We left Basseterre, St. Kitts at 1330 on Thursday, April 24. Our intended anchorage was Majors Bay but we anchored in the bay next to it, Banana Bay, in about 7' of water but it was a little rolly. We set the alarm for 0500 the next morning and were underway shortly after 0530. It was already light out.We had good weather to Antigua. The winds were no more than 15 kts and seas about 4', just what was predicted. Of course we were heading into the wind.

St. Kitts.

Shops across from cruise dock at St. Kitts.

Port Zante Marina, St. Kitts.

We arrived at English Harbour, Antigua around 1600. We picked the worst (or best) week to arrive. The Antigua Sailing Week is this week. Lots of boats. Last weekend was the classic boat races, some amazing boats.

137' classic race boat.

 

The stern of the same boat.

We are anchored right beside Nelson's Dockyard, lots of history here.

Unfortunately we missed Customs by about 3 minutes but that was okay, we were still allowed to get off the boat and tour the town (we had previously been told Antigua was very strict). It is advisable not to carry too much money on your person but we were cutting it very close! $5Euros ($6.50US) and $2.25EC (Eastern Caribbean) or less than $1.00US so we set out to find a bank or ATM. The one bank in town was closed for the weekend and the one ATM machine spit out all our bank cards. Hence we were broke! Not all restaurants accept Visa so we were on the hunt for one that did. We found one that we liked and had supper there.

Saturday morning we were up early and cleared Customs after 1-1/2 hours and Jorge biting his tongue a number of times. Luckily they accepted Visa. We again tried the bank machine but to no avail. We had lunch at a restaurant that accepted Visa however their phone lines were down when we went to pay. The owner was very kind. He bought our $5Euros and gave us a bit more so we could take the bus to St. John's where there were more ATM machines. He also trusted us to come back and pay the lunch bill when we got some money. Off we went by bus to St. John's, some 30 minutes away depending on how many stops the bus had to make. We found a Scotiabank and successfully withdrew money. It was an inconvenience but hey we got to see the countryside and some of St. John's. We also bought some groceries before catching the bus back to English Harbour where we squared up with the restaurant.

Nelson Dockyard Marina office.

Part of the dockyard.

Building converted to bar/restaurant.

Downtown St. John's, Antigua.

I spent all morning defrosting the fridge while Jorge did some internet work and made two trips to the fuel dock with the jerry cans. We cleared out of Customs this afternoon as we are leaving for Guadaloupe tomorrow morning. The winds are supposed to be 15 to 20 kts and coming from the east. Guadaloupe is south, maybe we will be able to sail??? Its about 45 miles so another full day, 9 hrs give or take.