St Johns, Antigua

Today, we arrived at our final Caribbean destination, St Johns, Antigua. We were on tour escorting duties, but on different tours; Tracey would be Kayaking, while I would be visiting the historic Nelson’s Dockyard.

There was a short delay in berthing alongside the quay and setting up the gangway. A further, minor, delay was because we were waiting to be cleared by the local immigration authorities. As always is the case in these circumstances, the message went out for people to remain in the lounges until clearance had been granted, and not to congregate on the stairwells near the gangway. Anyone doing so would be turned away.

Naturally, this doesn’t seem to deter some people; there are always a few who insist on hanging around, in the hope of being the first off ship. From the escorts point of view, our instructions are to be at the head of the passengers, and be down by the gangway so that we can get to the coaches first, introduce ourselves to the guides and be in position when it comes to the job of getting folks on their respective tours.

Guess who should make an appearance at the gangway, in all his blustering, loud, noisy, petulant glory… Mr Angry and his wife.

As a quick reminder; Mr Angry was the person who totally disrupted the very first of my classes right at the start of the voyage, being rude and arrogant, demanding a place in the class and threatening all manner of repercussions should his wishes not be granted (not surprisingly, he and his wife only turned up to the first two, free, sessions, and were never seen after that, once we started making a small charge – funny that…).

He’s been causing disruption ever since. Wherever he goes on the ship, he’s abused staff left, right and centre, and this morning was no exception. Having appeared right by the gangway, a senior member of the security staff politely asked him and his wife to return upstairs to wait until clearance had been given. The torrent of abuse he received for his trouble was a familiar sound to all who has had the misfortune to come across him. He insisted that he should be allowed to remain, and pointed petulantly towards the escorts, demanding to know why we were allowed to stand by the gangway, and not him. When the officer explained that we were escorts, it simply set him off on another pointless rant, like a spoilt teenager who had never grown up.

The final straw came when clearance was finally granted, and we started to move forward to the security desk to have our cruise cards swiped to show that we had disembarked. Mr and Mrs Angry barged forward like manic greyhounds out of a trap, determined to push their way through and be first off the ship. Unfortunately for them, in front of them were Lina, one of the lecturers, and her husband, who just happens to be blind, and who rather magnificently blocked his path with a well-placed elbow and a white stick. There was a little argi-bargie, and words were exchanged, but they failed to crash their way through and had to wait their turn… there really is nowt so queer as folk…

I’ve done the Nelson’s Dockyard tour before, so I knew what to expect. We drove for an hour, to a windy promontory they called the Blockhouse, where views extended out in all directions. Below us, and a short way off, a large spit of land with a large house on top of a plunging headland, could be seen. The guide told us that the house belongs to none other than the great country and western singer, Eric Clapton, which raised a few eyebrows. I told the guide a few minutes later that I’d never heard Eric Clapton described as a country and western singer before. ‘Oh Yes’, she said; ‘he’s well known in these parts for his country and western singing’. When I explained that he’s better known in the UK as being a blues guitarist, she shrugged her shoulders… maybe that’s his other band.

From The Blockhouse, we stopped off at Shirley Heights, a small fort, before heading down into the Unesco World Heritage site known as Nelson’s Dockyard. It is exactly as you would expect; a large dockyard area, where Admiral Nelson himself oversaw the building and maintenance of ships. It’s an impressive place, if you like that sort of thing; I enjoyed my free drink and made use of the free wi-fi in the bar there, until it was time to count everyone back onto the bus and return to the ship.

Back at St Johns, I made use of more free Wi-fi in a small quayside bar while I waited for Tracey to return from her kayaking (at which, she appears to have had a magnificent time… next time, we’ll both try to do it…).

So, that’s it.

We’re now on our way, heading in a North-Easterly direction, towards The Azores, where we expect to arrive in 6 days time. For me, that means back to work tomorrow…