Guadalope - April 2006

From Antigua we sailed to Guadaloupe. We felt that the French culture is still surprisingly strong there. We cleared customs in a small bay called Deshaies. The customs officer didn’t speak or understand a word of English, however, he kept a smile on his face, took the papers and stamped the passports.



In these French countries we have feasted on French pastries, baguettes, cheeses, pate and salami. Because the climate is getting more tropical, produce has been more plentiful and lovely. Communicating with the locals has, at times, been a challenge, but in general they try hard to help. Hence with one meal we ordered we really didn’t know what was going to arrive on our plate.
It was also Laurel’s birthday so she chose to spend it having a lazy day in the sun. Daryl nipped in to town first thing and came back with fresh croissants and a baguette. Ali made a surprise cake and presents – what more would a girl want??



Unfortunately we will also remember Deshaies for having the worst pina colada so far in the Caribbean, sampled at the Pino pino bar (we thought the name would have meant a guarantee of better).
We caught a local bus to Pointe A Pitre and had a great day. The spice markets were amazing. Spices were one of the most traded items in the Caribbean in the days of the tall ships. We were quite surprised at how well developed the city was (highways, electricity, apartment blocks, etc) compared with how simply the people live in the smaller towns.
Some of the locals said we should visit The Saints, a small group of islands in the south of Guadaloupe. So off we set arriving at a quaint little town, although quite touristy. There we hired a motor scooter to tour the island. Laurel needed a medal by the end of that day!! It was way out of her comfort zone. The roads were so o o… steep. Lovely views, when Laurel wasn’t too scared to look.



We are finding that a good way to get information about the local history and culture is to visit the odd museum or do the touristy thing and visit an old fort or two. We also now know not to believe everything you read in the 'lonely planet' book. It said that the road to the fort was suitable for any fitness level. You should have seen it. I think we would have had heart attacks, in that heat, before reaching the top!!!

Antigua - April 2006

We had nearly a week in Antigua.

The wreck dives still get Daryl excited, one of which he did in Deep Bay. We anchored in Falmouth Harbour and I had a short walk through to English harbor to check in. We found Antigua to have a lot of history which we enjoyed. Customs officials are found in the old buildings in English Harbour along with some very old yachts in pristine condition. We were there a few weeks before the big classic yacht regatta so we were treated to being amongst many beautiful classic yachts. In an old pub we met two couples from Hamilton. One of the ladies had been into Amanda’s work just days before. Isn’t it a small world!!

A highlight in Antigua was going to Shirley Heights at sunset to drink rum punches and listen to a world famous steel drum band. It was amazing.

Every Sunday night a Caribbean steel drum band plays music at the place called Shirley Heights at sunset. The band had 20 to 30 players and was an absolute delight to listen to. The views of English in Falmouth Harbour were also spectacular. Antigua race week was due to start in about two week’s time, unfortunately we will not be there to see it. If we were going to get through the Panama Canal in

early May we had to keep moving.

The British Virgin Islands -- 2006

After five days of sailing we finally arrived in the British Virgin Islands. The first island we could check into was Jos Van Dyke. We rounded Dog Pt. and went in to Great Harbour dropped anchor and went looking for the customs and immigration officer. We found them about two hours later sitting in a Cafe eating lunch. It all seemed a bit too relaxed to me.
After being at sea for a while it was nice to see other yachts and quite a few tall ships and super yachts, as well. The photo here shows Great Harbour which boasts several cruiser bars, including one called Foxy's place. After spending an afternoon there we decided it should have been called Poxy's place as Laurel got severely bitten by insects at the bar and both her legs came up in welts!!!!
The British Virgin Islands was a fantastic cruising ground with all the different little islands. There was a large number of yacht charter companies, including moorings, who seemed to have hundreds of catamarans. Everything seems very used friendly.

Just around the corner there was a place called Sandy Spit. There was one of those really nice white sandy beaches framed with a lone coconut tree.



As we got to know the British Virgin Islands we found all sorts of fantastic things to see. I was very keen to dive on the wreck of the HMS Rhone. Anchoring in the nearby bay, we headed around to where we thought the HMS Rhone was lying. The Rhone was a steamship that got caught in a hurricane around 1867 and steamed out to get away from land. Unfortunately the wind caught her and took her into a reef where she lies today between 20 and 70 feet of water. When the Rhone hit Black Rock, water came in and caused the boilers to explode. 123 passengers and crew died in the tragedy. You can still clearly see the rider and propeller and about 25 feet of water along with other debris of the wreck.
Not far from the wreck of the HMS Rhone there is a rock formation called the Indians. The coral on the Indians was spectacular and we spent many an hour snorkelling there.


In the same area there were some caves (also in the guide that we were using). Around the turn-of-the-century some locals swam into these caves and found actual pirate treasure. The treasure in these caves prompted Robert Louis Stevenson to write the book Treasure Island.

Being in the land of pirates, treasure and Spanish galleons, it only seemed right to drink rum. Pusser's rum is very well-known around the British Virgin Islands. It has been the official rum for the British navy for well over 300 years. Pusser's outpost is also a great place to have a meal.


The history of the British Virgin Islands continue to amaze us. Everything from black African slave trading rooms, Spanish galleon canons just lying on the reef and Sir Richard Branson's Island to mega yachts being serviced by helicopters. Unfortunately one of the mega yachts had helicopters coming in and out about every two hours which sort of broke the peace and quiet that the average cruiser is looking for.



I mean, how's a skipper supposed to get his beauty sleep???
We then sailed an overnighter to St Martin. We were amazed as we passed about five yachts and six ships on one night. Five of the ships were cruise liners and were lit up like Christmas trees.

St Martin -- 2006

We arrived in Philipsburg, St Martin to a beautiful blue sky and a flat sea. It had a lovely white long sandy beach with a city behind it. Nowhere had we seen so many duty free stores in one city. The restaurant 'Greenhouse' became a favourite haunt of ours, as the pina coladas were the best we have tasted so far. At happy hour they had cocktails at 2 for 1 so that was a bit of us. We found quite a few things at good prices in St Martin. onr of our computers had a hard drive failure and luck for us Blue Point Office Supplies were the agents for Acer computer. We were very pleased that they had the expertise to extract all our lost photos off the failed hard drive.
We had anchored in Grand Bailey, which was the same place as several American Yachts were anchored and used as tourist race yachts. It was also the main bay for all the tourist ships. At one stage there were seven cruise liners there, five on the tourist ship dock and two at anchor.
About half wat through the visit we decided to hire a car and drive around the island. It was interesting as half the island was Dutch and the other half was French, however there didn't seem to be any border patrols.
Our friend Stephanie from Fort Lauderdale had flown down to join us. She and her partner had sold their yacht so she came down join us to experience the Caribbean, snorkelling, swimming and generally cruising on the yacht for a few weeks. It was great to have five people on the yacht for a change.
Just before we left I decided it was time to give the crew lessons in tying knots, as our dinghy seemed to slip away from our yacht and have a mind of its own after being tied up.
From St Martin we decided to sail to St Kitts. So we headed out for another overnighter to arrive there during daylight hours.

Cruising life 2006

You know, it's a bugger of a life really. All that fishing you have to do. It takes hours to catch a fish, and then you have photograph them. After that it's on to sharpening the knives, getting the chopping boards out, bleeding, skinning, gutting, deboning and filleting. Then there is the mess to cleanup........
Is the fishing really that good? We did catch some nice Mahimahi and sailfish, as well as tuna and barracuda.
Of course then you need to know how to cook it. Luckily we had the proverbial world-famous in New Zealand 'Edmonds
Cookbook' on board. Yes, and it was left to the captain to sort out a good recipe. So here I was, sitting in the nav station, checking out the cookbook.



Meanwhile outside there was another one of those damn sunsets and if you can make out the shadow on the side of the boat it's Laurel. Here she is, chatting to our children back home on the satellite phone.










However, after all this, it is always nice to sit outside relax with a drink and sit down to nice fresh fish, anchored up and turquoise water, good company and another one of those damn sunsets............