Fretting at Jolly Harbour Antigua

Les now gone and safely back home. David Macavinchey our outward leg 2nd mate-surgeon has rejoined and is now No. 1 mate as other locally promised crew has so far failed to turn up. Antigua is tied up with racing for the next 10 days and loose crew volunteers are few and far between. Skipper needs to get more organised and await further reinforcements from home or go with the 2-handed solution for the return trip. Decision time is nigh.  In the meantime David is acclimatising to the mozzies and time lag and skipper is fretting and writing endless lists of things from turnips to turning blocks and radishes to rigging. Tried to get helo trip over to Montserrat today but not enough people to fill the flight so went shopping in St Johns instead, to look at Chinese souvenirs with Antigua written on them and also to buy strangely shaped brown vegetables which taste like stewed socks (David wanted to try them).

19 -20 April - Bottom scrubbers and Farewell to Les

At anchor in Falmouth Harbour watching all the world's classic yachts go by. Ranging from the humdrum, to huge jobbies, 150 footers with crews of 30 or 40. All beautifully kept. Varnish and brass sparkling in the sunlight. Anyway, there we are slightly hung over and waiting for Maurice Underwater and his crew to turn up to scrub our bum. They do turn up, fairly late and also fairly hung over. Their diving system would cause a British H&S man to slash his wrists. They have a rusty petrol compressor which lives in a swimming pool-type inflated circular tube. This is set floating in the sea by the boat. A rusty pipe with 6 or 8 connections comes straight off the compressor. Each diver has a long and patched hose and mouthpiece and is connected up straight to the compressor. They all jump in and untangle and tow the contraption along. The scrape and scratch for 40 mins or so. Maurice gives the anodes and prop a good burnishing and checks the log. The fee is 320 EC, about £80, which is fair enough compared to a haul out cost. I jump in afterwards to check the results out. OK but boat looks like a freshly shaved skinhead underwater. In the crystal clear water I notice we are hovering 4ft above turtle grass, so I can stand on the bottom and pretend to hold the boat up.
Underway by noon we are soon crashing along between Antigua's S.Coast reefs with our new found clean-bottom speed. Back to our anchorage off Jolly Harbour for Les' last sundowner, Carib Curry, and nightcap whiskey tots.
Up early 20th in very heavy rain. Up anchor and enter harbour. Alongside immigration for Les to check out. Into our Jolly Harbour marina berth for Les to finish packing, grab lunch, and organise taxi.
Final farewell at noon. Always sad to loose a good crew. Amazingly, Les survived his pedantic and obsessive skipper for a full 25 days. Almost a record. 
Now onto RAPAREE's TransAtlantic preps.

Antigua party time and stuff

Tonight 18/19 Apr,  after a night, and a good run ashore, one would have to say, up Mud Creek, English Harbour, we have moved through some vertiginous seas and are now anchored in Falmouth Harbour Antigua. Earlier this evening we were forced to walk to Nelsons Dockyard for beer and then to an all night 25th Antigua Classics Opening Party with free rum and a big rock/reggae band. Had to endure hundreds of millions of pounds of classic yachts all round us. Such hardship.Go Sport will never seem the same! At anchor overnight unless the nearby reefs take us. Diver Maurice comes tomorrow morning to scrub our bottom.

13-17 April Antiguan Antics

PM 13th April anchored off Antigua.
14th Enter Hbr and make crappy alongsides to customs wharf. Then even worse alongside between piles in marina. Average marina with 1970's loos and rotting planks. Staff good. BBQ's quite good.
15th blustery alongside working day. Raining. Windy. Shopping
16th Busy day of networking other boats and crews and doing preps.MB to boatyard and chandlery. Still very windy but pay meggabucks and slip and proceed PM.  Anchor outside in bay in evening twilight. First attempt drags scarily between boats in high winds. Eventually manage to anchor, but quite close to scowling old swiss couple on old trad steel (.'.. we've done it all before and are VERY experienced' type boat). They continue smoldering and scowling at us all night and dont respond to waves from us. Consider rowing over and terlling them we're gay and would they like to come to an all night sailors party onboard.
Quiet night. Beautiful pork n apple with potato wedges super by Les.
17th Up early. Still windy. Scowling still in force. Slip and proceed after brekky. Decide to go outside reefs and tack all the way along S Coast to English Hbr. 22 knots and 8ft seas. Lumpy. Reefed main and Genoa. Motor and sail needed. Reach historic English Hbr and its posh megayachts at noon.Classy entrance with many old Georgian buildings. 'Nelson's Dockyard' etc all now restored and WHS tourist icons.
Anchor way up harbour from the crowds. Amongst the mangroves.
Still need more crew for TransAt. And a big strong neoprene clad diver to scrub my bottom smooth.
What will tomorrer bring?

13-15 April: Guadeloupe to Antigua - by the middle (inland) route

Friday 13th April. Always a good day to sail. After a short but busy stopover at the useful litttle Pointe A Pitre marina, its time to struggle free again. After a slow start due to a bit of a hangover, and much keffuffle, we back out of our bows-on stern-to-buoy berth. Non-anglophone Frenchman next door perplexed at being presented with MB's written departure plan, a plan worthy of a battleship requiring several pilot gigs and whalers. Our plan is tinglingly exciting. Up harbour to the start of the river Salee, in the mosquito mangroves, to anchor at dusk in 6ft of mud right next to GDL's premier motorway road bridge. Then escape northwards straight through the middle of the country.
Up 0415 Sat 14th and prep to move towards the bridge, in company now with 4 other boats. 1st bridge opens at o'cracque sparreau fart. Wonderful little procession throught the mangroves towards the reefy north coast of the island. An inland cross country cruise. Squadrons of egrets buzz us at every corner. In deference to the little sparrow,  Oui we had plenty of egrets. In a bright dawn, once clear of the final bridge the riviere took us onwards to the reef spattered north coast and a clear route to Antigua.
We drop the hook for brekky and a short snooze in the middle of the reefs. Les has a swim but finds it barren below.
A fine and steady offwind day's sail takes us 30 odd miles to Antiguas S coast and then around the coast to Jolly Harbour. Being too late to enter harbour we drop the pick amongst the Pellingtons and Frigates and Tropics. Lovely starlit evening on a milky blue sea. Sleep well after a long day. 
Sun 15th we make our majestic entrance to Jolly Harbour marina and its shoreline of villas and private docks.

7-12 April N Dominica, The Saintes, and Guadaloupe.

Sat 7 April
At a buoy off Portsmouth Town in Prince Rupert Bay. N Dominica.

Sun 8 Apr - Easter Sunday
Busy day. Long rain forest walk to Indian River source springs. Huge bannana and mango trees. Geckos and land crabs aplenty. Not many birds.
Long minibus trip to see E side of Island and the Caribe Indian reserve. Terrific flowers. Lush valleys. Lots of fruit trees. Huge cliffs. Impressive bays. Caribe people very sweet, now that they don't eat tourists any more. They came from Orinoco delta about 200BC but have outstayed their visas and now cant work. Anyway they can't find their canoes. They make lovely hats ansd mats, and have some cats.
Indian River boat trip. Oars only. Mangroves and voodoo. Local boatman 'Friday' took us. Lovely chap, very characterful and informative but I suspect he enjoyed a lot of wacky baccy in his day. We got a cold beer in a sort of ramshackle muddy treehouse thingy at the head of the river.
PM we try to go the Sunday night beach BBQ, but it is heavily oversubscribed by euro tourists from charter boats and all is in chaos. Instead have nice fishy dishy at ' Big Papas' local beachside eating shack.

Mon 9 Apr.
Dominica to Les Saintes archepelago.

Tues 10 Apr.
at Grande Bourg, Les Saintes.

Weds 11 Apr
Bourg harbour Les Saintes to Point A Pitre harbour (PaP) marina in S. Guadaloupe.

Thurs 12 Apr.
PaP marina to outer harbour anchorage. Preps for pasage up the Salee river between the 2 halves of Guadaloupe.

3-6 April: Plodding along Northwards up the Islands

 

Tues 3 Apr

Depart St Pierre Martinique for Dominica.

Up early for sea preps. Papaya for brekky and hoist dinghy aboard. Got George on SSB for Caribbean weather forecast. Very light winds. Decide to change No2 Genoa to No1. Get away early and are soon off N Cape of Martinique in the wind acceleration zone. Very blowy with big seas and white horses. 1 Reef in main and 5 rolls in Genoa. Tramping along in a 18kt tradewind breeze. Les enjoying himself with constantly sail-tweaking. MB has Montezuma’s Punny Roo so has to take bum stopper pills.

MB takes sextant noonsights. Lovely sparkling afternoon sail. Fishing but no fish. Sadly wind falls light by the SE corner of the island so have to motor the last few miles. 1630 pick up buoy S of Rosseau town and await for directions from shore.  1700 buoy starts to move so we let go and move to one slightly further along the bay. We meet cheerful ‘Pancho’ and give him 10ecd and a bottle of beer. I’m not sure why, as we’d done all our own mooring without his help. Later we pay a grim looking monosyllabic chap from Dominica Marine Services 10USD for mooring.

Great nosh of MB’s spicy chicken and beans before launching and dinghying ashore to the Garroway hotel in the town (The Garroways are family friends of Les and his ex-wife). Some beers at the hotel with the family before being brought back to the landing stage by 4X4.

Weds 4 Apr Dominica

Full day exploring the capital town of Rosseau ashore. Mixed architecture of creole and georgian colonial. Streets of  overhanging fretwork balconies, crumbling stone basements,  and little coloured wooden sheds and cottages. Meet at the Garroway hotel for a massive lunch of pork, ham, and chicken in pumpkin soup. More than you can eat. Beer as well. Have to do  long walk around the botantical gardens to recover. Return hot and sweaty to the hotel to use the hotel showers. Great. Very rolly night back on board but under a beautiful covering of stars.

Thurs 5 Apr Dominica: A busy day of treks, mountains, and waterfalls in the interior using, after much bargaining,  Felix and his Faithful taxis. Felix is a youthful entrepeneur full of optimism.  We dip ourselves in waterfall pools and swim a windy cave gorge to an internal waterfall. Too many fat American and Russian tourists at some of the sites. Sadly not much wildlife, but plenty of greenery and colour. Good day exploring town and shopping. Pleasant early evening beers and farewells with the Garroways at their hotel balcony.  Good meal back aboard courtesy of Les. Very rolly evening in a beautiful calm sea under the stars.

 Fri 6 Apr Rosseau Dominica to Portsmouth, north Dominica.

Ashore early for water by jerry can portage along the ramshackle pier. Away under main and genoa under hot and fluky fickle winds. Brief lunch stop off ruined Castaway Hotel halfway along coast. Wind beginning to pick up. Les goes for lunchtime snorkle. Not much to be found. Good sparkling breezy afternoon sail. Wind picks up in acceleration zone at top of island at entry to Prince Rupert Bay. 1600 MB’s hat flies off. Another MOB sinking hat recovery exercise, beautifully exercised by Les.

Pick up buoy 1700 and pay ‘Jeffery’ from ‘SeaBird’ $78 for 3 nights mooring. Stay on board for very rolly night.

1-2 Apr: Galloping slowly up the Martinique Coast

Sun 1 Apr

Up AM early. Intention to visit Fort de France town docks by bateau for fuel, and then depart for the old town of St Pierre further up the coast. Abort the fuel idea as too difficult, but we have a pleasant sail northwards past pleasant green and cliffy landscapes. Gusty.  By early afternoon, we drop the pick off the pier at old St Pierre. The bay is dominated by Mt Pelee which destroyed the town in 1902. 30000 died in a pyroclastic flow. Pompeii of the West Indies. Town reconstructed from the ruins but now a bit tatty in places. Nice pier and nice sunset. Anchorage very rolly. Went ashore and tried to walk up to statue of virgin Mary on cliffs but got tired and fell down and yawned instead. MB shat on by noisy bird.  Town very full of cars driving round in circles so difficult to walk without falling into the monsoon ditches.  Exhaust-less stripped down yoof driven scooters rend the night air.  A few bitches (canine) wander around. Back on board, MB produces hot curry followed by too many nightcaps and too much philosphy.

Monday 2nd April. More exploring ashore. Town nicer than I first thought and some of the ruins are quite spectacular, as is the view of Mt Pelee. One of the only survivors of the superheated pyroclasstic flow, out of the 30,000 population, was a bloke in his little stone prison cell. Saw the cell and stood inside it. Very haunting. Weather strange most of today with rare and quite extreme ONSHORE westerly gusts and a big rolly swell. Anchor is pulled hither and thither over the bottom. Suspect this is all heat generated so decided to stay aboard for mid part of day until things settle. Watched a big new Canadian yacht trying to anchor. 5 attempts. Skipper (Aft) screaming at Wife (?) on bow. They had a long domestic argument in cockpit afterwards. Painful to watch.

Despite the strange weather (which does eventually settle down), we still manage to get water from ashore and do shopping. Les does his annual dhobeying session. One of the ladies in the open air fruit and veg market was very kind and gave us free stuff to taste and to take. Especially banannas.

Another couple of beers ashore PM with the beachside bitches at our feet. Pleasant evening and golden sunset. Beautiful stars. Rolly night at anchor. Banging doors and crashing crockery and that sort of thing.

Tomorrow we finally leave French Martinique, the last of the Windward Is, and head north to Domenica, a rather wilder and less touristy place than most of the other big islands.

tootle pip old things

30-31 March: The Martinique sessions

Friday 30 March and we’re away early on a fast sail with no2 gen and main for the Bay of Fort de France, the capital. 1210 pick up (someone else’s) buoy off Anse Mitan and ashore to tatty litle marina and hurricane-ruined hotel with jerry Can for water. Pm: slip bouy for nice sail across bay and over tricky shallow shoals to anchor amongst closely packed bateaux off the eponymous Fort. One always feels the scowls, loathing, anxiety, and hate emanating from the assembled cockpits as one eases through the throng looking for a hole to drop the pick in. As a latecomer, one is ALWAYS in the wrong, and for as long as you are there, one is certain to have a frozen cockpit stare drilling through the back of ones neck.

Got chummy with 2 boats: John and Rose, long-term liveaboards on Jayess a Rival 34 from Portsmouth, and a very young and brave couple (22) David and Chloe living on a 27ft Twister (Twisting shadow).

Fort de France waterfront is noisy. Very noisy. All night. Les doesnt sleep and develops shingles. Girls scream ashore. MB prowls around with a relapse of sinusitus. The ferries make the boat rock like one of those fairground rocking things.

Sat 31 March.

Creaky start. Breakfast is grumpy. We go ashore to find Fred Olsen’s merry team of trippers and blotchy fat tourists in baseball hats and wife-beater t-shirts are out in force. An International Petanque tournament is in full play on the promenade. Oh what excitement and fun. Hot and sweaty in town, so back aboard for a doze and jobs. What can tomorrow bring us?

28 - 30 March Final departure from Rodders Bay

28 - 30 March 2012

Final departure from old friend Rodders Bay early am on 28th March. MB with lump in throat at leaving familiar territory and friends. Heading North and motorsailing into a NE’ly chop. 1030 and 2 humpbacks are sighted rolling and cavorting off to starboard just off the tip of St Lucia. My first real big cetacian sighting.

We zigzag our way northwards to Martinique in a blur of MB’s indecision. This way or that?  Nothing new there. Anyway we finally bear off for a run down the white water tide rip between the coast and (HMS) Diamond Rock, the stone frigate that so annoyed the French back in Georgian times.

Me make for the tiny bays on the lee (Caribbean side) of the island, and drop our hook in 6 metres off the beach at Grande Anse D’Arlet, a pretty spot if ever I saw one, although rather prone to katabatic williwaws from the hills.

Ashore by dinghy for Moules a la creme avec frites. Lovely little typical carib beach setup. Nice sunset, turtles in the bay,  and all that sort of thing.

We stay at anchor all Thurs 29th for a spot of bottom scrubbing and stuff like that. The sort of thing that old blokes get up to when left alone. Les went down on my bottom with a long handled scrubbing brush and a scourer and removed quite a lot of nasty cling-ons. Couldn’t have done it myself. Later I dressed in rubber and lead weights and aided by a giant blow up buouy thingy (which Les had to do a blow job on) and a long tube and mouthpiece I too got to work on my bottom, but more particularly my shaft which had barnacles stuck on it.

Great walk pm to the next bay and some beers with some passing french persons. Buy and install new gaz bottle and eat last of the delicious st lucia steaks. Bed with irish whiskEy.