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Aislig Bheag - Antigua to British Virgin Islands Feb t March 2015



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

 

 


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