[Coconut]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is great! Thank you for the pics! Anguilla is on my bucket list if I can find a good price to get there...

[JonTom]

Thanks all - will try to dig up some more photos later - takes me some time to select , resize and upload (darn slow connection).

RW - sailing the caribbean at 21!! that must've been grand. Anguilla does have a long sailing history (like many of those islands). Many boats would come into that 1st beach (Mead's bay) for lunch at Blanchard's. Apparently that is "a thing" - to come over from St Mattin/St Marteen for the day. The bigger boats/yachts were at another bay a bit up th coast.

Was trying to think of interesting things from our trip (ala JeannieB's Montserrat report) but we didn't really do much - eat, read on the beach, swim - some snorkeling. I did flip a sunfish sailboat and was able to right it, salvage the daggerboard, and get going again - so that was some excitement.

The BnD bbq was Sunday night and they had the local radio station on. After a bit of music, there was about an hour of what was clearly a political rally. Beyond the screeching presenter/speaker you'd hear the pause and then the "car horn sound" - hard to put into words but that "bwaaa bwaaa bwaaa bwaannnn" - similar to Jamaican dancehall and call-in shows I sometimes hear.
Anyway, I asked the owner lady what was going on and she proceeded to tell me that is the AUM (Anguilla United Movement), one of 3 political parties and they were campaigning for the next election. I asked when is the election (thinking next week or something). Her:"In February". Me: "February?, like 9 or 10 months from now"? yep. Oh boy. From a later conversation with her and others I gathered that local opinion of politics/politicians is similar to many JA opinions ("politricks", "corruption", "dem tek wi fi idiot").


 

 

[Raine]

Love the pics.....beautiful beach thanks for sharing.

[rootswoman]

Yes JonTom, I was a very lucky girl.

I had a friend that was the captain of a beautiful old wooden sail boat. She was huge - 72' The owner was a raging alcoholic so he never got it together to charter out the boat . My brothers and I got a call to come down for New Years Eve for a party in the Virgin Islands and stay as long as we want. My father had just passed away so we all were home at the time and free to do what we wanted.

I stayed on the boat for a few months. My memories of this time are kind of blurred. Like I said my father had just died, it was very sudden and I was grieving pretty hard.
Lord knows the rum flows freely in the caribbean.

Once the owner showed up for a couple of weeks - all of us 20 something year old freeloaders thought we would be flying home - however it was quite the opposite . He stumbled onto the boat with a G&T in each hand , looked at all of us and said "Lets get this party started" He kept each hand filled with the drink for the entire two weeks and we had a grand old time.

Oh if anyone cares i just googled the sailing ship i was on - here she is "The Spartan" http://newenglandboating.com/news/return-of-spartan-a-vintage-ny50-finds-salvation.html

[kylake]

RW, interesting story and link to the NY50 boat history. Reading it cost 17K when built I had to check to see what that would be in today's money it comes to about 400K
http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?
 

[MoFromMonroe]

I had friends who did a sailing trip around the Caribbean. 3 Couples rented the boat which was about the same size as the one you were on RW and sailed in and out of the islands for a few weeks. Very close quarters. They wanted to throw one of the couples overboard. Even with that they always say it was their best vacation ever! I don't think it's for me but it sure looks like fun. There are cruises you can take on smaller boats w/o being the sailor. I can't remember the website. I think it had the word voyager in it.

[JonTom]

I'm with MoFromMonroe on the sailing thing - looks great/romantic, but not sure in reality for me. That pic from RW looks like that boat would be exciting - until I think about being on board in any sizable waves. OT (and others) probably eyeroll at that, but probably best I stay off of those.
 

 

[JonTom]

Some food pics:

Coconut Shrimp on the beach at Smokey's.
   

Grilled Prawn salad w/ avacado, hearts of palm, tomatoes, fruits, etc.
   
Seared Ahi tuna tacos - mmmmmmm!!
   

This really could be anywhere but happened to be in Anguilla. Very odd (to me) martini glass. The "glass" had no stem and it sits in a matching bowl holding ice water (It didn't actually keep it that cold though, but it was amusing).
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JonTom]

beach/geog pics:

St Martin from the air:
   
Cove Bay Beach - undeveloped currently (well there is one small restaurant, but no hotels). The far point does have a resort around the corner/point. Anguilla is supposed to be envied for kitesurfing conditions. We saw a kite surfer on this beach but his sail (parachute?) was broken.
   
Dread on horse in water. Have seen TA (or somewhere) posted pics saying this is Banky Banks (it is not).
   
Sunfish on clear blue bay - let's go sailing!!
   
Sunset coming over interior of island. Sorry it is so dark - the land is mostly scrub, hardscrabble there. Looks like pics I've seen of cockpit country in JA (I've never been).
   
 

 

 

 

 

 

[kylake]

JonTom, thanks for more pictures!