While living in the Caribbean is usually accompanied with smiles, there are times when things are not as laid back as one would think........
With Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta starting next week, it looks like our new boat Zemi will have to wait until next year to race in that regatta. When it comes to building a traditional yacht on the beach on a tiny Caribbean island like Carriacou, you need plenty of time and patience and you really need to go down and take part in the process as much as possible. I think its more difficult that building a house in the Caribbean, but I am not sure about that as I have been trying that too for almost 4 years and we still haven’t broken ground. That’s another story for another time.
Anyway, as you saw in this blog (click here) Zemi was launched and is sitting on anchor in Carriacou ready to have it’s mast and rig finished and attached, the rudder installed and the ballast loaded. We are at the point now where we can do all of that, but I think it would be impossible to get it done and sail her up here in time for the first race at the end of next week. Well I know it wouldn’t be impossible because I did the same thing with Ocean Nomad when we finished her back in 2008, but I just don’t have the time to drop everything and take off from Adventure Antigua at the moment. These pics were taken by stevie mendes while we tried to finish the mast and get the boat ready for the crossing (without an engine) back to Antigua and the Classic Regatta 08.
Back home here we have been busier than expected with one of our main crew members “Tony” resigning out of the blue at what has been our busiest Spring in years.
With the two powerboats, and the sailing catamaran we have been ultra busy making sure we have had enough crew members to run the boats professionally. We haven’t even had time to do much sailing on the Classic Yacht.
When everyone kept saying that the tourist season was going to be dead, we thought they’d be right, and prepared ourselves for a slow 09/10. The opposite was the case and we had to scramble to make it all work.
Tony leaving the company left us in a bind at the worst time. He was a very strong worker, but a terrible communicator. This time he gave me two weeks notice out of the blue and never gave me a reason as to why he was leaving. We don’t even know where he’s gone to, but it was a blow to the company and to me personally. With him gone, it was so much more difficult to leave Antigua and go to see about Zemi.
To make matters worse, JD our Xtreme captain came down with very bad tonsillitis and was out for a week. Then Jason got a nasty flu and was out for a week.
I guess that’s one of the reasons I haven’t been writing lately. I have been spending quite a bit of time working on Xtreme and trying to balance all the other “boss” jobs.
We have hired a few new crew members that bring some excellent skills to the Adventure Antigua team. I will introduce them in blogs to come. The Eco Tour has a new narrator who is getting great reviews at the moment after a week on the job.
With all the new help, I think I will be able to leave the island soon for Carriacou to go and collect Zemi and have her back here in time for the West Indies Regatta coming up soon. The Adventure Antigua team won that one too last year.
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