Arrive in Antigua

June 9, 2020

Almost a 24hr sail. It was nice with light winds and full sails and couple of hours engine. Very comfortable, Happy Days is great. We had full moon and only saw two boats close by during the night. Normally, in this area at this time of the year there would have been a lot more. I had dinner prepared the night before and the sailing was so good that I was able to prepare lunch before we arrived.

We anchored in St John’s bay as required by the authorities and got to shore as quick as possible, only to found out the officials had left for the day 7 minutes earlier. We were told.

At least we managed to hand the part to Saline (Jan Paul and Marjoleim), so now they can install it and get ready to go to the Azores. It was nice to see them and we were all very pleased they have their part now. Cedric is feeling a lot better now, he was the one who climbed the mast on Saline to check the rigging few weeks back and he found the problem and now by recovering the part from Dominica and bringing it to Antigua he kind of help to the solution!!

We had to spend the night at the anchorage, very flat like a mirror. It is a commercial port and there are cargo boats loading and unloading apparently 24 hours so there was a bit of noise, but we were tired from the sail so we had plenty sleep.

Next morning we were ready at the office 9am. The procedures are still not very clear. In theory everyone arriving by boat needs to do 14 days quarantine and only on case by case you can be exempted. As we were coming from Dominica we got the exemption approved. It took around 2 hours, phone calls, papers, temperature check and all. But it was worth because we were welcome and free to come in. I still think that the fact that the official in charge was a native from Dominica helped our case. We heard from a boat coming from Martinique that had arrived in May 29 and was put in quarantine on June 2. So he would only be allowed in land probably by June 17 and another boat coming from Virgin Islands was allowed on the same day. So it is very irregular at the moment.

It still feels very strange as we are obliged to wear the mask and clean hands everywhere, but if it is for everyone’s safety then we can keep the mask at 30 degrees.

We had a strolled around St Johns, there is a full villa ready to receive cruise-ships with lots of shops, duty free and brand stores, all closed. Seem like a ghost town.

Anyway we are now welcome and have a valid permit for 3 months to cruise in Antigua an Barbuda, even if we will probably only stay until the end of the month.

After the visit to the city which we had to cut short, because most stores, markets, etc are closed and also because it rain like not stop for couple of hours, we found a nice little cafe. Very welcoming, our first lunch seated in a restaurant after more than 3 months!!

The menu for the day and some wonderful piña colada helped us to forget we were completely soaked and enjoy the little pleasures of life!

Keep tuned we will be discovering Antigua and Barbuda in the next couple of weeks.