Antigua
Lorraine Sneddon had been planning a wee trip to come out and see us in Antigua.
When she booked her flights to the Caribbean, we were in Martinique, but we decided on Antigua as a place for her to visit because there are direct flights, at reasonable prices, from London.
She was due to arrive in Antigua on March 3rd 2023. Looking back, Covid was all just about kicking off and, now we know what actually happened to the world for the following two years plus, we were so pleased she made that trip. I think she was too.
As we all know, sailing is not an exact science - you can't argue with the wind. We were fairly anxious to use the first available weather opportunity to get to Antigua, and so we made our way up the Caribbean chain from Martinique to arrive, around 6 weeks before she did, at the end of January 2020
We were both exhausted when we dropped the hook in Galleon bay (A most beautiful anchorage and probably one of the best beaches on Antigua) at dusk on a friday evening.
Crawford is super cautious when it comes to anchoring in an unfamiliar bay, and he wasn't very happy about where we had dropped the anchor. He was concerned it was a bit too close to the edge of the channel. We decided to take the risk and fell into a massively deep sleep, until.............
..... loud horns, sirens, claxons, screaming, shouting and a general hullabaloo woke us up around midnight
We both shot out of bed, Crawford saying "I knew we shouldn't have anchored so close to the channel"
When we looked out, however, the noise wasn't a ferry or a superyacht trying to alert us, this pair had just arrived, after rowing (!!) across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands (Around 3000 nm)
The Talisker Whisky Atlantic challenge was taking place that year - these boats are rowed 3000 nm across the Atlantic- we had read about it, and marvelled at the mental and physical strength it must take to do this.
It so happened all the boats were making landfall in Antigua around that time - and that night the noise was the welcome party for this pair. What a massive achievement.
A year later, a young swimming teacher from Thirsk (Jasmine Harrison) in North Yorkshire (my sort of home town) was the youngest solo female to row across the Atlantic. Massive respect Jasmine- I have your T-shirt!
It was really exciting watching the boats come in over the next few days/weeks and English Harbour which is normally a hugely vibrant fun place anyway, was even more excitable and lively due to the athletes wandering around.
One of our bestest days was when a local lady in the post office asked us if we had rowed over on the Atlantic Challenge 💪 Woohoo! #️⃣superfitathletes (in our dreams!!) We did notice later, however that she was wearing those really thick bottle top glasses. Hmmmmm.
So this was the start of a very memorable, hugely enjoyable time on Antigua and Barbuda.
We ended up being "locked down" here during the pandemic, and as the restrictions were lifting, we walked and sailed all over this beautiful island. It is somewhere we would love to return to and maybe even one day make it a permanent home? We do say that about a lot of places though.
Speaking as a white British person - reading and writing about Antigua history makes me pretty uncomfortable. I don't know how to make that better. It happened, it's embarrassing, it's so sad.
I do sometimes feel a sense of resentment in the Caribbean Islands from the people who live there permanently - and honestly, I am not surprised.
History is history, it has happened, each nation has its past behaviours which they cannot now walk away from, and nothing, except time will change this - but revisiting and writing about it makes me feel very very awkward. I don't know what other people think?
Antigua was originally populated by the Arawak and Carib indigenous people until the 1400's when attempts were made to colonise the islands. (Antigua and Barbuda) All early attempts by other European countries failed due to the ferocity of the locals, until Antigua became a British colony in the 1600's.
The locals were captured, enslaved and many Africans were imported to work the land - produce crops/food - sugar cane, rum, pineapples, corn, sweet potatoes, tobacco, cotton, guavas,chillies. ginger etc.
This was the situation for the next century until, like all slaves of the British empire, they were emancipated in 1834.
Antigua is the only Caribbean island under British governance which had a good, well protected, harbour, and so the dockyard at Antigua (English Harbour) became a base for the British Navy Caribbean fleet from 1725- 1854.
More to follow.....
Lorrainers
