Atlantic Crossing to W.I.

We settled into lazy days at sea enjoying a 'village fete' where the Captain joined the passengers in the various games. 

Captain Psarrakis is definitely a very social captain, always walking around the ship smiling and saying hello to the passengers. Every night before dinner he walks through the bar area and wishes everyone a good evening, sometimes stopping for a chat. Whenever he's asked who's driving the ship whilst he's out and about he always answers "Emilio, the plumber". After a couple of weeks Emilio is becoming a very popular figure.

Then we reached the West Indies.

First stop was St Johns in Antigua.

 The pilot boat arrived and guided us into Heritage Quay.

Having declined to take any offered Shore Excursions, walked into town. What a lovely place. We walked around with Ralph and Hanny just enjoying the street scape.

 It was early in the day and the shops and markets were just opening.
 
 So we headed to the 19^th Century Cathedral of St John the Divine for our first stop. Sadly, despite being listed online and by our lecturer on board as a beautiful place to visit, it is closed for renovation – and has been for the last 6 YEARS! The lady at the gate was very kind and escorted us up the path, shouted to inform the workmen (I only actually saw one, so that should be workman) that people were coming in for a look around. Well, it is a beautiful place and they have done amazing work over the years. The original building was clad in wood which had rotted and decayed in the humidity, they were doing a great restoration.

 They anticipate that it will take another 2 years before they can hold full services but that might be optimistic, there’s a lot to do.

I doubt that we will make it back to Antigua to check on progress but we wish them well, and can’t help but admire their work . They are all volunteers, members of the congregation.

We left the Cathedral enjoying it's beautiful view over St John's

 and spotted a little Vendors Market with a few stalls open.
Michael bartered for a good price on a T shirt (then had to borrow off Ralph ‘coz we hadn’t been to an ATM).

It was getting hotter and then suddenly the heavens opened. Time for a cold drink, so we found a spot at a lively street cafe.

Whilst sitting there, an interesting character wandered along. He was holding an Aloe Vera plant and stopped to ask if we knew what it was. Yes, we replied. Then he started to tell us how the sun was so good for us; the source of all our vitamin needs. All we need is to spend time in the sun, It’s so good for you. Oops, wrong person to try that on. I started explaining about sunburn and cancer but he lost interest and walked on. He was a character though and we obviously remember him.

We wandered through some lovely shops and then somehow I got separated from the others.

I knew that they couldn’t be far away so continued to check out the shops. Then I found a little jewellery stall – Michael’s Antiguan souvenir is a T shirt, mine is a matching ‘pearl’ necklace and bracelet which cost just a little more than the T shirt!

Then we reunited and decided to get a taxi to take us across the island to Nelsons Dockyard with its’ fully restored eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings.

For the history buffs - In the early 18th century, the British Royal Navy recognised the strategic importance of English Harbour at the south of the island.. Throughout the 18^th century, the dockyard grew in importance, as it was the only harbour in the Eastern Caribbean large enough for safe naval ship repairs. From 1784 through 1787, the British Hero of Trafalgar, Horatio Nelson, served as the captain of the H.M.S Boreas, sent to Antigua to enforce British laws in the colonies. When the restoration of the dockyard began in the 1950’s, it was renamed Nelson’s Dockyard in honour of the years he spent in Antigua.

The taxi driver had negotiated a price for the four of us but managed to pick up another 4 passengers on the way to the cab (mini bus). As we drove away we re-negotiated builthe price as he now had double the number of passengers. The driver did a little island tour on our way to the Docklands, taking us through narrow one way streets until we were outside the house of one of St John’s famous sons – Viv Richards, the cricketer.

We stopped briefly at Shirley Heights overlooking the Dockyards

and then went on to the Dockyards where Ralph and Michael went in for a look around whilst Hanny and I sat and waited. (We stood in some nice cool shade before realising that we were standing in the shade of a coconut palm tree, and there were indeed coconuts up there. We moved out into the sun).

After the Dockyards we had a brief stop for a cool drink at The Nest Beach Bar and Restaurant on the West Coast Valley Church Beach before returning to St Johns.

Then we went for lunch before more wandering and then back ‘home’ to the ship.

 

 (The eagle eyed will spot the vehicle with flashing lights alongside the gangway of the ship - this will be a regular feature of this cruise, an ambulance being called for some 'mishap' at every port. These range from simple falls, exhaustion and dehydration, gall stones (requiring a hospital stay and surgery), and one old lady falling off the wharf, between ship and dock! (a crew member jumped in to rescue her, but the complaints were then made that the ship should have sent a diver down to retrieve her handbag!!) We feel positively young and fit when we look around.)

There was no night time show that night instead it was movie night, and what else could it be but – Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl.

The second stop in West Indies was the island of St Lucia and the port of Castries, docking at Pointe Seraphine.

Castries is much bigger than St Johns and once again we were doing our own exploring.

We walked into the town, around the market and stalls, where we were struck by the frankness of the signs in doorways and pathways – no ambiguity here..

We visited The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, built in 1897, a cool oasis in the extreme heat and humidity of the town.

It was a lovely open building with beautiful colourful paintings and stained glass windows. It is the largest church in the Caribbean, being more than 30 metres wide and over 61 metres long. The Cathedral is next to a lovely cool park, Derek Walcott Square where there is a 400 yr old Samaan tree.

 But we couldn’t spend all day in the church or park so headed back into the streets.

We found the heat and humidity really tiring so having found a supermarket and bought refills for our coffee jar and some lime juice cordial (here in the West Indies we bought ‘Sainsburys’ (a UK supermarket store) Lime Juice Cordial with 30% Mexican Lime Juice,) we headed back to the ship.

It was nice to get back on board and have a cool shower before standing on deck as we sailed out of Castries.

 We enjoyed another evening of cocktails, great food and, as we’ve discovered, great entertainment.

Definitely getting used to this routine.