Position: 17:00:89N
61:46:37W
Well, my last week in the Caribbean
was spent being hectic, which is against the grain of the last few months, but
necessary in order to get Nutmeg ready for returning to Europe and it’s not much
fun doing nothing when you’re on your own.
Once the girls had gone, I spent my
time cleaning and tidying away all traces of family life, just as we did in
Las Palmas. Dolls and teddies were put into plastic
bags and stored under the bunks, Lego, seven million plastic toys were collected
from behind cushions, in the engine compartment, under the saloon floor etc and
packed into boxes, and books were stored away, wrapped in plastic, into
lockers. The storm jib and big
genoa were pulled out of the forepeak and Jemima’s doll’s house took their
vacated space, pushed into the bows, out of the way.
Jim and Jo from “Starblazer” invited
me round for supper one evening, which was lovely and I was enthralled by their
girls – Josephine (9) and Clemmie (7), who just seem generations older than
Millie and Mima. Clearly we need to
make the most of our girls being young as these two seemed so grown-up, yet are
only a few years ahead of ours. A
lovely evening.
Then on Tuesday, I motored round to
the fuel dock – my first close-quarters handling on my own – and I am pleased to
say I moored alongside without so much as grazing the fenders, so I was very
pleased. I then managed to reverse
into the haulout dock without hitting anything, which was a
bonus.
Then Nutmeg was lifted out of the
water for the first time since the Canaries last November, and I got to see all
those bits of her that I’d only seen through snorkel and mask. All that muck and barnacles was finally
blasted off with a jet wash. Just
as the guys were finishing jet washing her, a small crab peered out of one of
the seacocks!
Two long, hard days were spent
sanding, priming and antifouling the bottom. Various local guys came up to offer
their services but at US$12 / ft, I could not afford them so did it all
myself. One friendly guy did
however help me out by lending me his sander, and giving me a few tips – he
could obviously spot a bodger when he saw one! By the end, Nutmeg was looking smarter
than ever, and Ollie was looking scruffier than ever - very tired and covered in
red paint!
Nutmeg hauled out in Jolly
Harbour
We were lifted back in at 1330 on
the Thursday, so I decided that rather than hang around in Jolly Harbour, I would stick my nose outside the harbour
with a view to perhaps going round to Falmouth Harbour. And that’s what we ended up doing – my
first singlehanded sail was a dead beat to windward for 15M in 15-20kts. It was a great sail and Nutmeg was going
really fast with her shiny bottom.
I loved it! I suppose
singlehanding on a short passage is no different to sailing with the girls as I
tend to do most of the sailing work myself, but it is a bit odd not needing to
tell anyone I’m going on deck!
Falmouth Harbour was heaving with boats, as it was
the start of Classic Week. I
finally found a spot and dropped anchor without any issues, then cracked open a
beer and sat on the main boom and watched the world go by. It’s not too bad, this
singlehanding!
The following day, delivery skipper
David Hunnable and his crew arrived from the UK. David seems to be highly professional
and I immediately liked him which is a good start. His crew, John Apps, appears to be one
of those legends in the making, having completed both Jester Challenges (ie he
raced across the North Atlantic in a UFO 27 via the northern route – either mad
or extremely brave) and although, as a singlehander unused to the relative
luxuries of Nutmeg, he will probably be a nightmare to sail double-handed with,
I could not ask for a more experienced pair of sailors to steer Nutmeg back to
Europe. I just hope that I can get
the go-ahead to join the boat for the Azores – UK leg so I can
learn from these guys.
From the point that David and John
turned up, I transitioned from being the luckiest man in the world, sitting on
my own yacht in Falmouth Harbour, to being a nobody – just another
random sailor heading home on the plane.
Apart from running David through the entire boat in detail, there was
little for me to do. My bags were
packed, the boat was ready, all they needed to do was fill up with food and
water, and all I needed to do was hop in a taxi to the
airport.
So I found myself in the lounge at
Antigua airport, at the end of our Caribbean
odyssey, full of mixed feelings and emotions. I felt like I’ve talked myself out of
sailing back, and although I know it is a logical sensible conclusion, it
doesn’t stop me feeling sad, cross, and disappointed. I have gone from having a clear goal and
plan, to suddenly being directionless and not knowing what I am going to do for
the next few weeks. Not only that,
I am cold for the first time in six months, from the
aircon!!
I jotted down my random thoughts as
I sat there:
I love this traveling lifestyle, and
I love meeting new and interesting people, where everyone respects the other for
what they’ve done, not what they’ve got.
Everyone is equal, and age, sex, material wealth don’t really matter.
There’s no hierarchy. I love seeing new places and
peoples. I love the community feel
of a small island, something which we wish we still had in the
UK as our villages have grown and
homogenized over the last few decades.
I don’t need lots of money – in fact I don’t even want it. I have loved being a
family.
What I’ve learnt from all the
amazing people we’ve met is that there are lots of people out there who have
found their happy niche, be it sailing for 6 months of every year in the Carib,
living in Antigua flogging T-shirts, delivering boats etc. There is a lot more to this world and
this life than becoming a big cheese in someone else’s big company. True success is about achieving your
personal goals in your way – for us this year: sailing the Atlantic, loving life spent with our girls - doing things
that make us feel proud of ourselves and make us happy. I think we have achieved our goals.
