Angelasails.com

“Can I aks you a question?” I hear myself say. The guy looks at me blank. “To prevent me from staring at you trying to figure it out: You look very familiair. Have we met?”

Oh my god, I feel so lame, but it is true. The guy does look familiair and I do not have a clue from where.

I soon find out he is the owner of the Scarlet Oyster. The boat that just won the ARC. Duh!..

No, he is not looking for crew.

I arrived on Antigua 3 days ago from St. Maarten where I had a great place to stay after new year. A dutch sailingfriend has a cousin living on St. Maarten and he was willing to take me in for a night. He shares his house with another dutch family and I soon find out that the wife (Elisa) is from my home town. We even played volleyball against eachother. The world is so small.

1 night became 2 though because Elisa helped me with my plane ticket booking and accidentally put the 4th of January in stead of the 3rd. I didn’t mind though. It gave me the opportunity to do my laundry and hang out at their pool with some gossip magazines. Life is good.

Constatin from the AirBNB picked me up at the airport of Antigua (how great was that!) and we drove straight to his friends house where the beer was cold and the BBQ almost ready. In dutch we would say I landed ‘met mijn neus in de boter’ which literally translates to ‘with my nose in the butter’ but I guess that is not an English saying 🙂

Constatin is a great host, shows me around the English harbour and introduces me to more people than I can remember. But he had a friend coming over so after 2 days I had to move (yet) again. I checked into the Waterfront hostel right above the training facility where I am going to do my STCW this monday through friday. Also not a bad place.

I like Antigua. It has a great vibe and I am totally comfortable spending the next couple of weeks here. I only really have to watch my money though. With no kitchen in the hostel I am forced to eat out for nearly every meal. In a way it is good because I have to go out to meet people, but my bank account is not nearly as limitless as some of the boat owners down here.

Plus I am considering to do my Yachtmasters right after my STCW. I think it will improve my options finding the right boat but at the same time it also increases the pressure of finding a job. All of a sudden I find myself being the lead actress in a play called “chicken and egg”. What should I do?

Ah well, I am in the right place, at the right time, feel comfortable and looking forward to next week. I simply do what I know I can do best: keeping my options open and let time run its course.