To Barbuda
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 19 May 2009 00:20
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En Route to
Barbuda
07:40 on the 14th May, engine on,
anchor up and off to Barbuda. Engine off by 08:15 and making good progress with
main and genoa. Troll lines out with a piece of sweetcorn on each hook - well
anything worth a try
 
 Very hard for me
to eat breakfast (left over sweetcorn, tomato and mushroom) whilst
giggling. Skipper doing a log reading. Antigua fading into the distance.
 Barbuda comes into
focus, must do something about my horizon.
We had read that throughout its
history Barbuda has been an exceptionally dangerous hazard to shipping and there
are many submerged wrecks lying off-shore. The safest approach is from the south
but slightly to the west of the island. We knew we had to arrive with the sun
behind us, furl the sails a few miles off and proceed with a good lookout. We
had been doing quite well averaging about 4.8 knots under sail. As soon as we
put the sails away and motored it was like hitting a brick wall, 22 knots of
wind plus tide against us, raining and very rough patches, "Oh well at least
it's warm" thought I and I managed to pick our way through to Low Bay using the
forward facing sonar, ably assisted by Skipper of course. The last three miles
took nearly two hours, but was it worth it.
 We did stall a bit to allow me to
pull in this chap. Delighted. Sadly Skipper said he
wouldn't trust eating him as we were close to reef and that meant the risk of
Ciguatera - that is very toxic. So I plan to keep his jawbone and mount it a a
trophy - "well he is my first with teeth".
 "And boy, I think he has a great set
of gnashers"
   The beauty
here is a photographers dream.
 
 Us and two other boats on a twelve
mile stretch.
 ALL IN ALL A VERY SPECIAL
PLACE TO BE. THE
TURQUOISE WATER IS STUNNING.
MILES TODAY 31.6 TOTAL
MILES 5447.16
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