We have been in the Caribbean for over three months now, hard to believe. Some of our favorite spots in recent sailing have been the Iles des Saintes just south of Guadeloupe, and the islands of Antigua and Barbuda. Iles des Saintes for the combination of protected anchorage, variety of snorkeling options and easy walks and hikes, and accessibility of a range of food and restaurants. Sort of everything I could think of asking for in an anchorage, and just a short day sail to Pointe-a-Pitre if we needed a bigger town.
Antigua had a lovely feeling of history. English Harbour has many buildings left over from Lord Nelson’s days, and there are trails along the edge of the harbor and out to the fort that provide fantastic views. Inside the harbor was the calmest water we have ever spent a night in, although it wasn’t anything I would want to swim in. Next door in Falmouth Harbour we found both lovely water to swim in, excellent views, good snorkeling and relatively calm water.
No matter where you stay, other boats passing by will cause your boat to bounce in the swell of their wake, so finding a place with not too many passing boats is optimal. However, given the abundance of charter yachts in the Caribbean, also really hard to do. Falmouth Harbour had a lot of boats, but managed not to be to rolly. We also sailed into a reef on the southwest corner of Antigua to look for rays, but unfortunately didn’t see any. After that we sailed up to Jolly Harbour, which was a very generic place without the history of English or Falmouth harbors. Fortunately, we were able to catch up with several friends there, including Tony and Karen from Niord and Stan and Lynn from Skål so we really enjoyed Jolly Harbour as well.
Our German friends from Blue Joline have been keeping us company since Falmouth Harbor on Antigua; we sailed together to Barbuda, Saint Bart’s and Saint Martin. Barbuda was a quiet oasis, first we were on the southern end anchored off of Princess Diana Beach. There were small restaurants and bars on the beach, but otherwise there were long stretches of beach which were completely open.
Codrington, the primary city on Barbuda, lies on the northern end. We anchored in Low Bay where we had a long beach that was tinted a faint pink hue from all the pink shells that have washed up. The surf was high, so we took the dinghy within 20 meters of land, cast an anchor and swam to shore for our explorations of the beach. It was one of those places where we arrived without any expectations, and were really pleasantly surprised.
Saint Bart’s was once Swedish, so we had to go there and see the Swedish street signs and old Swedish forts. Gustavia is the capital city, and we walked up to Fort Gustav where there is a panoramic view. Opposite Fort Gustav is Fort Karl, and the signs with historical information were written in French, English and Swedish. After getting a little dose of Sweden, we sailed around the island to the northern side where we took a mooring ball in a national park.
Turtles swim all over the national park, because there is no anchoring allowed. By making visiting boats use the mooring balls, they keep visitors from disrupting the ocean floor, allowing sea grass to grow and provide safety for the grazing turtles. We saw turtles directly when we tied up, and went swimming within just a few meters of them, watching them graze the sea grass. Magnus filmed a bit from our snorkeling, the video is on our YouTube channel (AnderssonSailing).
After Saint Barts, we sailed to Saint Martin, checking in to the French side and anchoring in Marigot Bay. Most islands here have a bay called Marigot somewhere, and many have a town or bay or something called Sufriere. We were really happy we stayed out in the bay and didn’t try to go into the lagoon between the French and Dutch sides, as the water was pretty rancid and smelled like sewage in spots. With Petra and Bernd from Blue Joline, we celebrated Magnus birthday with a “Rhum” tasting at Toppers where he got to taste 17 different flavors of rum. Everything from Cotton Candy and Salted Caramel to Habanero Peach.
Taking a bus around the island was fun, we rode over to the Dutch side and shopped and acted like the tourists we also are. When we got hungry, we followed a sign promising two beers and a cigar for only 3 dollars; so Bernd and Magnus each got a thin cigar and we shared a beer in the courtyard of some buildings with a group of cruise ship tourists. The owner of the bar “Juggie’s Place” told us we had to eat at his son’s restaurant just across the courtyard, so we had a lunch of vegetarian black bean burgers and really good fries.
Shopping for food takes a lot of our time on land, you have to find the places that have a reasonable selection and reasonable prices; then you have to get the food to your boat. That isn’t always as easy as it sounds, sometimes you walk up to a mile to a store and then you don’t want to carry things that are too heavy. We have a little cart with four wheels that we use when we know we will be walking a ways, but it takes a lot of space in the dinghy.
On the Dutch side (Sint Maarten), we were able to provision at a grocery store that delivered to the dinghy dock nearest them. That meant we didn’t have to take the cart and could buy food to fill the dinghy, so we filled up there. According to the cruiser’s information we have, the Virgin Islands are expensive, so we wanted to get as full as possible before heading there.
On the night of the 12th of March, we sailed from Saint Martin to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The BVI have a lot of reefs and rocks near land, and we needed to make landfall in daylight, so it was easier to sail overnight than to try to sail early in the morning and possibly miss daylight. The picture on the header of this blog post is of Necker Island, we sailed past it on the way to Virgin Gorda. We arrived around 09:30 and tried to check in at Gun Creek, which according to the information we found online was open for Customs and Immigration.
Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t. After a long and wet dinghy ride, we had to sail down to Spanish town and anchor in the rolliest waviest harbor we have been in. The waves were breaking in the harbor and we had our life jackets on for the dinghy ride to the customs office, something we normally don’t feel like we need when travelling in daylight in our dinghy. Check-in was smooth and happily we managed to make the round trip without rolling the dinghy – Magnus is a really good dinghy driver!
Now we are exploring the BVI. It is 14 March 2024, we will be heading to the US Virgin Islands sometime between now and the 23rd of March, as we have friends arriving from Sweden. Fair winds to you!