{"id":373,"date":"2021-06-10T15:29:09","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T15:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2021-06-10T15:29:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T15:29:14","slug":"373","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/?p=373","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Still in Antigua!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sitting at anchor in Freeman\u2019s Bay, I thought I should post an update&#8230; Next week should see the Bimini installed on the boat, and then we will be heading south. I will try to get my second Covid vaccination before I leave. Next Monday it\u2019s 7 weeks since my first; although the standard interval here is 12 weeks, apparently it\u2019s possible to get it early. This will really help: Grenada has a standard 7-day quarantine, but if you\u2019ve had the two shots this falls to 48 hours &#8211; basically a PCR test on arrival, with the result within 48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Freeman\u2019s Bay is an ideal spot. The bay, with English Harbour behind it, is beautiful, surrounded by high hills &#8211; above us is Shirley Heights, which is 450 feet (almost 140 metres) above sea level. The bay is good for swimming, in the deeper water around the boat (3.5 to 4 metres) and off Galleon\u2019s Beach. There\u2019s plenty of wildlife: large sea turtles, stingrays, large and small fish, even an occasional dolphin. Lots of birds too, including pelicans, which when taking off from the water look like the flying boats of old! It\u2019s good for snorkelling, especially along the reef that is about 25 metres from Manuka and which protects the bay from the swell coming in from the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So it\u2019s a great natural environment. Plus there is a good social atmosphere between the dozen or so yachts anchored here. And it\u2019s easy to dinghy over to Nelson\u2019s Dockyard, from where it is under 10 minutes walk to a small supermarket and several restaurants.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regarding people, there can be amazing coincidences&#8230; One night I was having dinner with several people and sitting next to an English woman. As talk turned to our families, we discovered that our daughters both work for the charity WaterAid in London! And a few days ago a yacht anchored close to me. It bore the legend Brisbane, Australia. Nothing strange about that&#8230; but it then turned out that the husband and wife are not really Australians &#8211; they had only been there for about 12 years. Like me, they are from Durban&#8230; there cannot be many of us sailing the Caribbean! They are sailing with their 2 kids, a girl of 14 and a boy of 10. This must be quite a challenge, keeping the kids amused and interested in the cruising life. Certainly a great education, visiting countries that many people haven\u2019t even heard of, dealing with wind, sea and sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have been happy to spend time sitting here, swimming, walking, reading and socialising. I think it has been useful, helping me to get out of the mindset that \u201cI must move on\u201d. In normal life you always have limited time. You are on holiday for a week, if lucky two weeks, and there\u2019s always the feeling that you mustn\u2019t waste time, which flies so quickly. Here I have had time. After a life spent rushing around, this has been strange. Hopefully I am getting used to it, and hopefully it will prove good for me&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Still in Antigua! Sitting at anchor in Freeman\u2019s Bay, I thought I should post an update&#8230; Next week should see&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailingmanuka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}