Antiguan Christmas and New Year

Christmas has been awesome. We had the whole family for two complete weeks and had such a brilliant time together. We ate, talked, sailed, laughed, learnt to dive, swam, snorkelled, explored and partied. Christmas day was a truly Antiguan experience apart from the visit by Father Christmas! At mid-day we were drinking Bucks Fizz in Nelsons Dockyard along with a large number of locals, dancing to a popular local band. In the afternoon we cooked bar-b-qed fish and steak and after Charades we partied in a local outdoor night club.

Piers and I spent three wonderful days learning to dive in warm water surrounded by a forest of soft corals and shoals of fish - including the beautiful Old Wife we had eaten on Christmas day, large lobsters we intended to eat but couldn’t because the fishermen decided to party instead of fulfil a large order and large Rays. We both felt comfortable 40 feet under and I will be diving again as soon as possible.

On New Years Eve we took the groovy guys to the airport and then got ourselves ready to party. We had an early dinner at Trappers before arriving at Nelsons Dockyard at 9pm - one of the first. By midnight the place was packed and I had been dancing none stop for at least two hours. I do attract quite a bit of attention and have a constant stream of men coming to dance with me. I am loving it but every now and then Andy gets cross with one of them and tells them to “F… off”. Their reaction is always to high five him, followed by knocking fists together followed by hand to heart all with a smile - I am your friend and I know she is your wife, don’t worry but please let me dance with her!! I have quite a long list of dance partners!

At 2am the band finally stopped and we filed out towards Abras - the most popular club where you can dance on the wooden veranda to European music or on sand to reggae. We carried on dancing until 3am when Andy insisted I should sit with him on a sofa overlooking the dance floor. The next thing we both knew was being woken up by a cleaner - the club was empty and it was 5 in the morning! We walked home and slept much of New Years day.

We have been here for 7 weeks and feel very much at home. Everyone is really friendly, we have had no trouble from anyone - in fact very much the opposite (the only exception was the agro on the beach I described before. I can report that the nasty man involved drowned while diving just before Christmas. No one is mourning his death). .The local people are open, accepting and helpful. The incomers are just the same. People make friends very quickly here, there are few cliques, probably because of the transient nature of many people living here.

Since being here I have leant to dive, been on several walks and spent hours watching the birds feed on our veranda. The wildlife is abundant but I have no way of identifying much of it. Antigua is such a beautiful island and I am really enjoying being here.

I sail lasers on a regular basis - the oldest competitor and the only female but the guys are very kind to me! Last night I was out in 25 knots of wind and only capsized twice between races!! It was a very exciting sail. I swim twice a day most days so I am keeping very fit.

Andy is in great demand and so I have decided to be a kept woman but I am helping the Antiguan National Sailing Academy to raise much needed funds - they teach the local kids FREE OF CHARGE to swim and then sail. It is now part of their school day and the academy is teaching 160 children a week. Last year they raised enough funds to buy 12 Oppies and start paying sailing instructors for the lessons and this year their aim is to buy 10 Picos and continue to pay the instructors. The instructors are also home grown so the academy is already helping to pay some salaries. All the other staff are volunteers. It costs $12.50 US per month to teach one child to sail. Any sponsorship gratefully received! Sometimes when surrounded by all the wealth here it is hard to remember that this is a third world country.

I am also involved with a new pressure group just started by the YC to clean up the water in Falmouth Bay. Antiguan Sailors against Sewage! This started because some parents said they wouldn't let their children learn to sail because of the state of the bay. This sort of campaign is right up my street.