We waited four days, until 2nd February, for the strong easterly winds to abate.  They didn’t, so we sailed to Charlestown in Nevis (of St Kitts and Nevis) anyway. It was a bumpy ride, but John caught a barracuda on the way.  He suffered the indignity of being bitten by it in retribution, but we ate it for dinner.

 

The following morning it was on to Montserrat (Little Bay) where we encountered friendly officials who even helped us with a weather forecast specially requested from the airfield control tower.  There were large shoals of small fish hiding beside and under the jetty which serves as a ferry terminal. A local fisherman said they are locally known as sprats, but bear little resemblance to the UK fish of the same name apart from their size.  He was using them as bait to catch Trevally and Mackerel, but said they were good eating in their own right.  The local Brown Pelicans were happy to sit on the pier and waterside rocks, diving into the sprat shoals whenever they felt hungry.  We felt no jealousy, however, as John had caught a large barracuda which fed us all on the Monday night and left as much again in the freezer.  There appeared to be little risk of the disease Cigueterra to which predatory fish are prone when eating infected reef fish in some areas as this fish was caught in open water miles from the nearest reef.

 

On passage from Montserrat to Antigua, John caught yet another barracuda (his third in three days), but this one was returned alive to the sea as we still had Barracuda fillets in the freezer.

 

Faced with an unpromising weather forecast we decided to use the engines to cross the 25 miles to Antigua, against wind and waves.  After another bumpy ride, we arrived safely in Falmouth Harbour.  This seemed better than the sailing option of going down to Guadeloupe and then back up to Antigua which would have entailed two longer bumpy passages, albeit under sail.  Arrival in Falmouth Harbour was welcome respite from the pounding of the waves, and we settled down to an evening’s well earned rest – and a chicken curry prepared by John, our culinary expert as well as fisherman.

 

St Bart’s

 

Sailing to Antigua

 

Nevis

 

Barracuda