March 2012

Thur 1^st

On the way to Guadeloupe we catch a fish trap on the port prop, it takes Steph about a half hour to entangle it and we now have a fish trap buoy on board! We arrive and anchor in Deshaies and as we had already checked in and out at Iles de Sainte we stay on board and do not visit the main land. It is very rough and the wind is all over so we need to do an anchor watch. During the night we swing very close to another yacht that is moored in the bay.

Fri 2^nd

We lift anchor at 05:50 as we are all awake and it is a long trip to Antigua. Early in the day we spot whale spume about 400m in front of us. This continues for about a 15 minutes whilst the whales speed away in front of us,never to be seen. When we arrive in Falmouth Antigua Trudy has to go ashore alone to check in as Customs are very strict and can impose $5000 fines if crew go ashore before being check in has been completed. It is also somewhat complicated as four of our crew are leaving the boat and flight numbers and addresses need to be included on the forms. We eventually all go ashore to the Mad Mongoose to try the local beer, Wadadli which is 5% and quite good.

Sat 3^rd

We sail around to Jolly harbour about three hours away. The pilot says it is extremely well marked by red and green buoys, however when we arrive there are some missing and the ones remaining are all grey. We take a pontoon in the marina which looks like it has seen better days. There is however a good supermarket and the happy hour is enjoyed by all.

Sun 4^th

Steph and Gabi set off at 4:00 am so we don't see them off! Helga and Steve help us clean the boat and later we sail to St Johns. On arrival it is so grim we head back and anchor in “Mosquito Cove” just outside Jolly harbour. We later drop Helga and Steve off in the marina where we manage one beer before they need to get their taxi.

Mon 5^th

We visit Budget Marine to buy charts and courtesy flags then spend the rest of the day chilling in Mosquito Cove.

Tue 6^th

A late start then back to Falmouth. The first half is a rough sail with all the reefs in, it then turns to an awful up wind motor-sail into Falmouth bay. The wind is still gusting 35 knots and we anchor with the chain pulling hard despite motoring against the wind. Jan and Susan from Peter Pan, who we met in Granada, visit and we decide to go ashore as this is their last night here before travelling to Germany.

Wed 7^th

Wander round Nelsons dockyard in English harbour, this is a quality renovation of the original dockyard. There are several classic yachts on the slip being prepared for Antigua Classic race week in mid April. All beautiful and shiny with some first class renovation progressing to teak deck hardware, masts, wooden blocks bright-work etc. We meet Mike “The Scrim” who makes jewellery and scrimshaw to order. Trudy is debating a dolphin wrapped around a pearl. Later we pick up “Peter Pan” Susan and Jan and drop them on the pontoon.

Thurs 8^th

Stay on board catching up on chores.

Fri 9^th

Go to see Mike the scrim, he has not only sold the gold dolphin but got a further commission on a new one. He will make Trudy another and will have it ready when we get to St Maarten. Later he cycles past the Mad Mongoose and tells us he will be in St Maarten on the 23^rd, for a couple of weeks.

Sat 10^th

Go to St Johns for a mooch about, find nothing but tourist traps so buy a roti, local, 10xcd and get the bus back.

Sun 11^th

We meet Dave from Old Bob a modern day classic made from ferocrete, Libby and Geoff who live on the island. Libby invites us over for a Sunday lunch party in a weeks time and suggests we spend the week going to “Green Island”. There is nothing there but beautiful beaches and reefs. A place to chill.

Mon 12^th

We shop in preparation for the trip to Green Island. The dinghy davit block breaks so we need to get more boat parts. We have a shackle that is a bit too small; The lady in the chandlers says her shackle is 390 xcd, about £97, so we won't want it! She is right...the small one will have to do.

Tues 13^th

Set off up wind from Falmouth harbour to Green Island. A beat sailing 23 miles to make 9 miles up wind. So we discover that we need to do 3 times the miles when travelling hard on the wind. This is the first time that we have had to work so hard to make progress. Fortunately we can make about 6 knots through the water or about 2 knots towards the way-point!

Wed 14^th

Wake up to a peaceful bay that slowly fills, first with kite surfers and then tourists fill both beaches. Super-yachts go and come as more arrive to enjoy this beautiful place. I re-reve the first reef line that has been wearing out the new sail bag and Trudy carefully removes all traces of mould that have accumulated on our snorkelling masks. We find that the straps on our Zoggs swimming goggles have all rotted, presumably due to a mix of sun sea and heat. We attempt our first video and apologise to anyone watching it for the sound quality, the wind noise is bad and we do not know how to edit it out!

Thur 15^th

Get up early and set off back to Falmouth harbour on a down wind leg. On the way back the 9 miles takes only 13 miles gybing 130 degrees to the apparent wind. We get about 6 knots.

Fri 16^th

We spend the day in four chandlers buying rigging parts including a very fancy snap block that will fit almost anywhere on the boat in the event of a block failure. We check out Catherine's café that gets a good write up in the pilot and end up going back there for dinner. Fois gras a lamb shank, fish tartare and a fillet steak mmmm. First meal out for about a month. Seems longer.

Sat 17^th

We need to shop for wine for tomorrow's Sunday lunch at Libby's. Otherwise a lazy day reading in the sun.

Sun 18^th

Bottom cleaning. Surprisingly there are no barnacles on our new rudders despite being in the water for about a month. However the rest of the hulls are covered with barnacles about 8mm in diameter. So much for the (hard) anti-foul in Grenada.

Sunday lunch out was a hoot, Libby started us off with a classic rum punch. (1 of sour 2 of sweet 3 of strong and 4 of week). Their house is totally open plan with the only doors being on the bathrooms; no windows and drinks were served in old jam jars. They have several cottages in the grounds up and down steep pathways. I was asked to put the (4 in one tray) chickens in the oven, a 30metre walk up hill to an oven that worked! About 15 of us with locals from various technicalities sat around chatting all day. Libby put on a great Sunday roast dinner, our first since leaving the UK. We were the last to leave as usual.

Mon 19^th

Recovery day...

Tue 20^th

Pour over charts and pilots to choose a route to St Maarten. (Saba, St Statia, St Kits, Nevis, St Bart’s, Montserrat?) We will be sailing part of the way in the dark with no moon. This will be the first night sailing since arriving in the Caribbean. We don't want to land in the dark or pass too near any lee shores; It is about 100 miles to St Maarten with many possible stops from 50 miles on. We decide to leave about 4pm. So if we make 8 knots we will arrive early in the morning and if we only make 4 we will still have a couple of hours daylight left.

Wed 21^st

We have a restful day and head out at 4pm.

It was an eventful night in the pitch black with no moon, but glorious stars. We set off with full sails up doing 8 knots but after about 8 squalls each getting worse we end up fully reefed and continue the rest of the night at between 2 and 4 knots. We are circled by a number of cruise ships that waste time and diesel each night to ensure that they leave each port at dusk and arrive the next day at dawn, even though it should only take them an hour!

Thur 22^nd

Early morning we catch another rope around the rudder. We cannot now start the starboard engine and do not want to dive in deep water. Even with the small 3 to 5 foot swell that we have you could be banged on the head by 12.5 tons of boat. As we near the bay we drop the headsail and slow down. By good fortune the rope seems to have dropped off.

We arrive in Simpson Bay at 12:30 pm, we missed the bridge into the lagoon by an hour. The island is shared between the Dutch Antilles and the French Department. The 12 square miles of lagoon in the centre is also split. Entry into the island, either the St Maarten or St Martin half is different; and we want to go through the Dutch bridge and into the French part of the lagoon. We dive to check the rudder and all is clear.

At 17:00 we up anchor and make our way to the bridge, which is lifted at 17:30. There are only four of us going through at this time and we are the last. The Yacht Club is situated about 20 metres after the bridge, and huge cheers go up as we pass by. This is apparently a daily event during happy hour. We make our way through 2 to 2.5 metres of water to the north of the lagoon where hundreds of yachts are parked on the French side. We locate “Vanity” and drop anchor nearby under the “Witches Tit”. This is half way between French and Dutch marine complexes. As we look around there are many familiar yachts from Grenada.

Fri 23^rd

We check in at the French immigration, you just fill out a form on their computer and pay 7 Euros. We find out it would have been $90 in the Dutch side. Have lunch in Cafe la Gare, it is just like being in France. Steve and Carol call by from “Innamorata II” (first love the second!) and we arrange a crawl from Yacht Club to Barnacles for the evening. Chris and sally from “Vanity” call by and we catch up on gossip and information about the area. They have sold their yacht, nearly.

Yacht club happy hour sees us watching new arrivals and meeting Tony from Tactical Direction, Len and Jean from Tuatora. We all head off to Barnacles by dinghy. It is an octagonal bar with stools and no tables. So you eat standing at the bar. A Greek chef but the bar had an Aussie feel to it. It is open mike night, and the talent contest goes on until after we leave.

Sat 24^th

A day spent touring the bay from chandlers to supermarkets and end up visiting the Soggy Dollar bar and Lagoonie's where we meet more old friends. Including London Pride and Guinness. A beer in happy hour, from 16:00 to 19:00 is $1-50 US. Desmond from “Cala d' Oro” is an Irish guy who has only ever sailed cats and is now on his sixth. He is most helpful with technical questions.

Sun 25^th

A rest day, reading in the sun.

Mon 26^th

Early start with the gas bottle being dropped off at Island Water World, then back to receive luggage from Vanity as they are staying the night, Dave from “Mistral” visits to asses our gas fitting requirements. We spend the rest of the day visiting chandlers. When we get back Sally and Chris are aboard and Desmond arrives for beers. Thai curry for all.

Tue 27th

Dave arrives at 08:00, Chris takes us to “Turtles” for breakfast, eggs Benedict with extra bacon! The rest of the day is spent chasing gas parts and Dave eventually completes our new installation. The old system was unsafe, worn out rusty, several joins etc. We now have from the bottle, a quick release valve, regulator with gauge, a solenoid valve, a single run of reinforced tubing, electric control box and a single split for oven and hob.

Wed 28^th

Dave comes back with plumbing tools to fix dripping tap. It is the kind of job that I would do myself but having tried it was so seized up that I dare not force it as it could result in no water and no gas as both are now on the same circuit. Dave has trouble but with the liberal use of impact hammer we finally free the tap to discover a small piece of aluminium foil has been preventing the tap from closing. In the afternoon we remove our head sail and take it to the sail-maker, the leach cord has frayed at the end and needs replacing. This is a cord that is used to tighten the leach (trailing edge) of the sail to prevent flapping and premature wear. On our way back we are hailed onto Cala d' Oro where Chris and sally are celebrating the money in the bank from their yacht sale. The party later continues on “Lala” Lances boat, the one that Sally and Chris are now staying on until they can arrange flights to England.

Thur 29^th

Guess what another rest day. How did we get back to the boat? How did the dinghy get lifted onto the davits?

Fri 30^th

We arrange for a Raymarine electrician to fit our log impeller transducer and tour the hardware shops, order water pump bearings, on the Dutch side, have lunch at Lagoonie's and a night in.

Sat 31^st

Parked at Shrimpy's dropped off laundry and walked around the French capital Marigot, lots of designer shops and it is very like any French seaside town. Back to Lagoonie's again where we hear from Chris and Sally that, due to money laundering regulations, their bank have stopped their account! Simon from “Bird” has decided to sail back to England via Cuba.