Tony arrived and we started an Island cruise.

17.07.65N  61.53.24W

16^th February 2023

5338 miles since leaving Sandwich.

Tony arrived at 1630 0n the 13^th which pushed Norma into full on panic stations for at least two hours before that. He eventually arrived on time and without drama looking very white in the Caribbean sun and was soon settled aboard Spectra being fussed over by Norma on our berth in Jolly harbour. We had a meal ashore on the first night which to be honest was a big disappointment, expensive, not Caribbean at all, and instantly forgettable which is a shame but you can’t get it right every time now can you. We were thinking of spending another night in Jolly harbour and taking advantage of the pool, but the general consensus was to get going and spend some time on anchor.

Leaving Jolly harbour

Day 1

We slipped our moorings at 11:00 on the 14^th and headed around the corner to 5 islands Bay where we dropped anchor all of two hours later after a voyage that would have impressed Columbus himself. There isn’t much in the way of civilisation in 5 islands bay apart from a rather posh hotel complex all made out of hardwood, but we amused ourselves anyway with snorkelling the reef and taking the dinghy ashore to a nearly deserted beach. The other occupants were a British couple who charter their yacht, a Bowman fifty something, as a business for up to 8 people on board including themselves and have been doing so for the last 12 years. I had a good chat with them about the finances of that and found out that they charge about £4000 each person for a place on the ARC. That is as working crew for the passage not as luxury guests which brings me to the crew we occasionally have on Spectra for the longer passages and the fact that I always feel guilty about charging anything, and we only charge £100 per week to cover food etc. Oh well I’m not here to make a profit just to defer some of the costs when we can. After a good snorkel and a good chat we went back aboard for our evening meal and watched the sun go down. Once it got dark, we could hear a lot of big splashes around the boat which were quite spooky. Shining the steamer scarer spotlight over the side we saw a large ray flapping about on the surface, lots of shrimps and several pipe fish, in fact there was much more life going on after dark than we saw when we were snorkelling. On the subject of snorkelling Tony, Mr gadget man that he is, brought with him a full face snorkel mask complete with a go pro attachment so that you can film what you see. Unfortunately for him he couldn’t see much as his mask leaked like a sieve.

Tony getting sunburnt even with his white T Shirt on.

Day 2

Next morning, we motor sailed another 4 miles into Deep Bay which as we anchored with just 1.5 meters below the keel isn’t actually very deep at all.  Again, this is a bay dominated by a single all inclusive resort but it does have a small fort on the hill called Fort Barrington which needed investigating. Taking the dinghy to the beach we chained it to a tree and walked up to the fort which was a very steep climb on a dusty track. At one point some kind sole had left a rope attached to a tree that you can use to pull yourself up a particularly steep patch. I managed to slip over on the way down and land flat on my bum with a thump much to the amusement of Norma and Tony which surprised me as it really wasn’t funny at all. After we returned to nearly flat land we went for a 2 Km walk around a salt lake which, according to the google earth picture, would bring us into the other end of the bay via a village. As it turned out the picture lied, the village was just an extension of the all-inclusive resort so no local delicacies to be found here. With no way to the beach apart from reversing our course we cut through the resort, look confident and take bold steps, no one said a thing. On the beach the resort had a large bar which tempted us in. Unfortunately, as an all inclusive you couldn’t spend any money and therefore couldn’t get a drink, disaster!! The barmaid obviously saw our need and said for a tip she would be able to give us a drink and she would sort it out with her manager. 30 EC later we had a drink each and the bar maid had a lump in her pocket and a smile on her face, everyone’s a winner. Tony by this time was glowing like a ripe tomato and really needed to get out of the sun, back to Spectra it was. We spent the late afternoon watching the turtles swim around the boat, there were at least five of them, and fixing new lifting eyes to the dinghy. Due to unscrupulous types, there aren’t many of them, but they do make a disproportional impact, it is always best to lift your dinghy out of the water before dark. Now with the aid of a couple of additional lifting eyes carried out from the UK by Tony, we can lift our dinghy on a halyard complete with outboard up to the rail without any problems at all. Another little job done.

Me trying to make the hill look steeper while Norma doesn’t understand the camera mans directions.

View from on top of Barringtons Fort

We found this little chap on the foredeck.

That is a 25 ft RIB with four outboards that this chap is towing. And the RIB even had its own AIS signal transmitting.

Day 3

A meal on board and good night’s sleep later I decided to have a go at fixing the propeller, remember the one that I damaged on the mooring chain in the Isle de Saintes. From our Whats App group back in the UK I received some good advice, use a G clamp and a block of wood, to some questionable advice of you need a Swiss Army knife for that job. Tony was still glowing a distinct shade of purple and declined any suggestion of snorkelling but I did manage to coax him into being the deck support. After tying bits of string to a selection of tools he lowered them down to me as I wallowed about at the back of the boat. It wasn’t a great success. My mask kept on getting knocked off by the hull and I couldn’t get the G Clamps tight enough to make any impression on the bent metal. Eventually I resorted to using a large pair of mole grips on the bent edge and pulling the curl straight(ish). This worked to a degree in that I have now straightened out the edges that were curled back but I also managed to break off a few edge pieces. I think on a bench with some heat I could have done a much better job but lacking a bench and a blow torch under water I had to do the best I could. It actually looks bigger now but it is much less ragged on the edges. Hopefully that will further reduce the slight vibration that we have been getting and then I can park that fix until we next get lifted. It is blowing at 25 knots on a regular basis which is not encouraging us to pull the anchor in, especially as the next planned stop is St Johns which is a bit of an unknown as far as shelter is concerned. Looking at the chart it appears that all of the anchoring spots bar one are on a lee shore (wind blowing you up the beach if the anchor slips = not good). The one on the other side of the bay although offering in theory better shelter also appears to be a long way from town and three up in our little put, put, dinghy would not be a good journey in these winds.

Before.

During.

After: Ugly but flatter at least.

It is now officially later 15:00 the wind has got stronger if anything and we have decided to stay here for another night.