History and Sunsets in Antigua
Leaving Montserrat turned out to be more exciting than we planned.
We were up at dawn, and pulled the anchor up easily, leaving Rendezvous Bay's towering cliff behind us in calm weather. We rounded the western corner and put up our mainsail and staysail and were on a fast beam reach, pointed at Antigua. We settled in for the 30 miles. Michael and I were in the cockpit when we heard an odd clunk - not good. He went to check the prop shaft and sure enough it was not turning. We realized that our speed had reduced from 5 knots to 1. We looked behind and saw a bright turquoise line with a milk jug - we had caught a fishing line and were dragging it behind us!!!
We went into trouble shooting mode. We were a good 5 miles offshore so not in immediate danger. The seas were heavy - 5-foot waves so not easy to get into the water. We decided to sail in a circle and see if we could free it that way. When that didn't work, I thought of lashing our extra sharp filet knife to the boat hook so we could cut the line - finally my Halloween costume making skills were coming in handy!! After lashing it with a spare line and extensive duct taping, we attempted cutting it from the boat - but it was too hard to hold it steady close enough to the line. So, we decided to launch the dinghy, with Michael in it, wearing a life jacket and tethered to the dinghy itself. He even wore a snorkel mask so he could put his head in the water and see the line. With this setup he was able to get the knife positioned onto the rope which severed instantly as it was under so much tension. As soon as we were free, the boat rushed forward back to sailing at 5 knots.
The last challenge was to get Michael back onboard, which wasn't easy given the sea state. We slowed the boat by bringing in the staysail and he was able to climb aboard. We weren’t sure if there was any damage to the prop, so we planned to leave the engine off and sail as we set our anchor, a first for us. Luckily, the anchorage is wide open, and we dropped the main and then dropped the anchor quite smoothly.
The next day, we went into Jolly Harbour to check in. We chatted with fellow cruisers and did our paperwork. They were thorough and friendly. Michael also dove in to look at the prop, and it seemed to be just fine, so we moved the boat more North. This was still mainly a rest day for us after all the excitement the day before.
We took a bus into the main town to do some shopping. There are local buses that are privately owned and the bus drivers are quite motivated to get customers – it works quite well! St John is a port city with some lovely old architecture, but overall, it’s quite grimy and not somewhere you want to wander around at night. People are well dressed and take pride in their appearance. Our first stop was at a thrift store connected to the local hospital that sold mostly clothing. We picked up a few books and Flo found 2 pairs of shorts. Michael regaled the shop ladies with our latest sailing stories. We then had a huge, delicious roti for lunch, and stopped into a bookstore where I was able to find a textbook I needed for Flo’s science class. We then went to an awesome fabric store where I picked up some light fabrics to make dresses and shorts for summer, and Flo and Christian also got a couple of things for their own projects. Last stop was at the impressive veggie market and then back on the bus to the marina.
We snorkelled some islets just off the opening to Jolly Harbour and found some great seashells including 2 huge Queen Helmet Conch. They were so beautiful, Flo and I both had visions of them on our mantle at the cabin back on Salt Spring. So we brought them back to the boat and researched how to cook them. Unfortunately, they are not good to eat, and we also found out they live for 30 years!! We thought about what to do and in the end we threw them back. We will keep looking for empty ones.
The next day, we went to Nelson’s Dockyard, a national monument that is still a living, working dockyard, and has a great museum showing how the dockyard functioned in colonial times. It’s a wonderful place to visit. We hiked over the hill between our anchorage and the dockyard, through stunning scenery, old ruins, and the most perfect patio we have ever seen. A stunning, hot, 45-minute walk.
We were really impressed with Antigua. There was much more to visit but we wanted to keep going and head south to Guadeloupe. So, we decided to head south to a small anchorage the next afternoon. We planned to sail downwind and so we raised the main at anchor, only to find that 3 of the metal slides that hold the main into the mast had come loose! We quickly changed plans, decided to stay where we were and to repair the sail before we headed off.
The repair took most of the afternoon. Firstly, we tried removing the pin so we could try and just put them back into the track without removing the sail. This proved to be a stupid move. It took hours to try and get the !@#$ thing back together! But eventually I did. So, we had to lower the main to get to the loose slides and feed them back into the track. Once we did this, we were able to feed them back in and be ready to go for the next day. We are still a little stumped as to how it happened, but it must have been something to do with the fish trap that we tangled on????
The sunsets have been unreal. Michael has been breaking out his banjo again to the delight of our neighbours in the anchorage. Tonight was a bottle of wine on the deck kind of night, using our trusty rating system (thumbs up = good, buy again) and making the best of the challenges we face.
We headed down to Carlysle Bay the next day. Another lovely little bay, with a small beach resort. Michael and I swam into shore to cool off. He ended up chatting with 2 sisters from Ireland, one of whom is a travel agent and had gotten a great deal on staying at the lovely resort. They were having a wonderful time and loved hearing about our adventures. When we decided to swim back to the boat, I put my face in the water and saw a turtle right below me! I called out to the girls and they were so excited, they really wanted to swim with the turtles. I followed him for a while before he swam off. We saw the Irish girls the next day with their snorkel gear on, turtle hunting, I’m sure!
We took another exploratory walk up the hill next to the beach, through fields with cows and cactuses. The landscape is dry but lush, with red clay earth, with birds of prey circling in the sky. We walked back along the beach where the resort is and then through winding costal road into town. We hit an ice cream shop and enjoyed some decadent creations including soursop flavored ice cream our tour guide in Montserrat had recommended. Heavenly.
