Anguilla - Renaissance Islands. 6.2.09
Swiftwing
Tue 10 Feb 2009 20:26
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Anguilla N 18.11:95 W
63.05:55 and a little bit of St. Martin.
I forgot to tell you in the other most recent bog
that St. Barts, St.Martin and Anguilla make up a small group of islands called
the Renaissance Islands.
After a very pleasant week of sanding, varnishing
and a bit of engine maintenance we and a group of other cruisers went to a
street carnival in Grande Anse. This is not the main carnival or 'Jump Up'
as they call it in Dominica, but a practice one for the bands and a chance to
make some money from the tourists, though you won't find any cruise ship
passengers here. What we found was a very nice street party affair with, apart
from the bands, hundreds of street vendors selling everything from £500
paintings to £2 crepe's and everything else in between. We were both hungry when
we arrived so decided to have a sit down meal at £7.50 for the two meals. They
were clearly expecting a busy night with hundreds of portions of spare ribs
being grilled on lines of barbecues made out of cut down fifty gallon drums. A
very pleasant evening was spent strolling the main street checking out the
various stalls and watching an ageing rock band, who were excellent and had
obviously spent a long apprenticeship learning their craft. I asked Bev how long
she thought it would take for me to learn to play the guitar as well as the
lead. Her reply was that I didn't have enough time left! I'm ashamed to
say that I spent more of my time listening to renditions of Pink Floyd and Jimi
Hendrix than I did listening to the carnival bands, with their over enthused
banging of big drums and blasting of trumpets. A great night was had by all and
we finished it off with chocolate crepes made on the griddle, as we watched, by
two French guys. The thing that is noticeable about all the French islands in
the Caribbean is the very large percentage of mainland French population
that they support.
It was again time to move on. We had really enjoyed
St. Martin(French) St. Maartin (Dutch) with it's contrasts and it is
certainly a place we would visit again, especially with that lovely flat
anchorage inside Simpson Lagoon.We transited the gate at the French side of the
lagoon and anchored just off Marigot to clear out. Our next stop was to be
Anguilla a mere seven miles sail where we would overnight before the 78
mile jump to the Virgin Islands.
After a very pleasant sail at six knots on headsail
and mizzen alone, to try to spread the wear equally throughout the sail
wardrobe, we arrived in Road Bay, Anguilla.
Road Bay, Anguilla is described in the pilot book
as one of the most beautiful anchorages in the Caribbean and on arriving we
could see why, again stunning turquoise waters and lovely beige sandy beaches
with fine sand.
Anguilla has a bit of interesting recent history
which I'll quote from Chris Doyle's excellent guide for the area. "Anguilla is a
low island surrounded by spectacular white sand beaches and banks of coral. It
has a wonderful sense of peace and the people are outstandingly friendly and
honest. The population of 7000 relies on tourism as the major
industry.
In 1967 Britain lumped Anguilla with St. Kitts and
Nevis and made them an autonomous state. This awkward parcelling conveniently
filed them away for the British Colonial Office, but ignored both social and
geographical realities. Angullians were dead set against this arrangement and
wanted to remain with Britain. They rebelled against the rule of St. Kitts'
premier Bradshaw, who told them that he "would show them who was boss" and
threatened to" turn Anguilla into a dessert". An amazing armed rebellion
followed in which there were only minor casualties and no fatalities. The
Anguillan rebels would open fire on the police station - manned from St. Kitts -
at all hours of the day or night until the police were quite unnerved. A large
armed crowd then gave the police an ultimatum to leave the island and they
blocked the runway to stop reinforcements arriving.
The Anguillans fearing an armed invasion from St.
Kitts, decided to take the offensive and invade St. Kitts themselves. A small
boatload of men went down aided by two American mercenaries. The invasion was a
complete fiasco. A big hole was blown in the ground near the defence force
headquarters and there was a shoot-out at a police station. There were no
casualties. However, after that no one in St. Kitts really wanted to mess with
the Anguillans. Several Americans thought up fancy schemes to help the
Anguillans finance the island, and in 1969 Britain, under the mistaken
impression that the island had been taken over by the Mafia, invaded. Armed
troops waded ashore onto the beaches to be met by goats and curious small boys.
After the embarrassment died down, Anguillans got what they wanted and are again
administered by the British".
We motored ashore towards the fine new Police,
Customs and Immigration building built right on the beach. Before we even got
ashore we could see that Britain still had a large hand in the running and
supplying of this island. A fine Arrun Lifeboat style Police launch lay at
anchor whilst closer inshore a 500 horse power power boat, again a police launch
lay close to the quay. At anchor not ten yards away was a 'Ministry of
Fisheries' launch, again in new condition and with the requisite 500 hp. You're
no-one in Anguilla if you don't have 500 horsepower at you disposal. The Customs
and Immigration office was a fine example of British colonial efficiency with
air conditioned and spotlessly clean rooms. The staff were smart, courteous,
professional and very friendly and were using state of the art computers that
make the Campbeltown Police Office computers look fit only for dumping. It was
the best kitted out Customs and Immigration office that we have so far seen and
it made us proud that our taxes had paid for it all!
It had seemed like ages since we had had a beach
day so after exploring Road Bay we got into our swimming kit and had a day by
the beach. We were in bed by 8 o clock as we were leaving at 0400 next morning
for the 78 mile hop over to The British Virgin Islands.
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