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Date: 08 Mar 2012 15:46:01
Title: A right Royal close encounter.
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18:02.76N 63:05.82W

 

 

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday – 4th, 5th 6th & 7th March

 

Sunday was a lazy day spent in Crocus Bay and we headed off in the dinghy to explore more of the underwater delights of Pelican Point and Little Bay, then in the afternoon Sarah and Jo went ashore to take a stroll inland.  They felt that The Valley, the main town was fairly small scale and as it was Sunday, very closed!   In the evening we had a game of Mexican Train which was rather predictably won easily by Sarah with Jo struggling to recall the rules from when she used to play some time ago.

 

There is a swell that runs around Anguilla pretty much all the time and although we were tucked up close to the shore and had the best of things, we did still roll quite a bit all day and night and it is a good job that Jo is something of a sailor herself as I fear many others might have found the fact that we have been rolling in all the anchorages since she arrived just too much to bear.

 

On Monday we made an early start as we had a busy schedule planned. Firstly we picked up the anchor and pottered round to Road Bay in order to clear out through Customs and Immigration. (We were not leaving until Tuesday but clearance here is good for 24 hours). It also meant that we would be in the bay in time to see Prince Edward arrive which thought we ought to do given that we were on the island anyway.

 

The first clue that things were happening was the very large presence of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel ‘Fort Rosalie’ anchored about a mile offshore. Then as we approached Road Bay from the north, a large motor yacht with HRH aboard arrived from the south. We sneaked in ahead of them and whilst they took their time deciding where to anchor, we dropped our hook and with a fine sense of the occasion, we dressed Serafina overall with our signal flags. There were a number of other yachts anchored in the bay but only one other British yacht as it happens and none were dressed overall which was a shame.

 

HRH was not due ashore until 0900 hours and so I decided that it might be best if I nipped ashore in the dinghy and did all the paperwork before he arrived and then we would be clear to head off to Prickly Pear Island to do some snorkelling in the National Park. So I took the dinghy over to the small pier and stepped up onto the deck to be greeted by 5 burly policeman and a fine red carpet. They seemed quite relaxed about my arrival and seemed to enjoy the joke when I expressed some mock delight at the number of people that seemed to waiting to greet me! They pointed out the Governor and various dignitaries waiting at the head of the pier and when I said that that was handy as they would know where I could dispose of the large black bag of rubbish I had also brought ashore. They wished me luck with that idea and so I asked them to keep an eye on my dinghy and wandered off (alongside) the red carpet towards the reception committee. They all looked pretty agitated so I ducked out of any smart comments and after dumping the bag on top of a skip that was overflowing with garbage (not sure that HRH was going to be impressed with the effort made to smarten the place up) I went into the freshly painted (yes the job was completed over the weekend) Customs building. Here they dealt with my paperwork in a rather distracted manner and the cleaner was actually very good natured about the trail of sand that seemed to lead from the front door to where I was sitting…. There was a big commotion as they were still only part of the way through processing me, which heralded the arrival of the launch from the motor yacht. I said I could wait whilst they went to see the man, which they did, but when I got up to see what was happening, it was clear to me that the person they were all photographing etc. was simply an equerry sent ahead of the royal party. They had some difficulty believing that this man was not a member of the Royal family but eventually they believed me and we completed all the formalities.

 

I then made my way back past the small crowd and the official welcoming party, down the side of the red carpet and back into the dinghy and returned to Serafina. It was at this point that the launch made its second trip ashore and with a growing sense of excitement we could not help but notice that it was making straight for us. Our reward for dressing overall was for the launch to pass within a few feet of us and we waved enthusiastically only for our waves to be returned by one of the protection officers. HRH was down below in the cabin and did not stick his head up until after they were safely past us. Bastard!

 

So suitably disappointed we took down the bunting and set sail for Prickly Pear island. We had a great sail over but the 25+ knots of wind made the bay pretty much untenable and added to this, the mooring buoys that you are required to use were close to useless with frayed lines. So sadly we had to abandon this idea and we then sailed back upwind to Crocus Bay again and dropped anchor to spend a last night in this delightful spot.   Jo and Sarah swam over to the area we had been spotting turtles in and were both rewarded with good sights of turtles in action.   Jo insisted on another full game of Mexican Train and had bravely emailed her family to say that she felt confident that she would restore their family honour. Well, she did more than that as she completely slaughtered her hosts and Sarah was left smarting with a near record losing score!

 

On Tuesday we had a lazy start as the plan was to sail back to Sint Maarten which was just 19 miles and catch the 1730 hours bridge opening to the lagoon in Simpson Bay. With 25 to 30 knots of wind we had a very fast sail over and despite being heavily reefed still arrived with an hour to spare. We dropped anchor out in the bay to wait for the bridge and along with all the other boats rolled dreadfully until it was time to form up and make our way into the lagoon. There were a lot of yachts wishing to make the inbound bridge opening, including two yachts of over 100’.   Sarah and Jo were highly entertained by the poor bridge controller who first tried the polite chivvy over the radio and eventually resorted to threats and sarcasm to try and chase on a very slow American catamaran who had obviously not read any information nor put two and two together – that the bridge opening meant that the road to the airport was shut, and creates huge vehicular tailbacks!  We made our way quickly back to the spot where we had anchored last week and got all sorted out and the dingy launched ready for the evening run ashore before the heavens opened.

 

In the evening we went ashore and enjoyed an outstanding meal in the fish restaurant Skip Jack’s which we can heartily recommend – but be advised the portions are American sized and this is clearly something we need to be aware of from now on!

 

During Tuesday night the wind picked up as forecast and by Wednesday morning we had 30 knots and torrential rain. We slipped ashore in one of the lulls and Jo did a bit of shopping for presents whilst I cleared in through customs and immigration and then at 1245 hrs we put her into a taxi to the airport (about a mile) and said our goodbyes. We watched her plane take off at 1420 hrs and waved farewell but suspect she will not have seen us, but it was at least clear and sunny so she should have had an interesting flight back to Antigua and then home.

 

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