St. Barths

The time finally arrived in October when we decided that hurricane season had to be nearly over and it was TIME TO LEAVE ANTIGUA! So on the evening of October 9, we left Jolly Harbour Marina where we were making our preparations for departure and headed out to anchor in Mosquito Cove at the mouth of Jolly Harbor. We were planning on having dinner and then resting until it was time to sail out at 1:00 AM. but we were too tired to really sleep. When it got dark we couldn't believe the sight that awaited us as were greeted by tons of jelly fish in all sizes glowing from the phosphorescence as they circled our boat. It was amazing to watch small fish swimming towards the jelly fish and then getting caught by them. You could see the fish swimming inside of them! So cool.

We left the cove at 1:00 AM as planned and headed towards St. Barths. It was beautiful as we sailed out, the sky bright with nearly a full moon. We were told it would take 12 hours to get to St. Maarten, so we figured we had time to get to St. Barths (an hour south of St. Maarten) by afternoon the next day. As we sailed north the wind died down to nearly nothing and we realized we could not make it by dark the next day without motoring, so we had to motor-sail the entire way…….Yuck! The seas were rough and without wind it made for a tough night and day of sailing. To add to the difficulty, when it got light we realized we were sailing through fishing grounds and we had to maneuver constantly to miss the nets.

We finally made it to St. Barths at 4:30 the next afternoon. We knew we were going to love this place when we were escorted into our anchorage by hundreds of yellow butterflies fluttering around our boat as we anchored in the most gorgeous water I have ever seen. Ahhhh........

St. Barths became a favorite of ours very quickly. We anchored outside of the harbor in a little bay called Anse de Corrosol (pictured above) in blue raspberry colored water. It looked so yummy I just wanted to drink it! The island is what I describe as the “ooh la la” island because this is where the rich and famous hang out. They even have the over-the-top stores there like Hermes. Since it was off season when we arrived, the ritzy stores were closed, so we had the great fortune of hanging out with the locals and not the rich and famous. I say good fortune, because boat people don’t really own clothes nice enough to rub elbows with the rich and famous, besides our sea-crusty elbows wouldn’t appeal to them!

The people of St. Barths were unbelievably nice even though they all spoke French and we didn’t. We found a French bakery where we had coffee and croissants every day – yum – and after spending all summer in Antigua we didn’t care how many pounds we were putting on by indulging. For the Jimmy Buffett fans out there, St. Barths is also the island where he wrote his song “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. After Jimmy sailed to St. Barths and found a little bar/hamburger place called Le Select he wrote the song and the place is now world famous. Of course we had to have a cheeseburger and a beer at Le Select!

After spending nearly a week anchored in Anse de Corrosol, we decided to move up the coast to Anse de Colombier. We had no idea we were about to discove a treasure. Oh my gosh, what an incredible place. It is a tiny bay protected as a Marine Park and filled with sea turtles and crystal clear water. We spent our days watching the turtles and snorkeling right off our boat. We could hardly tear ourselves away from there, but after four days we knew we needed to get to St. Maarten since our water and food supplies were getting low and we had things we wanted to do there as well. As we sailed out of St. Barths we promised ourselves we would definitely be back……….SOON!

Antigua

We arrived in Antigua in June 2009 ready to begin our adventure of a lifetime. Our original plan was to get aboard Aldebaran and head south for hurricane season, which had already begun. We soon learned that we had many preparations, repairs, and adjustments to make and it became clear that heading south wasn't going to happen this summer. After checking with our insurance agent, we knew we could stay near Antigua for hurricane season as long as we had a safe plan in case a hurricane came our way.

So, Antigua became our home for the summer. The biggest adjustment we had to make was living in the intense heat and humidity. We never knew we could sweat from the backs of our hands and tops of our feet! It took a full two months before we began to feel a bit normal again - whew! Another adjustment was learning to live with the claustrophobia of tight living quarters on the boat – definitely not the farm! Eventually this subsides, even though we still think about our big bed at home in storage!

As time went by we found more and more things on the boat that needed a repair, so we made it our mission to get these things taken care of before we left this area in October. Thank goodness Jon can do just about anything! He took the toilet apart - yuck, yuck, yuck; replaced the bilge pump - yuck again; replaced the old and stinky fuel fill hose (I helped a little); ground down screws on the pulpit; made stop locks for the stove; took out the old, leaky hot water heater; made new cabinet bottoms from a discarded coffee table we found on the road, and the list goes on. Then I came out of my heat induced coma to help with rust removal, cleaning the teak down below and varnishing! We will never be done, but we are close enough to take off on the next leg of our adventure in a few weeks.

In the midst of all our repairs and beautifying projects we had tropical storms to bow down to. First came Tropical Storm Ana and right on her heels was Hurricane Bill. Preparing a boat for a storm is no small feat. Once you get into a spot at the Marina you still have about 7-8 hours of preparation. Take down the sails, remove the bimini, bring in the fenders, tie every possible thing down so it can't blow away, tie lines from the boat to the dock and pilings - doubled and tripled (about 14 in all), put away all instruments, cover the permanent instruments, lock everything up and then help anyone around who needs it. Then you wait......We were so lucky when those storms passed by with only rain and light wind. A few days later, we reversed the process and spent as much time putting everything back up, only to do it again when Erika came around! Again, thankfully, Erika moved north and we only got a few days of constant rain and light wind. Then Fred cruised by and fizzled out, and now we are watching a few more Tropical Waves coming off of Africa. Soon the hurricane season will be behind us – ahhhh.

While in Antigua we thought we should explore the island on land, so we rented a car one day to go check it out. They gave us a map from the Hertz office (one desk, one employee, and nothing on the wall). Off we went! It turns out the map is only a rough tourist map and only one major road that went around the entire island was shown on it. We bumped along the roads, trying to miss all the potholes (not successfully), finding as many “attractions” as possible, all while remembering to drive on the wrong side of the road and not hit anyone walking along the road which is only wide enough for one car. We never really knew where we were, but we saw a lot of resident goats and people sitting on the side of the road selling mangoes. Mangoes, mangoes, mangoes everywhere! I never knew there were so many varieties of mangoes, but we tried them all and we liked the Grafty and the Julie the best. The kidney mangoes were so full of fiber you spent the day with a toothpick and dental floss – not worth it!

While we are in Antiguan waters we still have to deal with the same things as people who live on the island. Since we wanted to stay longer than one month we went to the customs/immigration office in Jolly Harbour to renew our visas. The horrendous experience that followed really opened our eyes to the government practices on the island. The story is too long to tell here, it would take a book to tell the story….or you could read “Caribbean Time Bomb”! That book explains everything.

We have met some nice people and we feel especially blessed to have met Renee and Dwane on RedJack. They took us under their wing and taught us everything they could about weather, web sites, best products, and any sailboat related thing you can imagine before leaving for Virgin Gorda. One by one boats came in and were hauled out of the water, their owners leaving for “home”. Once the middle of August came around, the place was deserted and we really wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Then along came a nomad or two, still sailing around, and it felt like we would make it after all!

Life on a boat is certainly different than anything we knew before. Everything is harder and takes more time, but we are forced to be patient and slow down. We are connected to Mother Nature, who by the way is definitely in charge, and we are reliant on each other like never before. It is important to like each other, games, books, working on the boat, and adventure. It is amazing to see sea turtles swimming around us and the views are so incredible they cannot be captured in a picture or described.

We hope you enjoy our blog as we continue on our adventure!