Rig Repairs, Rum & Rugby in Antigua

After a fabulous time around Barbuda and the east and northern anchorages of Antigua we were back at the Catamaran Marina to repair the damaged gooseneck with Antigua Rigging and MPS. Darren and Corine, a Guyanese lady and Antigua's 'No.1 Marine Welder', did a superb job on the rig. Two new, strengthened, aluminium plates were fitted to the inside of the GTI carbon mast with additional fixings to hold the plates in position.  We anchored stern-to at the East Dock with Moana's bow to windward so we could drop and raise the mainsail on the berth. The boom was swung off to port and held in slings while the work on the mast and gooseneck was sorted out.

The whole process has taken 2 weeks in all due to the rigging, measuring, fabrication, refitting and testing time.  This gave us plenty of opportunity to meet up with some old friends in Falmouth and English Harbour, go to the 2nd Test Match for a day, see the Team Antigua - Island Girls Transatlantic Rowing Team arrive to a huge local reception and watch the first two weekends of Home International games.  It's been and intensely social couple of weeks and new friends have been made over far too many supercharged Rum Punches. No complaints though, it's been fabulous and Antigua is indelibly stamped in our memories.