On the way to Mo'Bay - Dominica, Guadeloupe and Antigua
Lilli Mae
Linton
Wed 8 Feb 2023 16:13
Hi everyone, hope you are all well? We are currently anchored in Antigua. We arrived here yesterday afternoon (Tuesday 7th Feb). We have about 1100 nm to Mo’Bay.  We have anchored in about 3 metres of water and given that our keel draft is 2.44 m we don’t have a lot of depth before we touch the bottom. We have taken a couple of pictures of the view around us just a few moments ago. Can’t complain!   This was the sunset last night. Pretty spectacular!  Since last we spoke we have sailed from the north of Martinique (C) to Portsmouth, Dominica (D) had a short rest off Guadeloupe (E) to arrive in Antigua (F). About 120 nm.  It feels as though we have done a lot; on these extended “sabbaticals” the days seem to merge into each other and you can’t remember where we were, when and what we did, where. We did however spend 1 night in St. Pierre, Martinique and 3 nights in Dominica and visited couple of the tourist attractions; the Depaz Rum distillery (Martinique) was a beautiful spot and…...    ….the Indian River cruise (Dominica) is where we discovered that Elvis is alive! Here is Elvis pushing off from the “bush bar” visit on the river cruise where rum punch was consumed at a very early part of the day!  And it is always raining in Dominica!  The sailing has been great. On the trip from Dominica to Guadeloupe and then onward to Antigua the wind was pretty strong (20-30 knots) on a close and beam reach most of the way and so we sailed up pretty fast. We were reefed (reduced sail area) on both the main and head sail and even so we topped a speed over the ground of 9 knots.  We had a very short shopping stop in Guadeloupe. In Dominica we had been given a tip about a Carrefour market within walking distance of a dinghy dock and so we took the opportunity and went in. The tip did advise that we would have to push in hard and scramble over other dinghies and rocks to get the dinghy in and so we did (well done Joan!). We cleared the shelves of Kerisac Brittany cider again!   Anyway our plan is to relax here for a couple of days and then sail over night to St Martin on Friday (10th). Its about 100nm journey and so we will leave Antigua mid-afternoon.  The wind does look pretty strong on Friday; 20 knots with gusts up to 29. However our thought is that we will be heading west and so will be a little more downwind than we have been so far. Almost forgot to mention that we have made news (at least amongst the sailing community) in the Caribbean. The February 2023 edition of the https://www.caribbeancompass.com (page 16) features Lilli Mae on her journey. It’s not bad; only one small mistake the Linton clan may spot. Check it out! Anyway that is for now. Take care wherever you are. The crew on the good ship Lilli Mae  email: illi_mae {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com
blog: http://blog.mailasail.com/lilli_mae tracker: https://share.garmin.com/LilliMae |