Delayed Departure

Well, had things gone to plan, we would have been a few miles north of St. Martin by now. However, a combination of factors has meant that we have spent one more night at anchor. We really do hope to be off today (21 May 2014) though. Sometime in the mid afternoon.

One of the delaying factors was the news about a boat called Cheeky Rafiki being reported lost to the west of the Azores. Details seem to be very sketchy but it does appear that they have had to abandon the boat and take to their liferaft. It is pointless to speculate on what happened but of course our thoughts and sympathy go out to the crew of Rafiki and their families back in the UK. We only hope that there is a speedy rescue!

Nevis, St. Martin/Maarten

This is the very end of our Caribbean adventure and we are now gearing up for the next stage. Nevis was a great adventure though we had a rather frustratingly slow sail from Antigua. The wind was directly behind us and, coupled with a rather dirty bottom, it was a very slow 14 hour sail to cover 40 miles. However, we fell in love with Nevis itself and were delighted to get there. Next time, we will spend a lot longer there.

Just a couple of photos though.

The authorities made clearing in a pleasure as they were all very friendly, especially compared with the ones at Antigua. Charlestown was a delightful capital with an excellent produce market and there was also plenty of fresh water on the quay. The scenery is spectacular as the whole island is formed from a single dormant volcano which forms a near perfect cone.

I took advantage of the clear water to do a thorough scrub of the bottom but we also enjoyed a good meal ashore in a place called Sunshine Beach Restaurant. This had the distinction of being recommended in both the Doyle cruising guide and also in our edition of the Lonely Planet for the Caribbean. Sadly, owing to pressures of having to provision, find new batteries and such like we had to spend only four days there and move on to St. Martin.

Thus, after a very slow night sail past St. Christopher, St. Eustiaus and Saba we fetched up in Marigot on the French side of the island. The chandlers for batteries are located in Dutch Sint Maarten but as you have to clear in and out of each side we will probably stay on the French side. We will however move into Simpson Bay Lagoon though as this wil make for a shorter dinghy ride to where all the yottie shopping places are. Plans are to head north for the Azores around Sunday18 assuming the weather is playing ball of course. The weather has become a bit “interesting” with a tremendous thunder storm one night though thankfully, the lightning was a reasonable distance away.

We will be leaving here for the Azores very soon but I will update before we depart!

St Martin

We have been here in St. Martin (the French side rather than the Dutch Sint Maarten). This is the final stage in our Caribbean adventure and we plan to head off for the Azores in a week or so.

We had a great time in Nevis but very little access to the Intertubes so no updates. I will try and get a proper update off before we push off across the Atlantic again.

Still in Antigua

We are still in Antigua though we will be heading to Nevis (and possibly St. Christopher aka St. Kitts) tomorrow before going to St. Martin/Sint Maarten to stock up for the voyage north.

Wifi here in English Harbour and Jolly Harbour has been a bit sketchy. These are some photos and I will try and get some more boring verbiage together soon.

This is the view from our anchorage! The water here is the most incredible colour owing to the fact that the Jolly Harbour lagoon was previously a salt lagoon and there is also a lot of coral based sand around. It is however rather difficult to photograph, particularly with the sun being very high in the sky. I am going to have to practise getting out of bed early and getting the morning light for pictures!

There is quite a well marked channel which we are anchored just outside but they have some intriguing things to use as markers including beer kegs!

More updates to follow from Nevis we hope!

English Harbour Antigua

We arrived here, one of the most famous harbours for British cruisers, yesterday after a rather rough but very fast passage from Deshaies. We knew it would be a bit lively with the GRIB files showing an easterly force 5 all the way. GRIB files always under estimate the wind so we had around thirty knots of wind all the way which equates to a good solid force 7 on the beaufort scale. Still, we did complete 40 miles in something like seven hours which is something of a speed record for us.

It is fascinating to be here in English Harbour though it is not quite the paradise that people make it out to be. It is actually quite small and very popular so it is quite cramped and everything is quite expensive being geared to the yottie rather than cruiser bracket. Still, as it is the classics regatta at the moment, there are a plethora of beautiful yachts to admire. They were out racing as we were approaching no less so we were priveliged to see acres of billowing sail passing reasonably close to us. We are now anchored next to Chaos with whom we had several rather lethal rum cocktails last night.

Clearing in was a pleasant affair and we have collected another stamp in our passports – something we have been missing in the French islands. They do however collect a bit of money from you and apprently you have to pay $EC75 when we leave.. Also, English Harbour is a national park so you have to pay various fees to anchor here which amounted to $EC101 for two days. There are approximately $EC4.50 to one pound!

We have quite a long list of things to achieve while here. As dedicated followers of these ramblings will know, we need to give some serious attention to our batteries. We also need to get some charts, though we do need to decide where we are going first of course. Finally, we need to start planning our return to Blighty.

This is a rather strange time in that sense though as we are now in the closing stages of the cruise and are having to start planning a return to shore based life, at least temporarily. We are definitely in the last stages of the Caribbean stage of the cruise. We still have the Azores to look forward to and will be spending a couple of months there before the final stage. This inevitably has led us to do some reflecting.

As ever, we feel that we have had to move too quickly and skate over too much to feel that we have done justice to this beautiful cruising ground. The next time (we have pencilled in 2019 as a departure year) we will take two years to do the whole thing and spend the hurricane season in somewhere like Trinidad or even northern South America. This would give us a combined total of nearly twelve months down here. Still, we have to get back the to the UK, find jobs and then complete a refit list as long as my arm.

While here, we have managed to see a couple of the Antigua Classics races. The first was taking place as we arrived and we watched a bit of the second from the entrance to English Harbour. There are some truly beautiful wooden boats including two we know. First, Grayhound is here though we have missed our option to crew on her. Secondly, Meriva is here, who we last saw in Tazacorte in La Palma before departing for the Cabo Verde islands. We also had a big surprise when Coromandel turned up having been 22 days out of Tazacorte.

Proof that we actually did make it here I suppose! Dreadful looking person though.

The wifi here is rather flaky so there are not many pictures but I will attempt to redress the balance as soon as possible.

Deshaies Events

We have had a bit of excitement here today. Most importantly of course was a very nice lunch ashore but there was also the thrill of a cycle race coming through the town. The first inkling of it was the local ocpper we saw blowing his whistle all the time and waving a high visibility vest to redirect the traffic. It may not be the Tour de France but was quite dramatic in it's way.

There are lots of pelicans here. The weather has been rather grey and wet and I will try and get a better picture of them before we leave.

Then, once we were back aboard, this beast came up and dropped anchor! I don't think that we will consider one of these for our next boat though.

Guadaloupe and Inverters

We are still in Guadaloupe. We had of course planned to be in Antigua by now for the classics regatta but various things stopped us. We had a long beat up from Les Saintes to Pointe a Pitre only to find out that the Riviere Salee was closed and we would have to sail the long way round one or other of the butterly wings that make up the two halves of this large island. We were feeling very bad tempered about this as it had been a real beat hard on the wind to get there and now th ewind had changed direction which was going to force us to beat back out of the bay.

In addition, our inverter which allows us to charge up the laptop from the 12V system had finally given up the ghost. As it only cost £25 from Halfords nearly four years ago it doesn't exactly owe us anything but we did come to realise how much we depend on having access to the laptop. We have therefore splashed out on a posh one made by a company called Victron. It is a lot better than the old one but cost nearly four times as much. Audrey celebrated buying it by cutting my hair as it was getting a bit long and the mad professor look doesn't really suit me!

Still, we now had to make a decision about how to get north of this island. There were two options really, one was to go down to the smaller island of Marie Galante and then sail round the eastern tip of the island. Alternatively, we could sail back round the southern tip of Basse Terre and up the west coast. This would take us back past the Saintes. Owing to a disinclination to go back on our tracks we decided to try for Marie Galante. Of course, the trade winds now have a southerly element in them which put Grand Bourg on Marie Galante dead to windward. There was also not a lot of wind but too much slop to motor through. So, we headed off for Basse Terre and had a long slow sail round past Les Saintes and we eventually dropped anchor off the town of Basse Terre just round the point at the southern extremity.

Now we are in a delightful bay called Deshaies which is full of boats including several we have met with before. Pampero will be over for drinks later on no less!

We now have to work out when we can clear into Antigua as this weekend is the Easter one and we are not sure if offices will be open or not. The intertubes are quite good here so we will keep everyone up to date and I will see about getting plenty of photos up.

For now, here area couple.

Our anchorage at Pointe a Pitre. No! The wreck is not us!

This is where we are now - Deshaies