Return to Antigua
Jolly Harbor, Antigua.
We sail to Antigua and just catch our friends on SV Wychcraft and SV Gerty before they leave. We have a lovely evening together where we tell stories about all that had happened since we last met them in Cape Verde (SV Wychcraft) and the Azores (SV Gerty). The next day we parted ways again. It is amazing to me that such a gathering could ever happen. We each met the other two boats independently, yet recognized the same kindred spirit, kept in touch and made this connection of the three boats.
Fantastic evening onboard Wychcraft.
We also helped out the crew of SV Zora with some metal work on Rhys’ wind vane steering oar. We first met Zora in Martinique, however we had corresponded with them years before through the boat building project. Rhys rebuilt his boat from a bare hull in Ireland and has posted some Youtube videos of the project.
The next few days we prepared the boat to leave her in Antigua as we were to return home for a month to attend to Brent and Kianna’s wedding. We had made a reservation at the marina in Jolly Harbor, but at the last minute we were offered the use of a dock behind a condominium at a fraction of the cost. This was perfect and at the end of February we moved her in place and flew home.
Family time.
It was so nice to have the family back together and to celebrate with Brent and Kianna on their wedding day. The weather turned out perfectly and all our hard work to get the house back in tip top shape after 11 months absence was well worth it.
Before we knew it, a month had passed and we flew back to Helacious in Antigua with much more luggage than we went home with. New solar panels, new foul weather gear, new parts, spare parts. We had a few days to get some projects done before guests arrived, so out came the sewing machine.
An extra 100 watts added to our solar bank.
While we were in Freemans Bay the last of the Talisker trans-Atlantic solo rowers arrived. A Norwegian lady had rowed from the Canary Islands to Antigua, it took her 113 days. It was so much fun to be present for the event, the airhorns and cheers from anchored boats were deafening.
With our good friends Lee and Lys we explored English Harbor and climbed Shirley Heights. It was just as steep as I remembered from two years ago. The cacti and flowers were just as beautiful.
We walked out to the Fort and up the hill for the fine views
We sailed over to Green Island and scored lobster one evening for dinner. Only locals are allowed to spear fish so we were fortunate it was Easter weekend and a local family had simply caught too many for their celebrations, they came and offered a couple to us.
Then it was just us two again, we decided to head up to Barbuda for a short break. Barbuda is about 30nm north of Antigua, but under the same governance. In fact we were hoping we could spend a few days there, then check out from Barbuda, instead of having to sail back south to Antigua merely for customs and immigration clearance. However after 5 days in Barbuda, our supplies were running low and there was insufficient wind for our onward passage, so we reluctantly returned for a few days until we could leave and sail north to St Martin.
While in Barbuda we had some wonderful sunsets and the water was so calm and clear we could see the anchor chain winding away from the boat.
We also treated ourselves to an early farewell Caribbean luncheon at a very nice resort out on the tip of Barbuda, called Barbuda Belle. Lunch was lovely, but staying a night in the cabins at over $1500 a night seemed a little steep to us (the WiFi was free!).
Sailing back to Antigua we caught an enormous Spanish Mackerel. We filleted it, and only then read up on the incidence of ciguatera poisoning in the Caribbean. In every article we found the one common fish mentioned was Spanish Mackerel. We reluctantly, and guiltily discarded our catch back into the ocean. It was just not worth the risk to get poisoned by this dangerous and unpredictable neurotoxin. That would quickly put an end to our trip. A lesson was learned, no more fishing in warm shallow waters.
We waited for the weather window for our passage north. Finally winds were from the SE and sufficient to move Helacious onwards. We set sail the afternoon of April 30th and sailed an overnight passage to arrive the next morning in Marigot Bay, St Martin.