the Fulmers take over Antigua

March 13, 2008

We've spent the past week hanging out with friends Ellie & Chris Fulmer who came to visit from Pennsylvania. We almost circumnavigated Antigua, starting at Jolly Harbour on the west coast and ending at Dickenson Bay about 5 miles north of Jolly Harbour. The week was filled with sailing, swimming, lobster hunting and eating, the best calzone Hans has had west of the Greenwich meridian, and a few cold beers at beach bars.

Hans grilling up our first meal on the new BBQ. Thanks Hiroshi!

Chris and Hans at the helm.

Maybe this is our next sailing yacht...

United Colors of Benneton on Whisper.

WAHOOO!!

snorkeling and beer: a perfect combination.

Ellie gets the wahoo ready for the grill

Chris has to settle for Spam.

Lobster dinner anyone?

Chris and Ellie taking in the sunset off Green Island on the east coast of Antigua.

Antigua is for lovers.

Saba to Antigua via...

March 7, 2008

We've been sailing! We left Saba on Monday morning and sailed to Statia, Tuesday sailed to Nevis, Wednesday sailed to Montserrat, Thursday sailed to Antigua. Phew! We arrived at Jolly Harbour Marina wet and tired, but glad to be here. Yes, we're at a marina. Luxury! Our first marina stop in a long time and it is great! Our friends Ellie & Chris arrive from the frozen north tomorrow evening and we'll start exploring Antigua with them.

Sailing to Statia (St. Eustatius) from Saba.

Nearing Statia.

The waterfront has a few hotels and restaurants and a lot of ruins from old merchant buildings. Statia used to be the hub of Caribbean trading. Now it seems to be the hub of oil! Lots of tankers and tugs in the harbour.






Images from the historical part of town in Statia.



At the top of the slave road in Statia that leads from the harbor to the main town. This is the road they used to bring slaves on when they arrived from Africa.

Sailing along the western coast of St. Kitts.

It was a squally day...we wore our foulies ALL day. Hey, isn't this supposed to be the Caribbean?!

Nearing Nevis.

A typical scene of how Kit Kat spends her time while we're underway: we lay out a blanket for her so she has something to sleep on; her food and water bowls; our bag of snacks to eat underway; and the trash bag is full of wet clothes!

When we neared Nevis, we hooked a King Fish (or a King Mackarel). We gave about 75% of the fish to fellow cruisers and still managed to get two dinners!

Sunset at Nevis. After Nevis we sailed southeast to Montserrat where we spent one night just to sleep. In Montserrat we had a our second fish meal: fish fingers. Yum! We plan on going back to Montserrat to check out the impact of the volcano on the south side of the island.


Yipee! Land ho Antigua!

We did it, we checked into a marina. SHOWERS!

Laundry was way way too expensive, so we washed all our clothes, sheets, quilts and towels by hand: first we soaked them in soapy water in trash bags on the dock, then while Hans worked on plugging up leaks on Whisper, Kristen rinsed and hung up all the laundry. it took 3 hours!

It's a bazaar on Whisper...not really, just laundry. There is no self-service laundromat here, and it costs about $25 to wash and dry a large load, we think we had about 4 loads so we opted to do it by hand. Needless to say, we generated a lot of laughs today.



We'll publish more pictures tomorrow... now it's time for dinner!

Pictures from Saba

March 3, 2008

We had a great time last Saturday and Sunday exploring Saba. The island is small and spectacular. It's too bad there is no good harbour for boats though. It was pretty rough and rolly, only bearable for two nights!



Arriving in Saba.


Are we ready for this hike?

Hans checking out the view from the summit.

We saw lots of birds of paradise growing alongside the trail.

Windwardside, the more touristy of the two villages with cafes and bars.


Kristen at the peak of Mt. Scenery, the summit of Saba.

back in the day, Sabans carved steps to reach the summit. It was easier than walking along the muddy path...just hard to imagine building the 1700 foot staircase.

Kristen checking out the mossy wall.

Hiking down.

The view of the anchorage from the top. Those small white spots next to land are sailboats, including Whisper, furthest to the right!



The road leading to the harbour, lots of switchbacks.

The other village, "The Bottom" as seen from the summit.




Reflections, an Island Packet sailing to Saba from Statia.

In the Leewards!

March 3, 2008

We made it!

It was a hard slog to windward from Virgin Gorda, but we made it to Saba. We left with a forecast of ENE winds around 15 knots, with 4-6 foot seas but ended up with 25+ knots with 6-10 foot seas. It was pretty wet and bumpy! For the first time, we sailed with three reefs in the main. We completed the 80 mile passage in 25 hours time with a couple of tacks to get back onto our rhumbline. In all we probably sailed more like 110 miles.

We were tired when we got to Saba, but it was worth it. The island is spectacular, with precipitous mountains and hills, picturesque villages and friendly people. We hiked up to the top of the island (about 3000 feet above sea level and a 1700 vertical feet hike from the village). When we get a better internet connection we'll post some pictures.

We're in Statia (St. Eustatius) now, and aim to be in Antigua on Friday. The winds are forecast to be ENE around 20 knots so we should have an envigorating time getting there.

More later....

Waiting for those northeasterlies

February 28, 2008


Not too bad of a place to wait for weather.


We’re still hanging out in North Sound of Virgin Gorda waiting for some northeasterly winds to push us south to Saba then Antigua.

We came back from snorkeling and found this boat a mere twenty feet of our stern. The skipper came by later to explain his anchoring decisions. Apparently he dropped his anchor ahead of our bow and then fell back so he was behind us. Huh? That's a new anchoring technique if I've ever seen one. He told us to wake him up at any hour of the night and, rest assured, he had full insurance. Gee thanks. That will be really helpful when we miss our next weather window because our windvane is broken. Humph. He gave us a bottle of red wine to smooth things over...which did help. But we still don't quite understand the anchoring choice.

We set out on Tuesday morning with hopes of fair winds to sail to Saba, but they kept going southeast. Of course! Every sailor knows that the wind is always blowing from the direction you want to sail. After a couple hours, we decided it was a no-go and sailed north to Anegada instead. We spent a couple hours snorkeling the Horse Shoe Reef, a large reef (third largest in the northern hemisphere, we think) that basically separates the northern Virgin Islands from the Atlantic Ocean. The snorkeling was spectacular, some of the best we’ve seen. BUT NO LOBSTER!! We think that it is because the Horse Shoe Reef is the main commercial lobstering area for the Virgin Islands and is probably overfished, or the lobster just know where to hide.

We had a couple beers at the beach bar and were confronted by quite a few charter guests, aghast that our monohull was able to anchor is shallower water than their 40+ foot catamarans. We just smiled and hoped someone would buy us a congratulatory beer or two, but I guess they weren’t that impressed. Oh well.





The road in Anegada. Very reminiscent of the Bahamas.

Salt flats at Anegada..there were flamingos across the pond but we couldn't really see them.


It looks pretty solid...

oops..apparently not. Oh my god, the smell! What is in this croc-eating mud pit? (Hans lost both his shoes.)

Whisper at anchor in Anegada.

The next morning we awoke to find our propane supply completely depleted. We had to sail back to North Sound to get cooking gas and also find the next weather window.

A square-rigger tall ship we passed on the way into North Sound.

Hans returned from Nanny Cay on Monday night after spending a few days helping out the crew of Wakamizu: Hiroshi, Nobu and Nirai. They hit a rock north of Tortola which punched a hole in their port keel. Since Hans has spent countless hours doing epoxy work on Whisper, he offered to help them out.

Wakamizu was hauled out on Friday at Nanny Cay Marina and the damages assessed. We decided that the best thing to do was to hire a professional to deal with the structural damages to the keel, and then deal with some smaller jobs ourselves. A note to anyone contemplating yardwork in the Caribbean: it is painfully slooooooow. Two and a half hour lunch breaks are apparently OK… makes you a little bit crazy!
In any case, Hans had a great time helping out and made three great new friends in the process. Now we just have to figure out how to get to Japan to visit!
Hiroshi, Nobu and Nirai should hopefully be on their way to Aruba within a day or two, then they are off to the Panama Canal, where they cross in March, then onto the South Pacific and eventually back to Japan in December. Good luck guys, arigato, and be careful!



Hans and the crew of Wakamizu: Nobu, Hans, Hiroshi, Nirai.

The repair job on one of the bows.

Wakamizu being hauled out.

Water drains from the hollow keel.

More water in the hull.

Nirai using a snorkeling mask while cutting onions. Very resourceful, and pretty comical.

The keel repair.

Sailing from Anegada to North Sound, Virgin Gorda, BVI

A short movie from the 14 mile sail south from Anegada to North Sound. Two reefs in the main, four rolls in the jib, the wind about 25 knots 60 degrees off the bow. We averaged 5.8 knots. That's right Mik!
Yours Truly,
Little Miss 5 Knots