More adventures on Atlantia.

Following our trips to the almost deserted Barbuda, we went to St Kitts for the cricket. There we stayed in the marina and were pleased to host Chris Sayer and Ian and Inga Barnes from Largo in Fife.

They in turn kindly hosted us to the cricket games of Scotland versus Australia,

South Africa

and the Netherlands.

We had a few amusing incidents with the kilts, which were of obvious interest to Americans and some of the locals. Also to a drunken Dutchman with an orange wig, who was nearly seriously injured in his curiosity, after the Netherlands had regrettably thrashed the Scottish team.

We had a couple of days off, sailing around Nevis and discovered that Ian really would have made an excellent, natural sailor, if he had been exposed earlier. We also had a day out to Brimstone fort and savoured the four hundred year history of a naturally fortified hill, with excellent Georgian ramparts and Victorian Guns.

The fort we have mentioned in one of our letters before, when we described the defence against the French, with the assistance of a slave army. We took the bus there and back, which is about a fifth of the price of a taxi. In fact the brand new bus that we rode to the fort didn’t pick anyone else up, and even took us most of the way up the steep hill to the fort entrance, so that was really good value for money.

We had further value for money when we went on Gregg’s Safari, although considerably more expensive. Gregg was very knowledgeable about the trees and wildlife, which included a red tailed hawk and a very rare green hummingbird. There were many wonderful flowering bushes and even a Bob Marley Plant, otherwise known as Chenille.

The heliconia looked splendid in the afternoon sunlight.

We visited two old estate houses, which although only of timber, nevertheless had the same feeling as a Scottish country house of the same era, except they don’t need fireplaces in St Kitts (it’s too warm!)

If you are ever in St Kitts, you must go with Gregg on one of his jaunts. They are very informative and you are given a number of local delicacies, sugar cane, guava, honey cake, rum etc., to try .A good rum seems to be as satisfactory as a good single malt whiskey, although there is nowhere near the variety.

At the end of the cricket, and after numerous parties with Scots, English, Australian and South Africans on board Atlantia, we joined a terrific group at the Ballahoo restaurant in Piccadilly Circus and ate grilled lobster. All the party goers were from Jolly Harbour in Antigua and had mostly sailed to St Kitts. We made many new friends.

It was sad to leave Chris, Ian and Inga on the quayside with their suitcases as we sailed away to Statia. They had been great guests and we had had much fun together.

Statia is a Dutch island and looks as if it is the top of a sugar cone that has been placed upright in the sea. The island’s capital, Oranjestad, is on top of a cliff on the west side, and overlooks the only anchorage in the island, which is extremely rolly. We picked up a visitors mooring, but had to go ashore fairly quickly to avoid feeling queasy.

The island is known as the Golden Rock, since at one time during the British Navigation Acts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and wars with America, France and Spain, it was a duty free port where everybody sold or bought from the Dutch and the flags of all nations could be seen in the bay. Admiral Rodney had sacked the island in 1776, since the Dutch had recognised the fledgling American Republic, and he made himself and his crew a fortune. At the same time he deported a number of Jews, who were making excellent money trading, to nearby St Kitts. Before deporting them, they were searched and £8000 Stirling was found in the lining of their clothes. They had also buried valuables in the graveyard. No doubt they managed to keep some of their trade earnings, but the British had appeared to be fairly thorough in their pillage.

The island now is far more sleepy, and the trade appears to be confined to oil. We saw three huge tankers, with different flags on their sterns, loading and offloading their cargo into huge bunkers on the hillside. No doubt embargoed oil was amongst the offload. Oil seems to mix very well! The capital village on the hill has some beautiful examples of gingerbread on the houses.

The fort looked as if toy soldiers should be strutting about in it, as those in ‘The Sugar Plum Fairy’.

The inhabitants were very relaxed and we went diving the following day. Regrettably Will floated a bit too much and had to give in, to retest weights and flotation jacket another time, although Margaret had an enjoyable dive and saw a nurse shark, many reef fish, and fan corals, and sponges waving at her as she passed.

We sailed north to Saba, another Dutch island, and again even more like an upturned sugar cone.

We had the most beautiful snorkel on the northwest corner and relished the quietness of our anchorage under huge cliffs. We didn’t go ashore here since the capital village is halfway to the sky and the landing place is a mile from the anchorage, next to a quarry! Again the easterly swells encircle the island and can get at you from both sides at once! Fortunately it was a reasonably calm night and we slept much better than on the previous one.

The main object of our voyage from St Kitts was to anchor at Simpson Bay, St Maartens. We have mentioned before that St Maartens is half French and half Dutch. They are both friendly, but the Dutch have the better deal with better anchorages and the airport that flies many planes to Europe and the States. Meanwhile the only road to the capital of the Dutch side, Philipsburg, has traffic nose to tail the whole five miles and back. All dressed up and nowhere to go! The weather was fine in St Maartens although the visibility had been poor and the wind more in the southeast, which made for a very difficult passage back to Antigua, since it was a beat the whole way. In the end it took us 36 hours to get back to Jolly Harbour, passing Saba, Statia, St Kitts and Nevis on the way. Since the engine gave up three times, it was a slightly tricky voyage. We sailed 140 miles to cover the 85 miles in a straight line, often with Will upside down in the engine room trying to find the problem. In the end we discovered it was blocked fuel filters, due to enough dirt to level a cricket square. We have since had the fuel scrubbed at huge expense, and think the problem is cured. We have had dirt in the fuel in the main tank since we left Scotland, with its various manifestations, mostly stopping the engine, so we pray it is now cured.

We made up for this expense by a couple of do it your self’s, which we might normally have paid for. Firstly, back at our dock, Will rebuilt the fridge and freezer with new insulation, which we had purchased in St Maartens. He also installed two compressor units, also purchased there, and a plate evaporator for the fridge and a freezer evaporator in the ‘freezer’. The upshot has been that the fridge is wonderfully cold, something that has never been known before. The freezer is cold for four days at minus 10 degrees C. and then rises in temperature to zero degrees and stays there. Most peculiar since the gas is intact, and the thermostat is supposed to be for a freezer unit. Any hints from Europe or America would be gratefully received. They are 12 volt Waeco units. We will eventually overcome!!! As indeed we have overcome mosquitoes in the evening with Margaret’s mosquito net which encircles the cockpit and keeps the little beggars out! She also took all the old sound and fire insulation from within the engine room and replaced it. A sterling job with a foot over the engine, glue pot in one hand and heavy lead and foam insulation in the other!

We had our first game of golf at Jolly Harbour with Harry and Hilary.

Indeed it was Margaret’s first game of golf ever. With a bit of practice Hilary says she may do fairly well. Most of Will’s shots went in the water! We think Will has an affinity for water.

It was great to take our friends Sue and Desmond, from the U.S.A. and some of their friends from ‘The Old Club’ on Lake Michigan, on a cruise to Falmouth Harbour. We all enjoyed the excellent weather and calm seas and saw the beautiful Super Yachts at the marinas.

We have discovered a milk bar at Falmouth, on shore, called sweet T’s. It makes milk shakes with rum, or Tia Maria, or Crème de Menthe, as well as rum raisin ice cream with raisins soaked well and truly in rum. Our friend, Denis, from Martha’s Vineyard, doesn’t drink alcohol and says two spoonfuls of this ice cream makes him light headed!

We sailed down to Guadeloupe, our neighbouring island to the south, to honour the memory of our friend Reto, from Switzerland, who we had met at La Coruna, and who had sailed here, and who sadly died in Trinidad last Christmas. We were unable to meet the date in the Isles Des Saintes when his ashes were scattered, but met Chantal, his companion, in Pointe a Pitre afterwards, with other sailors in a similar position to ourselves. We had a lovely day with Chantal and her French friend, Marie Jo, going around the beaches and Cafes that Reto and Chantal had been to last year.

It was a sad occasion but we hope to be in touch with Chantal again when we are back in Europe. We have some poignant reminders of Reto’s friendship.

The Classic Regatta was in the middle of April, based in Falmouth. We were going to participate in Denis’s boat, which he built himself, but he didn’t finish his work in Bequia in time, so we made do with a day out in Atlantia to watch them.

There were sixty participants, and although the J Class were not sailing there this time there were plenty of other beautiful boats.

Our friends from Cuilaun, a fabulously kept McGruer Ketch, won their class in the Concourse D’Elegance and also the single handed race with Peter at the helm.

Will was on standby for the protest committee but wasn’t called.

He did, however serve on the International Jury for Antigua Sailing Week (200 boats from 40 – 70 feet), who heard 38 protests in all.

Margaret helped on Div. A Committee Boat and held up the X flag for those over the start line. As well as being ‘flags’ she helped as ‘spotter’ for the finishes.

We made many new friends and thank them all for their kindness to the new boys (and girls). We were especially grateful to Tom Paterson who proposed that we helped in the first place, and to Jan Santos for asking us.

Margaret and, earlier, one of Will’s co judges, Ruth Miller, danced with the Antiguan Prime Minister during one of the swish parties we were invited to. We are going to make a special point of seeing Cor Van Aanholt, another of Will’s co judges when we go to Curacao and have also kindly been invited to Park Avenue in New York, if we are free!!

Will sailed Atlantia single handed to the various venues, whilst Margaret worked on the Committee boat. Margaret thinks ‘Will can now do it all by himself’, when she goes sailing! Not true of course, although he was beating at seven knots with mizzen and genoa up one day off Jolly Harbour.

Besides the fun we had, the most gratifying part of the week was that we were both asked back again to help next year. It would be nice but we shall see! We have made no commitment.

Meanwhile the houses are coming on apace. Although Philson and his builders did not meet the second target, they are now rattling on and the tiles are being laid downstairs as well as the walaba (timber) shingles on the roof. The roof is nearly complete and the first stairs go in next week. Believe it or not, we are assured that the legal work is now complete, and that we can apply for temporary citizen status. This apparently means that we can work here if we want to. It’s always nice to be asked!

We have been invited to some lovely dinner parties here, with Tony and Tonya, Paul and Marguerite, as well as Ron and Sharon and Al and Jackie. We have had barbecues on the building site with the Jigsaw crew and Ian and Avril and never seem to leave our neighbours deck where we have met some lovely South African people, here for the cricket, as well as Tom and Sylvia’s family. They have been very kind to us. We went to the cricket here with Tom for the most exciting game of the World Cup, England versus Shrilanka, where England lost by one run on the last ball and the last wicket. You can’t get any more exciting than that! Margaret is now a cricket fan!

The weather is getting hotter here and the morning swim is becoming more important to keep cool for the day. Regrettably the restaurant, Castaways, is closing for most of June and therefore our cappuccino will have to be found elsewhere. Will thinks he might be able to make it with a blender and espresso coffee bags. We will report next time. The only major disaster (touch wood) that has befallen us, was the rudder breaking on Dipper, our 10 foot Walker Bay dinghy with the rubber ring round it!

The fact that it happened in 20 knot winds and ten foot seas outside English Harbour only really proved that as good seamen we should have had life jackets, flares, buckets, oars, oilies, whistles, lights and bells with us, which of course we didn’t! We had two paddle blades and plenty of buoyancy in the boat, oh! and a sponge. After an hour making 100 yards beating unsuccessfully between Falmouth and English Harbour with a paddle blade as a rudder in deteriorating weather, we asked for a tow from a nice Dutch boat, ‘Renoir’, who was returning to English Harbour from the jollities of lay day in Falmouth, which we had sailed to ourselves. They appeared in front of Will’s committee the next day on an unrelated matter, where they had been hit by another boat. Unfortunately Will’s committee were unable to give them enough time to make up a place, despite their heroism.

We understand the weather is now very nice in Scotland. We hope it hasn’t all gone away by July when we come home for Will’s operation on his left eye, and to see everybody again.

Here are some more of Margaret’s pics, we hope you like them.

Love Atlantia