I had to go to the Dutch Immigration office at 08:00 to pick up Wanita’s passport and leave on the 08:30 outbound bridge opening and I was there early to make sure that we wouldn’t get in trouble for being tardy. Paul Miller, the Regatta director, came by and had some words with the immigration supervisor which prompted yet another round of telephone calls and now it seemed likely that the minister of tourism would prevail with the office in charge of immigration to allow Wanita to enter the country and the 08:30 deadline approached and passed while I was waiting in the chilled immigration office. Then, at about 10:15 I was told that the final decision had been reached and Wanita would have to leave, I had enough time to make it back to the boat, get the anchor up and get in line for the outbound bridge. I re-anchored after exiting the lagoon and dinghied back to Immigration to pick up her passport and my exit papers; but once there was told that Wanita had to be present, so I made another round-trip via dinghy to pick her up. She received her passport back and I got to pay $100 in fees for the pleasure of a day’s worth of waiting in immigration.
Meanwhile the telephones were running hot and I was assured that the situation would change by noon. The ”new” rules were going to be revoked as they had affected the cruise ship companies who were less than pleased, plus the Heineken Regatta is a big event for the island that management was unhappy as well – both for potential impact to competitors who would need to stay on the French side and for them to find a replacement for myself. So instead of going back to Antigua we sailed clockwise from the exit and around to Grand Case on the French side.
It was a good sail in boisterous conditions and once anchored we were in good time to walk around the town and have a happy hour libation at Calmos Café. We’d discussed what to do for dinner and I thought that we’d go to one of the LoLo’s (Locally Owned, Locally Operated) for a large and cheap meal; but we succumbed to the temptations of the menu and ambiance at “Auberge“ and had a fantastic meal there to celebrate escaping the evil clutches of island politics.
The winds picked up significantly upon our return to the boat, but we were safely anchored and everything was attached to the boat as it swung at anchor.
