Honey ....... Does my bum look big in this?

Antigua Fun

Following our arrival in Antigua the days have slid past at surprising speed, nothing like the pace we have been approaching life with. No one would wish to rush the Antiguan experience. It is as glossy as any magazine cover, richer than double cream, more to do here than, well, than there is in the middle of the Atlantic so its coming over very nicely.

English harbour is a deep, steep sided, crooked incision into the Antiguan south coast and lies immediately adjacent to the much more open Falmouth harbour. In fact English harbour is so well hidden and protected that it hid the British West Indies fleet for almost two centuries from the destructive forces of hurricanes and privateers. Now, the harbour and the more recently restored Nelsons Dockyard area is the undisputed centre of Caribbean yachting. It has so much charm, history and fascinating natural wonders that you could fall in love with the place and never leave.

We did leave for 5 nights though, to Barbuda, just 30 miles north of here stopping in one of the many attractive bays at Green island along the way. Dense green foliage converges on the white sand beaches, the trees wheezing with little nectivorous birds that are frantic in their search for unsucked blossoms. The fragrance of spring wafts out over the inshore maze of coral reefs that surround the islands.

Spearfishing is prohibited here. Nick and I wholeheartedly agree that this is an excellent dictor because there is noticeably more reef fish in shore than the Cape Verdes (where we witnessed locals stringing small benthic species along behind them as they blazed the reef). The frustration at not being able to shoot the large pelagic species that would more than likely visit the deeper channels and pinnacles regardless of spearguns is easy to come to terms with when one brandishes an underwater camera instead.

Anyone for BBQ Lobster in Creole Sauce?

Good to be doing some hunter gathering!

Nick at the helm of SY Nimrod

Simon invited us out to scream past the Atlantic rowing race victors on the 82 foot NZ built Martin. What a machine! (and what persistent loonies who would row for 39 days in a little row boat - actually they were lovely, devonshire lads, three brothers and a cousin who had little rowing experience before they left).

Antigua from space

This is where we are, currently in English Harbour which unfortunatly is hidden by a cloud but is found at about quarter past six! Got this photo off islanddots.com - very cool website.

Mahi Mahi

Atlantic Crossing Part III

31 December

“We are traveling across at the same time as about 6 other yachts and we are all in communication with each other every day during the morning sched then again after we listen to Herb the routing forecaster for the Atlantic. The blokes go to a chat channel afterwards and natter away like a knitting group about motors, stars, fishing and the like. Men hey!”




“Happy New Year! We celebrated in the cockpit with a very small Belgian beer each and a bag of chips! We have had a great day though, wind is 15-20 ENE and our speed is pretty good. The highlight of today was the double hookup of Mahi Mahi, Patti pulled the smaller one in on the handline. 15 mins later we managed to get the other fish to the boat which we both agreed was quite a bit bigger and far too much for us to deal with .We got the hook out and he swam away. The Smaller one that we kept was 1.4m long and weighed 25lbs. I don't think we will need to fish again on this trip! Position at 21.30 UTC 31Dec 15N 47W. We think we will probably change our destination to Antigua as there is a bad area of squalls to the south that we want to avoid and in doing so will be staying at around 15N ... perfect to go straight in to Antigua and will add less than a day to the trip (865miles to go)”

1 January 2006

“The lighter wind sailing was actually a lot harder than this 15 - 25 knots stuff we have now, we had to make lots of sail changes that takes its toll. New noon to noon record of 170 miles today. Only 580 miles to go to Antigua.”

3 January

“Another good day, still 20 knots from NE, Blue spotted a couple of big brown whales swimming along in the face of a big wave 100m from us. Position at 0540 UTC 3 Jan 15.54N 53.40W, 460 miles to go.”

4 January

“Position at 1130 utc : 16.25N 57.15W, 260 miles to go and we should be in by Fri morning, finally finished eating the huge Mahi Mahi so we can fish again. Fixed some torches otherwise all very nice and boring.”

5 January

“we have 135 miles to go to Antigua and we have run out of wind, drifting along at 4 knots. Might have to motor in as we want to clear customs on Friday afternoon rather than being stuck on the boat until Monday. Pretty quiet couple of days lately, got a few jobs done but ready to arrive now!”

6 January

“We are 3 miles off the entrance to English Harbor, Antigua. Its an overcast morning but quite calm and we are motoring, The island looks very green after the arid Canaries and Verdes. Yesterday I caught and released a Marlin! It was a small striped marlin (about 35kg), his first run was amazing, 300m grey hounding across the surface. We had enough time for me to get a gimbal and harness on and Blue got the boat turned around to start following before he slowed down. Later, Blue spotted a pod of False Killer Whales.

We made it!!”

Atlantic Crossing Part II

Boxing Day

“BUGGAAAAARRRR!!!
Yes the inevitable has happened. We have a forecast of less than 12 knots for the next five days all downwind and the Auto Pilot is playing merry (xmas) hell! It is currently having spack attacks where it wiggles the wheel left and right repetitively and continues to do so until we turn it off, hand steer for an hour or two then turn it on again and its sort of right then for a little while but seems to be getting worse each time. Hmmmmm. 1450 miles to go.”



“the autopilot has blown up and we have nothing but light winds in the offing, spent all day today in the engine room which was a bit warm.....found a capacitor that had a loose connection and I think I cooked it trying to solder it back in because its even worse now. We have turned to the windvane and with some pretty unorthodox additions its working ok, a bit woobly but it sure beats hand steering. Tonight Herb talked about a potential low forming near us that we might have to dodge but we are in a good position to do so. 15degN 35deg30W”



27 December

“Sailing has been a mixed bag, lots of light airs, got the wind vane working pretty well in all conditions except a broad reach with the MPS and the main up, drop the main and its fine, which is what we were doing tonight when the kite halyard broke, kite in the water - good fun and I stubbed my little toe, looks like PC will claim another of my toe nails (the 2nd!). Position at 2000 UTC 15N 40W getting there but slowly.”

29 December

“ much better spirits today. No wind overnight so motored whilst hand steering lying flat on my back on the cockpit seat steering by the stars. We have been studying up on the night sky and are becoming quite familiar whilst listening to some tunes on headphones, changed watches and at 0900Z woke up to find Patti in a bikini wildly dancing in the cockpit to some house music I couldn't hear! Went up the mast after breakfast, and re ran the kite halyard what a roller coaster ride that was! Now have a bit of breeze and are rolling towards Barbados at 4.5 knots. Only did 104 miles in the last 24 hrs. There is a bit of an unusual low forming about 300 miles behind us but its going the other way and is only supposed to last a couple of days then peter out, our forecast is for light winds today and tomorrow with trades rebuilding on Sat. Current Position 14.46N 41.10W (1200 UTC 29Dec)”

30 December

“We past the half way point about 10 mins ago! PC is right now over 1000 miles from the nearest land, apart from the land 5km below us that is!”



“caught a small wahoo today (lost a big one) - thats a first and very tasty too. Started today with a quick trip up the mast (again) to fix tri light. this time I wore a puffer jacket for protection much better but a bit sweaty! Got a bit more breeze now 12-15 knots NE. Tropical storm Zeta has developed back to the East of us but is not expected to effect us other than a bit more swell., Zeta will go in the Guinness Book of Records as the latest ever tropical storm in the Atlantic so we are told. Position at 2200 UTC 30Dec - 44.46N 44.07W”

Across the Atlantic!!

Atlantic Crossing
22 Dec to 6 Jan, 15 Days 4 Hours.

Excerpts from various emails sent on route:


22 December

“Underway at last, left at 0900Z this morning in 20kts of NE and clear skies. Forecast is for 10-15 NE for the next three days so hopefully will have a pleasant day on the 25th!”

23 December

“Noon UTC 23 Dec 14.58N 28.01W 15kts NE mod sea, Clear skies, favorable current 3/4 knot. 164 miles last 24hrs, all well on board.”

(email to Karen and Boyd – owners of Pina Colada)
“Left yesterday and have around 1850 miles to go - yikes! current conditions and forecast models are excellent though for the first time in ages. 10 - 20 knots NE in our areas for the next week or so. Auto Pilot working well……… so lets not talk about it (don't want to jinx it!) Windvane is working well in over 18 knots or a bit lighter if the winds are forward of the beam (not that that’s happened yet really!) I am going to get a longer extension for the leg to try to give it more power.

24 December

“We are currently at 15 degrees north, thirty one minutes west which is about 1/8th of the way across the big old blue Atlantic ocean. Christmas day looks like its going to be the best it could possibly be without being near a mob of loved ones.

Christmas Day

“It is 0300Z on xmas morn, the remnants of the moon has just risen dead astern, Blue has just turned over the watch to me, there is a slight swell but the sea is flat, 6-8 knots from just aft of the beam and we have a full main and MPS up which gives us a nice steady heel and 5.5knots of boat speed. its very quiet just the occasional Auto Pilot clicking and a constant gurgle of the water going by. Sleep comes easily when off watch especially at night. Our current position is 15N 31.48W about 1600 miles to go I guess. the last 2 days I have caught a nice size mahi mahi just before lunch, yesterday Blue timed it and we had eaten half the fish 22 minutes after he struck. There are several radio nets we are taking part in and they all have a pretty festive spirit at the moment lots of chrissy references on the radio. Herb the Atlantic weather guru is promising 15 knots NE later today so it will be good to get the kite down and start getting the speed up again, the first day we did over 160 but the last two have been more like 130 as the wind died. There are very few birds in this ocean but huge flocks(?) of flying fish that bloom and fly away on our approach, they remind me of the big groups of locusts we sometimes got in the Kimberley.“




“You should taste the FMP's I made. They went through 2 stages of development .Mark one were a bit rough looking as the mince had oosed the little pasties open so I used the muffin tin next, added some icing sugar to the pastry and by golly, you should see and taste the result - Pies that would put Mr Kippling on the back foot. My shortbread and Rum balls are under strict control as well, otherwise they would have disappeared on the 23rd. Don't know what Ill do about a turkey, but for the last two days we have caught a mahi mahi at lunchtime that's been the perfect size for lunch and dinner. Nick has them filleted an in the pan in less than 25 minutes. Delectable. The sailing has been totally pleasant - light winds so a bit slow so far. The first day I wasnt able to go below much, preferring to keep my head up. The second day was the same but I could not resist so I got a bit sick, third day I'm good as gold.”




“well no fear of getting seasick for xmas its pretty much flat calm now! Drifting along at 3.5knots and its a bit warm as we are running square. Having a lovely time though, boat is decorated, Just fitted new jib sheets and they look smart! New xmas lure is trailing (rather limply) out the back. Just worked out its over 1200 miles to Africa and the same to South America so we are literally in the middle of the Atlantic!!

“disturbed a 4m Oceanic whitetip (shark) having sunfish for xmas dinner whilst we on deck opening prezzies, he was only about 20m away. There is a weather station buoy coming up in a couple of days 5 miles off our rum line and if we pass it in the daytime in weather like this we will stop and have a swim. Another yacht saw it and reported it was substantial and you wouldn’t want to hit it. Should be some cool stuff lurking under it eh? In the Verdes we dived often for the result of zero, saw several small trevaly; they were the only pelagic species.

Boxing Day