It would have been way easier to move Sailing into the Adventure Antigua business by buying a fiberglass yacht just like everyone else, but this way is way more interesting. While in the car on my way to Windward which is where families in Carriacou have been building boats for hundreds of years, master boat builder Alwyn Enoe told me that he was excited. I had met him before and didn’t think that he could be so happy. He was finally going to get some work done. On the phone from Grenada the night before, I had asked him to find me a guest house or little hotel for me. He said “I don’t know if you would appreciate this, but I didn’t get a hotel for you……You will be saying with my nephew.” That was cool with me as I knew this gesture meant I would be with friends. I was excited too. When we arrived in windward and went to see his sons Chris and Terry, I was starving. We sat and ate in an enclosed but vacant lot right on the water. It was fenced off with old galvanized roofing and with coconut trees and some other bush scattered around. 
Outside was the beach and a huge ancient vessle lay beached as if washed up in a storm to die where it had come to life all those years before. This was the place my new boat was going to come to life. I could see some basic tools resting around which had been in use up until I walked into the “boat yard”. Scattered around were bits of cut wood and some lovely pieces of shaped wood I imagined were frames still to be assembled. While Alwyn ate his salt-fish and bake lunch he explained the process. They had taken the ferry over to Grenada where a local family was about to clear some land for development. The family allowed them to go into the forest and take the trees that they needed. He said it was very difficult as the terrain was steep. Getting the cut trees out was the most difficult part though, but the land owner had graciously helped them. Once a boat had finally dropped off the last trunks onto the beach on Windward, Carriacou, the men had to start picking the best ones for the construction of eight frames. 
He said that he had always assembled the frames onto the keel using only five frames, but that this time he wanted to do it with eight to speed up the process and make the whole process more accurate later down the line. He told me with shining eyes how these were the best trees for making frames that he ever got out of the “bush”. They were large and had the best shape for making the skeleton of the boat. You see, a simple keel is made in Grenada out of greenheart hard wood according to his design. While that is being made he and his sons make the ribs or “frames” as he calls them. When the greenheart keel arrives they then attach the frames so that they have a skeleton of the boat assembled. 
All of this is done with exact accuracy in accordance with the model which is kept in the boat yard as seen above. The assembled frames in the photo above are from another fishing boat being made, but the model is mine. 
IT is the model which he is most proud of. He boasts that most boat builders don’t use a model and just build a boat as they go. The model is a blueprint of the boat to be built and is done exactly to scale. 
On the model each three quarters of an inch represents a foot on the real boat. He explains over his salt-fish lunch that on a ruler, three quarters of an inch has twelve sixteenths. This means that for every 1/16th of an inch on the model the measurement on the life size boat will be an inch. ¾ of an inch on the model is a foot on the real boat. 
As you can see in this photo of the model there are careful measurements all over the thing which all are strictly transferred into inches and feet on the life size timbers they are working with. 
Although we sit in the one of the most primitive boat yards on the planet, the rules of boat building are the same as if we were in a naval boat yard in the USA or Great Britain. He gets very technical and most of it is way beyond me, but i trust him. During Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta I have seen his boats fly past classic shaped boats built recenlty using the most modern materials. 
I am impressed with Alwyn’s drive and determination to not let this tradition fade away. After lunch when we walk over to the other boat, he explains that his sons are only a few of the men their age that are working in this ancient craft. Many of the young men of Carriacou sit on the corner and do little of anything he says. Many have to leave the island to look for work in Grenada and further. The art and life that is boat building has been slowly fading away. 
He is proud of his sons and of the work that they do together. I am proud to be part of it. With the resurgence of Wooden boat racing in the Caribbean I think that many more people will come to Windward in search of a traditionally built boat. 
After having a good look at what work was going to be needed on the almost finished “Ocean Nomad” we walked back to the boys working on my boat.Chris and Terry were looking for two tree trunks.
One would be for another beam and one would be for the stem. The stem is one of the most important pieces of wood on the boat. 
It is the forward most piece which the rig is attached to. It goes from the very front of the boat down below the waterline and attaches to the wooden keel. With no big wood working machinery on the island it was time for the most high tech and biggest tool they had. A chain saw. 
I am sure that most international boat builders would laugh at the thought of making the stem of a yacht using a chainsaw, and I must admit I wondered how well it would turn out. 
To my amazement the process was as done as smoothly and carefully as any of the alternatives. 
Of course it took longer and took more care, but Chris was a master at using the saw. Using a bit of chalk to give the rough outline they cut into the tree trunk to get the shape. 
Then using a chalk line they used the chain saw to get the shape much closer to the finished product.
Using a few more tools to mark the exact lines they used a electrical planer to get it perfect. 
The finished stem was so perfect that I was just totally blown away. 
It never appeared as though they were having a hard time and experience was what made it perfect. 
While Chris was making the stem, Alwyn and Terry worked at attaching port and starboard sides of the frames. 
Alwyn called me over at one point and said “you see beauty?” I smiled and said “yes”!
With no roof over their heads and without many tools they were creating a beautiful yacht. As the sun started to set it was time to clean up and make plans for the morning. Work would stop on my boat that afternoon, and with a shake of hands and the passing of some money another job would be re-started. “Ocean Nomad” would be brought back to life in the morning when work resumed after far too long. Sure enough at 9am once they had collected some lumber from town, work started up on Ocean Nomad and after sitting there for over a year she was back in business on her way to being the latest boat launched from Windward, Carriacou.
He is in medical school there and his mom, Judy, was visiting for her 50th birthday. Anyway, I had a great meal and early the next morning David put me on a bus to the Osprey Ferry which would be a straight shot to Carriacou. It was extremely rough and there were quite a few people on board the ferry who were very sick. I was going to meet with Alwyn, the boat builder, for two reasons. Recently I made a deal with someone who had been building a boat very slowly there to take over production of it and launch it myself. He had encountered quite a few problems while building it, was in a stalemate and needed some help. In an interesting deal, I am going to control the boat for five years doing day sailing and then return it to the original owner at the end. It’s a bit of a funny deal, but all three parties are happy with it and Adventure Antigua will end up doing sailing charters and tours earlier than expected. Here you see Alwyn reading the new contract inside the hull of the boat. 
We are shooting to have her ready by the end of April 2008. Meeting with the boat builder and paying him some money to finish "Ocean Nomad" as it was called by the original owner was first at hand mainly because we wanted to have it ready for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta this April. The second reason for meeting with Alwyn was that I wanted to see how my yacht was coming along. I don't have a name for it yet, but have been wanting an indigenous name. We have a French to Carib dictionary from 1666 and with some interesting sounding words and I was happy to confirm that Carriacou is actually derived from a Carib word "Kayryouacou", meaning "the land of reefs." "Spirit of Carriacou" may be the name of my yacht or maybe just "Carriacou". We'll see.
As I said in my last blog, they had been into the jungle to get a few trees and had finally gotten them to the beach some time in January. 
They had been turning these big logs into beautiful carefully crafted ribs. I was about to see how it was all done......... 
Although going out on powerboats with my dad (see family pic above) was what we did almost every week, I think I have been sailing fairly regularly since then. 
My grandfather (seen in the pic above with my grandmother and all 7 of their kids somewhere here in Antigua in the 60's) had several yachts when I was very young as did my uncle Jim. In fact I was just speaking with Jim about St. Martin’s Heineken Regatta which he won on “First Run” back in the early 80s. We can’t remember the year but I do remember that it was very windy and rough. We sailed around the island beating everyone easily on that super fast 
I would have raced more of these regattas as well as more of Antigua Classic Yacht Regattas held the week before, but ever since I started Adventure Antigua we have been driving boats for the press. Antigua Sailing Week hired me to drive the press boat for the first three years that I was in operation and we have done several private charters for press and others in the following years as well. I took this photo:
during a regatta where Michael 
I would have never thought about hiring a classic yacht and sailing down the islands to windsurfing regattas that I attended for all those years, but the next time I sail down to the 
They were all nice and shiny but none had character or a soulful feeling of tradition. Sailing on a classic and just being next to one is a whole different feel. For me it’s even more interesting when the classic has been traditionally built right here in the Caribbean. Every single piece of wood has a story to tell and the process if filled with amazing history and tradition. 
The Grenadines are a group of islands belonging to both St. Vincent and Grenada and are situated between the two larger islands. The history of boat building there is incredibly interesting and I will have to blog about it another time, but Eddie was the first person to get a boat from there that I remember. He and my uncle had raced there in the old days against boats from 
Genesis was build traditionally by Alwyn 
He and his sons had build several boats now calling Antigua their home, and Alexis had spend months each summer in the Grenadines with them and with other traditional boat building families taking photos and learning about this ancient trade. Alexis wanted a larger and faster boat than the one he got from Eddie and Alwyn built Genesis to be the fastest of them all. Back on dock having a drink at 
This first stage of the boat building process 
If the Guyana batsman had hit a boundary then it would have all be over and the Jamaicans would have been beaten again. 
It wasn’t to be and the Jamaican fans went crazy. 
Their celebrations were short lived though because the blistering bowling of the Trinidad and Tobago team last night in the final changed their mood very quickly. Jamaica’s run rate was kept extremely low and it wasn’t long before all wickets were taken in dramatic style. When one of the Jamaican wickets were taken by Dave Mohammed, who ended up being man of the match, he pulled off his shoe and used it as if a telephone as his team mates ran around behind him celebrating like mad. When asked what he was doing…he said that there was a call for the wicket he was trying to answer. 
It was loads of fun for the huge number of Trinidad and Tobago fans who had flown in for the final. 
Food at the Sticky Wicket was exceptional and we enjoyed our front row seats. Not bad for less than US $50 per person. 
Afterwards when the checks totaling over US $1.5 million were handed out, the fireworks began. I used to like fireworks but I think after seeing hours of Stanford fireworks over the past few years I think I have lost interest. 
In fact, I hope he never uses them again. Mr. Stanford if you are listening…why not do something more original next time. 45 minutes of continuous fireworks every time you have an event is so 2006, and the environmental impact must be terrible. Why not parachute a bunch of people in, or have Cirque du Soleil come and perform or something else. You have soooo overdone fireworks. My poor dogs don’t like them either. Ok, apart from that the variety of entertainers was great and I am sure that the entire crowd had a wonderful time. 
Despite many people being very against some of Stanford’s business practices and environmental impacts, its hard not to be impressed and excited about what the Stanford 20 20 has done for West Indian cricket. I wish him and the rest of the region all the luck and success in their effort to bring the region’s game back to the top of international cricket.
I took loads of photos. Dre dazzled us with acrobatic shows. 
We found messages in bottles, fished, ate, drank rum, played dominos and enjoyed every second of our little holiday. (except when in this photo taken my mykl below a rain squall caught us while fishing in the mangroves).
I cant show all the photos as they probably will be published in the near future, but i took hundreds. We would have stayed longer as Xtreme was free on monday too, but our country Antigua and Barbuda were playing Guyana at the Stanford 20 20 and we had to get back in time to see the cricket. 
Despite just ever so slightly being beaten by Guyana, we enjoyed the game tremendously. All of the Adventure Antigua