18:02.00N 63:05.26W
Apollonia
Anthony Auger / Nico Philip
Fri 4 May 2012 04:06
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> Day 1(Friday 27th April)
> Myself, Ian, Brett and Don flew to Antigua (to be welcomed by tropical rain and an Errol Brown lookalike singing us into to the shelter of the terminal). We got a taxi to Jolly Harbour to meet Nico, and boarded the boat.
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> Day 2 (Saturday 28th April)
> Departed Antigua heading for our first stop St Martin. After a 100 mile sail and two huge catches (1 of which was a 40lb Kingfish) we arrived and anchored in Philipsburg to get some sleep.
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> Day 3 (Sunday 29th April)
> In the morning we moved round to Simpsons Bay in time for the opening of the bridge, so that we could moor at the marina to re-fuel and provision the boat for the crossing. After a day at the supermarkets we had the provisions delivered and stowed.
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> Day 4 (Monday 30th April)
> Left St Martin heading for the BVIs. We arrived late afternoon and anchored up for the night. We had a couple of hours of downtime before sunset so we swam to the beach, and Ian and I (the Saga minders) spent an unsuccessful hour trying to knock down a coconut, much to the amusement of Saga Don and Saga Brett. The BVI's were incredible and not a bad bit of land to have in the back of the mind before setting off for an Atlantic crossing the next day!
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> Day 5 (Tuesday 1st May)
> Left the BVI's, next stop the Azores (or so we thought)! We had a great days sailing, and Ian even had a bird crap on his back without realising, and let it bake in the sun for a few hours before one of us noticed. All was fine until about 20:30hrs when we uncovered a hydraulics failure when trying to furl in the Genoa. The failure led to a torn Genoa, which in-turn led to to the main GPS screen being ripped from its mount and catapulted 15 m in to the sea. We were all safe though and quite quickly we agreed it was best to turn back to get the boat repaired in St Martin before continuing. It was quite demoralising to have to have to turn back but it was the sensible thing to do.
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> Day 6 (Wednesday 2nd May)
> After 18 hrs of motoring we arrived in St Martin at 14:00hrs and Nico and Don went ashore to find Sail Makers and Hydraulic Engineers. All the Sail Makers are swamped due to Antigua week so it is going to be difficult to get the sail repaired quickly enough in order to get to the Azores on schedule.
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> Day 7 (Thursday 3rd May)
> Day spent repairing toilets (thanks Ian, it's not quite how you sold the trip to me!), having a new tube fitted to the hydraulic system, pleading with sail makers and delivering the sail to a sail loft, and avoiding the tropical rain storms. We are all hoping to have the Sail repaired and fitted so that we can leave by Saturday at the latest, which would still give us enough time to get across the pond on schedule…….we'll keep you posted!
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> That's all for now,
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> lots of love, Jamie and the rest of the crew
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> x x
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