We have spent a couple of days here in Jolly Harbour and they have been very enjoyable, it being a surprisingly good destination for all sorts of reasons. The Marina is sheltered and well serviced. The cross section of shops, restaurants and bars is very extensive and the overall ‘feel’ of the place is relaxing and comfortable. We have met a number of interesting ‘cruisers’ who all sing the praises of the lifestyle and Jolly Harbour in particular.

Today we ‘hauled’ with the very competent and confidence giving staff and we have been doing all the necessary work to leave Hejira ashore here until the end of April. It was interesting to note that the travel lift ‘load cell’ registered over 16 British tons with full tanks, all our spares and stores but, bear in mind that was with me still on board!  We have knuckled down to the myriad jobs including the fitting of a new through hull fitting for the water maker intake.

This turned out to be a bit of a breeze having made the unique unit back in the UK over Christmas and the drilling for the larger aperture could not have been simpler in that it only involved drilling over the existing unit having centred the drill with a bung driven up the small original opening.

The new solution is an adaptation of a log impeller through hull.

The water maker will only be used on long ocean passages so we will be able to ‘blank off’ the opening with the ‘plug’ for most of the time. This will allow the yacht to ‘take the ground’ unimpeded by the necessary intake extending beyond the hull surface which is recommended to eliminate picking up bubbles which are the curse of water-makers.

Unfortunately Northshore had installed a traditional strainer which would work well in port but, on passage picked up small bubbles which collected in the top of the unit and were released as a large bubble when heeling on passage. The larger nature of this intake of air meant that the pump could not hydraulic the water through the membrane as the air would compress, diminishing the pressure and stopping the unit from producing water. We overcame the problem on our Atlantic crossing by dropping a weighted tube down the keel aperture but a more permanent solution was required.

So it’s home tomorrow, earlier than intended but happy that our Southerly is in a good place and in good shape.

I just hope that I have a comfortable flight as my crew John, being a retired BA pilot is (confidently) expecting to be able to stretch out ‘up the front’ having paid nothing for his ticket while I languish ‘down the back’ having bought my ticket twice!

I will resume the account towards the end of April.

Nick

We have ‘signed off’ our cruise with another great sail. F5 on the beam making 7-8 knots all day – big seas – great stuff!

John has become the perfect crew member, Happy to steer all day, knows where everything is and how it works, needing very little prompting when decisions are required – brilliant !!!
Anyway, we are now moored in Jolly Harbour in Antigua and perversely, bumped into (small world) the crew from Mojica who we have been ‘alongside’ since Las Palmas in the Canaries. They welcomed us into Rodney Bay with generous ‘OIlie Ollie Ollies’s’ and they will always remain in our memories.

John reports:-
Well it’s my last entry in the blog after a fantastic week’s sailing and generally hanging out with Nick, who despite everything I’ve written about him is a thoroughly good egg, (half-boiled obviously, but the other half is fine).

Today was the best yet with a cracking 50 mile leg up from Guadeloupe to the final port of Jolly Harbour in Antigua. As Nick said, the wind was perfect at 22kts all the way straight on the beam. That and some pretty big wave action made it my best ever days sailing, nearly five hours of playing the wind and waves. I LOVE it!. (Busting for a wee, but that could wait…).
The approaches into Antigua were magnificent, the water so blue initially becoming the most intense turquoise as we sailed into the shallower reef-ridden waters closer in. Some seriously big gin-palaces at anchor here, with more radomes and windows than you could shake a stick at, and masts that seemed so high they probably scrape the International Space Station’s botty.
Thing is though, they are SO big they can’t actually get into any of the decent places that humbler, less oligarchically-minded boat owners could reach. I guess they could summon a small destroyer or a helicopter to get them ashore, but really, what’s the bloody point?

Wow! It’s Antigua Race Week, and we sailed straight into the middle of it! Great atmosphere, boats and bods all over the place, talking to complete strangers at the bar about sailing, the best rum, flip-flops and of all things, Kazakhstan and its people! (Google “The Mongol Rally” to see what I’m doing in July, August and some of September… all will become slightly clearer I hope). Bands playing, flashing coloured lights, people chatting and laughing about their escapades in the day’s races, the nearly-half-moon on its back, grinning down at us like the Cheshire Cat, and quietly in the background to it all, the night breeze humming endlessly through the rigging.

Hmmmm…
I could get used to this……….
But then again it’s not really real is it? Perhaps better now to go home, all tanned and relaxed, and remember this as a great, fun thing that may happen again if I’m very lucky, and in the meantime get on with all the other good things that make Life worth living, like playing with my new Grandson, like working on my own boat, like playing with the guys in the band, and mostly just being Home among the people I love…
…until the next time…
Cheers Nick, thanks for having me, it’s been, as they say, a blast!

The passage north has taken us from the Windward Islands to the Leeward Islands and, unfortunately the only discernible difference is that, on this occasion, we have had rain and I mean heavy, relentless rain with absolutely no wind.

We ended up motoring up the West coast of Guadeloupe, close inshore for the best possible mobile signal to pick up the radio five live rugby commentary – sad maybe….. Strange what drives our decision making!

Our chosen anchorage before our final step to Antigua is Deshaies (pronounced “Day-Ay”),  on the north west corner of the island. The large bay is very busy and, with all the mooring buoys taken, we decided to anchor ‘deep’ beyond the melee. With 100 metres of chain we can still anchor in 20 metres and achieve a 5 to one ratio and it is re-assuring to have this option.

John adds his bit:

Never mind all the techo-nautiguff, it’s pissistantly rained for much of the day, I even had my Gore-Tex on while keeping watch for the plastic lemonade bottles that mark lobster pots. This morning leaving Saintes Isles the little clumps of bottles appear quite suddenly out of the murk, and we had to dodge them or get the rope caught around the propeller.

The predominant colour today is grey, the grey silhouettes of the receding Isles replaced by the grey bulk of Guadeloupe ahead. Occasional bursts of sunshine sent the temperature soaring again to what I’d paid for. But then more cloud and rain, and not a breath of wind.

Highlight of the day so far: Dolphins playing a couple of hundred metres to starboard. But even they must have got fed up with the rain, because they soon dived and were lost to us.

Then we were at Deshaies Bay, lots of moored and anchored yachts and now with more boats arriving behind us, it’s a bit of a waiting game to see whose anchor chain is too long/short, which may be entertaining at about three tomorrow morning if the wind gets up as it’s renowned to do around here and all the boats start swinging around like massive glass-fibre conkers.

Hey! Hang on! All this grey talk, anybody would think it wasn’t a good day today. It depends on your perspective, for a Solent sailor like me, it’s warm, the sea is as smooth and well behaved as Cowes entrance but without the tide and Commodores to worry about, and when the sun did deign to show his face the water is the most amazing blue.

All that and Captain Finicky has been as nice as pie today, and so I can’t even take the Mick out of him today.

What’s he planning?

Hmmm, something must happen soon…