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23rd January - 16th February 2005
stretch of the journey for its variety and some off-the-beaten-track locations.
In Antigua we imported some female company to join us for a week’s exploratory cruise around
the island: after all we’re tired of pointing the camera at each other, and the scene is infinitely
enhanced by the addition of two bright attractive bikinis on the foredeck!!! Hilary Wells flew in en-
route from Chile back to California, and Alice Sagar-Musgrave flew out from London for a
second week aboard Skardu.
We enjoyed Antigua very much; English Harbour was probably the loveliest, most attractive
natural harbour we've visited in the Caribbean. Named after Lord Horatio Nelson (who was
commander here for some years), the historic Dockyard has been immaculately and
sensitively restored into a living breathing active marina - the best possible balance between
preservation and re-use we've seen for a very long time. Back in the days of buccaneers and
pirates who would strike out their daring raids from hidden coves seeking gold from over-laden
galleons, English Harbour was the English Navy's base in the Caribbean, when they were
battling the Spanish, French and Dutch for control of the respective islands…lots of interesting
history.
We had a fun and relaxing week with Alice & Hilary, sailing a full circuit around the island, and
anchoring in idyllic settings surrounded by aquamarine waters, powder-white sandy beaches,
deserted islands, and complex coral reefs (challenging to navigate through, fun to snorkel
around). For the first time since Mallorca in September it felt like we too were on holiday, and we
appreciated the change of pace and peaceful tranquility of the remoter isolated bays.
We saw lots of large sea turtles swimming around us in the anchorages, and caught a few
barracuda and tuna - our Caribbean fishing demons had finally swum away!! Consequently our
BBQ grill (hung off the aft pushpit) is getting lots of use: perhaps half our onboard dinners are
cooked on it and we've perfected the art of grilling fish and choko's - 'al fresco' fresh cooking at its
best, and all healthy stuff!
Back in our anchorage in English Harbour we went seeking some local action – we all climbed
up through the bush and cacti on the nearby hill to an old fort called Shirley Heights, overlooking
the harbour, for a great weekly barbeque and Caribbean ‘jump-up’ party – steel & reggae bands
driving the crowds to a frenzy, Rasta dreadlocks swaying to the beat, sexy winin’ dance moves
from the locals (gratuitous hips-n-arse wiggling, writhing, grinding, and gyrating)… lots of fun!
The girls were good company for the week, but had to return to their respective professional lives
in California and London, leaving us to return to the more mundane realities of this sailing life…
we spent the following 5 days catching up with maintenance work on the yacht! Amongst the
tasks at hand were the following typical jobs: we received the spare parts for our broken anchor
windlass (shipped in on special order from New Zealand!), Mark spent hours clearing them
through customs, and finally repaired the internal mechanism; Q re-painted the hull topside navy
stripes, and affixed the new silver 'Skardu' & 'Westerly Oceanlord' graphic name-decals to each
side of the hull (only 6 months after starting the job!); we tested our watermaker for the first time,
and it's now working: converting salty sea water to fresh drinking water – amazing!
Molly McDaniel then flew out from St Lucia to join us and gain some night-sailing experience on
our sail via Barbuda to Sint Maarten. Barbuda was uniquely different: low-lying amongst some of
the most dangerous coral reefs (which we successfully navigated by standing half-way up the
mast on the spreaders, wearing Polaroid sunglasses to see the reefs ahead), it is ringed with
miles and miles of completely deserted white sandy beaches, is home to the world's largest
colony of frigate birds, and the only local populace live in one 'hicksville' sleepy village away from
the coast and behind a lagoon. No paved roads on the island, no yacht facilities at all, and we had
our anchorages and an 11-mile beach all to ourselves! Perfect isolation. We carried ‘Andy’ the
Avon over a sandy spit to cross the lagoon and visit the 'metropolis' of Codrington - a real one
horse town; we ate a grand EC5dollar (2USdollar) supper of curried-chicken roti and a
Guinness, sitting on breeze-blocks outside a wooden shack, on the main crossroads in the
centre of town, greeting the occasional passer-by on a donkey, and soaking up the sleepy
atmosphere!
From there it was overnight past St Barts to the Dutch side of Sint Maarten (this island is split
between France and the Netherlands, making it the smallest area in the world divided into two
countries' dependencies. The border is entirely theoretical, and without border posts, yet each
part is administered differently and culturally very distinct). Upon arrival Q came down very
suddenly with Tonsillitis and a fever of 103deg, but we had some super-strong antibiotics in our
medical kit that sorted him out in 3 days. While Q suffered, Mark ran a series of errands ashore
as planned, and Molly scurried off to do PR work for Marigot Bay amongst the super-yachts in
the swanky marinas, by flirting with all the skippers!
Mark's business-school friend Peter Jarman flew in from Salt Lake City to finally join us (we had
to cancel his previous attempt to join us in the Canaries after our engine packed in), and we
departed before Q had even set foot ashore!! With Peter and Molly we then spent 4 days
exploring Anguilla, followed by another couple of days visiting the French side of St. Martin.
Anguilla is still a British dependency, and a lovely quiet place, with much unspoilt natural rugged
beauty. Despite the extortionate cruising-permit fees, we loved our time there – on one
particularly gorgeous bay we swam within 2 feet of a barracuda, and pelicans were regularly
diving into the sea from some height to pluck fish after fish from the teeming waters, not more
than 10 feet from where we were swimming!!! The wind blew up and we had some excellent day-
sailing between the islands, and yet more barracuda and tuna on the lines. One tuna bit as we
were throwing the line in, but was itself consumed by Jaws himself before we could reel it in - all
that was left on the hook was the head in front of a clean bite! Yikes!!
Arriving in (another) Marigot Bay, the capital of French St Martin, we were surprised and
impressed by the delightful atmosphere and ambience - quite different from other Caribbean
Islands. The best of the French influence could be strongly felt in the architecture, landscaping,
fashions, cuisine etc. Both Peter and Molly departed us there, but very unfortunately Molly came
down with a fever on her last night with us, insisted on getting on the plane back home, only to be
rushed to a doctor upon return to be diagnosed with Dengue Fever, of all things… a horrible, life-
threatening tropical disease that sends you into a state of delirium and has no treatment. We’ve
no idea when she got bitten by the dodgy mozzie, but thankfully she recovered after 3 miserable
weeks of suffering.
From there we returned to the Dutch side of Sint Maarten on the 16th Feb, to tie up at Island
Water World Marina in Simpson Bay lagoon, and prepare the yacht for 9 months crossing the
Pacific.
