Thursday 1st February
We were anchored with an exposed reef 200m behind us, so Jeremy and Steve decided to investigate, and found a great snorkelling site with plenty of reef fish and assorted corals, and on the way back to the tender discovered heaps of conch shells lying in the sea grass. Restaurants often have conch on the menu so we thought we should try some ourselves. S & J went to the beach to try and pry the little buggers out of the shell and when they eventually looked up, they found the tender had been washed off the beach by a large wave and the offshore breeze had it sailing away at a great rate of knots. (bugger). Ange and Suzie saw all of this, so Ange grabbed her mask and fins and dove in to intercept the dinghy at which time a squall came roaring through with rain and stronger winds which increased its speed towards the horizon substantially making it impossible for Ange to reach it in time. While this was happening J & S were swimming as fast as they could back to Pannikin which was anchored six hundred meters from the beach and as they all climbed aboard they were in time to see the dinghy drifting passed the reef and on its merry way out to sea. Pannikin gave chase very slowly with Ange and Jeremy on the bow keeping an eye out for reefs and coral heads. The wayward dinghy was eventually captured and Pannikin returned safely to the anchorage with no harm done. The conch was cooked and found to be very tough and not very appetising. Oh well better luck next time.
The next couple of days were spent swimming, reading and beach walking and lots of not much, so it was decided to head for St Kitts on Monday.

The two boats headed out towards St Kitts, an eight hour sail away with the usual trade winds blowing – Easterly 20 to 30 kts, but this time we were heading west so we had the breeze behind us making it a pretty comfortable sail. Steve decided it was time to get the fishing lure wet again and after ten minutes we had a small mackerel on board which we let go. The next ten minutes saw us catch another three fish with the last one large enough to feed four, so we kept it for our dinner. We anchored in Ballast Bay which the guide book said was of the best places for shelter out of the swell which was true, but the wind funnels through the hills and it turned out to be one of the windiest anchorages so far. The next morning we went to the main town of Basseterre and anchored outside the marina to check in with Customs and Immigration, and stock up on supplies. The door to these two offices was closed as it was lunch time so we walked up the street and found a small local cafe to have something to eat and returned later to find we could check in with Customs but had to come back tomorrow to check in with Immigration unless we wanted to go to the airport and do it there. Which is what we did, and on the way we found a large supermarket to do our grocery shopping that had most things we were after. The airport was quite a long walk which was nice to stretch the legs, and we were befriended by two local dogs which kept us amused with their antics along the way. Official duties completed a taxi was called for the return journey to the boats, stores were stowed and as the sun was fading over the horizon we hauled anchor to find a quiet place for the night and somewhere that had dinghy access as Jeremy’s parents Geoff and Jane were arriving on the 7pm flight for a two week holiday onboard “Joy”. South Friar’s Bay ticked the boxes and was only twenty minutes away.

Wednesday morning saw us wake to clear water and a nice day so the snorkelling gear got another work out. Boat duties were in order – Angela cleaned the V berth and stowed gear that had been thrown in there over the last month, while Steve cleaned the bbq and fired up the water maker as the tanks were getting low. After lunch Jeremy swam over and said that he had found an old pipe on the bottom that had some lobsters in it and was wondering if we should have a go at them. As usual with Steve and Jeremy this turned into a circus, the water was over 5m deep which made just getting down to them difficult enough without even trying to catch the little buggers. Many different approaches were tried using nets, bare hands, sticks etc, and eventually persistence payed off with a catch of a dozen small lobsters which were cooked up in a spaghetti dish onboard “Joy” and washed down with a few cold drinks.