Bitter End Yacht Club Virgin Gorda BVIs

We left Spanish Town at 1335hrs on Tuesday 10 April having been there little more than long enough to check in to the BVIs. Conscious that we had spent more of Charlotte’s holiday time than we had expected to in Sint Maarten, we wanted to get going on exploring the BVIs.

The sail up to the northern end of Virgin Gorda was fabulous. It was a beat into wind but nowhere is particularly far in the BVIs and, even zigzagging to make progress, it only took 2 ½ hours to get there.

The entrance to Gorda Sound

We debated where to go in Gorda Sound and in the end decided to anchor way out on our own tucked into Drake’s Anchorage in the shelter of Mosquito Island (behind the righthand headland in the above picture). Here we had reasonable shelter behind a reef and we were able to swim and relax in the sun.

Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island

Directly in front of us, just beyond the entrance to the sound, we could see Necker Island; for a short while we were Sir Richard Branson’s neighbours. Not that I expect that he was in residence as there was clearly a lot of hurricane damage repair work going on.

The Bitter End Yacht Club

We had expected to stay anchored in the same place overnight but a check on the weather forecast showed that there would be a big swing in the wind and we decided that we may not be as protected as we would have wanted if we stayed put. A quick check on the chart suggested that the mooring buoy area beside the Bitter End Yacht Club would be a better place to ensure a quiet night and so, before it got too dark, we moved there.

We knew that the Bitter End Yacht Club had been badly affected by the hurricanes, but nothing really prepared us for the state that it was still in.

This used to be a very upmarket nautical village, one of THE places to come in the BVIs, with a marina, spa, diving centre and multiple water sports facilities. You could stay in one of their beachfront cottages and keep yourself entertained with a whole array of restaurants, shops and bars. But sadly the whole place is now completely wrecked and needs a total rebuild.

There was a large yacht and a catamaran moored on the marina quay but we had no idea what the arrangement was there [Ed: and there was a big sign on the quay saying that the marina was closed for renovation]. Instead, in the last of the light, we anchored at the edge of the empty mooring buoy field. It proved to be a very sheltered place for the night. When it got dark we saw a few lights ashore so there are still people in the area, but not many.

During the evening Charlotte thought that she could see something in the water close to BV and so waved a flashlight around. Spooky orange eyes peered up at her from the depths! However, with the ripples from the wind she couldn’t clearly see what it was or, as there were now multiple pairs of eyes, they were. Glimpses of fins and the tails suggested that for some reason we had half a dozen 5ft long reef sharks loitering in the water next to us. Any thoughts of a night time swim were immediately cancelled!

South Bay, North Sound & Off Bitter End YC, Virgin Gorda, BVIs

Spanish Town Virgin Gorda BVI

Finally leaving Sint Maarten

So, after a somewhat prolonged, but very useful, stop in Sint Maarten we finally lifted our anchor and headed northwest towards the British Virgin Islands (BVIs) at 1740 on Monday 9 April. We had a nice easterly breeze, about 18 knots or thereabouts, and made good progress overnight, bowling along at between 6 and 7 knots for the most part. As on the last overnight passage, Charlotte did a 4-hour stint on deck, sharing her watch with Nicky for the first half and me for the second.

Anchored off Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda

We entered the BVI archipelago to the south of Virgin Gorda, passing Round Rock to starboard at 0700. From there it is only another 3.5nm to Spanish Town, the port of entry on Virgin Gorda, so we were anchored off just after 0800. Also in the anchorage were Brian and Agnes on Bragand their friends Beverley and Frank in a Norwegian registered yacht whose name I can’t remember. They all popped past to say hello on their way ashore to walk to The Baths, a ‘must see’ site which we visited by sea the next day. We had thought to see them later in the day but a reality check (number of places to visit vs Charlotte’s time remaining on board) prompted us to move on. We caught up with Braga couple of weeks later in Soper’s Hole but, unfortunately, we didn’t see Beverley and Frank again this season.

We made our way ashore to find the Customs and Immigration office, leaving the dinghy in the very empty marina. The marina looked to be fully functioning, albeit with some berths still damaged by Hurricane Maria’s ravages……

One of many wrecked business premises in the marina complex

……but much of the rest of the marina complex and, indeed much of Spanish Town itself, was clearly still waiting for repair.

However, Customs and Immigration, down at the ferry dock, were fully operational and we completed our check in procedure fairly efficiently, even though there was a vast amount of paperwork (multiple copies of everything and bring your own pen!). We asked if we needed to revisit the office prior to Charlotte going to the airport to fly home and were told that that would not be necessary. All we needed to do was amend the crew list to say that she had left the boat (we put the flight details as well) and that was that. We were quite relieved – most of the other islands we have visited require the captain and departing crew to revisit Immigration within 24 hours of the crewmember’s flight home in order to have the amended crew list formally ratified by the authorities. The BVIs make things very easy for visiting crew – something we will definitely bear in mind for the future.

Spanish Town taxi

Paperwork complete, we took a further stroll around Spanish Town and, in an inspired moment, got some more cash out from the ATM at the marina. ‘Inspired’ because 1) we subsequently found ATMs to be somewhat thin on the ground with the only other one we saw outside Road Town being at the airport and 2) the whole of the island chain proved to work primarily on cash, with only a very few places taking plastic. With that job done we decided to move on from Spanish Town and up to Gorda Sound at the north end of Virgin Gorda. From our reading of the pilot book there looked to be some lovely anchorages up there and the wind had built nicely for a good beat northwards.

Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Simpson Bay Sint Maarten (Part 2)

The following day was ‘solar panel day’. After so long in conception, albeit with little bits done here and there, it was great to get moving on the meat of the solar panel project. The immediate job was to work on a temporary solution to mount the solar panels and with that done we became self-sufficient on power without having to run the generator daily. The batteries ideally need a little power for a long time to get fully charged which is not the best use of the generator because that should really be used at much heavier loads.

The stainless steel tube fitted and the solar panels properly attached on their adjustable brackets position. Just need to tidy up the wiring now

Whilst I worked on connecting the panels to the regulators and tying them up with rope so that they faced the sun, Nicky went ashore and found FKG, the stainless steel fabrication workshop recommended by Don. They had 25mm stainless steel tubing in stock (hooray!) and could make up what we needed from my drawings in just a few days; we were well on the way to the permanent solution for mounting the new panels which is pictured above.

View over Simpson Bay Lagoon. The Causeway Bridge in the centre of the picture approximately marks the boundary between Dutch Sint Maarten and French St Martin

Charlotte explored ashore whilst I worked on the solar panels and did some carpentry because the new outboard motor clamps didn’t grip out outboard motor stowage plate on the pushpit. Meanwhile Don drove Nicky around to drop off gas bottles for refilling before they returned to the apartment so that she could make good use of Anne’s enormous washing machine. The route to the gas filling station went up over the hill overlooking Simpson Bay Lagoon giving Nicky the chance to get some photos of the view.

Simpson Bay anchorage in the far mid-ground.  Look carefully and you may see BV anchored off the beach

Sint Maarten/St Martin is a part Dutch, part French island, though the border is hardly obvious except in Simpson Bay Lagoon, where the Causeway Bridge approximately marks the boundary. The only real difference between the 2 sides of the island is that on the Dutch side prices are in US$, whereas on the French side they are in €. The apocryphal tale of the division of the island between the French and the Dutch goes as follows: Rather than fight over the land a Frenchmen and a Dutchman started walking towards the centre of the island having started at opposite ends. Where they met would mark the border. To make things interesting, the Frenchman was armed with a bottle of wine to drink on his walk, the Dutchman with a bottle of gin. Gin being stronger than wine, the Frenchman walked further across the island and so the French ‘half’ is a little larger than the Dutch ‘half’. It’s a nice thought!

Saturday is half day closing in Sint Maarten so that morning was particularly busy. Don and Nicky went out again to retrieve the gas bottles (one of ours and one of theirs). Don’s taking Nicky up to the gas bottle refilling station was hugely appreciated by us. The filling station is quite some way from Simpson Bay and we would have been unlikely to have found it on our own. The various chandleries provide a gas bottle collection and refill service (get the bottle back the next day) but only on set days of the week which, of course, did not coincide well with our visit, so Don’s help was invaluable.

The iguana which lives on Snoopy Island keeping an eye on Charlotte zipping past in the dinghy

Charlotte whizzed me around to pick up last, bits and pieces from the chandleries and supermarket (somehow we had also fitted a couple of mega-shops into our time in Sint Maarten but had still managed to forget/eat our way through something vital) and then I had to deliver the old engine to the outboard engineer, buy more petrol and, as the shops were closing for the weekend, collect the stainless steel tubing from FKG. We had planned to leave that afternoon and sail round to Ile Tintamarre, which had been recommended to us by Ade and Sam on Nevabut what with one thing and another we just ran out of time. So, we decided to stay another night which gave me time to help Brian on Bragmend a glassfibre hole in his dinghy and also to start fitting the stainless tubing to effectively complete the solar panel project. Better still, it gave us time to host sundowners on board. Unfortunately, by the time that we made the decision to stay, Don and Anne had already made other arrangements for the evening so they did not come over, but Brian and Agnes (SYBrag) did, as did friends of theirs, Loz and Martin on Tikka, who had arrived in the anchorage that afternoon. Anne and Jonathon (SY Sophia) had headed back towards Antigua the previous evening after bubbly sundowners on Bragto celebrate Agnes’ birthday, so we were ‘only’ 7, but it was great fun and hopefully we’ll have the chance to catch up with Anne and Jonathon in the Chesapeake and to host a ‘thank you’ barbecue with Don and Anne in Maine over the summer.

So, bright and early on Sunday we went to hoist the anchor and move on, only to have the chain keep jumping off the windlass – the chain we had been supplied was the wrong stuff! Measuring it I could see that we had been supplied with 30mm pitch chain not the 28mm pitch chain we had ordered (and as marked on the barrel in which the chain came). That extra 2 mm makes a big difference! So, somewhat frustrated, we stayed put for a further day, during which time I finished the permanent fitting of the solar panels. Happily, getting the chain exchanged the following day wasn’t difficult, just time consuming, but it took quite a lot longer that I/we had hoped so we never did make it to Tintamarre (one for next time!). Instead, we set our sights on an overnight passage to the BVIs. After too many days at anchor off Sint Maarten, and now into the final week of Charlotte’s holiday, it was time to find some different beautiful beaches.

Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten

Simpson Bay Sint Maarten (Part 1)

The entrance channel into the Simpson Bay lagoon, the Customs dock just to the left of the picture

With lots to do in Sint Maarten, we wasted no time in getting the dinghy in the water and heading in to clear Customs and Immigration. The Customs dock is in the entrance channel into the Simpson Bay lagoon, just on the seaward side of the lifting bridge. It was much busier than we had expected, not with dinghies but with powerful motorboat taxis from Anguilla. It seems that visitors to Anguilla who are flying into and out of the islands from Sint Maarten airport are collected from and dropped off at Sint Maarten at this dock, with many of them clearing Customs and/or Immigration in the office at the dock too. Happily, Nicky managed to get through the bureaucracy in a small gap in the traffic of Anguillan visitors, whilst I stayed with the dinghy to try to keep it clear of all the to-ing and fro-ing motorboats.

Paperwork complete we headed into the lagoon to find Budget Marine. Inside, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma was obvious. We found the sheer number of destroyed and sunken boats quite incredible and the fact that there were still so many wrecked vessels in the lagoon just proved to us how bad the devastation had been. Whole areas of the IGY Simpson Bay Marina were still utterly destroyed. Huge fishing boats were washed up on the shore and, of course, the damage to many, many buildings was still evident.

(Bottom) some of these boats wrecked on the shore close to the airport were still homes to their owners

Budget Marine Warehouse tucked in the corner of The Lagoon. “GET  A   E” were the only letters left on the side of it but the building survived the hurricane

Quite amazed by all we could see and nursing the outboard along all the while, we eventually arrived at Budget Marine. Rex, my contact at the store, arranged for the solar panels and associated bits and the new Tohatsu outboard to be brought out from the warehouse where they had been put aside for us, and we whiled away the time peering around the chandlery finding more things that we needed [Ed: or should that read ‘needed’?]. Getting back to BV with the solar panels balanced on top of the large outboard motor box was interesting. Back aboard BV, I was like a kid in a toy shop: a new outboard to get going and all the bits (bar the stainless steel pipe) for the solar panel project; it was almost difficult knowing which to start work on first! But of course, it had to be the outboard and it didn’t take too long to get it filled with oil and fuel, a temporary lifting harness sorted out and then the new engine fitted to the dinghy. Over the next few days in Sint Maarten we did so much running around in the dinghy that we completed the engine’s initial run-in period. Though we couldn’t operate it at full revs for 10 hours, we were still able to use enough power to prove that the 9.8HP 2-stroke had definitely been the right choice. And, at a kilo lighter than our wheezy old 5HP 4-stroke (and that’s wheezy before it had its unfortunate impeller shredding incident) it is slight easier to lift off its stowage, what’s not to like? [Ed: the price tag?  Only jesting, it was a duty-free bargain!] Our only slight difficulty was what to do with the old engine? It seemed a crying shame to just throw it away – someone out there could surely use it, if just for spare parts and we had plenty of those too! In the end, we sold it for a song to an outboard mechanic we tracked down. He’ll get it running again and flog it on at a profit, and we’ve received something for it and know that somehow it’ll be useful to someone again.

As soon as the outboard was on and running we gave Charlotte some tuition in using it so that she could run herself (and us) to and from the shore at will. That proved to be very helpful for us because we could tick off the jobs that needed doing more quickly whilst she had the fun of whizzing about in the dinghy.

Non-standard trawler parking next to the Snoopy Bar

During her explorations ashore, Charlotte rather liked the Snoopy Bar as a place to relax and catch up on email and internet admin. Like most of the buildings in the area it had taken a pounding during the hurricane and there was even a large trawler washed up high and dry right next to the bar. However, enough of the Snoopy Bar had been rebuilt for it to be functional and it ended up being a regular stop off for all of us for access to the internet.

Socially, we had a surprisingly busy time during our stay in Sint Maarten. On the morning of our first day on the island Nicky bumped into Anne Lloyd in Budget Marine who invited us over to their Halberg Rassey, Sophia, that evening. Anne and Jonathon are Roving Rear Commodores for the OCC and had just completed their circumnavigation so it was a fascinating evening hearing about their experiences. Also on board were Agnes and Brian from Bragand another couple who left the anchorage the next day and whose names I now forget; many apologies. In my defence, this blog post was written 8 weeks after the event.

The new chain on board and ready to stow

Don and Anne from Salty Pauseare one of the lovely couples that we met whilst we were getting our dinghy repaired at Martinique. They have a duplex apartment at the furthest north point of Sint Maarten and they had told us that they would be very upset if we didn’t get in touch when we anchored off. We duly did and the support that they gave us during our stay was fabulous. Salty Pausewas on a mooring on the French side of the island (of which more later) and Don moored their small RIB as a runabout relatively close to the entrance to Simpson Bay lagoon. On hearing that we had some anchor chain to pick up, he immediately came over to help move it onto BV, which took most of Thu morning to achieve. Job complete, he shot off at top speed shouting, “Oh, and bring some steaks for the grill, you’re coming round for dinner tonight.”

Views of hurricane damage from Don and Anne’s apartment. The neighbouring block (top left) had shifted on its foundations, had to be evacuated and was still empty

Armed with steaks and wine, we whizzed ashore at the allotted time, to be collected by Don for the short drive to their apartment. Being on the top floors of their building they have great views from their balcony and upper terrace and from these vantage points it was easy to see how many roofs had been damaged and how slowly, in places, the recovery work was going. Though their building looked in good shape Anne and Don explained that it had sustained a reasonable amount of damage, and their upper floor studio area had been wrecked. However, they had taken advantage of the situation and were in the process of a remodel to convert it into a proper, separate studio apartment which they hope to rent out long term, perhaps to a student at the medical school.

Apartment tour complete, we enjoyed the fabulous sunset views from their living room balcony and upper terrace over sundowners and took welcome advantage of their kind offer of the use of the shower (unlimited hot water – Charlotte was delighted!). We were also offered beds for the night, a lift to get our gas bottle refilled and Anne told Nicky that she had to bring the laundry round to get that done. They were incredibly generous hosts to us, a role that I’m not sure we will ever be able to repay to them, and such fun company too. Oh, and being Americans they know how to barbecue and, boy, was it good!

Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten

Sailing to Sint Maarten

Pelican Island or what we called ‘Frog Rock’ (top left).  Hermitage Bay (top left and bottom)

Antigua slips away behind us

We had enjoyed the solitude and the views around ‘our’ beach in Five Island Harbour but we felt that we couldn’t leave the bay and head off for Sint Maarten without taking a quick peak at Hermitage Bay, the beach off which the half-dozen or so other yachts were anchored. So, having raised the anchor we motored around the corner for a drive-past photo shoot and then turned tail and set course to the northwest.

Heading towards the sunset

It’s about 90nm from Antigua to Sint Maarten and it’s always good to arrive in daylight if possible, so we had planned this to be an overnight passage. Charlotte was keen to stand a night watch but has done relatively few in the past. We therefore agreed that she would stand a full 4-hour watch but half would be with me and half with Nicky. It was a lovely evening for a sail and with a 12-knot easterly wind, BV made steady, if not spectacular, progress though with plenty of Sargasso weed still around the DuoGen kept getting clogged up, which was tedious. Charlotte came on deck at 2200 and had an hour watching some great phosphorescence before a nearly full moon rose and virtually turned night into day. Indeed, it was so bright that at the end of her watch, when the wind had shifted more to the southeast, Charlotte and I had sufficient light to easily pole out the genoa. Dawn broke at 0600 and the wind dropped away, so the final 3 hours of the passage were pretty much all under engine.

Approaching Sint Maarten

The benefit of arriving in daylight is that you can see to work your way into a busy anchorage and pick a good, sandy spot on which to drop your anchor. Simpson Bay was full of yachts when we arrived and the outer part of the anchorage was quite swelly and rolly which we didn’t fancy at all. However, we managed to find a BV-sized space tucked in amongst the moorings almost as shallow as we would have wanted to go – and it was out of the swell, a fact that Charlotte commented upon after we had been for drinks on another yacht.

Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten

Five Islands Harbour Antiqua

On Tuesday 3^rdApril we planned to leave Antigua in the late afternoon to sail overnight to Sint Maarten. Nicky and I zipped ashore (or wanted to but were constrained to a slow putt-putt by our poorly outboard) to get a couple of extra things from the excellent supermarket and then to clear out from Antigua with Customs and Immigration. That was all done by 10am and so we decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing in the next bay north, Five Islands Harbour.

Motoring round from Jolly Harbour to Five Islands Harbour

Five Islands Harbour gets a pretty lukewarm write-up in our pilot book but our friends, Lars and Susanne on Sea Wind,had told us that it’s a great place to stop. We were intrigued and so headed out of the Jolly Harbour anchorage, picked our way carefully between 2 of the ‘5 islands’ and turned right into the bay. A passage of just 2 miles.

There were just a few yachts in the bay and none at the beach that we chose to anchor off, so we had it all to ourselves.

It was a peaceful spot to while away the day swimming, snorkelling and generally just ‘liming’. The sea around the islands and on the sandy beach was a lovely colour, the skies were clear enough to get a thumbs-up for sunbathing from Charlotte and we even saw a few lobsters when we snorkelled off the rocky headland. It was a lovely place to relax before an overnight passage.

Five Islands Harbour, Antigua

Jolly Harbour Antiqua

Leaving Green Island

After a couple of lovely days at anchor off Green Island, we up anchored at 0800 on Monday 2 April for the 23-mile passage around Antigua to Jolly Harbour. With greyish skies above us, we’d certainly had the best of the place over the weekend.

There was very little wind to start with but there was just enough to fly the MPS for the first time in over 6 months, probably longer. It didn’t stay up long though as no sooner had we got it flying than the wind picked up and we had to get it down again!

We sailed clockwise around Antigua, past English and Falmouth Harbours, the reefs on the island’s southwest tip and up the western shore, to get to Jolly Harbour which is half way up the western side of the island. The waters off this side of the island are very shallow and so, despite the grey skies, the sea was a beautiful colour. The developers obviously agree: as we approached the harbour we saw lots of very nice villas perched on the hillsides above beautiful sandy beaches and clear turquoise seas.

In the entrance channel to Jolly Harbour

The outer approaches to Jolly Harbour are an interesting maze of shoals and shallow channels and the main ‘deep water’ channel is actually not that deep. Having crossed some of the deeper shoal areas we picked up the buoyed channel into the main part of the harbour and then found a suitable spot just outside the channel in which to anchor. We had to pick our spot with care, Mosquito Bay [Ed: perhaps not the best place to anchor?] is also very shallow and we dropped in about 2.5m. There was a good number of other yachts anchored in the bay, and more arrived after us. It is clearly a popular spot.

We’d come to Jolly Harbour because there is a Customs and Immigration office from which we intended to check out in the morning. There is also a Budget Marine chandlery and a supermarket marked on our map, so we set off in the dinghy to take a look at all of those and, specifically, to confirm the opening hours of the Customs and Immigration office.

Holiday homes in Jolly Harbour, nearly all with boat lifts

We hadn’t really known what to expect and I guess had assumed that Jolly Harbour would be like most of the other Caribbean harbours we had seen. However, it is clearly a major holiday home development. There were hundreds of small pied a terres and villas, nearly all of them with a stretch of waterfront and a dock. We’d seen private boatlifts before (eg in Rodney Bay in St Lucia) to keep smaller boats out of the water to prevent them fouling up, but in Jolly Harbour there were boat lifts everywhere. There were even 50ft motorboats on lifts! Either the fouling here is terrible or there is a significant amount of keeping up with the neighbours going on.

We made our way in to the marina where we could leave our dinghy and headed off to the shops. It seemed quiet for a Monday but marina was very full, we think with boats that stay there all the time. We also quickly realised that Jolly Harbour was very popular with Americans; certainly it was the predominant accent that we heard.

The large marina in front of the, now closed, Casino

The opening times for the Customs and Immigration office worked for our planned departure in the morning, Budget Marine was sold out of 1” stainless steel tubing so the solar panels project remained on hold, and the supermarket we’d expected to be a large corner store turned out to be one of the best we had come across. Jolly Harbour was not what we had expected at all!

Unexpectedly, when we went to a bar to grab a beer and check our e-mails, we bumped into Ade and Sam from Neva. We had met them in Las Palmas and last seen them in Le Marin, so it was a nice surprise to see them again and catch up. They plan to head north too, once their job as delivery crew for Dream Yachts has finished. And they plan to take part in a couple of the same OCC rallies as us in America, so we will certainly see them over the summer as well.

Jolly Harbour, Antigua

Green Island Antigua

The English Harbour fuel dock

Slightly bleary after a night with the RN Tot Club, the 0810 repositioning to the fuel dock on Saturday 31 March was something of a rude awakening, particularly as the fuel dock staff was working to ‘island time’. When we arrived off the fuel dock there were already 2 yachts alongside waiting for fuel, we became number 3 in line. By the time the pumps opened for business (at 0845 vs the advertised 0800) there was at least one other yacht circling too. But we eventually fuelled up and headed off around the east of Antigua to Nonsuch Bay and Green Island.

South side of Green Island (top) and the western tip of Green Island with the West Bay anchorage (bottom)

We had a nice beat along the coast towards Green Island, where we planned to anchor just to the north of the island, in the shelter of the barrier reef which protects Nonsuch Bay. The waters all around Green Island are shoal and between the island and the mainland shore there are twisting channels between coral reef outcrops. The light conditions were good for spotting the deepest [Ed: and shallowest!] water but even so we felt is prudent to lower/roll away all the sails before committing ourselves to the channel, this being our first approach. Happily, reality and the charts agreed and we saw no less than 5m of water all the way around to the anchorage and, for much of the time, far more than that.

Northwest tip of Green Island with a catamaran anchored in the shelter of the barrier reef

West Bay, which looked lovely and has a beautiful sand beach, was filled with yachts but Nicky particularly wanted to anchor off the northwest tip of Green Island, in the shelter of the reef.

Now, over which bit of beautiful turquoise sea should we anchor?

There were several moorings available but we prefer to anchor if possible (we know the state of our ground tackle, a mooring may be secure but, then again, it may not). Choosing exactly where to anchor, well that was the difficult bit. The very turquoise water under the catamarans in the picture above looks inviting but is just a bit too shallow for comfort for us.

Tiploufat anchor

Once settled at anchor we had a good look at our surroundings. We’re a little ashamed to say it but we didn’t recognise the French catamaran, Tiplouf(pictured above), that was anchored reasonably close to us. Didier and Benedicte recognised BV though and came over to say hello. We had met on Grande Salvagem, way back (or so it seems) in early October 2017 when we had been anchored off the island and had been on the same tour around the nature reserve. Whilst we had known that they had been planning to cross the Atlantic, somehow we hadn’t expected to see them again. How wrong we were! Now we have seen in the Caribbean all the yachts that were at anchor off Grande Salvagem, or which popped in and then left again, whilst we were there.

Dressed overall to celebrate the 100^thanniversary of the formation of the RAF

Sunday 1 April was Easter Sunday. More to the point it was the 100^thanniversary of the formation of the world’s first independent air force, the Royal Air Force. We couldn’t let such an auspicious occasion go unmarked, so we dressed BV overall and even broke out a brand new ensign (bright, bright red not faded to a dull pink) to celebrate. Mind you, most of the yachts in the anchorage probably just thought that we were very committed Christians! And to do things properly, sundowners just had to be G&T with a background accompaniment of the Central Band of the RAF playing the RAF Marchpast and other rousing tunes.

So, we had a lovely couple of days anchored off Green Island. Charlotte did a lot of sunbathing; we all snorkelled over the reef, but that was rather disappointing with lots of dead coral and very few fish; and we dived on and cleaned BV’s hull using the compressor and diving regulators. This was Charlotte’s first try at diving and she thought it great fun and, better still, did a great job of scrubbing the port side of the hull too!

But most of all, we just enjoyed the view.

Green Island, Antigua