WOW! I’m in Antigua & Barbuda (pronounced An-Teeg-uh). If you would have told a 10 year old Kirsten living in the beautiful town of Norwalk, Connecticut that I’d travel & live in China, Singapore, and one day travel to Antigua on a sailboat…. I probably would have merely walked away with raised eyebrows. But here I stand/sit floating in the harbor of Antigua. When you’re working for your goals, it’s amazing the opportunities that present themselves. And life has that funny way of propelling you to your goal then throwing in road blocks just as you thought you were home free. And as you work and toil your way through the roadblocks… there comes a day. A day when you look up  and you come to the realization…. you’re no longer in the thick of the fight; that you’ve “made” it. And you’re thankful. In Antigua, I finally lifted my head up. And it’s not to say I wasn’t thankful the entire trip South, I’ve been thankful every day of my entire life.

After sailing 1,070 statute miles to Antigua we were tired. As we approached English harbor we took down the sails and turned the engine on. One catch to that sentence. The engine did not “turn” on. In fact, nothing made a sound aside for the howling wind. So the sails went back up and we turned back into the 4-6 foot swells. And Mike the amazing engineer went to town. We noticed there was no electrical pulse…. so our first thought was the electrical system may have gotten a dose of ocean spray from one of the many rogue waves. Mike worked his way back checking the voltage of the engine first. nadda. He surmised it had something to do with the alternator (which provides alternating current from the engine) and “unplugged” that. He took a look at the 200 amp fuse…. and that was blown aka shorted. By some miracle we had a spare on board …. crossed our fingers and tried again. POOF…. at 1.5 hours later the engine slowly came back to life. We spent the next two days doing laundry, fixing leaks, killing mildew and mold and putting the boat from ocean passage  to a more livable state. We learned quickly the island receives a scarce amount of rain and in the marina facilities laundry can cost $ 30 USD per load of laundry. We made the mistake of taking our laundry there exactly once. For the next 2 loads we ventured further into town to find a small path that lead to a cute pink home. A woman was on the phone as we entered. She lazily motioned we leave our laundry on the floor then turned away. We saw a sign with the cost per load of laundry but weren’t sure what else she needed or when to return. Seeing we were still standing there she shoo’ed us out the door  silently mouthing an innocuous “Later today.” Okay…… so that’s obviously settled. We’ll just come back for our 2 or 3 loads of laundry later today with cash… I suppose.

First sign you’re not from the islands….. you initially require and expect details/attention as soon as you arrive at some form of a service business. Still trying to slow down.

Antigua & Barbuda are two separate islands. In the 18th century Nelsons Dockyard English Harbor, Antigua served as the British Naval headquarters for the Leeward Island chain. Well chosen because it lies at the Eastern-most edge of the island chain. When the dominant wind roars from the East year round and everyone uses sail to travel from island to island, it’s “wicked smaht” to pick an island you can quickly deploy a fleet without worry of sailing against the wind and the current. Antigua