Antigua (Cruise with the Royal Clipper in the Caribbean)

In the morning, we went to the beach where we had a 'Beach Barbecue' for lunch.

While the crew was preparing it, we heard several calls for the New Year and thought that the first countries in the world had probably just welcomed the year 2025.

We were picked up from the beach for our excursion, the 'Heritage Tour'.

The drive first took us to Nelson's Dockyard.

Since the end of the 17th century, Antigua belonged to the British and was their most important naval base in the Caribbean. 

In the 18th century, they established their naval base on the south coast, which was later named after the famous commander Admiral Nelson.

During a brief tour, we were told some history and the function of the dockyard.

Women were banned from the entire area but were said to have secretly swum to the docks at night so that the workers could spend their pay with them.

Some of the sailors fell ill with malaria or other fevers and received rum as medicine. However, this was stored in barrels with lead fittings, resulting in some eventually dying of lead poisoning. The rum was not to blame, our guide assured us multiple times. We were also offered a rum punch.

Next, our drive took us to the other side of the bay and high up: to Shirley Heights.

From the viewpoint, we could overlook the entire bay, even though not much remains of the former fortification.

To conclude, we drove to Betty's Hope, a former sugar plantation.

An exhibition remembers the slaves who once worked here.

Only the ruins of the boiler house and the distillery where rum was produced remain to be seen.

Only the foundations of the former residences of the manager and owner remain, as the wooden structures later burned down.

With a detailed explanation of 'Steel Pan' orchestras, we made our way back to the beach and Tender boat.

In the evening, after the New Year's dinner, the Steel Pan Band 'Hell's Gate' came on board. The tour guide had already excitedly told us about this group in the morning and showed us YouTube videos of larger performances.

At midnight, we toasted to the New Year under billowing sails with dance music in warm temperatures.