Sailing for Antigua Apr 12-14,09
Sunday April 12,09
I hope Eostre’s Hare was good to you all and you didn’t overdose on chocolate 
We had a busy day today.
This morning we cleaned up the ship, re-lashed all the stuff that had been unlashed over the last few days so the on watches could paint the topsides. We also stowed a lot of stuff preparatory to getting underway for Antigua.
We up anchored and motored away from Martinique at 3:30pm this afternoon. We kept motoring using the fore and aft sails until we passed out of the lee of the island then took in the sails and motored North East until around 6:00 when we set all sails.
The plan is to sail North towards Antigua on the Windward side of the islands. This will mean some tricky steering as we will have to steer really close to the wind to make the Northing we need.
We finally had some luck with the fishing lines. We caught a Barracuda and a pretty big Marlin within a half hour of each other.
Just as we were getting ready to go off watch at 8:00pm a big rain squall came in and thoroughly drenched us before hitting us with strong wind gusts that necessitated taking in the flying jib in the pitch dark and rain. A damp but effective way to get everyone back into sailor mode.
My tattoo looks good still, which is a relief frankly as I was afraid of a bout of “buyers remorse” this morning There were lot of tattoos done while we were in Martinique something like 20!
The trip to Antigua will take a couple of days so we should get some good if tricky sailing.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Mon Apr 13,09
Just got off our very wet night watch.
I woke up around 3:00am to the sound of heavy rain beating on the deck over my head. Just before we came on watch the squall passed bringing with it a big wind shift. e came up on deck just as the order to brace the yards around came. Nothing like starting a watch off with a bang
A half hour later we braced them again as the winds returned to their pre squall direction.
About midway through our watch the skis opened up and I spent my lookout in the pouring rain.
By the time our watch ended the winds had dropped and shifted such that we were pointing directly at Dominica. So we fired up the main engine and took in all sails and are now motoring North off the eastern shore of Dominica. FWIW you can see the steam from the boiling lake, like a cloud stuck in the forest, cool.
My hands are a mess, even my “good” one is a bit torn up. Callouses and water don’t mix.
More later…
Just got off a very busy watch.
We tacked this evening at around 5:00pm ad it went very well.
Since then we have been sailing full and bye but in the wrong direction. That leads me to believe that we will be tacking again. Possibly even later tonight which mens we would be doing it in the dark. Fun fun that!
One of the islands we have been sailing slowly past is Marie Gallant (?!?) this island is NE of Dominica and is actually the edge of the Caribbean tectonic plate thrust up over the Atlantic plate. The volcanoes of Dominica are the molten remains of the Atlantic plate melting as it descends. This is the classic plate edge volcanic system but normally you can’t see the edge of the overriding plate so clearly.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Tues April 14,09
Had a good night watch, pretty uneventful.
I had first lookout which was wonderful as the skies were pretty clear and the mostly full moon was bright.
Last night at the change of watches around midnight they tacked ship. It was nice that they didn’t have to wake us up When we went on watch this morning we were again sailing North towards Antigua.
Paul caught two more Baracudas this morning, one of which he threw back because it was small.
We may arrive in Antigua later this afternoon.
More later…
We arrived in Antigua and anchored next to a very large yacht in Falmouth harbour at 6:00pm.
I’ll be off tomorrow so will have a chance to check out the lay of the land.
Many of the crew are looking forward to crewing on some of the classic boats in the races here. I’m happy to be looking on I think
Thanks for reading.
KJ