We rented a car and have spent the last two days exploring Antigua and provisioning for Christmas and onwards.
On our first day we toured the west end of the island, taking scenic Fig Drive through the forest to the coast road. This brought us around to the marina at Jolly Harbour where we enquired about hauling out. We'd heard good things about the yard and a look-see is important to get a feel. Hauling out is possible as is doing your own work. What's not possible is living on board while hauled out. This is a Covid related rule and is likely to be in effect at least to the end of January.
Continuing our route north we passed through the capital, St Johns, a warren of narrow, congested one way streets on the way to the largest supermarket on the island. The Epicurian is big. It also has a confusing aisle plan; some goods are sorted by supplier, like British Waitrose had an entire aisle, and some by product. It took along time to fill the trolleys, but at the end we have enough provisions for a small super yacht. We work on the mantra 'if you can find it, it has a decent use by date and you have a car to carry it, buy it'. Polly now has a year's supply of kibbles.
On the way back, after sunset, we encountered a diversion for roadworks. I can now say I've seen the impressive Sir Vivien Richards cricket stadium from all angles as we went round it at several times while trying to find our way back to the main road.
Our second day with the car was just for fun. This time we went east and north. The roads were much better (the busier road up to St Johns has a speed bump every 100m) so David was able to enjoy driving and looking at the scenery. Our furthest point today was Devils Bridge.
Antigua's not a large island, easily toured in a day. We like to take a view of our host country not just from the sea. From our boat we wouldn't have seen the beautiful houses, the views from the hills or the huge field of solar panels.
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