Antigua

Our original plans were to sail direct for Guadeloupe from the BVI, a passage requiring two nights at sea. However, since we're not in a hurry and the winds were right for it, we decided on stopping in Antigua for a few days. This shortened the trip from BVI to only one overnight, and then a day sail to Guadeloupe.

Antigua is a fun place to stop. We've been here twice before and are pretty familiar with it. On previous visits we visited Jolly Harbor, St John, English Harbor, Falmouth Harbor, and some anchorages on the east side. On this visit, we limited ourselves to Falmouth and English Harbors.

English Harbor was at one time a key port for the

English. It was strategically located to provide for easy harassment of the French islands as well as an excellent anchorage for weathering hurricanes and performing major refits on the ships.

These days it is a haven for sailors of all sorts. There are live-aboard sailors with three anchors down who haven't moved their boat since three or four hurricanes ago, cruisers like us, racing fanatics, and of course the super-yacht and mega-yacht crowd. If you are into sailing, racing sailboats, or just checking out the yachts of the filthy rich, you can find it here.

In between regattas, it's pretty quiet, but still interesting. There is a lot of history here to discover and some pleasant places to kick back and relax. The cruise ship crowd isn't much of a presence here since the ships dock in St Johns, which is on the other side of the island.

So, we arrived, checked in, did some boat maintenance, some relaxing in the shade and some hiking and touring. Quinn won a wager on a crab race at a charity event and came out with 20 dollars. He promptly spent 5 of it on ice cream and socked away the rest in his allowance jar. Good man!

We heard good things about the zip line here and decided to give it a try. You strap yourself up to a pulley on a cable crossing a 300' gorge in the rain forest. Sounds like fun! Quinn and I are admitted adrenaline junkies. Jen is adverse to heights, but a good sport. So, accompanied by Kathy and John from Oceana, we tried it out. I was a little concerned about Quinn freezing when it came time to step into the void, but he was a trooper as usual. Nothing but giant grins from the whole crew.

About six days after arrival, the weather looked good for the run to Guadeloupe. Deshaies, Guadeloupe is about 45 miles due south from Antigua. It was a great sail. We were doing over 7 knots most of the way on a beam reach in 15 or so knots of wind.

Good Rum = Bad Spelling

For all of you who read my previous post before I made use of a spell checker (at the gentle encouragement of my dear wife), my apologies for my abuse of the English language. As I wrote it, I was enjoying the delights of the local Rhum Vieux which we had just obtained in Deshaies, Guadeloupe. It is quite good.

British Virgin Islands - Disney Land for Sailors?

We like the BVI. It has a lot to offer. There are a dozen or so islands and cays surrounding the Sir Francis Drake Channel, anchored by Tortola and Virgin Gorda. This layout provides for fairly sheltered sailing, line-of-site navigation and plenty of destination anchorages to keep you interested for a while. Add in the great diving, snorkeling, and rich history typical of the Caribbean islands, it's a fun place to be.

But that's the catch. It's too convenient! The sailboat charter industry has blossomed here like no place in the Caribbean. Folks looking for an ideal sailing vacation can fly in for a week and spend a few hours a day sailing from anchorage to anchorage - each with entertainment ashore and beautiful surroundings. The locals have embraced this bounty and make the most of it. Just about all anchorages have a bar/restaurant close at hand, along with the ubiquitous gift shop. In all but the largest anchorages, the good and even fair anchoring ground has been peppered with mooring balls, leaving only marginally viable anchoring ground if you aren't willing to pay the $25 TO $30 per night to use the moorings (or trust your anchor better than their moorings).

To be fair, the moorings have their place. Given the huge number of charter boats in service here, the moorings allow an anchorage to accommodate many more boats than if everyone were anchored. Also, anchoring safely while avoiding damage to coral or grass beds is an acquired skill which most chatterers have not had the opportunity to develop. In the party party party atmosphere of many of the chartering groups, it's all they can do to safely tie up to the mooring ball and get ashore without a mishap. After all, they aren't aboard their floating home containing all their worldly possessions. They're on a rental boat for a fun vacation. So they party and we try to stay out of their way, lend a hand where needed, retrieve the odd escaped dinghy, and enjoy the show.

Sunday afternoon is always fun in an anchorage with a sundowner in hand watching the newly arrived charterers pick up a mooring ball for the first time of the vacation. We make a point of being on board around that time.

So, the BVI has its place as a sailing destination. For the charterer, it's a great destination for the newbie or the moderately experienced. For a cruiser, it's a good place to rest a bit after the thorny path or a long offshore passage from the US. But for this cruiser, it's a little surreal... like a Disney Land for sailors. Time to head down island!

Off to the British Virgin Islands - April 23rd

After our stay in Ponce, we were eager to get moving. We had a four day window of very light air and flat water ahead of us, so we chose to beat feet for the British Virgin Islands. We spent one more day working our way along the south side of Puerto Rico, anchoring overnight in the lee of a barrier reef and mangrove cays.

The second day we rounded the southeast corner of Puerto Rico and transited the Spanish Virgin Islands. We overnighted on a mooring ball on the west side of Culebra. The Spanish Virgins looked very enticing, but with the calm weather and the holiday weekend crowds from Puerto Rico, we decided to keep moving and spend more time exploring here during our return trip next year. The third morning we continued on through the Spanish Virgins and US Virgin Islands. By early afternoon we were tied up to a mooring ball in Soper's Hole, British Virgin Islands.

We cleared in to the BVI and relaxed on board for the remainder of the afternoon. Soper's Hole is a very protected bay on the west end of Tortola. It was once a haven for privateers and buccaneers (i.e. pirates) of all sorts - English, Dutch and French.

After a relaxing afternoon watching the charter boats careen through the harbor (more on this later) we went ashore for supper. On receiving the $105 bill for two medium pizzas, chicken wings and two drinks each, I realized the pirates had moved ashore and opened a restaurant!

While at dinner, Jen pointed out that we were back in the BVI almost exactly one year after we left. We departed the BVI to return to the United States in early May last year. It hardly seems like a year and a few thousand sea miles have passed by.