Antigua and Barbuda

The normal path south from St Barts would be St Eustatius-St Kits-Nevis. Tom had read about some petty crime on St Kitts and the anchorages did not look too protected. The alternative would be to go 70 miles directly into the wind to Barbuda and then to Antigua. Since this crew has never been accused of doing anything normal, and we had a decent (read no heavy projectile vomiting) weather forecast, the steadfast captain pointed the bow towards Barbuda. The passage was indeed long, but we were greeted by a wide white powder sand beach at Cocoa Point with calm blue water on which we rested.

The next day we moved almost directly south to Antigua and checked into this country in its capital city of St Johns. The island of Antigua was named Wadadli by the natives and is today called "Land of Wadadli" by locals. Kim found out when she asked for the local beer and was served a Wadadli beer.

Christopher Columbus landed here on his second trip in 1493 and named the island Santa Maria de la Antigua. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and he named it after a church in Spain, Santa Maria La Antigua — St. Mary the Ancient. Early settlement by the Spanish was replaced by English rule from 1632 (British rule from 1707 Acts of Union), with a French interlude in 1666. Slavery, established to run the sugar plantations on Antigua, was abolished in 1834. The islands became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on November 1, 1981, with Elizabeth II as the first Queen of Antigua and Barbuda

The real draw for visiting Antigua was the historic aspects of English Harbor that Tom had read about. English Harbor on the southeastern coast is famed for its protected shelter during violent storms. It is the site of a restored British colonial naval station called "Nelson's Dockyard" after Captain Horatio Nelson. Today English Harbor and the neighboring village of Falmouth are internationally famous as a yachting and sailing destination and provisioning centre.

We cruised into English harbor and saw the dockyard and famous fortifications. Nelson had laid chains across many of the harbors and many still lie on the harbor bottom waiting to snag new anchors. Tom therefore opted to anchor in adjacent Falmouth harbor. From there we toured the museums and had lunch atop Shirley Heights and enjoyed the commanding view from there. I assume that this magnificent mountain was named after my mother, but my history may be a bit cloudy on that point.

We took a side trip to lovely Green Island on the southwest side of Antigua where we enjoyed an uninhabited island and some nice snorkeling. We harvested four conchs from the reef and Kim made conch salad and fritters for a little party with the crew of navigator.

Since the English are not particularly known for their cuisine and we were running out of baguettes, we headed almost directly south for the French island of Guadeloupe. We looked to starboard about halfway through the trip to see if Monserrat was erupting again, but we saw no lava or ash plumes, so all must still be OK there.

We tucked into Deshaies for the night and had an enjoyable ride the next morning in the lee of Guadeloupe towards Les Saintes. These islands were named Los Santos by Christopher Columbus, who arrived there on All Saints' Day of 1493. The first French settlers arrived in 1648. Because of their strategically important position, the Îles des Saintes were fought over by the French and the British in the Battle of the Saintes; they have remained under French control since 1816.

These last few islands, we have been traveling in company with John and Mary aboard Navigator which has been very pleasant. Mary continues to cook and lavish us with deserts, cookies and breads and John and I commiserate over fixing broken boat things. Most of the broken things have been on his boat lately, but we all know that my turn is coming. In reality, all the preparation work I did in the 2 years prior to embarking on this folly have been paying dividends now. Relatively minor problems on Emily Grace have been fixed quickly and most of the needed spares have been on board.

Also as we move south the weather and water have been getting warmer. Daytime temps are always around 90 and we are lucky to see 82 in our stateroom at night. The trade winds keep it bearable, but cooking the evening meal requires running the A/C some nights. The water temps are now around 83 and wet suits are rarely needed any more.

Tom