Trompeta back in Marigot Bay St Lucia

It has been a hectic few days since the last blog. The sail to St Lucia was quite tricky with a head wind and swell so after we past Saba Bank we had adverse current which slowed us down somewhat. Having said that we made Rodney Bay anchorage on Saturday night so that was better than last time we did the trip when it took us 3 days. Sunday morning we sailed around to Marigot Bay and Trompeta is now safely tied up and all loose items on deck stowed below. We met another couple from Gainsborough whilst we were there who have a boat called Puddlejumper which is also registered in Whitby!! The boat was actually on the dock when we stopped in Marigot Bay with World ARC and we remarked at the time it was Whitby registered but there was no one aboard. The couple that own Puddlejumper are called William and Karen and he is actually a farmer too! We met William and Karen the day we arrived as they had just flown in from London Gatwick so were a little jet lagged. However we met up with them for drinks the following evening and promised to stay in touch as they are having a holiday now with friends flying in to join them but they will also be taking their boat down to Grenada for the hurricane season and do not fly back to the UK until 23 June. We have now flown back to the BVI but return again to St Lucia on 18 June to sail to Grenada. So now it is back to work again and soon getting into the swing of things here. It is lovely to be back amongst friends and we are enjoying the socialising!

On the move again

Have a couple of days on the Moorings dock again to finalise our preparations for going back to work and sailing back down to St Lucia for the start of the hurricane season (officially 1 June). We have rented a store room (or rather an attic above some rooms) for the princely sum of $30pm to store our surplus clothes and other equipment we want to leave in the BVI. Have been offered temporary work starting 23 May to 17 June on a crewed yacht so will fly back to the BVI from St Lucia to do this then return back to our boat on 18 June. Then sail to Grenada for storage in a cradle in Grenada Marine boatyard which is a designated hurricane storage facility and approved by our insurers. Met up with some old crew in Village Cay today for lunch (Peter and Bobbi) who are still working on the same yacht they were on when they were here at The Moorings but doing private charters now. Their boat looks very different as they have really implemented all the little comfort and design improvements we all talked about before. So tomorrow is our last day of preparation before setting sail again to St Lucia. It is about 310 miles so will probably take us a little over 2 days if we get some decent winds. Have booked into Marigot Bay Marina from 19 May. The Marina has good WiFi so will be able to report on progress when we arrive!

Goodbye World ARC boats

Saturday saw the start of ARC Europe and we waved goodbye to 4 World ARC boats all heading back to England/Europe. One boat is heading back to the USA with the Atlantic Cup which sails to Bermuda with the rest of ARC Europe boats. It was a good send off at Nanny Cay with 10 World ARC boats in total in Nanny Cay Marina. The only remaining boats in Nanny Cay Sunday morning were Trompeta, Zoe and Anastasia. We all agreed to meet for traditional Sunday lunch at Brandywine Restaurant and we sailed Trompeta around to Brandywine Bay and dropped anchor in the bay to dinghy ashore to the restaurant. It was a good job we left Nanny Cay early as when we unpacked the dinghy and blew her up she had developed another leak!! So after much swearing and cursing Peter was able to glue the seam up and stick another patch on the dinghy. It was the opposite aft end that had leaked in Grenada so he is now well practised! Anyway we made it on time to the restaurant and were just enjoying our drinks when Phil & Andrea turned up in their hire car with Ed & Zoe as passengers. We all enjoyed a lovely roast beef and Yorkshire pudding lunch with extra yorkies!! Phil and Andrea are leaving Anastasia in Nanny Cay for 3 weeks whilst they fly home to England to sort out some stuff before returning end May to sail up the East coast of the USA. Ed & Zoe are sailing to the USVI to get a rigger to check their rig before setting off back to the USA. Ed was impressed by our rigger Isaac who did a very thorough job of inspecting our rig using a little mirror to look behind wires. He noticed a stray wire in one of our shrouds so has replaced that and has done a lot of minor rig adjustments so now we are good to go back to Grenada. Unfortunately he is very busy so was unable to do a rig check on Zoe until next week and Ed did not want to wait that long as he has a family reunion to get home for! So Trompeta is in good shape with only minor things to fix like the automatic bilge pump which has been driving Peter crazy as he tries all sorts of ways to stop it tripping. It is probably down to an incompetent Electrician in South Africa who spent all day putting in a switch. We are renting a storage unit here in Road Town BVI so we can take surplus clothes and personal items off Trompeta before we sail back to St Lucia on 15 May. Work commitments mean we are busy from 24 May to 16 June then we fly back to St Lucia to sail Trompeta down to Grenada for hauling out on 1 July. Our flight back to London is booked for 2 July so timing is tight! At least we have some work which means money coming in again for a change and we should comfortably cover our flight costs. So now we have a few days relaxing and enjoying the BVI whilst we prepare our boat for the next stage of her journey!!

Peter's Birthday

Today is Peter's birthday and we are in Nanny Cay Marina having left the Moorings dock yesterday morning. We had a birthday dinner party last night joined by 20 other crews from various World ARC boats who are all here in Nanny Cay to either depart with ARC Europe or wave them off like us. ARC Europe is the return Rally for many boats as it sails to Bermuda then the fleet splits and the American boats head up the East coast back to the USA and the European boats head to the Azores then onto Portugal or England. We stay here though!! Having sailed all around the world there is no place quite like the BVI which is beautiful and definitely home for us. ARC Europe leaves Nanny Cay on 4 May so we are booked into the Marina here until Sunday. Our plans have changed slightly in that we are now sailing back down to St Lucia leaving here on 15 May and arriving in Marigot Bay for 19 May. We have flights booked to return back here on 21 May to do two charters the first of which starts 24 May and the second 11 June ending on 16 June so we fly back to St Lucia on 18 June. All very tight but we only get 28 days in the BVI when we fly into the country compared to 30 days by boat. Although when we bring our boat back here in December we will have to pay $200 to temporarily import the boat and this allows us to stay for up to a year! Once we are back in St Lucia we have time to enjoy the countrty again and sail back to Grenada where we are booked to haul out the boat on 1 July to go in a cradle for the hurricane season. Have not yet booked flights back to the UK as we are still researching the best deal as it is complicated. We need to fly out from Grenada then back to the BVI as work starts 1 October 2013. We then need to find a window between charters to fly back to Grenada to sail our boat back up to the BVI for the winter season. This will have to be the end of November at the earliest for insurance reasons. All very complicated!! Today we have the riggers coming to carry out a full rig inspection now we have finished our long passages. We are also expecting the sail loft to arrange for someone to measure up our hatches to make some waterproof covers for use whilst the boat is stored in the hurricane shelter. Unfortunately we still have leaks every now and then but usually only small amounts of water get inside the boat but obviously we need to keep the boat dry over the summer to avoid any mould and mildew problems. We have actually bought some Damprid which is a product made up of silica crystals designed to eliminate damp from the air. We will place these pots in each bathroom and another in the wet locker (wardrobe for outside foul weather gear). My job today is to pack away our coats and foul weather gear in storage bags so we can take them off the boat. There are lock up store rooms available near to the Moorings and we are hoping to rent one of these for our surplus clothes and other boat stuff which we prefer not to leave on the boat whilst she is in storage. We also have to appoint someone to carry out a guardianage service whereby they check the boat on a regular basis (batteries, pests, damp etc) and open hatches to air the boat. It is not cheap but essential for insurance purposes. We will visit the Royal BVI Yacht Club at lunch time to collect our membership cards as we have kept up our membership on an overseas basis whilst we were away sailing. Now we are back the secretary wants some photos and stories for her newsletter!

Back in the BVI

Having left Antigua very early on Tuesday morning we sailed to St Maarten where we anchored for the night in a very swelly and rolly Simpson Bay. Needless to say not much sleep that night but at least we had a rest. The following morning we then left very early to sail back to the BVI. On our final approach to the BVi we were unlucky enough to snag a fishing pot but fortunately Peter was able to free this off and we carried on our way.Arrived around 1am this morning and dropped anchor outside the Marina. Now on the dock in The Moorings Marina and back with our old friends. Everyone has welcomed us back and we love it here! Looks like we have some temporary work in June doing charters in the USVI for a change. Full time work depends on getting us work permits but the Manager thinks there should not be a problem for us to start again on 1 October. We have even been offered our old boat Heartbeat as she is staying in the fleet for another year. The question now remains as to what do we do with Trompeta? She is beautifully equipped for ocean sailing but I doubt Peter will be in a hurry to do more of this for a while! It has been fun but hard work at times. Going back to work as charter crew will feel like having a holiday again!!

English Harbour Antigua

We have had a lovely time here so far. Yesterday we had a Parade of Sail of the Antugua Classic Yachts Regatta who have been racing this week. Trompeta was in prime position on the dock and Peter rigged up the hammock chair so we could watch from the foredeck. The champagne tent was pitched right by the side of us so lots of people were gathered on the dock to watch the procession of yachts some of which fired cannons as they toured the harbour. It was all very well done and provided a good spectacle. The official Antigua Race Week starts next Sunday but we will be back in the BVI by then so will not be here to watch. Dinner last night was excellent at a French restaurant called Le Cap Horn and quite reasonable in price too. We both opted for the special which was Mahi Mahi with scallops cooked in ginger and coconut milk for EC$75 or around £18. The food generally here we have found to be excellent. Saturday we ate at the Admirals Inn and had the chefs special tasting menu which was 5 courses for EC$110 (£27.50). There is a really good Museum here of the Dockyard giving lots of information about the history of the Dockyard from the time it was first used as a British Naval Base up to the time of the official reopening after restoration in 1961. There is no charge to look around the museum so we did make some purchases at the gift shop. Today will be our chance to do some boat shopping as the Chandlery will be open and as usual we have some things to look out for. Nothing too major so if they do not have the bits it will not matter too much. Last night we actually walked to Falmouth Harbour and back as the Restaurant was on the road between the two harbours. It is not far!

Dominica then Antigua

Have just spent two nights in Prince Rupert Bay Portsmouth on the island of Dominica. This island is very green and lush because it rains a lot!! We were anchored on a mooring close to Zoe and the four of us spent a busy day on Thursday doing a trip up the Indian River then after lunch we had a tour of the island by taxi and Sam the driver was very informative about all the fruits and trees and wildlife. He took us to the Carib territory where the local Carib Indians were selling their baskets and handicrafts so we had to stop and buy some - naturally! The evening we arrived in Dominica we went to the local BBQ hosted by the PAYS (Professional Association of Yacht Security) which is a group of boat boys who assist yachts finding moorings/space to anchor and acting as water taxis and supplying anything you might need here otr helping to source items for you. A very worthwhile group. The BBQ cost us EC$50 each (£12.50) and was good value with some tasty fish chicken salad and rice plus the obligatory rum punches!! So after our busy day of tours we had an early night. The plan was to leave the following day and visit Les Saintes and Guadeloupe next. However when Peter read in our cruising guide that these countries are actually part of France we decided it was not worth risking a bill for VAT on the boat so plan abandoned. Instead we left Dominica Friday afternoon and sailed overnight to arrive here in Antigua in English Harbour around 9am this morning. The first part of our journey was good but the wind and sea kicked up whilst we were sailing up past Guadeloupe so we had to motor sail to keep a course and it was rough. So glad to be here tied up in Nelsons Dockyard Marina which is full of history as all the old buildings have been maintained and now house various businesses. we are booked in here for 3 nights and will leave on Tuesday to sail up to the BVIs which is around 200 miles so another overnight passage. Should arrive in the BVI Thursday all being well!