V is for Vistas.....If it is Tuesday it must be Antigua

The last couple of weeks have been a blur of islands.

If it is Sunday it must be ....Antigua. We are motorsailing the 45 miles from St. Christopher(St. Kits) to Jolly Harbour, Antigua today. The last two days we have been on the move from St. Martin to St. Barthelemy (St. Barts), 14 miles and from there to St. Kits, about 35 miles. The good thing about this travel is that the passages are possible during the day and we don't have to do any overnights. From island to island is not so far and we can sight see as we sail by. Yesterday we saw St. Eustatius (Statia) and Saba off in the distance. We almost went to saba as a day trip from St. Martin but the time on the island was so short that it just didn't seem worthwhile. We would love to go there in Celebrian; however there are no protected anchorages and it is often very rolly and uncomfortable.

Before we left St. Martin we did our laundry at the marina. The picture shows the captain doing the laundry while eating pineapple orange icecream that the admiral brought him from the local grocery. The picture of the admiral shows her with her baguette (French bread stick). The other pictures are of Marigot. The last night in the harbour we had quite the squall and rain as you can see from the pictures. We were happy not to be out at sea.

The following pictures show Ile Fourche, an uninhabited island 3 miles northwest of St. Barts and part of their marine reserve. We were able to pick up a mooring here for the night and do a little snorkelling and paddling.

Legally if you have not checked in to a country you are not supposed to get off the boat; however we thought we were unlikely to be caught this far from the main land. Generally you can fly your yellow quarantine flag and anchor for the night and then be on your way to the next island. If you wish to go ashore or stay for more than a day you need to clear in with the officials. We were held up in St. Martin because the officials went home at noon on the day we wanted to clear out and it is not recommended that you don't clear out of an island before going to your next destination. It is complicated sometimes but just part of sailing in the Caribbean. These pictures are of St. Kitts and Nevis showing the terrain.

Can you see the goats on this cliff? All of these islands were formed from volcanic eruptions and for the most part they are all dormant except for Montserrat which erupted in 1995 and continues to be active. It is not recommended to sail on the western side of the island in normal trade winds as sailboats have had ash burn holes in their sails. Of the 11 thousand who used to live on the island there are only about 5 thousand remaining and they are all living in the north as the south is totally under ash and lava. We will be sailing by on our way to Guadaloupe from Antigua. Today is Friday May 18th and the last couple of weeks have been a blur. If it is Sunday it could be....St. Barts,St. Kitts, Antigua, Guadaloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent or Carriacou??? Since St. Martin We have anchored overnight in bays on 10 islands only going ashore in Martinique and yesterday in Carriacou to clear into Grenada. Carriacou is a small island that is part of Grenada but we are still 35 miles from Grenada itself. Next winter we will have the time to stop and smell the frangiapani (beautiful Caribbean flowers with an amazing smell).

Over the course of this winter we have sailed about 2000 miles. These last couple of weeks we have been sailing 35-50 miles a day. Some of those days we were on passage for 12 hours. It has been exciting but tiring. Some of our anchorages have been very rolly so after a long day sailing hard in big ocean waves we have spent the night rolling some more. We are ready to come home and spend sometime living in a home that doesn't move. We are planning on visiting the boat yard on Monday. We will spend the next couple of weeks getting celebrian ready for storage and booking our flights home. Everything is new here so we have to learn as we go. The pictures of the last couple of weeks will get posted in the blog at some point but it may not be until we are home.