The four of us haven’t sailed together in a couple of years. And our 5-month trip on “Towanda” lies almost ten years in the past. The kids where but 12 and 10 then and as lasting as the memories are, that adventure seems ages ago. Now we have two weeks with our two grown, independent college-kids to sail and explore and chill together. We are excited!
After a late and long breakfast on Christmas Day we clear for action, stow away loose items, and leave our anchorage at Jolly Harbour. In light winds in lee of Antigua we head north. Our plan is to wrap around the northern end and into a set of large protected bays that offer serene anchorages and many small islands.
Half way up the coast we discover a problem with the staysail furler that needs to be addressed. We pull into Dickinson Bay and drop anchor. A quick lunch and then we pull down the sail and investigate. My suspicion is proven right: the top furler drum’s ball bearing needs some grease. It is an easy enough fix and we are all good to go again.
But by now it is a bit late to make it around the island. Instead we find a nice place to overnight in Deep Bay. Evenings aboard follow a quaint routine: afternoon swim, sundowners for sunset, then we cook and enjoy a simple yet delicious meal together, clean up, and finally settle in our cockpit with tea to talk and play cards or a boardgame. It seems nothing much has changed since those days together in Greece. And we still love it.
On Thursday we enjoy a sail in perfect conditions over the top of Antigua. In lee of the island the waters are very calm and JACE cruises along without much motion. The wind is perfect at 12-15kn. We have to tack upwind which, in these conditions, is pure joy and any sailor’s dream. The area we sail through is quite shallow and sandy, giving the water an incredible huge of bright turquoise, and studded with reefs that further modulate the color into greens, yellows, and browns. It is unfortunately impossible to capture on camera but quite the scene for a day of sailing.
You can’t quite see it on our tracker as its resolution doesn’t show the details but we tack back and forth, often getting within a few hundred meters of the reefs, and slowly make it up and around the the northern coast inside the Boon Channel. Our destination is a large bay formed by Guiana Island and Great Bird Island and a protective barrier reef.
Here we find a few lovely anchorages and spend three days exploring and unwinding. The scenery is spectacular although the snorkeling here is not as outstanding as we had hoped.
Since the start of our trip, the temperature has moderated to just 26-28 degrees C and with the breeze it is quite comfortable and some of us (no names!) even bring out a light fleece jacket when sitting in the cockpit in the evening. Life aboard is good.
The kids both brought work with them and use part of that time on their laptops, Anika doing research for her master’s thesis and Kristoffer programming for a semester group project. Our starlink gets a good workout – and also is (finally) permanently mounted on the solar arch.
After five days we are running low on food and decide to leave and try our luck at the only small village in the area. We temporarily anchor and take the dinghy to the town dock. The village is but a small hamlet and we are reminded of the region’s economic reality. Karin and I walk through town and with some help of the locals find three ‘stores’. By our spoiled standards they barely deserve that label but between the three of them we find eggs, milk, some veggies, and a bit of frozen chicken. Although we could use more, we only buy a little; taking more than one milk from a store that has only three left just doesn’t feel right. Back at the port we see a few fishermen clean their catch. Since our own efforts at fishing so far have remained unrewarded, we buy a nice size grouper. Dinner has been secured!
Well, almost. Our BBQ grill has been acting up, not allowing sufficient gas flow. That triggers an afternoon ‘boat project’. Thankfully – once again we send a silent “Thank you” to Jeff and Lynne, who stocked JACE so well – we have the required spare part onboard. So we “only” have to unscrew the old gas regulator and replace it with the brand new identical one. Trouble it, after years of humidity and saltwater, that piece is so hopelessly seized that no amount of force is enough. With the help and ingenuity of both kids we try a bunch of things, lots of WD40, wrenches and hammers. But nothing works. In the end we use the Dremel to create flats on a brass wheel so we can hold it better with the wrench and with the help of a contraption of wood and rubber and a big hammer finally we succeed. We clean the old thread and grease it well and the new part goes on easily and, voila, the grill works again. The feeling of accomplishment makes the grouper taste even better.
On Monday we upanchor and leave the bay. We want to continue our clockwise circle around Antigua. Our guide book recommends to backtrack the Boon Channel all the way west before turning east again outside the dangerous barrier reef that lines the north coast. There is a possible cut in the reef but it is dangerous and it requires “local knowledge”. Lucky for us, a very large 100ft super yacht that was anchored next to us leaves at the same time and steers straight for that cut in the reef. We follow their AIS position closely on our chart plotter (navigation instrument) and mark their track with a series of waypoints that let us safely navigate the cut and save a couple of hours.
The sail today is a bit bumpy since we are now in the open Atlantic on the east coast with the swell rolling in unabated all the way from Africa. Our destination for today is Green Island and “Nonsuch Bay”, another large bay protected by a barrier reef. It is equally scenic and the snorkeling here is better.
We spend the afternoon fooling around in the water…
…and some of us get a little extra motherly attention.
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. Let’s see if we stay here or complete our circumnavigation back to English Harbour. We will decide tomorrow.