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Date: 18 Jan 2009 14:15:00
Title: Barbuda
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Sat 17th Jan to Tues 20th Jan 09

It's time for Mum & Terry to leave their lovely little cottage and move into their accommodation aboard Imagine.  We've given them our cabin as it's the most spacious one!  Nice aren't we?!  The next day we were off, for the short trip to Jolly Harbour.  Nothing too strenuous for the first leg and the weather was good to us!  They've been to JH before so no major sight seeing required.  We took them to Peter's for that great lunch special we'd tested out a couple of weeks before.  So far so good.  We met Matsu in the anchorage for a quick chat.  We've decided to go to Barbuda tomorrow for a few days and we'll meet them there.

We left at a civilised 8.30am after breakfast and coffee, for the 30 odd mile sail to Barbuda with the fishing rod out of course.  We've only done short hops with them before so this'll be the test. We had good winds but the seas were quite choppy.  This didn't agree with Terry at all, although he blamed it on the bacon sarnies I'd made for breakfast.  Hmmm - the rest of us were ok and we ate them too!!!  Well, fish obviously like bacon as it wasn't long before we caught a Little Tunny!  It weighed in at just over a lb and although it looks small it was plenty to feed the 4 of us when we got to Barbuda.  And that wasn't all on the fishing front.  It wasn't long before we got another bite but this time we knew it was big.  The reel could hardly cope with the strain.  Jon had to don a pair of garden gloves and manually pull in the line while I reeled in the slack.  We had to do this several times as, when the tension got too much I had to let out the line and then start reeling in again so as not to break the rod.  What ever it was finally started to tire and we slowly got it to the stern.  You won't believe what was on the hook.  Only a Golden Marlin!!!  It was at least 4 ft long (honest!) and there was no way we could get it aboard with no gaff and with the dinghy in the way.  Didn't like the look of that long spike on the end of its nose either!  I don't think you can even eat them.  Oh what to do?  That was soon taken out of our hands as the line finally came away from the hook and off he went.  A bit of a relief really.  He was too beautiful to kill.

     
             Fish #1 - a Little Tunny                                                         Fish #2 - the big Marlin

We finally dropped anchor in the pouring rain a short distance from Tim & Linda on Matsu, in the bay opposite the Coddrington Lagoon.  We logged 37 miles in 5 and a half hours and stayed 3 nights.  The weather didn't improve much and there was a bit of a swell but we still had a good time there.  We did think about going ashore for a BBQ with Tim & Linda, but it just wasn't tenable as the surf up the beach was too much to land the dinghy safely. We invited them over for sundowners instead.  Mum & Terry did go ashore the next day for a stroll and Jon had to drop them off by dinghy in water waist high for them to wade ashore! 

    
           It's not always sunny here in the Caribbean!                                                                Anchoring in Barbuda

On our last day we decided to sail to another anchorage but after about half an hour we hit a really bad squall so we turned back again.  It was such a shame that the weather wasn't better.  We decided to leave the next day for to Jolly Harbour.
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