were perhaps the best fireworks we have seen since leaving Scotland, and they went on for a reasonably short time, which, considering the large amount of banging leaping down from the sky, was a relief. We thought Thor had stopped by with his hammer for a chat, or Zeus was having a go with his thunderbolts, or something else, as he was renowned for his paternity. Not even the weather, it rained before and after, dampened the spirits, and as you can see there were some beautiful effects.

Margaret has made a mosquito screen to cover in the cockpit, and when it rains, the picture is more sparkling and more spiritual than any modern art we saw in Washington and New York galleries. Natural phenomena are the best!

Towards evening last night, and just as we had an aperitif in hand, a flight of whistling ducks passed overhead. They really do whistle. They are also called the West Indian Tree Duck. Here is a picture of one.

Whilst you are in the depths of winter, we thought you might like to know that we start our day at eight o’clock every morning with a swim, followed by a cappuccino at Castaways Beach Bar. This is followed by a short stroll back to the boat for breakfast and a chat to our wonderful workmen on site. One morning at coffee, we were delighted to watch the antics of a young osprey, who took two or three attempts to land on the rather stringy fir tree above our table. He stared glumly at the harbour mullet in the canal adjacent to us, but never caught one whilst we were watching.

We certainly have no wish to make you jealous, but would be very pleased if you wished to come and stay with us to share our experiences! Send us an e-mail or give us a call.

Margaret took the snaps this time, we hope you like them . Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Love from Atlantia