Ship’s Log - LADY
Antigua Sailing Week 2008
Day 1 (Thursday April 24th)
Crew arrives in St. Maarten from various points in the United States. Some of the crew were fortunate to
be handed a cold adult beverage upon clearing customs. A good beginning!!
Crew left St. Maarten approx 5pm for the 90+ mile sail to Antigua. First mechanical glitch approx 11:30pm
when fuel line chokes off fuel. Crew’s defacto mechanical engineer, Scott, opens fuel line and problem
solved. Turns out to be our only mechanical glitch of entire trip!!
Day 2 (Friday April 25th)
Arrive at English Harbor, Antigua approx. 4pm. Crew moored boat, stowed the ship’s gear, registered for
the races, and set off to find a beer! Crew is high spirits and filled with bravado. We were ready. Racing
in two days!
Day 3 (Saturday April 26th)
Casual morning with full English breakfast then off to practice for racing! Admiral Tom whipped the crew
into racing shape and after four hours of practice and just a hint of mutiny, the crew was ready! Back in
port, the Charter company hosted a wild party with much food and drink, and many new friends! Racing
tomorrow!
Day 4 (Sunday April 27th)
Day 1 of racing! Left dock @ 8:00am for start off English Harbor! Today was first racing experience for
several of the crew, and the chaos at the starting line was exciting, to say the least. Perhaps the only time
all week some crew members were quiet! With a nice wind, Lady had a good day of sailing, finishing 7th of
12. Much was learned about the boat and crew!
Race ended near Five Islands Harbor several miles North of home port, and a massive party awaited on
shore. The crew enjoyed some post-race refreshment on board, and proceeded to catch a water taxi to
shore for the party! It turns out the water crashing to shore was much rougher than it looked from the
boat and watching dingys and water taxis swamp and sink became a source of great entertainment for all
to see! It was a wonderful party with the crews of 190 boats all taking advantage of their shore leave.
Unfortunately, several of Lady’s crew also ended up with the same fate as those swamped earlier, and
ended up upside down in the bottom of a saltwater-filled water taxi. Perhaps the rum punch contributed to
this? An eventful end to a big day!
Day 5 (Monday April 28th)
Everyone is tired. Crew can’t seem to make the boat go fast upwind and maybe a bit less concentration
form the crew then was needed. A 9th place finish and back home in English Harbor for good night’s
sleep!
Day 6 (Tuesday April 29th)
Everyone ready to go and the ‘Crew Party’ to look forward to in the evening! Lady sailed FAST. Great
start, good upwind, and a 5th place finish! Crew is finally resigned to the fact that at least four other boats
in our class are simply faster than Lady, and that our floating home is not going to break any speed
records. This realization only emboldens the crew further!!
Today also offered our biggest in-race adventure so far and we hadn’t even started the race yet! It seems
our route to arrive at the start of our race was taking us right past the starting line of the BIG Class A
boats. These are 100 ft maxi racing yachts that you see on magazine covers. Lady was a bit tardy for the
start of its race and we were making a diligent effort to get to our start. No time for fooling around…
Well, what do you know, we find ourselves right in the middle of the starting line for the BIG boats just as
their starting gun goes off. We were directly between the two biggest boat in the fleet, both under a full
head of steam and racing for all their worth. If we had been hit, we would have been simply cut in two and
been sent to Davey Jones’s locker. Incredibly exciting with a view that could not be paid for, but also just
as incredibly stupid, Not to mention against all sorts of racing rules. We were certain that we would be
Disqualified (DSQ’d) before we even got started. When the race finally ended the race committee did not
sound the horn when we crossed the finish line, apparently confirming that we had been disqualified, and
the crew was depressed. We had sailed a good race and it didn’t count. BUT THEN! The race
committee got on the megaphone and told us that they were changing the air canister and couldn’t give us
a horn. Then they gave us a late horn for good measure!!! We all cheered and had a beer!
Everyone was feeling good. Nice dinner on the walk to the Neighboring harbor (Falmouth Harbor) for the
crew party. Party was a bust (mostly locals and expensive drinks) so but we took the opportunity to ogle
at the absolutely amazing yachts docked in Falmouth Harbor. They simply defied description. In all our
collective experience, none of the crew had ever seen anything like it. One after another, boats worth
hundreds of millions of dollars. Totally over the top.
Time to walk back to English harbor for a nightcap! Tomorrow is an off day.
Day 7 (Wednesday, April 30th)
Off day- no racing today. We ordered breakfast and truly found the meaning of ‘Island Time’ since we
never did get served…
Then we headed off to buy some beer and rent a Jeep. The Island was ours!!! Someone said, ‘let’s go
to the top of that mountain’ and we did! Never mind that there wasn’t a road going there…
Then we did our best to find all 365 of Antigua’s beaches and their 365 beach bars. We didn’t quite make
all of them…
That evening we all went to a sailor’s party at an old fort on the top of a mountain overlooking the mouth of
English Harbor. What a breathtaking view!
It was great day but not at all a day of rest!
Day 8 (Thursday May 1st)
Racing again but not much wind. We picked up a couple of wandering Aussie guys who joined us for the
race. With no wind, frustrations ran high and we didn’t have a lot of fun. Very little concentration and
several crew took long naps during the race. Hard to blame them as the race took seven hours. Lady
finished 7th, which isn’t bad considering our handicap penalizes us more the longer the race goes.
That night we docked in Jolly Harbor for yet another party! Lady was docked right next to the main stage
and we all tried to fall asleep to the very loud beat of a Caribbean rap concert. Amazingly, we all managed
to do this!
Day 9 (Friday May 2nd)
Last day of racing! All the bareboat classes (Chartered boats) raced against each other today in one
class. Mostly good wind and the crew of Lady finally fiqured out how to sail the boat fast! We finished 9th
out of 30 but felt really good about our race! That evening, we had another nice dinner in Falmouth
harbor to use up of EC Dollars 9which are worthless anywhere else in the world) and were off to the Pirate
Party. Imagine 600 people all dressed in Pirate gear and bathing in rum punch. Hmm. You can guess
how that went but you’re probably a bit tame in your imagination!!
Leaving tomorrow at dawn. So long Antigua!
Day 10 (Saturday May 3rd)
Left Antigua @dawn for day sail to its sister island, Barbuda! Little did we know what a day this was going
to be! We had been invited to a ‘Grand Opening’ party for a new exclusive resort on Barbuda by a
development company, and we thought we would check it out. Barbuda is essentially on the way back to
St. Maarten and is about 36 miles from Antigua. On the way out, we were privileged to see two large
whales, spouting water through their blow-holes, and waving their gigantic tails at us. What a site! None of
us had ever seen a whale live in the wild before.
It was blustery and somewhat chilly day and when we arrived at Barbuda, we were the only ones there
besides the hosts! They proceeded to treat us like kings! Drinks flowed until the bar was dry (and then
some.) We had personalized tours of the resort and guest suites, and after all this we were treated to a full
five-course gourmet dinner! All free of charge! WOW! Did we fall into a feast? It’s possible that they just
wanted to give their staff a dry run through making and serving drinks and dinner, but we think they were
under the impression we were going to buy one of their $5million lots!
Some of us once again had difficulty making it back to the boat without getting wet…
Day 11 (Sunday, May 4th)
Home at dawn to St. Maarten! About 60 miles to sail on a windy day (blowing 25kts) with a following sea.
We were tossed around like rubber duck in a bathtub. This was quite an adventure in itself, but after 11
days on Lady, the crew could handle it! Arrived St. Maarten 4pm and settled in for a hot shower and
dinner. All were happy to have returned safely with many stories to tell.
Flights home tomorrow. Farewell to Lady and the islands! A great time for all!