TheNomadicFox

Travel Blog - Spring 2015 - Turks & Caicos and Antigua & Barbuda

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#stanstedairport #airportselfie #kamelåså #scandinavians #endofanadventure

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#midatlantic #sunset #sailing #Nisida #Nisidayachtcharter

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Had the BEST #icecream ever #preatlanticcrossing #StBarts #CaribbeanAdventure

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Fun #walldecor on #stbarth #sailing #CaribbeanAdventure

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Antigua Classics: So only heard about the Antigua Classics when I got to Antigua but sounded like something not to miss, it started two days before my course started to so that was unlucky but still cool event – it’s a regatta with old and old-ish boats! Sally and Eric were down there on a boat called Desiderata, with a wedding party (one of their friends got married the week before), and told me just to walk the dock and see if any boats would take me on as crew for a couple of days. Ended up volenteering to hand out some nomination leaflets for the yacht club who run the classics and one of the ladies told me just to ask as I was doing that. One of the first boats I got to was the Atrevide, a huge Brazilian boat, where they were celebrating the day with champagne and sandwiches. I hung around waiting for someone to have time to talk to me about the leaflets when some guy grabbed my hand and helped me anboar and gave me a glass of champagne – turns out that was the owner of the boat! After a bit of language confusing they said it was fine for me to come with them, so I spent the last two days of the regatta on the only hand winch on board, up on the foredeck getting very drenched. They even kitted me up with t-shirt, shorts, hat and belt so I would match everyone else. The rest of the crew were really awesome and I stayed with them down in their apartments for the two nights after racing so I could go to dinner and the parties with them. Didn’t understand what was being said most of the time but still had a blast! We did okay but there was a boat in our class with a stupidly good handicap, the Mary Rose, so we didn’t win, but we were definitely the party boat.

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Round two: Miramar sailing school in Jolly Harbour: Spent two weeks learning how to sail on two different boats out of Miramar sailing school in Jolly Harbour – the first week I did ’competent crew’ on Miramar with Pippa as the instructor and Sally and Eric on board doing their yacht master prep (preparation for taking the yacht master exam) – that essentially meant I was learning how to use a winch, properly coil rope, do some knots, general boat stuff and safety features (i.e. how not to kill yourself and be a competent crew member - it’s all in the name really). Since the other crew members were also very experiences sailors (they’ve got their own boat and have crossed the Atlantic) I could ask anyone all my random and sometimes silly questions and I therefore learned a lot more than what is intended. Actually did most of the syllabus on the first day so Pippa was just shaking her head after we’d gone through all the knots. We were out on the boat from Monday to Saturday afternoon and travelled as far as Falmouth Harbour on the south side of the island. All three of them are really lovely people and we had a lot of fun together. On Friday evening and Saturday morning Sally and Eric did their exams, but unfortunately only Sally passed, she did coastal yachtmaster, whereas Eric failed his offshore yachtmaster - pity, but we’re gonna keep in touch so I might go sail with them back in Europe.

During the weekend I went out with a local boat called Elethea to do the Jolly Harbour Saturday race - we competed against a boat called Nisida, with 4 people onboard, whereas we were round 15 people - I was in charge of the radio, time and the outhaul on the spinnaker. It was a really fun day and we had beers halfway through the race so the mood was chilled out. Ended up beating the other boat - well they actually got in before us, but because of the handicap system we passed them in corrected time :-P

The second week with the school I was doing ’day skipper’ and because the other 4 student that were there that week all know each other I got instructor Mark all to myself on ’Deana’ – was hard work with just the two of us on the boat so pretty knackered after that week, but it did mean I got more experience than I normally would and essentially had to really get to grips with things. We actually travelled all the way to Nonsuch Bay on the second day (super long day!) and did all the man overboard and picking up buoy exercises down there. It was not really as hard as I had thought it would be, but Mark is an excellent teacher. He’s also a scientist with a PhD so we speak that same language. Antigua classics started towards the end of this week and we went to the opening party and watched the start of the single handed race. Mark had also brought his sextant with him so one of the mornings we sat down and had a look how that works – tricky but very interesting!

I can definitely recommend Miramar sailing school to someone wanting to learn to sail, and although Antigua in itself is perhaps not the safest island the Jolly Harbour and Falmouth areas are fairly safe. The school is well organized and they’ve got a fairly good system for stocking the boat, shuffling instructors and giving a fun and educational experience.

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Written underway to St. Barth’s!

So first of all trying to keep a blog active when traveling in an area that at best has slow internet, and most of the time no internet, has turned out to be impossible. On top of that only having my smart phone to write in is just not sensible, but I have managed to comandeere my fellow Scandinavian shipmate Signe’s laptop to write as much as possible before the battery runs out in about 40 min and then we’ll find internet when we reach St. Barth’s. 

So first off Turks and Caicos: So Provo is a beautiful island with very little to do if you are trying to not spend all your money in two weeks. There are very good dive sites and some of the best beaches in the world for kitesurfing, but turns out to also be a rich-person hang out. My plan was to learn to dive when on Provo, but the cost was just too great to be worth it at that time – I did enjoy a lot of great snorkling trips to the reefs close to the beaches though (and a lesson in snorkeling and sunburn). My favourite beaches on the island were Taylor and Sapodilla beaches on the southwest side – they are shallow very far out, have amazing white sand and because they are not in the main tourist area of Grace Bay they tend to have a low density of people on them so you can have a quite large stretch of beach all to yourself. Foodwise the coolest places to eat were Bugaloo’s and Da Conch Shack, which are both on the beach with great vies, have a pretty decent menu and are not insanely expensive. Some other places to go is the Conch Farm, where they essentially grow chonch for food much like a fish farms in Norway. There is also the Hole – a big sink hole, and endless stretches of beach to walk/hike all round the island. During my stay on Provo I met some locals – Georgina and Nat live in the house I spent 8 days in up in Wheeland and kindly let me tag along to their evening plans of going out and having dinner. They happened to have a friend, Carlos, staying at the same time and the two of us went touristing around during the day in their awesome jeep. The owner of the house, Morgan, is a cool chick – she runs a watersports place in Grace Bay and Nat is her dive instructor so met her a few times, and helped organize a swimming competition. Also met a guy who speaks Norwegian, Ben, and went to have dinner with him and his girlfriend at one of their friend’s house on the last evening on Provo – good food and good company. All in all, if you want clear water and beautiful beaches Provo is a great place to go, but not exactly a backpacker place!

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Told the waiter it's my #birthday and he brought me #bubbles - it's 5 o'clock somewhere 😉

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Cat playing the #guitar on the Nisida #sailboat

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#Actionpacked and drenching days on the foredeck of the beautiful #Atrevida during the #antiguaclassics #sailingrace #sailing #antigua

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Antigua Classics race #2 - get shot as you cross the line. #antiguaclassics #sailingrace #cannon #antigua

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Slight hitch but the #jerryrig worked! #sailingcourse #miramarsailingschool #antigua

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#sunset #ocean #miramarsailingboat #miramarsailingschool

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Week one starting soon #miramarsailingboat #miramarsailingschool #sailingcourse #getoutthere #excited

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#speedboattrip #antigua #ocean #hangingout

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Cool! #turtle #snorkling #providenciales #turksandcaicos

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#ocean #sunset #fishfry #providenciales #turksandcaicos