Deep Bay, Antigua
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Mon 7 Jan 2008 16:24
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17:07.570N 61:53.180W
On Thursday (1/3), we said good-bye to Margy and
Rick and shortly thereafter left Jolly Harbour Marina and sailed a few miles
north along the coast of Antigua to Deep Bay. We had heard from other
boaters that Deep Bay was a nice anchorage and we decided it would be a good
place to hang out for a couple of days before heading south to Falmouth Harbour,
and then on to Martinique from there. We received an email from
Margy, and based on what she wrote, our trip up the coast of Antigua was a lot
more enjoyable than their trip back to Syracuse. Lots of delays leaving
Antigua caused them to miss their connection in Newark, which of course was the
last flight to Syracuse for the night. They opted to rent a car
and drive home - arriving at 3am Friday morning. Once again it
has become clear that travel by sailboat is much more rewarding than travel by
air. It may take a little longer to arrive at your destination (like 9
days instead of 3 or 4 hours), but the aggravation factor is infinitely
smaller.
We stayed in Deep Bay for three days (we are now in
Falmouth Harbour), caught up on boat chores and dried out. We did take
time off to dinghy in to shore and hike up to Fort Barrington, another old
British structure built as an observation post - no doubt to help the
Brits keep track of the Frenchies. On the way to the fort, we ran
into a bunch of goats (picture 1). According to Michael, taxi driver
extraordinaire, all the goats on Antigua have ear tags and are owned
by someone, but they are not confined to fenced-in fields, and therefore,
wander about freely. The hike up to the fort was steep (picture 2),
but the view at the top definitely worthwhile (picture 3 - that's our boat in
the middle).
The countdown to the start of the World
ARC rally is winding down. We have to be in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia by
1/14 (wow! that's only a week away!), so our plan is to sail from Falmouth
Harbour, Antigua to Martinique on Tuesday (1/8), arriving sometime on
Wednesday. The trip is about 150 miles and will take us about 30
hours. The sailing should be good since we will be heading almost due
south and the trade winds blow consistently from the east (and happen
to be somewhat light this week). We will pass the islands of Montserrat,
Guadeloupe and Dominica along the way, but won't stop - maybe next time
around. We'll stay in Martinique through the weekend and sail to St. Lucia
on the 14th - it's only 30 miles from the south end of Martinique to Rodney Bay,
so we can easily do that in a day. As we get closer to the rally departure
date (1/23), the feeling that our adventures over the past seven
months will be nothing compared to what's in store for
us over the next 14 months becomes stronger. The pace
of travel will be much faster than what we've done on our own and the
places we visit will be more exotic. We are both looking forward to
finally meeting the other participants in the rally and it will be nice to be
traveling in a group (although we won't necessarily be able to see the other
rally boats when we are sailing, we will at least know that they are within
radio distance). As Don put it, the bottom line is, it will feel good to
finally get going on this round-the-world thing.
Translation: in typical Don fashion he is essentially saying, 'Enough talk
already! Time for some action!'.
Anne
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