Antigua

We settled into to life in Jolly Harbour, continuing on with boat jobs and ensuring everything fixed and working. Barry and Tommy flew back to their families.

On Thursday 3rd December Jimmy flew up to NY - pre op tests on Friday and surgery on Monday. He called today (monday) just before leaving the hospital - sounded in relatively good spirits considering, but said his arm is all numb and feels like a lead weight. Hopefully he has a good supply of pain killers for the night.

Meanwhile Charlotte and I have been getting into a routine on the boat and catching up with the home schooling. A few boats have recently arrived on the Blue Water Rally across the Atlantic - Charlotte has made friends with 2 girls on one of the boats and we have been going to the pool with them later on in the afternoons. Santa made a visit to Jolly Harbour on Saturday afternoon, arriving in a helicopter! After a long wait, Charlotte got to have her picture taken with him.

Jolly Harbour is always a good place to meet other children and Charlotte made good friends with Zinia (7) from UK who was staying in one of the villas with her mum and brother, waiting for her dad to arrive across the Atlantic on their catamaran.

St Lucia to Antigua 26-28th November 2009

A slow start to the day for the boys after the birthday celebrations the night before. Unfortunately not the great Thanksgiving Feast that their families would have given them if they were still home (and I'm sure that thought crossed their mind..). We recognize that Jimmy is very lucky to have friends that will give up their Thanksgiving to help us out. We did offer turkey sandwiches (from a pack...) No takers.. Jimmy cooked a great chicken stew..

By about 1pm we were leaving the marina, chicken rotis take away for lunch, and on our way to Martinique. Nice wind direction this time (just wish we had more of it ...) Dark fell as we started the passage between Martinique and Dominica - we went up the windward side of Dominica for the first time. This allowed us to sail, rather than motor. By 7.30am, 19 hours later we were anchoring in the lovely anchorage of Les Saintes.


First stop - the bakery for croissants and fresh french bread.
Then some boat jobs, and then renting scooters to explore one of our favourite islands. 5 of us on 3 scooters - Jimmy had to come on the back of my scooter as he couldn't drive with his arm, which did mean he had to jump off and walk up a couple of steep hills.

An early start the next morning (after the obligatory visit to the bakery to stock up with croissants and hot french bread) - we sailed the 90 miles from Les Saintes, up the coast of Guadeloupe and across the passage to Antigua, arriving at our "home" for the next few weeks, late Saturday evening after covering just under 400 miles from Trinidad. Thanks to Barry and Tommy for helping us with this trip and for putting up with us!!

Grenada to St Lucia November 23rd - 25th

We left Grenada Monday morning, after a few jobs and a quick stop at Prickly Bay to check out of customs and immigration. Then another stop part way up the coast of Grenada to snorkel the underwater statues. We motored up the leeward coast. Wind was about 15-20 knots from the east which meant we had to motor sail across to Carriacou. We carried on through part of the Southern Grenadine islands and stopped just before dark at the small island of Mayreau. We had covered only 45 miles of the approximately 300 miles from Grenada to Antigua.

A fairly early start on Tuesday to do the 90 miles from Mayreau to St Lucia. Soon we were settled into the 4 watch routine (with others reading / sleeping / watching movies). We were able to sail a lot more of this trip. We went through the Grenadine Islands, up the leeward coast of St Vincent, across the 30 mile passage to St Lucia, up the coast of St Lucia and arrived in Rodney Bay shortly before midnight, with all eyes on deck checking for any unlit anchored boats in the bay. Winds averaged about 20 knots - we had 2 reefs in the main and the boat handled it well.

Very soon Tommy was put to work - part of the stitching on the jib was coming loose where the jib sheets attach. Armed with a sail sewing kit, he was sent up on deck, while we were sailing.

A little latter, Jimmy noticed the jib furling line had got caught under the furler. Another job for Tommy ... my words to him "you will get wet" - this was an underestimation as the bow ploughed into the seas.
Wednesday morning we went into the marina and had a day off (well off sailing - Jimmy was cracking the whip as fuel was transferred and the boat was scrubbed clean (taking advantage of the flowing water)). It was Tommy's birthday so Charlotte baked a birthday cake in the morning. By about 4pm, jobs were finished and we were able to enjoy the marina pool. That night the boys hit the town to celebrate the birthday boy.

Thursday - no biggy for the Brits on board, but a big celebration for the 3 American boys - Thanksgiving. with no turkey on board we headed off for another long day of sailing

Grenada - November 17th-23rd November

Our initial time in Grenada was spent sorting out the boat for the survey - all went well although the wind decided to blow over 25 knots for the sea trial, when we had to sail with full main and jib. The out of water survey was delayed til Saturday after a Caribbean misunderstanding "oh you mean this Thursday" when I called up to reconfirm the day before...

Tommy arrived Friday evening to join the crew with his usual abundance of energy. We enjoyed some social events in Grenada that weekend - a pot luck BBQ and karaoke at a marina on Saturday night (where ALL of the Heat wave crew participated) and the regular Sunday afternoon beach BBQ on Hog island. Charlotte got to have a play date with Jade (who she knew from last year on Wild Vanilla) and they also spent the Sunday afternoon on Hog Island playing for hours with bits and pieces found on the beach - who needs fancy toys??

We got to meet up with a lot of cruising friends for a quick hello and good bye before heading north early Monday morning.

Trinidad October 24th - November 17th 2009

Jimmy went down earlier to labour in a hot sweaty boat yard, to get the boat ready to put back in the water. Once Charlotte and I arrived, we launched the boat, went into a marina and Jimmy had a quick flight up to NY to sort out his necessary surgery to his arm after falling off the ladder in the boat yard and injuring his rotary cuff.

During our week in Trinidad, Charlotte got a chance to meet up with Ryan ("Trini boyfriend" who had spent some time in Bermuda over the summer) for a play date.

After an overnight flight, Barry was quickly put to work when he arrived in Trinidad, helping us with the final jobs before leaving Trinidad.

We left at first light, for our 80 mile trip to Grenada, with dolphins playing at the bow of the boat. The timing was perfect with the tides out of the "Mouth of the Dragon" and we managed to have a couple of knots of current with us for the first half of the trip. Conditions were great, 15 knots of wind from the south east. We had anticipated not getting in til after dark, but made it in about 10 hours, arriving in Grenada at about 4.30pm, in time for cocktails on the trampoline, BBQ dinner and all asleep by 9pm!

Start of sailing season 2009/10 Trinidad - Deja Vu

Deja Vu .... we started last sailing season with Charlotte's arm in a cast after she fell off a wall. This season, on November4th, Jimmy fell off the ladder in the boat yard in Trinidad and hurt his arm...

After a couple of trips to the doctors in Trinidad, a whirlwind trip to see the surgeon and MRI in New York, (just after Charlotte and I arrived in Trinidad) he is now scheduled for surgery for his rotary cuff on December 7th. So we are now on a fast track up to Antigua, where he will fly out of to have the operation, leaving Charlotte and I on the boat. Hopefully he won't damage it any more on the way. Tommy and Barry (2 more retired FDNY) are flying down to do the trip with us, with Jimmy barking orders.

The Day we had 6 meals and 2 hotel rooms

After eventually persuading American Airlines that, under their new award system, a trip from the Caribbean to Bermuda should be one award and not 2, we finally got our flight home ticketed for Saturday 6th June - one of the very few days that we were able to make it back from Grenada to Bermuda in a day. No overnighters so I didn't hesitate loading up the bags..... I should have guessed we were doomed...

Alarm went off 5am, breakfast 6am and we arrived at the airport at 7am to be told the flight wasn't leaving til 7.30pm! (thanks for notifying us..) We were given a hotel room and food vouchers (Jimmy enjoyed Charlotte's share!) for breakfast (2nd of the day), lunch and dinner. Plane finally took off at 8.30pm and we were given dinner No.2 on the plane.
Checked in to hotel in Miami about 1.30am (2nd hotel room of the day) and offered dinner (No. 3!!).

The following day more delayes on our flight to Bermuda and we were finally back sunday night about 10.30pm.
Charlotte was tired but made it back school the next day - I then celebrated my first "day off' in 4 months by unpacking....

Jimmy is about to sail the boat to Trinidad from Grenada with my brother-in-law Alan where it will be taken out of the water and left on the hard for hurricane season

Turtle Trip - Grenada June 3rd 2009

June is prime time to see turtles laying their eggs on the beach - they return thousands of miles to lay their eggs. At 6pm we drove with a number of other cruisers to the north of the island to see turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. Our guide gave us a short brief on what to expect and some do’s and don’ts – in particular no white torches (only red) and no camera flashes as these would disturb the turtles.

We arrived at the beach around 8pm and began waiting... We saw no action until 9:30pm when someone spotted some baby turtles hatching and we received word that a turtle had landed at the other end of the beach around 700 meters away.

We first made our way over to where the baby turtles were surfacing. The average nest has around 100 eggs, and the female will lay eggs about 6-10 time a season. Survival rate to maturity is very low. We saw around six to eight early arrivals scrambling around roughly making their way to the sea. A few who had red light torches were able to guide the baby turtles to the sea by shining their light ahead of them as they had an instinct to follow the light.

Next we trudged to the other end of the beach to see the turtle reported to have landed there. Along the way we were nervous of treading on other baby turtles that may be hatching and making their way to the sea. Once there, we found some researchers helping a 1000lb turtle dig her nest. She was having difficulties as her right flipped appeared injured and was not removing sand effectively. The turtle would only begin laying her eggs when she can feel no more sand beneath her. This was not going to happen without help.

It was exhausting just watching her and eventually a reflex must have triggered and she abandoned this attempt to try elsewhere.

The researchers knew when we were able to come close to watch. During the early digging we were asked to stand well away. As the hole developed we were allowed to come close.

Fortunately, another turtle came ashore as we were heading back to the taxi. This turtle was fit and able to dig her hole without assistance. Soon we were able to come close and watch. Methodically she would excavate each side of the hole with her hind flippers creating quite a deep, squarish hole for her eggs.

When her senses told it was time she went into her egg laying trance. In this mode she was practically senseless to what was going on around. We were able to touch her carapace (soft shell) and her fore flippers without disturbing her. She was also unphazed by the researcher holding her rear flippers apart so they could count the eggs and we could see them.

Two types of eggs are laid. Normal yolk filled eggs are laid which will produced babies. Around these, smaller yolkless eggs are laid as filler so that the yolked eggs don’t get too much sand between them.

Midnight approached so we had to head back to the taxi careful again to avoid any possible hatchlings. We saw a third turtle ashore to nest and lay her eggs along the way. It was nearly 2pm before we finally returned home.

I thank Steve Southwood, who was on our trip, for allowing me (hopefully!) to plagerise his blog which he so promptly posted (no 6 year old and home schooling there!!) and to use all his photos (he had a special night setting - with no flash, none of my photos came out).

Grenada

We have now arrived in Grenada - the "end of the line" for Charlotte and me. Jimmy will continue south to Trinidad with my brother-in-law Alan, where the boat will be hauled for hurricane season.

Grenada is a lovely island, about 120 sq miles, lush, green and hilly with a population of about 100,000. It’s a very peaceful island, a few hotels, a relatively small amount of tourists. It’s a boat haven for hurricane season. Coming back to Grenada is like coming back to somewhere that we have lived – we are now very familiar with the island, and know a lot of people, both on land and other fellow cruisers. Due to the many cruisers, Grenada has a great cruisers network, with a lot of organized events and social gatherings (all advertised on the morning VHF radio cruisers net broadcast).

So pretty soon we have our social calendar organized.

We headed out to snorkel the sunken statues - amazing seeing different statues (including a man riding a bike and a man sitting at a computer desk!

One day we did an island day tour - swimming in waterfalls, having monkeys eat bananas on my head (and Charlotte petting the older tamer monkey "Lover Boy" - see pic below), visiting the rum factory (where nothing much has changed since the 1700s - they prefer to keep it that way rather than make a lot of people unemployed...), visiting the nutmeg factory that once employed many people - Grenada used to be the number 2 producer of nutmeg in the world - until hurricane Ivan in 2004, when they lost 90% of their nutmeg trees. And seeing the many spices growing along the roadside - Grenada is known as the "Spice Island".

One Saturday morning Charlotte and I went "to the country" to help out with a program set up to listen to children read and help them with maths. The standard was not very high but at least the children were coming along of their own accord to try and learn more (or was it for the social event?) About 25 children came from the villages around to a small wooden building. There were about 6 volunteers. Charlotte was even put to work with a 4 year old, reading to her and pointing out the words!

Saturday afternoon the airport was closed for a renaming party!! - not sure what message the people on the delayed incoming flights were given!

There are a lot more children in Grenada, and so Charlotte is now back to having play dates on other boats and on the beach. Boat children seem to mix well with children of all different ages - I think they are just happy to have other children around and can't be choosy.

Charlotte's 6th Birthday 25th May 2009

6 birthdays in 6 different countries: 1st birthday in London, 2nd in NY, 3rd in Martinique, 4th in Grenadines, 5th in Bermuda and now 6th in Grenada!

Hilary's recent visit from London and Jimmy's quick NY trip meant that there were plenty of presents to open. The pink camera was a hit - but the battery usage means we are searching for rechargeable batteries now!!

Charlotte had a birthday party on the beach with some friends that we had met and a nice cake we made that morning (no bakery with a Hanna Montana Cake!!). In the evening the 3 of us had a nice (early) dinner out - one of the high lights for Charlotte was cherries in the ice cream!!

Carriacou - 22nd-24th May 2009

A great short sail (about 2 hours) from Tobago Cays to Carriacou, an island north of, and part of Grenada. We stayed the night in an idyllic spot very aptly named “Sandy Island” (photo) just off Carriacou, before moving round to Tyrrel Bay the next day. Shopping in the capital of Hillsborough is “interesting” – bakery is in someone’s back yard, eggs sold in a plastic bag (don’t stand a chance in the dingy!), 5 different stops to buys 2 small bags of groceries. Remember we can only buy as much as we can carry back to the dingy….

Jimmy had seen an article in the cruising papers that the Carriacou Yacht club was collecting for the local school fund. We did a big sort out and gave away a lot of Charlotte’s books and toys to them. We were very proud of her also that she let her scooter go without any fuss – we were sure some of the kids on this small island would benefit a lot more from some of these things. Along the way and at the end of each year we do a clear out of Charlotte’s stuff and try to give it to people that need it (often restaurant, hotel or marina workers will take it back to their villages) In general a lot of the Caribbean is very poor and the children don’t have a lot.

Sunday 24th May we had a nice sail from Carriacou down to Grenada - about 4 hours, 30 miles with perfect conditions - apparent wind angle 90 degrees 15 knots which gave us some great speeds. We even managed to sail (rather than motor) most of the way down the leaward coast of Grenada. We anchored just outside the capital of St George's, and then headed off to Grand Anse beach to look for children for Charlotte's birthday party the next day....

Life on Board

Life on board continues with the daily routines, the biggest now being homeschooling for about 2-3 hours each morning. Over the years we have sorted out our respective “jobs” on board and now Charlotte is also starting to have her role - turning the engines on and off, turning the lights breakers on and off in the evening and morning, helping Jimmy with anchoring (using the remote to get anchor up and down), laying the table to name a few.

I’m sure a lot of you think we have been sitting here drinking Pina coladas under a palm tree …. (not quite…) I figured that the less exciting parts wouldn’t make for good reading but some people say we should let you know “the bits we don’t write about” – blocked toilets, sleepless nights in bad weather, dragging anchors in the middle of the night, wet dingy rides, …. Living aboard continues to have its fantastic sides and also, in comparison, it’s more difficult sides.

Fantastic sides – sunsets, great anchorages, beautiful places, ability to move around, meeting great people, magic sails (when the wind is in your favouor). The prevailing winds are from the east (trade winds). With the island chain running north to south, it makes the Eastern Caribbean a sailing paradise.

More difficult sides: time to do everyday chores – shopping, with no car takes on a different meaning! (only buy what you can carry!!) Our dingy is our car – dingy to shore! Next, to actually find out where to go for shopping (laundry, boat parts, mechanics, clearing in, restaurants bars etc). When things go wrong on a boat and it’s not as easy as calling out the local fix it man, you definitely need to be self sufficient. Managing your power and water needs – unlike a house, when turning on the water faucet or electric switches, we also have to be responsible for how we get it in the first place – filling up water tanks and keeping batteries well charged (running the generator, ensuring the solar panels are not shaded by the boom …). We also have a water maker and collect rain water. Whilst it’s nice to live with nature, it’s not always as convenient!! (and makes us appreciate little things a lot more when we move back into the apartment). And of course there is the ever present home schooling that takes up about 2-3 hours each morning.

Tobago Cays 21st-22nd May 2009

The Tobago Cays is a group of small deserted islands protected from the sea by Horseshoe Reef. Boat boys come round from neighboring inhabited islands, selling fresh bread in the morning, plus ice, lobsters and T shirts. When anchored in the Cays, you are not in the lea of any island (only reef), so if the winds are blowing, it’s very windy there!

This is where Charlotte had her 4th birthday party, two years ago, on the beach, on an island 50 yards long – on the way there she asked me if the children who had been at her party would be there again.

A lot of effort has been made recently to make Tobago Cays a Marina Park. Part of the anchorage, where the sea grass grows, is sectioned off as no anchoring, to attract the turtles back. Charlotte and I went snorkeling and saw 2 big sting rays and a few turtles including a mother and baby (see pictures), (not to mention all the normal smaller fish).
One stingray kept following us and Charlotte got a bit nervous, especially as we were only in about 4 feet of water and the stingray kept swimming right below us.

We are Sailing…. 21st May 2009

We picked up anchor and headed out of Bequia just after Mick and Sue on Breathless. Both heading in the same direction, we had a rare photo shoot where we took pictures of each other’s boats under sail.

It took us about 4 hours to get to Tobago Cays. All of the sailing through the Grenadines is relatively protected short sails (although not to the extent of the BVIs).

Bequia (17th-21st May 2009)

Bequia is another of our favourite islands. It is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines (a group of islands stretching over about 30 miles), about 2 miles by 4 miles, 7 square miles with a population of about 6,000, very peaceful, small, laid back, safe, hassle free, nice beaches with some nice restaurants. Not surprisingly a lot of cruisers spend time there and at this time of year, a lot of boats are passing through, heading south before hurricane season starts.

Again the nuances of shopping in a small town – the bakery doubles up as a shoe shop!? Also the local baker comes around in a dingy each morning with fresh bread, rolls and great banana bread. Small yellow barges (“daffodil marine”) come round to deliver fuel, water, ice etc and collect / deliver laundry. You can buy lobsters, fish, pineapple etc from the boat boys (who seem a lot more organized, friendlier and less forceful than some other islands).

While there Charlotte got another new pet (see prior log) – a baby Portuguese Man of War is not the regular child’s pet, but I guess Charlotte is not leading a regular child’s life…. We also went snorkeling (on a different day to catching the jelly fish) a short swim from the boat.

One day the fisherman decided that the fish were all in a spot close by to Sue and Mick’s boat Breathless and proceeded to throw all their nets out, just by their anchored boat. Needles to say, the winds turned, as did their boat and by the time they came back from ashore, nets were all caught up under the boat… The fisherman made peace with a bucket of tuna (they gave one to us and I made sushi that night). There were literally hundreds of small tuna which they loaded into a fishing boat and whisked off to sell in St Vincent (literally a “boat load”). Here I am eating some of the freshest tuna ever!

We had a nice 4 days in Bequia, and then it was time to start heading south…

Charlotte's new pet

On a boat Charlotte does not have the regular pets like a dog or a cat. Her new pet today is a baby Portuguese man of War jelly fish. Previous pets on board have included a lizard (found under the bed) and crabs. One crab died after Charlotte tried to experiment to see if it liked fresh water instead of sea water - a good science lesson!

We are currently in Bequia. Life on board continues the usual pattern of mornings taken up with home schooling, repairs, jobs and maintenance. Later on in the afternoon, its playtime - including cruising round the bay on our new 2 man Kayak.

St Lucia: 22nd April – 17th May 2009

We stayed in St Lucia for 3.5 weeks – the longest we had stopped anywhere. St Lucia is the largest of the English speaking Windward Islands, is mountainous and lush, with many beautiful white sand beaches. Tropical rain forest covers the steep slopes of the centre. It is 27 miles long, 14 miles wide, with a total area of 240 sq miles and a population of 160,000. This was where Jimmy celebrated his 60th birthday last year, when about 25 family/friends flew in.

We arrived into Rodney Bay, (north St Lucia) from Martinique, in time to clear into customs and immigration, get our favourite chicken rotis in the Caribbean, and have a swim in the marina pool. We soon bumped into people we knew. By May, most boats have either headed north already, to USA/Europe, or like us, heading south to Trinidad or Grenada before the start of hurricane season 1st June. May is always a month for meeting up with a lot of cruisers again. Islands like Antigua are very quiet by this time of year.

Soon our social calendar was getting busy: Thursday sunset cocktails on Mick and Sue’s boat Breathless, Friday, all off to Happy Hour at the Landings Hotel, Saturday everyone over to us for lunch and Sunday lunch at the Yacht club! Although we had met Mick and Sue over the years, this trip to St Lucia we got to spend quite a bit of time with them which we enjoyed.

On Tuesday Hilary flew in from London for a week. We rented a car and did a tour of the island on the way to and from the airport, (in the south of the island). We stopped at Ladera, a beautiful spot between the Pitons. Along part of the west coast is one of the most mountainous roads you could imagine.

Jimmy flew up to NY for 3 days, so we took the boat into the marina to make things easier.
On Friday, Hilary, Charlotte and I did a day trip on Endless Summer – the same boat that we had rented for Jimmy’s birthday week - a great trip sailing right down the coast and stopping for a 3 hour land trip –waterfalls, drive through sulphur volcano and the coco-plantation for lunch. On the way back a stop for swimming and snorkeling and also a walk through the picturesque Marigot. Hilary also got a chance to see Charlotte waterskiing behind the dingy – especially funny when she tried to show off to kids on another boat by going no handed (the skis are also attached to the rope) – she waved and then promptly fell flat on her face!

On Jimmy’s birthday, Mick and Sue kindly offered to have Charlotte over for a sleepover, so we had a nice, rare, dinner out for 2! Finding babysitters in the Caribbean is not easy.

We are usually in St Lucia when the Jazz festival is on. This year we made it to the Saturday and Sunday shows, that started at 2pm until about 10pm – a good day of entertainment in a lovely park type setting on Pigeon Island. Artists that we saw included James Ingram, Michael McDonald, Jeffrey Osbourne, Shaka Khan, Patty La Belle, (many I knew their songs rather than names ……..) and for us the highlight was Chicago – it was great seeing a group of aging men having a good time and exhibiting a lot of talent with their versatility in all the different instruments each could play, and switching who sung lead. I would not have thought of Chicago as “jazz” but with their 6 piece brass band, I changed my views. They surpassed our expectations and put on a great show. Even Charlotte enjoyed it!! The only shame was that they did not play my favourite hit “If you leave me now”.

We missed Friday night’s performance, where Amy Winehouse lived up to her reputation by falling over on stage, forgetting lines, appearing stoned, told the audience she was so bored, then to F*** off and finally left the stage before her act had finished! She later blamed it onto the rain but that hadn’t stopped all the other performers. She had been hanging out in St Lucia for a couple of months and gained the nickname “Amy Wino” with plenty of stories of all her antics flying around in the almost daily “Wino Report” – how she exposed herself in front of tourists, puked in the breakfast buffet, at least 2 trips to the hospital, including burning all her leg with pasta, walked around in the same dirty shorts for days on end etc etc… Such a shame to see so much talent wasted.

It’s also entertaining watching all the Martinique’s sailing down to the Jazz Festival on rental boats - the norm is for about 20 of them to rent a catamaran similar size to ours and then party all weekend – usually one person on the boat might knows a little about sailing…. Whilst entertaining to watch, it’s a nightmare for someone with their boat in bareboat charter to watch! This year Jimmy saw them tie a catamaran up to the small dingy dock!

Hilary commented on how a lot of people seemed to know us – I guess that’s one of the advantages of spending some time in the same place. The marina staff haven’t changed in years, so the dock guys always welcome us back. Even Shane at the fuel dock asked after my niece Claire (the long legged “blond”) from 4 years ago! I guess we tend to stand out a bit more than the regular cruising couples – not many 60 year olds with a 5 year old child!! Tom the fisherman, who we swopped a bottle of Bermuda rum for a tuna a few years ago, caught a massive marlin the day we arrived, hanging over both sides of his boat – we weren’t planning on swopping anything for that! Maggie, who worked at the marina, came over again and helped us give the boat a good clean and also braided our hair. The guy that owns/works at the roti restaurant welcomes us back, the Endless Summer crew remember us…..

After 3 weeks in Rodney Bay, we finally pulled up the anchor and headed down the coast where there are some lovely snorkeling bays. Charlotte and I saw lots including some sea snakes. We spent our last 2 nights on a mooring between the Pitons – one of our favourite anchorages and probably one of the top 10 most beautiful anchorages in the world.

Sunday 17th May, at 6am, we left St Lucia to do the 50 miles sail to Bequia. We had a good sail across the 30 mile passage between St Lucia and St Vincent – winds 15 knots on the beam. Only one squall, when we are reminded how quickly conditions can change – I was on watch, relaxing listening to my ipod, perfect sail – saw some darker skies off to the side and within about 5 minutes it looked more like a scene from The Perfect Storm, as the winds shot up to 35 knots, and we were soaked. Once we got to the lea side of St Vincent, as expected the winds dropped to almost nothing, due to the influence of the mountains. Sails down, motor on, down the coast. The last 8 mile stretch across the Bequia Channel, the wind was on the nose so we just continued to motor, no sailing.

St Vincent is not a good or popular stop due to crime – we read of many incidences of boats being boarded at gun point there. We arrived Bequia at 1.30pm. Mick and Sue had left the day before and they were there to welcome us onto the anchorage (a popular stop with over 50 boats).

Fast Track to St Lucia – Saturday 18th April - Wednesday 22nd April

We left Antigua about 10am Saturday 18th April. Winds forecast 10-15 knots out of the east, seas only 3-5 feet, which was perfect for a nice trip south. The plan was to head south to Guadeloupe (about 40 miles passage between the islands) and then stop the night at Pigeon Island. It was about a 50 miles trip and we should make it there before dark. Then some snorkeling the following morning on the Jacque Cousteau reserve before heading off again. The plan was to be in St Lucia in about a week.

We left Jolly Harbour, heading south down the west coast of Antigua, only to find that the winds were coming from the south (weather forecasts are not an exact science…), on the nose, which would not be such a pleasant trip. However, once we got to the bottom of Antigua, the wind moved to the east, as predicted. It often happens that the land can impact the wind direction. Soon both engines were off, fishing line out, and we were enjoying a perfect sail (made up for the last not so great ones from St Thomas, to St Martin and then to Antigua). By the time we reached Guadeloupe, the wind was from the NE giving us a great wind angle for sailing. The wind angle and seas make such a difference for a nice trip. The conditions were so good we decided to take advantage of this and carry on, through the night. The only downside was that this would mean bypassing one of our favourite stops, Les Saintes.

The wind dropped a lot along the west coast of Guadeloupe, due to the very high mountains, so we motor-sailed most of the way down the coast in calm seas. We rolled in the jib as the wind moved to the south, (influenced by the mountains). It started to get dark, as we were nearing the bottom of Guadeloupe. I took the fishing line in – yet again we had caught nothing! Jimmy prepared everything for the night sail (grab bag, harness etc) and then took over the watch at about 6.30pm, while I went and watched High School Musical with Charlotte, and then got her to sleep.

Once we were past the bottom of the coast of Guadeloupe, the winds picked up again. We rolled the jib out, motors off and a great sail again for the passage of about 20 miles between Guadeloupe and Dominica. At 9.30pm, I took over watch from Jimmy. We were just passing one of Les Saintes Islands, a favourite stop of ours – a group of quiet little French islands just south and part of Guadeloupe. Jimmy went and got some rest while I took over the watch, sailing on to the top of Dominica and then down the coast of Dominica. Again, the winds dropped going down the coast as we were in the lea of some of the highest mountains in the Caribbean, so engines back on and jib rolled in.

The radar was well used as there seemed to be quite a bit of boat traffic down the coast of Dominica and it’s often difficult to gauge distances in the dark. There were about 4 cruise ships (which you can see even before you spot them on the radar!) Interestingly I saw 2 lights from boats that looked similar. However, one was a cruise ship about 15 miles away and the other a sailing boat about 4 miles away! I avoided another “blip” on the radar, presumable a boat but even passing at about half a mile, I could not see anything. It’s amazing how many boats travel at night with no lights (usually to save battery power....(very dumb))

With a mixture of drinking tea and listening to the iPod (and watching the lights and the radar!) I managed to last a 5 hour watch, which let Jimmy get some sleep. By 2.30am we were just at the south end of Dominica. I woke Jimmy as the winds began to increase again, and move back to the east, so that we could roll the jib back out (we had the main sail up the whole time). Then I left him to do the 25 miles passage from Dominica to Martinique. I came back on watch again at 7.30am, after Jimmy’s 5 hour stint. We were now just starting our way down the Martinique coast and Jimmy had taken the jib in and put the engines on. I hopefully put the fishing line out again...

Unfortunately there had been a problem with the port engine – the oil pressure gauge had dropped right down and when Jimmy went to check, the whole engine was covered in oil! So we were now down to one engine (one advantage of a catamaran versus a mono-hull is that you still have an engine if one goes wrong). I took over watch while Jimmy tried to sort out what the problem was. We made the decision to stop at the south of Martinique in Le Marin / St Anne’s, where there are lots of boat parts and mechanics. Charlotte woke up but was happy to watch another High School Musical for a while. Jimmy fixed the problem, cleaned up the mess in the engine room and we were back to 2 engines for our final hour of motoring into the wind, past Diamond Rock, to the anchorage.

By midday, Sunday, we were anchoring up in St Anne’s bay (and had yet again reeled in an empty fishing line!) . We had sailed 180 miles in 26 hours – all in all it was a perfect trip south. We had averaged about 7 knots. As a friend of ours always tells any visitors, “sailing is the slowest mode of transport invented (except walking, just)” – although often, with the wind in your face it can fell like a lot faster, with the apparent winds being over 20 knots.

Jimmy managed to sort out all the engine problems, without the need of any assistance or any additional parts. Both tired, we decided to head to the beach, in the hope that we could get some sleep under a tree while Charlotte played happily in the sand with all her beach toys. It didn’t quite work out this way but we had a relaxing afternoon. We seemed to be the only English speaking people on the beach – everyone else French. We came back to the boat, had an early dinner and then Charlotte and Jimmy took a quick dingy ride into St Anne’s to get an ice cream – however, none of the shops would take US dollars and Jimmy had no Euro on him. This is a definite change from a few years ago – the Euro shop keepers no longer want the US peso. By the time they got back to the boat I was already in bed and we were all in bed by 7pm!

We stayed in St Anne’s / Marin a couple of days, and on Wednesday, left to do the last 20 miles to St Lucia (a short hop!). Because St Anne’s is in the SE corner of Martinique, the reward of the 1 hour motor east into the wind just before arriving at St Anne’s, was a better wind angle down to St Lucia (especially as the winds were now out of the NE). The winds and seas had increased quite a bit, but with the winds now coming off our port quarter, we had a great, fast sail, reefed main and full jib, and made it to St Lucia in about 3 hours. We put the fishing lines out again for the trip but needless to say, caught nothing.

The plan is to stay in St Lucia for about 2 weeks.

Antigua April 2009

We arrived back to Antigua at about 5pm on Good Friday 10th April 2009, just in time for the Fore Deck Friday Happy Hour and the Easter Celebrations. Easter is a big weekend for all the locals to go out on their boats and/or go camping – it was just like the Cup Match holiday in Bermuda.

We spent the Easter weekend rafted up with Lewis and Eddy. Lewis had recently bought a big, powerful, loud, fast cigarette boat (Slingshot). About 1000HP and can go up to 80 mph!! He had recently driven it back from St Martin in 3 hours (beats our 14 hours!) He took us out for a ride on it – Jolly Harbour to Falmouth harbour in less than half an hour with roughish seas!! (versus our 3 hours!) – spot the ripples in Lewis’s cheeks from the wind/speed.

Easter morning Charlotte and Eddy did an Easter Egg hunt on the beach – Jimmy headed to the shop to get the real Easter bunny chocolate (no traditional chocolate smarty Easter eggs here – the closest is an Easter bunny or Cadburys cream egg.) We then headed up to Bird Island, on the NE coast, for a couple of days – Heat Wave 2.5 hours, Slingshot less than half hour…. Some of Eddy’s friends were spending the weekend there on boats. Many of the locals were also camping on Bird Island – complete with generators and the rumor is 42 inch TV!! All the tents reminded us of the Bermuda holidays.


We spent a couple of nights there – Charlotte and Eddy enjoyed all the swimming, fishing and ski-bobbing. Also went diving for conchs – amazing – we found about 5 around the boat in 5 minutes. One of the other boats collected about 25 conchs, and cooked them up into a very tasty conch curry – delicious but a lot of work getting them out of the shells, cleaning, pounding and preparing. Conch are very rubbery and tough and require a lot of pounding to tenderize them. Ours were thrown back in the water –Jimmy said he’d prefer to buy it than do all that work!!

Come Tuesday morning, the previously packed bay was now empty as everyone headed back to work. We headed back to Jolly Harbour after our 3 day vacation!!

Last Easter Charlotte had met and played a lot with Barnaby, also 5, who was on holiday from England. They had been emailing the last few months as he was coming out again over Easter. Unfortunately, it turned out they were leaving on Wednesday but we managed to catch up with Barnaby and his parents, Lucy and Jason, Tuesday night for dinner and then on Wednesday they came over to the boat – Charlotte took Barnaby out on her ski Bob – his words after were “That was Total Wicked!”

We then had a couple of days catching up on jobs (including schooling!). We went to check up on the geocache that we had hidden back in February, under the decking at the Fore Deck Bar, only to find that it was not there anymore! Scrambling on hands and knees under the bushes and decking, it was definitely gone. One person had logged a find of the cache in mid March, but that was it. On our last day we replace the geocache - hopefully this one will last a bit longer.

On our last night in Antigua, the Fore Deck Bar, at Jolly Harbour Marina, had a good band playing, with a packed crowd, but, as we were sailing the next day, we were sensible and were back on the boat and in bed before 10pm. By 10am the next morning we had left the anchorage and were heading south to Guadeloupe.