English Harbour Antigua
Malua
Harry Watson Smith
Fri 15 Feb 2013 23:55
Pointe a Pitre is in the middle of the two wings of the butterfly which is the Quadeloupe Island. To continue north one has to decide if you take the western or lee side of the island or the eastern or windward side of the islands. Most people who take the lee shore do the passage to Antigue in two stages stopping for the night at one of the bays on the western side of Quaswloupe.
Over the past couple of days the wind has dropped of completely during the night so I deceided that I would leave Pointe a Pitre and sail eastwards to the lovely anchorage of Ilet du Gosier which is behind an island with a ligthouse on it. I would go to bed and then set off at 1:00 am on the 83 nm journey round the south eastern cap of Point des Chateaux hopefully reaching the cape before dawn and when the wind usually comes up. Everything went according to plan except the wind got up before the sun so I found myself motoring into a 15 knot wind and a short wind chop. Malua does not go well in these conditions and we struggled towards the Cape at 3 to 4 knots. I could not sail or even motor sail because I would have been heading towards Petite Terre and its fringe reef.
I continued for three hour into the wind and swell. At about 8:00 I was well clear of the Cape and tacked to head north east and Antigue some 60 nm miles away. The wind was now up to slightly more than 20 knots its was aft of the beam, with the main up and one reef and the full genoa and staysail Malua surged ahead at more than 7 knots. I kept this up for more than 7 hours. It was a great sail although a series of rain showers passed over me as we moved close to Antigua. At some stages the swell was quite big but always over the aft quarter.
I approached English harbour but could not recognise it in the rain and against the cliff face. I had expected to see either a lot of masts or yachts coming and going into the harbour but due to the wind nobody was leaving or entering port that day. Thankfully my chartplotter led me to the entrance. The outer harbour is a reasonable size bay but it was full of anchored boats. Just as I arrived having put away the sail and rain shower completely obliterated the visibility of the bay so I just waited in the entrance for it to clear. I chose a spot to anchor after seeing the boats swing back and forth. I approached, dropped the anchor from the wheel and went astern. No sooner had I let out sufficient chain a Dutch woman came on deck from her barge like boat and shouting I was "too close" I pointed out that she had two anchors and did not swing in harmony with the other boats and she was the cause of the "too close situation"
Anyway I was too close so I took in the anchor and returned to my preferred spot close to the entrance and at the back of the fleet. I dropped the anchor, settled down and declared I had arrived. 83 nm in one hop in very robust wind and waves but a great passage.
A magical moment on Malua.