Shakedown Cruise to Anguilla

Wow!! What a great weekend we had!! Some wind, some sun, some rain, some relaxation and some drama - what more could we ask for? We were so excited and exhilerated to finally get to take Exodo out of the lagoon and sail over to Anguilla with 'Impala', which is Patrik and Sofia's catamaran. Royce, who is another friend we've made here was kind enough to be our pilot boat to help us navigate the shallow waters of the lagoon channel and take some pictures for us as we were leaving. We had a great sail over to Anguilla which is a low lying British island surrounded by white sand beaches and banks of coral. It's very small, with a population of about 7000, but has a fascinating history that involves battles with neighboring islands trying to take it over.

Our first night in Anguilla, we were treated to an absolutely stunning sunsets and some fresh grilled tuna that Patrik caught on the way over (I had chicken)...and then the rolling started. I've heard of "rolly" anchorages before, but this was something else. Our boat rolled from side to side so drastically all night long that there were times we thought the side rails would touch the water line. Normally, if boats get into bays this rolly, they simply pull up anchor, determine which direction the swells are from and find somewhere out of the swells. In this case, this is the only bay on the island we could anchor in so there really weren't any alternatives. We started thinking that Patrik and Sofia brought us here on purpose as our "initiation" and that if we could survive a couple of nights here, that we just might make it. They still deny it and actually say that not only have they never seen it like that in that particular bay, they're not sure they've ever experienced such a rolly anchorage in their 7 years of living aboard. Of course, they are now in a catamaran, so they didn't experience the lack of sleep that we did. We spent our days on the beach and Olivia was just in heaven with her new sand toys and the flour soft sand to play with. We were perfectly happy to be parked on beach chairs that didn't roll for the day.

Coming home was another adventure. As soon as we started the engine to come home and began moving out of the harbor, the RPM's on the engine dropped down completely, the oil pressure and temp gauges started bouncing all over the place and the engine alarm was going off. We shut down right away and learned that one of the belts on the engine had snapped and we had no spares (Ron is out buying 6 as I type this). Patrik had an adjustable spare that may or may not work, so we put up the sails (after all, isn't that why we're here?) and floated our way back to St. Martin in very light 2-8 knot winds. Without the aid of the engine, it took much longer than we had hoped. The bridge to get back into the lagoon in St. Martin only opens 3 times each day and we missed the 2nd opening by 10 minutes, so we had 3 hours to relax and have a swim before we could get back into the lagoon. This is where the next drama started...

As we were at anchor waiting for the 5:30 bridge opening (like a few other boats), we noticed another boat, a 45 foot sloop not far from us that was not sitting right to the wind and waves like everyone else. It suddenly occurred to us that he wasn't at anchor at all, but rather stuck on top of a reef. Ron jumped in our dingy and another dingy with 3 people arrived at the same time to help as the boat was getting battered on the reef. After 30 minutes of failed attempts of pushing, pulling and even hauling lines from the top of his mast to dislodge the poor boat, 2 more dingies arrived and one of the skippers clearly had some experience in this area and completely took over and assigned everyone their task and 15 more minutes later, the boat limped off the reef much to the relief of the old skipper and his very frightened wife. They got off the reef only about 10 minutes before the bridge opened.

Just as the bridge opened, Patrik and 2 of his friends blasted out to our boat in their zodiac, and once again, we were treated to a private pilot boat to guide us back safely through the channel and to a great anchorage where we now sit safely back inside the lagoon.

All in all, it was a wonderfully eventful, relaxing, and at the same time, exciting weekend. We enjoyed the great company of our Swedish friends, some wonderful sailing in our new boat that we get to know and love a little more each day, beautiful scenery and new places.

Today, we are excited that 2 or our great friends, Louise and Janet are arriving for a 10 day visit and we're really looking forward to sharing some of our adventure with them.

We are the luckiest people in the world...