We're planning to head south to Antigua, and stop at all the islands on the way. Nearly all the Leewards have their best anchorages on their western coasts, the leeward side from the predominantly easterly trade winds. Many of the anchorages are exposed, especially to any northerly weather - but it looks like we're lucky - winds are ESE and the seas are calm.
We leave St Maarten. We sail west - first stop is the Dutch island of Saba - little more than a rock in the ocean - well, actually a volcano poking steeply up from the seabed.We pick up a mooring ball off the Fort Bay harbour and go ashore. We were hoping to scuba dive, but the dive shops are all busy, so we tour the island instead and do the big hike up to the volcano peak, Mt Scenery. Great views, when you are not surrounded by mist and cloud.
We then shift around to Ladder Bay, to enjoy some swimming and snorkeling and after a couple of enjoyable days on Saba, we sail south again.
Taking the slightly longer easterly side of the island, and rounding the southern tip and picked up a mooring ball in the picturesque Oranjestad Bay, below the town of the same name, and below the volcanic peak of Mt Quill, and below the now silent guns of Fort Oranjestad.
We continue to be lucky with the wind/sea combination, and the Bay is nicely sheltered and calm.
We spend our first full day giving our legs a good work-out, wandering around Oranjestad - it's a pretty little town - and taking the nature trail up Mt Quill.
The second day we do get to scuba dive with DiveStatia - the water is very clear and the dives are good.
We're enjoying these Dutch islands. They are friendly, clean, largely undeveloped and have a nice feel about them.But, time to move on again. South once more, and leave the Dutch behind us. The British are coming.
Having already been to St Kitts the past April, we decide to make our next stop Nevis, before making the longer hop to Antigua. It's a long beat (we cheat and motor) up the west coast of St Kitts, past Fort Brimstone, Basseterre and its Port Zante marina. And you have to be ever watchful of fishing pots - they are all over the place and just waiting for a propellor.
We arrive, very puzzled, at Pinneys Beach. As we approached it looked like the anchorage had some disease - white spots as far as the eye could see.
In their wisdom, Nevis Port had installed mooring balls everywhere. In the approx 100 around us, we had one other yacht for company! And now yachts were supposed to no longer anchor in the excellent holding off Pinneys. Progress!
But for us it was an overnight stop, and a chance to restup for the longer sail to Antigua.
The weather is turning. Winds and waves are picking up.
Hil and I head out for Antigua in an increasing breeze. Soon we're offshore, west of Kitts and bashing through 12-15' seas. This is immediately reminiscent of the ugly passage that Andy and I did 5 months previously, though the seas are marginally smaller and have a little more rhythm.
We decide to motor sail, to point better and keep a decent speedup. Halfway across, the engine alarms go off - broken fan belt. Hil keeps trying to sail the boat, while I go below to replace the belt. It's hot and the boat is bouncing around. After 2 hours of struggling, and my first ever time seasick, we're motoring again. We have one more event, when we get slammed by a large wave, which throws us out of gear. But, after another attempt at sailing, we restart the engine, keep going, and finally struggle into Jolly Harbour - very tired, and not so jolly.
We have 2 weeks cruising around Antigua. But first we give our sea legs a rest and hop the island bus service into St Johns and wander around the town and it's colourful market.
With the seas calmer again, I decide to treat Hil to her first visit to Barbuda and it's beaches - she loves it. We spend a few days off Low Bay and also visit Coco Pt - mainly just beach walking - and we are lucky enough to have a couple of dolphins for company as we leave the island.
"Manx Mist" won't be lonely for long though. Good friend John Yeo is on his way across the Atlantic as crew aboard the 50' "Quaser V", sailing with approx 150 boats in the ARC, and destined for St Lucia. John has plans to fly up to Antigua and stay on "Manx Mist" for Christmas, where he'll be joined by Annemarie, Danielle and Ross.
We'll be back to sail with John and Annemarie in January.
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