1 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
It was another early start to go to the north end of the island to Mont Peleé. It took us a while to go through Fort de France and then negotiate the treacherous winding road through the middle of Martinique. So we didn’t get to Mont Peleé until 09:30, by which time the cloud had built up on the top of the 4,500ft volcano.
We made our way up to the car park at the start of the Aileron trail, where we could see groups of intrepid hikers slogging up the steep muddy path and disappearing into the cloud after 300 metres. It’s about a mile to the first crater rim, so it seemed to be pointless to slog up a hill to see nothing but mist. We headed back up south, driving past the majestic Pitons de Carbet and passing through some impressive “cloud” forest with lush vegetation, including tree ferns and bamboo.
Our next stop was at the Botanical Gardens. It was very pleasantly laid out, but crowded with tourists and very expensive at €14 per person. The highlight was the dozens of Purple-throated Carib hummingbirds darting around some artificial feeders.
We called in at the Sacré Coeur de Balata Cathedral, which is just another church. After a quick stop at another couple of supermarkets, we retired back to the boat.
2 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
There’s no peace for the wicked - we were our way early again, this time we drove to the south-west peninsula of Martinique. After travelling through the small seaside town of the Trois Ilets, we dropped down a steep road to Anse Dufour. It’s a popular little fishing village, so the car park was cram-packed, but we managed to park on the side of the approach road without any problems.
Our purpose for being here was to do a hike called Cap Solomon, which goes over a steep hill and down to Grand Anse D’Arlet. As usual, the hardest part was finding the start of the route. We walked into the small village and eventually spotted a sign for the route next to a small restaurant. We turned left along a concrete path, which ended at a house with a very small dirt path leading down the side of the house.
The path remained narrow, turning from dirt to rocky boulders and steeply rose up the hill. After 30 minutes, the path levelled out and we came across a small pond covered in lilies. The next 15 minutes was fairly level and then we descended towards Grand Anse D’Arlet. After a further 20 minutes, we came across a small sign showing another route along the side of the hill, promising some viewpoints so we turned right.
The viewpoints were almost none existent, but we managed to get some glimpses of the Grand Anse bay and the dozens of yachts anchored there. After stopping for lunch of our usual baguette and tinned mackerel in mustard sauce, we retraced our steps back to Anse Dufour. The whole hike took just over 3 hours and was enjoyable, but a tad tough.
We drove back along the winding coast road, stopping to look at Diamond Rock and the statues at Le Diamant, which are a tribute to the slaves. In the evening, we were invited over to “Relax” for sundowners - Ralph and Carmen are also heading up to Florida, so it’s very likely that we’ll bump into them on the way.
3 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
I returned the hire car at 08:00 and then at 09:00, Gavin from North Sails came to have a look at our main sail. He said that the top half of the sail is too “full” (apparently, last time, they only adjusted the bottom part of the sail.) He agreed that the sail looks a baggy when reefed. He’s going to send an email and photographs to Bill, the vice-president at the North Sails HQ, so we’ll have to wait a few days to see what happens.
The rest of the day was spent on-board, resting after our long hike yesterday. I ran the water maker and Glenys did a load of washing.
4 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
We’re waiting for a decision from North Sails, so we’re trapped here. I had one email from Bill saying that they thought that the wrinkles were caused by the roller reefing extrusion being too loose - they’ve tried this excuse several times. I responded that I’d had the rig and the extrusion checked and setup by the Selden rigger in Trinidad. I’m waiting to see what they decide.
I spent most of the day trying to plan our trip from the Bahamas to Annapolis. We want to try to get the boat up to Annapolis by the third week of April because there’s a big boat show starting on the 26th April and it would be a good opportunity to sell Alba.
Unfortunately, it’s 1,100 miles from the Bahamas to Annapolis and the weather is very unsettled in March/April with a high chance of freezing cold fronts travelling south across the east coast of the USA. This might mean that we have to wait for weather and then dash up the coast whenever there’s a weather window.
Our son, Craig is coming out to see us in the second week of March, so the earliest that we can leave Georgetown in the Bahamas is the 21st March - this means that we’ll only have 4 weeks to make the trip. The first leg will be a 400 mile passage from Georgetown to Cape Canaveral in Florida, which will take 3 nights. After that we have 500 miles to Beaufort, some of which we could do in the Intracoastal Waterway, but we’ll have to do a couple of offshore overnight passages and, with the weather getting colder, it won’t be pleasant - we’ll have to break out the foul weather gear, hats and gloves.
Once through Beaufort, we’ll be in sheltered waters with 180 miles up the Intracoastal Waterway to Norfolk and then 150 miles up the Chesapeake to Annapolis, but it’ll be cold and unsettled weather. We’re not looking forward to it.
5 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
I had an administration day, bouncing emails back and forward about the main sail. Eventually, by the end of the day, we’d agreed that Gavin will alter the luff curve of the upper part of the sail and I will contribute $200 US towards the “adjustment”. I readily agreed because it depresses me every time that I look at the reefed sail. Unfortunately, Gavin can’t do the adjustment until next Tuesday 11th, so we’re stuck here in paradise for another week.
I also organised a broker to sell Alba in the USA. We’ve had the boat advertised privately for six months and despite about 1,000 viewings of the advert, we’ve only had four people contact us and they were very tentative enquiries. It’s fairly obvious that Americans and Europeans don’t want to travel to the Caribbean to view a yacht.
After a few emails, we decided to appoint Free State Yachts. Roger is the Hallberg Rassy dealer on the East Coast of the USA, based very close to Annapolis. We’ve agreed his commission and sent off the signed agreement. There’s no point in Roger advertising the boat until March, a month before we arrive in the USA, but we’ll be on his books and if he comes across someone who is very keen they might be prepared to fly down to Puerto Rico or the Bahamas.
I filled the rest of the day updating my blog and catching up on editing photographs. Glenys pottered about doing a few chores.
6 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
I had yet another administration day, this time on our finances. The UK is in the middle of leaving the European Union (EU), commonly called “Brexit”. Our Prime Minister has recently negotiated a deal with the EU and the UK Parliament is currently debating whether to accept or reject the deal. This is causing great turbulence in the financial markets, with the FTSE 100 crashing down to 6,700 points today - the lowest in 2 years.
Having sold our house eight years ago, most of our money is now tied up in pensions and investments, which of course is all invested in the stock markets. Our plan is to cash-in our pensions next year when we get back to the UK, which will give us enough money to put a deposit down on a house. I’m naturally concerned about the volatility of the stock markets and don’t want to be cashing in our pensions when the stock market is very low.
I spent the morning reconciling our various pensions, investments and bank accounts, so that I have a good idea of the state of our finances. I then spent the afternoon doing some forward planning. Fortunately, 11 months ago, when the FTSE 100 peaked at 7,800 points, I moved half of our investments into Bonds, which has partially limited our losses. Instead of losing 10-15% since January, we’ve only lost about 4% total value.
There’s nothing much I can do at the moment, except hope that the stock market will bounce back when there’s more certainty about Brexit. My plan is to cash in 25% of our investments when (and if) the FTSE 100 reaches 7,800 points again. Normally, I wouldn’t be bothered about these fluctuations in the stock markets, but the draw-down of our pensions is getting very close.
The uncertainty of Brexit is also affecting the value of the British pound against the US dollar, which currently is very low at $1.27 = £1. This means that the cost of our day-to-day living expenses are higher, but on the bright side, if we can sell the boat in the USA for US dollars, we’ll end up with more pound notes in our pocket.
7 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
Today, we had a holiday. We hired a car and went for a drive up the West coast. After stopping in a couple of small seaside towns, we arrived in St Pierre, which used to be the biggest port in Martinique. In 1902, the Mont Peleé volcano erupted and a pyroclastic cloud swept down the mountain slopes, destroying the city and killing 28,000 people - only about 30 people survived and most of those were on ships at anchor off the town.
Today the town is rather sleepy and is a major tourist attraction in Martinique. We wandered the narrow streets and looked at the various ruins left from the 1902 disaster. After an hour, we’d had enough ruin-staring, so we drove slightly out of town to the snappily named “Centre for Scientific Research of the Earth”. They have some interesting exhibits and a good audio tour, which runs through the 1902 disaster - it’s only €3 per person to get in.
After a three course Plat de Jour at one of the restaurants above the market, we visited the Depaz rum distillery. It was interesting to wander around the beautiful grounds and see the equipment, but the distillery only operates during the Sugar Cane harvest, which is from February to June. We’re not great fans of Rhum Agricole (rum made from Sugar Cane), so we didn’t buy any bottles. We returned home via the east coast road, making it a long day.
8 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
It was a squally day, so after returning the hire car, I had another session cleaning the engine. I tackled the starboard side of the engine a few weeks ago, so now it was the turn for the rest of the engine and gearbox. It took me four hours of lying across the engine to clean and de-rust all the hard to access areas. Glenys kept out of the way and tried not to hear the profanities.
9 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
Before the wind picked up, we dropped the mainsail and bagged it up, ready to take it to North Sails tomorrow. We then went for a hike over to the windward side of the peninsula.
From the dinghy dock, we walked past the cemetery, along the main road and straight over the roundabout, taking the dirt road past the old mill. After ½ hour, we reached a car park at Baie des Anglais, where we headed west to walk along the coastline around the peninsula back to St Anne.
It was a pleasant hike through coastal bush and then into open volcanic land. We passed by the Anse Saline beach where there were hundreds of people sat in beach side eating places and had our lunch sat on a tree away from the maddening crowds. The next beach was a nudist beach, which appeared to be mostly gay men, so I tightly gripped Glenys’ hand until we’d escaped.
I’d worn my hiking boots, which had been repaired in Namibia, but as I suspected the repair didn’t hold and both soles were flapping by the time that arrived back in St Anne - the route took us about four hours.
Back at the boat, we had a quick nap, a bowl of soup and I painted undercoat on the engine parts.
10 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
After breakfast, I whizzed over to Marin drop off the mainsail - Gavin says that it should be ready late tomorrow afternoon. While I was over there, I called in at Leader Price, where I did some essential provisioning - 3 cases of beer, 4 bottles of wine, a baguette and some goat’s cheese.
In the afternoon, I painted a coat of silver paint on the gear box and green paint on the engine.
11 December 2018 St Anne, Martinique
First thing in the morning, I finished off the engine room by applying a second coat of paint. Glenys popped into St Anne to do some proper provisioning, so that we can eat for the next two weeks.
We spent the afternoon waiting for the sail to be finished - I finally picked it up at 16:30. We fitted the sail before it went dark. . I think that the adjustments to the luff curve have made the sail a lot better when it is fully out. However, it still appears to be too full when reefed.
12 December 2018 St Anne to St Pierre, Martinique
I woke up thinking about the mainsail, so before breakfast, we pulled it out and I took photos of the sail when fully out and when reefed. I rang Bill in the USA and discussed the sail. He says that the fullness when reefed is probably because the sail has stretched in the middle after we’ve sailed 12,000 miles in two years. I told him that we’ve already delayed in Martinique for a week and need to move on, so he said that he’s happy for me to stop in St Martin or Antigua and let them have a look at it.
We pulled up our anchor at 09:30 and, with only a 6 knot wind directly behind us, we motor-sailed the 10 miles around Diamond Rock. Once around the corner, we had some good wind on the beam, so we had a good sail up the west coast of Martinique. Anchored off Anse La Touche about ½ mile south of St Pierre at 14°43.95N 061°10.84W in 7 metres depth over good holding sand and weed. It’s a nice quiet anchorage compared to the anchorage off the town of St Pierre.
I nipped into town to clear out, which was very easy at customs computer in the L’Alsace de Kay restaurant. Back at Alba, I went for a snorkel around the boat. The water was very clear and on first impressions it was very boring - just sand and weed. Then I spotted a Golden-spotted Eel, which perked me up. Unfortunately, I’d left my camera on the boat and the batteries weren’t charged. I swam around for an hour and saw another eel, plus two octopuses and some large Lionfish - remind me never to go snorkelling without my camera…
13 December 2018 St Pierre to Castaways, Dominica
With a 55 mile passage ahead of us, we were up at 05:30 and left at 06:30. It was a good passage across to Dominica - one hour of motoring and then a bit windy at the north end of Martinique with 25 knots at times, but that was to be expected. Thankfully, it was a reach with the wind at about 70 degrees, so we weren’t pounding up wind.
As we approached Dominica, we hooked a fish, but were disappointed to find that it was a 4 foot long Barracuda - we don’t eat large Barracuda because of the danger of Ciguatera. I hauled it in next to the boat, carefully hooked the gaff into its gill slot and managed to get the hook out from those wicked teeth without having to kill the fish.
We were planning to go up to Prince Rupert Bay, but the anchorage isn’t that brilliant and the boat boys can be a pain in the neck, so we opted to stop off at the derelict Castaways hotel. I was a bit unsure about where to anchor because I couldn’t see if the sea bed was coral or weed, so while Glenys kept the boat stationary, I donned a mask and climbed down the swim ladder to confirm that it was weed. Our Rocna anchor slammed in, so we were happy. We anchored at 15°24.86N 061°25.81W in 8 metres of water over weed and sand.
It was only 14:00 when we anchored, so we jumped in the dinghy and went looking for an artificial reef, which is made up from a couple of dozen hollow, concrete balls. The reef is about 75-100 metres in a direct line from the old hotel’s dock. It was excellent snorkelling with clear water and lots of variety of sea life. The surrounding weed has Golden-spotted Eels and Bearded Fire Worms; the sandy areas have Peacock Flounders and Lesser Electric Rays; while the artificial reef has a plethora of fish including Lionfish and Scorpionfish.
As it went dark, we were in splendid isolation, which was lovely for a change, although we did put up the security bars in the aft cabin hatch and locked the washboards in place, just in case some enterprising local wants to board us in the middle of the night.
14 December 2018 Castaways to Ile Cabrit, Iles des Saintes
Last night, a big squall went through last night with strong winds and we woke to very unsettled skies with slight drizzle. It would have been prudent to wait another day, but we need to get a move on - only 11 sleeps to Christmas and we want to be in Antigua. We upped anchor at 07:45 and motored up the leeward side of Dominica, with hardly any wind and a couple of showers.
By 09:30, we were passing Prince Rupert’s Bay and went straight into a big squall. There was lots of rain, but fortunately not too much wind at 25 knots. As usual we had an acceleration zone at the north end of the island, but with 2 reefs in the main and just the staysail, we were comfortably doing 5-6 knots though the steep waves.
We then had 3 hours of variable conditions with a maximum of 25 knots and 20 minutes of motoring when the wind dropped to 6 knots. However, the skies cleared and we had blue skies as we entered the southern passage into Iles des Saintes. We picked up a mooring close to the shore at Ile Des Cabrits at 15°52.42N 061°35.80W. We don’t normally use moorings, but the wind swirls around in this anchorage and the best spots are filled with moorings - it’s also fairly cheap at €12 per night.
After tidying up, we jumped in the dinghy and bashed a mile upwind to the main town of Terre de Haut. It’s a quaint little seaside town, with narrow streets lined with small restaurants and tiny boutiques - very touristy. Ferries stream across from Guadaloupe bringing tourists to eat and shop.
We cleared in at an internet café on the right hand side of the main street, just after the ferry dock square - it was very straight forward like all the French islands. After buying a baguette and a naughty ice cream, we headed back to the boat, where we went for a snorkel in the clear water off the back of the boat. The sea bed beneath the mooring field is mostly weed over sand, with not much life, but it’s much better over by the rocky coast line to the east of the mooring field.
15 December 2018 Ile Cabrit, Iles des Saintes
I filled our scuba tanks and we went diving off the headland to the north-west of the anchorage. We picked up a small dive mooring just to the east of Pointe a Cabrit and headed south-west dropping over a 45 degree slope down to 18 metres. After heading north-west for five minutes, the reef thinned out, so we turned around and followed the reef south-east, where the reef was much steeper and interesting.
The visibility was good and a large variety of sea-life from Queen Triggerfish to tiny Pederson Cleaning Shrimp. We even spent a few minutes watching a Common Octopus, scuttling across the reef. A nice first dive after a 15 month lay-off - our last dive was in Madagascar. We had a quiet afternoon recovering.
16 December 2018 Ile Cabrit, Iles des Saintes
We were unpopular in the anchorage, when we started our dive compressor at 09:00 for the second morning, but it only took 40 minutes. We dinghied across to Pain de Sucré and tied up to a big yellow marker buoy at the south-west corner of the cliffs. We followed the reef down to 18 metres and then headed north then north-west. The dive was okay with lots of sponges and fish, but not as good as yesterday’s dive.
We had a quiet afternoon.
17 December 2018 Ile Cabrit, Iles des Saintes
After two days of diving, we thought we’d do a bit of hiking, so we dinghied across to Terre d’en Haut and walked up the road to Fort Napoleon. It only takes 20 minutes to reach the old fort, which was built in 1867 and overlooks the town and harbour. The fort is very well restored and maintained and the €5 per person entry fee is a bargain.
After taking the obligatory photos of the magnificent views, we walked around the inside of the fort, which is a museum. They have an eclectic mixture of exhibits from Amerindians to nautical memorabilia and models of ships from the Battle of the Saintes. This naval battle took place between the English and the French in 1782.
Traditionally, the opposing fleets would line up and sail past each other, blasting away with their cannons. The Battle of the Saintes took place in light winds and the English Admiral Rodney employed a new tactic, sending sections of his fleet sailing between the ships in the French line. This turned the traditional battle into a free-for-all and the French were soundly defeated.
Back in town, we bought some bread and scooted back to the boat. It was only 11:00, so we went ashore on Ile Cabrit and walked up to Fort Josephine, which is another fort, but this one is in ruins. There are some nice views down onto the anchorage, but not a lot else to look at, so we were back on the boat just after noon.
In the afternoon, we dinghied around to the east coast of Ile Cabrit and picked up a dive mooring to go snorkelling. The water was incredibly clear, but the reef wasn’t very spectacular. However, there was enough to keep us busy for an hour and I entertained myself trying to take photos of Yellowhead Jawfish.
These 3” long fish live in burrows in the sand and if you approach them they back into their holes. I spent 15 minutes diving down to 6 metres and trying to slowly approach the timid fish and eventually eased close enough to get a half decent photo. The Jawfish hatch their eggs by the male keeping them in his mouth. I spotted one fish doing this, but he was so timid that I couldn’t get close - I took one long range photo in which you can just see the eggs.
18 December 2018 Ile Cabrit to Deshaies, Guadaloupe
Our few days in the Iles des Saintes had been enjoyable, but it was time to move on. We dropped the mooring at 07:30 and had a pleasant 8 mile sail across to Guadeloupe. The weather started off with rain showers, but the skies cleared once we were in the lee of the island and we had a pleasant motor-sail heading north in calm seas.
We arrived in Deshaies at about 13:00 and anchored at 16°18.42N 061°47.87W in 10 metres good holding sand. With no need to go ashore, we had a quiet afternoon on board.
19 December 2018 Deshaies to Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
The alarm went off at 05:30 and we had enough light to leave just after six o’clock. The wind was slightly south of east at 15-20 knots, so we had a cracking sail north in glorious sunshine. We made really good time and did the 43 mile passage in 6 ½ hours, which is an average of 6.6 knots - pretty good for us. We anchored in Falmouth Harbour at 17°01.04N 061°46.42W in 6 metres depth. The chain rumbled, so I guess that the sea bed is sand and coral rubble, but we held firm with the engine in reverse at 2,000 RPM, so we should be okay.
We were settled by 13:00, so walked around to English Harbour and cleared in. They have a computer system, which is different to the one further south, but it was a relatively quick and painless procedure (apart from having to pay $51USD).
On the way back to the boat I called in at North sails and met Andrew Dove, who came out to the boat with me to look at the sail. He agreed that the sail was too full even when fully out, so we dropped it and I took him and the sail ashore. He says that he’ll start tomorrow and I arranged to go to the loft at 08:00 tomorrow morning to see it stretched out on the floor of his huge loft.
I went back to Alba and picked up Glenys and we went for a 10 minute walk to Genny’s store to buy a Digicel SIM card so that we’re back on line. We were both tired after a long day so we retired back to the boat for a beer and an early night.
20 December 2018 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
I was at North Sails loft promptly at 08:00 to find that our sail was already stretched out on the floor. They’d already re-cut the luff of the sail and were just preparing to sew the luff tape back on.
Andrew spent ten minutes with me explaining all about sail design. He says that the luff curve was too deep and they’d straightened it as much as they dare - he reckons that the leech will become baggy if they take too much out of the luff. He seems to know what he’s doing, so i left them to it and arrange to pick the sail up later in the afternoon.
I picked Glenys up from the boat and, after dropping off a bag of laundry, we caught a minibus into St John’s. We wandered about town to get our bearings and marvelled at the three huge cruise ships dominating the waterfront. Hundreds of tourists were wandering around being accosted by touts trying to sell them trips to beautiful beaches and tours.
After 30 minutes, we split up to buy each other Christmas presents. Over the past few years, we’ve given up on buying each other expensive gifts and have set a small budget to buy some fun things. I wandered around various shops, but couldn’t seem to find anything suitable. Thirty minutes later, I bumped into Glenys wandering the streets and found that she was having the same problem, so we agreed to not bother and have no presents this year - it was a great relief to both of us.
St John’s is a strange place. The main town has traditional colonial buildings with small shops selling low cost items; and the waterfront is packed with up-market clothing and jewellery shops. There’s nothing that we want to buy. We gave up and went to the central market, where Glenys bought a load of vegetables to keep us going for the next week. We were very excited to spot some Ackee, which we’ve only ever seen in Jamaica - Glenys bought a dozen.
Back at Falmouth, we went for a roti and retired back to the boat. Later in the afternoon, we went to the supermarket to provision for Christmas and I picked up the sail. By 17:00, we had the sail fitted back in the mast. The sail looks much, much better when fully out and reefed. I’ll have to wait until we go sailing to be completely sure, but I’m a happy North Sail customer now.
I’ve been impressed by the amount of effort North Sails have put into sorting out a sail that is 2 years old and has done 12,000 miles. It’s taken 6 months, mostly because we’ve been moving about, but their customer service has been first class. Getting the sail adjusted and back on the boat in 24 hours has been extraordinary.
21 December 2018 Falmouth Harbour, Antigua
After three days of rushing around, we had a quiet morning catching up on internet stuff. In the afternoon, we went for a walk over to the fort at the entrance to English Harbour. As usual the anchorage in English Harbour is very crowded with boats swirling around, so we’re happy to be in Falmouth, which has loads of space.
On the way back, we called in at the supermarket and bought some last minute provisions. The selection of meat was pretty limited, so we ended up opting for a frozen chicken for our Christmas Dinner.
22 December 2018 Falmouth Harbour to Nonsuch Bay, Antigua
The weather has been glorious for the past week, so it was a bit of a shock to wake up to squally weather. We’d planned to go 8 miles up-wind to Green Island and lurked about waiting to see if the nasty clouds went away. Fortunately, by 11:00 we were able to pull up the anchor.
We motored out into 4-6 foot waves, directly on the nose, so it was a bit of a mission as we motor-sailed for 2½ hours pounding into the waves. Life was better as we came into the shelter of Green Island and we had good sunlight to be able to see the various reefs on the zig-zag approach channel in to Nonsuch Bay. This fabulous, 2 mile diameter bay is very well protected by a fringing reef.
We anchored at 17 04.62N 061 40.24 W in 6 metres depth. The sea bed was hard-packed white sand and patches of weed and even our Rocna dragged for 10 metres before digging into the sand. The trade winds blow all the way from Africa without crossing land until they hit this anchorage, so it is a mecca for Kite-surfers and there were dozens of them, reaching back and forth across the anchorage – very entertaining.
23 December 2018 Nonsuch Bay, Antigua
Mid-morning, we went snorkelling on the reef directly to the east of our anchorage. There’s a very shallow passage out to the windward side of the fringing reef, but the water was very cloudy with churned up sand. We went out over the reef, but it was still bad on the outside.
We decided to try somewhere else and went further north, skirting Bird Island and going a little way up the Spithead Channel, dropping our dinghy anchor at about 17°05.13N 061°40.32W. The visibility was a little better and the reef dropped off steeply down to 10 metres, so it was a better place to snorkel. However, the reef is covered with sediment and not very colourful – very reminiscent of the south coast of Grenada.
We were just about to give up, when I spotted 3 large lobsters hiding in a little cave. I stayed to keep an eye on the place, while Glenys went back to get a lobster snare from the dinghy. It’s one that I bodged up from an aluminium tube and a bit of electrical wire. I dived down and snared the first lobster, but it flapped around so much that it broke the electrical wire. I re-knotted it and managed to snare a second lobster, but couldn’t get any more.
We chilled out in the afternoon and had Caribbean Lobster Curry for dinner.
24 December 2018 Nonsuch Bay, Antigua
In the morning, we went out looking for a better place to snorkel. We tried in the approach to the bay, but everywhere we went was murky water. In desperation, we eventually stopped at a shallow sandbar/reef in the middle of the bay.
It wasn’t very interesting because it was mostly sand and broken coral with a smattering of small coral outcrops. However, I was excited to find a Spotted Cleaner Shrimp lurking in a Giant Anemone. I’ve been searching for this tiny one-inch long creature for months - ever since we came back to the Caribbean.
It was really difficult to photograph because the anemone’s arms were swirling around all the time. The shrimp was either not in focus; or hidden by an arm; or an arm put it into shadow. After 20 minutes of patiently diving down again and again, I managed to get a few reasonable shots.
We had another quiet afternoon, playing Christmas songs. In the evening, we watched “Love Actually” to put us in the Christmas Mood.
25 December 2018 Nonsuch Bay, Antigua
Glenys made scrambled egg and smoked salmon on toast for our Christmas Day breakfast. We didn’t have any presents to open, which I suppose was a bit sad, but that was offset by the beautiful view of blue skies and turquoise seas as we ate our breakfast in the cockpit.
After breakfast, I switched on my laptop to check the weather and found to my horror that it wouldn’t boot up. Further investigation showed that the hard disk has failed and needs to be replaced. I hadn’t made a backup of my data since we went back to the UK in July, so I felt physically sick – I’d lost four months of photographs and other work.
After a cup of tea to calm down, I decided to try to get the data from the disk. I pulled an old USB disk drive to pieces and re-assembled it, inserting the hard disk drive removed from my laptop. Fortunately, we have a second, small notebook laptop, so with some trepidation, I plugged in the disk drive.
I was so relieved that I could see the data. I immediately copied off my photographs and the other work that I’ve done since July. By midday, I’d recovered everything and started to make a complete backup of the data from the defective disk in case it completely fails.
We cracked open a bottle of Champagne and started our Christmas Day. Christmas Carols were playing on the stereo; the boat was filled with the smell of chicken roasting in the oven; and life was grand again. We had a lovely Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings and a nice bottle of Bordeaux. Feeling suitably bloated, we then sat in front of the telly to watch a James Bond movie – a perfect Christmas afternoon.
26 December 2018 Nonsuch Bay to Falmouth Bay, Antigua
I had the urge to catch some more lobster, so we dinghied back out to Spithead Channel. After a couple of tries, we found the small cave where I’d caught the lobster the other day, but alas there was nobody home. I spotted another lobster in another hole in the reef, but it was too far back to catch, so we gave up.
One of our cooking gas bottle is about to run out, so we sailed back around to Falmouth with the intention of getting it filled tomorrow. It was a lovely downwind sail – hopefully, we won’t have to go upwind again until we get to the Bahamas.
We popped out to buy a few provisions and then chilled out for the rest of the day.
27 December 2018 Falmouth Bay to Jolly Harbour, Antigua
The forecast is for miserable weather for three days from tomorrow, with strong winds, a big swell from the north and lots of rain. Rather than staying in Falmouth, we decided to go around to Jolly Harbour and pick up a mooring in the shelter of the lagoon. We can get our cooking gas tank filled there and I can get into St John’s to get a replacement hard disk drive for my laptop.
It was a pleasant sail around to the west coast of Antigua, sailing inside Cades Reef. We arrived just before noon and picked up a mooring, which will cost an outrageous $25 US per night, but hey, it’s Christmas. After lunch, we walked around and refreshed our memories of Jolly Harbour. In the evening we treated ourselves to a tasty pizza in Melini’s Italian restaurant.
28 December 2018 Jolly Harbour, Antigua
The rain started overnight, but we managed to get to the mini-bus and into St Johns without getting drenched. It only took twenty minutes to buy a new 1 TB hard disk drive for my laptop – there were two stores, which had the exact replacement, which was amazing. I tried to get some spares for our dive regulators, but no joy. We bought a few vegetables and caught the bus back to Jolly harbour.
There’s a really good, modern supermarket at Jolly Harbour, so Glenys did an initial shop. We’ll be back to do a bigger provisioning in the next few days – we want to stock up with a month’s worth of food, so that we can be self-sufficient in the Bahamas.
I spent the afternoon fitting the hard disk and installing Windows 10. One of the reasons for coming into the marina was that I’d be able to get access to their Wi-fi, so that I can down load drivers, etc. However, the moorings are too far from the marina to pick up a decent signal, so I’m a bit frustrated and have to use our expensive mobile phone internet connection.
We invited Chris and Penny from “Crazy Daze” over for a few drinks. They drink as much as us, so we went through a few bottles of wine.
29 December 2018 Jolly Harbour, Antigua
Miserable day – squall after squall went through. I spent all day rebuilding my laptop and by mid-afternoon, I’d got it to a workable state. In a lull, I nipped out and picked up our cooking gas bottle, which has been filled, so we now have two full bottles, which should be enough to get us to the USA in May.
30 December 2018 Jolly Harbour, Antigua
We woke to grey skies again, but the forecast is for it to improve and the winds are settling down, so we plan to leave for the British Virgin Islands on New Year’s Day. It’s 175 miles to Virgin Gorda, so it’s just an overnight sail, if we leave early in the morning. Our plan is to re-fuel and check out tomorrow.
31 December 2018 Jolly Harbour, Antigua
For a change, it was a lovely sunny day. We nipped ashore to spend the last of our Caribbean ECs – it’s all US dollars from here onwards. After clearing out, which was painless, we went alongside the fuel dock and filled up our diesel tank.
We motored out to the anchorage outside the marina and dropped the anchor at 17°04.50N 061°53.81W in 4 metres depth over weed and sand. It took us two goes because we were a little too aggressive backing the anchor in and the anchor skipped over the weed.
Our friends on “Leyna”, who we met in Brazil, were in the anchorage, so we went over and a chat – they are heading up to the East coast of the USA so we might see them on the way. With our socialising done, we put the dinghy on deck and tidied up ready for an overnight sail – we finished just in time for our evening cold beer at 17:00.
We had a very quiet New Year’s Eve. Glenys rustled up a nice Cassuolet; we ripped opened a good bottle of wine; and watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey – no late night revelling for us, a sure sign that we’re getting old.