We very reluctantly raised the anchor and headed
out of English Harbour bound for Sint Maarten (I will get the spelling correct
one day!), a distance of 100 or so miles to the northwest. Our last day had
been spent walking to Pidgeon Beach in Falmouth Harbour - a walk of approx 1
mile in the tropical heat undertaken naturally in the middle of the day. We also
snapped this picture of a pelican resting between dives before starting our
walk.
Pelican contemplating its next fishy
morsel
Pidgeon Beach - Falmouth Harbour
Leaving English Harbour at this time gave us the
chance to look at the fantastic variety of classic yachts that were
participating in the regatta outside Falmouth and English Harbours. The
previous evening after an interesting meal ashore, more of which later, we
walked round to Falmouth Harbour where we were rewarded with the whole marina
being full of classic boats (built before the war or has to be a faithful
replica built in the spirit of the original design). These were some
of the prettiest and most spectacular sailing craft to be seen anywhere in the
world at this time including two J Class yachts - Valsheda and Ranger.
Looking at these boats close up brought lumps to the throat and tears to the
eyes of many of the spectators taking the opportunity to walk round the
dockside. Probably also a tear to the eyes of the owners footing the bill to
have the boats taken mainly from Europe across the Atlantic to be at the event!
We had witnessed many years ago the rusting hulk of Valsheda lying off Camper
& Nicholsons Marina at Gosport her owner having run out of money to
undertake any further restoration. For anyone appreciative of
beautiful yachts this was a Mecca. Meanwhile the paid crews of the
yachts were merrily getting stuck into the free Mount Gay rum that was on offer
at the pre-regatta party which was in full swing next to the yacht
club. It was sobering to know that just one sail for a J Class would
probably be worth more than our entire humble catamaran!
The meal ashore was interesting on account that we
had originally intended to visit a meal shack just outside Nelson's Dockyard
called "Grace before Meals" which we had last been to over 13 years
previous and had been looking forward to revisiting. It had been shut over
Easter and had since re-opened. However, she had been cleaned out of her
Conch Rotis (large crawly thing that lives in the shell you put to your ears to
hear the sea) by the hungry yacht crews in Falmouth Harbour prior to their
party. We were pointed in the direction of a typical
Antiguan local wooden house up in the residential area behind the
harbour where our arrival for a meal took the lady of the house almost as
much by surprise as we ourselves were that it was actually a working
restaurant - there was just one local man eating inside who shouted through
to the kitchen that there were customers. We weren't so sure, but
decided to give it a go on our last night and actually had a very nice meal of
Conch with rice and sweet potatoes. For starters, cinnamon
flavoured garlic bread and a plain green salad were on offer. Beneath the tables
mosquito coils gave off their usual vapours and at various times cars drew up
outside with the occupant popping inside the kitchen and departing with
something wrapped in a bag! But the proprietor/cook was very attentive and
calmly extracted the 40 odd dollars for the "Caribbean Taste Experience" as it
was advertised on the board outside. At least we will never forget our last
night in Antigua.
As we negotiated our way through the racing
fleet out in the bay we could make out Ranger and Valsheda sparring with each
other making a fantastic spectacle along with all of the other classic yachts
both large and small. Threading through them wasn't easy as being involved in a
race they were liable to change direction and head straight for you at any
moment, so we kept both engines on and kept the sails stowed so as to give good
visibility forward. We had enjoyed the yachts the previous evening but
getting hit by one would have been embarrassing - especially a famous
one!
Once we had cleared the end of Antigua we laid a
course for Sint Maarten which is an island smaller than Jersey that is
shared between Holland and France. We were heading for the Dutch sector which
used to be duty free (now 3% tax) where there are some good chandleries. We were
also advised that food was cheaper here than in the BVI's which was the next
stop after Sint Maarten.
Valsheda preparing to race
Some of the classic yachts off Falmouth
Harbour
Valsheda racing to windward
Naturally once it was safe to do so, out went the fishing lures
as we were dying for some decent fish. In fact dying in the tropics from eating
fish is actually possible due to Ciguatera poisoning which small reef fish carry
but are not affected by. From those fish it passes up through the food
chain to the top predator around reefs - the Barracuda - an mean ugly
looking fish with a mouth full of big teeth to match. I can attack humans if you
are wearing anything shiny in the water which it might mistake for a small fish
- obviously not a well educated species! Well, we managed to hook ourselves
a couple of Barracudas, one about a foot long which skip had already headed,
tailed and gutted before we had an almighty strike on the rod. After one
hell of a fight and use of our gaff we managed to heave the second one
onboard. A contest of strength then developed between first Phil and the
ugly beast and then Nikki whilst Phil went off to do something else. Three
good bonks with the winch handle on its incredibly hard head only served to
upset it even more and once again the aft deck resembled Sweeney Todd's cellar.
Blood everywhere. Eventually the fight was over and the beast - approx 1 metre
long was silenced. At that point Nikki positively identified the fish as a
Barracuda and we reluctantly decided we couldn't chance
eating the fish for fear of becoming poisoned. So some very lucky shark or other
Barracuda perhaps was gifted the results of our labours as we gave up fishing
for the day.

Barracuda arriving on the aft deck
Teeth not to be messed with
We faired better the next morning - although the
fish - a metre long Wahoo didn't, on two counts - one, it took our squid lure in
one giant greedy bite, rendering the lure completely uneseable in the
future and two, because as it was on the hand line with no ratchet to tell
us a fish had taken the lure I hadn't noticed we had the fish on the line
for a some while. So the rest of his shoal and possibly something more sinister
and nasty decided they would get a piece of the action as it was being hauled
along through the water, the result being that by the time we landed the
Wahoo it was rather less than a metre long. In fact it was minus its tail
and a fair portion forward of that part of it's anatomy. Whilst we were
rather surprised to land 3/4 of a fish at least it had long finished putting up
a struggle and was actually dead! So we were spared the colossal struggle
endured with the Barracuda. This fish or what was left of it was beautiful
eating with 2 meals off the Ajaya barbecue (6 large steaks each
!!) and a Thai curry for the 3rd night (just in case it was past its best).
If all this fishy blood and gore sounds cruel you only have to witness the
daily fight for life amongst the fish population out in the oceans or on
the reefs to realise that the sea environment is a 'dog eat dog' / 'devil take
the hind most' world - I hope not to come back as a fish in the next world.
A Blue Whale will suit me fine.

The tail-less Wahoo - unlike the baracuda was safe
eating!
We don't eat the tails anyway!
Having packed the rods and lines away as we
approached Sint Maarten we were suddenly rewarded - if that's the right word, to
a very large Sei Whale breaching only 200 yards from the boat. Now studying
breaching whales is the stuff of Cousteau or Attenborough on their large steel
boats which would just give the whale a bad headache should it breach in the
wrong place. It could easily wreck our cruising plans should we be in the wrong
place when it came up again! The whale leapt almost clear of the water and
landed on its back with its pectoral fins wide apart causing a huge splash,
only to disappear for a few minutes before breaching once
more fully clear of the water, this time to our relief slightly
further away from us. The whale then slowly swam with its back arched
before diving again with us both hopingor should that be praying that
he had the sense to be looking upwards when he made any more tidal wave/bombing
antics. Whilst we were fascinated to witness the spectacle we were very relieved
to see it move onwards out of our vicinity. It had been a very interesting 24
hours!
Our arrival in Sint Maarten was on schedule
although we had to endure a few days in a very rolly anchorage next to an
international airport. We almost knew the daily timetable of incoming and
outbound flights after a few days anchored underneath the flight path. Getting
ashore from the anchorage meant a very wet dinghy ride in force 4-5 winds into
the large lagoon accessed through a narrow lifting bridge where so
many superyachts are berthed when not in use.
Large private motoryacht entering the lagoon in
Sint Maarten through the lifting bridge
We topped up with food and some chandlery - a
cruising pit stop I guess you could say before preparing to move onwards to the
BVI's some 85 miles away to the west where we hoped to spend 2 weeks cruising
and catching up with post etc.
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Diary Entries
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