19th February 2015
Today we were joined by Michael, a friend of John’s sister
from Pennsylvania and Fred from Tennessee, both keen sailors retired from their
respective jobs.
On day one of our planned two week voyage, we sailed north
in Antigua to Jolly Harbor where we spent a night in the marina next to our
good friends Nigel and Tracy.
Surprisingly they are still our friends despite us swapping their St
Georges cross flag for our Saltire from their mast. We later entertained them in the evening and
served them dinner on our new table cloth, their St Georges Cross flag. It took
them a while to notice but despite the hilarity I have a feeling they will be
working on a pay back!
The following day we moved further north for a final stop
over in Dickenson’s Bay before the sail to Nevis on 22nd
February. We left at 7am and headed out
in next to no wind. BY the early
afternoon there were squalls coming through bringing winds of up to 45
knots! Quite a lively first passage for
our new crew and possibly the strongest winds we had encountered on the trip so
far. We enjoyed an island tour of Nevis
visiting the prestigious and quirky transformed sugar plantation homes, now
wonderful hotels. We also caught sight
of the wild monkeys, (apparently there ate 22,000of them), but they are very
shy so we were lucky to see them in the exotic botanical gardens.
Here in Nevis we enjoyed catching up with good sailing
buddies from the Canaries, Julian and Lynn and also Nigel and Tracy with whom
we enjoyed several encounters along the way.
Our next stop was the island of St Kitts, catering big time
for the daily entourage of massive cruise ships with a hunger for quay side
shopping being adequately catered for by the tourism industry while creating a
somewhat incongruous façade to an otherwise relatively poor community. We weren’t overly enamored by St Kitts
although we enjoyed a visit to the Fort at Brim Stone Hill, a beautifully
restored magnificent example of military architecture which reportedly took 100
years to build. Although the wild
monkeys on St Kitts are less shy than in Nevis, we only spotted one,
methodically dismantling the roof of a small beach side home.
Our journey north continued on 26th February when
we sailed to St Bart’s, a popular French, chique holiday island. We enjoyed another lively sail this time the
wind on the side. There was no chance of
getting into the busy harbour/marina and the anchorage and mooring area was chock-a-block
with boats of all shapes and sizes. My
only experience of the island was a brief stop ashore with John while he
cleared us in and out at customs. It
certainly looked like a lovely up-market holiday town. We couldn’t stay there overnight due to the
swell in the bay so we headed round to the next bay where the water was calmer
allowing for a good night’s sleep at anchor.
The following day we had a short sail to St Martin with the
final hour under engine with the wind on the nose. We tied up in the Marina t Fort Louis at
16.00 hours. We spent a couple of nights
here and John and I caught the local bus to the lagoon where the large yacht
chandlery was situated. John had a list
of bits’n’pieces he had to get for the boat. We also headed out to the airport
for John to check on flights. It struck
us that there was quite a stark divide between the fancy bay side hotels and
the local living conditions on the island.
Here we met again with Nigel and Tracy and they joined us for dinner in
a lovely restaurant, hosted generously by Michael.
We sailed to Anguilla on the 3rd of March where
we were to spend a couple of days.
Michael, John and I hired some quad bikes in order to tour this small
island under our own steam. It was good
fun and let us see the island at our own pace.
It is a fairly flat island but has lovely bays and clear turquoise water
to enjoy. Despite the quad bikes
breaking down at times, we only had to be rescued by the owners once to have
our over-heated bike replaced.
We had a very early start on 5th March, about
06.00 hours for the long sail to the British Virgin Islands where John and I
will spend the next two months. We made
good time on the 80 mile trip with good following winds and one squall again
bringing 45 knots winds. We were joined
by a small group of dolphins, jumping playfully out of the water as they
escorted us for a short distance. Later
I saw a disturbance in the water about half a mile off the port bow and
wondered if there were rocks away out in the middle of the sea where the water
was breaking over them but soon realized it was a large whale breaching and
splashing for several minutes in time for John to see but unfortunately not the
others. We arrived in Spanish Town in Virgin Gorda about 16.00 hours and
dropped anchor for a well earned rest.
Our last night together was spent in Leverick bay on a
mooring in Virgin Gorda, where we went ashore to watch the ‘Jumbie show’, a
group of local young people dancing on incredibly high stilts.
We dropped Micheal off in Tortola on the 7th of
March just beside the airport where he was flying back to the USA. Later that day we arrived at Nanny Cay marina
where we said goodbye to Fred. John and
I made use of the great facilities, swimming at the beach and in the pool and
enjoying a dinner at the Captain Mulligan’s bar. We also enjoyed the luxury of free use of
PC’s with internet to catch up on emails and other business.
Alison