After an excitable hour of getting ready, eating breakfast and watching the BBC build up, I headed off to the train to meet Jo and Ed.

We had chosen to head to Hyde Park, as they were setting up large screens to let the crowds watch the wedding.  We had assigned picnic duties to ensure that we had enough food and drink.  My assigned items were Champagne and strawberries .  Jo and Ed had prepared sandwiches and a host of other food, plus they also brought another 2 bottles of Champagne…alcohol was not going to be in shortage!

On arrival to Hyde Park, we were surprised to see that there were in fact 3 HUGE screens set up – each about the height of a 4 story house.  There was also a large collection of temporary bars, food stalls and merchandise stands.  Even if we did manage to get through the champagne (we did), there were plenty of supplies within easy reach

I guess we must had sat down on our picnic blanket by about 9:30.  We opened our first bottle of champagne by 9:35.  Popping open the first bottle at such an early time in the morning felt slightly naughty and exciting…but not in a society outcast kind of way.  Trust me – we would have been the odd ones out if we were NOT opening a bottle of champagne.

The buzz in Hyde Park was infectious. There was a strong festival like atmosphere.  The whole crowd were there for a common purpose, the crowd had chosen to sit on the grass, the crowd had chosen to be amongst other people rather than sitting at home in front of the TV.  The numbers of conversations with strangers and the willingness to hug random passers-by was way higher than usual.  The level of public camaraderie was atypically strong – what a great feeling!

The huge concert style, parabolic speaker sets ensured that everyone in Hyde Park was kept informed with each and every development of the wedding ceremony.  In fact, the speakers were even used to project ambient crowd cheering sounds across the park – noticeable by the eerie silence each time they muted the speakers at various points throughout the day.

The BBC switched their coverage to show the crowds in Hyde Park every now and again, just to remind us that the whole world was watching us! That felt pretty damn good

OK, time for another one of those emotional moments!…

Kate walked down the isle of Westminster Abbey, with a perfectly choreographed and beautiful set of clergymen, family, bridesmaids and page boys.

Hyde Park roared with laughter as Prince looked over his shoulder, caught a glimpse of Kate and then whispered something such as “She looks amazing” with a big smile to his nervous brother William.

Then it happened! The build up of emotion peaked.  The angelic sounds of choir were booming over the huge Hyde Park sounds system, the tens of thousands of people in the park were cheering and swaying in a sea of union jacks, it was impossible to escape the immense feeling of pride and excitement buzzing around the whole world at that moment in time…

THEN, the BBC switched to this stunning roof shot of the Abbey, showing the beautiful symmetry with the unmissable wedding dress as a centre point.  This served as a reminder of how big of an event this was!

This perfect shot summed up the grandeur of the day.  For whatever reason, or reasons, seeing this camera shot on the big screen, through the sea of British flags, and with the sounds of the orchestra and choir booming through the Hyde Park sound system, brought a little proud tear to my eye.  Thankfully I wasn’t the only one, it brought more than one tear to Jo’s eyes.

During the wedding vows, the eerie silence came back to Hyde Park as everyone listened carefully to each word from the priest, William and Kate.  There was a huge “ooooooh”, followed by a cheer from everyone in the park as William forced the (seemingly slightly too small) wedding ring on to Kate’s finger.  The park then erupted with cheers and celebration as they heard the words…”I pronounce you man and wife”.

As the choir (and Elton John) in Westminster Abbey started to sing “Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer” (“Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, feed me til I want no more, want no moooorre”), most of Hyde Park stood and listened, although a group of lads just behind us were singing at their loudest volume word for word – thanks to the lyrics which had been printed in the local London newspaper.

After the ceremony was complete, Hyde Park carried on partying thanks to the large amounts of BYO (BYO is an acronym i picked up in Australia meaning Bring Your Own) alcohol and food, the large selection of bars and a live band called ‘MIB” who entertained us with live covers of typical cheesey wedding songs from bands such as the Jackson 5 and Kool and the Gang.  We were also entertained by an on stage presenter who looked a bit like Dale Winton.  The rest of the afternoon was pretty much like being at a Hyde Park music festival (although the music wasn’t quite as good).

Yesterday, the 29th April 2011, was the date for the Royal wedding of William and Kate.  We decided to brave the crowds and head to London to part of the experience.  My story of getting up and motivated is worth capturing…

My day started off with an unwanted 7am alarm call from iPhone.  I jumped out of bed, muted the phone and switched the TV on to try and wake up my brain.  I’ll be honest – at that precise moment in time, I regretted arranging to meet friends early on a public vacation day.

I HATE the feeling of missing out on something just because I was too lazy to do it.  So a few minutes of watching the BBC news TV crews interviewing excited wedding spectators in central London, was all it took to get me excited and WANT to get out of bed.  I turned up the news loud enough to hear it in the shower, got washed and ready excitably quickly, and then thankfully had time for a quick bit of breakfast down in the kitchen whilst I continued to watch the build on the BBC.

I love how unexpected, and completely unpredictable moments often become the most memorable parts of an experience.  On the day of the wedding, one of the most memorable moments occurred for me before I had even left the house!

One of the BBC presenters was interviewing the crowd who have been camping out over night so that they could secure a spot to see the wedding procession.  The female presenter asked a question to a friendly, elderly (ish) looking man…

”So why did you come down here, rather than staying at home and getting a better view on television?”

to which the man responded…

1) ”Because you don’t get to meet great people like this by staying at home” (followed by a cheer from the crowd around him)

2) “Because being here makes it a memory you will never forget”

Seeing this, genuinely brought a little tear to my eye, whilst also getting me even more excited about getting in to London!  Before I had even arrived, that nice old guy had summed up the whole reason why we were getting out of bed early on a day off work.

We were going to be part of the crowd, we were going to make friends with the crowd, we were going to part of the event…we were going to make it a memory to never forget.

I was trying to find info about the BA lounge in Antigua before I came out here, but could not find any.  On arrival, I discovered why – it’s only been here for 2 days!  Previously it was before security, and next to the Banana restaurant on the first floor.  Now it’s past security, but still on the first floor – through a door in the back of the room about the main departure area.

I assume it’s not BA only, although most of the people here at the moment seem to be on the BA flight.  They have very low lighting throughout, although I think that’s partly due to the fact it’s not finished.

It does feel quite exclusive coming in as you have to knock on the door and wait for the ‘receptionist’ to let you in.  The guy controlling the door is the only member of staff on duty, so he is also the barman.  Nice friendly guy though.

They have a fairly well stocked bar (you have to be served by a barman due to U.S. laws), a selection of crackers, cheese and other nibbles and two nice washrooms.  No showers, but they do have a couple of free to use PCs as well as free WIFI (of course). 

There are currently no TVs up, but the guy said that they will be soon.  Anyway, here are the rest of the photos (click each to see a large version)…

After a night of parting in Jost Van Dyke we headed back to the beach to get breakfast.  The girls chose a bar where we had ended up the night before…

We turned up at ‘Corsairs’ at 8:40 and were greeted by Vinnie, the owner who remembered some of our crew from the previous night.  He said we could have breakfast as soon as is his chef turns up – at 9…ish (with a now familiar Caribbean laid back unsure smile).  We went off to the supermarket and in the mean time his chef had indeed arrived and was ready to cook us breakfast.

The bar is obviously run on a tight budget, so Vinnie served us himself rather than having other staff work that early in the morning.  His accent and facial appearance reminded me of a calming spiritual Cherokee Indian, although he was dressed like a biker/rocker.  It turns out, he was a biker.  He also mentioned that one of his homes is Colorado, so I assume he is actually an Apache Indian.  On top of the Apache Indian to biker contrast, he also had a very unique monocle hung around his neck which he used whilst writing down our food orders.  Very un-biker like. 

His less than optimistic face when we ordered 3 teas summed up the slight issue he had with lock of stock.  Despite his supply problems, his likable personality, along with his ‘we will make it work’ attitude made ordering the food a fun and slightly mysterious (we didn’t know exactly what we would get) activity.  I ordered a coca-cola, which WAS available, however it did come with an explanation of how the drinks can had been handled by him 9 times before it got to me, through a series of deliveries, boat trips 3 times per week, trading with other businesses and other long winded steps he needs to go through just to keep his bar/restaurant stocked.  It’s easy to take for granted that each little bar on the beach will have the food and drink on the menu, but it’s harder to understand all of the additional effort these small businesses on remote islands need to go through in order to get it there in the first place.

Vinnie managed to connect with each of our group individually, with a combination of cleverly personalized jokes, friendly rubs on the shoulder and plenty of smiles during the ordering process.  Even if he had served us up the worse breakfast ever (he didn’t), we would still have enjoyed the experience and walked away with smiles.

For the afternoon we sailed in to Diamond Bay, where dad and I went snorkelling.  I have still not managed to perfect the art of stopping goggles misting up, so ended up filling them with sea water every now and again to clear the lenses.  We saw a turtle and a sword fish, plus a few other random fishes, however the water was either too deep or to sandy to see much else.  After reaching the shore, we walked across rocks to a small bar where we got the first pina colada of the day.   As we arrived at the bar in bare feet, with flippers and mask in hand, some friends from another boat arrived by dingy.  It felt satisfying to have made it there under our own power, whereas they had resorted to polluting petrol power

At the end of an exhausting day, I sat on top of the boat, listening to music and thinking about work a little bit.  It was nice to get some relax time to think about what things I wanted to change when I get back home.  However, I never managed to reach any major decisions and started to feel a little frustrated with no conclusion.  I stopped thinking and went down the back of the boat to start drinking wine with the crew – soon felt better.  Sometimes switching off from work thinking is hard – perhaps it was easier this time as I would generally relaxed anyway.

Morning 4 waking up on the boat was just as beautiful as the rest.  The sun and shade would alternate on the breakfast table at the back of the boat as we drift around on our buoy.  I distinctly remember waking up on morning 4 and not having a care in the world other than which t-shirt to wear, thinking about which island we will stop off at for lunch and wondering how good the snorkelling will be that day.  When waking up to blue skies like this…

…the worries of the world fade away easily.

I’m a bit slow to start in the mornings, so don’t find it that easy to make conversation over breakfast each morning, however I was happy to sit there in the sun and listen to the others discussing the days plans and various other things. I was happy, but quiet and sleepy.  Just hope everyone didn’t think I was being miserable.

Dad cooked a fried breakfast for the whole crew.  I decline as I preferred to try and eat healthy, especially as I wasn’t doing much exercise.  Guess it may just be psychological, however I  feel down when eating unhealthy food now, that is unless I know I will be doing a heavy workout to burn it off.  Not a bad thing, but something I need to consider before pigging out on a fry up.

The sky in the morning was a beautiful pearlescent blue, mostly clear but with odd clouds hovering above islands looking like smoke coming off the top of the hills.  The larger the island, the larger the cloud formation.  It was quite unique and quite stunning.

This was the first day I took the helm with the sails up.  It didn’t feel like we were going that fast, so although I found it interesting, if I am honest I was happier manning the ropes and relaxing in between jybes and tacks.  I had the wind behind me at an angle of about 120 degrees.  Paul and Steve were pretty relaxed, although their tone of voice drifted slightly in to panic as I drifted towards 30 degrees by accident – I guess because it would have meant an accidental tack (or jybe?!), which can be dangerous and potentially damage the boat.

I eventually managed to get the hand of the delayed response which is apparently prevalent in all sailing, but particularly noticeable on the catamaran we were on.  Steve taught me pick a spot on the horizon to head for, make small corrections left or right, put the wheel back to the centre, wait to see what effect it has and then adjust some more if necessary.  Repeating that process constantly whilst looking out for other boats is what I spent most of my time doing as helmsman.  It’s also important to try and pre-empt how the wind will effect our course by watching the waves, however I need a LOT more experience to get that right.  I simply adjusted every time we went of course and changed course whenever Steve or Paul told me to.

We met Alastair’s boat later in the day and had to drop anchor as all of the buoys had already been taken.  However, our anchor power winch broke, which meant that we couldn’t pull the anchor in, or let it out using the motor.  Alastair and crew came onboard to help us try to fix the problem.  As I had seen in previous problem situations, everyone was smart, serious and dedicated to fixing the problem.  No was stressed, everyone’s opinion was heard (even the less than practical ones from non-engineering minded people) and everyone worked together to try and fix the winch.  After a long time spent unsuccessfully trying to fix the winch, someone realised that it was ‘Gin O’clock’, which prompted everyone on the boat to get handed either a Gin and Tonic or a beer.  Whilst the guys were enjoying discussing the problem, and trying to work together to solve it, they were unsuccessful and everyone eventually decided to put less focus on the winch, more focus on the beers and to call the boat charter company to get there help in making the repairs.  I actually decided that I was one man too many early on in the process, so decided to stay out of the way and sit at the back of the boat to write up some blog notes.

I was feeling really tired in the evening.  Our on-boat dinner time felt nice as we were all getting to know each other a bit better.  The other boat invited us over to have drinks there, however I was half asleep and was not in a conversational mood, so decided to stay on our boat along with a couple of others who were also tired.  I felt a bit like I was letting myself (and my crew) down by not being sociable, but also told myself that I simply needed one chilled night and then I would be back on track for the rest of the trip.  After an early night and a good night’s sleep, that was pretty much the case .

I woke up to a strange sight during the early hours of morning 5 – glowing insects crawling all over my dad!  At first I just sat there watching them, partly in fright, partly out of curiosity.  I then wondered if I was dreaming, so did a bit of a reality check – I knew the date, I knew where I was and I could backtrack how I got there – I wasn’t dreaming.  I saw the greeny/yellow illuminating bugs crawl off of dad and on to the sheets.

After waking dad up and pointing out the bugs, and after coming around a bit myself I realised that the ‘glow bugs’ were in fact reflections of light from the open deck hatch, which appeared to be moving due to the drift of the boat!  Emergency over, glow bugs gone, dad and I got back to sleep .

We woke up to rain on morning 5 of sailing.  We continued to sit outside under the sheltered back section of the boat, although did have to go through the slight inconvenience of wiping dry the leather seat cushions first.  It wasn’t quite the same as waking up to the morning sun rays, in fact it felt a bit more like having breakfast whilst camping in rainy England.  It did make me wonder whether I would enjoy sailing in the UK as much – that remains to be seen.  The clouds soon cleared and we were again graced with beautiful sunshine to enjoy whilst we sailed.

Had that bizarre craving for news again on morning 5.  Was keen to get online and download some of the latest headlines.

Our anchor problems persisted during the morning, so we stayed in the bay for a while.  We headed over to Marina Cay, which was a beautiful little island within dingy distance of the boat.  There wasn’t much there other than a few bars, a diving school, a beach and a shop, but it was a place I would like to have stayed more than the 20 minutes we did.

We were hoping to get some milk from the grocery shop, however they were sold out.  We asked the lady in the shop when more would come in and she said ‘”he comes in the morning” (referring to the man delivering the milk).  We asked what time we should come back and she said “he comes in the morning”, with a smile and a brief look out of the window to see if he happened to turn up at that point.  Aaah, Caribbean time, it’s all good .

As we were sitting the in the bay a REALLY expensive motor yacht turned up!  We looked it up online to see who’s it was.  It turned out to be a very expensive charter boat, so the passengers were undoubtedly rich and/or important.  I had boat envy for a while, just check out some of the photos (from the boat’s website)…

There will always be a bigger boat.

Later on in the day we were told by the boat company that we had to manually raise our anchor, since they could not fix it whilst we were out on the boat.  The guys from the other boat came over to help us do the lifting.  With about 6 guys lifting, we got it up in no time and the feeling of camaraderie was high.

As we pulled out of the harbour I listened to some house music whilst the other guys sailed.  Perhaps it was the combination of events from the morning, or perhaps it was just because it was the first time I had listened to house since we started sailing, or perhaps it was the beautiful sunshine and scenery combined with music, but I felt in a state of indescribable high as I heard 2006 house tunes whilst we sailed along past Caribbean beaches.  There were multiple occasions where I heard a song I recognised being mixed in and I had to close my eyes to simply embrace the back tingling joy I felt to hear the tunes.  AMAZING feeling! Love music  

The morning of day 3 of sailing involved a trip to Went to Leverick Bay to get some supplies (milk, bread, coke, gin, etc…)  It was pretty much a ghost town when we arrived, with most of the shops and bars closed.  We tied our dingy up on the jetty for one of the bars, got rid of our rubbish sacks in their bins and wondered up in to the main part of the small holiday resort.

I managed to get on WIFI by standing outside the hotel.  It felt good to Facebook updated and read a bit of BBC news after being cut off for a couple of days.  Whilst I would not consider my self an addict for the news at home, I did find myself craving some up to date reading material whilst we were on the boat.  Weird.

The ‘supermarket’ resembled what I would imagine grocery stores would have looked like during the war.  The shop was small, with very few fresh products in and consisted mainly of densely packed tined and other long life items, many of which had labels with faded colours – presumably because they had been sitting around in the sun during some point of their journey to the store.   I purchased two cartons of Orange juice and later discovered (after drinking one of them), that the best before day was the 7th March (I had purchased them on the 12th!  It certainly wasn’t Waitrose, but the shop did meet our basic supply needs

The toilet on the boat needed to be pumped 15 times each time we went (more pumps for more waste).  It was great to visit the restroom on dry land and flush with just a simple flick of the toilet handle, aaah, luxury .

The next few hours were relatively slow.  We headed to a nearby bay to do some snorkelling and most people used the time to get some reading in.  I must admit that I would happily sit on the boat and do some emails in the sun on lazy days like that.  I resisted though, as I feared it may result in a missed opportunity to get my mindset further in to the slow paced and relaxing world of catermeran sailing.  On that particular day, I was quite keen to get some fast pace sailing in and was craving a bit of adrenaline rush.  During the morning/early afternoon, everyone else seemed quite content to relax whilst we remained tied to a buoy, so I also just relaxed, read, listened to music and made some blog notes.  No adrenaline rush, but definitely a relaxation high.

During the afternoon we did end up sailing properly. Dad and I sat either side of Paul who was helmsman for the day and we controlled the two winches for various tacks and jybes.  It was the first day that it felt like we were actually part of the sailing activity, rather than simply passengers who were occasionally helping out with some ropes.  Steve taught us the voice commands to use to ensure we were all in sync.  Working as a team whilst sailing is critical, and clear communication is critical to working as a team.  Dad and I readied our winches as Paul called ‘ready to tack/jybe’, after we had prepared our winches and stated we were ready, he shouted ‘coming about’ (I think) and then we then waited for ‘Leigh ho’ or ‘tack ho’ which signalled us to start winching or let our rope out (depending on which way we were turning) and then the ropes were secured around the winches to ensure the sail stayed in optimum sailing position.  We went through this process about 7 or 8 times, every time the wind changed or we decided to turn.  Sitting in the helmsmans area, looking down on the boat, controlling the direction and speed of the crew felt truly exhilarating and quite liberating considering we were being propelled by nothing other than the wind.

This was also the first day I had been in charge of hooking the buoy so that my ship mates could tie it our mooring lines.  This basically involved hanging off the front of the boat with a long metal hook, designed to capturing the eye on the end the buoy through which our mooring lines were threaded.  The challenging part was ensuring I communicated efficiently to the helmsman so that he can steer the boat towards the buoy.  I missed it on the first go, and the second, but got it on the third. Felt bad to have failed   But it did make me more determined to get it first time on a future go.  I decided that clearer hand signals were needed next time.  The helmsman said it was his thought as he came in too fast, however I think he was just saying that to make me feel better.  It was completely my fault as he couldn’t see the buoy or the speed when we were close, it was my job to provide him with signals.  Even though I had seen Dave doing the signals previously, I felt a little silly doing them myself as I didn’t really feel like I knew what I was doing.  Will just do it next time and stop being silly.

The only full day we had in Antigua started off well with a tasty breakfast the Coconut Beach bar.  Fresh fruit and pancakes reminded me of being in Thailand, and also provided plenty of energy for the rest of the day

Since we had a day to spare in Antigua before flying to Tortola to get out boat, we decided to rent a heap jeep for the day.

We initially asked our hotel reception to find us an open top jeep for the day – they phoned around several companies only to discover none of them had jeeps available.  Whilst I sometimes get shy about asking strangers for help, particularly when I don’t consider it there ‘job’, it’s something I want to do more of and worry less about! Can’t find a jeep in Antigua? All car companies out of stock? No problem! Just ask your waitress at breakfast.  She called a ‘friend’ who gave us a call back to arrange a ‘car without a roof’ out of thin air. Ok the car ended being a really beaten up Suzuki jeep, that the waitresses friend usually drives around himself, but he roof did successfully come off (although not sure they will get it back on again) to allow us to enjoy the sun. Since the guy had seemingly and understandably never rented out his own car before, he pretty much picked a price out of thin air – $40 for the day, bargain!

Our first stop with the car was St. Johns, which is also the mooring point for the huge cruise ships which visit the island.  Two ships had landed that day, so the town was incredibly busy with day tourists and hundreds of locals trying to sell them island tours, jewellery and who knows what else.  The main street leading up to the cruise ships was like a celebrity movie premier, where the affluent passengers  disembarked the  ships and were swarmed upon by the relatively poor locals hoping to get them to sign up for whatever they were selling.

We were mistaken for cruise ship passengers, mainly because we were dressed like tourists, complete with multiple cameras and pale English skin being turned quickly pink by the late morning sun.  This was not really a problem, other than it meaning we had to constantly say ‘No Thanks’ to people saying ‘taxi?’. 

St John’s streets were busy, exciting and noisy.  Smells from various street food stalls were difficult to distinguish or identify, but appealing enough to induce a strong sense of hunger.  The sounds of the professional steel drum band playing outside the boat, as well as the not quite so professional musicians selling steel drums to tourists, both served as a constant reminder of where we were.

The rest of the day was mainly spent driving.  We attempted to find some nice spots to enjoy a drink at a beach bar, but repeatability failed as most of the beaches were either empty or belonged to an all inclusive resort and inaccessible to the public. We had lunch in Falmouth Harbour at the dock.  Dad had been craving a toasted cheese sandwich, and the first place we came across had them advertised clearly on their food board, so that’s where we ate! .  In hindsight, the food in the other restaurants on the same pier would probably have been better, however we both enjoyed our lunch so it was all good. 

We spent the rest of the day mainly driving around, along roads which cut through the land like a roller coaster, sometimes going up and down steeply with the hills, other times cutting through land masses and maintaining a level road.  The road condition was not great at all and the suspension on our jeep meant that we felt every pothole and pebble, however that just added to the sense of adventure we had driving the jeep around an island.

The evening after our jeep exploration we decided to try Putters Bar, which was an alternative to the beautifully set Coconut Beach bar we had been to the previous night.  Potters Bar was NOT beautiful and was not typically Caribbean.  It was in fact owned by a an ex-pat Brit, and designed to provide a UK style pub atmosphere complete with pool tables, sport on a big screen and dodgy pub food.  The venue itself resembled a temporary marquee, with no sides and a rusting metal roof.  There was also a strong smell of sewage from a nearby treatment plant.  Don’t get me wrong, the atmosphere in the place was friendly enough, and I would have been happy to spend the night there chatting and drinking, but it’s not somewhere I would describe as typically Caribbean.

Dad and I decided to play some cards whilst I was in the bar.  The waitress came over whilst we were mid-game and seemed to be interested in learning the rules of the game.  I originally thought that her apparent interest was just out of the need to ask awkward social questions, or to get a tip of course.  I expected her to ask the question and then stay 30 seconds pretending to be interested and then leave.  However she stayed for several rounds.  Whilst I originally explained the rules at a very basic level (not expecting her to stay or to be genuinely interested), she asked repeated questions about hands we played which exposed gaps in the rule set I had previously explained, so required me to provide additional info which I had not yet explained.  She came back several times to watch and even asked ‘how come 4 kings did the same as a 10′ (the ONE rule I had not yet explained).  She was not just a barmaid pretending to be interested, she WAS interested and she WAS paying attention.  Real motives aside, that REALLY is now to make friends.

It seemed that a good proportion of the locals in the ‘Antigua Village’ where we were staying, were in fact ex-pats who had purchased either outright or on a timeshare basis.  Whilst they all seemed happy and relaxed (and suntanned in an unattractive wrinkled skin kind of way), to be honest I cannot understand why anyone would want to live there.  The beach was OK, the beach bar was OK (note that’s 2 just ‘OK’s), but the area was boring, baron, unattractive and right next to the luxury Sandels resort, which seemed to just serve as a reminder that the people living outside of the resort had to settle for 2nd best.  I was happy to spend a couple of days there and enjoy the sun, but I would have no desire to go back to Antigua Village.

We had a fairly easy start on the first morning of sailing, with a late lazy breakfast, some time to chill whilst we waited for the boats to be prepared and a laid back boat briefing from the charter company.  Milton was responsible for showing us how to use the boat and to tell us all of the essential rules.  He was very  knowledgeable about sailing, although not serious at all.  He was placing a lot of responsibility in our hands (an $800,000 dollar boat), but had a very relaxed and playful attitude as he pointed out switches to leave alone and other ways of destroying the boat.  I had a lot of respect for him and the information he was providing us, but also found him a very likeable guy.  UK people are perhaps a little guilty of taking work/life too seriously sometimes.  We should all be a bit more like Milton.

I got excited as I watched Steve (our captain) review the charts and plan our journey.  It felt a little like we were early traders about to head out in to the unknown depths of the pirate filled Caribbean seas…

For the first day we motored sailed (sailed with the motor on) to ensure that we could get to Trellis Hardbour off of Beef Island early enough to get a mooring as it was a popular spot.  When we arrived at the harbour, it was a nice spot, surrounded by rocky terrain and sheltered from the choppy sea.  The water was beautifully clear and the sight of other sailing boats was unique, although if I am honest I was a little underwhelmed by the scenery as in my head I was comparing it to the breath-taking beaches of Thailand.  Most of the land in the British Virgin Islands is baron, brown and overgrown with unattractive greenery.  The scenery when sailing in sunshine can’t be called anything less than stunning, however I do feel I have been spoiled by Thailand too much to find the Caribbean overly inspiring.

When we first arrived in the bay for Beef Island, i initially wondered what we were going to do as everyone just seemed to be sitting there on the back of their boats. After a while of wondering and just sitting around, I realised that’s the whole point – beautiful place, nothing to do, sunset to enjoy, watching others reading on the deck of their boats, watching planes take off just a few hundreds meters away, being offered ice by locals in small boats and the easy option of cooling down with a late afternoon dip in the crystal clear water.  Whilst I had not been overly impressed with the scenery so far, watching the sun set on the small strip of sand with contrasting greenery behind it looked quite beautiful.  It felt like we were in a special spot, away from the hassles of the world, our only job to relax with the rest of the floating boats around us and enjoy the sunset…

After a few hours of drinking on the boat, we all got in to the small dinghy on the back of the boat to head over to the last resort restaurant/bar, situated on a small island in the middle of the harbour…

I love how not even the women on the boat cared that we were getting in to a small, wet dinghy, in the pitch black of night to navigate ourselves via torchlight over a shallow stretch of water to find a jetty to moor to.  Knowing plenty of girls who won’t even step outside if there is a drizzle of rain, it was quite refreshing to be with a group of people who seemed to embrace and enjoy the challenge and adventure of boating. 

We ended up accidentally running aground in our dinghy, about 20 meters away from the jetty.  I half expected to the women to panic and the captain to get stressed and serious.  Of course we stopped, and of course the captain took appropriate action to fix the problem, however no one showed panic, everyone found it funny and the people in charge of the boat calmly and in good humour got us out of trouble and got us to the bar safely.

When we arrived at the bar to meet the people from the other boats, I was pleased to discover that they were all very socialable people – I guess it’s pretty much a requirement to come on that type of boating holiday.  Met a girl called Anna from Yorkshire who turned out to be a central heating engineer.  She gave me some really good tips about fixing my home heating system which I found extremely useful – she seemed to really enjoy talking about it.  Getting someone to talk about something they love is a really good way to get to know someone.

We were treated to a fairly unique performance by an English guy playing guitar and finding novel ways to get the audience involved.  He was a very talented musician and had a pretty good voice.  The act was fairly cheesey and required regular interaction from the audience – a perfect act for such a lively group of people.  I must admit that I was a bit scared that he would call me up, not because I minded being on stage, but more because I didn’t feel I could have been as entertaining as some of the other members of our group who had already been on stage…

As the drinks started to flow, and the show continued to entertain, I had a huge feeling of joy about how exciting and unique the experience was, on a small island which most people will never visit, surrounded by adventurous and diverse people.  It felt like it was ‘our beach’, it felt special, it felt different, it felt like we had gone through an adventure to get there, we felt like explorers.  Perhaps most importantly, it felt NOTHING like any other night out in the past.

When we arrived at Trellis Bay, I was worried about getting bored in the chilled out camping type atmosphere.  As we sailed away the next day, I felt sad to be leaving a place which had transformed from simply a place to moor out boat, in to a place with unique memories which I will never forget.  Trellis Bay had provided an unexpected adventure of it’s own.  As we got further away from the bay, I sat on the back of the boat in the shade, watching it fade in to the distance and writing notes on my iPad which have now been turned in to this blog post.  Day 1 of sailing over….next?

My 2011 sailing trip with my dad and some other Microsofties started with a flight to Antigua, where we spent a couple of days before catching a connecting flight to Tortola.

The flight was longer than expected due to some fuel strikes in Antigua which meant we had to be re-routed via Tobago.  It was the first time I had been on a flight with my dad since I went to Disney World at the age of 11.  Back then, a 10 hour transatlantic flight felt like an eternity of trying to sleep, watching endless movies and waiting not so patiently for the next round of food in tinfoil containers.  Nowadays, I travel to Seattle multiple times per year and have been on 6 10+ hour flights in the past 3 months alone, so the 12 hour flight with my dad (including a 1 hour stop over in Tobago) felt more familiar than a train journey in to London (which I have done way less than flying over the past year).  Back when me and dad last flew together, airports, planes and the whole journey was exciting, now it’s just what it is – not great, not bad, it’s just the journey.  One small difference this time was that I got to take dad in to the British Airways exec lounge at Gatwick (thanks to my frequent flyer card) – that was a great way to start the holiday…

When we arrived in Antigua we were piled in to the back of an air conditioned, but sub-optimally maintained taxi bus.  There was a guy sitting next to dad who was kinda mumbling nervously as we weaved around the roads of Antigua and dodged bikes, cars and pedestrians in the road.  I think the guy was a bit nervous either about the quality of driving or the fact he was in a new country, or perhaps a bit of both.  Again thinking back to when I had previously been on holiday with my dad, I guess I would have previously felt a bit uncomfortable in the back of the cab and in unknown territory.  However hanging off the back of a bus in Thailand, putting my life in the hands of Egyptian taxi drivers in Cairo, and riding in the back of a rickety tour bus driving along the Great Ocean Road in southern Australia has I guess made me somewhat fearless when it comes to foreign transportation.  The trip really felt no less common than a taxi ride in to Reading on a Saturday night (again, something which I have done way less than taxi rides in foreign countries recently).

The hotel was OK, not amazing, but nice enough.  On the beach, spacious rooms, good A/C and nice pool.  The area the hotel was in was fairly baron, plus it was right next to the luxurious Sandels resort which just reminded us that we were in a cheap hotel every time we saw it .

We were directed towards the ‘Coconut Beach’ bar for dinner.  The bar was relaxing in a simple Caribbean kind of way.  Candle lit tables, Bob Marley-esque music and the sound of crashing waves provided a great combination to enjoy our first Pina-Colada and dinner.

The waitress was a black Caribbean accented lady, who was polite, friendly, helpful and welcoming, but in a very chilled Caribbean kind of way, rather than in an overwhelming “Hi, I’m Jenny and I’ll be assisting you with your lunch today” American kind of way.

We sat in the bar for a few hours chatting, with (slightly creepy) warm wind blowing through the trees and bar around us.  The crashing waves were just about visible due to the closeness to the bar lights.  Despite the fact we ate and drank very slow, the staff seemed in no rush for us to pay our bill, to move on or even to order more drinks!  A great intro to the typical Caribbean laid back culture. 

When in Australia, I loved how strangers would always say “Good-day mate”, or some other friendly greeting involving the word ‘mate’.  In the bar, we were greeting by lots of people saying “How’s it going guys?” or “Hey man” – again, just as friendly and welcoming.  I guess in the UK we say “Alright mate”, but perhaps not nearly enough to strangers.