It is raining outside at the moment, but generally the weather has been warm and sunny since we arrived in Antigua on Friday. Antigua hasn’t changed much since we left last March for our adventures up North and it almost felt like sailing home again, when we sailed overnight to Jolly Harbour from St Martins.

We had a full moon on Thursday night, and we could see the outlines of the mountains on St Barts and Nevis as we passed them.

It seems strange that this voyage is only the second, apart from many day sails, that the two of us have done together since leaving Scotland 18 months ago. We take watches of three hours each and survive quite well, especially after a day or so. We left Bermuda a month ago, with the two of us on board. The previous fuller crew all stemmed from insurers wanting four people on board when we crossed the Atlantic, exactly a year ago. We thought that long voyages required more than two people to handle the boat. We have discovered that this really isn’t true and that sail changes and reefing can be effected quite easily when we change watches and there are two of us on deck. Having spent a year worrying that the insurance companies might know more than us, we now realise they don’t; and with preplanning and some knowledge of the weather patterns that will be affecting us, we can have a reasonably comfortable voyage with just the two of us. This doesn’t mean that the others aren’t welcome to join us! Just that we now feel more comfortable with the boat in most situations. A good crew is always welcome!

Our last day in Bermuda was spent taking on duty free fuel at the naval dockyard, where they insisted on cash. The price of diesel there is about 60p a litre duty free, although £1.10p a litre at the pumps. Of course everybody complains about the cost! Berthing against the old dockyard walls, where many a sailing man of war and ironsiders had previously berthed, was a strange feeling. It was almost as if the ghosts of those ships were still in the harbour, despite the enormous cruise liner berthed nearby.

The brightly coloured catamaran ferries zip through the azure water to Hamilton, through two rock passage, or round the outside of the island, but within the reefs, to St Georges. It is quite amazing that almost everywhere we have been, the majority of place names are reminders of places or people from Scotland and England, with the odd Welsh name thrown in. There is no escape from reminders of home on this side of the Atlantic!

We prevaricated in St Georges as to whether we should leave then, or in a few days for St Martins. The voyage would take 6 or 7 days. Having filled up with duty free we should rightly have left the following day and indeed that is exactly what happened. We saw the weather charts for the next five days, which were posted in the window of the customs office. We noticed that one or two cruising yachts were leaving to go South and one or two were preparing themselves. They were mostly American or French Canadian boats between 35 and 45 feet, although there was one very large German yacht of about 100 feet that slipped out of the harbour, and no doubt made a quick landfall somewhere. There was a tropical storm (delta), which was having fun about 1200 miles to our South East. At one point it looked as if it might move towards Bermuda and we would be blessed with 65 m.p.h. winds. It certainly had an effect on the Blue Water Rally, which reached the Azores from Britain. They were held up for a few days there whilst the storm passed.

There is a well known man on the short wave radio, in the North Atlantic, called Herb. He is the doyen of yachtsmen who cruise the area, and will talk to them on the radio and tell them what weather they are likely to get when voyaging the seas. Although we didn’t talk to him personally, the talk can quickly get around a fleet of cruising yachts, waiting for the right weather, to move on. Some yachts had been in St Georges for a week, waiting for the right wind, whereas it fortunately hadn’t crossed our minds, since we were having such a good time there. Herb now said there was a weather window, and so the little fleet that had gathered in the harbour set sail southwards with a light westerly wind and sunshine. Safe in the knowledge that if the god says go, then they should go! We joined them with some comfort from the fact that there would always be another yacht within 100 miles of us on our 900 mile voyage. Not that we saw another yacht after the first night, but we did hear them on the radio occasionally.

The predicted cold front came through, with much cloud and a shift in the wind to the northeast. This was good for us sailing South and slightly East and we made the most of it. We shut the engine down and used the wind generator to produce enough power for us to man the autopilot. It was probably blowing 30-40 knots of wind for two days and nights, but never blew over 45 knots, although we understood that this was a little more than Herb was expecting!

We used the mizzen and rolling genoa and turned the electric pump for the bilges on once an hour. We saw two large ships about three days out from Bermuda. They both had to alter course for us, which belies the widely held cruisers belief that there are no collision courses on the ocean! It also belies our own belief that large ships don’t keep a look out at sea!

It was complete bliss not to have Christmas music and jollity rammed down our throats, and for the second year running! Parties are fun, but not every day for two months before Christmas! Of course the whole voyage was tinged with the nervous anticipation that something would go wrong, and of course it did. The high seas dislodged our generator from its mountings, which admittedly were old and eaten by oil and water. A water leak developed and we had to dispense with the use of the generator completely. We put on the saye’s rig, which is a wind vane steering and the boat happily ploughed her way downwind with her little sail on the stern, helping her along. The wind fell light on the last day and we motored about 150 miles to St Martins, where we hoped to fix the generator. Landfall, one hour short of six days from Bermuda was a pleasant relief. Firstly, that just the two of us had managed the voyage and secondly, that nothing further had gone wrong. We heard some stories later, from other yachts that made us think ourselves lucky. One boat had lost its auto steering, and the two of them hand steered for five days. Another boat lost most of its fresh water. Another boat ended up with the crew not talking to each other and leaving the skipper immediately they reached St Martins, and yet another yacht ended up beating into a very strong headwind to get the 100 miles from the British Virgin Islands to St Martins, when a three degree alteration in course from Bermuda would have given them a following wind all the way. At least we were still talking and didn’t have to beat into the wind!

We anchored in the lagoon at St Martins, just off the area where the super yachts moor stern to the quay and just off the Argentinian restaurant, Rancho, with its superb beef. We had to sample its wares and took a doggy bag of tender steak back to the boat for the morrow. They also had Argentinian Malbec wine, which was delicious. The whole bill wasn’t cheap by the time they had added on 15% service charge for our convenience!! It was well worth it though, as a celebration of our landfall, after the hard tack and weevils of the voyage. (Not actually true, since we lived off Margaret’s pre-prepared food and sandwiches even though it was almost too rough to cook!)

There was a considerable delay whilst Onan sent the wrong bearings, because ours were too old and out of production, nevertheless Geordie and Gregory from Simpson Diesel executed an extremely difficult and tight job in replacing the rubber mountings, which we eventually bought from Budget Marine off the shelf. The generator is now working very quietly and efficiently, despite the red flashing light. We will find out one day what that is! They were only hampered slightly when the main engine blew out an oil gasket and covered the engine room in oil the day before they were due. It was a messy job for us to clear up, but we managed it in about four hours. We looked like the majority of the inhabitants of St Martins by the time we were finished, but a cold shower worked wonders. In fact we had cold showers for the next three days. It reminded Will of school!

We didn’t waste our time while others worked. We bought a little sailing dinghy, which is quite efficient and an enormous amount of fun. It rows well in addition. It is called a walker bay ten and is made of plastic with blow up rubber floats/fenders on the gun whales. It is a great dinghy for the geriatric since it doesn’t want to capsize due to the fenders! We have named it Dipper, after Will’s first boat, a ten foot, mahogany clinker built walker dinghy which he shared with his brother when he was nine years old. The new Dipper is just right for us and gives our inflateable, with its leaking floor a rest. We now sail everywhere, including in the harbour, in a boat that looks traditional, but is quite safe and dry.

We made some good friends from America whilst in St Martins. John and Carter sailed in their British aluminium yacht, Liberty, built in Woodbridge, Suffolk. A beautiful 57 footer. We had some good evenings together and they showed us vacuum packing and a Furuno weatherfax that wakes them up at three o’clock in the morning, when it gives them the printout. The goodies look like ‘must haves’ for our next voyage.

Chip and Helen of Tangent Girl, were kind to us at Rhode Island, a couple of months back and we met them again at St Martins.

They introduced us to Gary and Mary from Gentoo and the six of us passed some excellent evenings learning new dice games. We introduced them to Pass the Pig, a hilarious game of chance where you roll two small plastic pigs and gain points.

Will doesn’t drink rum any more, but the whisky and wine is very reasonably priced here. ( no tax!) The magnificent frigate birds wheeled over our heads and the pelicans dived with some success for the small fish.

The aeroplanes took off over our heads with a roar, but they didn’t fly at night, fortunately. Shrimpys, was the local café and bar and we made full use of their laundry and free wyfi to look up our E-mails.

It has taken us some time to collect E-mails in Jolly Harbour, but we hope to be able to connect again in the next two days. We were expecting to have bought a house on our arrival here. We still may, despite what appears to be a ‘gazump’ going on! We will give a further update next time.

In the meantime, have a great Christmas and a thumping good New Year!

We intend to, as Stephen and Susan and Margaret’s Sister, Alison and her husband Andy and daughter Sarah, are all coming here for Christmas and New Year!! A party!!

Thinking of you. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Love Atlantia