Party time!

Saturday 8 December, Antigua: Party time! Sunset drinks on the beach and dance the night away in English Harbour.

The rain continues throughout the night. Hm, we don’t remember raining so much in Antigua. And the gusty wind is howling. Good job we packed away the bimini that was hung to dry, otherwise we would’ve looked for it on the bottom of the harbor this morning. It’s a slow start in the morning, relaxing on the boat and a bit of admin.

Glen goes ashore to investigate where we can get a rental car, and he finds a place right next to the marina office. And next to the rental car office, there is a real estate agent. He glances in the window display and among the showcased properties Glen spots a house he recognizes. 2 years ago when we were looking at boats to choose our future floating home, we contemplated on a beautiful Malo-46. One of the pictures showed this Malo docked in Antigua, in front of a house alongside a nice patio. This is the house that Glen recognized. So our curiosity is now raised.

As a result, we quickly fly the drone over the marina, to see where the house is located. Hm, who would’ve thought we will use the drone for this kind of investigations?! We spot the house, and then lower the dinghy in the water to go for a tootle around the complex. Properties in Jolly Harbor Residence are quite small and sadly half of them look deserted and most quite tatty. Not sure when this complex was built, but judging by the style looks like the 80’s. It feels like the development’s glory days are over. As layout, there are several “fingers” with rows of attached houses, each with water frontage.
The house we were looking for is at the end of one of these fingers, and it certainly has the best position with full front of the house facing the entrance of the harbor with a dock to accommodate a yacht of up to 85ft. For few moments we imagine Cloudy Bay docked in front of this house next to its covered terrace and we contemplate yet again whether we could live on an island. That sets our imagination going… Maybe we book an appointment to see this house. The inside that is, as the outside we already covered! 😊

Then off for serious stuff: a stroll through the boat yard, to see what’s what and what services or workshops are there, before we haul out on Tuesday. Near the entrance there is a café (small kiosk where a local lady sells her rotis) and she kindly agrees to rent us some space in her freezer to store our food when we have to disconnect our fridges. One problem solved.
It is a small yard (now that we have the standard of American yards) but nicely laid out. And the holes that are dug for the keels and rudders to go down into are nicely concreted, not sure we’ve seen them so nicely done anywhere else. Among the workshops, we find a woodwork specialist and we inquire about teak plugs for our handrails on the deck. We need 10mm plugs, but he doesn’t have this size. What he suggests is to drill the holes bigger to accommodate a more usual size of plugs. Hm, we might consider that. Trouble with the current plugs is they were sanded too much and now they are sunk in, with the varnish coming off them. So when we start the varnishing job, the handrails will need attention too in these places.

We pick up the rental car mid-afternoon, and head off for a short excursion to the nearby beach club. Jacqui O’s BeachHouse, fancily advertised as “plaje privee”. No connection whatsoever with the more famous Jackie O’ in Mikonos, Greece. Last time we were in Antigua it was closed and we only walked along the beach there. Now that it is touristy season, we expected to find it packed, both the beach and the restaurant. It wasn’t the case, very few people. We are welcomed with “sunset in 30 minutes”, so we stay for sunset drinks. We ask for a drinks menu, and a young man comes and introduces himself “I am the intoxicator, what would you like to drink?” Glen asks for a beer, and I for an orange juice. At which, he rolls his eyes and repeats “not sure if you heard me… I am the intoxicator, what would you like me to prepare for you” 😊 The place is nicely done, certainly more upmarket than other beach huts we’ve seen in the islands. Pity they don’t have more clients, but it does turn out to be the perfect spot to watch the sunset. Soon after that we are ravaged by mosquitos .. so time to move on.

From there we drive off towards English Harbour, where the annual Charter Yacht Show is in full swing. When we come down the hill we see Falmouth Harbour all lit up: lots of very tall masts with spreader lights and well-lit huge motor yachts. Hm, what a difference from last time we were here: in May it was deserted, only 4-5 boats in. The show is not open to the public, only to brokers who arrange the charter guests.
Anyway, we have a stroll in the public areas, and we can’t stop thinking this looks more like the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 track when the race is on and all the super yachts are docked there for the show. Anything from enormous motor yachts with more satellite domes than we can count, to slick 140ft sailing catamarans. Quite a sight. More super yachts than we have ever seen in a single place before.
We walk through Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour too, where the smaller scale yachts are docked. This entire area, where the historical docks were, is very nicely restored and it looks magical at night. Surprisingly quiet though in this early evening, we thought all the restaurants will be packed with the crews off the boats by now.

Back in Falmouth Harbor we walk up and down few times to find a lively bar for our evening drinks, which was not to be found. But it is still quite early. So we settle for Ristorante Paparazzi, which was the most popular one and we loved the pizza here last time we had it. Perfect spot to watch the world go by, and to observe the crews returning form their evening events. After dinner we have another go at the bars. Abracadabra was the aim, but the two times we went there to check the scene the restaurant was full was nobody at the bar yet.

At Life On The Corner bar, a band was about to start the performance and we stop to listen for a while. Glen goes to order our drinks and he returns with some small plastic cups. He sees my inquiring “plastic cups?” look, and he bursts into laughter. While at the bar he did question the waiter on the subject, and all he got was a very ugly look and “If you want to wash it, you’re welcome to get a glass” on a very aggressive tone. So here we are for our first wild night out in the Caribbean, having a weak cocktail in a plastic cup, listening to a Latino music live band, watching ice hockey on big screen TV, and surrounded by multinational crowd of young yacht crews. Quite the variety show, eh?

Fed up with the rather noisy music, let’s have one last look at Abracadabra. And sure enough, few people were sitting at the bar this time. So we join in, ordering our cocktails (which were significantly pricier here than at the previous bar, but probably just as weak). And very soon it gets busier, the music turns up and before we know it gets absolutely packed. We find ourselves in the middle of the dance floor with an Aussie, a French and a Brit, all crew from the 144ft catamaran. We have a great evening in the end, dancing (I love to dance) and enjoying the music, despite drinks spilled on us and beer being sprayed into our hair!

On the drive back to Cloudy Bay, going through the small rundown villages, it’s a completely different world. And we comment about the extreme contrast between the lives of the local people here and the life represented by the super-rich yachts moored in Falmouth Harbour. Another contrast is arriving back to Jolly Harbour Marina where there is not a single person to be seen and as we walk from car park to the boat.
After showering to wash ourselves of sticky drink spillages, we are in bed at 2 am… we suspect it will not be an early morning start tomorrow!