March 6th to 8th

March 6^th Dominica to the Saintes Terre D’en Bas

 We had an early 6:00am start to make the 20 mile move from Portsmouth Dominica to the Saints Islands, we had a good trip and arrived around 9:20am. Mark and Jennifer went to go clear in but we decided to leave it until Monday. Our cruise guide said you couldn’t clear in on a Sunday and we all wanted to have a bit of a rest day so we decided to stay put. They also took Tori for a walk on the beach in the next bay.

Anse Fideling on the island of Terre D’en Bas is a very small bay but a nice sheltered anchorage. There are steep hills all around the bay and only a couple of houses high on the hill tops. A few goats was about all we saw and it was a nice change. The boys and Maree all fished, I had a Nana Nap and cooked a roast lamb and my roast vege mix (potatoes, sweet potato, carrot, red onion, red capsicum, green capsicum, Zucchini mixed in olive oil and ground salt and roasted) basically whatever you have in the fridge. It was absolutely divine and I don’t think it’s just because it was NZ lamb!

Mark and Jennifer popped over for a few drinks (I had invited them for dinner but they had fish on Starlet) and we had a very pleasant evening.

Robbie and Paul continued to fish until quite late, they are on a mission to catch a Tarpin so are catching bait fish and keeping them alive to use for bait. Maree and I went to bed and left them to it.

March 7^th The Saintes, Terre D’en Bas to Terre D’en Haut

Just after 8am we upped anchor to move around to the main Island Terre-De-Haut. Starlet were in front of us and we both anchored in a small bay just outside of the main bay. We took the duck in to clear in and wow, it’s a gorgeous little community, with crystal clear water right up to the dinghy dock, which is unusual. There is a quite big building built to look like a boat, complete with anchor rope coming out! It’s very well done. We found out later it’s actually a medical centre.

The check in was just another computer in an internet café, unfortunately there is only one computer and being a Monday morning, there were a few yachties lined up waiting. (I won’t say anything about the one finger typing!!!) Of course one of them had about 8 passports and you have to enter each person’s details individually, and that takes a long time with one finger!

We gave up and decided to go and have a look around and a drink and go back. Maree and I both brought a dress each from the famous Boutique Maogany, it is filled with cotton and linen original designs, they also hand paint and silk screen clothes in a gorgeous blue colour and they are truly beautiful.

We had a drink the boys had a beer and I had a Guava juice (Yum) and Maree had Pineapple juice, then I went back to check in. Mark was next in line, and then there was another Yachtie with 4 passports to do so it took a little while. The facility closes at 12:00pm for 2 hours so I was a bit anxious but I got it through. We ducked into the Carrefour to grab a few groceries, Robbie brought the duck into the beach just opposite and we loaded the few groceries in and headed back to Southern Star. As we left the beach in very shallow water, there were about 6 huge Tarpin swimming around. Apparently they love the shallow water. Seeing them really whetted Robbie’s desire to catch one, just for the sport of it. Which I find a bit sad but he’s got fishing in his blood.

*0511We had a lazy afternoon, Maree and Paul went for a ride in the duck and I managed to get the blog reasonably up to date. It has been so frustrating, the internet has been good enough to get email but otherwise takes me 5 hours to load photos and an article that would normally take 20 minutes. My patience has been truly tried!

We all went out for dinner with Mark and Jennifer, firstly having a drink in the bar right at the dinghy dock. What a fabulous location to watch the sun go down. This photo shows Mark and Jennifer arriving in their duck (they call it a dink) We moved to the restaurant just opposite on the main road, the girls all had Mahi Mahi in a cream sauce and it was magnificent, Paul and Mark had a Caribbean Chicken Curry, and Robbie had a mixed grill that included duck and black pudding (Yuk) The girls definitely made the better choice!

The weather forecast is not looking good from tomorrow night onwards, so we made the decision to have a very early 4:00am start and make the run right up to Antigua. Unfortunately this means we will have to call in to Deshaies on the top of the island to clear out, on our way past.

March 8^th The Saints to Antigua I woke at 3am to find no husband in bed. I was going to tap him on the shoulder but he wasn’t there! (LOL) I got up as we had planned to get up at 3:30am anyway to get to Antigua, with a 12 hour run in front of us, in daylight. Robbie was in the cockpit preparing tackle to catch the elusive Tarpin, which were swimming around in the lights, there were at least 6 maybe 8 of them. He was on a mission to catch one and hadn’t even made a cup of tea, that’s unusual for Robbie!

So I made the tea and next minute he’s calling me, “JoJo, quick come here”, sure enough he’s finally hooked the Tarpin! Go and wake Paul he said and tell him I’ve hooked one. So I gingerly tapped on the guest stateroom door trying to wake Paul, and hopefully not Maree. Paul raced up and they were like two little boys with their first fish!

He fought like a trooper but finally Robbie wore him out and reeled him in. With Pauls help we got a couple of photos and let him go.

We upped anchor and headed out of the anchorage just after 4:00am, it was dark but the stars were out and visibility was quite good. Thank god for the two radars, in particular our big one picks up everything, sometimes even birds!

We had a good run with only around 6 knots of wind. We arrived into English Harbour on Antigua around 5:30pm and it was pouring with rain. We tried very hard to find an anchorage in Freemans Bay but it was full of yachts. We took the duck off and Robbie went and and found space in the marina so we moved to the marina.
We were welcomed to Antigua by a gorgeous Australian lady who lives here and has a bar on the beach. We cooked a chicken curry and had an early night.