In this newsletter:
€ Our minor restructure became major
€ Election time....
€ PUMKIN hits the water!
€ Figgy's site
€ Spammers at the our links page
€ Antigua on line vanishes too
€ Exhibitions at Island Arts
€ More on SunSail Colonna.
You probably thought I'd died! I hadn't, but a collection of events became a major distraction and so I'm only now beginning to catch up with everything. It's been hard over the past few months.... I'm webmaster to 4 domains, have hosted 3 exhibitions (one was my own), I've shaken the hands of a few thousand tourists, rebuilt a sailboat, and struggled to make a few paintings as well. I'm sure you'll forgive the odd lapse in communication.
Our minor restructure became major
The minor restructure we promised in the last newsletter became a major happening when AntiguaToday.com vanished for a month. The problem was somewhere between Internic, the domain registrar, and my server. Although our files remained frozen at 1-by-1.com/antiguatoday the new domain which we had just publicized disappeared.
I'm glad to say that we are now online again, but the site update has developed into a major rebuild and you won't get to see any revamps for a few weeks. ALL the 1-by-1 and AntiguaNews and IslandArts pages will be moving over to the new server so besides updating content we have to check that ALL the old links are accurate. Eventually, (hopefully by the end of March), I'll send you a list of NEW bookmarks and then we can get back to regular newsletters.
Election time....
The big news here in Antigua & Barbuda is that the government has finally announced an election date...... March 9th. After many months of speculation political fever is mounting rapidly. The shortness of time from announcement to election is probably all for the best. Everyone knew that it would be some time in the next 6 weeks so no one was taken by surprise and election posters have been going up for over a month. In fact we seem to be being swamped by political notices. The faces of candidates are plastered on every APUA pole and now HUGE hoarding are going up. The sooner it's over the sooner we can tear then down without offending anyone.
PUMKIN hits the water!
Many of you wrote asking how PUMKIN (the boat I acquired after the hurricane) is coming along. Well I'm preparing a page to show you. Many helpers took photos along the way but we haven't compiled them into a sensible format yet.
We got her out of the tree and stood her at the water's edge. After weeks of fiberglassing and fairing, the rebuild of her spreader fittings, toe rail and safely lines she was ready to launch.... but after three dates with the crane, it still hadn't shown up. On the fourth try the crane showed but sank in the soft mangrove shoreline. So it was that we hired a bulldozer and cut a short road for the crane and finally on Saturday the 6th Feb PUMKIN was lifted into the water..... 2 feet of water!
WE gently laid her down about 50 feet from deep water. Through the enterprising endeavors of friends Tommy, Ian, John and my partner in the boat Doug (the chief engineer) we used the winch on the crane, blocks, anchors and a nearby jetty to drag her out on a skid the we had strapped to the side. Quite suddenly she was free! (and we hadn't put a new scratch on her).
The previous owner immediately asked if he could buy her back!
On Sunday 7th we took her on a tentative sail... a third of the way around the island, from Seatons where she was beached to Jolly Harbour where we will be keeping her. If that seems a little hasty you'll be surprised to learn that after a swift refurbishment of the running gear we raced her on the 13th & 14th and placed 3rd in cruising class in the Valentines Regatta.
After a few more changes, her third time out was a real triumph when on the 20th, (only 13 days after launching), she won the Jolly Harbour Saturday race with minutes to spare. Doug and I are thrilled and are jubilantly preparing her for Antigua Sailing Week at the end of April.
Figgy's site - CALYPSONIAN SOCA ARTIST FIGGY LAUNCHES WEBSITE
Fitzroy "Figgy" O'Garro asked me to tell you about his new site and sent me this press release:
"The pace into the new millennium has been set with just about everyone logging onto the internet. Caribbean recording artists will not left behind. Fitzroy "Figgy" O'Garro launches his website and invites all to visit http://members.spree.com/figgy2/ Photos, text and a brief audio track make this a colorful site showcasing the true flavor of this Caribbean music artist."
"Figgy was born in Urlings, Antigua and now resides in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. He has been competing in Antigua's Calypso and Soca Monarch Competitions for the past four year. He is also a regular in the finals for the St. Thomas-Virgin Islands Calypso Competition and the St. Croix Crusian Festival Competition. His music topics range from anti-drug, anti-racial, viagra, politics, love, sex, women, and more."
Figgy wants you all to check out his site which, though small, is quite creative and makes the following introductory offer: "Visit his site, email him from his direct email link at site, mention this article, state your mailing address and receive a free cassette or CD of one of his albums. "
While AntiguaToday! can NOT guarantee that this VERY generous offer will be honored if a few hundred of our readers show up, we have no reason to believe it won't. Take a few monents to check him out and get your CD before the rush makes him think twice.
Spammers at the our links page
We are being forced to redesign our links page (http://1-by-1.com/links) because of unscrupulous spammers swamping the automated page with hundreds of irrelevant links. It also forced us to put up a discouraging notice on the additions form. We hope you will not be inconvenienced or discouraged by these actions. The good news is that the links page will develop into a series of features on different aspects of Antigua which will be more effective than ever. We are seeking sponsors for each section so let us know if you would like to be associated with our site.
Antigua-on-line vanishes too
It appears that AntiguaToday.com isn't the only site with problems. We haven't been able to raise Antigua-on-line (antol.ag) or the Antigua Sun for the past few week. Antol.ag is the most prominent server in Antigua providing web hosting to many local businesses and numerous informative data files. We hope that this is a temporary laps and that they will be back with us soon.
Exhibitions at Island Arts
If you want to stay in touch with art in Antigua we have a new page for you. Island Arts Galleries opened the 1999 season with a strong series of exhibitions at my home gallery Aiton Place and we've put up some pages dedicated to artists in exhibition there.... http://CineSecrets.com/IslandArts/exhibitions . Barbadian artist Howaida Moussa-Weel and Antigua's Yolanda Woodberry both have new pages so if you're a Caribbean art lover you might like to check them out.
More on SunSail Colonna.
Once Pumkin was in the water and I decided to race her, I realized that I needed to find some crew in a hurry. Since Sunsail's sailing holiday hotel is just down the street from me I strolled along and enlisted help from 4 gallant tourists. It was the first time I had the opportunity to wander around the grounds and I have to say that I was impressed by the largest swimming pool I've seen in Antigua, two small dingy harbors and some impressive sailing equipment. Everyone I met was very complementary about their holiday. Prices often seem to be lower than normal airfares and meals and equipment are all inclusive. Staff are extremely safety conscious and a rescue boat is always within sight. In addition to the regular dingy sailing the staff provide courses on various aspects of sailing technique.
If there's any criticism it was that in past months the wind off Hodges Bay had been a bit too wild for novice sailors (not much the hotel can do about that) and that the facility is somewhat compact. But when you compare what you get for what you pay I think you'll have to go a long way to find better value or more fun on the water.
That's all for today. See you in Antigua...............
regards
Nick
