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.

St Martin - 2nd-9th April 2009

We arrived in Simpson Bay in the early hours of Thursday 2nd April. One of the places we feel comfortable going into at night time - it's a big open bay that is relatively shallow til quite far out, so you can anchor quite far out before having to deal with all the boats anchored closer to shore. We also have our bearings for coming in at night time: the 4 white lights, next to the green lights off Kevin's dads house.....

Next morning we woke to find ourselves 2 boats away from Joe and Shawn on Libertas! - hadn't see them since leaving Barbuda.

Thursday was taken up with checking in at customs and immigration, jobs etc. Harmony came over to play with Charlotte later that afternoon.

Friday a nice leisurely lunch with Joe and Shawn before heading out for the weekend - over to Orient Bay - about a 2 hour motor-sail. Orient is probably one of the nicest beaches on the island, over on the French side, but hence has become very busy and a hot spot for the cruise ship passengers. We anchored off the beach and felt like we were on vacation!! On Sunday we even went to the beach for the day and rented chairs!! Despite what you may think, we hardly spend any time just sitting on a beach. Charlotte and I got our hair braided, we had lunch at one of our favourite restaurants Kon Tiki (that has been there for years) and then enjoyed a couple of rum punches relaxing on the beach.

Back to Simpson Bay Monday afternoon, after our weekend away!! Joe and Shawn were having a party on their boat that night and Charlotte had a sleepover at Harmony's.

We left St Martin at about 3.30am on Good Friday and arrived Antigua 13 hours later. We managed to get the jib out towards the end but most of the trip was a motor job as the wind was almost on the nose.

US Virgin Islands - March 26th - April 1st 2009

We had a lovely 4 hour sail from Virgin Gorda, down the Francis Drake channel, between Tortola and the small islands to the south, past St John's and into Charlotte Amelia, the main town of St Thomas. As we drove into the anchorage, we had a pleasant surprise to see Serephim - we had thought they were still in BVI's but it turned out they decided to take advantage of a nice weather window and get moving (they are heading up to USA). Charlotte was happy especially as we fixed up a play date for her the next day with Jack and James on their boat.


One of the main reasons for visiting St Thomas was because Jimmy's friend Wade was coming into Charlotte Amalia for the day on a cruise ship. He came over to the boat with his brother and sister-in-law for lunch - we got out the smoked salmon but don't think we were any competition for the food on the ship!! Thanks Wade for the slide show and video below:


St Thomas is much more built up and commercialised than the BVIs. Its owed by USA and with that came all the benefits, that we enjoyed - big stores, cheaper prices, more availability and choice, fast food, cheap fuel, .... You would never guess how excited we were to go and stock up at K Mart!! also 3 trips to Wendys and dinner one night "All you can eat Shrimp" at Hooters!!

St Thomas was the "Turn around" point, we had come as far north as were were going this year. On Wednesday April 1st we left St Thomas about 8am to sail back to St Martin, starting our journey back south. We had to motor all the way as the wind was on the nose, and arrived St Martin 16 hours later at midnight.

BVIs: Thursday 19th - 26th March 2009

We stayed in the British Virgin Islands for a week, after our sail up from St Martin. We had a nice couple of days up in Virgin Gorda Sound, where Charlotte got to enjoy playing with her friends on Serephim and Sea Walk and taking them on her ski-bob.

The largest sailing yacht in the world, the Maltese Falcon, treated us to a great sunset departure, under full sail through the Sound. It seemed like everyone in the anchorage had their cameras out!




Charlotte then said good bye to her friends on Serephim and Sea Walk, as they decided to take advantage of the south winds and sail up to Anagada. We then "bumped into" Bob and Betsy Bailey from Bermuda again in Virgin Gorda.


On Monday we headed to Road Town on Tortola to meet up with Shelagh who was visiting for a couple of days from Bermuda before delivering a boat back to Bermuda. We did a quick whirl wind tour showing her the sights - snorkeling at the Indians, over-nighting at the Bight on Norman Island - this is where the infamous "Body Shots" take place at the Willie Ts Pirate Boat. Having taken up the closest mooring to the Pirate Barge, Shelagh and I were all set for a night out, with Jimmy babysitting, but by the time we finished dinner, we both sheepishly admitted that we were tired and happier just enjoying a glass of wine on the boat, a chat and an early night!! Up nice and early the next morning - 2 hour motor up to the Baths and we arrived just in time to get one of the last moorings at 9am!! (we even had to race someone to it!)

By lunchtime we were in Spanish Town and Shelagh was dropping her bags off at Big Bear - the boat she was sailing back to Bermuda.

That night Shelagh had kindly offered to cook us dinner on Big Bear. We were in the anchorage just outside the marina - unfortunately, the weather blew up and strong winds started coming from the west (almost unheard off). As we were anchored not far off the coast, we ended up with engines on for a few hours to stop us turning round and onto the rocks. Finally, in order to get some sleep Jimmy hunted out the stern anchor (last used about 3 years ago!) and we set this to keep up from going up on the rocks. Unfortunately we were not able to leave the boat so had to cancel dinner. Throughout the night boats around us were pulling up and resetting anchors.

The next day we checked out of the BVIs and sailed to the US Virgin Island, namely St Thomas.

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!