… and – even better – Antigua with a wifi connection. Not a great connection, it must be said, but it is available on the boat, and it is free (mercies be!)
So, after rather a long radio silence, to recap a little …
We did indeed bounce up to Martinique, lively style, and pulled into Marin, where chandleries and marine services are plentiful. A quick shopping spree there (all for Butterfly, other than a few groceries for ourselves) then a quick flit out of Marin’s crowded bustling harbour, and a brief rest day spent at anchor at nearby St Anne’s – a pretty holiday anchorage with glorious open views of sea and sky from the cockpit. The shot below, however, taken looking to port, after a grouch of a squall had started the day with a rather wet bang. 
From St Anne’s on Martinique’s south coast, it was another quick romp up to St Pierre, on the north-west coast, accompanied in part by a pod of dolphins.
(That’s St Pierre’s sea front and black sands, below right.)
A brief over-night anchor there, then a straight run to Antigua, skipping Guadeloupe and Dominica altogether. This meant an overnight journey, but with three of us aboard, we all had a chance to sleep and arrived at Falmouth, on Antigua’s south coast at 8.00 the following morning, a little grubby and windswept but fresh enough, no post-anchor kip required. Throughout, the skip north, the wind stayed fairly boisterous with 18-28 knots (apparent) roughly 40- 60 degrees off the nose. Mercifully, the sea remained fairly flat. A few dowsings here and there when a larger-than-average wave collided with the port bow, but very little crashing and bashing despite speeds of 10-13 knots for large chunks of the passage.
S-o-0-0-0-0-0 n-i-i-i-c-e to put some water miles under Butterfly’s bridge, once more!
But Falmouth brought us to a temporary halt, and Falmouth, m’dears, is where we’ve stayed these past 5 days. Here are the very glamorous Air and Hampshire and Sequel P as proof!
Falmouth is famously home to some of the world’s most flashy superyachts. And our preference for dropping the hook at the back of the fleet - as near to open sea as we can – has afforded us to a ringside seat for ogling these glorious big-bold-and-beautifuls as they pass in and out of the harbour. Peppered between the giants, vessels of a far, far humbler stature; you really get it all here: the good, the bad and the every shade of beautiful and ugly in between.
At night, look towards Falmouth’s main docking area, and you’ll see something like this (only a little sharper focused – ah, the trials of attempting night shots on a moving boat):
During the day, look 180 degrees in the other direction and you’ll have views of Montserrat smoking away in the distance:
Friends, Paul and Kathryn, decided to join us here in Antigua – a lovely idea – so while we waited for them to arrive, we set about a few boat jobs. Boats are hard taskmasters: no matter how much you do, the boat fix-list never seems to get any smaller; it just changes, is all. But if you don’t plow on knocking off those jobs, you’ll soon find yourself running up an escalator that’s coming down faster than you run up. Leave a boat on the hard for several months and, like us, you’re likely to find yourself in marathon training!
Oh – and that’s Al, by the way, having kindly volunteered (honest guv, no parental bribery whatsoever) to knock the must-clean-mast-track-to-stop-the-cars-from-sticking job off that bloody list. (Another job that’s already under way is the repainting of the anti-skid – but enough of boat jobs; this is meant to be the cruising season …)
Having run our food stores w-a-a-a-y down, and with the fast flit up-island meaning very little chance to re-provision, it was a huge kindness on the part of Kathryn and Paul to feed us these past two nights aboard their boat, the sleek hulled, and fabulously speedy Cool Cat; it really should have been the other way around, since they were coming to visit us! (In our defence, we’re slightly hampered by not having a fully operational fridge, yet, only a small freezer in operation, so can’t buy too much that needs chilling.) But shame on me, such a feeble excuse, I’m sure you’ll agree, so all the greater the need to find a decent supermarket, not only to enable us to keep body and soul together, but to repay P & K’s lavish generosity.
So off we jolly four went to Jolly Harbour (on Antigua’s west coast) – Jolly Harbour being conveniently blessed with a jolly decently-stocked supermarket and only a short sail away from Falmouth.
Coming back from the store, tender laden with nosh provisions galore. we found ourselves racing against some ominously laden rain clouds, and, inadvertently, a fleet of monohulls enjoying a lively little race of their own. So let me just round off this post, raggy and rambly as it is (apologies), with a few hastily grabbed shots I took, as we ducked and dodged our way back to Butterfly.
And for now, well, that’s about it.
Shall endeavour to update a little more frequently, while wifi allows. For tonight, however, it’s been a lovely day, but the hour is now mighty late and this gal needs her shuteye.
Till the next time, then, chums, this is one happy but weary cruizzzzzzzzzer passing out …
Sleep tight!
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