Rumble: The fortune we had... (20)
Would you not want to stay here forever? A beach on Anguilla (2007).
Showing posts with label Anguilla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anguilla. Show all posts
Would you not want to stay here forever? A beach on Anguilla (2007).
Rumble: The fortune we had... (17)
Our anchorage at Road Bay - Anguilla (2007).
Rumble: Anguilla
After a few days in St.Martin, we got onto the boat and sailed for about six hours to Anguilla. We anchored in Road Bay.
Here is a view from a hill top, down on Road Bay. You can see the port on the left, and the old salt pond on the right. 
It was a lovely anchorage, with locals racing their boats on weekends. The beach was clean, for a main port that is, and offered lovely sunsets.
There were only a few boats in the main port, typical for Anguilla, which seems to be off the beaten track for most tourists. I can not imagine why. The beaches were amongst the most beautiful we had ever seen in the Caribbean.
We drove around the island for a day, to get a taste of the atmosphere. People were laid back and friendly. A really enjoyable island, without the mass tourism of St.Martin.
We did two trips with the boat: to Sandy Island (you can see our boat anchored in a distance) and to the cliffs in Little Bay, which made good snorkeling. 
The weather was nice, about 27 dgr C in the shade. The water was 29 dgrs C. It was hard to imagine that just 10 days before, we were sailing in Belgium, in foul weather gear (see this post). Only one night, we had a "tropical wave" (a storm) passing us, the only one during our sailing trip. It held me up all night on anchor watch, as the wind turn around 360 degrees (it was the first time I experienced wind from the West in the Caribbean!). and had our boat swing a bit too close to another ship on a fixed mooring. At 1 am I actually had to get into the dinghy and help out another boat who had problems anchoring. For the sailors amongs you, I will post some 'bareboat charter horror stories soon...
Rumble: One Month in the Caribbean
I marked the area we travelled to this year with a red frame:
Zoomed in a bit: 
In the next posts, I want to give my impression of the different islands we visited this year.
Here is a summary of our trip: We flew via Paris to St.Martin (or Sint Maarten as the Dutch call it), and stayed for a few days in a quiet and nice resort. Then we sailed with a bareboat charter to Anguilla. Sailed and drove around the island for a week, and then sailed to St.Barthelemy (or St.Barth for short). Sailed and drove around there for a few days, and continued to Eustatia (or Statia as it is called more commonly). Continued a few days later to St.Kitts (or Sint Christopher, but nobody calls it by that name anymore), to return back to St.Martin via St.Barth's.
We ended the holiday with a few more days in the Esmeralda resort in St.Martin before flying back home.
All in all, one month, of which three weeks sailing. For the sailing buffs amongst you:
Above is the GPS track. We sailed nice and easy, as the purpose is holiday-ing, and sailing is the mere means.. I already had my pure sailing fun 6 months ago when we sailed from the UK to the Canaries, onwards transatlantic to St.Lucia and onwards to the BVI, as you can read in previous posts...
Nevertheless, we still ended up sailing about 190 nautical miles (appr. 340 km). The weather was really great, with only occasional showers and a minor storm (a 'tropical wave' it is called there). The winds were steady trade winds, with an average of 15-20 knots coming mainly from the East, so most sailing trips between the islands were a comfortable reach. The swells were about 2 meters in average, though on our last leg, we were exposed to the Atlantic swell pushing nice long waves of about 3 meters high, in a 25 knots winds under our keel.
Our boat was a 36ft mono-keel, chartered from The Moorings, called "Berengere".. And yep, that gave us a lot of questions in the English speaking islands 'how do you spell that?', 'what does it mean'. Well, it is the first name of the wife of the owner.. Would have been easier if she was called 'Judy' or 'Ann', or something. Anyway... She was not the fastest to sail. The foresail was only a 110% genua, and the boat itself is mainly made for cruising. Still, we did a comfortable 6-7 knots in most passages, and had one trip averaged 8 knots in 25 knots wind 60 degrees off. The GPS said we peaked 14 knots, but I guess that was when we picked up a wave and surfed off it.
The main concern going to the Caribbean in July and August are the hurricanes, even though it is only the beginning of the hurricane season. Still we prefer July/August to the (safer) winter time as 1/ the weather is not that much different 2/ there are far fewer tourists 3/ everything is much cheaper.
We had the tail of one hurricane, and a direct hit of another when sailing in the more Southern part of the Caribbean two years ago. Last year, a really nasty tropical wave hit us in the Virgin Islands. This year, we were spared from all of the nasty stuff. It hardly rained, and if it did, it was for just a few minutes. Phew... Always a worry when sailing with the family, especially as I am the only 'sailor' on board. Tine and the kids enjoy being on the water, but are not particularly experienced sailors.. So it is always a bit of a worry 'if something would happen to me'. So we're extra careful not to take any risks...
All in all, it went well. In the next posts, I will write a bit about the individual islands we visited. A closing picture of our boat anchored in Road Port, Anguilla.
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Rumble: Mum, We're Hooooome!
We're baaack! After one month dwelling around St.Martin, St.Barth, Statia, St.Kitts and Anguilla, we decided to come home :-)...
Over the next days, I will publish some pictures and stories. This was our third family sailing trip to the Caribbean. And each time it feels like coming home... I lost my heart there. Actually, I lost my heart in many places, but the Caribbean is.. well, I lost more of my heart there than in most of the other places. :-)
Here are some pictures as an appetizer:
Our home for a month: a 36 ft Benetteau, here at a mooring in Anguilla
Any doubt who's in charge? :-)
With my three crew mates. My three girls.
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Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
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