Antigua 17*04.175N 61*53.057W

The rough stuff is starting on the way to Antigua - am I getting concerned??



Ron getting info from the local police on Nevis



Volcano on Nevis


Today, I'm so thankful for dry land. Our trip to St. Kitts was so fun and so peaceful I guess it was time to experience the other side of sailing. Our time in St. Kitts was great. We looked into a few Island tours, but they all seemed a little pricey for our budget so we opted just to walk around the Town of Basseterre. Just as we were walking away from the tour office, a taxi/tour driver offered to take us around the island for less than half what the tour companies wanted so we were in luck! The driver was quite animated and had suck a thick Caribbean accent that I don't think we understood a quarter of what he was telling us - oh well, the price was right and the island is just a pretty and has as much character from the road as it did from the ocean. I asked him to stop at a little roadside store to get some water and was treated to one of the locals yelling and pointing at me in a language and dialect I hadn't heard yet. I have no idea what he was saying or that was about or , but I don't think he was from the local chapter of the Welcome Wagon. We left St. Kitt's and stopped to have a snorkel in a spot called Shitten Bay and Bugs Hole, which despite their names are both beautiful and tranquil spots. We continued on to Charlestown in Nevis which was just a quick 40 minute sail from St. Kitts. We were going to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives on Nevis, but I guess he got too busy and couldn't make it out, so we packed up and prepared to head out at 4 am for Antigua on Sunday morning. According to two different weather reports, the conditions were going to be ideal: 8-10 knot ENE winds and 3 foot seas. I guess mother nature had other ideas...

There was a little rain at 4 am so we had another coffee and pulled anchor at 5 thinking the rain was finished, or nearly and that we would be moving away from it at any rate. An hour into the trip the seas built to 6 of 7 feet and the wind to 25 knots and rain, rain, rain. Once Miss Olivia got out of the bunk, she was already turning green and I wasn't far behind her. She spent the next 4 hours eating dry cheerios and thowing them up and sleeping. We could see more weather ahead so changed our course and headed south to Monserrat. After 7 hours, we were glad to be at and land but there is only really one good anchorage there and it wasn't great - rolly and very exposed and with the way we were feeling, we just didn't want to spend the next 12 hours there. We took a huge gamble and opted to head out north east to see if it had calmed enough to get to either Antigua or Guadeloupe. To get to Antigua we would be beating into the waves a little, but we could see it and there didn't appear to be any squalls moving around it. To the south, we couldn't even see Guadeloupe so we knew there was weather that way. The last leg to Antigua was much nicer - 4ft. seas, 12-15 knots of wind. We finally arrived at 6 last night and so glad to be here. We are currently in Jolly Harbour and are loving the country side here. We'll spend the next 3 days checking out different parts of the island before heading out to Guadeloupe to meet up with our good friends from Victoria, Liz and Ritchie. More peanut butter - yay!...and great company, of course!


Pulling into Jolly Harbor in Antigua




The view from where we are anchored for the night


Our first sunset in Antigua