Banx’s 27-year-old daughter Tahirah belts out her own compositions with a voice that hovers between Macy Gray and Lauryn Hill. Over a drink, her brother Omari tells me about his time as an off-spin bowler for the West Indies. ‘I’d play my guitar for my cricketing colleagues back in Somerset, or when we were stuck in hotels in Lahore,’ he says. We‘re joined by his old coach, Cardigan Connor, another former county cricketer, who is now Anguilla’s tourism chief ‘When I played for Hampshire, I’d come home in the winter and train on the world’s most beautiful beaches while my team mates were running in the rain back in England. I knew I was lucky. Anguillians are lucky.’
The following night I’m at another nightspot. The Pumphouse at Sandy Ground, once a salt-refining mill that backed on to Road Salt Pond. The Musical Brothers are a Thursday institution; they have only missed two gigs in 18 years, once because the lead singer had a sore throat and the second time when the bass player died.
The Pumphouse is owned by Laurie Gumbs, who has something of a buccaneer spirit about him. By day he is captain of a 50ft gaff-cutter-rigged sloop called Tradition, one of only three historic sailing vessels left in the Caribbean. Carrying neither winches nor windlasses, and with a 60ft mast made out of an electricity pole, this boat has plied the trade winds carrying cargo and contraband around the region; now Gumbs offers day trips and sunset cruises.
I want to see Anguilla from the sea and Gumbs invites me aboard. We meet at Sandy Ground, the main harbour where fishermen offload their catch and where there are bobbing boats named Happiness Joy and Bliss. As we set sail, he tells me about the strong sailing heritage and that boat-racing is the national sport. ‘They say if two boats meet in these waters, a race is born,’ he says.
We anchor, he strings up a bimini (a canvas top), and serves creamy lobster rolls. I jump in the sea for a snorkel and then float on my back, looking up at cliffs dotted with cacti named Pope’s Hat and Pipe Organ.
