Leewards 2

Here we are, safely anchored in English Harbour, Antigua. Did we mention that it took 16 days and 17 hours to cross the Atlantic? We are just reminding our audience that Amante is no race boat and when we reached Antigua it was "Race week". This is where the 'real ' yachts were to be found. We were proud of the old'tub' and her speed. Mostly we were glad to stop moving and rest.

This is a somewhat funky statue of Sir Vere Bird, the founder of modern Antigua. He started out in the labor movement and rose to power from there. Like many of his kind he founded a corrupt dynasty that wields power to this day.

We didn't take too many pictures of Antigua as it was not especially interesting.

After resting and catching up on some excellent snoozing time, we headed north to Barbuda. This is more our style.

Isolation and crystal water with sugary white beaches.

The boat on the right is Ganesha, which we saw in Grand Canaria on the other side of the Atlantic. It turns out that all the fancy boats that infest the Med during the summer "winter" in the Caribbean; and we thought they were just following us. You can get a measure of its 128' size by looking at the figure at the bow, which is a crewperson. We forget the name of the little pissant 70' alongside. Ganesha's for sale, but they're too snotty to tell us how much.

We started cataloging some of these superyachts after spending a few days being pounded in Five Island Harbour alongside a motorboat named Siren, which is currently offered for sale at only €63,450,000 ($80 mil). Strangely, they never invited us over for cocktails. Probably the weather.

This is the 114' catamaran Che, which you can rent for only € 59,250 ($74k) per week. But what a week! Please note that "expenses", e.g. fuel, food, etc, are extra.

Abandoned resort. Bed and breakfast anyone?

It's sad to see what should have been an awesome place reduced to ruins. The setting is stunning, but something didn't work out.

After a week lolling about secluded waters we headed for Guadalupe. Here we completed our celestial world cruise .We had especially rough seas and winds coming down to Deshais. The anchorage was chock a block. (Australian for :packed).

When we crossing the Atlantic we expected to be greeted in the traditional Caribbean style, i.e. "You're too close!! Anchor somewhere else!! We swing a lot!!". Here we received the obnoxious Brit version, "Get you boat away from me!!".

Here are some very testy Frenchies . Usually the French are more laid back. See the guy on the bow of the boat in foreground? Hands on hips are always a bad sign in the happy world of boating. The boat in front was way too close and dragging anchor. Words flew and tempers escalated. But, being French, nobody moved...

The admiral found an old steamroller turned into a planter.

Next we sail again past the active volcano that is Montserrat. The clouds over the summit are generated by the volcano.

This is what's left of the abandoned capital of Portsmouth, buried in 1995. The haze you see is sulphurous and toxic. The Capt wanted to get closer but the winds were not cooperating ( neither was the admiral... ).

One island we did not visit last time was Nevis. We were intrigued after learning it was the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. It is also historic as the place where the Jamestown settlers landed before sailing on to Virginia.

This is Charles Town, the capital city.

This is what's left of Alexander Hamilton's birthplace. The stone structure was the carriage house. The main house blew down in a hurricane long ago.

Get a good gander at this guy's horns. Unusual sculpture. We wanted to get a frontal shot but wasn't sure if he'd like us shooting his "dreads".

Is this waekool advertising or what?

We are always trying to find a good 'connection', Internet that is!

When we arrived we thought we could use the local Caribbean provider, Digicel, for all our Internet needs. Unfortunately, every island is usually a separate country, which means the cell service is different.

One nice place in Nevis was this botanical garden. The fountain in the foreground is made from old kettles used to boil sugar cane.

Flower lover that I am, I can never get enough of tropical splendor .

The day was sunny, and greenery abloom, like these orchids.

A red riot!

We never get tired of tropical sunsets...

We had planned to stop at Saba to do some great diving, but the mooring area was very rolly and we decided to give it a pass.

We moved on to St Martin, the French side of the island. This is Marigot Bay, with Simpson Bay in the background. We were disappointed and the weather sucked.

Moving on, we sailed once again past Sir Richard Branson's little estate of Necker Island in the British Virgins. The 100' catamaran is named Necker Belle.

This is typical day in the BVIs. Lotsa sailboats.

In this shot the Capt, seen in the red t-shirt, "schools" some jerks who stole a mooring from some teachers at a school for special-needs girls. He was not amused.

We re-visited the RMS Rhone, a mail ship that sank in a hurricane in 1867. It is one of the great wreck sites of the world.

This is the cute little 128' sailboat is Angel's Share, which you can rent for only $129K/wk, not counting an additional $32K/wk as APA (Advance Provisioning Allowance), which covers your fuel, food, booze (you'll need a lot at these rates). Oh, and you'll have to cover the VAT (taxes) as well, maybe another $25k/wk. Note the artsy bimini at the stern. This yacht is so minimal that it lacks lifelines, but then maybe you don't pay for any crew, aka Little People, who happen to fall overboard.

Last but not least, we have the stunning 172' Erica XII. It's powered by a 1400hp engine but there were no quotations as to charter rates or sales price. When J.P. Morgan famously said, "If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it." he was taking about boats. After this, we stopped taking pictures.

We left the spiffy world of megayachts for the good ole' USA, in this case the sleepy island of Culebra, just east of Puerto Rico. This is the Post Office. It was the first time we were in US waters since 2003.

Margaritas here are marinated in chilled iguana.

We had to revisit the island Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island), named for its silhouette. The winds were 25+ knots, great sailing but not fun otherwise.

The old Spanish lighthouse at Cabo Rojo on the SW corner of PR. We wanted to spend more time in PR but the season was getting late.

This is our last little boat, the 145' Idyllwild , seen here in Provo in the Turks & Caicos. We snuck across the Caicos Banks, i.e. we "forgot" to check in and barely managed the shallow 6' waters at the western end. We freaked out when a police boat zoomed by but it was the weekend, mon. Whew!