It’s impossible. Absolutely impossible to share all the cool experiences and photos from our first few weeks in the Caribbean and keep it a length you will actually want to read! But, I’ll do my best. Having arrived from Hampton VA to Antigua we settled into Nelsons Dockyard in English Harbor with all the Salty Dawgs who had made the trip (over 80 boats!). Karl had to head home as he was heading to Europe for Thanksgiving family trip – but we were able to do a little exploring around English Harbor and Lord Nelson’s Forts before he left, and Scott’s wife Dot arrived to spend a week with us exploring Antigua.  (photo cred to Karl for the window shot – loved that one!)

Nelson’s Dockyard is very cool – it reminds us of Mystic Seaport where you are at a slip in the middle of a National Park with visitors roaming around (several cruise ship tours). Plus, between the Dockyard and nearby Falmouth harbor there is every yacht service you would need: cleaning, sail loft, engine repair, etc. Almost every one of us who had made the 1800 mile journey had something that needed fixing! Shops and services (laundry service – YAY!) of all kinds. The people are wonderful and welcoming (even the friendly customs officials!) and the history, dating back to late 1700s and early 1800’s was fascinating.

Since it is really just the beginning of their high season, all the restauranteurs were happy to greet us. Isabelle who owns Le Brasserie, a wonderful French bakery and bistro, came by the docks every morning with freshly baked croissants – too good to pass up! While we all loose weight during the passage – it goes right back on with all the great food! The Salty Dawgs had organized several gatherings, hosted by local sail companies etc and so we had several social events to attend. We celebrated Dot’s birthday with a lovely dinner at The Admirals Inn overlooking the harbor.

We then decided to head to Falmouth Harbor so we could be on anchor. Falmouth is very close to English Harbor, just like going from Marblehead to Salem.  We set the anchor just off Pigeon beach which has a great restaurant called Catherine’s Cafe – a very fancy “beach bar” which Bobby Alves recommended and we visited several times!

With Scott and Dot we decided to do one big adventure and signed up for the Zip Line Tour! It’s in the middle of the island in the “rain forest”. The staff was great and we had an absolute blast doing 12+ zips across the forest.

The week flew by and before you knew it Dot and Scott were headed back to FL to spend the holidays with their family and then Billy’s sister Beth & husband Steve arrived later that day! We had such fun showing them around the Falmouth/English Harbor area especially dragging Steve who does not love to hike (mild understatement?) all the way up to Shirley Heights – which was a 2.5 hour hike in the sun (notably should have left earlier). But we made it and the views were spectacular!

While on the boat in Falmouth harbor on November 22nd we heard some horns going off around 4 pm and looked to see a little Opti sailing out of the main harbor with an entourage. Turns out a young 14 old named Carrack Jones (no relation ;)) who is an accomplished Opti sailor. He was taking off to beat the world record of sailing distance in an Opti – he was heading to St. Martin (it’s over 100 NM!) It was fun to watch him pass and he waved with his family, friends and supporters escorting him out. [Note: he made it! Took him 30 hours – but he set a new world record]  We headed out from Falmouth harbor the next day and stopped for a couple of nights at Jolly Harbor on the western side of Antigua which was quiet, but good fun. We then sailed a longer leg (~75 miles) to St. Barths, which took most of a day and was a little lumpy. Billy caught a fish, but it got away, again.  We arrived late in the day and got a nice anchor spot just off Les Gros Ilets where we could swim over and snorkle the rocks. We had some remora fish (they look a bit like sharks but aren’t) who were very friendly and actually attached themselves to the keel and road along with us for a few days. 

It was a quick dingy ride into Gustavia harbor which is full of lovely restaurants and shops. They were just getting decked out for the holidays with lights and decorations which does feel weird as we are used to it being much colder when the Christmas stuff comes out! We had a lovely sushi dinner at the BazBar which was right on the water – it had a big picture of Jimmy Buffet who apparently played there quite a bit.  We all did a little shopping and hiking – it was a great few days. 

Then we sailed a bit further north to Anse Du Colombier (Anse is the French word for cove) which is lovely quiet harbor that few come to by land because its a long hike to get to – so it was very peaceful and quiet.  

Finally we headed to St. Martin – our final stop with Beth & Steve. It was windy and wavy but a good quick sail (25 miles) and we pulled into Marigot Bay where we dropped an anchor to be greeted promptly by the port authority boat (very friendly) who told us that we had to check in at the port authority in Galisbay – which is an active shipping port with huge barges and 18 wheelers all around – not at all cruiser friendly. Fortunately, Beth and Steve stayed with the dingy as the only thing to tie to was an active loading dock full of sharp rebar. We found the office and officially “checked in” - while the people were nice not an easy check in. We then were free to explore Marigot, which has a busy downtown with ferries that run to Anguilla and St Barts and where buses of cruise ship passengers come for the day. They were decorating for Christmas with a big tree in the town center and it was fun to see. Port Fort Louie looks over the town and bay and that was an easy and fun hike – pretty impressive views and lots of Iguanas (Mitzy get your gun!). Of course there are many French restaurants which we thoroughly enjoyed. Since its a bit busy, when the weather was right we chose to head Grand Case which is a lovely coastal town just east of Marigot with tons of restaurants and shops and several fun spots right on the beach. While the dutch side is known for beaches that the big planes take off right over – in this little town there is a small airport where planes fly just above the rooftops to land – such fun to watch and hear! This was definitely one our favorite stops so far.

We headed back to Marigot Bay as Beth and Steve were leaving the next day and could catch an easy cab ride to the airport. For their last night, we made the requisite trip to the Dutch side and Simpson Bay by taxi and had drinks and dinner at the Simpson Bay Yacht Club which looks over the draw bridge where boats must pass to go in and out of Simpson Bay. In susequent days we found that going to Simpson Bay by dingy was much better! While it’s a bit of a trek (a couple of miles in the dingy) its all within the bay and almost every shop or restaurant has a dingy dock to tie to – so very easy to get all our errands done! 

Since we need to get to the BVI for Christmas with the boys. Our next focus was getting from Marigot to the BVIs which is about 85 miles – that trip takes about 12 hours. With shorter days, we couldn’t leave at first light and arrive before night fall, so the best option was to leave at dusk, sail all night and arrive at daybreak into the BVI. We had a wonderful light weather window – 10-15 knot winds from the east so we left at 5 pm, watched the sunset and arrived to Virgin Gorda around 6:30 am on Friday morning, our first overnight just the two of us and all went well! 

My next installment will cover our time in the BVIs! Thanks for reading!