Butterfly with benefits

BUTTERFLY ANTIGUA ANTICS

Hi! I am back again with a few more musings from Antigua. The past few weeks have seen new friends experience the fun and frolics of Antigua at this time of year, sunshine is both the danger and the pleasure when sailing. The on deck Beneteau 40.7 s and enjoy the hard work of the RYA syllabuses from yacht master to competent crew.

The latest crew have fallen lucky they are doing their comp crew course on a relatively new Jeanneau 49 “Butterfly” which has been left by Kenny Wingrave and his wife with on deck to charter and then for me to take up to St Thomas in the USVI s for shipping back to the UK. So they enjoy a rare luxury of a really nice cruising boat.
The family of four Mum Dad and the two boys are having the time of their life. Dad Tim is a BA pilot so his navigation is crap,(according to the boys)so we had to start from scratch, the boys however could steer a course, talk argue and play on a Game Boy at the same time as steering a good course. However mum was the star she showed all by being the best on the helm in all conditions.

BANDITS ON BUTTERFLY
Next to enjoy butterfly were our fugitives from the Irish financial famine and the English winter. Maeve and Malcolm would been sailing with me before and used to own their own boat, a great couple. Malcolm is a retired sausage maker and budding barman, I say this because his repertoire of cocktails is vast, as long as you only want gin and tonic, all drinks served without ice, because as Malc says and I quote "the ice was frozen solid” unquote.

Malcolm and Maeve were joined by two friends who were solicitors (lawyers) I say lawyers because soliciting has a different connotation in some parts of the world, but the mechanics of the job are roughly the same!! Soliciting that is.
We have left the lunacy of Antigua for Guadeloupe and the Saints and as with the owl and the pussycat (Malc and Maeve) we left for a week and a day to the land with the frogs do play, they've got some money, gallons of booze and meagre sprinkling of food. I've looked in the fridge for slices of quince and mince, but as with the runcible spoon it could not be found.
The only stipulation this motley crew had is that we had to be back in Antigua on the Saturday to enjoy Wales beating England and Ireland beating Scotland. We were not let down by our respective teams, so this wonderful crew flew away with blurred memories of the beautiful beaches of these islands. As I previously mentioned it is not the first time I have suffered the slings and torment of outrageous fun with these characters and I'm sure it will not be the last. Bon Voyage.