Swanning off

Sailing invitations come along like London buses - nothing for a while, then two or three all at once. I just had a text message with an invitation to join a Swan 47 in a cross-channel race at the weekend. Since I'm not back from Antigua until Friday and since I wouldn't get back from the channel race until Monday I could foresee various problems:

Jet lag (chronic), marriage (out-the-window), work (impossible). Still, it's not every day you get the chance to sail on a Swan, unless you own one. I hate to say "no" but there we are.

Two days sailing on Artemis, an Open 60 boat, have completed a circumnavigation of the island. It all looked the same from the sea. So today I'm going to explore the interior and plan to meet a distillery owner.

Eric Clapton has a home here. He's also set up a rehabilitation centre that's free for the locals who can't afford this kind of treatment but not free for the likes of Britney Spears who was here a few weeks ago before she checked out, then shaved her head.

Apparently there is a little road by the side of the centre that leads down to the sea where there are the sort of sand flats beloved of bone fish. I might try to get down there with my fly rod. But, as I said, you can't do everything.