A northern loop – Antigua to Anguilla and back

Regular readers might remember that last year we were unable to get to Barbuda due to the adverse weather we encountered after leaving Jolly Harbour. In 2012 it was one of our favourite islands and we really wanted to visit again, so this year we were very happy to see a weather window open a couple of days after “Coriander” had caught us up in Antigua.

Thus, we set sail at 09.00 on 18^th Feb and dropped the hook at Cocoa Point, Barbuda at 14.15. The trip wasn’t without mishap because the genoa outhaul stuck when we tried to pull the sail out and it took us around an hour to untwist it. Despite this, in the first three hours we covered 19.1nm which was a considerable improvement on the 9.6nm we had managed in the three hours the previous year, after which we had turned back.

It was so good to see this lovely island again.

It has an area of just 62sq miles and a population of around 1,200 so is the most sparsely populated inhabited island in the Caribbean. The island was almost completely devastated by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 when winds of up to 185mph decimated everything. It was uninhabitable and all the 1500 residents were taken to Antigua. Not all returned, as you can see from the figures above, but thankfully Barbuda did recover, the town of Codrington was rebuilt and, fortunately the biggest nesting and breeding ground of the magnificent Frigate Bird [outside of the Galapagos] survived sufficiently to flourish again.

Cocoa Point is on the SE side of the island. and the beautiful beach is fringed by reefs so extreme caution is needed to both drop the anchor and take the dinghy ashore. In the photograph above you might just be able to make out a white building at the left-hand end. That is Enoch’s bar.

He is well known and loved by the cruising community, and does a great lobster or chicken BBQ which can be washed down with his signature rum punch. Yummy. Not being great fans of it [I know, strange hey!] we have only eaten lobster twice in the Caribbean and both times it has been on this beach.

As you can see, although the weather was sufficiently benign to get us to Barbuda, it was not settled and, having spent three nights at Cocoa Point we motored round to Low Bay – just outside the lagoon – so that we could check out the following day.

It was an “adventurous” ride across the lagoon to Codrington….

…..and an even more adventurous ride back!

Customs/Immigration is very low key…..

…. and on the way there we had a bit of a laugh with the extremely friendly locals who told us that this donkey was called “Uber”…..

….who would give anyone who tried to mount him the ride of their lives!

By the time we returned to the boats the wind had shifted and risen and after bouncing more and more we thought it prudent to leave what was now a lee shore and move round to Pink Sand Beach where we spent a very peaceful night before leaving at 06.30 the following morning for the 64nm sail to St. Barts.

Gustavia is extremely popular and the anchorage is nearly always full but, after a couple of failed attempts, we finally managed to find a spot we were happy with.

We went ashore the following day and had a look round what is a very attractive town.

To us the price of everything seemed ludicrous but to those who populate the island, have holiday villas there, or visit on their superyachts, it is probably just pocket change. We managed to find one bar – funnily enough the one full of “normal yachties” – where we felt we could afford a beer.

The following day we moved 3nm to Anse du Columbier off the NW corner of St. Barts. Quieter than the Gustavia anchorage, but still quite busy.

Mike and I tried to go for a walk but the only path we could find went steeply up the side of the cliff. I scrambled up the first bit to take the photo but that’s as far as I got. Getting the dinghy back off the beach was rather tippy but fortunately we didn’t provide too much entertainment. Funnily enough, the planned sundowners ashore did not go ahead!

After dinghying down to Gustavia for clearance out the following morning we had a rolly motor across to Île Forchue where, subject to the correct boat length and tonnage you can pick up a [free] mooring ball. Larger/heavier boats have to anchor further out.

These balls are very well maintained. Whilst we were there the Park wardens came round and dived all of them changing those that needed it. They do this monthly.

This time Mike and I did manage a walk.

Off again the following morning [26 Feb] for the relatively short, but again rolly, 13nm passage to Sint Maarten/St Martin where we anchored in Simpson Bay on the Dutch side before moving into the lagoon two days later.  As many of you know, with Mike being a leap year baby, he usually has a two-day birthday celebration on 28^th Feb and 1^st March – just to make sure he doesn’t get the wrong day! But of course, 2024 meant three days of fun.

On 28^th we went to Marigot on the French side to re-acquaint ourselves with the town, have coffee and croissant at our favourite bakery, pick up a few groceries and book a restaurant for the following day as Mike really wanted to return to the place where we had a brilliant meal with our friend Jack in 2012.

His celebrations then started later that evening when we went to the “Dinghy Dock Sailors Bar” for evening drinks and a couple of fabulous snacks.

Mike’s actual birthday happened to coincide with the first day of the Sint Maarten Heineken Regatta, so we spent the day at the yacht club and watched the boat parade as they came back in through the Dutch bridge….

…. before going to La Petite Auberge for the meal.

Not sure if this is where we went with Jack, but it had what we considered the nicest menu of the three we looked at in the Marigot basin and was, indeed, very good.

Mike’s third birthday was a shared affair – being Gill’s actual birthday. Another day at the yacht club was rounded off with drinks at the Dinghy Dock ….

….. followed by a very nice Indian meal.

It is very easy to while away time in SMX [this abbreviation is easier than keep typing its Dutch and French names]. Chandleries, great supermarkets, Happy Hours at several different bars and various things to do and see.

We took a bus to Philipsburg, the capital and largest town on the Dutch side and home to the cruise ship port. Duty free shops abound, in which goods seem to cost more than in non-duty free shops, as do bars and restaurants, many of which only seem to open during the day as their main customers are the cruise passengers. The promenade and the street running parallel have been gentrified but it is good to see some of the old buildings remain…

… where the early  Dutch settler influence is very clear – but considerably changed in other parts.

We also did the “tourist thing” and went to the end of the airport runway to watch the planes land and take off. I have Steve to thank for the following two photos. All I managed to get was a small private plane – not half as dramatic.

The blast from those jet engines is immense. We were deliberately off to one side and still got sandblasted and blown down the beach.

While we were there it was the OCC [Ocean Cruising Club] 70^th Anniversary. We are not members but Steve and Gill are and the organiser…

…..Gus, is a guy we met in Trinidad, who was happy for us to tag along – no doubt hoping we might join. The most fantastic part was that friends we met in Barbados in 2012 and travelled off and on with for the next couple of years, who we last saw in Haiti, had stopped off in SMX on their way to the Bahamas for this OCC get together. It was so wonderful to see Carol and Steve [Kerswill] and catch up.

Our aim for the season was to get up as far as Anguilla and so, on 8^th March, we passed through the new causeway bridge [I say new because it wasn’t there in 2012/13] at 10.00….

…. and the Dutch Bridge at 10.30….

…. to sail 17nm north to Road Bay, Anguilla.

There are a number of anchorages on Anguilla but Road Bay is the only bay in which anchoring is free. Marine Park fees are very expensive everywhere else. We understand that it is $200 per day [midnight to midnight] for a yacht our size and so, if you stay overnight you need to take out a small mortgage.

We hired a car and, to be honest, when we visited these other beach anchorages, we didn’t find anywhere we would have really wanted to stay. Some had little shelter and several had waves rolling up the beach so landing a dinghy would have been, at best, difficult and, most likely, undignified!

The island is 16miles long and 3.5miles wide so, it didn’t take us very long to get around. We went first to the South Western tip to the “Anguilla Arch”….

…., then through the valley, taking in a couple of beaches like the one above and other views ….

…. to Island Harbour at the NE end…

Here we found a monument to the men who took part in a significant episode during “The Anguilla Revolution”. I hope you will enjoy this bit of potted history.

Since 1822 Britain had insisted on administering its possession of Anguilla through the colonial government it established on St. Kitts, in spite of the fact that Anguilla would much rather have been ruled directly by Britain. And when Britain granted independence to its West Indian colonies in the 1960s, it again lumped Anguilla in together with St. Kitts and Nevis.  It didn’t help that the newly independent nation was ruled by a man called Robert Bradshaw, from St. Kitts, who openly despised Anguillans.

The Anguillans continually told the British that they could not abide being ruled from St. Kitts, but they were ignored. “The associated state of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla” became officially independent in February 1967, and a few months later the Anguillans effectively seceded by chasing 17 police officers from St. Kitts off their island. The “rebel” flag they hoisted following this act of insurrection was the British Union Jack.

The Anguillans then formed a provisional government and launched an abortive raid on St. Kitts. On June 9, 1967, sixteen men set sail aboard a thirty-five-foot sloop, the Rambler, to make the night-time journey to St. Kitts, where they intended to carry out a coup d’état and install a new government sympathetic to their separatist cause. By break of dawn the following day it became obvious that the unaccomplished mission had to be aborted. 

The British finally sent an incompetent diplomat, William Whitlock, to Anguilla to try to sort things out. His attitude and behaviour towards the Anguillans was rude and dismissive and some young men who had styled themselves as Anguilla’s Defence Force intimidated Whitlock and his entourage by brandishing the few firearms they possessed, whereupon Whitlock fled the island.

Believing the Queen’s representative had been fired upon and forcibly ejected from Anguilla, the British immediately laid plans to invade. The invasion, code-named Operation Sheepskin, was a badly kept secret, so the Anguillans had plenty of time to prepare. They completely demilitarised and all guns on the island were taken over to St. Martin and buried. The invasion force, consisting of two British frigates, 135 paratroopers, and 40 Scotland Yard police officers, was greeted by a horde of foreign journalists and met no resistance from the local populace.

The world’s press was derisive, Mr. Whitlock lost his job, but in the end Anguilla finally got what it wanted all along: direct rule from Britain – the only time in history that a country has launched an insurrection in order to become a proper colony.

So, whilst Anguilla didn’t exactly wow us with things to do and see during our car ride, it did provide an entertaining story for this blog post.

We also watched a local yawl type race….

….. went for a walk around the salt water flats just behind Road Bay….

…. and enjoyed a few drinks at “Elvis’s” bar…

…which had great nachos, rather strong rum drinks and fun vibes.

We stayed five nights before returning to Simpson Bay to pass the time while the weather turned a bit dull and damp. Then, while Steve and Gill waited for a part to be delivered Mike and I took O&P round to the French side for 8 nights.

We went first to Marigot and took time out to visit Fort St Louis…

…..where, at the bottom of the hill leading up to the fort is this plaque commemorating the composer of a Hymn for the whole Island.

We then made a short hop up the coast to Grand Case from where we walked to the Hope Estate Commercial Centre to get a pass from the National Park Authority to stay overnight at the small island of “Tintamare”. It is possible to take a boat to any part of the National Park during the day, but to stay overnight at Îlet de Pinel or Tintamare authorisation is required.

It is only 5nm from Grand Case but a world apart. Grand Case has bars, restaurants, music, souvenir shops; Tintamare has nothing but wild beauty.

Also known as “Flat Island” it has an area of approx. 0.8sqkm. no-one lives or works there and there are no facilities.

It was perfect.

Tuesday night is Street Party night in Grand Case and we made the most of it the night before we left for Tintamare….

… and, on our return we dinghied to a floaty bar….

…. but much preferred the drinks on land.

Looking at the weather [yes, it is a major part of our lives] we knew we needed to return to Simpson Bay fairly early on the morning of 26^th March as the wind was shifting to the north meaning a lee shore and big waves in Grand Case and Marigot so, after two nights back in Marigot we planned to depart at around 09.00 to get round to Simpson Bay before the weather filled in late morning. So much for forecasts! I woke at 07.00 on a bouncy boat and we left sharpish but then got caught by a fairly big squall. Still, we got back safely to Simpson Bay and had anchored by 09.00 and all was well. We stayed there for another five nights just provisioning, doing odd jobs and generally chilling out. The only real things of note were Sundowners on Innesfree with Mike and Glenda who we met in Trini [no photo – Agh] and farewell drinks with Morgan and Tina – more Trini buddies – as they are sailing “Pitta” via Nova Scotia to Scotland.

As I said earlier, our intention for the 2024 season was to get up to Anguilla – which as you know, we did -and then, from SMX, return to Antigua via Saba, St Eustacia [Statia], St Christopher [St. Kitts], Nevis and Montserrat, before sailing back down the chain to Trinidad.

It didn’t happen. Saba and Statia were untenable at the time we wanted to leave SMX so we sailed past them making for Basseterre in the middle of St. Kitts’s west coast. We sailed past Brimstone Hill Fort….

…. and down to the town anchorage.

We knew this was a cruise ship port because we had visited in 2012 but the “mall” has increased in size considerably since we last saw it.

The town remains very pleasant though – a real town with several interesting buildings, artifacts and roundabouts!.

I can’t remember seeing the prison last time….

…. but I did take a photo almost identical to this one.

 Having researched ways to see the island, I discarded the “tourist train” idea and, because I found two bus routes which went up each coast and met [well more or less met] at the top of the island we all decided that it would be more fun to take public transport than hiring a car for a 50km [30mile] trip – even shorter than the one on Anguilla.

And so it proved, a grand day out. The first bus we caught plied the west and north coast route from Basseterre to Parsons Ground in the NE corner. We got off slightly before the end of the line at Dieppe Bay.

We then walked down the east coast to Black Rocks passing the aforementioned Parsons Ground and also Sadlers village between which we saw crumbling sugar mill chimneys….

…. chatted to a lovely young guy selling melons…..

….and saw the tourist train rumble past.

Whilst there are some interesting lava formations to be seen from the Black Rocks viewpoint….

… the area is essentially an outlet for tourists with small stalls selling the same stuff as the cruise ship mall. However, there was a food stall and we had a nice BBQ chicken lunch.

 Our return was on the east coast bus and so for the princely sum of EC$8pp [approx. £2.25] we saw and enjoyed two thirds of the island. On our return we made our way to the more “local” area of the seafront where there are some excellent rum shacks – similar to those we first encountered in Barbados.

A great way to end our day out.

Close to there and the west coast bus station we also watched some kind of swimming competition.

We weren’t really sure what was happening but those involved seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The anchorage at Basseterre is perfectly fine when the wind is from the NE or, just about, E but as soon as there is any south in it the swells come in. This happened on our third day so we moved down the coast to Friars Bay and the “Shipwreck” beach bar. On that first day it felt much calmer but, on the second day we started to roll. It wasn’t too bad and, as we wanted to go for a meal at the bar we persevered.

We did, however move the next day – to White House Bay where we were able to use this wonderful dock to tie up the dinghy….

……before Boules and a swim at the beach. We then invited “Coriander” and “Twenty Twenty”, who we were surprised to see anchored next to us, onto O&P for sundowners. Herein lies another story.

One of our friends, and my ex-colleague, Steve has a friend we have never met called Dave. One day they were talking and somehow got round to our being in the Caribbean. Dave asked Steve to ask us to look out for friends of his sailing on “Twenty Twenty” and, if we saw them, to say Hi from Dave. Well, we did see them very briefly anchored in Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten but had no time to get together properly then so, when we saw them in White House Bay it seemed the obvious time to get better acquainted.

There are no buses on the south part of the island because no locals live there. There are a few private houses, a couple of resorts, some beach bars and a marina. So we decided to go for a walk to see what we could find.

It was actually a longer walk to Cockleshell Bay than we had thought

Mike and I enjoyed it though by the time we got back Gill was suffering rather badly with her hips and back so it probably put a damper on it for Steve too.

Now is the time that our plan for the rest of these islands went haywire again, once more caused by changes in weather. The forecast was for a very calm day for 8^th April followed by some strong wind, waves and swell from the southern quadrant for a period of 7-10 days. None of the anchorages on Nevis or Montserrat are good in those conditions. Whilst not necessarily dangerous, roll would make them very uncomfortable. So, we reluctantly made the decision to return to Antigua and, after clearing out at the marina we departed at 05.45….

….. for a 49nm motor [yes, it was very calm] to Jolly Harbour.

For the next week we settled into a routine of trips to visit the fuel dock to top up diesel and petrol, propane bottle top up, the laundry, to Budget Marine chandlery and to “Epicurean fine foods” supermarket which is kind of affiliated to Waitrose, and sells litres of their spirits and bottles of the Waitrose Brand wines at duty free prices. Wine is just under £4 equivalent and a litre bottle of gin around £8. Most days saw some rain but we managed a very pleasant afternoon on “Twenty Twenty beach”….

 …… another afternoon swim with a prop fixing session thrown in…..

….. and also dodged showers to get to Happy Hour with our favourite barman, Neil.

Having then provisioned for four/five days we set out for a round the island sail because we wanted to experience some of the more remote anchorages.

Our first was off Great Bird Island at the NE corner….

…. and then to Nonesuch Bay just north of Green Island at the SE.

We had timed our trip so that we could go to Falmouth and English Harbours to see some of the Antigua Classic Race boats and, on our sail from Green Island to Falmouth, we saw a couple of them at quite close quarters. We gave way!

Needing some things from Budget we went ashore and ended up walking round to English Harbour to look at more of the classic yachts as they were returning to their berths. Just after looking at these two lovelies….

…. we turned round and I found myself staring unbelievably at someone who was staring in a similar manner back at me. It couldn’t be – but it was – our wonderful friends Jack and Christine.

The last time we saw them was when we visited them in the spring of 2018 in Cadaqués, North East Spain, not long before they moved to France.

They were aboard “Charm III” as crew because Jack has known her owners Richard and Maurice for many years, sailed with them several times and, because this is probably the last time Charm III will race in Antigua, Jack and Christine were coaxed away from their home – a rare occurrence these days apparently.

It was so, so very wonderful to see them and we agreed to meet again two days later when they had some time free between the races finishing and them flying out.

We went back to English Harbour the next day just to see the final parade as the Classic ended….

…. and then, as agreed, collected Jack and Christine from the dinghy dock in Falmouth Harbour to take them to the beach for a swim followed by lunch. Brilliant.

And that, my friends, rounds off our loop north from Antigua and back.