Shortly after we saw Gloria off, I looked at the upcoming weather forecast, and threw out an idea to Ken. I proposed the idea of heading up to Antigua to a) restock on some of his prescription medications that are less expensive in the English islands and b) pick up some affordable rum more to his liking. Paying 17 euros for a 750 ml bottle of rum while in the Caribbean just seemed so wrong. It’s not like we are big drinkers, but wow.
The anchorage in Pointe-a-Pitre is a mud hole. Hauling anchor there is always going to be a messy undertaking, deck wash down hose or not. The thick clay-like mud sticks to the chain and anchor quite tenaciously, making it a tedious and mucky job. It is NOT something I like to do more than absolutely necessary. This had to factor into our plans.
We also needed water, so the plan was to haul anchor, get water at the fuel dock, then go on to another anchorage. Somewhere like Malendure on the west coast of Guadeloupe would be good, but that would also be a full day’s trip for us, so leaving too late wasn’t desirable. Well, we could anchor at Gosier for the night, then go to the west coast the next day, then on to Antigua. Yeah, that sounded good.
Well, when I run, my mind starts going places. On a long run, there is more time for me to think. And then when I have to go do a final shop, well, that little hamster just keeps spinning that little wheel… so when I got back to the boat with the groceries, and the request to Ken to hand me the ship’s papers ( I had until noon to check out on the Customs computer), I threw out to him “how about just going straight to Antigua from Pointe-a-Pitre”? This would require an approximately 16 hour trip, which meant an overnighter.
My logic to this leap was as follows: Gosier can be a rolly anchorage, and the idea of having a lousy night’s sleep before a long day had very little appeal to me. And two long days underway can be just as tedious as just one overnighter. Ken never asked for my logic, he just blindly ageed with the idea. Thus began getting our “poop in a group” to go a little farther than around the corner.
The fuel dock where we were to get our water closed from 2-4, so we planted ourselves on the dock at 3:30 (after about 15 muddy minutes of hauling anchor). This was a good thing, because a bunch of boats came in right behind us. Finally at 4:15, they opened, and ken got the hose to fill the water. We filled up, and this is important because Antigua water is the lousiest in the Eastern Caribbean, and got underway by 4:45. Thus began the fishpot watch; keeping an eye out for the floats for the fishpots. Our plan for overnight was to stay in the deep water, hopefully avoiding them all together.
The trip was fairly uneventful. 2 hour watches, snacks and water kept us going. Some cruise ships gave us something to look at for a bit, and the smooth conditions of the lee of the island made sleeping easier than in the open channel. The conditions were quite benign, and we motorsailed in about 8 knots of wind, give or take some of the gusts closer to 20.
Our arrival to Jolly Harbour saw us gouge some of the gelcoat as we went on to the dock at Customs. *%#@ . However, checking in here is far less expensive than at English harbour, where you are also charged National Park fees; here was a mere $30 EC. And we could put the dinghy together at our leisure, since we didn’t need it to check in.
Se, here we are. Already stocked up on rum at $25.95 EC for the big bottles.
And when I went for my run this morning, I didn’t have any thoughts that Ken had to be concerned about.