English Harbour, Antigua

Wednesday, January 16

We woke up and sailed the boat over to English Harbor. English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour (side by side) were the home of Britain's main naval station in the Lesser Antilles. In 1745, the English harbour Dockyard (Nelson's Dockyard) was contructed there, and the majority of the original buildings of the dockyard are still intact today. It has been restored and is managed as a National Park, and is the yachting capital of Antigua as well as a major yachting center of the Caribbean. The dock was lined with mega-yachts, many of them sailing vessels, from around the world. We anchored close to the entrance of the Harbour, took the dingy to shore, and walked around Nelson's Dockyard, the beautifully reconstructed inns, pubs, businesses, historical monuments, and museum. Falmouth Harbour, which is withing walking distance of English Harbour, is a little larger and with more marine services, but doesn't have the beautiful restored buildings and historical monuments. After walking around the Dockyard, we had lunch at one of the bistros lining the docks. We met another cruising couple sitting next to us, Mike and Audrey, who have been cruising around the world for the past 12 years on their 38 ft monohull sailboat. They explained that this is their 2^nd time in the Caribbean. Of all the places they've sailed, they loved Bali the most, but also loved the waters of Figi where they spent a significant amount of time (seems to be something we've been hearing a lot from other cruisers!). We exchanged invitations to visit each others boats while in the harbor, so we hope to meet up with them again soon and hear more about their experiences around the world.

Channel entrance into English Harbour

 Hamilton House in Nelson's Dockyard

The historic Copper & Lumber Store and Dockyard Museum

The Admirals Inn (Sail loft pillars from 1700s on the left)

When we returned to the boat later that day, we were surprised to see several other sailing boats anchored dangerously close to us! Luckily the anchorage was very well protected with very little wind, so we agreed that we were probably not in danger of hitting. One of our neighbors did come very close to hitting, but luckily we had our dingy in the water which acted as a fender. After the close miss, they decided to pull up some of their anchor rode to avoid potentially hitting us. 

Our neighbors from Finland anchored behind us

  Sunset guitar playing