Antigua
12/28/2015 We left Des Haies, Guadeloupe at 0635 to head to Antigua. The winds were good most of the way, allowing us to make 7 knots most of the time. However, the seas were sloppy with waves hitting us from forward of the beam and swells hitting us on the stern quarter. We were rolling a bit but not too badly. Greg fixed us some oatmeal and while I was eating, the wind blew the oatmeal off my spoon. As I leaned over to wipe it up, a wave hit and knocked the seat I was in over and me with it. My hand smacked up against the metal framework of the bimini and bent my last two fingers in ways they were not meant to go. I could feel the crunch in my hand and figured I had broken the 4th metacarpal (bone from the wrist to the fourth finger) We decided to continue on to Antigua rather than turn back to Des Haies because we thought we would have better access to medical care there. I dug out the medical kit and made a splint from our S.A.M. splint material and wrapped it on with an ace wrap. Once it was stabilized it didn't hurt too much. Just had to be careful not to bump it or bear weight on that hand.
We arrived in Antigua and anchored in Falmouth Harbor. We made it in time to check in so Greg walked over to English Harbor to clear in with Customs and Immigration. It was too late after that to get to a doctor's office but friends on Skitter Scamp put us in touch with Jonathan from ABSAR (Antigua Barbuda Search and Rescue) who has an office in Falmouth Harbour. He recommended a doctor and even called his office and we went for noon the next day (December 29).
NOTE: If you want to see a photo better, click on it and it will go full screen.
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| Lots of pretty boats in Falmouth Harbour |
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| Beautiful house as we entered the harbour |
We took the bus to St. John's and then another to the strip mall where the doctor's office was. We ran into Mike from Alley Cat there. He was going to the dentist because he had broken a tooth in Guadeloupe. The doctor was from India but spoke English well. They x-rayed my hand and sure enough, the fourth metacarpal was broken. I also pointed out the intense bruising on my baby finger but he didn't see anything wrong there. He casted my hand with the last two fingers in cast. Looked like the Vulcan greeting "Live long and Prosper."
The cast was terrible. My two fingers were squished together inside the cast. Half of the edges were raw fiberglass and he had not padded over the edge, making it very irritating to my skin. By Wednesday evening my fingers had swollen more and they were throbbing inside the cast. I tired to contact the doctor but his home number was answered by another Indian person who told me the doctor was off island. He told me to go to the office in the morning. Unfortunately, the next day was New Year's Eve. The man I spoke with could not tell me if the doctor would even be there. I figured if he was off island, his staff would not even have the office open. Sooooo, Greg got out his reciprocating Fein saw and we cut the cast along the little finger. I spread it open about 1/8 inch and it was just enough to stop the throbbing. At least now I didn't have to worry about losing my fingers from lack of circulation. My fingers continued to swell for a couple of days but no more throbbing. A little Tylenol took care of the discomfort.
On the 30th we walked around Falmouth and English Harbour and visited Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbour. There were so many beautiful and huge sailboats and motor yachts!
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| A yacht that supposedly the British Royals were on |
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| Mega Yachts in Falmouth |
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| In English Harbour |
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| Beautiful classic boat in English Harbour |
On New Year's Eve, Antigua has the Nelson's Pursuit Race. The boats are rated and the "slowest" boat starts first with a French flag on it. Then the other boats start in order of their handicap to "chase"the "French" boat as if they were Admiral Nelson's fleet. The first boat to cross the finish wins. Greg walked up to the top of Shirley Hill to watch the race and wound up helping the guy up there who was the race committee. They signalled the start for each boat and documented the finishes.
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| Announcing the winners |
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| One crew receiving their prize: rum, of course |
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| Comparing injuries |
After the race, we went to the post race party at Nelson's Dockyard. We met quite a few of the racers and had some good rum punch. (For medicinal purposes of course, for my hand).
On New Year's Eve, we were invited to S/V Nightwatch. We had met Mary and Ralph way back when we were in Marathon when we first started cruising. We spent some time with them in Grenada last summer and ran into them again here in Antigua. Anna and Hawken from Sweden on S/V Unicorn, joined us on Nightwatch. We had a really nice evening and Mary made the most delicious yeast rolls we have ever had. We returned to our boat about 9:00 but managed to stay up long enough to see the fireworks at midnight. That is the latest we have been up in a loooong time other than for night passages.
1/2/2016 We wanted to spend more time exploring other areas of Antigua but needed to move on toward St. Thomas to be sure we were there in time to meet Connor who was due to arrive on January 9th. So we left Antigua at 10:30 in the morning to do an overnight passage to St. Maarten timing it so we would not arrive before dawn. The seas along the south side of Antigua were about 6 feet on the stern and very sloppy. At about 1130 when we turned to the northwest to head to St. Maarten the seas were lower but hitting us on the quarter and making us roll. We couldn't sail the rhumb line until about 1300 when the wind picked up and finally clocked a bit to the East. By 2200 the wind had picked up to 17 knots and we were making about 6 knots which was going to get us to St. Maarten before sunrise. So we over-trimmed the reefed mainsail to slow us down a bit. We arrived in Simpson Bay and anchored about 0800 the next morning. We did not check in because we were leaving again the next day. We probably would have continued on to St. Thomas without a stop in St. Maarten or at least left that afternoon but didn't want to push ourselves as Greg was having to do a lot more of the work because of me being essentially one-handed.
