LETTER FROM ATLANTIA. May 2008

Please remind us next time you see us, that Dragon racing is for the under forties! Having ceased racing in “2002”, after 40 years of international regattas, we were inveigled into taking it up again for Antigua Sailing Week.!! As our friend Paul Jackson, who gamely crewed for us said, “Don’t buy a gym, buy a Dragon!”. Harmony Hall Yacht Club and Carlo Falcone kindly lent us a Dragon (Pigeon, No. 5) to sail last week.

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There were 5 races of about 25 miles each, in some of the shiftiest winds we have seen for years. We had good racing with some of the Caribbean’s top sailors, but were no match for Olga in Murka or Alexei in Half Moon., both from Russia, or for Poul Hoj-Jensen ( a double Olympic gold medallist ) and there was no doubt about the top three. We did come fourth however, which was indeed a small miracle, considering the total age of the three of us in the boat was over 175!! They are beautiful boats and we would encourage all Dragon sailors to come over next year for Antigua Sailing Week. There is no need to bring your own boat, you can charter one from Carlo Falcone at Antigua Yacht Club Marina. All the boats are equal and beautifully maintained.

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There was a slight problem in that Will was also on the International Jury. There were some hard decisions to be made which were not altogether to the liking of some of the competitors, but with reputations, sponsorship and livelihoods at stake, today’s yachting seems to sometimes step outside the gentlemanly sport it once was. However this last statement may be doubtful if you look back to some of the disputes in the Americas Cup in the early 20th Century!!! However rules are rules, and the International Jury applied them as they had been intended, encouraging boats to keep away from forthcoming incidents, if they are on the wrong side of a rule. The Arbiter was Tuna from the USA, still very active and able at a very respectable age, and the chairman was Pat Bailey from the US Virgin Islands, a very capable man.

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Will was also on the Protest Committee for The Classic Regatta, two weeks earlier, and fortunately there were very few protests during that week. Although there were only 60 boats for that very graceful parade of sail, compared with the hectic 194 in Race Week, the feeling was of bygone elegance and beauty as you will see from some of the pictures.

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The Irish were sailing Dragons at the Classic, and Mick Cotter from Dublin came a respectable third. We have sailed Dragons against Mick for perhaps 25 years and have had some great times in his company. ( Guinness usually figured!!)

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Needless to say, with all this sailing going on now, we completed the houses sometime in March. We have lived in both of them to test them out, and are fortunate thanks to John and Sue, to have found some excellent tenants for one of them, and who thoroughly enjoy staying there. Vic and Lizzie are Architects working on a project for a boutique hotel at the north end of the island. They have two wonderful Basset Hounds called Lettuce and Lester, just like Fred!! We are very pleased that they are going to enjoy the house. From Architects the compliments about the houses are more than welcome! The other house has yet to find either a buyer or a tenant, and seems to be affected by the credit crunch presently. Anybody want a three bedroom dream house of three bedrooms, all ensuite, with its own palm tree, ideally situated on a Caribbean island in the sun?? we are told that patience is a virtue but practically it will probably mean that we will return to Antigua after the Rum Distillery Cruise at the end of May, rather than immediately going on to South America.

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The Rum Distillery Cruise has its inaugural voyage next week and is modelled on the Classic Malts Cruise of the West Coast of Scotland run by the CCC. It is beginning in a very small way with only 4 yachts, including Atlantia, and will be visiting Guadeloupe, Pigeon Island ( with the Cousteau National Underwater Park), The Iles des Saints, where Admiral Rodney thrashed the French during one of the wars of the eighteenth century.Then Dominica, where a friend of ours has a whale watching business, and then Martinique where Josephine ( of “not tonight Josephine“ fame ) was born. It is still a French island and thus we will make quick time back to the EEC!! St. Lucia is the final distillery visit, where we hope to sample some 50 year old rum. We are told that it tastes very similar to a fine old cognac. We will tell you the results of our tastings on our return, if we can still remember the samples. Perhaps a pen and paper would be handy. There are T shirts to commemorate the event. They say “ Rum is the Answer” on the front. On the back they say “What was the Question?”

We were in Scotland very briefly in April to help Margaret’s Mother recover from an illness, mostly caused by the hospital she was in. We are glad to say that Margaret’s Mother and Father are both well now, even to the extent that Margaret’s Father is again off to conferences.

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Due to the briefness of our visit, and the necessity to be in one place, with only a short business foray to Edinburgh, we were unable to see many people. SORRY.! We hope to see you next time we are back, if we can, probably when it is not snowing!

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Many thanks though to John and Barbara, Tony and Vicky, Margaret,Wallace and Alison and of course Stephen and Susan, for their hospitality. We enjoyed the ride in Stephen’s car!

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Happy Birthday again to all those at WRD Glasgow office, who seem to have birthdays en masse!! Many thanks also to our business advisors who we were pleased to make contact with and who help so much.

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Our children ( mid twenties!!) Stephen and Susan came out to see us at Christmas and had a great time. The water has been a bit cold this year but they seemed to enjoy the water skiing and the swimming.

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We also went gliding through the rainforest suspended on wire ropes. It seems to be all the rage in Antigua and all the young people from the cruise ships find their way there. It is a well organised business and is very efficiently run with much safety consciousness. Even Will felt safe in his harness as the wire sagged rather more for him than for others! Margaret didn’t like the rope bridges much, since it was a little too far to stretch for the hemp hand ropes to stop you slipping off the wire foot ropes, and thus plunging to the stones in the gorge below. She managed it though! We all enjoyed ourselves and Will particularly enjoyed sitting down with a beer afterwards and watching the “would be” apes flying through the trees after us.

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The time has flown incredibly fast since we first arrived in Antigua over three years ago, before our trip north to the USA. We are certainly pleased to have made it here under our own steam ( or should that be sail!!) and are delighted to have created two houses (with a lot of help from everybody!!). We are at the stage of a developers dream, or nightmare, where the financial world is collapsing, in parts, and yet somewhere in the world someone would give their eye teeth to live in our last house. Antigua has changed for the better since we arrived. Not because of us (!) but because there is less obvious corruption and drug trafficking, and despite a rising crime rate, the country is more prosperous with a more sophisticated feel to it than previously. It seems that the present ruling politicians are more interested in helping the general populace than themselves , which is a good thing. This seems to be at huge variance with the late British prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, who now thinks he is a peace envoy and is running to be President of Europe!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are very pleased we don’t live in the cloud cuckoo land Tony has created at the moment. The fag end of a Labour government seems even worse than the fag end of a Conservative one! We are very well up to date with the news here, listening to the BBC (English Broadcasting Company!) World Service as well as reading the news on the net. It always seems to be depressing though! Do journalists and news casters go around permanently with long faces? Or is there something to smile at ? perhaps Boris becoming mayor of London is something to smile for, if not at!!!

We are sitting on the boat again outside the houses and watching the humming birds seek nectar from the bougainvillea. The pelicans and laughing gulls are diving into the water to feed on the fish and the magnificent frigate birds and ospreys are wheeling above our heads in the blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds.

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Why then are we leaving to continue on our travels?? In June, or before, we will once again be sailing west. Our first stop will be the ABC islands (Aruba Curacao and Bonaire). There we will appraise how much of South America we will see ( with our book, Spanish for Dummies), and by which mode of transport. The trains are exciting and no doubt a boat trip on lake Titicaca would be interesting. We have a sailing pilot for the coast of Chile and are told that Easter and Pitcairn Islands are not to be missed. Yet again we thought of going to Alaska!! There is a six week waiting time for a yacht to transit the Panama canal at the moment due to restrictions by the new authorities there. it will give us plenty of time to make up our minds and make the boat shipshape for her next long voyage, wherever that will prove to be!

Hope you like the pics

Love from Atlantia

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