Antigua, Sint Maarten, BVIs and Beyond…

When you find yourself in Guadeloupe and are heading north, you look at a map and realize there are 2 ways you can go: you can either go to a little more west and visit Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Eustatius and Saba, or you can go north to Antigua and Barbuda. We would love to have visited them all, but time was running out, and the anchorages in Monteserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis and St. Eustatius seemed a little less appealing than Antigua, although the islands themselves sounded interesting (Monteserrat in particular, seems to be 2 islands in one, the southern part, barren and desolate, covered in volcanic ash, having had a catastrophic volcanic eruption in 1995 and another as recent as February 2010! And the northern part, green and lush). Antigua is a little more to windward than we’d like, but having read about Nelson’s Dockyard and having received some good reports from our friends on “Moby”, we decided to brave the headwinds and go for Antigua!

It took us a full day of bashing into the wind to get to Antigua, having left Deshaies in Guadeloupe, just before sunrise on April 10th. We had 2 superyachts pass us, just gliding through the water with no problem at all! We would later see one of those boats moored in Nelson’s Dockyard along with many other “big boats”! Antigua is, of course, home to the mega yacht, and Antigua Race Week was coming up at the end of the month.

As we entered English Bay we realized what a find this natural harbor must have been for the Royal Navy at the end of the 17th century! The entrance to this natural, protected harbor could hardly be seen from the ocean, and it was no surprise that the British kept their fleet in here. The first naval defences were built in 1704, and English Harbour became a Royal Navy dockyard in 1730. The dockyard was named Nelson’s Dockyard after the famous British Admiral, Horatio Nelson, of Battle of Trafalgar fame, who commanded the Royal Navy fleet at sea in the Caribbean from 1784 to 1787. After it was abandoned in 1889, the dockyard fell into disrepair.

The dockyard has now been beautifully restored, and the old buildings, originally stores and workshops, now house restaurants, shops, and small inns, as well as a lovely little museum that captured the history of that time, with special emphasis on Admiral Horatio Nelson. Benjamin was in his element, marveling at the model ships and the stories of the battles that took place. He is a bit of a history buff, and loves this stuff!  

Through a room displaying old cannons and artifacts, Ben can be seen reading about the HMS Victory (bottom left).  One of the original shutters from the dockyard buildings with "graffiti" engravings from the 1700's!  Gaby wonders if she could be a ship's figurehead

Some of the beautiful old boats that were at Nelson's Dockyard, presumably for Classic Boat Race Week, that was starting on April 18th.  We were fascinated by the detail on some of these old boats:  look at that intricate rudder!  And on the other scale, a sleek, modern superyacht, also at Nelson's Dockyard

An aerial picture of English Harbour (taken of a picture in the museum, so excuse the quality), but it gives a good overview.  The red "X" shows where we were anchored

Some images of the restored buildings in the dockyard

We also walked over to Fort Berkeley and enjoyed the view out onto the Atlantic. The guard hut and powder storage room from when they were built in the late 1700’s still stand today. The whole area, Nelson’s Dockyard National Park, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Top:  Fort Berkely seen from the water as we came in:  the guard house on the left, the powder house in the middle; Middle:  The old powder house; we had a very sad moment, when Dave's favourite flip flop broke!!! He bought them in Australia and LOVED them!!  Bottom:  the cannons guarding the entrance to English Harbour from Fort Berkeley

Cool Runnings at anchor in English Harbour, Antigua at sunset

After 2 days in English Harbor, we checked out, and made our way north to Deep Bay. The sail was nice, with the wind behind us, not like our trip over from Guadeloupe! It looked like there were many great anchorages on the whole island, especially on the windward side, that we didn’t get a chance to visit, and it looks like Antigua would definitely have been worthy of a longer stay. As we got closer to Deep Bay, we noticed an AIS signal on our chart plotter, belonging to a boat anchored in Deep Bay. We clicked on it, and immediately recognized the name: ALMA! Jonas (the skipper) on Alma (the boat) is our single-hander friend (meaning he is sailing by himself) from Sweden, who we first met in Durban, and then have met up with along the way, in PE, Cape Town, St. Helena, and most recently, Ascension Island. It is there that we had last seen him, so it was great to catch up and hear about his journey across the Atlantic, which took him close to 30 days! 

Sailing along the coast of Antigua, and anchored in Deep Bay

There is a wreck of a ship called the “Andes” in Deep Bay, that lies in pretty shallow water, that we were able to snorkel on.  Unfortunately the water was a little murky when we snorkeled.  The story goes that the Andes, a three masted iron barque was on its way from Trinidad to Peru in 1905. When it got to Antigua, the crew noticed smoke rising from the hollow masts indicating a fire. They were denied entry into St. John’s as they were considered to be carrying a dangerous cargo, so they anchored in Deep Bay. When they opened the cargo hatches to check on the smoke, the infusion of fresh air caused the smoldering fire to burst into flame. The ship sank in an upright position, and its one mast still sticks out above the water.

Gaby snorkeling on (through!) the wreck and some of the corals that have grown on it

The following morning, we left the anchorage once again in the early hours of the morning. We had over 80 miles to get to our intended destination: Sint Maarten. If we were not able to make it in time, we were planning to anchor in St. Barts. However, the wind was strong, and we put the spinnaker up, and we flew to Sint Maarten! It was a fast passage, with Cool Runnings surfing down waves at 14 – 15 knots! It was also a little uncomfortable, as the swell came from the side, and the wind angle was a little too close to 120 degrees (for having the spinnaker up), so Dave hand steered most of the way. But at about 4:30pm, we made it to Simpson Bay on the Dutch side of the island. 

Flying the spinnaker on the way to Sint Maarten and congratulating Dave and Cool Runnings on becoming circumnavigators once we'd anchored in Simpson Bay

Dutch Sint Maarten and French St. Martin occupy two halves of the same island, and while Christopher Columbus claimed it for Spain in 1493, they showed little interest in it, and the French settled in the north, while the salt ponds attracted Dutch settlers to the south. A treaty in 1648 divided the island between France and the Netherlands, and this contract of peaceful coexistence is one of the oldest active, undisputed treaties on the planet!

Sint Maarten was also significant to us, as this is where we bought Cool Runnings back in 2013. Dave and I flew here to look at her and finalize the paperwork, and Dave came back 2 months later with his friends Adrian and Garrick (who also sailed across the first part of the Pacific with us), to sail her back to Florida. This meant that this is where Dave and Cool Runings crossed their outgoing wake, and therefore officially became a circumnavigator on Friday, the 13th of April, 2018! Congratulations, Dave and our trusy Cool Runnings…Ben, Gaby and I are not far behind you! We celebrated with dinner at "Lagoonies", where Cool Runnings, (at that time called "Drift Away") had been moored when we first went to see her.

Full circle for Dave:  Lagoonies(top), and toasting to a great accomplishment:  circumnavigating!

Sint Maarten was also badly hit by the 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria, and we took the dinghy into Simpson’s Bay and the damage was still profound. While much has been done to repair the carnage, there were still sunken boats and boats washed up on the shore. It was so sad to see brand new, big boats, both power and sail, that Mother Nature just gobbled up and spat out. We continue to see the damage caused by that 2017 hurricane season in the Caribbean, in the Virgin Islands, and even here in the Turks and Caicos, where I am writing this blog from.  

Super yacht partially sunk, "Dreams" up in smoke, a beautiful Lagoon 52 just completely destroyed and damage to a building

The next morning, Saturday, April 14th, we did it all again, and left before dawn for the British Virgin Islands. The distance was slightly shorter, about 75 miles, and we had similar conditions. We put the spinnaker up, and started flying! The wind was slightly stronger, but the angle was better and we made great progress, doing constant speeds of around 10 knots, surfing up to 16 knots! We had a squally day, and one of those squalls brought us blinding rain and winds of up to 36 knots, 34 sustained! People marvel that we can sail with our spinnaker up in those conditions, but it works well, and it is fast, as long as you keep the boat surfing so as to keep the apparent wind in the sails to a minimum.....Dave always hand steers during these heavy winds so he can keep the boat surfing safely! 

A fast ride to the BVIs

We arrived at the top of the BVIs in the afternoon, and headed past Necker Island (Richard Branson’s private island), the hurricane damage already clearly visible. The islands looked dry and desolate. While some greenery is coming back, you can see the trees have been stripped bare, or completely gone, and the damage to the buildings was devastating. Repairs on Necker Island are coming along nicely, and you could see a backhoe in Branson’s yard, but he has the money to repair, and repair quickly. The Bitter End Yacht club on the other hand, was a different story all together.

First images of the destruction:  Necker Island on the bottom left

We entered the reef between Prickly Pear Island and Virgin Gorda and sailed down towards where the Bitter End Yacht Club used to be. It was so eerie seeing this huge, empty mooring field, devoid of a single boat, when in times past it would have been jam packed. The Bitter End itself is pretty much gone, as is the resort on Saba Rock. It was a sobering moment to realize once again, the force of nature and how insignificant we are in the big scheme of things. We anchored behind Prickly Pear Island with a just a handful of other boats and listened to some goats bleating on the barren island. 

The Bitter End Yacht Club:  a terrible sight for anyone to see; heartbreaking for those who knew what it was like before.  The sign "Out of Order" on the mooring buoy says it all.  The Bitter End is "Closed for Renovations".  7 months after the storms, it still looks like a war zone

We joined the few boats anchored off the desolate Prickly Pear Island, but Gaby, our water baby, decided to swim off the back of the boat and wash all the sadness away.  As the sun set, a boat came by with a little girl sitting in the sail bag:  that is the cruising life!

The following morning, we made our way down along Virgin Gorda to “The Baths”, and although the islands may be damaged, the sailing is still spectacular, and we could see why it is such a popular sailing destination. We saw very few boats, and when we got to the Baths, there were only 2 other boats there. The Baths is a collection of huge granite boulders that seem to have been haphazardly tossed there, forming sheltered pool (“baths”) along the beach. It reminded us a lot of the Seychelles, particularly La Digue, where we saw similar huge granite boulders. There is a trail you can walk along, going over and through the rocks until you get to a beautiful sheltered bay called Devil’s Bay. Those of you who have been to the BVIs know all about it. It is usually crowded, but we did the walk by ourselves, only encountering a couple of groups of people on our way back from Devil’s Bay.

Cool Runnings anchored off The Baths in Virgin Gorda, BVI.  The photo on the bottom left shows the size of the rocks, when compared to the little people in the corner of the picture!

After enjoying the morning at the Baths, we continued our sail through the BVI, and checked in on Foxy’s and the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost van Dyke Island, both iconic BVI watering holes. Both have been repaired and both are open and operating again, but we could see no resemblance to the bay we remember anchoring in when we went to Foxy’s all those years ago when we chartered our first cat with Adrian and Garrick and their significant others. While much is being done to rebuild, you can still see debris strewn up on the hills behind the houses, bars and hotels, and the beautiful, thick, green vegetation is gone. But it will come back, as will the buildings and as will the boats.

We anchored that night off St. Thomas, and left very early the next morning, Monday, April 16th, on our first “passage” since our Atlantic crossing. We had 400 miles to go to get to the Turks and Caicos, and it would take us 4 days and 3 nights. The first day was magic, spinnaker up, 15 – 20 knots, doing good speeds and making good time. While we have flown the spinnaker at night on previous passages, we were a little nervous about the squalls we’d experienced just a few days before (remember the 36 knots!), so caution prevailed, and we took the spinnaker down and put up the mainsail and the jib. It was probably the wrong decision as the wind died and switched to almost directly behind us. Had we had our spinnaker up, we could have continued making decent speeds and possibly saved us an extra night at sea, but as it turned out, we battled along with 4 – 5 knots, the jib being almost useless as it was blanketed by the mainsail, and we slowly lost all the ground we’d gained during the day. The following day the spinnaker came back up, and although the wind was light, we had a decent sail that day, that night and the following day. By the third evening, we were coming up on Grand Turk, and while we’d originally planned to check in at South Caicos, we decided to go slowly through the night, and get to the entrance of the Caicos Bank by first light. We would then have the day to cross the bank, and reach Providenciales, the largest of the Turks and Caicos islands, by afternoon. We sailed on a sliver of a jib, and bobbed along at about 3 knots all night, making it to the entrance at about 7:00am. I believe this is the first time in the 2 years of cruising, that Dave purposely slowed down!!

This satellite image from our tracker showing the Turks and Caicos islands, and the shallow Caicos bank

The Caicos Bank is an area of about 40 miles of shallow water, between 8 – 20 feet deep, with a sandy, limestone bottom, strewn with coral heads, stretching out south from the Caicos Islands. We could only navigate this by day. The water color is like none we have ever seen before (except for Dave, who had sailed across the bank when bringing Cool Runnings home!). It is spectacular, with turquoise water as far as the eye can see. 

Sailing the Caicos Bank:  the water is just spectacular!

We had decided to follow Dave’s tracks and went to South Side Marina for a short “technical stop” as well as a Turks and Caicos sight-seeing stop. Dave had stopped here in 2013 when bringing the boat back.  Being in a marina allowed us (or should I say Dave!) to fit the 2 parts we had picked up in Martinique, as well as allowing us to do laundry (all sheets and towels…something which takes about 5 loads in our small machine, but was able to be done in one in the big marina machine!), and a last shop at the big IGA Supermarket. We also filled up with diesel and had our 3 LPG gas bottles refilled, so we are ready for the Bahamas! All of this should last us until we get home.

This is how you do it, baby!

We had a lovely dinner at an outdoor restaurant, Las Brisas, overlooking Chalk Sound, and we toured the island in our rental car, “Jo Jo”. We continued to marvel at the water color…it even reflects in the clouds, making the puffy white clouds have a beautiful, turquoise tinge. Even here, though, the destruction from the hurricanes can be seen, with the majority of the damage seeming to be to roofs that have either been partly or completely ripped off. 

Dinner at Las Brisas; our faithful rental, Jo Jo; Dave and I at Chalk Sound; a view of the Caicos Bank from the south side; Cool Runnings at South Side Marina; and that blue, blue water!

Our plan is leave here either today or Monday, and head toward the Bahamas. We are so close now, to our long awaited reunion with “Moby” whom we last saw in Capetown in December 2017! Loic’s 50th birthday is on April 28th, and Ben’s 14th birthday is on April 29th, so we’ve long been planning a joint birthday celebration. Hang on, Moby, we’re on our way! We are also looking forward to meeting s/v SandStar, a Lagoon 500 from our hometown, with 3 kids aboard, and a reunion with s/v Pandion, a Lagoon 440 who we met in the Dry Tortugas at the very start of our circumnavigation back in 2016.....both boats are within a few hundred miles of our current position in the Turks & Caicos, so we will meet everyone in the Bahamas in the coming days...we can't wait!!