FEBRUARY 2017
JOLLY HARBOUR, ANTIGUA
ST BARTS, ST MARTIN, SABA, STATIA
GREEN ISLAND, ANTIGUA, FALMOUTH HARBOUR, ANTIGUA
Jolly Harbour.
Time for boat jobs, Terry wired up a blower to cool the engine compartment, not a problem we encountered at home….. whilst I slithered into my wetsuit and scrubbed the hull, a regular job here!
We had a cracking day out in our friends, Tim and Gayle’s 44ft Trintella, Wildbird sailing to a wreck which sank in shallow seas just around the coast. Such a different feeling to our Sisu! With the head, main and mizzen sails up we sped along at 7 and 8 knots. 7 knots is our hull speed, on Wildbird, this is her cruising speed, it was exciting to see what a larger boat will do, and so different! Snorkelling off the wreck was fascinating, we could snorkel around the mast, foredeck, and around her hull, all now covered in sea flora and home to fish.
We caught up with a couple of friends, Tom Fisher and his friend Mick. The last time we met up was in Mindelo, Cape Verdes. They set off across the Atlantic a week earlier than us in Tom’s boat, an Elizabethan, called “Artic Smoke”. They arrived in Martinique on Christmas Eve, their passage had been a challenge too! We shared our Atlantic stories over a long lunch and local beers. Meeting people like Tom, Mick and all the other lovely folk we’ve met since leaving the Isle of Man way back last August has been the unexpected bonus, and though our paths will cross sporadically, good friendships are forged quickly and catching up with each other every so often, generally by happy coincidence is a joy and we eagerly arrange sundowners on one another’s boats and hear how we’ve all got on, and if anyone has news of other sailors we all know. It’s incredible given the sheer expanse of seas and Islands we are journeying through yet we bump into people we’ve met every now and then and that’s without even emailing each other!
Terry’s younger son Tim flew out for spend three weeks with us this month. We eagerly awaited his arrival, not just because he is Terry’s son, but he was also our postman bringing spares, a new Kindle for me and Tim’s biggest luggage allowance gobbler of all, two huge sunshades! Tim and Gayle Evans had asked Tim to bring out goodies too, so he was given a very welcome reception when he flew in! We were like kids at Christmas, and after a few beers at the dockside bar in Jolly, we got him on board and dug deep into his luggage, sharing out the stash he’d lugged all the way from Manchester.
Tim’s a keen sailor and rather than stay put in Falmouth and Jolly, we decided to Island hop for a couple of weeks and then get him back to Antigua in time to catch some of the leaders coming back in from taking part in the round the islands 600 mile race.
After giving Tim a couple of days to settle in, we began our Island tour with an overnight sail to St Barts, this is a French Island, of only 24 sq km. We prefer not to try and anchor in a new place in the dark, so we set off at 15:45 for an overnight sail, which is always a treat with the stars lighting the way. At first light we arrived in a beautiful bay at the top of the St Barts called Anse du Grande Colombier in a bit of a rain squall after a brisk 20 knot sail. We shared our time there with lots of turtles. In the crystal clear sea we finned above them in our snorkel gear watching them slowly eating their way across the seabed munching at the seagrass covering the floor. They were quite unconcerned about our being there. We took the Rib to shore, to go for a walk, or at least tried to get to shore. The beach sloped steeply and the surf was great fun to swim in but not land a Rib! We anchored to a mooring buoy near the beach, and, putting our trainers and clothes into a dry bag, we launched ourselves off the Rib and swam ashore to walk around the coastline to the next beach, whereupon when playing in the big breaking waves, due to the fierce pull of the surf,Terry nearly lost his shorts!
St Martin/Sint Maarten.
This Island is split between France and the Netherlands, making it the smallest area in the world divided into two countries’ dependencies. The border is almost theoretical and there are no frontier posts, each side is quite different, a different nationality, a different administration system, a different tax system and even manages its seaspace differently. It is best to be treated as two separate places. 55sq km, and 22.9 nautical miles from St Barts. After a quick morning swim, we set off in no wind, so a steady motor all the way to Marigot, the main town in the French part. St Martin has two excellent chandleries, Island Water World and Budget Marine, so we spent a morning doing a “supermarket sweep” stocking up on all sorts of gear and draining our bank balance…. It was such a treat here to have our laundry done at Shrimpys and enjoy fresh, warm croissants delivered to our boat by an enterprising young couple who toured round our boats early in the morning!! Bliss! We took a bus into Philisburg too, a very touristy place, the cruise ships call in here and the prices were reflected in the prices, but Terry did get a couple of pairs of shorts and Tim bought some Japanese Whisky, which was very appreciated by his father! Tim, Gayle, Alex and Carla have arrived and are in Simpson Bay, we meet up with them and do a sortie to an off licence which sells beer at a bargain price. We don’t have the storage capacity of our friends’ boats but we do our best, loading the Rib up so the point where we have to return back to Sisu in two trips!! We all decided to set sail for Saba the following day and so our tour continued.
Saba.
21 miles from St Martin, is the tiny Dutch Island of Saba only 13 sq km. Its capital is The Bottom, (it’s actually a corruption of the Dutch word Botte meaning bowl. I see from the map that there’s two hills called Old Booby and Booby, well, of course there’d be a pair! We loved Saba, it’s a 5,000 years extinct volcano. Incredibly dramatic with its sheer volcanic rock face, there’s no beach at all around the steep shores of the Island. The coast has been classified as a marine reserve since 1987 under the watchful eye of the Saba Marine Park. We three boats anchored in a very rolly sea in Wells Bay, we are diminutive in the shadow of the rugged volcanic rock face. As we are now in a new country, we have to clear in and out with Immigration. To do this we Rib it round the corner a couple of miles to a tiny little port and dockside, the only one on the Island. Saba has an airstrip, which at first sight of the Island seems impossible. The first air link was in 1964 when a brave pilot from St Barts, Remy de Haenan landed on the island’s only fairly flat spot, a solidified lava flow forming a small headland in the North of the island! A proper airstrip was then built, though it’s restricted to highly skilled pilots and passengers who enjoy a good fright! Bottom is so pretty, with minute streets and impeccably well maintained and painted houses which look just like dolls houses with little fenced gardens and Dutch style flower gardens. We loved it here, and climbed to the top of Mt Scenery, 887metres high, which is the summit of the volcano cone. The hike was up was via hundreds of steps cut into the side of the volcano, but the view from the top was 360 degrees of ocean and nearby islands, so worth the slog! I see from my handwritten diary that my legs hurt for 2 days!
That evening we enjoyed a delicious sailfish curry at Alex and Carla’s boat, washed down with the now obligatory rum and gingers, which helped us all sleep despite the rolling swell!
Next day it was too rough to snorkel along the coast, which was a pity as the sealife and fauna are said to be fantastic, so we all decided to escape the swell and head for Statia (Sint Eustatius) some 20 miles away.
Statia
With light winds we motor sailed the whole way. Tim was treated to a pod of fishing dolphins showing off, one leapt out and spiralled several times right in front of him! I didn’t have time to grab my camera, darn… It’s the first sight of dolphins in a while. Statia is another Dutch island of 25sq km and quite different to Saba, we could see green slopes but there are only a few beaches of grey volcanic sand with the extinct volcano, The Quill rising out of the relatively flat South of the island. Apparently you can walk up the side of the volcano and peer inside! We didn’t go ashore on Statia as by 6pm the swell and wind in the bay of the only anchorage at Oranjestad was increasing, rather than risk our anchors dragging, Tim, Gayle and ourselves decided over a rolly cup of tea to leave Statia for another time and get back to Falmouth 78 miles away. We had one of the best night sails for a long time arriving at 11am the following morning. Perfect 5 plus knots all the way. Tim, Terry and I took turns at watches, a good experience for Tim. In the distance we enjoyed (only because it wasn’t near us!) an impressive thunder and lightning storm. The whole heavens at our stern would light up with each lightning strike, we were relieved it wasn’t heading our way! On the final watch at 5am, Terry took over, and after steady winds all the way, he got caught in the only squall and it was a horrible one! Tim and Gayle were 8 to 10 miles in front of us, we just can’t beat them! After a sleep and swim, we chilled for the rest of the day in readiness for sailing the short distance to Green Island.
Green Island.
We stayed at Green Island for a few days in the company of Tim and Gayle. Terry’s son Tim thoroughly enjoyed himself snorkelling over the shallow coral reefs with its different types of coral and exotic fish. No trip to Green Island is complete without a BBQ on the golden sandy beach with gently lapping turquoise seas, we all feasted on jerk chicken, salads and plenty of rum and ginger, sending Tim back to the boat for more supplies! We all had a go on Tim and Gayles paddle board, we really must get one! Tim was good for a beginner, and took off round the bay like a natural!
Falmouth, Antigua.
Back to Falmouth to take Tim to the Sunday night BBQ at Shirley Heights. The pan pan bands were giving it their best, great local food and plenty of Dark and Stormys ( yes, more rum and ginger beer) made for a great evening as we watched the sun go down over Falmouth and English Harbours. It’s a small world! We bumped into Robin Cooke who we last met three years ago in Milford Haven. He was one of the crew members during my Competent Crew course. He was in Antigua for his brother’s wedding. As Terry says, we can’t go anywhere without me bumping into someone I know! All too soon it was time for Tim to go back. As he had filled his case with stuff we did not need, we could hardly send him back without using his luggage allowance! So we filled his case with clothes we don’t need, trousers, heavy jackets and such like!
sisu journey 