We loved Nevis, and it was hard to leave, but the hurricane season was getting closer and it was time to get moving. We wanted to be in Grenada by June, the acknowledged southern limit of hurricane risk. We had already missed Antigua race week, a famous regatta well known for the copious amounts of booze and big boats. Antigua was about thirty five miles directly to windward, and the trade winds showed no signes of abating, so we were not really sure how to get there. I knew a lot of the bigger boats just motored it, but I did not want to, and our boat does not motor well to windward anyway. The hull is a bit banana shaped, and while this is great when sailing, when motoring to windward the bow goes over the oncoming waves rather than cutting through them like a modern boat.

Instead we planned to sail south to Montserrat, then back up to Antigua at an angle. We made one last trip into town to check out of the country. We had become fond of Nevis and were sad to leave. After a final drink at Sunshine’s we had an early night.
The next morning we sailed down the lush island once more, and then entered the open ocean for the crossing to Montserrat. The conditions were good with the usual moderate easterlies, and we were able to head almost directly for our destination. I set the self steering and read in the sun with a cup of coffee. Al was sunbathing naked next to me, and life was pretty good. It reminded me of a story that had come over the VHF radio a couple of days before.
A young couple who chartered a bare boat for the week got bored with just sitting there, so the guy decided to cool off. He hung a line over the side and got towed along. After a while he was ready to get back on board, but his arms were too tired and he let go.
OK so far, but what happened next was that his girlfriend jumped in after him. They were both naked. They were very lucky to be picked up by some fishermen that evening. You can imagine it now.
“Ya Mon, look what I caught!”
To add insult to injury the boat was on autopilot, so it just kept sailing. It was missing for days, and finally showed up four hundred miles away in Venezuela!
We thought it was hilarious at the time, but it was also a good object lesson. They could easily have died. The rule on True Blue is that you act as though if you fall overboard you are dead. Most of the time on the open ocean only one of us is awake, and you might not be missed for hours. The chances of being found again are miniscule. Offshore we wear harnesses when we leave the cockpit, and if it is really rough we wear them in the cockpit too.
Soon enough the volcanic island of Montserrat was off our port beam. Rather than tacking we sailed into the lee of the mountainous island and motored a couple of miles back to the shore. It was getting a little dark as we entered a beautiful deep bay surrounded by mountains. There was a white church with a spire nestled in the river valley behind the volcanic beach.
Montserrat was still suffering active volcanic eruptions while we were there, though nothing on the scale of the events of 1999, when about half the island was destroyed. To this day no one lives on the south end of the island. Most people from Montserrat were re-settled on other islands, and their sense of community ruined. It was sad to see such a beautiful country basically destroyed. We did not plan on staying and did not bother to check in, just flying the yellow flag and staying on board. It was beautiful, but we had heard that the people were still just trying recover, and I think we had a sense that we might be imposing. It was a little close to disaster area voyeurism.
As the sun set we waved to the wooden fishing boats as they motored past with their large nets and outboard motors. The fishermen smiled and waved back. We prepared the boat for passage to Antigua the next day and had another early night.
In the morning the water was glassy enough to reflect the red-orange dawn behind the mountains. Again I regretted the decision not to visit. As we sailed past the north end of the island we hauled up all our sails and headed as close as we could to the easterly wind. Al went on watch for a while and I went back to sleep. I did not feel well. Mid-morning, the wind started to freshen and I came back out on deck. I felt terrible. I had a throbbing headache and was unsteady on my feet. I checked our position and found that we had made almost no progress to the east. At this rate we would take over a day to get there. The sails were set correctly but the current that washes between the islands was pushing us back to Nevis. We decided to sail northeast as far as we could and then motor.
A couple of hours later we were level with Antigua and about 20miles offshore. There was about a fifteen knot easterly wind blowing from the island. We it would block some of the current as we turned the boar directly upwind, furled the Genoa and pushed the engine up to 3000 rpm, almost as full throttle. Heading directly into the wind and waves we soon slowed to only 2.5knots. We found by heading about twenty degrees from the wind we could get four knots, so we changed course for the north end of Antigua. Al was driving as I lay on the bench with my eyes closed and nibbled on dry crackers. I had a cold sweat. We suspected food poisoning, but still don’t really know what was wrong with me. Was it seasickness? It was the only time I have ever been sick on a boat, before or since, so that is out. I do get migraines occasionally but this was different. Maybe my body was rejecting all of the Killer Bee drinks.
Al was not confident at all as I asked her to do the navigation, but did great. Despite our worries the motor didn’t miss a beat. As the wind picked up in the afternoon we gained more shelter from the island, and we landed in Antigua at about 5pm. We anchored in a broad bay north of Jolly Harbour. We had made it.
I felt fine the next day. I tried to analyse why the previous day had been so traumatic. Looking back on it I did not feel like we were in control at all. Should we have turned back? In case I was really sick, the medical facilities in Antigua were much better. If I did it again I would sail back to St Kitts or Nevis. Why was it so stressful? Going to weather is never pleasant, and we did not have a lot of confidence in the engine. Alison was worried about me. It was one of the few times she might have had to make a landfall on her own, though as it was I was OK to do it. The relatively minor, bad few hours brought home to use that you don’t have to be 1000 miles offshore for things to happen. It showed what a frail thing morale on a small boat can be. It also showed that Al could handle it all on her own. It reminded us that despite the passages being so short we were still on a significant trip that many coastal sailors would boast of. That made us feel a bit better about the whole thing.

Antigua

As usual I was off to Customs and Immigration the next morning to check in. Antigua is another ‘English’ island. While I was motoring in I passed a couple in a small dinghy, paddling in with their motor up. I gave them a tow into town. Ian and Mary had sailed across from England on their J110, Jammin. They were on their way to Australia too. We made plans to meet up for a drink later on.
Over the next couple of days we had a couple of meals together, then parted company again. We were off to English harbour to meet our friends Dan and Lindsay from Florida. They were to stay a couple of weeks. Again we were motoring to windward, but this time we were in the shelter of the fringing reef. Right at the end we had to go out to the ocean for a couple of hours. We knew the motor was OK in these conditions so we didn’t worry but I was worried we were turning into the American style cruisers we had met in the Bahamas, who motor sail about half the time.
Entering English Harbour was spectacular. You can only see the entrance when you come really close. Back in the days of Drake and the wars between England, Spain and France it was an important refuge for the Royal Navy. There is a Fort on the cliffs to the west side of the channel. You could smell the history. We sailed down the narrow channel and anchored in a beautiful little bay a bit before the main anchorage. There was another Allied there, this time a Luders 33 called Baggywrinkle. We met the owners later on, Ben and Miranda. The lovely Miranda had on an Australian flag bikini, so we had to introduce ourselves. She was from Sydney. It was great to bump into another Aussie. We hung out a bit, and went for a dive on the point. Later as we sat in our cockpit with the evening’s first Rum and Tang the sound of steel drums floated down from above. It turned out that there was another fort above us, and they played up there regularly. Another perfect day in paradise. The difficult trip to Antigua was worth it.
Dan and Lindsay arrived a few days later. We had settled in nicely, and it was my birthday. I spent a whole month’s cruising kitty on a fifteen horsepower motor. Our outboard had never really been capable of getting our dinghy on a plane, and was not running well at all. After it was run in I took a handheld GPS and saw how fast the dinghy would go. I hit 19.8 knots, about 38kph, and was very happy. We also sailed back to the leeward side of the island for a couple of days and then pretty much hung around in English Harbour. We rented a car and toured around, checking out the blowholes and some of the rural areas. There were some very poor people around. We went and saw the band that had been playing for us from above, and toured the forts. Dan and Linz took some plants back to the US with them, terrified they would get done for cactus trafficking. We bought some fishing gear for the boat. The Indian cricket team was touring but we couldn't get tickets, so we hung out with the locals in the bar and watched. They loved that Aussies knew cricket. We waited for the local celebrity Eric Clapton to show up but he never did.
Antigua was a time for us to tie up some loose ends. In St Martin we had sent an application off to register True Blue as an Australian ship. We had to do this to satisfy the documentation requirements for France and the Panama canal. They got back to us with a laundry list of requirements. We had to get the boat ad-measured by a surveyor, fill out a Stat. Dec. or two, and jump through another few hoops. We did this over the next few days and faxed the documents off. Alison’s mother in NSW had received the papers we had to fill out, and sent them DHL to English Harbour. Unfortunately it took a month arrive. The hurricane season was closing in. It was time to leave. We left without finishing the process.