Race entrant: Team Wadadli
Boat : R45
Fellow Antiguans , visitors and well wishers,
For years we in Antigua have watched sunburnt and weary atlantic rowers slowly row into our beautiful and historic Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour here in Antigua as they complete the Atlantic Campaign’s biannual Atlantic Challenge. We have decided that it is now time that a Antigua team should be put together as a fours entry and give it a go.
Being a small twin island nation (A beach for every day of the year, and this is only the beginning!) many of us naturally have turned to the sea to make a living and as such many Antiguans are good seafarers not only as divers and fishermen but also as sailors, just think of Antigua Race Week. There are no rowers here but we are “comfortable” out on the ocean and once the effort is made and we get focused this will come smoothly onto stream. The team members for the row have not been fully chosen yet; there is a short list of some eight individuals so far who are “chomping on the bit” to go, but the final decision will not be made until early in the new year.
The name of the team, Wadadli, comes from the colloquial local version of the pre-Columbian amerindian name for Antigua. Our charity is the St. John Hospice, a non-profit privately operated and funded palliative institution for the needy who are terminally ill here in Antigua. Many have already been given the opportunity to live out their final days here with first class care and dignity which they otherwise could not have been able to do.
We are all looking forward to the adventure and camaraderie associated with this row, and for our competitors who we will be meeting in the Canaries next year and are so inclined we’ll be bringing over some of our special English Harbour Five Year Old rum for them to sample!
I look forward to sharing our adventure with you all through our blogs and videos as we cross this 2800 mile wide “pond”.
With warm regards,
Nick Fuller.
“We Likkle but we Tallawah”
This is a Jamaican expression meaning “We’re little but we are strong “.