But first, a late night arrival.. 

..and this what sailboat racing is all about?

It’s rare that boats arrive to tie-up at 9pm at night in the dark but this was the case this particular evening. A beautiful 40 year old white sailboat arrived with 8 middle-aged to elderly crew and moored next to us. No hassle there. Within minutes there was chatter, laughter and cheering amongst the crew. Obviously they had just arrived back from the race and done rather well – good for them!

It turned out that they had actually ‘retired’ from the race and returned a little early. After a crew discussion they had decided that if they continued the race then they would not arrive until AFTER the post-race party, the sea had been a little rough and there had been a lot of beating against the wind making life uncomfortable – so why not return home in time for the party, open the celebratory drink and be done with it!

They sail off to St Martin for another race next week. Hahaha!

We stress over the condition of our anchor in the anchor spaghetti and..  people can be so nice..

You can’t help it.

In the back of your mind all the time from the moment you first berth, is the fact that at some time you’re gonna have to leave and then just maybe find your anchor wrapped up in a mass of other anchors  - or not. The day had arrived when we would finally find out.

The dive team were on-hand to help out. We got on pretty well with the dive team as we had just paid their invoice for previous services rendered of $120. Would there be another $60 coming their way? 

Meanwhile, the skipper of the ‘sailboat that retired from the Antigua 600 race apologized for any noise or inconvenience that they might have caused us the other evening (all quite unneeded!). When we mentioned that we were leaving that morning he immediately offered to help us leave the dock as there was a nasty easterly wind in the dock area.

He was amazing.

Now retired from the army and having sailed all his life he decided to start a second career as a professional skipper. He took over from the dock.

“Release this line now”. “Bow thruster to port”. “Feed this line out there Lesley”

“Take up the anchor chain as you move out John!”

Beautiful.

Despite 15 knots against our beam we slid out so controlled you wanted to do it again!   All we now had to do now was wait and see if we were free of obstructions or not.

It so happens that we were in 4 meters of water. So, that meant that we should have around 25-30 meters of chain out ‘ish (we were tied to the dock too). We counted out over 50 meters coming back onboard! It seemed that all 50 meters of it wiggled all over the seabed to every nook and cranny possible – how does that happen!

As we heard the comforting SLUUUURP!! From the anchor as it freed itself form the seabed we were certain we were free!

The dive team looked on with sad expressions as we left the dock.

...on to Five Island Bay on the north west coast of Antigua for an overnight anchorage before leaving for Nevis. A short 20 mile sail.

What a super anchorage. This 2 mile deep by 1 mile wide bay was deserted. The shoreline has just one small low rise hotel with cottages on a beach. The rest of the shoreline was deserted barring the odd sandy beach.

Whilst we anchored in the middle of this huge bay just one Hobbie cat visited during his afternoon beach sail. Just one other yacht anchored a mile away.

Perfect. What a great place to anchor!!!!

..just NO boats anywhere!!!