Sailing from Isle Des Saints to Antigua there are two routes.  East around Guadeloupe or up the west coast of Guadeloupe.  It is a two day sail up to Antigua and it was getting close to the time Gretchen will return to the real world, and that has made this a strange day for me…  I have not been able to concentrate on anything and just generally in the dumps, and decisions had to be made on how and when to go from here to Antigua for Gretchen's flight..

We finally deiced to sail the western route and stop at Deshaise along the way.  Deshaise is a charming town I have heard so much about the town from everyone who stops there. It is truly a pleasant place to pause with many local restaurants along the waters edge.  We went ashore for a delightful dinner looking out over the bay as the sun set.  Believe it or not, I am getting familiar enough with French food names to have actually ordered dinner for Gretchen and I in French!!!

On the way here to Deshaise, I had spent a few hours working on deck striping off some of the old varnish while Gretchen minded the ship.  Then after arriving and eating lunch, I worked on the teak until about 4:30 when I felt my face burning hot and went below to take a look… Bad sunburn… I put the old formula of 50% ice water and 50% white vinegar on my forehead which took most of the burn out.  Then I kept ice on it for the next half hour to keep the heat out.

We got up early for me and left Deshaise at 7:20 the following morning arriving in Jolly Harbor, Antigua at 2:30 in the afternoon.  It was an unusual sail in that it started out with calm wind under clear blue skies, then a South East wind started followed by a rain storm then the sun came back with wind from the North East which ended in another rain storm.  Then just cloudy skies with 15 knots of wind at the top of the sail and calm at the water!  During the middle period with sun and north east winds, we had 10 – 12 foot swells that just rolled under us as smooth as could be.  I think we saw a little of everything!

After anchoring just outside Jolly Harbor, Antigua, Gretchen and I took the dinghy in and walked around for a while winding up in an outdoor bar with CNN on.  We just sat there drinking diet cokes and watching the pictures from Iraqi, the first pictures of the war we have seen.  It felt strange to have been so disconnected from the world knowing the most people had watched the war live, and here we were seeing if for the first time when it is all over.

There is definitely something to be said for being out here sailing.  Out here, you are not constantly bombarded with the news, the stock market, the economy and the war.  Perhaps a lot that is wrong back at home is the creation of the news media.  The news only reports the bad things and if everyone is only hearing that the stock market is down or the stock market is worried about the war, or the economy is not doing well...  Well by who's standards?  The real world is out here and the US is strong.  We have only our own fears to fear...  The terrorist must be extremely happy because they have the US believing the sky is falling and they are not doing anything!  We are doing it to our selves...

After that deep discussion as we were watching CNN on the bar Television, we headed back to Quietly to cook Gretchen's great home made pizza for supper. 

Tuesday, May 16th, Gretchen is packing to go back to the real world...  Her flight is tomorrow on Wednesday, April 16 to Washington DC.  As we were sitting in the cockpit and talking in the cool afternoon breeze we notice a huge group of sailboats sailing past Jolly Harbor.  It is a gathering of Oyster sailboats and there is a helicopter making pictures of them under sail.  This is the annual gathering of Oyster Sailboats in the Caribbean.  What a sight to see over a dozen million dollar plus boats in one place.  Later in the afternoon several of the yachts come past Quietly on their way into Jolly Harbor for the night.

Gretchen and I took a taxi to the Antigua airport on Wednesday morning for her flight back to Washington in DC.  She is going to house sit for John and Brenda of Willow while she readapts to life there .  She has been with me for five months.  Gretchen is a great sailing mate and I will certainly miss having her here with me.  She is a good sailor, trusted companion and great friend. I will miss her... {sigh}

Of all things to happen, somewhere after I put Gretchen on the flight, I lost my Debit Card!  I am thinking it might have fallen out of my wallet when I was paying the taxi driver on my return to Jolly Harbor, but I was not sure.  When I discovered it later that day, I went into the small internet cafe at Jolly Harbor and checked my account.  The card had not been used and I reported it as lost to my Internet Bank.  This has the potential to be a real mess!

My Internet Bank will mail me a new card, but that of course will go to my mail forwarding service in Friday Harbor, Washington.  And from there I must get Tracy to send it on to me somewhere here in the Caribbean. What a mess!  In the mean time, I can get cash advances from my credit card with the bank.

With good winds I sailed to Falmouth Harbor the next morning to be there for the the Classic Regatta.  With the winds out of the south, we tacked off 1/3 of the way to Montserrat before turning back to Falmouth. Approaching the coast of Antigua again, the wind began switching from out of the south to the south east and then east so for the last mile we had to crank the engine. But the sail was very nice.  Approaching Falmouth around 3:30 PM the Antigua Classic Race was happening just in front and around entering the harbor.

We motored slowly around the harbor looking for a place to drop the anchor. If you can imagine the number of boats in Simpson Bay Lagoon squashed into a space 1/10 the size, that was Falmouth Harbor. I found a small opening but when I approached to drop the anchor someone from another boat would stop us and tell us that there was a race boat there and the space was taken. Believe it or not, when I finally did find a space, it was just in front of Gallant.

Later when I was sitting out in the cockpit looking at all the beautiful old and new boats around us, David, Andrea, Tom and Alex came up in their dinghy on the way back from crewing on one of the classic yachts. I never did quite get the yacht’s name, but it was a 150+ foot classic wooden schooner, wooden mast and all. They had a crew of 30 on the boat for the races.

The next day (the third day of the classic races) I took the dinghy for a tour of Falmouth Harbor to look at all the beautiful boats and then walked over to English Harbor to see the restoration of the 1700’s British Port which is just wonderful. Of course walked all around and saw the boats there also. There was a boat there with a “crew wanted” sign on the end of the boarding ladder so we made note to tell Tom that night as they were coming to Quietly for dinner that evening.

Judy made a wonderful harts of palm dip that was to die for! We ate that on crackers from Pace in Hampton, Virginia that were still in the back of the food locker while the sun went down followed by my tuna salad on lettuce. Just as we were serving the tuna Miranda and Robin, the young couple from New Zealand, came along side with David and Andrea. We called over to them and they joined us for dinner. After dinner David and Andrea invited us to attend the Classic Regatta Prize Giving with them. The boat they had crewed on had come in 3rd in their division. What a really wonderful day and evening this was!

As we are coming in on one side of the bay, Thor and Margaret from Norway whom Gretchen and I met in The Saints were sailing in on the other side of the bay. We anchored about 100 yards from one another. I took the dinghy by on my way ashore to say hello. Thor and Margaret had just returned from St. Johns Harbor and told me that was definitely not a place to go for sure. Between being sandwiched in between three cruise ships and then all the people swarming in the town, well you know… {laughing}

Judy who had come over from Falmouth with me and I continued in to shore where it was the first time for her to beach a dinghy.  We walked along the beach to the hotel beach bar and got two drinks and then found to forgotten beach chairs and just sat and talked watching the sun go down and then the stars. I think it was close to 10:00 pm when we got back to Quietly.

The next day we went exploring and hiked up to the top of the hill over looking Deep Bay where there is an old fort. The hike up was more mountain climbing than hiking. In places it was darn near vertical as we climbed up the rock face under the fort. We had to stop twice to catch our breath but the view from on top was well worth the climb. The view from the flat gun platform from the top was well worth the climb!

There were steps down into the old powder magazine and then through a passage out to the front edge of the fort.  This would have been a very easy fort to defend with the steep cliffs all around the top of the hill.  I was surprised to find no information about the fort anywhere! So there is not much I can tell you about the history of it. A local fellow said he thought it had been built by the French, but that does not make a lot of sense English harbor on the south of the island was the major British Port from the late 1600’s through the 1800’s.

We stayed in Deep harbor again that night as well before trying to sail back to Jolly Harbor Friday morning. We started out sailing north with an east wind up to see another beach Judy was reading about in the cruising guide. Not much, so we tacked back around and headed back south sailing with the east wind. As we got about half way, the wind completely – yes completely – died and then came back strait out of the south on our nose! I cranked the engine and we motored the mile or so to where we would turn east to head back in to Jolly Harbor and you guessed it, as we turned east, the wind turned from the east right along with us!!

We anchored back in Jolly Harbor and before long Thor and Margaret motored in and anchored behind us. That evening we wanted a special dinner as it was Judy's last evening  before returning home.  Someone told us about Jolly Harbor’s beach restaurant which was a 15 minute walk. We shared Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Mahi-Mahi in a Creole sauce. Dinner was wonderful right on the beach and after dinner we took off our shoes and walked along the beach before heading back to Quietly. On the way back we notice that the new casino building at the end of the marina had an open sign on it and went in. The bar and the Casino were open for practice before the grand opening on Monday. Judy and a coffee and I had a diet coke and looked around. It is very grand… We got back to Quietly a little after 11:00.

Saturday morning we took Quietly in to the fuel dock to fill the fuel and water tanks for my push south to Bequia.

Now I will be starting a new adventure on Quietly learning how to sail her single handed as I catch up with Willow, Gallant, Cheshire Cat in Bequia on May 5^th for Mikes 60^th Birthday.  That is a trip of slightly over 350 miles with lots of open ocean sailing to come.

On Sunday morning as I sailed out of Jolly Harbor, the first of the boats in the Antigua Sailing Week Regatta were just approaching sailing north along the race course.  I on the other hand was sailing south so I had the marvelous opportunity of watching over 200 boats sailing north past me as I was sailing south.  Here is a group of pictures I made of the Regatta boats as we sailed past one another.

Next stop Dominica ,the last island of Mountains and Mangroves, on my way south to Bequia.