Row 2 Recovery crosses the line in Atlantic Challenge

The third boat to cross the finish line in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge arrived in Nelson's Dockyard last evening, Jan 21 to much fanfare. Row 2 Recovery, manned by four British Army personnel, two of whom are amputees, slowly approached the coast of Antigua just off Shirley's Height as the sun rapidly disappeared below the horizon. From the picturesque vantage point at Shirley's Height, the fading light made the celebratory lighting of their flares all the more spectacular.

 Having left La Gomera in the Canary Islands on 4-Dec-2013 it took the rowers 48days 9hours 13minutes and 29seconds to cover the 2791 nautical miles to the finish line in Antigua.
The members of the Row 2 Recovery team are:
Cayle Royce  (amputee - both legs above the knee)
Scott Blaney  (amputee - right leg above the knee)
Mark Jenkins
James Kayll
 (source: http://www.taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com/race-tracker/).

Here is a video I recorded of Row 2 Recovery finishing.

For me this amazing feat was even more touching given the fact that the two amputees in the team were able to put behind them their disability and against all the odds helped their team to finish the race. This highlights the power of the indomitable spirit within us which pushes us to excel despite whatever challenges we may be faced with.

The other teams to finish so far are:
1st place (41days 2hours 38minutes 54seconds)
Locura Rows the Atlantic (Mike Burton and Tom Salt)

2nd place (48days 0hours 6minutes 59seconds)
Atlantic Polo Team (Bobby Melville, James Glasson, Henry Brett, Fergus Scholes)

Godspeed to the remaining teams as they approach our shores.

Mein Schiff 2 refuses to Dock in Antigua

Tourisim officials, tour operators and vendors were left disappointed yesterday as the captain of the cruise ship, Mein Schiff 2, operated by TUI Cruises refused to dock the vessel in St.John's. Apparently concerned about the depth of the water in the berth assigned, the captain brought the ship into the Harbour but as shown in the Marinetraffic.com screenshot and picture below made a loop and returned to deeper water offshore.

Track of Mein Schiff 2 from Marinetraffic.com

Mein Schiff 2 moored outside St.John's Harbour

The ship remained offshore (just west of West Indies Oil jetty), while behind the scenes attempts were made to convince the ship to return. When these negotiations failed, the ship departed for Phillipsburg, St.Maarten its next scheduled port of call at 11:30am arriving there at 4:50pm.

According to the agent, Brysons Shipping cruise ship schedule, the berth assigned for Mein Schiff 2 was the Nevis Street pier (South) alongside Celebrity Eclipse on the North. The Heritage Quay berths were allocated to Oceana of P&O Cruises (South) and MSC Musica (North) which arrived around 1:30pm later in the day.

When Mein Schiff 2 last visited 2 weeks ago, it was scheduled to berth at Nevis Street Pier (North) but actually berth at Heritage Quay (South) alongside MSC Musica on the North. Celebrity Eclipse docked at Nevis Street Pier (North) alongside the Royal Fleet Auxillary ship Wave Knight on the South. Given this previous arrangement, I guess the captain expected the same. Let's hope everything gets sorted out in time for its next visit so that the cruisers can get to enjoy our beautiful island.

MSC Musica, Mein Schiff 2 and RFA Wave Knight in St.Johns 6-Jan-2014.

Following are the ships statistics from marinetraffic.com and cruisetimetables.com

Ship	Length (m)	Breadth (m)	Draught (m)	Passengers	Crew
Mein Schiff 2	264	36	8.5	2114	909
Celebrity Eclipse	317	48	8.9	3000	1500
Oceana	261.2	32.3	8.4	2272	900
MSC Musica	292	34	7.6	3013	987

Moravian Health Walks #1 of 2014

We had a great walk this morning; the first for 2014. The route chosen was from Grace Hill Moravian Church in Liberta to the entrance of Nelson's Dockyard and back. The first half of the route was pretty straight forward as it was mostly downhill from Liberta to Falmouth and English Harbour. The return leg though was more strenuous since it involved negotiating the gentle but deceiving gradient of Horsford Hill. 

I couldn't resist the urge of going into Nelson's Dockard and so ended up being one of the stragglers. My real motive though for doing so was to have a look at the row boat which came in first in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge on Jan-14. Seeing how small the boat is, I can only imagine the tremendous effort it took the two British sailors, Mike Burton and Tom Salt to overcome the Atlantic Ocean in this feat of endurance;well ahead of the other competitors. This reinforces for me Paul's exhortation in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ.

Following is a map of the walk produced from the GPS coordinates captured on my Blackberry.
For best viewing click the link below for a larger version of the map.To view pictures taken along the route click on the blue map icons. Clicking on the direction arrows give an indication of direction, speed and distance travelled from the start.
The distance walked was approximately 11.9 km (7.4 miles). 

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Pic of the Day - 07Jan2013

Desert Rose (Adenium obesum)

Picture of one of my "desert rose" plants. This plant is now one of the most featured plants in many gardens in Antigua. According to wikipedia.com, Adenium obesum is a species of flowering plant in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae, that is native to the Sahel regions, south of the Sahara (from Mauritania and Senegal to Sudan), and tropical and subtropical eastern and southern Africa and Arabia. Common names include Sabi star, kudu, mock azalea, impala lily and desert rose.

Snow storm causes Air traffic woes on North East USA

As we bask in the sunshine of another glorious Friday morning in the Caribbean, spare a thought for the residents of and travellers to the North East coast of the USA as they brace for a giant snow storm. As the Flightaware.com website shows, the usually busy skies in this area are void of traffic as thousands of flights have been cancelled or diverted to alternate airports. John F. Kennedy International (JFK) is closed until later this morning.

For example South Africa Airways flight 203 from Dakar Senegal (GOOY) diverted to Washington Dulles International (KIAD) after circling numerous times.

Royal Visit to Antigua - Cunard's Queen Mary 2

The Queen Mary 2, flagship of the Cunard line and the largest ocean liner ever built, graced the shores of Antigua today. However, due to its size the vessel couldn't berth in St.John's harbour and was instead moored outside of Falmouth harbour. Passengers had to be transported to and from the Falmouth Marina using the ship's tenders.

 When it was launched in 2004, specifically for the Southampton to New York transatlantic route, the purpose built Queen Mary 2 was then the largest passenger ship but has since been superseded by behemoths such as Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. It still however, retains the title of the largest ocean liner. This brings into focus the distinction between a cruise ship and an ocean liner.

Queen Mary 2 taken from Windward Bay, Antigua

Characteristics of an Ocean Liner

• Designed to transport passengers between two points
• Deep draught to increase stability
• Built very strongly to withstand the harsh sea conditions (eg the steel used to construct the Queen Mary 2 hull is 40% thicker than that used for regular cruise ships)
• Bow is long and tapered in order to cut through waves
• Very fast (top speed of Queen Mary 2 is 30 knots compared to a top speed of 22 knots for the Oasis of the Seas)
• Life boats are typically positioned much higher above the water line to avoid waves reaching them

The Queen Mary 2 left Southampton on Dec-15 for its last Westbound crossing for the season arriving in New York on Dec-22. It  then embarked on its Christmas cruise to the Caribbean which includes stops in St.Thomas (Dec-26), Antigua (Dec-27), St.Kitts (Dec-28), St.Maarten (Dec-29), British Virgin Islands (Dec-30) and New York. (Jan-3). After completing the Eastbound  crossing back to Southampton on Jan-10, the Queen Mary 2 will then embark on its annual World Cruise.

While it would have been great to have the ship docked in St.John's, the trek to Falmouth and the photo opportunities it provided was well worth the effort.

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Total disregard for Things Historic in Antigua and Barbuda

As I took the following photograph on 29-Aug-2013 I reflected on how far we've come as a nation; in particular as far as construction methods and housing is concerned. Imagine the hard work that was put in by our fore fathers to construct the numerous sugar mills on the plantations which dotted Antigua & Barbuda's landscape.

You can imagine then my disgust on hearing, less than a month later, that the sugar mill in my thoughtfully captured photograph had been destroyed . A structure which stood for hundreds of years, withstanding numerous hurricanes and earthquakes was wantonly torn-down for the sake of a piece of 'ole' iron; destined most likely to be sent off to some distant land as scrap.

Sadly, at this rate there will be none left. As a tourist destination but most importantly for our own sense of pride, such action is myopic.

Below is a map of the Sugar Mill sites I've been able to identify so far. There are quite a few more around the island so this will definitely be an ongoing project. Click on the icons to view a pictures of the Sugar Mills.

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