Day 166, Year 6 Nelson’s Dockyard, St. John’s, and Headed North
Date: Friday, April 8, 2011
Weather: Beautiful Day, Winds E 15
Location: Overnight Passage from Antiqua to Sint Maarten
First a correction to last night’s log. I thought the beautiful “J” boat, Ranger, that I saw yesterday was a restored original, but we heard from Alan Kanegsberg letting us know that it looks so great because it is a new boat, only two years old. According to Alan it was created from Olin Stephens and Starling Burgess’ original line but with modern construction. Old or new, it is beautiful, and the last thing we did before leaving Falmouth Harbor this afternoon was to take the dinghy and go up close to look at her again. We started our day with a walking tour of Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbor, just next door to Falmouth Harbor. The great thing about Nelson’s Dockyard is that is has been totally refurbished and its buildings are being used. There is a sail loft, Sunsail charters, a lovely hotel and restaurant, another restaurant, a bakery, a museum, Customs and Immigration, and lots of shops and boutiques all tucked into the restored buildings. We walked the perimeter looking at the beautiful boats, not as many and not as big as in Falmouth Harbor, but Elena from London was there and she is another beauty. She is a classic Herreshoff schooner. We took a walk out to Fort Berkeley Point and enjoyed the views. When we returned to Nelson’s Dockyard, it was almost noon and we decided to hop on a local bus and go across the island to St. John’s on the north coast for lunch. It is always fun to take the local transportation and see the sights. We had a good lunch. albeit expensive as we ate on the waterfront close to the cruise ship dock, and then we walked through the very large public market area and back to the bus station to take #17 to Falmouth Harbor.
We pulled up anchor at 4:20 pm just after one of the big guys, Pan Thalassa from London, pulled out with a farewell of blaring boat horns. We thought maybe this was a special farewell just for us! It is now just past sundown and time for dinner and for me to go to sleep. We will be in Sint Maarten tomorrow, so this is not a big deal passage, but it is the first overnight we have done since arriving from South Africa, so I’d better stop writing and get to bed.
One last note. We heard from Justin and Jo letting us know Ziggy had a super birthday yesterday. We sure hope to be able to connect with them via Skype tomorrow sometime after arriving in Sint Maarten.
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| 110408 Day 166a Antigua–Nelson's Dockyard, St. John's, and Headed North |
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| 110408 Day 166b Antigua–Great T-shirt Slogans |
