St Lucia to Antigua
True Colours
James Scrimshaw
Tue 17 Feb 2015 19:35
We had decided to island hop to Antigua, stopping overnight at St Pierre, Portsmouth, and Deshaises, but not going ashore and thus having to clear in/out.
RodneyBay, St. Lucia to St. Pierre, Martinique all went well. Left at 08.30 in a wind of 15 knots, broad reaching under double reefed main and full Genoa - a sail plan we kept over the whole 3 days. Maintained good speed until the back of Martinique, when as usual the wins increased, decreased, disappeared, and then came from the opposite direction. We motorsailed!
Arrived at St Pierre 14.45. Two goes at anchoring; second attempt was good. The GPS trace showed we had anchored within about 5m of where we had been on the last visit.
Next morning, raised anchor at 06.00. A catamaran had anchored close to us; when James snorkelled to check our anchor had set, he ended up under their boat. They could not move as one engine not working, the other suspect, and no diesel. However the morning wind direction moved them away from our anchor, so no problems.
Similar sail to Portsmouth, Dominica, arriving at 14.30. Very busy, no moorings free so we anchored adjacent to the new hotel, some way away from the town. carnival time! Up until midnight there were two sets of music blasting out, PAYS barbecue and Carnival. After that, just Carnival - all through the night until we left the next morning. And it was loud (and not always tuneful), so loud that at times parts of the boat were resonating to the base notes - and we were probably a mile away.
Another 06.00 start, similar wind both strength,direction, and behind island disturbance. Arrived Deshaises at 13.15. All mooring buoys taken, and not much space. True Colours had one go at anchoring near the main channel, but when we started to drag decided to continue to Antigua without stopping. We then had a great sail, close reaching in 17/20 knots initially, reducing to 12/14 by late afternoon. Two hours of night sailing and we arrived in Falmouth, Antigua at 20.30, by which time James had been at the helm for 14 1/2 hours. Picked up a buoy (marked reserved, but we phoned John and he said that was fine), rum punch, beer, cheese and biscuits, and bed.