Sudden trip to Antigua

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Bequia to Antigua

Sitting in Bequia trying to make sense of the weather. Chris Parker on the single side band, his voice scratchily coming over the ocean from Tortola, says there is a huge low in the north of the Caribbean which will cause 85mph wind in that area. The result of this is that there will be a ‘swell event’. In the Caribbean this means some huge waves and up to 13’ at 10 second intervals. He was not that clear about when it would arrive. So we decided to head up north as quickly as possible. We went to St Vincent, and then on to Rodney Bay in ST Lucia. It was a very unpleasant trip to windward, wind gusting, rain storms, damp making the journey twice as miserable. Poor Bruce, for his last day. We got to Rodney bay eventually. Rodney Bay is a big wide bay, with a few different places to anchor. You can anchor next to Pigeon Island, a strange triangular hump with a fort on top, there is a national park ashore and a very typical colonial house, with museum, and shop. There is a small ferry runs there from the marina. When we first came to Rodney Bay you could anchor anywhere in the lagoon behind the bay, but now it has been filled with ,pontoons, aiming at the super yacht market. The actual marina is slightly soulless, and we are not keen to go in there. First attempt at anchoring did not hold, so over somewhere else, this time it was fine. We had caught a tuna on the way and Alan gave some to the other yachts. The one in front were friends of neil and josie, had seen Weymouth on our stern, so of course knew we would know them. The boat alongside us had just come from Martinique and told us that they were still on strike. We had heard this from the safety and security net, but they said there was no fuel, a man was attacked by the dinghy dock for his fuel. There are no shops open, no water, nothing. So it seems we must be self sufficient. We went to try and buy fuel and fill the boat with water, but there were dozens of boats waiting, loads of cans. I suppose a lot had come over from Martinique, to get cans of fuel to run their cars etc. We decided we did not have time for that. We took Bruce and his bag ashore and then we all went to the supermarket, unfortunately we had to leave Bruce, and he had 5 hours to wait to go to the airport. We said goodbye at the shops and left him to his own devices. It was boiling as well, felt sorry he had to end his holiday like that.
We sailed off for Martinique, it was calm. A good sail. We went on to st pierre, we were not even going to get off the boat when the boat next door told us the customs were going to be there at 6. It was quarter to, so a quick launch of the dinghy dodging the rain showers, and onto the broken down jetty, climbing along the broken edges, I hate heights, and I hated that. I had my baby laptop on my back and we rushed up to the internet cafe. The cafe had a computer, where you filled in your form, and then the lady in the cafe stamped it. That was easy, and after a drink we also got our emails etc. The cafe is so very french, you could be sitting in Paris. A couple of the cafes were open, it all looked very normal, there were piles of rubbish laying about. Apparently the French government is sending in special task forces. It was very wet and drippy so we did not hang around but went back tot he boat for dinner.
We marinated small chunks of the tuna in soy sauce, orange and ginger and then mixed it with mayyonaise, tomato and onion, piled it into the biggest avocado I have seen. It was really lush. Watched an episode of house, and went to bed.
So calm in the night, not a breath of wind, now that is so weird here. Alan woke up and all the boats were laying at different angles, as we had 50 metres of chain out we wondered if we would hit the other boats, but no it was fine. We got up at 5 am to leave. This was not difficult as the church bells started at 5 am on and on. We are now sailing towards Dominica, but bearing in mind the weather may not stop there.

Lobsters

Alan has seen so many undersized lobsters, but hardly any big ones, he thinks they may go into the deeper water, we had a conversation with Ron in wallibilu about it, but I do get the feeling that often they say what you want to hear. It was good to catch the tuna though. Our fishing has been particularly unsuccessful this trip.

Passing Dominica the weather was calm, we had our breakfast in the lee, and decided that in view of the weather forecast it would be a good idea to carry on to Antigua. I was disappointed not to go back to Dominica, but that’s the way it goes when you are sailing, and it just tempted us, it is a very beautiful island from the sea, green pastures,mountains, blue sea. We left it behind and the wind was gusting quite strongly, by about 4 pm we were passing the Saintes, the wind and sea quite rough, but still sailing to windward. In the lee of Guadaloupe for about 4 hours, Alan had a sleep and we had our dinner. Then the darkness fell with the most amazing cloud formations, we stayed well offshore because of all the pot buoys and nets.
As we travelled up the island the night got darker and darker. There were no lights of other yachts, although I saw a ship in the distance, probably a cruise ship. There was no moon and the swell began to increase, it seemed to take forever to clear Guadloupe and the reefs.

From the log: 8.20pm Clearing Guadaloupe pos 16.25.244N 61.30.013 W swell picking up, rough, wind 35 to 40 deg off bow. Wind gusting to 30 knots in the storms.

It went on like that for hours, waves breaking over the bow to fall in the back of the cockpit, every time we looked out to check for lights a wave hit us in the face. It was miserable, every bone hurts hanging on. About 12 miles from Antigua we began to be able to identify some lights, the loom of the island ahead, and Guadaloupe a lightness in the distance. No yachts, no ships, nothing out there. The sea was not too bad but our angle to windward just meant it felt rough. Then the engine began faltering, whirring and whining.
‘Oh my god we’re running out of fuel!’
‘Do not panic , Eleanor, we are not, it’s crap in the fuel disturbed by the rough weather’ Alan was down there fiddling in the engine, gulped down a pill, then slowly the engine seemed to clear itself. The boat tossing up and down and rolling around. We decided to motor the last 8 miles against the wind, and pulled in the foresail, it was still flapping and because of the wind was impossible to pull in the last little bit. Still nothing we could do in those conditions. We had both chart plotters on and were slowly approaching Falmouth Harbour, it was still rough right up to the entrance. We did not know if it would be lit or not, and so we were very relieved to see a lit channel. We edged in very aware of the reef which we had snorkelled so many times at the entrance. Gently getting into calm water, we saw a ayacht anchored., we dropped our anchor beside it. The rain was horizontal and the wind howled. We pulled all the cushions and books etc into the cockpit, left the anchor light and the cockpit light on in case we were too close to the channel and went to bed. It was 5 am. I lay down in bed and thought: ‘what is this rough stuff on my face?’ After 10 minutes when I had washed all the caked off salt off my face I lay down to Alans’ snoring. Goodnight.

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