Westward Ho

Here I was again in the Caribbean. Antigua. We had delivered the Lagoon Catamaran 45 Boogie Woogie from Grand Canaria in November last year. Now we were taking her back to Europe.

Getting into the mood, I went to the Skullduggery Pub and had a rum punch whilst waiting for Tomaz, Boogie Woogie’s owner, and his kids, who had crossed the Atlantic with us last November; they had been in Antigua chartering their boat since I left them in Grenada last year. Boogie Woogie was anchored, waiting for us to take her back to Greece. I was escorted straight to my old cabin. Then, hungry as hell, we climbed back aboard the dinghy and went back to Skullduggery for hamburgers, fish and chips and another rum.

The next day, after an early morning swim I met the three other new crew with whom I would make the crossing without Tomaz, Dasa and the kids. Three young beautiful people - fit, smart and interesting: Alvaro from Argentina (skipper of Tomaz and Dasa’s other boat Lady Ida), Louisa from Belgium and Vincent from France. Thus began the arduous task of transferring things between boats: things for the Atlantic; things for the sale of the other boat. Vincent and I took the easy job and, donning masks and snorkels, began scraping the hull of barnacles that accumulated from our last Atlantic crossing in November.