English Harbour from the west side of the harbour

We are in Antigua at the moment, in English Harbour.  It is quite a famous naval spot, it is a very well protected harbour and during the Napoleonic Wars in the 1800's the British based their Caribbean fleet here and repaired their ships here.  They restored the buildings in the 1950's and Nelson's boatyard is full of beautiful old stone buildings.  Nelson was based here for 3 years when he was still a Captain, he was in charge of enforcing the trade laws.

We have been busy walking around the hills in the area.  There was a great display of bromeliads when we walked up one hill. 

There is a 600 mile sailing race starting on Monday, they have only 4 days to complete the race so there have been so very large racing yachts checking in to the harbour.  A few of them have been out practising so seeing their Kevlar sails flashing along the water has been entertaining.  

English Harbour, Antigua, in the foreground, from the east and Falmouth in the background, 

The winds and tides where we are anchored are quite lucky.  At times boats are facing all positions on the compass.  We had one come in and anchor to close to us.  I was too nice to tell them to move and they left their boat and went to have supper.  We started swinging around and actually touched them once, then Barry got in th dinghy and whenever we got close he would manoeuvre it between the two boats and stop them from touching.  It was getting pretty old by the time they showed up at 9:30, I hope they had a good dinner.  We are going to stay to watch the start of the race in Monday morning then we will move further up the island.