Falmouth Harbour,
Antigua
17.00.670N
61.46.670W

Happy Birthday Gary! You know you’re getting older . . . when your knees buckle and your belt won’t!

At 6:13am we lifted our anchor, unfurled our main to the first reefing point, radioed our good-bys to Gerry & Nicky who would be continuing on to Montserrat, and made our way out around the north of Nevis. We anticipated that this would give us a better sailing angle to Antigua.

On this adventure we tried the southern channel between the protective reefs and made our way clear of them according to our chart plotter. Of course the second we turned to find our angle of sail was the first time we saw shallow water. The charts showed a shallow spot behind us, so we figured that it must have been a shifting sand bar and headed out a little further. This time the anticipated depth was reflected on the depth sounder so we continued on.

Alas, this ended up being a very uncomfortable trip. The forecast was for 4-6’ swell, E winds at 15kts. The reality was 4-6’, heavy on the 6’ with the occasional 8’ thrown in for good measure. The winds were more South of East and directly on the nose at 20-25. It was going to be a pinch in any event but with what we encountered, we rolled in the main, continued motoring and had to hand steer the whole way.

It was a challenge to ride the waves without pounding or getting more water in the boat than around the boat. To do this we found the best way to keep from going too far off course was to steer downwind going up the wave and upwind going down the backside of the wave. The trick was timing this during what little interval we had between the waves. Most times it worked but there were sets of larger than normal waves mixed in with the average ones that forced us to alternate between the two methods of piloting and proved to us that not all of our water tight hatches - - actually are. This also gave us our workout for the day.

We ended up taking 2 hour shifts because we’d get so tired. At one point, Dale misinterpreted the chart plotter and steered us closer to the island. This actually helped us in the long run as it put us closer into the island’s lee, knocking down the wave heights a bit to increase our speed but did make the route a bit longer considering we were already racing the sun into a new harbor.

When we rounded to the south of Antigua where Falmouth was in sight, the waves were back up again and seemed even larger than they were originally. A dismasted sailboat grounded on a reef was a visual reminder that things could still go wrong.

The sun had already set and we had done our best to memorize the charts and cruising guide suggestions as we entered into Falmouth Harbour. There was enough light to recognize the buoys that lay up ahead marking the channel and even though they didn’t match the charts, I trusted Dale’s knowledge of navigational aides. Apparently more buoys have been added to help guide the mega yachts to the two marinas within. It looked as if all of the big boys from the Heineken Races had come here to rest.

It was well past dusk as we entered the channel and then picked a spot near one of the outlying boats anchored off the channel. We dropped our anchor in 20’ of water, made a quick dinner, sent an e-mail to Orpailleur to let them know we had made it and called it a night. The Palace is covered in salt that needs to be rinsed off and already we can tell that it’s a little rolly where we are but that all can wait for tomorrow.

Photo of Gypsy Palace taken by Orpailleur on the way from St. Barts to Nevis.