Sailing Regattas, water and farming

Sat 20th Nov 2010

Vince picked us up at 7.30 Saturday morning. We had been asked at short notice if we could crew on his 35 foot yacht in a two day regatta over in Jolly Harbour. We had jumped at the chance and were more or less ready though, after a big night with first Kate and Jed and then the Windrose crew the previous night, Andy was a little slow. We climbed into his truck - everyone drives them here as an ordinary car really wouldn’t survive long - and started the ¾ hr drive.

Falmouth Harbour is at the South end of Antigua. We were driving to the mid-west - just below St. Johns. About half way on our inland route we were waved down by three young girls standing by the side of the road next to an assorted pile of plastic containers “we will help the girls with their water“ Vince said as he slowed down. We all got out to help load the containers - old yogurt pots, water cooler bottles, bowls with and without lids - all full of water, into the back of the truck and helped the girls up too. They were happy with their lift and told us where to stop - outside a ramshackle, half built group of structures. Two young men appeared and half heartedly helped us unload.

Vince explained that there had been a water stand in the village of Old Road but recently it had been disconnected by the government run utility company in an attempt to force those not yet connected to mains water to pay to be connected. They would then have metered water. However many people here live on the breadline and cannot afford to pay the connection charge so are forced to collect water from a random unpoliced tap. It is the girls job and if necessary they would wait all day until someone picked them and their water up. They couldn’t have carried it home.

Vince is a very interesting man. He sailed here 12 years ago on his classic wooden yacht for a four day stay and ended up marrying a local lady and taking on her three children. His wife had been abandoned by the father of her children and he has quite an insight into Antiguan life. He was able to answer a lot of my questions including questions about water and farming.

The problem with Antigua, he told us, is that there is no water here except for rain. Apparently the sugar cane from Antigua was not even from here - it was just a staging post to get round some trade agreement. So very little does get grown here. Yes there is a fruit and veg market where everything is organic because that is how things are grown here. Sadly for us this is in St John and is quite a trek as we have decided not to have a car. Now that there is a desalination plant more could be grown but water is expensive.
On the fishing side, yes there is good fish here AT THE MOMENT but the Chinese have got in on the act and have put street lamps all over the island, including on the jungle road, in exchange for fishing rights. Antigua did not need the street lights - they have a shortage of electricity - so what is that all about?

The fourth member of our crew was Terry - a friend of Keith Richards (guitarist in the Rolling Stones). He looked a bit like him and even had a Rolling Stones tattoo! We made a great, though motley, team and in very windy conditions we performed really well. So well in fact that Seal, skippered by Vince, won her first ever regatta. Vince couldn’t stop smiling!

Tuesday 23rd Nov 2010
Well what with weevils in our cereal and burst water pipes life has been very interesting this morning and it isn’t even 9 o’clock yet!
The morning started as normal. We got up for our morning swim at 7 and saw that the guys clearing the undergrowth from the forest bordering the road near our house were already at work with the digger and strimmers. Apparently the idea is that clearing this will stop muggings and rapists as they will have nowhere to ambush you. Reluctantly we agree that this is a good enough motive though crime is not rife here. As we approached the house we saw a spray of water coming from the pipe as it enters our fence. Our first thought was “which side of the water meter is the leak?” quickly followed by “what a waste of water, we must stop it”. Andy wiggled the pipe and managed to stem the flow. One of the strimmers must have clipped the joint where the mains connects to our water meter.

It was too early to call anyone so we sat down for our fruit salad and muesli breakfast. I looked in my bowl as Andy emptied the remaining muesli into my bowl - it was alive! We picked out as many weevils as we could see, gritted our teeth and ate! As we finished our breakfast with extra protein one of the workmen yelled up at us (this is normal, no one comes up to our door without first attracting our attention and being invited) - the water leak was getting worse. Andy had a meeting so on his way out he tried to jiggle the pipe again but instead of stopping the flow he had a fountain and took the full blast of water on the face and down his front. I was frantically phoning around and was holding on for someone to answer my 211 emergency water line call. It took 15 minutes for them to take the call. “You have to stop the flow” I was told. “How?” “Tie something round it!” In the meantime Andy left still wet.

Luckily by now Jerry the gardener had arrived and he put a bucket on the pipe and sat on it! But this solution also had limited success and soon the water pressure got the better of him. At this point a police car drew up. I ran down to talk to him. “Find a rope”. Jerry found a rope. The rather beefy policeman grabbed the pipe, bent it double and tied the rope around it. Thus the water stopped and he hadn‘t even got damp! “I used to work for the water company”. Well, Jerry and I both learnt something today! Fortunately we have a fully functioning water cistern after Dave the plumber sorted it last week and plenty of rain water so we can wait for a repair. I wonder how long it will be before the water utility comes to fix our pipe. Dave reckons it will be weeks.

It is a wet day today and Jerry, who was soaked through by the water pipe leak already, came to shelter in the house and change into one of Andys T-shirts when the heavens opened. We started to discuss the economy and farming. He told me that in the 70’s and 80’s the hillsides around this house were covered in fields growing all sorts of crops. But then the farmers were told that the tourist industry was the future and people stopped working on the land and working in the hotels. “No one wants to put their hands in no dirt”. But with unemployment high and things so expensive “backyard farming as we call it here” is on the increase. “I used to stop for lunch, buy myself some bread and cheese but now you have to be clever about how you eat. I fill my belly with some porridge in the morning and make enough to go home for lunch. Bread used to cost maybe1.25EC now it cost me over 3EC. ”

He told me that there was a project of an acre or two where people were encouraged to grow their own. I am not sure if it still exists. He was lamenting the supermarkets “with everything wrapped in plastic, you could be in America now”. My soul mate!

It is race night tonight so I am watching the wind. At the moment there is over 20 knots - too much for me though my sailing buddies are telling me I have to race! We will see.