March update.

Having celebrated Sophies birthday, now it was time for our friends on Sun Set Sam to return from New Zealand, our girls were delighted and sang the "we've got friends on Sun Sat Sam..." song as we charged down the harbour to see them. It was great to be back amongst our cruising friends and we quickly got back into the old routines.
We set of for Barbuda together and were delighted by what we found at Cocoa beach. Absolutely beautiful beaches and very few other boats. There was one hotel far too smart to have any yachties in it. The parents of friends from Itchenor, the Clatworthies (The Clatworthy parents had been so kind to all us youngsters over the years in the South Of France).
were staying there, so we trooped ashore and were escorted to the Clatters room , by a security guard, where we were allowed a drink out of the eyesight of the hotel management.
We then went around the corner to an 11 mile beach, where the two cats were completely by themselves. Sophie suggested we walk to the end of the beach where there was a hotel, and after cajoling the kids with promises of sweets, Ice cream and drinks we found at the end of the longest walk that the hotel was brand new and would not open for a month. Queue a huge rain storm in which Kevin and I had to walk back along the beach to get the dinghies while the girls and kids sheltered in the hotel lobby with a security guard.
Following day it was really howling and we had to clear out of customs from the local village, called Codrington, and it lived up to its name. To get there we had to carry/drag the dinghies across a sand bar, then we had to motor across a lagoon about 2 miles wide. We all got horribly wet as by now it was blowing 25-30 knots. We arrived at Codrington and realized we had gone back in time. After visits to the the tourist office, customs, police station and immigration (which was in the front room of a house) we felt we had walked around the whole town as each was in a different place.
After this were free to leave, there isn't much else in Codrington. However we were just by the local school when the kids all came out. Our kids and a group of locals began to chat. The locals were intrigued to touch our girls blonde hair and visa versa. They couldn't believe the girls didn't go to school and lived on a boat.
The local girls homework was to write a poem about an animal, the choices of the locals were goats, horses and cats. We decided our girls would do the same homework. These sort of exchanges are just magic and just what we strive to achieve for our girls.
Next we tried to get some lobster, (Barbudas main export). but non were to be had as they were all being flown to Guadeloupe for their restaurants. However the van driver had saved two for his own dinner and on seeing the girls he gave them to us for the kids to try. We offered to pay him, but he would not accept any money. This is the Cara bean we love where the people are unjaded by the tourist and yachty grind. The Lobby were great and we the parents enjoyed every bit of them!
So if you ever have the opportunity to go to Barbuda, do it. It has wonderful beaches nice people and nothing else.
Because we went to Barbuda, we had to miss St Kitts and Nevis, so next stop was St Barts, (not the hospital).
On the way we were sailing along going about 9 knots in 18 knots of wind, when we saw a huge splash about 400 meters in front of the boat on the port bow, I thought it was rocks although a quick glance at the chart said there shouldn't be any there. This was quickly followed by a whale launching itself clean out of the water. The girls shrieked and I headed up to starboard immediately, afraid that we might hit it. Next thing the whale was ten meters from our port side. It was a humpback whale and was about 30 ft long. It swam past us and disappeared off into the distance on some nomadic migration. We were all ecstatic that we had seen another whale even if I secretly was bricking it as it was so close and I thought where you saw one you might see two or a whole herd.
Once we got to St Barts we anchored in the Anchorage, which was a bit like a moving mogul field, with huge waves and an incessant swell. As we were in the anchorage we had to pay a fee, for my most uncomfortable night ever!!
However St barts is french and we did enjoy seeing this mini St Tropez and all the mega yachts& shops. Sienna, insisted in riding her bicycle along the water font. As she has only had 3or 4 chances since she got it for Christmas we agreed however she insisted on riding it in the dinghy too.(see photo.) The others all, scootered or roller bladed down the main promenade. The mums spent their time looking in expensive looking French shop windows while the dads spent their time tutting at the prices and looking for a bar with the 6 nations rugby on.
)
From rolly old Gustave we went to bay Colombier which was magic. they had EU paid for buoys that were free to yachties and a beautiful beach and Bay. We ended up staying for several days.
Then we went on to St Maartin which is half Dutch and half French which just about sums the place up Because it doesn't know what it is..(You would never find a tiny island in anywhere in the world that was half English and half french). We went into the lagoon, through the dutch bridge, but anchored on the other side of the green buoys that showed we were in the french half. This is a great place to visit if you want boat work done, but we personally didn't like being cooped up inside the lagoon, so we made a dash for the French exit.
This sounds simple but involved heart stopping moments as our depth reached zero and the bridge we went through had two feet clearance on each side. Finally we cleared out and headed for the British Virgin Islands to meet our friends Nick and Margo Warner.The trip was 85 nm miles and we made it in about 12 hours in light winds, from dead behind. Our friends on Sun Set Sam left several days after us and ended up doing it in 21 hours.
Once we got to the BVI we found out that the Warners weren't due for a week. I have never been so lackadaisical about time and dates but being one week early kind of shows that we are fully in swing with the cruiser life.
Once in the BVI we had a great time. Especially with the Warners who joined us and Sun Set Sam.They chartered a boat from Horizon and we buddy boated around the BVI. A couple of points of interest were. On our second night we went to White bay, which has a beautiful long sandy beach and the famous Soggy dollar bar. However guess who hadn't checked the weather, the expert local tour guide MR P. This resulted in us staying in White bay with the wind blowing directly into it. The Warners, on a mooring next to the reef were literally rolling from gunwale to gunwale, and when I went to ask if they were all right, they both looked very green.(And margo has done the BT race around the world the wrong way!!). So after an hour or so we decided to move The Warners onto anchor. When the anchor finally bit it left Nick in the middle of the channel markers through the reef. Nick was a bit worried, but we assured him no body would move. So no surprise when a 65 foot Cat wanted to move about ten minutes later. That night Sophie and I were up half the night on this lee shore as the anchor chain was caught around something and was groaning very hard.We seemed to have wrapped ourselves around an underwater rock. Next morning at first light, I dove down on the anchor and found that we had six wraps around an old mooring pin. Luckily it was shallow enough to snorkel and unwrap ourselves. Just as I finished unwrapping the anchor, a 45 ft racing boat, drifted onto the reef. A small amarda of dingies went to help including the boys. One rib, flipped upside down, and there was general chaos. Eventually the boat was dragged off the reef. Too much excitement before my first morning coffee in my books by half.
The other note worthy points were.
1.THE WARNERS DID NOT RAISE THE MAIN SAIL IN A WHOLE WEEK!
2. We caught a fish one night, when I accidentaly left the line in, and the fish was a huge Porgie. Only for Margot to let it fall back into the water on purpose as she was getting the hook out of its mouth.
3. Margot caught a Geko for the girls, which the girls all took turns to hold and squeeze until it was minus a tail and deaded.
4. We had the best BBQ on the beach at Dead Mans Bay (Famous for yoh ho ho and deadmans chest). See photos.

Good Bye Sun Set Sam.
Finally the day came to say good by to our friends on Sun Set Sam. We had cruised with them from the Balearic's in Spain and had some really great times over a 8 month period. We all went over in the dinghy to say our sad farewells, Sophie had her sun glasses on even though it was cloudy, so nobody could see her tears, when all of a sudden she fell in the water as she climbed onto sun set Sam from our dinghy. Good old Soph there wasn't a dry pair of eyes or nickers on the boat as we all wet ourselves laughing. What a way to say good bye with mascara smeared everywhere and dripping wet. (Sun Set Sam went to Panama for a bit of canal boating).

Our new figure head

The Burnet boys plus the Belles

Ringo behind the dinghy

bicycling in the dinghy.

Time to get the ensign down

Girls at Nelsons dockyard

Mad rowing boats

Admiral Tallulah

Admiral Imy

Admiral Sienna

Jom and Graine

It was too hot to kiss normally.

Sophies Cake made by the girls


Fancy dress for the party

CHARGING NORTH IN FEB

Charging North
After putting Wind Belle back in the water, we charged north from Grenada, only stopping briefly to say goodbye to our friends on Tabasco of Sweden.
As you go north in the windward isles you tend to be going northish while the wind tends to come from the north east, which means that you are generally on a close hauled fetch. In addition to the wind you have the waves which can be quite large as they have rolled across the Atlantic until they meet you and the islands. I.e. its not much fun and can be quite to very uncomfortable.
The highlight of our trip north must have been Martinique, which is 20 miles from St Lucia, but is actually still part of France. We stayed in a lovely bay called St Anne, which has a beautiful church and village square as if you were in France. While we were there we saw a lot of people in Costumes, men dressed as women, women dressed as men and the kids dressed in all sorts of colours. It turned out to be Carnival, and it lasted three days, with masses of noise every night and marching bands and dancing in the streets.
The other thing about French Islands is the amount of investment compared to the previous English Islands. So when you go to a supermarket, it really is super and has all the same stuff as France.
After St Anne we went to St Pierre which is also in Martinique, it came to fame as a place where a volcano erupted and killed all the towns people except the prisoner in the darkest deepest dungeon. We didn’t hang around. We also saw a school of over 50 dolphin Yawn yawn. Actually we still get very excited every time we see one.
We stopped briefly in Dominica, but have little to say except that as the guide book said the wind can howl on the leeward side of the Island. We saw 38 knots but luckily as we were sailing in the lee the sea was very smooth and we scooted along with only one reef in.
Then on to Guadeloupe, where we really liked the Saints. This is a picture post card village, and again you get fresh baguettes and croissants.
From Guadeloupe we went to English harbour Antigua, which is where the famous Nelsons dockyard is. It is great fun to walk around as it feels like a very active dockyard, not a museum, and you can just imagine what it was like in Nelsons days.
What a drag!
We anchored in Freeman’s bay right by the beach, where the wind swirls around and around and you tend to meet you neighbour in the middle of the night. We spent the night dragging, the same thing happened the next night and we had anchor watch on. I.e. very little sleep. The wind was forecast to increase to 30 knots so we decided to move into the mangroves for a nice safe anchorage.
Bumper boats in the Mangroves.
We did the text book manoeuvre, and dropped our anchor to fall back towards the mangroves which we would tie a stern rope around. So far so good, until our bow fell off and we dragged onto a charter boat. Then we both got tangled and both locked together started to drag, our anchors wrapped together and mostly around our starboards propeller. We then drifted rather swiftly towards the Sunsail charter base and fleet, Sophie made a diving lunge with a bit of rope and tide up to a moored boat. And the armada ground to a halt. Ironically we were only feet away from our friends on Sun Set Sam who had left their boat safely tucked up in the mangroves while they went back to New Zealand for three weeks. I kept praying we would not hit them and Sophie kept praying that Scottie would beam us up.
After a bit of help from Sunsail base team and the TMC charter boat Captain and crew who turned out to be from Chichester Yacht club, we found out the problem. We had snagged a disused mooring, and all its chains and ropes that had been lying on the bottom unseen since Nelsons days. (IE not buoy or float).Sophie was in tears and I was in quite a state. At this moment a group of rubber neckers turned up in a water taxi. Sophie was about to tell them where to go when she recognized them as Jim and Graine her parents who had turned up as a surprise to celebrate her very important birthday that weekend. Even more tears followed and flowed. This also explains why I had made us sail through the windy and rough weather from Grenada, as I knew Jim and Graine were coming, but couldn’t tell Sophie or slow down the boat, however ill or tired we were all feeling.
We also saw fellow Itchenor members, Nigel and Elizabeth Pattison, we could spot them easily as they swam around the bay in white sun hats. It is a wonder that one of the sunsail boats didn’t try to moor up to them. Elizabeth put on a superb High tea on their boat Chantel for the girls. The girls really enjoyed the Cucumber sandwiches and popcorn dipped in marmite. Sadly Elizabeth and Nigel had sold Chantel that day so it will be our last high tea in the Caribbean.
Birthdays and grockles
For Sophie’s birthday we went to Nonsuch Bay and Harmony Hall for lunch, after a great meal we anchored off Green Island which was great. So good that we stayed for 3 days. It is just like all the holiday brochures except no hotels or people or so we thought. Now I am not a snob, well not a huge one but….As we sat on our deserted beach, with only two other boats at anchor, a rib arrived with 20 people, 20 minutes later a sailing cat turned up with 30 people, then a huge motor cat turned up with 60 people and music blaring. Suffice to say that the once deserted beach now was as packed as bennidorm and there were more tattoos and beer guts than I have ever seen and that was just on the women. However after an hour our friends from package holiday land left and we had the place all to ourselves once again. As we had a full moon we did a beach BBQ, the girls did a good job foraging for wood and sticks and some local fishermen gave us their spare wood.
Atlantic rowers
While we were in English harbour a boat from the Atlantic rowing challenge arrived, with two French men in after 72 days crossing the ocean. We were amazed to see the size of their boat and the exposed position that they had to row in. In addition we couldn’t believe that they had spent quite so long in the boat. See photos. We also saw or a four man or a should say women boat arrive some two days later. The women had to be helped from the boat and were understandably wobbly on their feet. The youngest women was 17 yrs old. It seemed our own crossing in Wind Belle was a walk in the park by comparison. I respect their achievements but think they must be mad.
2 degrees of separation.
While anchored off Pigeon beach in Falmouth, two people swam up to the boat. They said " I know it sounds funny, but I think your brother operated on our daughter two days ago". And so it turned out that ben had done a op for the ST Johns who were subsequently out in Antigua staying at there house across the bay. What a small world.
A head for heights.
While in English harbour we climbed up the hill from the Calabash to Shirley heights. It was quite a climb for the kids and I hated the vertical drop offs on each side. But after about 40 minutes we arrived at the top to see one of the best views in the world, and also a very well deserved rum punch. As it was Thursday the crowds that are normally there on a Sunday were not around so we almost had the place to ourselves.
Old friends.
We were delighted to meet up with our friends the Burnets who were staying in Willoughby bay for two weeks. They provided a welcome refresh on the UK social scene. Amazingly we had met Lucy and Simon at antenatal classes in Clapham when Imy was due. The Burnet boys and the Pudney girls got on like a house on fire and we enjoyed the catching up on all the gossip from home. Lucy very kindly invited us to the house they were staying at , and we took all our laundry, The girls also enjoyed having an unlimited shower, while Sienna, said she liked a house because it had grass.
While in English harbour we also saw Debbie and Ras and also a whole contingent of Itchenor elder folk, who had stopped in Antigua as part of their cruise liner trip.
Finally we caught up with Alistair Ashford and Jackie plus Steve Roose at the horizon base in Antigua. They have a tremendous operation and Antigua has many cruising stops so give them a call if you want a fun but windy week or two.

The boat comes out of the water

Waterfall