Today was a slower day for us.  The weather pattern in Antigua has been such that there are high winds and short rain squalls in the morning.  Then, by the afternoon, it typically clears up and is absolutely gorgeous.  The sky is usually a beautiful, deep blue and as it shines on the water, it makes it shimmer.  There have been some big northerly swells in the area lately.  While we don’t really see the swells themselves, they tend to make the water less clear.  This is what has happened in our anchorage off of Maiden Island.  When we first got here, the water was so cloudy that we couldn’t see the fish when snorkeling.  Now, we are able to see them if they are within five feet of us. 

Yesterday I was cooling off in the water behind our boat.  There were three yellowish-colored starfish beneath our boat, each between six to twelve inches wide.  I love seeing these and they always make me smile.

Yesterday we were also lucky enough to meet new friends from England.  They anchored their boat beside us and we started chatting.  They invited us over for “sundowners.”  We love getting to talk to others and hear their stories.  This was a family whose two grown daughters were onboard, along with their young son.  It is always fun to learn about the differences in the cultures.  While we were there, their anchor began to drag and we almost hit the boat behind them.  As soon as we saw what was happening, everyone sprung into action.  Steve went to the back of the boat to manage our dingy to be sure that it wasn’t run over and that the line doesn’t get wrapped behind the propeller.  The daughter and her significant other grabbed the paddleboard that was floating behind the boat and brought it onboard.  The tube that was floating behind the boat was tied pretty tightly to the back of the boat, but I watched to ensure that it didn’t go underneath the boat as the captain was backing it up.  Liz, the mom, ran to the front of the boat to reset the anchor chain and the captain was at the helm station using the engine to keep the boat off of the one behind and to move up on the anchor so that it could be pulled up and reset.  The crisis was averted and we went back to drinking our Rum Punches.  Apparently their anchor dragged again last night and at 10:30p or so they had to reset it again.  We’ve had strong gusts of wind blowing and the holding is a combination of grasses, crushed conch shells, and whole conch shells.  So, it isn’t the best holding.  We even put out more scope (anchor chain) one night to be sure that our anchor wouldn’t drag.

On Christmas morning, the people in the boat behind us in the bay of Maiden Island dingied past and asked if we would like to join them for drinks later in the day.  That was perfect.  So, around 5p we dingied over to their boat, Prax, and climbed aboard.  They had invited the other three boats in the bay to join as well, two of which did so.  August and Oi, from Prax, were traveling with their dog, Gigi, who was adorable.  This was their first year sailing, as August just retired as a professor at Yale.  The other two attendees were single-handed sailors – Martin from the Netherlands and Mike, from the USA.  We had “sundowners” with everyone for Christmas Eve and talked about sailing adventures.  August and Oi were such gracious hosts.  They invited us to stay for Thai curry dinner and they also had a fruit cake for dessert.  It was so nice and a terrific end to Christmas day.

After a flight delay in Miami, we were on our way to Antigua.  We rented a charming Air B. and B. to stay in while we prepared the boat for going in the water after sitting in the boatyard for eight months.  It met all of our requirements – clean, air conditioning, internet, a washer/dryer, and a kitchen. 

The boat wasn’t in that bad of shape considering that it had been sitting “on the hard” for so long.  My prep work of spraying everything down with vinegar and water worked really well and kept the mildew at bay.  Of course, the birds made a mess as the perched on our lines over these months.  But, rain had washed some of that away. 

We began the task of opening the boat up.  My first priority was to wash the boat.  Once completed, we could then start moving cushions to the outside saloon.  I also worked on cleaning some of the stainless steel that was underneath the boat, as I can’t do that while underway.  Then, I cleaned the bathrooms, unpacked everything that I had bagged up (and kept out of the humid air), and provisioned the boat for sailing 10 days.  Our oldest daughter, Kirsten, is planning to join us for Christmas this year. 

While I worked on preparing for us to live on the boat again, Steve worked on getting things ready for operating the boat.  He put the propellers back on, bought new starter engines and installed them, rotated our anchor chain, installed a new bridle, and in general got everything in working order.  He also got our dingy (tender) back up in its davits.  We did all of this in five days.  Because we were staying at an Air B. and B., we had a rental car and were able to drive around to different stores.  This transportation made it much easier for us to get supplies.

On Tuesday, December 20, we were putting the boat into the water at 1p – Splash Day had arrived.  We got up early and went to the Epicurian in St. Johns which is the largest, best-stocked grocery store on the island.  It really rivals any supermarket found in the States.  While I couldn’t find a couple of things like bananas, a small ham, and Oxiclean, we were able to provision our boat fairly easily. 

The North Sound Marine Boatyard, where our boat was stored, is a little challenging to get in and out of.  The wind can be strong and blow the boats into the downwind side of the cement slip. Luck was with us and the wind was not that strong.  We backed out of the slip without any issues.  We decided to anchor just off of the boatyard so that we could continue to use the facilities.  We still had a lot to do to prepare the boat for sailing.  The wind was still light and there wasn’t much chop.  Steve started preparing to put the sail back up while I continued cleaning the boat. 

The wind picked up the next day so we decided to move to Maiden Island.  We have anchored there before and it is usually very calm water.  The island itself is small and relatively flat so it doesn’t do much for protecting us from the wind.  Anyways, we thought we would give it a try.  Not only are the conditions good for anchoring, but it is also only a dingy ride away from a bar where we plan to pick Kirsten up when she arrives Christmas Eve.  The channel through the area runs behind our anchorage so we get to see infrequent boats going past.  Yesterday, Friday, we saw the Josephina, a beautiful white, 60ish foot sailboat sail past.  They were in the boatyard next to us so we got to meet the crew.  They are headed to Falmouth’s Cat Club to continue to work on their boat.  We may bump into them again down there. 

Yesterday we also decided to take a break.  We took the dingy to the beach in front of us on Maiden Island.  There is a man-made coral reef where fish like to congregate and we had planned to snorkel there.  Unfortunately, the water was a little cloudy when we pulled up on the beach.  But, we decided to land anyways and tie off the dingy.  It was high tide because the water was ebbing and flowing quite high on the beach.

Last year we met a nice couple from Canada and became friends with them. It just so happened that they were hauling their boat out the day after us at the same marina. This picture shows the boats parked on the hard while we prepared them. We also met a new Canadian couple who had their boat, afloat, parked in front of our friends’ boat. This picture shows how closely the boats are lined up. (Our boat is closest to the building.) It was so nice having friends in the boatyard to chat with as we cleaned and prepared the boat.

In this boatyard they store dinghies in one of the buildings. So, we loaded our dinghy up for storage. I’ll clean it when we return.

Well, the end of our sailing season has arrived. We hauled our boat out of the water at North Sound Marina on Antigua. There was approximately a 30-knot cross-wind at the slip so hauling out was a challenge. We made it and the boat is now on the hard.

We spend the last four days preparing the boat to be on land for seven months. This means working on the engines, water pipes, water tanks/maker, and the bottom of the boat. Once we arrived, we had the yard power wash the bottom of the boat. Unfortunately that didn’t remove the barnacles that had attached and removing them was a manual process that took approximately eight hours. By the end of the four days, everything inside of the boat was bagged and the ceilings/walls were cleaned and wiped down with vinegar. We did this last year and were lucky to return to a boat free of mildew. We hope that we have the same luck this season. And, we washed the outside of the entire boat. It is unbelievable the amount of cleaning and preparation that goes into leaving the boat on the hard. Even with the advanced work that we did the week prior, we spent10-hours every day at the marina before returning to the nearby Air B & B that we rented.

North Sound Marina, the boatyard where we planned to haul out our boat, is located in the northern part of Antigua. So, we spent our last three nights preparing our boat for haul-out in the calm waters at one of our favorite anchorages on Antigua. Great Bird island is known for its many birds as well as good snorkeling. We found a new place to anchor, within dingy distance of Great Bird Island, off of Rabbit Island and facing Lobster Island. We didn’t encounter much swell here and the wind was just enough to keep our boat facing it so that the waves didn’t lap the sides of our hulls. These conditions make it easier to sleep. It was beautiful in this area and the water was very clear. Only a few boats were anchored in the area so it was very peaceful. People kite board in this bay and it is fun to watch them glide across the water.

We are beginning to question the name of “Lobster Island.” Last year both Steve and I searched for lobsters around this island and this year Steve looked again. No lobsters were found. It was a good thing that we had a back-up plan for dinner.

After three nights in Falmouth Harbour, we sailed north again to Valley Church for a night. This anchorage is fairly shallow but friends showed us that we could go close up to the beach.

Next we spent our time in the Jolly Harbour marina preparing the boat to be hauled out for the season. It is hard to believe that our Caribbean adventures for this year are just about finished. There is a lot of work that we need to do to prepare the boat for going on the hard. We are only planning to stay in Antigua four days after we haul our boat out so we needed to start preparing in advance. In this picture you’ll notice that the sails are down. We packed our water toys away for the season. And, I’ve been cleaning the boat and spraying it with a vinegar and water solution in hopes of keeping the mildew at bay while we are away.

We stayed in Falmouth Harbour last year so we sort of knew our way around. This year we decided to take some walks away from the Harbour. We were pleasantly surprised with how nice some of the neighborhoods were once we got away from the Harbour. And, we found some great views of both English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour.

Our next stop was Falmouth Harbour. Some friends we had met last year were going to be there over the weekend so we made plans to get together. Falmouth Harbour is where the super yachts go. It also happened to be the Classic Sailboat Regatta. So, there were some beautiful boats in the Harbour.

We spent one night in Ayers Creek and decided to move to a different location. We didn’t have a great view where we were because we were close to a hill with mangroves on it. We could see a beach to our left with one sailboat there and decided to check it out. This turned out to be a lovely anchorage. There were three nice homes on the hill overlooking the beach. And, there were wild donkeys on the hillside. It turned out that nobody was staying on the other sailboat so we had this bay to ourselves.

After one night, we moved on and checked out Clover Leaf Bay, which was supposed to have calm waters. This bay was odd in that there was a sprawling hotel, which looked to be abandoned, on one side and mangroves on the other. We decided not to anchor here and were contemplating on heading back to Falmouth Harbour, on the south western side of Antigua. We wound our way around the reefs at the entrance to the bay and were about to head out into the open ocean. To our surprise, Rickett Harbour only had a couple of boats anchored in it and we decided to stop there. This was my favorite anchorage of the entire area, which was located just outside of Nunsuch Bay. There was a beautiful white sandy beach in front of us and snorkeling right off of our boat. We were sheltered by a reef on one side and Green Island on the other. It turns out that daytrip boats visit this bay to snorkel in its calm waters. (We decided to wait to snorkel until after they left. ) The water was a little cloudy, but we were able to see the seabed 15 feet below our boat. We were treated to three different turtles grazing on the grasses below. They were at least four feet long and one even swam up beside us. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures in this bay so you’ll have to use your imagination to envision it.