Aqua Vita Sailing

Yesterday, after a critical remark from one of our sweet, loving daughters, Jamie responded with, " DILLIGAF!" I took a moment to laugh over that word and mentioned to Jamie over how we first learned it, so many years previous.

One summer, when the girls were around 8 and 9 years old, we ventured over to Vancouver Island with Mirage, our 31' Dufour. We pulled into a slip in the Nanaimo Marina where we would moor for 2 weeks. The girls would do a one week dinghy sailing course, we'd explore the area, and stay in the centrally located marina. Part way through, Jamie had to return to Kamloops for a 4 day work shift, and I remained on the boat with the girls. On Wednesday evening the local racing crews had their traditional club racing evening. After an early dinner, the girls were down in the boat, colouring pictures and making crafts, while I sat in the cockpit reading a book.
Along he came, that kind of guy we admire yet hate in equal parts. With salt and pepper hair cut to military precision, expensive sailing water-wicking race attire, a cocksure expression, and with nary a glance over at me, he stepped aboard his boat named, DILLIGAF.
He moved about the deck, opening up hatches, stripping off covers, recoiling lines and testing winches. He'd done this routine innumerable times and there was zero wasted movements.

"Hello!" I called. "Nice night for some racing!"

Without bothering to look up, he grunted out, "Hmph, could do with more wind."

Undetoured, of course, I continued to try to talk to him. " We've been moored beside you for the past 6 days and I've wondered about the name of your boat. Is that an African word or...?"

He was irritated by me, I'm sure, a point that was driven home when he grunted out, "DOES IT LOOK LIKE I GIVE A F ."

"I'm sorry...was that a question?" I asked.

"That's the name of the boat. D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F." he punctuated out, looking up at me with a bored and superior expression.

"Oh. So not African, then?"

Not bothering to waste time with a reply he quickly started his engine, cast his lines on to the dock, and shrugged off my offer to help with the lines.
"I've got it. Easier if you don't help." he muttered dismissively.

As his race boat moved away from the slip, his 120 volt AC power cord (roughly the thickness of a garden hose) was still plugged into his boat AND to shore power. It pulled along until it unplugged from the boat, sinking into the water. The one thing NOT to do, is forget to disconnect these high voltage cables before dropping them into the living sea.

I called out a warning to him, and I jumped on to the dock and unplugged his cable from shore power.
By the time he got the boat turned around and hastily back in the slip, my girls had emerged from our boat cabin to see what the commotion was.
Their presence alone, was the sole reason I stopped myself from saying,
"Looks like you should have given a bit more of a F ."

It was a brief, but enjoyable visit to Antigua. After initially dropping anchor on arrival at 4am on November 12th, Jamie boarded a plane for home at 4pm on the 13th!

Having spent time in English Harbour during our trip in February of 2022, there was a whirlwind of hitting the highlights, including a visit to Roti Sue’s for a delicious chicken Roti (Sue even remembered us!), a couple trips to Pigeon Beach for some sun and sand, and a taking the crew of Destiny on a hike to some of the old forts and gun emplacements surrounding the harbour (a hike that WE were taken on by our good friends from “Wild Bird”, Tim and Gayle Evans when they showed us around in 2022),… and then, so soon, it was time to begin the 28 hour trip home.

A taxi across Antigua, a flight to Toronto, on to Vancouver, and finally back to Kamloops later,… home sweet home again, ending this adventure.

Time to start dreaming about the next one.

Aqua Vita Sailing arrived aboard “Destiny” at the Quay Wall, in Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua.

As one of the first boats to arrive here for the season, there was room to tie up right inside the historic dockyard grounds. In a few short weeks this quay will be packed full with boats, from cruisers, to Megayachts, to huge tall-masted classic sailing ships.

The heyday of this UNESCO listed heritage site was in the late 1700’s-early 1800’s while the Royal British Navy ruled this part of the world. These dockyards are where huge ships of the line would come in from patrolling the Atlantic, to repair battle and storm damage, and otherwise keep the mighty armada afloat. There were facilities here to repair and construct every part of a sailing ship, from sails and ropes, to timbers, masts, copper for the bottoms, waterproofing, and whatever else was needed. Nearby Falmouth Harbour also served as a staging ground for ships awaiting orders to deploy around the Caribbean, or the world.

As such an important facility, the entire area was surrounded by hilltop forts and gun emplacements, to ensure enemy forces would be unable to capture or disable the site. Remains of many of these forts can still be toured, but the Dockyards themselves are in excellent condition, with building that once served carpenters and sailmakers, now housing hotels and restaurants.

A fascinating place to explore, and to call “home” for a few days, as Destiny is tied to the very same bollards that once held sailing ships of the British Navy to this same wall.

The Captain and Crew of “Destiny”, a Beneteau 473, celebrating not only a safe and enjoyable 12 day passage from Hampton, Virginia to Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua- but also awarded a bottle of English Harbour Rum for being the FIRST monohull from the 2025 Salty Dawg Rally, to have arrived in English Harbour!

04:00, Wed, 12 Nov 2025

“Destiny” has anchored in English Harbour, celebratory beers have been consumed.

Day 11: Last full day!

We are now down to double-digit mileage to our destination. As long as everything holds as-is, we might get to see Barbuda as we pass by around dusk, and we’ll then be dropping anchor in Falmouth Harbour sometime tonight. Falmouth is fairly easy to navigate in the dark, and our skipper knows it well, so that won’t be a problem.

Last night was a wild one!
Everyone must be wanting to arrive, we had a lot of sail up, and have been sailing really fast- the current conditions mean that we’ve been crashing through waves and are heeled waaaay over. We were like that all night and we still are, but we’ve covered a lot of miles. It makes life inside the boat a challenge though. Using the toilet is like being in a tiny outhouse on a roller coaster train- hang on tight! It’s hot, humid, and a bit stinky in the whole boat- I’m looking forward to gently rocking at anchor in a protected bay, with all the hatches open!

We’re not quite there yet, and who knows what the rest of the day today will bring, but so far, it’s been a great passage.

Day 9:

1336 nautical miles sailed, 337 to go.

The last few days have been all about trying to claw our way further to the east. The wind has been strong enough to sail without needing to motor, but the wind direction has been a challenge.

A couple of nights ago, the wind direction swung around over the space of few hours, until no matter what we did, the boat was headed westward. That forced us to tack in the opposite direction, which then had us going east again, but also a little bit to the north. After half a day of doing that, the wind had just barely swung enough to allow us to tack back again, roughly pointed at Antigua, but slowly drifting westwards again. After about 30 hours, we had sailed about 180 miles, but had only gained 80 closer to our destination.

All last night and today, we have been “hard on the wind”, meaning we are sailing as upwind as we are able, taking the wind over our bow at an angle of about 35 degrees. Most of the day, the waves weren’t too big, but we were taking them almost head-on, and we were heeled over until the starboard side deck dipped into the water. By this afternoon the waves had gotten bigger and we were starting to pound into them pretty hard, so we had to reef (make the sails smaller) just to slow down a little.

We also had fresh Mahi Mahi Ceviche this afternoon after a small one volunteered to jump onto the lure this morning… but later in the day, something much bigger decided to take our lure right off the line for us…

Finally, this evening, the wind has started to shift more northwards, as the forecast promised it eventually would, so that we are now about 65 degrees off the wind, sailing fast, heeling less, and taking the waves at a much better angle.

If the wind holds like this for awhile, we should be able to keep making good speed towards Antigua!