Before and after having guests in Antigua, we spent a good few weeks at Ricketts Harbour on Green Island. Green Island is located on the south eastern side of Antigua. It’s a regular stop for tour boats which bring their passengers for swim/snorkels/beach time and feed them lunch before completing their circumnavigation back to St John’s.
Here’s a shot of Alberio (fellow Salty Dawg boat) on the other mooring at Ricketts Harbour.
One day the guide that was taking people out for a snorkel came near by our boat and grabbed hold of one of the turtles. Let me tell you that turtle was not happy and I don’t blame him. I felt for him as all the snorkelers attempted to pet him.
While we enjoy having fun on the island we also take the time to work on some boat projects. This season my boat project consists of recovering the cockpit cushions. We bought the fabric through Sailrite last fall and the time on Green Island seemed like the time to get it going.
The first cushion took me two full days to do. It would have been quicker if I knew what I was doing. I had to do some rework here and there. I proudly got the first 4 finished and have 3 to go. After having the sewing machine on the table in the salon for nearly 2 weeks straight I wanted to see a tidy space and put it away. So the job will be finished when I feel ready to tackle the last 3 cushions at some point in the future.
Paul always has several boat projects on the go. He is constantly keeping our finances in order and updating our computers. His major project while here was the tightening down of the dinghy davits which had all come loose on the recent passages. On these davits are two solar panels. If those bolts had come any more loose, we might have lost those panels into the ocean. I’m always appreciative of his diligence in checking for loose nuts and bolts (ocean motion really takes its toll). He also polished some of the stainless steel in places that I can’t reach and worked on a broken shower pump and the dinghy gas motor which continued to give us problems.
Between the projects we relaxed, snorkeled, took Charlie for walks on the beach. We also entertained ourselves with guests on board and by watching the action around us.
We also watched the start of the Caribbean 600 race from the boat. They were off in the distance, but we could see well enough. This is a race that takes boats around many islands in the Caribbean totalling 600 nautical miles from beginning to end. They start and end just outside of English Harbour with the first leg going past the south eastern end of Antigua and heading north toward Barbuda. We’ve seen bits of this race each year we’ve been down here and enjoy following the boats online as well.
Before leaving Green Island I wanted to give a little something back to the environment and to follow my mum’s words of wisdom, “leave things better than you found them”. So I took a garbage bag to the beach and filled it to the brim and brought it to Falmouth Harbor for disposal on Feb 25th. Our time on Green Island was over for the season.
Here are a few pictures of the local Green Island Turtles
