Antigua- Guadeloupe

While in at Nelsons Dockyard Marina, we had North Sails come and take the main sail and the sail bag away for repairs. The Leech cord on the Main had broken and there was also some chaffing damage on the Battern Holders from the Atlantic crossing to attend to. The sail bag was also starting to look a bit shabby so thought it was a good time to get that fixed up as well. I got them to modify the reefing Line exits as they were never properly in line with the points on the sail. I was a bit worried about the cost of these repairs, especially being on a small Island and the lack of options here in getting sails repaired, but I needn’t of. They were very professional and friendly and they came and helped take the sail and bag away, did the repairs and helped put it back on for $700, which we thought was pretty reasonable, considering they had gone over the whole sail and checked/repaired everything. We have done nearly 8000 Nautical miles by now, so like me it was starting to show a bit of age!

                   In at Nelsons Dock with the sad sail bag

We met a couple of Kiwis here as well. One guy who called himself ‘Stretch’ was a Volunteer Crewman on a tall ship named ‘Lord Nelson’ The ship travels around the world taking underprivileged/handicapped kids and people on its journeys.

I take my hat of to the whole set up and the dedication people like ‘Stretch’ put into this activity. The only trouble I had was keeping up with him in the Beer drinking, the guy drank like a fish!

The other guy we met whilst at anchor out on the entrance to the Harbour. We heard someone yell out ‘KiaOra!’ at the top of his voice and after inviting him over, we were introduced to Bob who was actually an ex pat Brit but had lived in NZ for a lot of his life. He sailed his 60 ft ketch ‘Vero’ on his own, which must have been no easy task. When in the wheelhouse you couldn’t see either the Stern or the Bow, God knows how he got it into a Marina. Whilst small in stature, he was larger than life and his exploits made what were doing pale in comparison.

We were at anchor one day and were both down below reading, sheltering from the odd rain squall that was coming through. ‘Little Falshator’ our tender was tethered to the stern. The rain stopped and I came up to have a swim. I noticed the tender had a different look to it, more streamline on top. On closer inspection, I realized it was upside down with the outboard under water! A wind gust had come along and lifted her out of the water and flipped her over.

We lost both oars as well, (never leave your oars sitting loose in the tender John)

found one floating, but the other was gone. After various attempts to breathe life back into the outboard, I gave up and we had to go back to the marina to get hold of the local Outboard mechanic. He took it away and had it back running in no time, even pulling the whole power head off and freeing up the gearshift that had always been a bit stiff since we bought it.  So over all we were happy with the local service guys at English Harbour and the work they did there.

                Veiw from the boat of the Old Port Buildings

       A sober reminder of the consequences when things go wrong

We spent a couple of days in at Jolly Harbour, which is a great harbour for shelter and must be a favourite to hide in around here in the Hurricane season, even with the care that has to be taken on the approaches to the harbor which are pretty shallow in parts. And the good thing about it, is they had a proper Supermarket-even a deli!

     Jolly Harbour, complete with Water edge Apartments with dock parking outside

We left Antigua and headed for Guadeloupe with the Gennaker  up, but with light winds(4-5 knts), it took all day to cover the 45 miles.

We went through the immigration process at Deshaies, which was a pleasant surprise. Unlike some of the over the top authorities we have dealt with in the past, you simply walk into a craft shop and enter your details into a Computer, print off the form and sign it. Job done.

It has been good to get back to a place with European Influence and the price of things on Guadeloupe are a lot cheaper than some of the other Islands of the Caribbean we have been to where things like Fuel, food and drinks had been  pretty expensive.

In the main Harbour in Guadeloupe, we were anchored in front of another Yacht and as you do frequently, ended up meeting the owners who just happened to be passing by in their tender. Barbara and Stuart Hart were from Maine in the States and after selling every thing up, had been out on their boat for quite a few years. Along with Ken and Lyn, who were from Canada, we caught a bus into the town of Basse Terre one day and spent the day wandering around there taking in the local atmosphere. We ended up having Barbara and Stuart on board two nights in a row and they were great company.

We are at present in at Les Saints, which is on a little island off the bottom end of the main Island of Guadeloupe. Les Saints is a beautiful spot and with clear water, plenty of snorkeling areas, (we are right now on a buoy with a sunken boat behind us about 4 meters away!) The weathers hot and we are spending a fair bit of time in the water here trying to keep the body temps in check. 

                 Les Saints and its quaint streets

      Our local Internet cafe, you have to purchase Beer here to get the Wifi, bugger!

                     Fishing boats on the shore, looking out to the Mooring Buoys

   We actually saw a tender that was smaller than ours! (Little Falsahtor is in front) note the one oar :)

            Banished to the smokers deck

We intend to spend a bit of time here before we depart for the ABC Islands off the coast of Venezuela around the 5^th February, on route to Panama. Looking forward to Bonaire especially, as its rated one of the top three Dive Spots in the world, hopefully get this old body into the wet suit again and experience some great dives there!

Caribbean Islands

Caribbean Islands

BVIs

After clearing through Immigration via a very auspicious and serious Immigration Official in at Spanish Town in Virgin Gorda, we settled into the laid back Island way of life.

There wasn’t a lot in Spanish Town with a small Grocery Shop, small and very expensive Chandlery and not much else besides a couple of Bars/Restaurants, but that was OK by us.

We caught a Taxi over to ‘The Baths’ where we were told you had to go and see as it was a highlight of the area. We both didn’t think it would be much at all, but when we got there it was Fantastic. It is a series of giant Granit Boulders that have been forced out of the earth at some stage down at the waterfront and there was a track you followed through them, under them and over them which had pools of crystal clear water in them. It lead you to a beautiful beach where we all had swims and then back through the Caves/ Boulders to the Restaurant at the top where you had a fresh water swim in the pool there to wash off the salt. It was a great day out and would fully recommend it.

We set sail and headed for Nanny Cay marina spending some time at ‘Deadmans Bay’ and the resort on the exclusive Peter island.

At Nanny Cay Marina, we dropped off our torn Gennaker and the Genoa that had begun to delaminate for repairs and headed back out over to Norman Island which is where Robert Louis Stevenson based the novel ‘Treasure Island’ on.

Norman Island has various bays we spent nights in including Little Harbour, Great Harbour and ‘The Bight’. We spent Xmas day at the Bight, got introduced to the game ‘Ginga’ (where its debatable , but I think I was the champion) and had several swims, including one with a local Turtle. It was a popular place going by the number other boats anchored there.

                                Christmas Breakie on the Boat, well done Shells!

Went back to Nanny Cay marina for one night, filled up with Diesel and picked up our sails. Nanny Cay marina is great and has a lot going for it with everything there and a great atmosphere at the Beach Bar/Pool.

It was then down to the eastern end of Tortala (Pussers Landing) where we dropped Alex off. He had been onboard since the canaries but was time to say good bye as he was heading up to Florida for Christmas.

We then went over to Joost Van Dyke, which is your epitome of the Caribbean Islands. It has little Islands like Sandy Spit, where the whole island takes 3 minutes to walk around and has clear water and white sand, a tiny amount of vegetation, one Palm tree  and that’s it! Beautiful!

We spent several days here and frequented the great spots including ‘Foxys Bar’ and The Soggy Dollar ‘ Bar in White Bay.  In White Bay lagoon we had around 250-300 mm under the Keel whilst at Anchor but felt very secure in there.

We left The BVIs via the ‘Bitter End’ at the top of Tortala and after clearing Customs headed out going past Richard Bransons’ Island where he is rebuilding his ‘holiday home’ after the fire. What a fantastic looking set up he’s got there.

It was hard on to get to St Maarten and we arrived at night and anchored in Simpson Bay there. After immigration,  we went through the Lift Up bridge and into the lagoon which didn’t have a lot of room for anchoring and was pretty shallow in parts.

We spent New Years eve going out for Dinner with friends David and Barbara from Boston USA, whom we meet in the Yacht Club there. After dinner it was down to the beach at Simpsons Bay to the various Beach Bars and to watch the Fireworks going off at Midnight.

We hired some scooters to explore the Island and one of the highlights was going to the Beach by the airport to watch the planes coming in low over the beach and landing just meters away.  Crazy place with people everywhere.

We met some other Kiwis there including the Henry Family from Mangatangi, who farm just down the road from where we lived in Ararimu. They were in the process of taking their Boat back to New Zealand as well, after buying it in the Med. Unfortunately they had come a cropper after running over a Cray Pot and smashing the Gearbox in their boat resulting in having to sit at Anchor for days waiting for Parts. They knew two lots of friends of ours from back in NZ and it  just goes to show how small our World is.

After St Maarten we headed over to St Barths where the real rich and famous hang out. The boats there made ‘Falshator’ look like a matchbox toy. I for one couldn’t see why the place is so popular but it is definitely the place to be seen, especially around New Years Eve.

We are at present in Antigua after another challenging sail to wind and into 25-30 knots, but it is another beautiful Island and we have explored a lot of it via a Four Wheel Dive buggy we hired for the day. We are in at the Nelson Dockyard marina which is a Historical park and has some great well kept buildings there from a by gone era and makes for an interesting contrast from your usual Marinas. 

                        Tori on the Island transport system!

                    Dinner at the Antigua Yacht Club

Atlantic Crossing

TRANS ATLANTIC

                                    Team Falshator ready to go

We dropped our lines and headed out 5pm on the evening of the 20^th November.

Whilst the outlook wasn’t the best with South west winds predicted, the decision was made to go as the longer forecast didn’t look that much better and we would like to get to the BVIs before Tori our daughter arrives on the 10^th December. As well as that, Ally our crew member had just heard confirmation of a Job placement in the Panama on a boat there and needed to get there asap.

So we were on the nose for the first couple of nights with 2-3 meter seas, which wasn’t too bad but there were 30-knot winds thrown in with the squalls so the reefing lines were working overtime.

We saw dolphins along side of the boat and they were jumping out of the water some two meters. They looked like marlin on the end of a line. The first time I’d seen Dolphins jumping this high, they looked happy in their play.

The wind was predicted to come round to the North east on the second day but it seemed to be dragging its chain a bit with this and after three days it had just managed to come round to the North. All this time there were rain squalls with wind attached coming through making the nights interesting when you are on watch on your own. As night time came about and the first shift was due, we would reef her down and depower the boat for the night passage, making life aboard a bit more comfortable, and when the squalls hit, it wasn’t that bad to ease the main and absorb them.

What this did of course was slow our average boat speed down though, but the crew and the boat had to be looked after, as it was going to be a long trip.

I was hoping that if we made an average of 6.5 knots per hour for the whole trip, then we should get into Virgin Gorda in plenty of time.

While the boat was capable of gong faster, it had to be taken into account the heavy load it was carrying with full tanks of water, fuel, extra jugs of fuel, food, spare water (in case the water maker went on holiday) and of course the crew. All this adding up to extra loading on the boat, her rigging and of course Wally, our auto pilot. J

The fourth day I caught a Mahimahi after the line had been out the back of the boat no more than 10 minutes, so it was fresh fish for breakfast and the balance made into raw fish which was superb. We have been eating well on board with Ally and Alex preparing most of the meals so far and lots of fresh produce and great meals with it.

            Alex showing me the USA delight- Apple and Peanut Butter

                         7 Knots of Breeze and sunshine

At this time of writing we have just past the halfway mark. We are down at the 19-degree mark and there is still no sign of these ’Trade Winds’ that are supposed to be here. It has been pretty frustrating with shifty and variable winds, which at night drop down to 6 knots so the engine is being used.

We have topped the tanks up with extra fuel and still have another 6o hrs of motoring left , but I hope these trade winds kick in shortly, otherwise we are in for a long trip!

There has been a couple of damages with the Genoa having to come down and Shelly and I sewing a patch on the Leech of the sail as it was starting to delaminate. The forward shower pump has decided to play up and we are using the main saloon one. Two Battern holders in the main have blown out so I took the batterns right out as we don’t need them for down wind running and I had to shorten the 1^st reefing lines again as they were starting to chaffe through again. This time adding some tape around them to try and help with the Chaffe

The halfway mark was celebrated by a compulsory swim in the middle of the Atlantic and we couldn’t get over how warm it was, with 27 degrees showing on the Chartplotter.

We are maintaining a course of around 260 degrees which is heading us west but also dropping us down the Latitudes as well. Hopefully find those ‘Trade winds’ shortly!

The balance of the trip was pretty frustrating with little to no winds, I think these ‘Trade Winds’ are a bit of a myth as we never saw them. We had 6-10 knots for most of the trip and at times no wind at all, which enabled us to have another swim in the beautiful clear and warm water. We had competitions for the best dives, I don’t think any of them were pushing for the Olympics and there were a few groans from the body flops.

                                Flat out, zzzz

At least we had plenty of food and water and the superb meals kept coming out of the Galley.

We would fly the Gennaker on its own during the days and in the light winds, this kept us at a rate of 4-7 knots.

The decision was made to try and keep the Gennaker flying into the night to try and keep the progress going, but it came back to bite us.

A squall came through and through a certain situation, we rounded up and tore the sail.  We did patch it with tape and sewing, but this only lasted another 8 hrs before it went again.

                        It wasn't pretty but it gave us anther 8 hrs!

This would hurt us in the light winds as we had trouble just with the main and Genoa up. They were back winding due to the sea state and giving the goose neck on the Main a hard time. Which meant running just with the poled out Genoa or motoring.

The engine had been serviced in Las Palmas and the Tech there changed the oil to a heavier type-SAE30 and put a ‘special’ additive in it, apparently to arrest the oil consumption problem we had been having.

What this did was cause the engine to burn more fuel and instead of the 3.2 litres per hour as it has always done, the fuel burn went up to 3.7 litres per hour.

This made us run severely low on fuel and we had to call in at St Martin to grab some more. Going into Oyster Pond marina at night was not easy, there were no Navigational lights there as was displayed on the chart and there was surf both sides of the narrow channel. Needless to say, I think I aged 10 years getting in there. Then we found the ‘Fuel depot’ which was displayed on the chart was only for Commercial Vessels only and we had to catch a taxi with our empty Jugs to the local Petrol Station to get some Diesel. All fun and games, but we got it and headed back out with 100 liters on board and making for Virgin Gorda some 100 miles still to go.

The last 100 miles was probably the best sailing we had had on the entire crossing with 15-20 knots and a beam reach all the way.

Arriving at the Marina, we were greeted by the friendly staff there and once Falshator was tied up, it was Rums all round on board then up to the bar for a Celebratory Drink which went on into the night and a few hangovers were on board the following morning

We met up with Tori, our youngest daughter and her friend Logan the next day and it is great to have them on board. They had flown a long way to catch up with us and looked pleased to be on board although a little shattered by the Journey.

The weathers great and its time to enjoy the BVIs and all it has to offer!