13 March 2018; St. John’s, Antigua.

Sailing in the Carib is sometimes a bit confusing as there are more ports or islands with the same names. There are two Basseterre’s, there are two St. Johns, then there are the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands, etc. etc. Then some of the islands are Dutch or French or British, or independent or semi-independent so you have to keep a close eye on where you are going and what the status of each island exactly is.  Most islands have their own flag, even if they are considered an extended part of the mother country and they do get annoyed if we do not follow the flag protocol that they want.  Occasional we do get it wrong, if we do not pay close attention to what the quartermaster is doing, or we get the wrong flag sent to the ship. The British make it really complicated, as they have white, red and blue versions of their flag and occasionally we get the wrong ones on board. (White ensign = navy, Red Ensign = country, Red ensign = merchant fleet) Some of the British or British affiliated islands do the same and if we then get a Red Ensign for Grand Cayman instead of the Blue one, then we are in trouble.

What is even more complicated is the rule that the House flag should never be larger than the flag of the Nation that we visit and should also not be bigger than the national flag of the country of registration (in our case the Dutch flag) As we cannot always control what is sent to us, as a company flag, it is sometimes hard to comply with that rule. And when I looked at the flags of our neighbour today, I also saw that they were breaking the rules most likely because they did not have any other flags available. Procurement goes by computer and what goes in the computer comes out of it again, sometimes in quite a startling way…………………. And changing what is in the computer………………….

The flag of Antigua and Barbuda.

So today we were in St. John’s, Antigua. Or officially it is Antigua and Barbuda as the two largest islands together form the official name of the country. They used to be British but went independent in 1981. They had the wisdom to create a completely original flag so at least with this country we do not get confused. And I think it is a very nice one, I quote:   The 7 point golden sun of the Antigua & Barbuda flag represents the dawn of a new era. The colour red, the life blood of slave forefathers and the dynamism of the people. Blue represents hope, black, the soil and African heritage and gold blue & white Antigua’s and Barbuda’s tourist attractions sun, sea and sand.

Docking with the nose in downtown. If you are here in the evening then it takes exactly 3 minutes from the gangway to the nearest bar with draft beer. Can’t understand why we have to sail at 17.00 hrs.

St. John’s is a very nice place to visit; it has a good and long dock to park at, even today with 4 ships in port we all had a good dock and good access to the town. It is full of shopping malls and shops for those who want to invest in the local economy and the people are amazingly friendly, taking into account that they have to deal with these large invasions of tourists every day. (Today the four ships put about 10,000 passengers ashore not counting the crew) A major attraction are the very white and vast beaches on the west side of the island and a long time ago, I was educated in the local version of “Chicken in the Basket” with local herbs and spices and that tasted a lot better than in any other restaurant outside the islands.

The docks in St. John’s are far inside the island and a long dredged channel leads to it. That channel is a mixed blessing, the good part is, it brings you to a very nice and sheltered port where the ship docks almost in down town, the bad part can be, when the Trade Wind is very strong and a bit off angle. Then you drift sideways in the channel which is not so wide. Then it can be very difficult for the big boys to get in. The same as we had wind issues and drifting in Cienfuegos last cruise, the “Apartments of the Seas” would have it here, while the small Veendam would probably make it.

The long way in. The depths in the channel vary from 30 to 35 feet (very minimum depth) as we draw about 28 feet, there is normally about 7 to 8 feet under the keel.

From St. Johns we sail tonight back north towards the Virgin Islands and we will go to St. Croix, the 3^rd island of the US Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St Johns, St. Croix) Here we arrive at 08.00 hrs. and we are supposed to be all by ourselves.  The main town on the island is Frederiksted and that is also were we are going to. It will be a warm day with temperatures in the town reaching 82oF or 28oC. Hopefully the Trade Wind will bring some cool winds but not too much otherwise we will have issues docking at the pier.