The weather was changing, so Katz and I sailed around to English Harbour. Nelson's Dockyard is here and has been restored. I had a look around at the old buildings, cannons, capstans etc. All verity interesting indeed. I'll be back to Antigua next season as it is a beautiful island, with great beaches, islands and anchorages.
Katz had some fridge repairs done here, and I had to flush my dinghy outboard out, as a blast of wind flipped the damn thing upside down! Bugger! All sorted out and it runs as well as ever. Sunday evening we caught a taxi up to Shirly Heights for an evenings entertainment with a steel pan band followed by a very good reggae one. It was a great night out. On monday, we sadly had to say goodbye to Lyndee and Oscar, Philane's sister and her son, as they were flying back to South Africa. We'd had a great time traveling with them.
It was then back around to Jolly Harbour to check out and Fair Winds, Katz and myself headed of south to Deshaise, in Guadeloupe. Slept there and then off to Portsmouth, Dominica. This was one of the best sails I've had. Close hauled and with the 3 sails up. One reef in the main sail though. I've, at last, figured out how to get the best out of the staysail. 3 nights there and now down to Roseau. This being the start of our southerly dash to get to Grenada for hurricane season.
After a quick bit of provisioning in Roseau, and saying good bye to good friends ashore, we were off to St. Pierre, Martinique. It's always good to be back in the French islands. A few days there and we were then off to Fort de France. Here you nearly anchor in town. Very convenient for shopping etc. I need to replace my lifelines on the boat. I got a quote in Grenada last season and it was between $1000 and $1200. So I've been doing a a bit of research and have decided to replace mine with Dyneema. I'll have to watch for chafe but the stainless steel that is usually used rusts within a couple of years. The Dyneema is easy to splice, UV resistant and costs about 20% of what the stainless costs. Also the breaking strain is higher.
Sherman, from Fair Winds, came with me to fill up with water at a tiny fuel dock in the main port. Tricky getting in and out here.
After loading up with pâté and red wine, enough to get the port list out of the boat, we motored across to a very pretty, but tiny, bay, called Anse Noir. It can only take 3-4 boats at anchor. We spent 2 nights here, having a delicious lasagne dinner aboard Fair Winds. Today we came around to Grande Anse D'Arlet and will spend 2 nights here before we take off for Rodney Bay in St. Lucia.