Sailing Antigua to Barbuda

Friday 27th February, - we have just arrived in Barbuda after a great sail from Antigua.A prefect sail – best we’ve had in a long time - great wind direction and speed. The sail from Jolly Harbour to Barbuda was about 35 mile north. Winds moved slightly to the south of east, giving us a perfect 90 degree apparent wind angle. Wind speeds about 13-18 knots and seas only about 3 feet made for a perfect sail. We had all the sails up, and didn’t have to tack once and sailed right into 11 mile beach.We left at 9.30 am, just after Bob and Betsey who were heading to Montserrat, and arrived Barbuda at 2pm – went into the deserted bay and anchored up next to Joe and Shawn on s/v Libertas (who had sailed up to previous day). Very soon Charlotte had maintained her regular sailing position:

Monitoring the weather is part of daily life on a boat. Waiting a day or 2 for the right weather, can be the difference between a fantastic sail and an uncomfortable sail.

We stayed in Barbuda for the weekend, exploring the deserted beach and hanging our with Joe and Shawn. Barbuda is a small island, with very few inhabitants, and miles of white sand beaches - one of the few islands in the Caribbean that rivals Bermuda with their beaches.

We then headed off to the festivities of the Heineken sailing regatta in St Martin, and meeting up with some friends

We had a nice down wind sail to St Martin, bypassing one of our favourite islands - St Barths. Charlotte found a new bed on the spinnaker sail bag (which unfortunatly we were not able to use to due wind direction and speed - however, as we motorsailed we did get to charge the batteries, make lots of hotwater and watch DVDs all the way there!)