Antigua
We entered Antigua at Mosquito Bay, outside Jolly Harbour, as our port of entry to check in. It was a beautiful big bay with pure white sand and you got a feel of the ‘picture postcard’ caribbean sailing along the coast.
Check in was very formal here! We were asked for a list of all destinations in the last 30 days and told to change some of our details on the system as it wasn’t correct – literally change ‘Yanula Blue’ to ‘YANULA BLUE’ – it was in capitals on the registration document so she wanted it typing in the same!!
But after check-in was done we took the dinghy to go and say hello to some people we had met in Grenada and had a nice catch up, before moving on to Falmouth Harbour, and the start of the Tot Club!!
On leaving Jolly Harbour we spotted another boat we recognised and Breeze (from Poole!) hailed us on VHF. They were just arriving and also moving to Falmouth the next day and we agreed to try and meet for dinner.
Falmouth Harbour was sooooo busy!!! It is a massive harbour with many reefs so we had to be careful about the depth. As we knew we would be staying over a week, and also knew we would be returning late after a rum tot (or 2!), we decided to get our wallets out and pay for a buoy – and we took the last one!! There was also a Classic Yacht event happening at English Harbour which is just next door and we guessed lots of people were there for that.
The Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda
But our focus was the Tot Club! We first heard about The Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua & Barbuda (RNTCAB) from Poole Yacht Racing Association (PYRA) member Roger Bond. At the end of each PYRA race he would give a toast and a read out naval history moments from that date and a we would all share a tot of rum. This intrigued us and we have made it our ambition to travel to Antigua to join!
To become members you have to be introduced by a Sponsor and you have to find the meeting, as the location changes every night. Generally though, the RNTCAB is based around the historic Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour.
Once you have a sponsor you have to attend an Introductory night, then attend 7 nights out of 14, as well as take a test/interview on Naval History. So for the next days we needed to focus.
The aims of the club are admirable;
- To signal the nominal end of the working day at 1800 hours local time by a gathering of like-minded individuals who make up the membership.
- To carry on the revered tradition, sadly ended in 1970, by consuming a half gill of the nearest equivalent to the rum which was issued to the Royal Navy (i.e. Pusser’s Blue Label).
- To confirm daily allegiance to and/or respect for the Crown by proposing the Loyal Toast to His Majesty, the King.
- To provide Royal Navy warships with marine based leisure activities and organise entertainment for the crew in the Nelson’s Dockyard area.
- To promote and foster friendship and goodwill in the English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour areas through entertainment and social services.
Saturday 18 April – Introductory Tot – To wives and sweethearts, may they never meet, and to The King, God Bless Him!
We had agreed to meet Alasdair, our sponsor well in advance of the club. Jenni had first connected with Alasdair many years ago when we were just planning our adventure, and he had offered some advice and kindly sent us a book! With his wife Gill they had completed a circumnavigation and kept their boat in St Lucia, as well as another yacht called Guiding Light that they were renovating.
We are so grateful to both of them for taking us on and their generosity as the Sponsor has to pay for the guests’ tots!
It quickly became apparent that the members were indeed like minded, and throughout the evenings we were approached by all sorts of people and we got to know a lot of them. Alasdair introduced us to Jackie, another aspiring member he was sponsoring, a lady who had crewed with him up from St Lucia and he had been sailing with her on a yacht called Bubblegum in the Aintigua Classic Week regatta. Later, along came Hasko, the skipper of Bubblegum, and Chris secured himself a day racing on his Contessa 43. Bubblegum had actually completed the ’81-’82 Whitbread Round the World Race. The crew had already raced the first three day days and had come 9th, 7th and 8th place respectively.
Hasko was talking of cleaning the bottom of the boat and so Chris volunteered to clean the bottom before the start.
After the Introductory Tot we actually dashed off to meet our friends from Poole, sailing on Breeze, who we’d come across in Jolly Harbour for dinner. We ate in Trappas, Jen had fish and chips and Chris had a steak. It was nice to catch up with people from home and PYRA racers too – it’s a busy life!!!
Sunday – Tot 1 and (Black Mass) – To Absent Friends and Those at Sea, and to The King, God Bless Him!
An early start was required as we had agreed to be at the boat to clean the bottom at 7am. Chris carried his dive kit from Falmouth harbour to nelsons Dockyard and Jenni came too carrying the kit Chris needed for a day’s sailing and some dry clothes for the tot later.
The racing was excellent and it was great to see some of the larger classics sailing by in the different classes. We made it back safely and with no breakages and managed to get 6th place. Result. We dined at The Galley Bar with Hasko and Hawke of Bubblegum and then shot off for our tot.
On a Sunday there is an extra tot for Black Mass. The history behind Black Mass is fascinating!
It originated from the Senior Rates’ rum issue in the Royal Navy. A typical issue for a mess of say, 26 men, would be for the messman to collect the rum issue for the whole mess. If everyone in the mess was “G” – they were all “Grog” and not “U”- underage (under 20) “T” – temperance or “R.A.” – rationed ashore, and no-one had had their tot stopped for medical or disciplinary reasons, then the issue would be three two, (i.e.) 3 pints, 2 tots, as each tot was 1/8 of a pint or half a gill. The issue was exact. This resulted in the last man having a short tot, as with the best will in the world there was bound to be the odd drip, and of course the rum would also coat the tot measure and container. To overcome this, typically a tot of water would be added in the mess for every pint of rum. There was now some left over. This was known as the King’s as it didn’t belong to anyone and was considered to be the property of the Crown. This was usually illegally bottled and kept until the following Sunday when a discrete notice on the mess notice board would announce that “Black Mass” would be celebrated at a certain time. Anyone in the mess at the appointed time would be entitled to an equal portion of the “King’s”. The toast at Black Mass is always the same, consisting of solely, “The King, God Bless Him.”
Monday – Tot 2 (Jackie’s Mismuster) – To Our Ships at Sea, and to The King, God Bless Him!
On Monday our new friend and Tot member Jackie was having her mismuster! In the club’s terms this is called when someone has finished their final tot (tot 7) and should invite all members to a mismuster, where they give thanks to the sponsors and the Founder (Mike) and Chairman (Des), and give a little speech. They also buy a tot for every member who attends – sometimes it is a very big round!
Just around the corner at the Copper and Lumber, the party was in full swing for the end of Antigua Classic week and so it was rude not to go and get stuck in. Drinks were bought with pre-bought tickets, we had no idea how much drinks were and so ended up with plenty of drink, oops! Then it was of back to Trappas for a rather tipsy meal with Alasdair, Gill and Jackie. Great night!
Tuesday – Tot 3 – To Our Friends, and to The King, God Bless Him!
The day after the night before we realised we had arranged to meet Jackie, and Sophie and Jerry, for lunch. Sophie and Jerry were more aspiring members of the the RNTCAB and the owners of Kamsin, who had also sailing the Caribbean since 2021.
We were slightly late to the Me and You cafe, which closed at 12ish. We had drinks and a slice of cake and gave our farewells to Jackie as she was flying back to the UK that afternoon. We chilled out for the rest of the day and then made our way to Nelsons dockyard and had a look around the museum before our next tot.
Tot 3 is the day you are given the crib sheet that we were to be tested on!! Time to get studying! Someone had actually been failed for not knowing enough so the test is real!
The crib sheet contains details on Nelson’s historic victories and describes in detail, the activities and manouvres in the battles, the names of the ships involved and even the names of the Admirals and Foes the British faced. We also needed to know all of the toasts, the history behind the toasts and the aims of the RNTCAB.
Tot completed, we bought a bag of frozen chips on the way home and had them with sausage and beans. Hangover food!
Wednesday – Tot 4 – To Ourselves! As no-one else is liable to concern themselves with our welfare, and to The King, God Bless Him!
Since we had last seen Chris, the skipper of Breeze, his guests had left and he was now sailing solo and was still in Falmouth harbour. We went over for coffee and later he came over to understand more about our control systems onboard and particularly the open source sytems called SignalK and NodeRed that are integrated in to the Victron Cerbo GX. Chris nerded out describing the setup of the systems, as Jenni glazed over, and hopefully some of it was useful for Chris from Breeze.
Then off to the Royal Naval Tot Club for our next tot where we got chatting to Stephen and Paula, a Welsh couple who had raced in Antigua Sailing week.
Thursday – Tot 5 – To A Bloody War And A Sickly Season, A Bloody War And A Quick Promotion, and to The King, God Bless Him!
Exploration was required and so we set off early and walked the Middle Ground trail and finished at Pigeon Beach. It was hot and there was little breeze, so we were hot and sticky and we’ve never been so glad to dip in the cool fresh sea.
We had promised ourselves a breakfast and so stopped at the Antigua Sailing Club for food and discovered the best full English since, well, leaving England!! We made our way back to the boat and soon it was time for tot club again.
This night our sponsors had left on their yacht for St Lucia and so we were handed over to Louise, a full member, who kindly took over. It tuned out that she had rowed the Atlantic three times and was in the process of organising the first ever single season row through the North West Passage. Bonkers!
Friday – Tot 6 – To A Willing Foe And Searoom, and to The King, God Bless Him!
Another day and more exploration was required. This time we walked in the other direction to Shirley Heights. Rather than walk all the way around the bay, we found a water taxi run by an old boy who had clearly been doing it forever. He landed us on the beach after barking orders about how he wanted us to land and we arranged for him to pick us up later on to take us back.
This walk felt even hotter and we were glad to reach the top and have a cool drink whilst taking in the amazing views and the historic 17th century forts and buildings – we could even see Yanula Blue from there!! We dropped back down the hill toward the beach and took another dip in the sea before our old boy picked us up again.
Given such a strenuous morning, we obviously needed another English breakfast and so back to the Antigua Yacht club it was before we went back to the boat to do some final swotting before our test evening on Tot 6.
Tonight’s tot was in the Copper and Lumber, a pub restaurant situated in the old store houses of Nelsons Dockyard. The place contains a courtyard in the centre where the tot was taken and it was a wonderful to imagine the historic activity that would have taken place in this place, if only walls could talk.
We were tested by Richard (tested Chris) and Zoe (tested Jenni) and gosh they were tough! Really pulling into the small details on the sheet, even down to the name of the young boy who stood on the burning ship in Battle of the Nile!!
But we passed!! Yay!!! Needless to say we stayed behind and had a few more beers with Des (the chairman), Stephen, Paula, Richard and Zoe.
Saturday – Tot 7 – and our mismuster! To The Wind That Blows, The Ship That goes And The Lass That Loves A Sailor, and to The King, God Bless Him!
As we already know, the toast for Saturday is “To Wives and Sweethearts, may they never meet!”, but during a mismuster, you are able to choose from three different toasts. The one in the heading above that we chose for our mismuster, “There are god ships and wood ships, and ships that go to sea, but the best ships are friendships, and may they always be” and “To nights we’ll never remember and to friends we’ll never forget!
Our final tot and the final time we would need to be sponsored. And the final time we would need to consume a full tot – which is half a gill or an eighth of a pint! There used to be a rule that ladies could just have half a tot but for some reason that had been discontinued – and so that’s a lot of neat rum!
It was also our mismuster and we duly invited everyone there as is the custom – and ended up with 39 people attending – we did say it could become a big round!! The events are very entertaining and full of tradition and like minded people and we were delighted to become part of such a fabulous club! We thanked Mike, the Founder, Des, the Chairman, Alasdair and Louise for being our sponsors and we told the story of how we had heard of the RNTCAB, the tots we had enjoyed with PYRA and how we had crossed the atlantic in our own boat to arrive here in Nelsons Dockyard, English Harbour. Jen was then mildly abused for calling the club the “Rum” Tot Club, but it was all good natured and we were members and recieved our membership cards, tee-shirt to be worn on Saturdays and our sought after burgee.
Sunday – Full Members and Keep Fit! Black Mass – again! (for Chris only)
Part of achieving membership to the Tot Club requires aspiring members to attend a keep fit class. Sunday is the day of ‘keep fit’ which is when members will go up to the various hill trails and hikes and tidy up. It is also described as heavy duty gardening!
We met by our marina and luckily there were enough cars to take us close-ish to the relevant spots, and we hiked the rest of the way, armed with shears, rakes and loppers.
The purpose is to keep the trails and historic monuments and buildings clear of growth, and looking tidy around the ruins of old naval forts. It was hard work, but of course there was a cold beer at the end of it – thanks!!
Sunday’s tot was our first tot as full members – which means you can pour your own tot, although it must cover the bottom of the glass – or be at least ‘vapours’ as it is known. Guess how much Jenni poured herself this time?!
Later that evening we were invited to go for a meal with Stephen and Paula, but we were in two minds as we’d spent a lot this month, but our arms were twisted. As we were walking toward Indian Summer, an Indian restaurant off Falmouth Harbour, we bumped in to Ken, another aspiring tot club member and American sailor who joined us.
The meal was excellent and was washed down with Rosé wine. Mike (the RNTCAB founder) with his wife Anne, and another member Paul were also in the restaurant and to our surprise Paul sent over another bottle of Rosé and Ken picked up the bill. How incredibly generous of them!
Green Island
It was eventually time to move on from Falmouth Harbour, and so we left heading East to Green Island. We had intended to stay a couple of nights, but the forecast showed the wind was dropping and so we left the next morning for Barbuda. It was a lovely sail up with Gennaker flying – perfect!!
Barbuda
Wow!! We had finally arrived in the Caribbean they show on postcards!! A sprinkling of luxury villas and pure white sandy beaches that go on forever, with turquoise clear seas, and no rolling from the Atlantic to keep us awake. Simply Stunning!! It reminded us of what Sandbanks may have been like 100+ years ago!!
We decided it was time to stop, breathe and have a bit of a conscious holiday – at least until our food ran out!!
On day 1 we didn’t leave the boat and just basked in the beauty.
Day 2 we relaxed and caught up on these blogs, eventually went for a long walk North of the bay along Princess Diana beach. We knew there were a couple of small restaurants – Nobu at the north end which is an expensive Sushi bar and part of a famous chain – we didn’t stop as had read it was out of our budget! Also Enoch’s which simply sells Lobster – but you have to order 24 hours in advance. We chatted to Enoch and it was the end of the lobster season the next day so we also missed out here – although he sold us some beers and a bag of cheese puffs! A great reason to return for the next lobster season!
On Day 3 we had another productive / relaxing day and eventually went for a shorter walk south – at the tip of the peninsula where we came round to the Atlantic side we could smell first, and see later, a massive build up of Sargassum! This is becoming the plight of the Atlantic as it is everywhere!
Whilst it is home to a microcosm of sea creatures it is also taking over and for sailors is a constant problem, collecting on rudders and propellers. It is growing extensively aligned to global warming. We had taken our own beers with us this time and went back to the Sargassum-free side and sat on the lovely sand to toast this beautiful place.
On Day 4 we woke up early (for us!) and went for an early swim, with lots of sea cucumbers, huge star fish and fish swimming under the boat. After breakfast Chris got out his snorkel and fins (not flippers!) and started to clean the boat, with the fish eating the growth all around him as he did it. Amazing!
And Relax…
On Day 5 we had a lie in (well it was Saturday!) and Jenni did 8 laps swimming around the boat – 16 minutes! Then we sat down and caught up even more on all these blogs!!
We did have some visitors and a dinghy filled with 8 French sailors called by to ask for help and advice in checking out of Barbuda! We gave them all the information we had and wished them well.
We had a nice long walk on the beautiful sand then back for dinner. We went back to Enoch’s for a beer and ended up chatting to a British couple who were out there on holiday but trying to buy a Lagoon 46 and had just been let down due to legal paperwork. Perhaps we know someone selling one?!
On Day 6 we wrote even more blogs!! Chris dived to clean the bottom of the keel, which he hadn’t been able to reach whilst snorkelling, with even more fish eating the weed that he loosened, and Jenni cleaned the inside of the boat. We had kept up with cleaning the waterline of the boat but it had been a while since the bottom of the boat was cleaned. in fact it hadn’t been done since we left Las Palmas.
We enjoyed watching our neighbours come and go but found it very difficult to think about leaving ourselves!
Turtles swim around the boat and come up for air and a little bird took a rest on our shrouds. What a perfect life … but it has to come to an end and plans were being arranged to return to Antigua to meet up with Joyce Ellen (albeit a slightly different crew as Lyn had flown home and Vince was with another crew returning to the UK!)
Day 7 – wow, have we been here for a week nearly!! More blogging was done and Jenni swam ashore, whilst Chris rowed. This was quite an achievement as people may not know she doesn’t really like the sea, and had been having swimming lessons in Poole to try and get confidence up. We both went snorkelling but didn’t find much and sat and watched a kite surfer whizz by! Big question – do we leave tomorrow or not?
Day 8 – turns out we didn’t leave today either, we were determined to finish this final blog to get us up to date and we’ve started to genuinely relax. We did our final walk along the beach and there, cordoned off, was an area of sand with clear turtle tracks going to and from it. Wow, just wow!
We kept well clear and asked Enoch at the bar down the beach about who cordons the areas off. He told us it was the fisheries department and that they patrol the beach at night.
What a great place to be a turtle, but if they start developing the beach front further the artificial light will interfere with them. It was noticeable that the turtle had laid her eggs in the area where there was no adjacent building and hence no artificial light. Good luck Mrs turtle!
Bye Bye Barbuda
It was 05:30 and Chris was awoken to complete his usual nocturnal ablutions and saw it was light. Jen also woke up so Chris suggested we just leave – still sleepy but ok!
We knew the wind would stay with us for the morning and drop later in the day so we made Yanula Blue good for sailing and set off for Antigua.
But the engine complained. It was searching for fuel, so we hoisted the foresail, the engine stopped and Jen sailed us along whilst Chris got to work on finding the problem.
First check; is the primary filter blocked? A quick inspection showed it was clean as a whistle. We were suspecting the dreaded diesel bug but nope, all good there.
Second check; previous engine checks had revealed a leak in the pipe from the diesel tank to the primary filter, and so Chris surmised that if diesel was getting out, air could be getting in.
An inch of tube was snipped off the end and the tube reattached. Fuel pumped through by hand and we tried the engine again…. And it went first time. Disaster averted. Happy days! Well done Chief Engineer!!
