Taking off Shirley's tights

by John Curnow on 7 Apr 2016 Well it was that time again. The one where you have got rid of the day's super-important items, it’s now the afternoon and a nap sounds as good as anything else. Still you have to push on and thoughts of escapes start rattling in to the slow moving gears upstairs. I am sure it was not helped at all by a phone call I had just received offering me a delivery up the East Coast of Australia early in May.

Today, Antigua came up. It was not hard. Certainly Antigua Sailing Week has just wound up and that may have been a factor in the darkest recesses of my mind. Perhaps it was far more because as crew, which was way, way back when, I had had an absolute ball there. We worked hard and played even harder. How they put up with us I will never know. Oh how we loved Shirley Heights…

We used to call it Shirley's Tights and a trip up there for sunset was almost like delivery to the promised land. Lots of partying, read Mount Gay rum, ensured we were fully pumped and ready for anything. This included the chopper rides off the cliff face and down across the Carribbean. Today I think the pilot had more fun than the numerous passengers that lined up, spilled out the Benjamins, and then came back raving.

Now just as a yacht's sails build apparent breeze over them as they move forward, so too for the rotary wings spinning above an aluminium and polycarbonate shell. It's a good thing too, for this meant that after ploughing over the edge with golden hues enshrining all the vistas like it really was your final journey, the chopper got what is known as transitional lift and could then pull out of the dive with ease. It was a trick they learned in Vietnam and anyone who has been heli skiing may well have had a similar experience. Note to self - find out if you can still do it in this litigious and PC world. It is one ride I would love to do again before this grand journey passes...

Anyway, we were anchored out the back of Falmouth Harbour because of our size and the nights you were on watch also meant you drove the tender, which really did seem like a taxi. Knowing in a couple of days it would be your turn meant you were more than happy to oblige your fellow crewmembers’ request for collection, even if they could not really operate the 2-way, let alone speak into it intelligibly.

What it did mean was that you ended up dropping off a lot of people on boats way further in than you. The benefit was that you got to meet people with amazing stories, having cruised all the way from Europe in small craft. It was also the first time I had seen so many long-haul cruisers in the one location. It was very different to little bays in the Hawkesbury River North of Sydney, where it was almost exclusively weekenders.

If you hail from one of the 10 nations that play Test Cricket, then anytime spent in the Caribbean is full of its own special wonders. Meeting Sir Garfield Sobers in Barbados was one of mine. If you do not come from a former colony, then I apologise for the wee digression there.

But here is the thing. The Caribbean is more than bars, beaches, birds, stingrays, massive cruise ships disgorging huge numbers of tourists on what seems to be an all too regular basis. Going down Government Cut in Miami for the first time and seeing all the cruise ships lined up certainly was an eye opener.

There is a history, a culture and just like anywhere these days, if you keep you eyes open and your hand on your wallet you can find them. Certainly the scenery with all those hills and water remains an inspirational bucket list item.

So are you out there plying the seas and got something to say? We’d love to hear from you via editor@sail-world.com –

In the meantime, do you love being on the ocean? Well remember to love them back too. They need our help. Now more than ever! Until next time…