The Baths – Virgin Gorda

The day after arriving BVI, we went exploring The Baths with s/v Sea Walk and s/v Serephin. Charlotte was in her element leading the trail for the other 4 kids (ages 2,3,4 and 5). Despite have been to the Baths many times before, we are always amazed by the beauty of the rock formations. The Baths consists of huge granite boulders not seen anywhere else in the Caribbean. There are many pools, grottoes and caves, with a trail running through them – in many places the water rushes in and out like a natural hot tub. A beautiful natural child’s playground – and the adult love it too.

That afternoon we headed up to Virgin Gorda Sound with the other 2 boats. Perfect wind conditions for a nice comfortable sail. After arriving Charlotte made pina coladas for everyone (virgin of course). We saw the Maltese Falcon (largest sailing boat in the world) again sailing into the same anchorage - they must be on the same circuit as us!!

British Virgin Islands

The BVIs consist of the main island of Tortola, surrounded by many smaller islands. It is a British Colony, with its own government, and is a growing international offshore business centre (similar to Bermuda and Cayman Islands).

If anyone was looking to charter/bareboat a boat for a week, we would always recommend the BVIs. It’s probably one of the best cruising grounds worldwide, with steady easterly trade winds, great physical and geographical make up, numerous sheltered harbors, great diving and snorkeling. The sailing is not too challenging, with the outer islands providing some protection from the seas, and plenty of different islands to visit within a very short range. Day sailing can consist of a short one hour sail to another nearby island or a few hours sail to the other end of the island chain. Each time we get back to the BVIs it strikes us again how beautiful the islands are.

Sailing St Martin to British Virgin Islands –Thursday 19th March 2009

2.30 am the alarm went off and by 3.15am we were on our way, sailing out of the anchorage at Simpson Bay. Light winds so we put up the main sail before picking up the anchor. The bay was well lit, which made it fairly easy working our way though all the boats at anchor / moorings in the dark –Jimmy up front with a powerful light if needed (which it wasn’t), me on the wheel and us conversing though our headsets.

About 10-15 knots of true wind from directly behind (5-10 knots apparent) so we motor-sailed all the way, keeping up a good speed of about 8 knots. Unfortunately conditions weren’t quite right to fly the (A-symmetrical) spinnaker but we did get everything charged, made lots of ice and had a very easy trip! Two other boats that we had recently got friendly with (s/v Sea talk and s/v Serefin, each with 2 kids aboard), also did the trip that night, leaving at midnight – we thought we might catch them up but with no real sailing involved, not the case (more a question of how many revs on the engine!) however, we did have VHF radio contact with them on the way. The seas were relatively calm at only about 3 feet.

By 4am we were well on our way and started to take watches – I went on watch 4-6am so Jimmy could get some sleep and then he took over from 6am and I got a couple of hours sleep.
Night time motoring is mainly just a case of keeping an eye out for other boats. The cruise ships light up the horizon and are usually playing around, zig zagging back and forth, trying to kill time, when they have about 12 hours to do a trip from one island to the next, that would take them 3 hours or less. By looking at the navigation lights of the other boats you can work out which way they are going (and using the radar to see how far away they are, as it’s very difficult to judge distances at night). With the ipod playing in the cockpit, it’s quite a relaxing time (until Charlotte woke up at 5.30 am, coming up in time to see the sun rise). We passed about 8 boats going in the opposite direction during the trip.

The majority of the motor sail was in the daytime. We put the fishing lines out but as per usual, no luck again (although we did remember to take the cork off the hook this time!) Interestingly a lot of people (that do often catch fish) have mentioned about there being fewer fish around to catch this year. And we have definitely seen far fewer dolphins (none so far) than prior years (although Jimmy and Charlotte did see a whale about 50 feet from the boat on a prior trip.). Effects of global changes? – Definitely been cooler this year (I’ve been using a blanket at night, with the hatch close – normally it’s no sheet and hatch open).

Just over 80 miles later, we arrived 1.30pm into Virgin Gorda, about 10 hour trip and picked up a mooring at the spectacular Baths. Once again we were reminded how beautiful and spectacular the British Virgin Islands are. We took the dingy and cleared in at Customs and Immigration in Spanish Town, popped in to see our friends who had also sailed up, and were back at the boat by 5pm enjoying a sunset drink with the beautiful back drop of the Baths. By 8pm we were all asleep! It’s very dark here and so a fantastic star show.

Leaving St Martin

After two and a half weeks, we are leaving St Martin about 3am tomorrow morning (Thursday 19th March) to sail to the British Virgin Islands. It’s about 100 miles and this will give us the optimal daylight sailing time, whilst still ensuring that we will arrive before dark on Thursday. We are heading west so with any luck we will be able to fly the pink spinnaker tomorrow on one of our rare down-wind sails.

We are now doing the last bits and pieces before leaving:

• Jimmy is doing the regular engine checks before doing a passage;
• Relevant emails sent to the “emergency contacts” in case we have to abandon the boat (we have an EPIRB on board that, if set off, will notify the coastguard of our position to come and find us!);
• I’m doing the last bits on the internet (not sure how long before I get a decent connection again) – including trying to update this blog;
• Last bits of USA mail given to Paul and Leonor to take back to USA (to avoid the 6 weeks it took Jasmine’s birthday card to reach UK from here last year!);
• Last bits of shopping (prices and availability here significantly better than many islands in BVI);
• Charlotte is having a last play with Harmony, and we will soon head to the beach with some of the other kids she's made friends with.

Below are some pictures of our time in St Martin:

We had a good time in St Martin, although never made it over to the French side. Highlights included:

• Getting Charlotte’s cast taken off;
• a visit from Tommy, Lisa and Haley – always a lot of fun;

  From 2009-03 St martin

• Catching up with Paul and Leonor from NY, on their annual 3 week trip to their timeshare (we seem to always be here at the same time and almost feel part of their “timeshare” regular group!);

  From 2009-03 St martin

• Annual Heineken Sailing Regatta;
• Charlotte catching up with her friend Harmony and making new friends with kids on other boats (some also going to BVI tonight so will meet up again) – a favourite meeting place was the jungle gym at McDonalds (One of the few islands with McDonalds) – very good WiFi meant the parents could catch up on internet / banking etc while the children played. Below Charlotte with Katie, Haley and Harmony:
  
  

About St Martin

St Martin is an interesting, unique island as it is shared by two nationalities, using 4 languages, 3 currencies, 2 electric systems (110 and 220V), 2 governments etc. It is barely 7 miles in each direction, 37 square miles, with a population of about 75,000. There is a charming story, completely unsupported, that the French and the Dutch were so civilized that, rather than fight over the island, they had a French man armed with a bottle of wine walk in one direction and a Dutchman equipped with a flask of gin take the other. Where they met became the boundary and the French ended up with a bit more because the gin was stronger than the wine!

The “Treaty of Concordia” signed in March 1648 allows the free movement of people and goods across the borders. However, if you are on a boat you are officially meant to check out of one “country” and then into the other “country” if you decide to sail around to an anchorage on the other side of the island. In prior years not too much notice has been taken of this, but in the last couple of years they have become stricter on this, in particular the Dutch, who have started charging much high check-in and anchorage fees.

The fluxuating US$ / Euro exchange rate continues to cause mismatching in pricing within the island. The French side operates in Euro, the Dutch side on US Dollars (or the Dutch Naf which are linked at a constant rate). So how does a supermarket etc, that has stores on both sides, set their prices with the ever changing exchange rate!!?

St Martin is one of the most touristy islands, in particular with regards to the American market. (Due to lack of direct flights, there are few visitors from the UK, who tend to frequent islands serviced by BA and Virgin such as Antigua, St Lucia and Grenada). There are casinos, many condos and hotels, nice sandy beaches and is a duty free (well now 3%) shopping centre. St Martin is a favourite place for boaters to hang out for a while due to availability and pricing of boat parts, provisions and services. Some seem to never leave though …..

Slide shows - Pictures taken in Antigua, Barbuda and St Martin

Still trying to get to grips with this Blog stuff ....
Now I think I've managed to sort out slide shows of our photos.
Also been updating some of the prior logs so even if you've looked already, you may find some changes that i made today (Sunday 15th March).
We are still in St Martin and looking to head up to the British Virgin Islands towards the end of this week (about 100 miles) - mid week looks like a good weather window, although as it is a (rare) down wind sail, wind speed is not such an issue, as we will be going with the wind. With any luck we will be able to fly out (pink) spinnaker.

I have now moved all the slide shows to the relevant blog update.

Off at Last!!

The long awaited day finally came when the cast came off! 6weeks after the fatal fall!! Here is Charlotte, outside the clinic in St Martin, with her friend Haley who was visiting from New Jersey.
We had an X-Ray taken 2 days later, on the French side of St Martin and all looks OK

Arrived St Martin

Now anchored in Simpson Bay, St Martin, watching as all the boats arrive for the Heineken Regatta which starts tomorrow (Thursday). Had an easy passage from Barbuda to St Martin on Monday. Not too much wind so we motor-sailed - left 5.30am and were anchored in Philipsburg by 3.30pm - 10 hour trip.

Charlotte has already hooked up with Harmony again, her South African friend who lives in St Martin. This is the third season they have known each other and, despite the age difference, they play very well and enjoy each others company.

The winds on Friday are going to be 10 knots or less and on Saturday and Sunday its going to increase up to 25 knots so looks for an interesting weekend of racing, with very varied conditions.

Sitting down here its hard to believe about the economic downturn with all these mega yachts (200 feet plus) all around us.

On Thursday Tommy, Lisa and 6 year old Haley arrived for a 5 day visit. Charlotte enjoyed Haley's company and we are finally getting over Tommy and Lisa's company!! (all good!)

Home schooling







The Heineken Regatta was crazy as ever, lots of winds and swells - they kept changing the courses - 6 boats were dis masted, there was a couple of T bones, dozens of blown out sails. We had one boat drag down on top of us one night - no damage just a 3am wake-up call - Jimmy went ballistic with the guy.

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!)

Still in Jolly Harbour – let’s explore by land not sea – February 19th-27th 2009

As the winds persisted to blow, we stayed put on our mooring in Jolly Harbour and rented a car to explore by land (rather than sea). Although we have been to Antigua many times before, it’s still nice to drive around and explore (and get jobs done with the ease of a rental car rather than a bus or taxi).

First we headed across the island to Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour (built in 1745 as Britain’s main navel station in the Lesser Antilles) and met up with sailing friends from Bermuda, Bob and Betsy Bailey. They like us, and many others, were staying put in the anchorage, waiting for the winds to subside, rather than go out sailing and get battered. Next we found another geocache up at Fort Berkley, which overlooks the bay, and finally, headed up to Shirley Heights for the weekly Sunday BBQ - about 400 tourists/cruisers/locals go up to see the sunset and great views, whilst listening to a big steel band. As the night goes on, the steel band changes to a reggae band, the crowd becomes younger, and dancing continues till about 2am (so we’ve heard!). While watching the sunset, the massive sailing boat Maltese Falcon, sailed past, giving a nice photo op.

From Heat Wave - bobbing around in the Caribbean

On Monday, we used the car for some shopping (Charlotte got her first pair of high heeled shoes, but soon realized that they are not always the best shoes to wear!) and some sightseeing:
Devil's bridge.

Another 2 geocaches at Half Moon Bay:

As the winds started to subside, a dinner out with friends before going our own ways: Lewis and his son Eddie (who live in Antigua), and Joe and Shawn (sailing friends off S/V Libertas, a Leopard 47)

While eating dinner Charlotte lost her second tooth! She wrote another nice letter to the tooth fairy, who found her way to the boat in Antigua! Unfortunately she didn’t have any more pink fairy dust but did manage to find some nice little pink shoes for Charlotte’s Polly Pocket dolls! Charlotte woke us at 6.30am so excited to let us know that Tinkerbell had visited again!!

Subsiding winds and the boats started to venture out - Bob and Betsy made it over to Jolly Harbour from English Harbour, we finally left the mooring (after 18 days – a record I think!) and anchored out in the bay. Interestingly, people have been commenting how the water has been markedly colder and the winds stronger for longer this and last year. A blanket at night instead of an open hatch (everything is relative I guess!). Sunset cocktails on the beach for the first time this year.

Having done 3 of the 16 geocaches in Antigua and noting none nearby, we decided to set up a new Geocahce in Jolly Harbour “Relax on Deck at Jolly Harbour” – with the cache being hidden below the decking of the Fore Deck bar. We had to convince the “vetting committee” of http://www.geocache.com/ that, despite living 1,000 miles away, we would be able to maintain the cache (a job for the new geocachers “Blue Pirates” (a.k.a. Eddie and Lewis)), and they finally approved it.

Charlotte continues to do great with her arm in plaster – less than 2 weeks to go before the cast comes off (a cause for celebrations and a swim!!), although we often have to wrap it in a towel, to protect the wood on the boat from getting scratched by the pink fiberglass covering (especially when doing home-school). We have settled into home school, which tends to take up about 2 hours (plus breaks) each morning. One on one and working directly at that child’s level does mean that the actual teaching side can get covered in a far shorter time than the regular school day. Some days are better than others and a continual challenge is how to maintain Charlotte’s interest and attention for that length of time.

On Thursday, our last day in Antigua, we took Eddie, the avid fisherman, out trawling – we went out to the banks (where the water drops off sharply from about 70 feet to 700 feet) – supposedly a good place to catch fish … but we went hungry that night!! We have not been that successful with fishing over the years.

The Stanford crisis seems to have quietened down a bit. The Antiguan government have seised all of his assets in Antigua – The official story is to ensure that the employees get treated correctly. However, the skeptics view is that they seised them before the USA did, to protect them (and when it’s all over they will sell them back to him!!) Oh the corruption of the Caribbean!

Arrived Antigua

February 10^th 2009 we were finally on our way – I kept Charlotte at home with me the day before traveling to ensure no further mishaps! For anyone not familiar with travel to the Caribbean from Bermuda, whilst it might appear to be relatively close (1,000 miles – probably 2.5 hours direct flight), unfortunately that’s not the way the planes fly!! 8.30am flight to New York and then, 7 hours later, we fly back over Bermuda en-route to San Juan! At 10pm we finally land in Antigua, tired but pleased to finally be on the boat. Jimmy and Tim were there to meet us at the dock (bar).

Jimmy had grown a beard to show Charlotte – we both made sure he shaved that off the next day!!

The boat was moored in Jolly Harbor – a nice civilised spot in Antigua, – a bit like a little gated community with bars, restaurants, shops, supermarket, swimming pool , beach. There are lots of villas there, many owned by Brits. This week is school half term in England so good to find a few children around the pool. Unfortunately the broken arm does mean Charlotte is unable to join in with the other kids swimming and playing on the beach. We constantly try to ensure that she doesn’t get it wet around the pool as I don’t savor the thought of going to an Antiguan hospital to get the cast redone. The doctor in Bermuda had put a pink fiberglass wrap around the plaster cast to protect it a bit more from the water.

At the weekend we went over to Lewis and Eddie's (who live in Antigua) for a BBQ and a “sleep over”.

Lewis and Eddie BBQing:

The following day we introduced them to “Geocaching” – the worldwide treasure hunt – we found a couple of caches near where they live:

Engine problems meant we have not moved from Jolly Harbor yet (and now weather problems have delayed our planned circumnavigation of the island at the weekend as the weather forecast is not good – 30 knot winds). The fuel injector that I brought down (sent from New Jersey to New York, then to Bermuda then carried to Antigua) was the wrong size - fortunately Lewis was able to rebuild/combine the new injector nozzle with the old housing (not an item we would be able to find on the island).

Joe and Shawn on s/v Libertas arrived in Antigua on Monday. This was the first time we had seen them since Jimmy’s birthday bash last May in St Lucia. Needless to say, in order to catch up, Jimmy and Joe had to go out for a very long lunch (till midnight). Both were “a bit” slow the next day.

We did a bus trip over to Falmouth harbor one day – main purpose to try and get a new part from the rigging shop – no such luck – need to bring in another unbroken one for them to make one …

There have been a couple of murders on the island recently. One a few months ago at a nice resort near here – someone broke into a room and shot a honeymoon couple. The thief was caught. Apparently Scotland yard were involved but withdrew as they still have the death penalty here in Antigua and it looks like they are up for hanging. Another murder more recently involved a yacht captain being shot 3 times. The original story sounded awful but local insights say it was drugs related, happened in a “drug area” and the guy was chasing the villan who had a gun (as jimmy said –growing up in Brooklyn, rule 101 – “do not chase someone with a gun” ). Also locals have not been too helpful to Scotland yard, brought in again, as they want to downplay it to drugs related as they do not want to further hurt the current struggling tourist industry.

The last few days the big news has been Allen Stanford, the rich Texas billionaire tycoon who "supposedly" has fraudulent activities. He’s been known in Antigua for a few years where he basically gave the island a lot (and the government officials no doubt) and in return set up probably the biggest washing machine in the world... and has residency here. In his offshore banks, he guaranteed investors over 8% return on their money – all sounds good until you try and get your money back - the FBI are now looking for him in relation to an $8billion fraud - he's in hiding (Jimmy offered him $20,000 a day to hide on the boat but he declined). Plus he has banks in Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador - all world class banking countries (not)!!? Antigua is known for having the worst banking regulations (or best depending on what side you are on!). For a small country it probably has as many banks as Switzerland!

As far as Antigua is concerned, most of Stanford’s activities are offshore so don’t affect the domestic side. However the Bank of Antigua is owned by Stanford, so there have been 300 yard lines outside the bank for people wanting to withdraw all their money by the suitcase load. Not helped by a statement from the Antigua and Barbuda Banking Authority that said that there is nothing to be worried about, but if people start to take out all their money it will cause instability (and then a problem) – so guess what? – this made even more people withdraw!! This was not helped when the email that sent out the press releases to all the bank customers (with all the email addresses professionally put in the “to” box for everyone else to see!!!) was then followed up with another email saying they were withdrawing the first email!! We will wait and see if all this might bankrupt the country.

While all this has been going on, the next island down, Guadeloupe (which we were hoping to visit) has been on a general strike for the last month - banks are closed, they ran out of fuel for cars/boats, all the shops are empty as people bought everything up - so the shops are closed and boarded up (there have been looting and arson attacks). A couple of days ago a union leader was shot and the airport is closed as staff are unable to negotiate roads blocked by burning barricades.

So much for the idyllic Caribbean! But we did get out of Bermuda just in time to avoid strong gales which knocked down trees and disrupted services.

We will look to stay in Antigua until the end of February and then head up to St Martin in time for the annual Heineken regatta.

Send us your news - we love to hear from you all, as we sit here bobbing on the waves.

Our local cell number in Antigua is 1-268-785-3893. Also the USA number 1-718-312-8511 should get forwarded to us whereever we are.

Start of sailing season 2009

After a few delays on work that the boat yard was supposed to do over the summer, Jimmy finally got back to Heat Wave in Grenada on January 6th. A couple of weeks of getting jobs done and chasing up on boat yard workers, the boat was finally put back in the water a couple of weeks later. A few days later, Charlotte and I were due to fly from Bermuda, down to meet Jimmy. However, plans changed when Charlotte fell off a wall and broke her arm the afternoon before we were due to leave - instead of the planned big clean before closing up for 4 months, the evening was spent in Emergency.

Charlotte is fine, very used to getting around with a cast from her wrist to her upper arm (just as well as its on for 6 weeks!), with all the class mates signatures all over it (who were a bit surprised to see her back at school after all having said good bye!). However, the doctor wanted us to wait for a 2 week checkup / X-ray before leaving. We already have a doctor lined up in St Martin to take the cast off.

Change of plan - Jimmy (not wanting to stay a further 2 weeks in Grenada, and anxious to get sailing) sailed the boat with a friend from Grenada, to Antigua (with only a brief overnight stop in Bequia). He just arrived tonight and Charlotte and I will fly into Antigua on Tuesday (assuming all goes well with the Monday doctor's appointment)