Some fun photos of our sailing day trip off Antigua yesterday

These Instagram photos were taken yesterday on my phone while we were out on a Classic Yacht Day Tour. The winds were blowing hard and after snorkeling and lunch up in Carlisle Bay we flew downwind outside Cades Reef to Pinchin Bay for some lovely beach time. Enjoy the photos and come out with us one of these days.

www.adventureantigua.com

Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta

After four days of racing in various conditions and courses, Adventure Antigua's team Zemi wins in the Traditional Class. We had a huge team which reached 14 people in two of the races.  

  

After our engine was installed by A1 Marine in Jolly Harbour we had to do some rigging changes before the regatta and they were completed just in time for the race. With only minutes to spare, Itano, Jason and I managed to get to the Antigua Yacht Club on Wednesday. On thursday a few of us got together and went out to test the rig and see how Zemi felt. It was the first time we had sailed properly since last year. We had won our class in the regatta then, but the winds had been exceptionally light. Our sail on Thursday was fine and the boat felt good with the extra lead ballast that i had just purchased from a local scrap metal business. I took a photo of my truck deep inside the scrap metal place when I was about to collect the lead the Tuesday before. My sister Fran was going to be joining us for the regatta so she came out on the practice sail with us: All of the wooden Caribbean vessels sailing in the Traditional class of the regatta bunched up together between the Turtle Surf Shop and the Skullduggery Bar on the Antigua Yacht Club Marina. Half of them seen here: The first race was on Friday and our start was actually just after 10 am. We had two crew coming in from Tortola in the British Virgin Islands at the very last minute and they were bringing uniforms. Andy Morrell and his son Josh run HIHO which is a high end clothing company (check it out) and our team was going to look sharp if they arrived with the loot. In fact, HIHO is one of the sponsors of Antigua Sailing Week which starts here at the end of this week. Anyway, they arrived, jumped on board Zemi and we cast off our lines. The race was starting shortly, and we needed to get everyone set up (and suited up).

The Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda provided air rifles for the race committee, so i can't say the races started with a bang. Needless to say, it was quite funny hearing about that mess up on the radio. Anyway, the race started and Zemi was off. Our boat has more sail area than the others and the light winds of the first race were in our favor. We slowly pulled ahead. On the broad reach we had our spinnaker up which gave us a slightly bigger lead. When it was time to drop this sail in preparation for our sail back upwind, something went wrong. The line holding the sail to the top of the mast was jammed. There was nothing we could do but sail upwind with about four of the crew trying to bunch the sail up around the mast. Spinnakers are sails that don't go upwind and that's where we were headed. Thankfully the winds were light and the sail didn't get ripped out of the hands of our crew and torn to shreds. We were going directly for the rocks at Winter Hill and had to tack with this sail which was another challenge. Then there were other yachts which had right or way coming toward us. We had to "duck" them, still with this sail dangling from the top of the mast. Finally a decision was made to send one of the crew up to the top of the mast. Out came the bosun's chair and up the mast Jason went with a knife! The sail was finally cut down, but we had to get it fixed, and in no time we were sending Nikolai back up to get it prepped for the next time we had to use it. Here is a pic of Nik way up at the top while we were racing: Here he is on his way back down:

With this kind of team work we were able to finish enough ahead to beat the second place boat by under a minute on corrected time after the handicap had been worked out. Here is some of the team celebrating our win back at the dock:

More on the rest of the Classic Yacht Regatta tomorrow.

Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta 2012

As you know we offer a classic yacht tour, and each year we try and compete in the Traditional Class of the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta. The first year we entered on the brand new Ocean Nomad with paint still drying on the deck we finished second. The next year we finished first. I didn't race again until last year and this time it was on our new Carriacou Sloop, Zemi with paint still drying once again. We finished first and were delighted. Since then Zemi has not been sailing once and has sat in Jolly Harbour slowly getting an engine installed. It's finally in there and operational. She is now able to get in and out of harbours without sailing. Ocean Nomad is the older of our two sailing vessels and has been out of commission for the past month while her mast was repaired. She may be ready to sail in the regatta which starts on Friday which means that Adventure Antigua will have two boats in the Classic Yacht Regatta.

I will be skippering Zemi again this year, and over the next few days I will be strengthening the rig and finding some more ballast. In last years race we knew she was under ballasted which means she didn't have enough lead below deck to keep her steady in the water during heavier winds. Luckily the winds were light last year and it worked to our advantage.

This year will be different if the forecast continues as it is right now with winds getting up to 22 mph. We have to have more ballast otherwise we will not be able to sail fast and will spent plenty of time over on our sides! Lead is what we need, but if we can't find it we will be looking for anything else. We have three days to get it below deck and register the boat. Among the team sailing with us this year we have Andy Morrell of HIHO with his son Josh. This means that Adventure Antigua's team Zemi will have some nice clothing to race with for a few days. We also have an old team mate from Scotland sailing with us. Harry Ingram didn't sail across the Atlantic this time but took the quick flight here for the regatta. He will be leaving his chair below deck and will be on the rail like the time when we won on Ocean Nomad. I understand he's bringing some good Scotch to "bless the deck". You know, it was the Scottish who first built these boats down in Carriacou for the Plantation owners of Grenada. Plenty of history which you can learn about if you end up watching Vanishing Sail which is a film about these amazing vessels. Click here to learn a bit about the project and see a preview. Of course we will have plenty of local knowledge, skill and rum drinking/sailing experience on board too with several of our long time team members playing key rolls. Guilli, Nikolai, and Big John will be there too. Once again this year Mount Gay Rum is providing us with shirts and hats or one of the day's racing. I am sure there will not be a shortage of rum either. I will blog more about the progress of Zemi before Wednesday and then after the first race on Friday. Stay Tuned.

Another amazing video out of Antigua

Acquafilms, the local film company run by my great friend Roddy Grimes-Graeme and his partner Iain, did the Adventure Antigua videos and has just released another fantastic video. This one is of the recent Super Yacht Regatta. All of the yachts have to be over 100 feet and many in this years regatta were considerably larger than that. With some great shots from taken from the helicopter, this video does a great job of promoting the regatta and Antigua. Well done to Roddy and Iain. Aquafilms gets better and better.
Antigua Superyacht Challenge 2012 from acquafilms on Vimeo.

The yachties have discovered The North Sound in Antigua

My Grandfather arrived in Antigua in the 1940s and set up The Lord Nelson Beach Hotel on Dutchmans Bay in 1950. The North Sound is where he and my grandma raised their 7 children. Then there were grandchildren and now many great-grand kids. The North Sound is where we all grew up and the dozens of little islands and thousands of reefs and coral heads which have scared mariners for hundreds of years were our fun filled playground. Of course The Eco Tour is modeled after adventures that my cousins and I got up to as kids and that tour was and still is the backbone of Adventure Antigua.
For so long charts had red navigational warnings printed on them for this area and most yachts steered clear of the beautiful bays and secluded anchorages, but things are changing.
More and more "stink pots" (mega yacht powerboats) as they are nicknamed are mooring off Long Island's Jumby Bay and I have also seen considerably more cruising yachts anchored up in the lee of Great Bird Island. I'm also seeing way more large luxury sailing yachts and this week I saw the lovely sight of a massive one sailing up into the North Sound right up around Maiden Island and tacking toward the South East side of Long. She was the beautiful yacht Salperton. Seen above, Salperton is the biggest sailing vessel I have ever seen cruising along within the North Sound. It was a fantastic sight and something that I am sure others were impressed with.
EDIT
I wrote the above earlier today and had to go to the Verandah Resort and the St. James Club. On the way back I saw a huge StinkPot cruising right through the middle of Kettle Bottom Shoal. I couldn't believe my eyes. This section of coastline is what keeps atlantic waves from coming into the bottom end of The North Sound, and it's very difficult to navigate through. We always use other deeper chanels to come into the North Sound. I was surprised to see it and as it happens I bumped into my Uncle Nick, owner of North Coast Salvage. He was equally surprised and we spoke about seeing Salperton earlier in the week.
The first big boat I had seen up there in the North Sound was the Maltese Falcon back in Jan of 2007. Seen here it was the biggest yacht I had seen in the North Sound.

 

A night shot from the same place just below Jumby Bay. 

Few followed her until now and it seems as though the flood gates have opened when it comes to mega and super yachts. I guess those that make it up here are surprised at how pretty this side of Antigua is. They are surprised i guess because they have all been coming here for years and staying clear of this amazing spot only to visit Green Island on the East side of the island and Five Islands harbour on the West coast. I expect that within a few years the North Sound will be as busy or even busier than the traditionally favored anchorages. It won't happen without a few boats running into trouble. This area will always be difficult for mariners and even the best skippers with the most sophisticated electronics will make mistakes up here. "Grief on the Reef" happens from time to time and my uncle Nick will be waiting to pull them off in the event that one of these big yachts runs aground.

www.adventureantigua.com