Friday 3/12
Up at 04.00 for a planned 05.00 departure from St Kitts towards Antigua. Sneaked out under the cover of darkness with the aid of 1 million candlepower search light, headed straight out for 1nm and then turned on course to round the southern tip of Nevis. Magnificent beam reach at 8 - 9 knts in 15 -20 knts of easterly for all of an hour until we cleared Nevis and hardened up, once again, to try and clear to the north of Redondo and Montserrat. No chance. Round came the wind to ese again and we resigned ourselves to going south of Redondo. Between Nevis and Redondo there is a shallow bank of water that extends for about 4nm at a depth of less than 60 ft. The whole length of the bank was strewn with fishing pots and we were heading directly into the rising sun. Look outs were posted on either side but even so we had a couple of very near misses as the sea state and the low sun made spotting them extremely difficult. As we rounded Redondo the wind came round to east and sometimes ene giving us the chance to pass north of Montserrat without having to tack. Of course this didn't last long and a couple of miles out from Montserrat we admitted defeat and tacked round to the ne too clear the island. Even though we were only a couple of miles away there was so much haze and ash coming from the volcano that we could hardly make out any detail. Through the binoculars you could occasionally make out the grey ash flow and see buildings with just the roof visible. I would have loved to have stopped at the one remaining anchorage but time was just too short. The rest of the day was spent tacking towards Antigua. Every time we tacked on a wind shift the wind would shift right back again. Very frustrating. The only really memorable part of that sail was a rogue wave, spotted only by the skipper, that hit beam on and broke right over the top of the bimini drenching the rest of the crew as it came down off the bimini. Finally made it to Falmouth Harbour with about an hour of day light left.
We came alongside at the Catamaran Club Marina to discover that not only were we the only catamaran but we were by a long way the cheapest boat tied up! Just about everything else was an Oyster 53 or larger with the biggest being 'Ipanema' at over 100ft. Most of the boats had professional crew on board preparing for Antigua race week. We taxied over to English Harbour and had a very expensive, very forgettable, meal at Le Cap Horn French restaurant.
Saturday 3/13
Back to English Harbour and Nelson's Dockyard for a bit of sight seeing. If the boats at the Catamaran Club sound impressive, you should have seen English Harbour. The J-Class Endeavour was there and Mari Cha IV plus many others of similar size if not quite the same pedigree. Had a good meal overlooking the harbour at The Deck.
We then went to the Sunsail office as Kit and Nolan had successfully bid in the auction at sailonline.com for a trip from Antigua to the BVI and wanted to find out as much as possible about the procedure. They left none the wiser, as no one present seemed to know anything and cared even less!
Back on the boat we were encouraged to leave by the marina staff at around 16.00 as they need the berth for another boat. We'd been trying to stay as long as possible as we wanted to arrive in St Bart's in day light the following morning. We headed west - downwind for the first time since leaving the BVI - and it was immediately apparent we were going to quickly. We rolled away the genoa. Still too fast. Felt too lazy to take a reef in the main so locked both props in astern which immediately knocks half a knot off the boat speed (must get folding props when I take her out of charter). That gave us a scheduled arrival time shortly after dawn. We then had an uneventful sail with everyone sleeping comfortably.
Sunday 3/14
Arrive St Bart's shortly after dawn and make our way to the inner harbour. On the way we pass a cruise ship that upon closer inspection turns out to be 'The World'. Looks just like any other standard cruise ship. There then followed a new experience for the crew - Mediterranean style stern-to mooring. For those of you who don't know, this involves dropping the anchor and then going astern up to the quay. Hopefully you arrive at the quay before running out of anchor chain. Very embarrassing if you get that one wrong. We got it right although we did get the attention of the crew on a massive Feadship as we tied up next to them.
St Bart's was shut. It was shut when we arrived and it was still shut at lunchtime. It turns out that only a few restaurants and no shops are open on a Sunday. Laura and Rex hired a French Microcar - two seats, no doors, no gears and no power but plenty of fun apparently - and went off to tour the island. It seems to be populated entirely by old men accompanied by young women, both sexes dripping gold and Rolex.
We left the same evening for another over night, deliberately slow, passage back to the BVI. As our intended landfall was Anegada we didn't want to arrive there until the sun was well up in the sky. This was another largely uneventful passage with just one torrential downpour and the attention of a couple of passing ships.
Monday 3/15
Just as we are approaching the north of Anegada two of the crew 'claim' to have seen a whale. Despite whale watching for the next hour, no other sightings occurred. Last week there were just 2 red buoys and one green marking the channel. Anchored just outside the mooring field, cracked open the bottles of Freixenet Spanish 'champagne' to celebrate our successful return to BVI waters and settled down to watch the antics of a Virgin Trader trying to pick up a mooring. Laura, Rex and Nolan then went snorkelling off the other side of the island while Kit, Jim and I carried on drinking/eating/sleeping.
14.00 departed for Trellis Bay. This was a magnificent sail, beam reach with the gennaker flying in 20 -25 kts of wind. Trellis Bay was reached in less than two hours having regularly exceeded 10 kts with a maximum of 10.6. We had an excellent night at the last resort being entertained by the acoustic guitar of Jed - one of the chefs - and the wonderfully 'politically incorrect' Tony Snell. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/band.gif" alt="" />
Tuesday 3/16
A quick run ashore to the supermarket and to see Shiney at the Trellis Bay Cyber Café and then motored round to Monkey Point. Monkey Point has always been my favourite snorkel spot but this time was the best ever. It was almost impossible to see the coral for the vast shoal of tiny fish present in the bay. The reason for the concentration soon become clear as several large grey shapes appeared just below me - Tarpon! Over 5ft long and according to people who know about such matters 80lb plus.
After lunch we unfurled the gennaker and had a lazy run down to West End before rolling the sail away - we had had enough of beating to windward earlier in the trip - and motoring back up to TMM at Road Reef Marina.
Trip Summary
Would I do it again? Absolutely!! I love the BVI but I also like to get away, out of sight of land, and to explore new places. I'll definitely go back and spend more time on St Kitts.
Would the crew do it again? I believe so. They'll no doubt post something - or comment on my post - in the near future. Loads of photos to be posted as well.
What went wrong? The depth sounder, the fresh water pump, the gennaker furling gear. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif" alt="" />The bowsprit and gennaker are not available to charterers of Jeannius for two very good reasons. One, the bowsprit is a serious liability when manoeuvring in a crowded marina. Two, the furling gennaker ideally needs three people to deploy/retrieve it. One person on the bow very carefully feeding the furling line to make sure it doesn't wrap around the drum or forestay, another to very carefully control the furling line at the jammer and a third to look after the sheet. We have some wonderful pictures to post of Rex hanging from the bowsprit, in a safety harness trying - successfully - to unravel the furling line from around the drum!
Finally, many thanks to the crew - Laura and Rex, Kit and Nolan and Jim - it was a great trip with great people. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />
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