Queens, fishermen and the Antigua Classic Regatta 2012

Now we are not talking about the mildly effeminate men that mince around with more facial products than Sally or salty seadogs that earn a living from the sea. I am talking about the oddly named topsails sails on a 143ft gaff rigged schooner that I had the pleasure of racing on in the Antigua Classic Regatta earlier this month.

Although not exactly an oldy in age terms (she was built in 1995) she is an old design with the masts and booms made of wood in the traditional way. As too were the blocks and I could have sworn one or two sheets were hemp. There was enough varnish work to keep the crew busy for most of the season without her even leaving the dock.

The Zuca et a Moana is the largest sailing yacht that I have ever sailed on. There was no roller furlers or push button winches. Everything was manual.

Before each tack, either the Queen or Fisherman had to be lowered and then as we tacked the opposite number would be raised...manually.

Racing as many of you will know, is all about long windward legs at the start and finish and plenty of tacking in between. Raising sails, unlike on Orion where I can pop the main up singlehanded, involves 8 to 10 people. Winches are not used for raising these bad boys. It involves one or two people “sweating” (pulling the halyard) while someone else keeps a hold of the line by tailing it. Friction is applied by running the halyard around a belaying pin (those wood pins that look like skinny ten pins that you see ropes attached to on the side of old wood sailing ships in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean etc). Generally two people work in tandem to sweat the sail up and it involves pulling the halyard down with all your body weight and then moving it towards the belaying pin so that the tailer can take up the slack.

Do this a good few times and the very next day you feel like you have been roughed up by Mike Tyson except you will still have your ears.

Half way though a tack one of the belaying pins used to secure the Queens aft halyard snapped with an almighty bang. The pin itself flicked all the way across the deck and overboard. We were hurtling along at 13 knots and had a large piece of canvas flogging in the wind 100 foot above us. A couple of quick orders from the first mate and we were lowering the remaining halyard and using the sheets to man handle the sail back on deck before it became a sizeable sea anchor.

With a 143ft of boat of which over 100ft was waterline length, needless to say she made some good speed. The consistent trade winds did not disappoint and 15 knots of breeze was more than sufficient to power her along at 13knots. The regatta staggers the start times as it would be a bit hairy for little sub 40ft yachts to be dicing a start line with 150ft behemoths. Needless to say our class was one of the last to start (up to 1 hour after the first fleet sets off).

It is then fantastic to watch us reel in the fleet as we top out hull speed and in all her magnificence sail under all the smaller yachts. Being about 10feet from the water, it is also very dry on board and low heel due to her weight / size makes it easy to power through the swell while the rest of the significantly smaller yachts “hobby horse” over each wave.

Unfortunately I only raced for 2 of the 4 days on Zuca et a Moana. On day two they had me trimming the foresail (the gaff sail up forward rather than the main which is the larger and nearest the stern). So after a day of cranking sails up and down, I now spent my time grinding on an enormous winch the diameter of an oil drum. I dreaded the call for a gybe, which would be given almost half a mile from the mark we were rounding. It meant that I had to start sheeting in the foresail. Even though the winches had 3 gear ratio's, it was still slow work. Especially if we were hard on the wind pre gybe. Rounding the mark 2 or 3 crew would manually haul in as much sheet as possible while I tailed it all and then eased it out once we had rounded.

There was too much wind to fly the spinnaker, but she did have one! And THAT would have been something to see / do. Ah well there is always next year :)

Over the two days I got to meet the crew and skipper, all of whom were from western Europe and fairly new to the boat except the skipper. The skipper really knew his boat. This was a 143ft, 150ton steel vessel with non of the mod cons that modern yachts have in the form of bow and stern thrusters etc. Yet he magnificently steered her in and out of a crowded marina with a good side wind and onto the dock with the skill and precision of a Hartley Street surgeon. Quite a feat to watch.

The regatta was full of these beautiful yachts. There was a few hundred tons of varnish used on all the boats and they all gleamed. Racing was not as serious as I thought it would be with most people on the yachts armed with cameras snapping away at the fleet as they whizzed past each other.

By far the most impressive are the big gaff rigged yachts with their full array of sails up. The sheer size and scale is something to behold.

Life is all about experiences. This for me was a one of those experiences. I have now set my sights on crewing on a square rigger!

Second week in Antigua

We really got into the book swap concept here. As we have a kindle we are rather the anti social readers that have great books but noone else can have the opportunity to read them too. With internet access getting less frequent its becoming harder to download new books so we collected all the books onboard from the previous owner that we didn't want and took them ashore to Jane's Yacht Services. This place has a great book swap where the owners just leave you alone in the room for as long as you wish to find the right book. We came away with 9 new books to read and swap with other yachties.

I spent another day attacking the rust on the stainless steel with phospheric acid. For days afterwards my hands looked like they had a bad dose of eczema but our guardrails and dorade vents were sparkling! Speaking of Dorade Vents. There was a boat in the Antigua Classic Regaate called Dorade for which (legend has it) Dorade vents are so named as they were first used / designed for this vessel. We rewarded ourselves with a few drinks in happy hour (the rum punch is only EC$5 / £1.25 a glass). In typical Saffa style Dylan managed to speak to a guy who happened to have a bag of biltong in his bag (Dylan's correction – it was Jerky as the guy was a Yank) like a truffle hound he can always seem to sniff this out! Wanting to return the favour we ordered the guy a scotch egg but he left before it was served – result! We gobbled down the Britishy food reminiscent of the times Dylan would bring one back for me when he walked past a Tescos on the way home.

For the first 2 races of Classic Regatta Dylan didn't participate as he was scared off by the torrential rain that seemed to come down in the morning only to clear just in time for the racing later but he did eventually get on a boat and he blogs about it so I shan't go on. I had a great time in his absence doing girly things. I persuaded my friend off Kadoona to cut my hair and even layer it around my face. Glass of wine in hand she accepted the challenge and did an excellent job. Keen to get some good photos of the racing and no desire to be on one of the boats, we set off in the dinghy to the finish line. A nerve racking start as I had never driven the dinghy without Dylan in it before and had visions of us getting in the way of these beasts as they attempted to cross the line, to add to the anxiety the swells were big and waves were crashing into us. I had studied the course before we left but on arriving it was clear they were doing a different one altogether (turned out some classes were given an alternate one). This made for an interesting afternoon where we were tossed around, second guessing which way the boats would come from and taking loads of photos most of which came out blurry as we couldn't hold the camera still. We managed to see both of the boats Ian and Dylan were racing on and it was quite something being dwarfed by these majestic beasts as they came speeding by.

Of all the freebies we consumed in regatta week, Sail Maine party was by far the best. We were given free t shirts which immediately boosted Dylan's wardrobe by 33.33%. Free rum punch was doing the rounds and more food that you could eat which was an anomaly as normally the freebies dry up after 30 mins. Not only was there copious amount of food, it was also GREAT food. We slurped on lobster bisque and munched our way through the biggest kingfish I have ever seen served on a bread roll with a large leaf acting as a plate. Yum. I had a tired grizzly bear next to me though that had had too much day trimming the foresail so we headed up early and I listened to the rest of the great music whilst Dylan snored away happily.

After the racing festivities were over we wanted to head to Green Island on the eastern side of the island prior to heading to Barbuda. I was keen to get some fresh fruit and veg to keep us going so I left Dylan in Mad Mongoose using the free internet whilst I headed to a guy called Aubrey who I had been told sold fruit until 1pm in English Harbour. I wasn't disappointed, he has reasonable prices and good quality produce which is more than can be said for the rest of the shops in the area. I even found baby pineapples that we had never tried before so I eagerly snapped up a bag keen to add to our list of new food. They were great, sweeter than the normal pineapple we ate them like corn on the cob, their juice dripping down our chins and onto the cockpit floor. Thats the great thing about eating outside, a bucket of sea water washes away all of the dirt. Free and easy!

After a windward bumpy slog we arrived in Nonsuch Bay and took a free mooring ball between Green Island and Bird Island. What a pleasure not to bed the anchor, however Dylan did still dive on it to check it was in good shape. It was not in the Doyle Guide but was mentioned on the charts which means they are a recent addition to the area (within the last 12 /18 months). From where we were located looking out to sea, there was nothing between us and Africa, waves rolling unbroken until they hit a different continent. Quite impressive when you think about it, our view out to the Atlantic Ocean totally unspoilt.

Snorkelling time, we swam to Bird Island but it wasn't great viewing apart from the huge conch beds. We took a couple of them and made a small conch farm at the bottom of our mooring chain, tying them together with twine so they wouldn't get away (unless they were particularly adept at the three legged race). The intention was to bring them with us to Barbuda where we would set about making conch curry but we decided against it as travelling conch would have to be kept in a bucket of salt water which would slosh around everywhere under sail. Reluctantly Dylan untied our catch and set them free on nice patches of sand.

Another snorkelling spot mentioned in the cruising guide was the reef in front of our little mooring ball, quite a swim away. Feeling energetic we battled against the current and reached the spot where we came across great corals. Huge brain coral, fantastic visibility but little in the way of fish. Shame we don't have an underwater camera as these corals were huge, dwarfing us as we dived to the bottom to check for any lobbies that could end up in our pot that evening. We came away empty handed.

Kadoona arrived with guests the evening before we were leaving. As they are off to Bermuda and then crossing the Atlantic to Ireland and we are off North – we said our final farewells. Our friends since Carriacou, Grenada and the only couple we have met so far at a similar age, they will be deeply missed!

5:20am Dylan prods me awake and drags me out of bed to start our passage to Barbuda. An island that few yachties go to (favouring instead to head straight to St Martin) we are looking forward to what it has to offer.

First week in Antigua

We arrived in Antigua days before the Classic Regatta was about to start so this may provide the reasoning behind what I'm about to say...Antigua for me is like Marbella. A pretty place full of pasty well to do Brits intent in getting absolutely wasted all day every day. However if you get away from the popular places, there are some real treats to see and experience. Ill tell you about some of the highlights.

Our port of entry was Jolly Harbour, the clearance charges are a lot less here as you don't need to pay environmental fees. We had heard you are meant to motor into the marina and dock alongside the customs office but with the wind strong and more boats coming in behind us we opted to drop the anchor and dinghy in. The usual bureaucratic hurdles ensued. Customs, immigration and port authority are next to each other and we proceeded to fill in countless pieces of paper all with the same information for multiple people. Well I say we....Dylan found something particularly interesting to look at by the berths so left it to me to do all the admin. Took us about 30 mins which OK isn't that long but we just wanted to jump behind the desk and set about improving their processes to make them more efficient. We had filled out eseaclear online which is the new 'quick' way of checking in to multiple countries in the Eastern Caribbean, unfortunately, the ladies were not up to speed with this so we needn't have bothered. We have heard since that the process is in its early stages and should be rolled out properly in the next couple months – that will provide a vast improvement to the customs experience!

Jolly Harbour is surrounded by gorgeous blue water but looks can be deceiving. We were anchored in 12ft water yet couldn't see the anchor chain, the fine bottom sand was churned up meaning visibility was almost 0. With that said though, the waters around Antigua are a beautiful turquoise colour. When dinghying into the bay we marvelled at the amount of houses lining the water, each with their own berth. Despite the facilities here the marina and surrounding property were almost empty. We were told that this is most unusual at this time of year, especially with it being so close to the regattas. Suits us fine though, the less people around the better!

Checking out the facilities ashore I was delighted to find FREE FRESH water showers (although they were probably for those on the Marina not very yachty and his dog). One of my first tasks was to take a bag full of all my toiletries that I haven't used in months and spend a looong time in the showers using each one. Heaven. Squeaky clean I headed off to the supermarket with great expectations as this was flagged as a good place to provision, I wasn't disappointed. Compared to all of the other food shops we had been to so far, this was outstanding. A huge supermarket stocked with everything you can think of. Sure in the UK thats what you expect when walking into a Tesco's but in the Caribbean we always walk away with only half (if we are lucky) of our shopping list. Gourmet sections aside, the produce was reasonably priced and we came away content – although that could be to do with the fried chicken we treated ourselves to at the deli counter...

After a day in Jolly Harbour we wanted to head over to Five Islands Harbour for some seclusion prior to getting to Falmouth Harbour in time for the Classic Regatta. Five Island Harbour is only around the corner from Jolly and is a huge bay that had only one other yacht in it. Wanting to use the free wifi from a posh hotel ashore, we anchored near the beach. That evening, we sat on the foredeck on a beautiful moonlit night with a gentle breeze swaying the boat to and fro to the sounds of a live steel drum band playing at the hotel. Drinks in hand we admired our almost secluded surroundings. Life is pretty darn good!

Forecasting 25 knots on the Monday before the regatta we chose to sail anyway so we could get a good spot to anchor in prior to the event as we expected Falmouth to be busy. A gusty 15 mile sail to Falmouth dodging the odd reef and shallows along the way kept us on our toes. We did make excellent time though and the sun was high in the sky when we entered the bay, wide eyed at the tons of mega yachts we were going to call our neighbours. We were the last of our group of friends to get to Falmouth Harbour so we spent the rest of the day catching up on their adventures since Dominica where we had left them.

Exploring ashore we mingled with the crews of the mega yachts and Dylan had his ear to the ground, hoping he would get the opportunity to race on one. Walking around the marina we were able to get up close and personal with these 140ft+ beasts. I'm not envious of the crew members that have to polish the stainless steel! Dylan spent forever looking at each of the boats and I entertained myself by eaves dropping people's conversation. Always fascinated with how the 'other half' live, it was great fun hearing the trials and tribulations of middle aged rich men and their toys. Time for domestic duties and we went on a mission to find a laundrette as I wasn't feeling like hand washing and then airing our clothes in such a busy anchorage. The laundrette in the bay charged US$40 for a large load...as if!! We quickly exited that establishment (which was little more than a lean to shack with a couple of washing machines) and headed for English Harbour.

English Harbour was completed in 1745 and looks much the same today. Fully restored, this is the yachting hub of Antigua and managed by Nelson's Dockyard National Park. Old sail houses and sail loft pillars still stand giving it a look very similar to Greenwich, London. It has the atmosphere of a small village complete with Dockyard Bakery and a few little restaurants overlooking the marina and the mega yachts. The day I wore a maxi dress and flip flops was the day I was presented with a trail leading up to Fort Berkely. Never one to turn down an opportunity, we walked it anyway and I just hitched my dress up to my knees, navigating in my gripless flip flops rather unladylike up the hill. Only a short walk away we reached the Fort and were rewarded with a spectacular view of English Harbour and out to sea. Noting this would be a great place to watch the Regatta we started our descent on the look out for another laundry. We eventually found one around the back of the dockyard in a small shed. This place is run by Baby and Elizabeth and we were greeted with 2 mangoes complete with napkin for our custom. At US$12 /load it was totally worth the walk.

The day the regatta started, Dylan hadn't succeeded in finding a boat. I keep a diary every day and an exert from this sums it up nicely:

• Ate refried chickpea curry leftovers for breakfast
• Read our new books – Dylan now seems to take after me and refuse to put a book down until it is read all the way through. Makes for a most delayed getaway when we want to leave the boat!
• Had my weekly shower which is always something to look forward to. Went for a snorkel first to check just how shallow the reef is behind us. Put it this way, I can stand up and the water comes to about my chin...don't want to be dragging onto that! Then I went to see Laani on Kadoona and swam past La Luna who hailed me over for a chin wag.
• After a lazy day and 1 ½ hours of our life wasted watching 'Dinner with Schmucks' – just don't watch it...ever, we got our arses into gear and went ashore
• Aim was to get bread and respond to emails (yawn). Necessities done we took advantage of happy hour again and got some supplies so we could go back to the boat and make pierogies. They now seem to be Dylan's top request.
• On getting back to the boat we bumped into Kadoona and Libertine who were going ashore to check out the events at the yacht club. Not wanting to miss out we had a quick dinner of eggs, beans and bread (Dylan was denied his pierogies) and we went back ashore.
• The dinghy dock was rammed, 3 dinghies deep in the yacht club area so we opted for our usual spot, a short walk away
• We arrived just as the concourse d'elegance prize giving was starting. Bumped into Miss Molly and sampled the free breaded chicken satays that were doing the rounds.
• Nothing much happening apart from toffs comparing crew t shirts so we made a hasty departure and went to find Ian etc in case they had any luck finding a boat that needed crew so Dylan could race too
• Found them in Mad Mongoose and they hadn't had any luck. Had a quick chat, didn't stop for a drink and made our way back to boat for some more reading. Yep we are that rock n roll.

And thats how we are more than capable to while away a day!

Montserrat - The volcano!

Montserrat loomed in the distance. Not more than 30 miles away from Deshaies in Guadeloupe, was this ticking time bomb of a volcano that has erupted with major consequences quite a few times in our lifetime and due another big blow. Not more than 2 weeks ago did the infamous volcano belch a little ash.

With most of the island still off limits to both residents and visitors, only a fraction of the pre-1995 (eruption) residents remain on the island (about 4500). Plymouth, the old capital was wiped out by a sprinkle of ash that is (in parts) 50 ft deep. The stoical Montserratians built a new capital, complete with court house, fire station, police, cultural centre etc in Little Bay (on the north of the island) far from the exclusion zone and upwind might I add.

As Montserrat came into view, you could clearly see the pyroclastic flows down from the cloud capped peak of the volcano. It is quite a spectacular view from the sea as we headed up the windward side (east coast). We arrived in Little Bay in the mid afternoon. Wind funnels through the island and what was 15knots on the windward side becomes 25 knots on the leeward side. Go figure!

Little Bay, although quite unprotected from swells, was a nice enough well...little bay. There was only one other yacht in the anchorage and we felt a little bad anchoring relatively near him (probably about 100m away). In what seemed like an attempt to “encourage” us to anchor much further away, the skipper of this 40ft hard chined steel boat stood in his cockpit stark bollock naked. Funny looking old fellow with a beard who we affectionately nick named Grandpa Willy.

We were overjoyed to be one of only 2 boats in the bay. We quickly got our dinghy down from the foredeck and went ashore to clear in. One of the quite novel things in Montserrat is that there is some fierce Irish heritage with St Patricks Day actually celebrated for an entire week. They stamp your passport with an Irish Shamrock! The coolest stamp we have in our passports to date!

A local tour guide (also mentioned in the Doyle Guide) offered to take us on a 4 hour tour of the island. The only problem was this would have been a $140 USD trip. A little rich for our blood, so we decided hire a car instead and arranged for it to be delivered to us at 9am the next day. Unfortunately you have to have a police license to drive in Montserrat so had to take a tour to the local office ($20 USD)

The wind was still strong that evening and to my horror, 3 yachts pulled into Little Bay. A lovely French yacht moored in front of us but off to starboard so out of our way. A catamaran moored in front of us but to port so no threat. Another cat moored behind us. With our anchor secure and no way able to clang into us, we were comfortable and we settled in for the night.

Around midnight I did my usual 'meercat' routine to check the anchorage only to see the cat that moored in front of us (to port) no longer in front, but well behind. Tsk tsk... They spent a good few minutes sorting themselves out, tried to re-anchor a few times but I guess gave up and headed out to sea on to their next destination. This seems to be common practise for yachts to use Montserrat as an over night stop as in the morning, both the other vessels upped and left. And then there were two...

We picked up the car from the same lady who had served us at the customs counter. Apparently Montserratians moonlight with multiple jobs. Suppose you would have to if there are only 4500 people for a whole island. It had rained the night before. Gage from Gage Car Rental swapped our cheap and cheerful car, for a 4 wheel drive jeep. And did not charge us extra! Turned out to be the best decision and would recommend that anyone hiring a car in Montserrat hire a jeep!

Our first stop was Rams which is a supermarket. Hard to find as none of the shops or attractions here seem to have road signs or even a sign above the door! Figured the building with baskets in the doorway must be it. Found a huge box of 'Munch' the peanut bar we loved back in Grenada so treated ourselves to a box of 36 of the bad boys!

We drove to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory which was quite tricky to find. In the building we watched a video on Montserrat then and now, along with footage of the destruction.

From there we drove to Garibaldi Hill (well we thought it was but turned out to be Cork Hill) which has a good lookout over Plymouth – the modern day 'Pompeii'. There was a policeman at a gate that had to give us written permission to enter 'Zone V' and warned us that the roads were all narrow and windy and it was very easy to get lost. We drove on into the exclusion zone and it was like a ghost town. House after house standing abandoned for almost 20 years. Plants had overgrown into the road making for very narrow lanes and we didn't see one person in the area for the hour or so that we were there.

We stopped in the road and checked out an abandoned house – it was if the occupants had just gone out to the shop. All their belongings were still there except for the obvious looting in some areas. The rooms were in serious decay with the roof missing in several parts and Dylan saw a big rat living in a wardrobe. Very very eerie with open suitcases still on the bed and clothing still hanging in the closets.

Garibaldi Hill was our next stop. You get a great view of the volcano from the other side of the island. To get here you need to pass over the pyroclastic flow which is just layers of ash in a valley. We stopped at a house that looked normal until you realised you were looking only at the second storey – the first level completely covered in ash. The roads here were barely passable but with it being a jeep (and a rental!) we continued on and were rewarded with a fantastic view. Nature is an awesome thing. We could not help but marvel at the power and extent of the destruction. Where there was once a thriving community with a rich heritage there is now a bunch of roofs floating in a sea of ash. But there is always some one who can make a purse from a sows ear. Sand mining is now a large industry. Trucks cart the ash to the dock where it is sent off to other countries to make cement and other mineral rich compounds.

We sat on the top of the hill and ate our lunch overlooking this incredible feat of nature. Quite some picnic spot. I will tell you that!

The next stop on our adventure was Runaway Ghaut (pronounced gut). This is a natural spring on the side of the road where if you drink from it you apparently come back to Montserrat again. There is a cute poem that goes with the stream... “if you drink the waters from this burn, to Montserrat you will return.” It was very cold, fresh water. The water here tastes amazing, the best I have ever tasted, so pure and clean.

Jack Boy Hill is the other side of the island where it offers views of the volcano from the windward side which we had seen from the sea. Nobody up there but us, well we had encountered very few people wherever we went which was great!! This place was jacked up for tourists though with a viewing platform, binoculars, picnic benches and toilets. No people probably because the roads put them off, the pot holes were awful and getting there was made easy with a jeep.

We bought some tamarind balls from a shop to try them. It is hard to describe the flavour – sour with many seeds, sweet from sugar as well as spicy from the tamarind. They were good and we will get them again.

After a hard day of driving and sight seeing, we decided to grab a bite to eat. JJ's restaurant had been recommended for good local food at local prices. With no menu in sight, the proprietor, a lady of few words, informed us it was a 20 min wait and we had a choice of curried chicken or stewed goat. We chose one of each and sat down to watch Judge Judy whilst we waited. Food was good, big portions and we paid the equivalent of £15 for 2 mains, 2 beers and a soft drink!

Great way to spend a day.  

The French Islands

Entering the group of islands located to the south of Guadeloupe (The Saints) we were amazed at how small the islands were. Rising steep out of the water we could easily navigate right next to the coast line looking out to the reddy brown cliffs occasionally dotted with the odd red roofed house. The islands are sparsely populated with only one town in the cluster, Terre de Haut. It is here where we chose to anchor for the first night so we could clear in at customs. After 5 mins of tapping our details into a computer found at the internet cafe, we had completed the process and for free. No surly officers to contend with, no queues and no stamps in the passport much to Dylan's relief as his Canadian passport is getting pretty crowded!

Overnighting in Terre de Haut where we were anchored among a load of moorings, we chose to move on to a quieter spot around the corner opposite Iles Cabrit. Finding a great location with no other yachts in close proximity we dropped the hook and proceeded to watch a French boat almost drag onto another boat with no occupants onboard. Action man at the ready, Dylan swam over to the boat to help them out as we observed it was just a bunch of teenagers clearly out on Daddy's yacht or charterers from Guadeloupe. No sooner had Dylan got there, the group had managed to pick up the other boats anchor and drag them too before getting embarrassed and motoring out of the bay. Luckily Dylan was there to check the other boats anchor else we could have ended up in a game of bumper cars!

Down to my last pair of knickers I realised I couldn't put off a hand wash any longer. Being spoilt so far with many islands having cheap laundry services, I was yet to do a load on the boat. Well that was about to change. Hauling a bucket of salt water from over the side I proceeded to soak the clothes in detergent and give them a good scrub. Unfortunately I am yet to get my hands on this elusive 'Joy' that everyone tells me foams in salt water so instead I made do with a Caribbean version that didn't sud. After washing the clothes multiple times in bucket after bucket of salt water I then treated them to a fresh water rinse in another bucket before I rung them out and hung them in the cockpit to dry. I thought I'd done a thorough job but some of the clothes still smell a little....stale. Clearly practice makes perfect when it comes to this task and Mum, I now realise how much effort all of my 'going out' dresses were to hand wash in the kitchen sink!!

That night was also a very exciting occasion as we had managed to find normal meat that had no bones in it – ground beef! All day we looked forward to making spaghetti and meatballs, so keen to get some meat down us after living involuntarily as vegetarians for a few weeks.

After 2 days in The Saints we headed to the mainland (Guadeloupe) and our chosen anchorage of Pigeon Island. This really is easy navigation in these waters, as soon as you point the boat in the direction you want to go, you can see the island and sometimes even the bay you are heading to! The sail was so flat that I decided to make stove top bread and so by the time we got to our destination, we had yummy fresh bread to feast on in the cockpit, surveying our new surroundings and neighbours. Thats the great thing about anchorages, every day your neighbours change making way for more people to watch, more anchoring to observe and new people to chat to.

When we were anchored at Pigeon Island, Dylan decided it was time for role reversal and so I went and dug in the anchor. Putting on my snorkelling gear I was eager to prove that girls are just as good as boys at doing this. I jumped in and swam against the current to find where I had dropped the anchor. Lo and behold, the anchor was just sat on his side doing absolutely nothing so I needed to dive down, pick it up and bury it in the sand. Taking 3 deep breaths to expand my lungs, I duck dived and kicked my fins, popping my ears as I descended 26ft to the bottom. By the time I was down there I already felt I was running out of breath so a quick adjustment of the anchor and I kicked to the surface, taking a deep breath before I descended again to finish the job. It is certainly easier than it looks and I have a way to go until I can hold my breath easily for 3 minutes (but don't tell Dylan that)!!

The snorkelling on Pigeon Island is renowned for being great so one day we took the dinghy and a packed lunch of home made bread and motored over there to check it out. Avoiding the pasty French frogs we saw loads of fish as well as different corals. A huge puffa fish and turtle were probably my highlight, I don't think I will ever get bored of seeing turtles swimming in the open ocean. When we were back at our boat we went for another swim and saw a huge turtle on the bottom complete with 3 remora fish. The remora fish were the biggest fish I have seen so far in the Caribbean never mind the turtle they were feeding off!

Continuing on the topic of wildlife, we were minding our own business watching a DVD in the saloon waiting for the rain to stop when we heard a british voice shouting very near our stern. Being the meerkats that we are, we popped our heads out and were told that an iguana was swimming right near our boat...I didn't even know they could swim? Good samaritans that we are (or at least try to be), we jumped into the dinghy with 2 buckets and motored over to Rambo the iguana who looked like he had a sore neck with a crick – floating at a very odd angle. Scared I was about to be eaten by a massive iguana, we carefully handled him into the 2 buckets and put a plastic chain case over his head. I then steered us to shore and Dylan jumped out to deposit Rambo in the trees whilst I kept the engine idle. As there were loads of locals in the water and a big swell, I leapt out of the dinghy to hold it still whilst waiting for

Dylan who looked like he was singing Rambo a lullaby and stroking it with a stick. Thats when I realised I had leapt out of the boat in a pair of netty knickers....not bikini bottoms. Fine for walking around the deck but certainly not fine for going in close proximity to strangers. Whilst clinging onto the dinghy with my back to shore, standing on a shelf with a steep drop off, I was helpless as the local men started to perv. One confident guy resembling Sloth from The Goonies started speaking to me in French and indicating he wanted to take a photo on his phone. I resolved that situation and he wanted to settle for a kiss on the cheek which I was also not accommodating, luckily at that point Dylan came back and I tried to get back on the dinghy in a ladylike manner trying to keep my dignity in tact whilst we motored off back to the boat. As we sped away from the beach, we looked back to see the local kids throwing small rocks at the dazed iguana....as Dylan would say, “Damn French!!”

We are currently anchored in Deshaies which is the most northern anchorage in Guadeloupe before we head off tomorrow to Montserrat. Having learnt all about this island in Geography throughout school I am really looking forward to visiting, fingers crossed the volcano erupts – just think of the photo opportunities!!

The One That Got Away

Letting out our fishing line from a manky wooden board we acquired in St Lucia, we watched the lure disappear 60m from our stern. A squidy lure with a nice 2 prong hook and a good length of trace wire. With a 24 mile passage ahead of us to The Saints we crossed our fingers hoping we would be dining on fish that evening. We were yet to catch a fish since we had started out from Grenada over 2 months ago but had seen other people catching them. We were starting to get a little despondent with our fishing abilities. But stoically, we put out the lure in the hope that something would take the bait.

We were sailing along happily in about 15 knots of breeze in a broad reach. Maintaining a consistent speed over 7 knots. Occasionally surfing waves that would see our speed leap to a pants wetting 9.4 knots (yes, Dylan still loves to race)! Not more than 4 miles from Iles des Saintes (off Guadeloupe) while Dylan was at the helm, he suddenly let out an almighty exclamation. It half scared me to death thinking the worst! We have a fish! WE GOT ONE! Quick! Do this, do that, grab this, take that.

All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity as we tried to slow the boat down by pointing her into the wind. I started to reel in the thing at the end of the line which I was not convinced was a fish as we had reeled in so many 'seaweeds' that it was starting to get a little boring.

Dylan was positive it was a fish so we reeled away whilst Dylan went down below to get the alcohol (not to celebrate with...just yet) to pour on its gills once we landed it to kill it with minimal bloodshed and thrashing in the cockpit. I soon felt the tugs on the line and it was a fish and a good one too!! Then I saw it better - away in the distance just for a fleeting second was a shimmer of colour. I reeled it in some more. It was as if we had caught a rainbow and it was desperately trying to get away lest we retrieve its pot of gold. Probably the prettiest fish that we had seen since we got to the Caribbean we were looking at a Mahi Mahi (Dorado or Dolphin Fish). So radiant, vivid and luminescent.

We were towing the dinghy (sans outboard or other gear) and desperately trying to ensure that the line did not tangle with the dinghy tow ropes (there are 2 tow ropes in case "someone" ties a shitty bowline).

I was trying to get it close to the stern, while Dylan hung over the transom flailing madly with a gaff.
With a flick of his tail this beautiful Dorado leapt out the water as if to say "not today peeps!" and was gone. Some how the fishing line had snapped. Maybe on the wind vane, maybe just exceeded the 60lbs load (it was not a 60lbs fish!) or maybe just plain bad luck.

We watched as the shimmer was lost into the gloomy depths and I comforted Dylan as he cursed and vented, vowing to get a rod and reel for "next time". By this point Dylan's excitable shouts could probably be heard from Brazil.

Ah, the one that got away...

That night we dined on lentil curry - don't remind Dylan!

Dotty about Dominica

I know each island we come to we end up saying 'this is the best so far' but I am going to say it again, Dominica is the best island we have been to so far in the Caribbean. Because:

1. cheap provisioning
2. friendly locals with no ulterior motive, treat you as one of their own
3. beautiful island for nature lovers
4. water is in abundance, taps for all to use on the road side
5. loads of things to do
6. not ruined by tourism...yet

Walking down the coastal road from where we left the dinghy in Roseau, Dominica (the capital) we headed for customs at the ferry terminal, just over a mile walk away. The road took us through a poor part of town where kids wore rags and old people stared at us through the window, flies surrounding them. Despite the poverty, these people looked so happy, waving at us and making a point of saying hi as we walked past. Unfortunately from previous experience when the locals make a point of saying hi in the back of your mind you are thinking...what are they going to sell us now, always thinking they have an ulterior motive. Not the Dominicans, without exception these people are happy, content with life and eager to welcome visitors to their land to show it off...no strings attached.

Trudging along the road we get a whiff of freshly baked bread, following our nose we enter a run down shack and see loads of different breads on display. Choosing 6 wholemeal buns we were pleasantly surprised to find it cost only EC$2, the equivalent of 50p!!

Moving quicker now in case customs closes at 4pm we route march to the ferry terminal and after 2 mins we have been cleared in AND out of the country as long as we leave after 2 weeks. If we wish to stay longer then we just need to re-visit customs and extend our stay, all for a meagre sum of EC$60 /£15 (unknown to us we had been charged overtime and it should have been EC$10 for 2 people). Our other expense in Roseau was a mooring ball as the anchorage had nowhere under 40ft to anchor and we didn't have enough chain to abide by our 5:1 ratio rule. The mooring ball is meant to be US$10 /night but as we were going on a tour with the boat boy that managed the moorings the next day, we got the second night for free.

The chore of customs out of the way we started to take in our surroundings and headed for the fruit market located at the end of the ferry dock. As we turned the corner we were greeted with table after table of of brightly coloured fruit and veg under equally bright awnings. Comparing the scene to the Saturday market in Grenada, this was even better, so much variety and so many vendors to choose from, all brimming with produce. We chose a huge bunch of spinach, turmeric, cloves, 2 papayas, bag of ginger, bag of chillis, hand of bananas, green beans and this haul amounted to £3.50 /EC$14!! What an absolute bargain and everything was so fresh and locally grown.

Returning to Orion via the coastal road we saw a local fisherman come in with his catch of fish, put the bucket down and blow the conch shell. This action signals the arrival of fish for sale and within seconds the locals emerged from their houses to take a look what was on offer. Only a mouthful each, we gave it a miss but what a brilliant scene to witness. Later in the week we had the opportunity to try blowing the conch and wow these locals make it look easy. Similar to a trumpet the knack is to wet your lips and blow making your lips vibrate against the hole in the shell. None of us managed to make a loud foghorn noise necessary to attract attention, the most we would have done is upset the resident crabs on the beach!

Day 2 in Dominica we opted to go on an island tour for US$35 each. This included going to Titou Gorge, Trafalgar Falls, a place for lunch (food and drink not included just the taxi) and Botanical Gardens and well worth doing.

Getting picked up from dinghy dock at 9am we picked up 4 other people – 2 canadians and 2 americans and long time cruisers, first stop Titou Gorge. A short walk to the gorge that can be done in flop flops and takes you on a forest trail, we arrive at a pool and quickly change into our swimming stuff. The water was frrrreezing but apparently it makes you ten years younger so I now resemble a 15 year old and Dylan has a full head of hair (I joke). Swimming 250 metres against the apparent current and steep sides of a gorge, we rounded the corner to find a waterfall. How refreshing to be the only people in this gorge surveying the gorgeous scene as the light stream throughs an opening high above us, the water is fresh as can be and visibility 100%. Tearing ourselves away from FRESH water, we dry off and head to Trafalgar Falls. Sure there is water, hot springs and waterfalls everywhere on this island with it having 365 rivers (one for every day they tell us) but this particular waterfall is special. After a moderate forest walk and scrambling over boulders you arrive at an impressive waterfall made even more so by the choice in water temperature. On one side of the narrow valley there are hot water pools like jacuzzis, tinged yellow by the sulphur, steam rising up. Then when that gets too hot, you can nip across to the other side of the valley and sink into the cold water! With no other tour groups or even locals around, we had the waterfall and valley to ourselves. Curried goat was the dish of the day for lunch and after a walk around the botanical gardens we were back on Orion around 4pm.

After only 2 days at Roseau we moved up the coast to Portsmouth and the lovely little bay of Prince Rupert. Our friends from Kadoona were already there and arranged a bunch of activities for us to do.

On the Saturday, we all went on a hike to do segment 14 of the Wakabuki Trail. 7 miles from Capauchin to Portsmouth harbour. In tow were Dylan and I, Terry (off Libertine), Ian and Laani (Kadoona). Hike was great. We clambered up and down hills, along the rocky beach and through swamps. Saw a variety of creatures along the way. We stopped at almost every rum shack we encountered for an obligatory beer.

We discovered a few mangos and some wild lemongrass along the way which we happily hoarded for later. Stopped at a lovely little beach for lunch and a swim and tried our hand at blowing a conch. We all sucked and left it to the more experienced local.

The next day was a tour up the Indian River with Andrew the tour guide. It cost us $40 EC each (£10) and was great value (there was also the $5USD charge for access to the park)

Andrew rowed a group of 8 of us up the river where we saw a variety of flora and fauna. Ian and Laani were with us as they had arranged it (with Single hander Terry – off Libertine) a couple from Sweden (Pontus and Melee off Tau Tau).

The mangroves looked like something out of the Folk of the Faraway tree.

We stopped at a quaint little bar where we disembarked on a long walk through a plantation.

The guide listed out all the fruits and we tried a variety of locally growing natural fruits. Including sucking the sour (but nice) fruit around the Cocoa bean. We could have taken the sucked beans home, dried them out and then grated them into Cocoa (but the thought of lugging semi sucked seeds around all day put us off)

We cut cinnamon off a living tree and it smells even more potent than the ground up powder or bark you buy in the shops. We also picked bay leaves straight off the tree. We stopped at a Rum Shack and sampled a glass of Coconut Punch (Rum) and it was fantastic. (so much so we later bought a bottle in Portsmouth)

We continued on our walk to a hot spring and along the way picked a bunch of “gwenjob” seeds that are used in a lot of island jewellery (as they look like white beads). We now have a necklace made of them.We lazed about in the hot spring for a while.

Walked back to the boat we stopped at the first rum shack and sampled a Peanut Rum punch. Nice, but a little too sweet for our taste.

Later that night was the infamous BBQ put on by the Boat Boys in Prince Rupert Bay to fund the security patrols etc. Even the Minister of Tourism was in attendance and made a little speech to the yachties to thank them for their patronage.

Food was good and Dylan had 3 helpings of Chicken. $50 EC (£12) for all you can eat buffet and rum punch. What a deal!

Chatted to a couple who send Poodle semen to Sweden to fund their adventures on their yacht. We did not go into details...

Last few days have been spent relaxing and getting a few groceries as food stuffs is generally cheaper here than else where up islands. Water is free from the many taps in the road, so we filled the tanks with a few trips ashore. If we had gone along side, we could have had unlimited water for £4. Land of a lot of water this place.

We will be back!