Christmas winds

 New years eve did not disappoint us - we had a great dinner at Trappas and party in English Harbour was nice - not as lively and good as Christmas party, but we still had a good time and enjoyed the fireworks at midnight. And we didn't get wet - there was just one more shower that evening while we were at Trappas. Most importantly, we were in good company, Marion and Harald and Anette and Kerstin partied with us.

Already in last days of 2012 we had very strong wind and here they call it Christmas winds. They are not overly precise with the name - any strong wind from November to February is called so. But strong wind usually doesn't last as long as it did this time - it only ended today. With the wind up to 35 knots we were not too keen on doing lot of sailing, so on Wednesday last week we moved from Falmouth Harbour to Carlisle bay, next to Jolly Harbour, then on Saturday to Deep bay and since Wednesday we are back in Jolly. All in all 25 miles up and down the south and west coast of Antigua.

Luckily, our friends from Rufus - Marion and Harald and Kerstin and Anette were in the same area, so we spent some very nice evenings and afternoons together. The strong wind lowered the temperature of air and sea and quite a few rain showers also didn't help with the "tropical feeling". I'm not swimming so much any more and on one evening we even took a warm shower in the bathroom - normally we shower with cold water on the swimming platform. And in the evening instead of sitting in the cockpit, sipping rum and looking at the stars we watch movies in our cabin.

We still managed to do some minor boat projects and a lot of laundry and boat cleaning.

This is Hawksbill hotel on the beach with the same name ...

... and both are named after this rock, the Hawksbill rock. Obviously it reminded the people who named it on the Hawksbill turtle, to me it looks more like a Frog king (zabji kralj) from fairy tale.

These are the hills behind Five island bay on Antigua's western coast.

 Some of the five islands.

On the western coast one always has the luxury to see the sun set into the ocean. If lucky, one might even see the elusive "green flash" - at the moment when last part of sun disappears into the sea, sometimes a bright green light appears for a brief moment. They say that if one drinks a strong sundowner (cocktail that is drunk at sundown) before, the chance of seeing the green flash rises significantly :-)

The forecast for next week is good, less wind and even less rain, so I guess we will soon get back to "Caribbean routine". We might make a tour to Nonsuch bay and Northern sound, because of northerly wind Barbuda is unfortunately not on the agenda for the next week.