Location: English Harbour, Antigua
Today Ocean Star arrived at Nelson’s Dockyard (as in Admiral Horatio Nelson), which is one of the only Georgian dockyards preserved today. Many of the buildings here are (mostly) in their original condition, including the mid-18th-century fort overlooking the harbor. Everyone on board is glad to be docked for the first time since briefly picking up the local school group on Virgin Gorda; walking straight onto land without a dinghy ride, unhindered use of freshwater, electricity from land, nearby free wifi, and access to flushing toilets are among the luxuries afforded here. However, things might have been different had we come here another time of year; it’s the “off-season” now (aka hurricane season), but from December to April, this harbor has enormous superyachts jammed into it like a multi-billion dollar pack of oligarch sardines.
After being allowed to sleep in until 9:45, today was spent mostly cleaning and organizing the ship and then wandering around the dockyard and town. After dinner, we have our first test in Seamanship, which means much of our free time today was spent tying knots around random objects on deck for practice and looking through the PowerPoint filled with acronyms and names like EPIRB and COLREGS.