The recommendation from Rob of Serafina to check in to Antigua at Jolly Harbour was a very good call. Jolly Harbour is about half way up the western side of Antigua and is a full service marina. We arrived there from Guadaloupe on 3rd January and the requirement is to berth at the Customs dock with no one allowed off the boat until the clearance process is completed. This process involves shuffling between three adjoining offices until finally after money changes hands we were cleared to enter the marina. But it is not a bad setup although they had run out of fuel.


Turners Beach near Jolly Harbour

Leaving Guadaloupe a passing French boat called out and asked whether we knew John and Jan Wood from Auckland. As it happens we do and they used to own a sister boat to Savarna in the Med for a few years. The guy was most excited and said he read our blog - so to the unknown Frenchman hello and maybe we will catch up in the BVI's? I suspect he was the guy that skippered John and Jan's boat.


Main street, St John's, Antigua

We hired a car in Antigua and drove up to St John's the capital then to the airport to collect Graham and Euphemia who were a couple of hours late due to travel problems caused by the storms in the USA. The following day we spent driving around the island and spent some time at Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbour admiring the boats and then at nearby Falmouth Harbour. For many years Antigua has been on the bucket list but we confess to being very underwhelmed apart from the Nelson's Dockyard area. This was the Royal Navy dockyard that dates from 1745, was abandoned in 1869 and restoration work started in the 1950's. It is a most impressive area and now a National Park where visitors pay for admittance unless on board a boat berthed at the dock.


Nelsons Dockyard


Captains House - Nelsons Dockyard


Waterfront - Nelsons Dockyard

So on the 6th January we departed early for an 81 mile sail to Gustavia, the capital of St Barthelemy (more commonly known as St Barth). Wind just ahead of the beam, 25 knots and Graham on the wheel for most of the passage. This island was originally settled by people from Normandy. We had debated whether we would nail a mooring in the town basin but as we approached that was clearly hugely optimistic thinking. There were dozens of yachts and superyachts everywhere.


Gustavia waterfront

We anchored probably a mile off the town with many other yachts and dinghied ashore to check out the stories of supermodels, glamour and glitz. Wow is all we can say - the stories are all true, not one unattractive female in sight and models strutting the streets in gorgeous outfits!! Graham and I had a beer and people watched while the girls studied retail shops. Every top brand known to Europe has their own store here. We had to clear in and out and the online process makes it much easier than we find in the English islands where carbon paper and numerous rubber stamps are the norm.


The fort at Gustavia

After further explorations the following day (7th January) we had a great 33 mile broad reach to Sint Maarten the Dutch side. The other half of the island is St Martin and is the French side. We had timed our arrival so as to co-incide with the opening of the bridge to enable us to go in to Simpson Bay home of many marina's. We incurred the wrath of the bridge operator who yelled out to us as we passed him that if we did that again he would not allow us access to the lagoon. We have being debating what "that" is since and have developed a few theories. When we departed we all waved out to him furiously as though he was our best mate - at least he waved back thus crew threats of planned obscene gestures were obviated.


Cruise ships aplenty at Filipsburg, Siint Maarten

Annette and Marko flew in from Montana to join us and as their flights were delayed for hours because of the continuing storm in the USA we txted and said we are at berth A35 at IGY Simpson Bay Marina. They eventually landed at around midnight could not find the marina so joined us the following day after a night in a less the salubrious motel. A bottle of champagne later and humour returned. Siint Maarten was interesting with a large number of superyachts around including the J boat Rainbow which we saw sailing and then entering the lagoon.


Exiting Simpson Bay lagoon

The Christmas winds continue to blow harder than usual and show no sign of abating but it was into the weather again for the short sail across to the English island of Anguilla where we dropped anchor on 9th January in Road Bay the main township for clearing in (and out which we did at the same time). This is a small island and reportedly gives St Barths a run for its money however we saw none of the glitz and beautiful women that were so evident at St Barths. The beach at Road Bay was stunning and we found a beach bar with "happy hour" where we could participate in a few pain killers. Stayed for dinner at Roy's Bayside Grill and tried the local fresh snapper and then back aboard.


Opti fleet at Road Bay,Anguilla


Beachbar at Road Bay, Anguilla

Friday 10th January saw a 0400 hrs start for the 93 mile sail to the BVI's. Blowing quite hard again (25 - 30 knots), apparent wind at 150 so well aft but not so far that we could not carry the jib. It was a fast sail and by 1330 hrs we were sailing past Necker Island at the top of the BVI's and the incredible house owned by Richard Branson and rented out for a mere USD62,000 a night (but it does sleep 30).


Approaching Necker Island at good speed

We sailed on into Virgin Gorda and anchored off Spanish Town where we cleared in. Without a doubt the most unpleasant clearing in experience in the Caribbean yet and the first time I have lost my patience and told them exactly what I was going to do - anyway the good news was that it worked.

We sailed across to and tried to anchor in Trellis Bay next to the airport but nudged the bottom as we were entering so it was a quick reverse and then out of there. Eventually just on dark we anchored in a bay at the south west end of Beef Island with only one other boat there. It blew hard all night and as we are finding it rains every night. IT was an early start again on Saturday 11th as we dinghied Graham and Euphemia to the road at the end of the runway and then waved down the first passing car to take them on to the airport so they could catch their 0815 hrs flight to Orlando.


Graham enjoys some fast sailing

Annette and Marko had discovered a rum shop when they visited Filipsburg (the capital of Siint Maarten) and we have enjoyed (??) several glasses of coconut rum and also chilli rum. Several of these were consumed to assist Graham and Euphemia with the long flight back to NZ.

So finally the long passages are over for a while. We have covered nearly 600 miles since leaving Grenada on 27th December - bit like sailing from Auckland to the Bay of Islands and back three times over two weeks. We are looking forward to spending some time in the BVI's and are also hoping to go further west to the US Virgin islands as well as the Spanish Virgin islands (part of Puerto Rico). It appears that for us to enter the US Virgin islands (and the others) we need a full USA visa which we do not have. Our ESTA visa allows us to enter the USA by plane or ferry but not on our own boat! We are currently exploring options as to how we overcome this as ordinarily it requires several weeks and an attendance at a USA embassy to obtain the visa and there is no Embassy in the BVI's.

We are finding the weather here is slightly cooler than further south which makes sleeping easier although the sea temperature is still 27.

Cheers
Keith & Pam