Voyage Details

Date	Length	Distance	From	To
December 20th, 2003	16 Days		Falmouth Harbor, Antigua	Barbuda, Green Island, and back.
Crew Onboard	Chris Conti, Chris Falk, Corrie Forde, Hanna Hose, Elizabeth Sprague, Eric Sprague, Joanna Sprague, Phin Sprague, Jr., PhinMak Sprague, Karen Stamieszkin
Notes and Remarks
PhinMak -- This vacation been LONG in coming. I tried to keep a travel diary, but it started slacking near the end. I also had the file stolen from my passport wallet while in NYC, but that's another story...       The Whelp is staying (right) at Catamaran Marina in Falmouth Harbor on the southern side of the island. (Try saying Catamaran Marina 3 times fast, as if you are on the VHF, it is really annoying.) My sister and I were the first to arrive (12/18/03) and so had a few days to get over jet lag before Eric, Mom, and Dad made it. We had enough time to row and sail around Falmouth Harbor and find Pigeon Beach. (left)       When everyone had arrived we left to go up the east side of the island and explore Nonsuch Bay. This bay has a barrier reef at the mouth with two islands at each end. To enter the bay you avoid the reef by going between the islands and the mainland. It gets very rough here. We met the Freishkorns here, friends and neighbors of Abbott's in Houston. They belong to the Mill Reef Club, named after the barrier reef and all of the plantation sugar mills that dot the landscape in this part of Antigua. This family was very nice and invited us ashore to celebrate Christmas Eve at their exclusive club. To the left and right you can see us decorating the Whelp. We didn't win any prizes in the island-wide competition for decorated houses, but I guess we didn't meet all the requirements!       From there the family sailed into open ocean for the trip to Barbuda. Barbuda is very poor and scarcely populated, but the water is CRYSTAL clear. We lost a zipper pull-tab overboard and after a surface dive search we found the bit of plastic even 15 feet down. We were anchored on a sandy bottom with only 2 or 3 feet under the keel. When the the boat rolled it was a wonder that we didn't throw up a plume of sand from the bottom. Mom, Dad, and Liz were scared from the water by an 8 foot nurse shark. (Do they get that big?) We decided to try swimming nearer to shore after that.       Liz, Eric, Mom and I went ashore and while the girls combed the beach for shells Eric and I had fun swimming and digging out Ghost Crabs. Dad stayed onboard to make a plan for some odd weather that made the boat clock through 270 degrees that night. We had to put out a second anchor to keep us from drifting outside the safe anchorage, as there were coralheads all around us. Later everyone but me went for a tour of the island and saw a Frigate colony and a dead donkey on the roadside. Yay.       The trip back to Antigua was a quick one: a straight shot characterized by lots of sun, an unreliable autopilot, and very rolly waves. We were playing "dip the lion" all the way. December 27th -- Our friends begin arriving!       Andy, Falk, and Conti arrived together on the 27th. Karen and Hannah arrived the following day and Corrie on the 29th just in time for dinner at the marina's restaurant. This place makes the absolute best rum punches we've ever had. Some combination of OJ, bitters, limes, nutmeg, ice, rum, and a Trinidad dark liquid of unknown origin. From watching the bartender, you know that there are at least two or three shots in there, but nowhere can you taste it.       On the 31st we left the harbor to go to the staging area for the Nelson's Pursuit Race. The wind was really cranking. They call it the Christmas wind and during the day it never drops below 15 knots with gusts over 25. It was so strong that we couldn't set the fisherman until the downwind leg. We surfed the ocean swell a few times, making 10 knots for a few seconds. On the last upwind leg we shipped white water quite a few times. Once Joanna was up to her waist! That night was New Years and it started off with the award ceremony where we came in second in our class. The award was a few bottles of 10 year aged Mount Gay rum. (Dad's eyes really lit up when he heard that!) We had a great time tied up with some beautiful yachts at the Dockyard that night, then left the following morning.       We had originally hoped to trace the same route from before, up to Barbuda and back, but the new strong breeze would have made it a long and tough journey. Instead, we further explored Nonsuch Bay. We had a fantastic meal at a artistic Mediterranean restaurant where we sat on a patio overlooking a small bay with the Whelp and a zebra-painted aluminum boat from France. After a few days, we backtracked and went to the southwest corner of the island. The breeze really whips around here and we had to put out a lot of scope to keep her dug in. This was the only time the whole trip you could feel cold after coming out of the water.        That night, as we were down below watching a video, the owner of a British boat anchored to nearby came over to say, "Hello" and also that an unattended 30 foot sailboat was drifting down on top of us. That set off a few alarms. The 1000 watts of floodlighting came on and it was like day. Great idea, dad! We actually had to board her in our attempts to fend off. January 6th -- Eric, Mom, and Dad head home.