Royal Clipper in St. Johns, Antigua?

In anticipation of my Jan 18th trip, I have been following the Royal Clipper on http://www.marinetraffic.com

Today, (dec 10), she had been heading towards Falmouth Harbor, but when she got around 5 miles off, she turned left, and went around the island. As of 0945AST, she is just getting to the harbour of of St. John's.

Does any one know why she diverted?

(I will also post this question on the Antigua board.)

Aloha,

John

I do not actually know why the ship diverted but, as you probably know, Falmouth Harbour is on the south coast. The ship usually anchors off there and passengers are tendered ashore. I wonder if the "chop" was a bit too much for tendering in and they went to the more sheltered St. Johns on the west coast instead.

This happened to us when we did that cruise in January 2009. On that occasion we were told it was because the swell was too high for boarding the tenders and that another yacht was in our anchorage.

My husband was bitterly disappointed as he wanted to go to English Harbour, being a Nelson fan. We were not booked on the tours, we like being independent!

Our room steward, a lovely man, suggested we get a bus. Seems the crew always go to St Johns for supplies from Falmouth, so we did it in reverse. It was a wonderful experience of the real Carribbean. Us and the locals packed into a minibus.......cheap too! I would recommend it if you too are diverted.

In the marina at English Harbour we met a neighbour of ours who had sailed across the Atlantic in his own yacht. We were so pleased we made the effort.