Anti-ga-ga

Location: Picadilly, Antigua

Well folks, my time on Heaven's Door is over for now. Jem has invited me to visit him when he visits French Polynesia, but that's still in awhile. In the meantime, I have months' worth of memories of sailing, being, at anchor, and watching sunsets at sea.

Jem has moved back into the boat! We moved everything over the course of two days. Unfortunately the rainy season had started, and those two days happened to be the most humid and disgusting ones of the week. I dearly missed the apartment's AC, but it was nice seeing the boat getting cleaned up and everything put in its proper place again, the exception being the ceiling boards, which are now in the hallway of the starboard hull. Anna and I left a few traces of our passing on the boat. We both filled in entries in Jem's crew book, in which every crew member writes at the end of their stay. Anna also left some notes on sail theory that she had tacked up, and I left a watergun that I had brought for future grackles.

Saturday night we had a proper crew dinner at Lagoonies and reminisced about our time together. Sunday I had my last yoga session on St. Maarten, Anna, Jem, and I went to a last lunch with friends, said bye to Karl and Kara, and, similarly to whenever we arrive in port after a long time at sea, we ordered pizza and ate it on the boat. Anna had gone for dinner with Jean, and so it was just Jem and I eating on the table in the cockpit with music in the background, exactly the same way that we started back in October, in a marina in Grenada. In fact, our second meal together had been pizza. (The first was wings for him and a burger for me, but that's boring and not relevant.) 6000 km later, in another marina, looking at water from the same sea, we would be saying goodbye. Anna and I would fly out the next day, and Jem's new crew would arrive a week later.

Monday morning I sat in Lagoonies. I realize that I've never actually given a proper description of Lagoonies. Picture motoring in-between two docks of beautiful boats (the prettiest of which being Heaven's Door, but I'm biased) and tying up to a quirky low dock that wobbles if you step on it the wrong way, then walking past a sidewalk with the water on one side and palm trees and wooden chairs painted in primary colours on the other. You pass eight-person picnic tables over which hang canvas shades and strings of lights that look beautiful in the evenings and step onto a wooden deck. The bar is a roofed stand in the middle, the tables are glass-covered posters of shows in New York, the wall in the back is the same colour as the water in Simpson Bay and and has chalkboard menus around which peaks a life-sized Charlie Chaplin. There's a gallery wall of old records in the corner. The menu changes daily as does the music, but both are always excellent. Jem chose a good spot to dock the boat.

In the afternoon, we had near-tearful goodbyes with Jem, and Jean drove us to the airport. We arrived slightly early and Jean wanted to drag us various places to take some final pictures, but it's good that we didn't do that, as the plane took off nearly an hour before its scheduled time. The gate system in the Princess Juliana airport is a strange one; all the gates lead to the same road, and we take a shuttle bus to the plane. Speaking of which, the plane had fewer than 30 seats, but apparently this is still considered big for landing on St. Bart's which was a stopover before Antigua. To land on St. Bart's, the plane has to fly downhill parallel to a slope, and then land very abruptly. (Later, when we called Jem and told him about this, he remarked, "Ah yes, those are my favourite kinds of landings. I did something similar in Turkey.") The pilots then drove around very fast after having landed, performing a series of stomach-turning sharp turns. If Jean were ever to fly a plane, this would be the way that he would do it.

Half an hour after having departed from St. Bart's, we flew over Antigua during golden hour. It's a beautiful island, larger and less mountainous than St. Maarten. The houses are more spaced out, and the climate is drier, which means swathes of tall grass, almost like those that border the roads north of Montreal. Anna and I got out of an airport in one piece and hopped in a taxi driven by a nice lady called Lisa. Unfortunately, the house doesn't have a proper numbered address. Fortunately, David had given us some instructions as to how to get there. Unfortunately, these consisted of: "Go to Falmouth Harbor but turn right before the medical school. You're looking for a white fence near Eric Clapton's house. We're in the house next to the one with the dogs." Fortunately, after we got lost, a security guard at the medical school helped us with directions.

The crew house is absolutely beautiful. There's a large deck with a pool, an outdoor dining table, a living room with amazingly comfy couches covered in a floral pattern that looks straight out of my grandmother's house, and an enormous kitchen with an island. Through the Ananda crew, we've met some great people, notably Rex, who gave me in-depth hairstyle advice, Ray, who once used to rock a foot-long afro for which he was put on a mobile telephone company billboard, and Beverley, a lady who has at least seven family members with names also starting with "b."

Flora has taken Anna and I out on a small tour of the island's sightseeing places. We went to Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbour, which is from when the place was an English Navy base and still sports stone buildings and square hedges. Adjacent to it is Shirley Heights, a beautiful lookout onto the coastline. There are friends in various marinas along the nearby Falmouth Harbour, so we've gone along that stretch of road too. In one of these marinas is a beautiful luxury motoryacht called Skyfall; we're friends with the captain, and we've had some fun evenings aboard.
 

Ananda is currently hauled out of the water (the proper term is being "on the hard," due to the fact that the boat goes onto land) and I officially start working on her next week. In the meantime, David bought me an Antiguan driving license. It's a good thing that it was cheap, because I will probably never use it; people drive on the left side of the road here, and while driving back, I nearly gave both David and myself heart attacks. My parents know the feeling.

Yesterday there was a horseback riding excursion! I had a big plough horse called Gandalf, who was a very slow walker, liked to snack a lot, and didn't always respond well to authority. We seemed to have a bit in common. We rode through some woods, past small farms, and waded through water along a small beach. The horses were then unsaddled and we rode on them into the water. Again, Gandalf was the slowest. Luckily, he sped up when one of the other horses pooped in the water and the waves started washing the residue towards us. Equine island time does not apply in dire situations.

Anna moved out of the house earlier this week and onto her boat. Fortunately, the crew all seem very nice, and her new roommate is uncannily similar to her. Unfortunately, she leaves tomorrow and it will be awhile before I see her again. I will be very sad, but she is a lifelong friend and I will most definitely see her again.

That's all for now, byee