This morning I got up with the sun and am preparing for departure with my sights set on Antigua & Barbuda. I’ve volunteered to be part of the race committee for both the Antigua Classics and Antigua Sailing Week. This means I have to get there ahead of time and find a nice spot to anchor in Falmouth Harbor.
It is only about 110 miles, but it is somewhat upwind and, depending upon conditions, will take 14-20 hours. I might split it into 2 steps and head to Ile Fourchue for the night and then depart very early tomorrow morning and head towards Jolly Harbour.
I escaped the inside lagoon with the 08:30 outbound bridge amongst a veritable horde of boats. There was quite a bit of barging and maneuvering to jockey into position. I had a bit of a scare when I was passing the bridge as the boat in front of slowed down and then stopped! I had to put in full reverse not to hit it; then was “in irons” with no steerage for a bit until the procession started moving again.
I anchored close to my previous position and dinghied to customs and immigration to clear out. After that I zipped across to pick up my laundry and then returned to Zanshin. I had a lot of work to do in order to prepare for departure; including putting the generator parts together again.
Noon
I finished my preparations by noon and departed. I was going to leave with Marjorie and Mark on Sea Life, but they said that they still had things to take care of. Their intent was to sail straight through the night, but I wanted to stop in Ile Fourchue.
The wind wasn’t optimal and my course was more towards St. Kitts than Antigua, and I tacked to get to Ile Fourchue after a couple of hours. It was pretty crowded there, so I passed it by. Anse Colombier had some empty spots, so I dropped the hook there.
After getting the boat put away, I hooked up my StarLink and was surprised to see that Sea Life had just passed the anchorage! They are much faster than I’d thought – or I’m a lot slower than I should be.
