We had heard it was nice but didn’t quite prepare us for it. I mean we are talking uninterrupted white sandy beaches 10k long – its picture postcard shit, the stuff in the adverts and probably what you envisage the Caribb to be like.

We anchored up on this beach on the west coast of the island and went ashore in awe. We got approached by what was probably 50% of the islands water taxi’s – this one bloke who called himself ‘king goldy locks’ which I thought was a bit odd. A ‘king’ for starter – bit pretentious and goldy locks!? Did he realise she was a small girl!? Considering the body hair and the stature of the man ‘king papa bear’ would have been more apt, anyway –tangent! After shaking him off we pumped up the 12’s just as the wind was dropping off- typically.

Notably as we were in our new found Shangri la, old papa Keith was more interested in plugging himself into the World Wide Web and we had to re-anchor closer to the only hotel for miles to get the free wi-fi – we did tell him his FB status could wait another couple of days!!
This provoked two feelings, one; (dads voice) whats the world coming to when one cannot abstain from emails and that Jazz for a week? I ask thee! Secondly; It was quite funny sitting in what some would possibly describe as paradise and still being able to get on the net!

The following day we hop-scotched the mine field of reefs around to Spanish point on the south west tip of the island and anchored up. Unfortunately not enough wind to KSurf, as we said though your not so bothered when considering where we were.
We had a mooch about on shore, and I nipped into a bush to take a wee (bare with me) looked up and about 2 foot from my grid was a little humming bird! this thing could not have been larger than my thumb. Later on I donned the old David Bailey hat, armed with the telephoto.

Later on we donned our Ray Mears / hunter gatherer chapeaux (I know- a lot of hypothetical donning!) in the pursuit of some lobsters on the reef, something the Island is famous for. Now these things are wily little coruscations and fast as hell. Jimmy located one hidden under a reef and I lay in sub aqua ambush, fishing hook in hand. Eventually I admitted defeat, however, just before I gave up, I looked over the reef to see not a few meters away from me the biggest ass Baracuda, it must have been a metre long- and these things have teeth like veloceraptors (honest!) needless to say I kept a beady eye on that one. By this time I felt like-if not a little soggy I had my David Attenborough hat on as well.
Meanwhile, further up the reef in a stinking current Jimmy had located a myriad (I love that word- frankly the number we found doesn’t warrent it but anyway) of these Lobbers and after some fight we managed to bag three of them!

I also found a few conch shells that day and after working out how to get the contents out of the shell and prepare them, we had ourselves quite a catch. So that evening we sat down to our most experimental meal of the trip of yet, consisting of; conch curry and lobster tails(prob more hats there as well… Stein, Floyd?). Was it worth it you cry? Probably not my humble opinion, and we definitely expended more energy in pursuit of our supper than we gained consuming it! However, memorable couple of days !!

We finished off our jolly by stopping back off at our fav little spot Green Island. We dropped the lobster net that night with some fish heads (just in case we hadn’t caught enough recently). The following day we awoke to discover that the ugliest mother ucker of a Eel in our little trap. I mean we had caught everything but lobster in this thing, it had swallowed both heads whole! It reminded me of those eels in the Disney classic the Little Mermaid, these things ooze evilness!

We did however have the best nine metre day of the trip so far and we all came off the water in shattered and looked like we had done shots of tequila through our eyes! Wind and sun battered; physically drained we limped back to English harbour.

Apologies for my ramblings this is pretty unedited due to time restraints and anyway its my F’ing!

Currently we are sitting in a beach bar in St Martin next to the end of the run way where evreyone stands at the end of the strip and gets blasted by the jets – its pretty funny ! (youtube it!)

Going to be here for a week or so, going round to Oreint bay this aft to go kiteing!

Well it’s New years eve and we haven’t started drinking yet! Got my first windsurf of the trip today up at Green Island off the coast of Antigua. Didn’t have much choice really after wrapping my Kite around the mast of some German blokes yacht…..Schizer !! Prick – I was only just mangaing to get up wind! Well at least I can still W/Surf.

So since our last post, after Martinique we sailed to Les Saintes (23rd Dec), a gorgeous little French island off the coast of Gaudeloupe. Billy had caught a Mahee mahee or dolphin fish (not sure about the spelling) on the way up which we had that night and also became our Christmas dinner. Ironically les saintes has more scooters and scooter hire places than you can shake a Vespa at, yet you can walk around the whole island in a few hours! You can see wild iguanas on the island as they are protected- well as protected as they can be from hundreds of pissed up French geezers on scooters!

There were a few people sailing off the small island opposite Les Saintes main bay, where I think there was  a little centre. I tried to have a crimbo day sail to no avail!

There was a beach on the opposite side of the island that Jimmy and I walked over to, you are not allowed to swim their due to the current, but would be ideal for Wsurf/Ksurf. Long sandy beach, bit of rubbish on it and it is bisected by the end of the islands runway.

Christmas day we left Les Saintes on route to return to Antigua. We left about 4 in the afternoon, was slow going up the west coast of Guadaloupe and got a bit battered between the two islands. However, just after getting into the lee of Guadaloupe we had a pod of dolphins off the bow, which was awesome –great Christmas day treat. Jimmy and I rushed up the front and took some. It’s funny I’m reading Ellen MacArthur’s first book at the minute and she whilst sailing around Britain had dolphins off the bow and commented that she could not think of a animal that so easily brings a smile to your face and I know what she meant. Was pretty cool and they stayed on and off for about 20mins, they would turn on their side to look up at you with one eye and a big grin, as if to say “hey check this shit out, look what we can do!”. We decided it was the Dire Straits that we had pumping from the cabin that drew them in – Dolphins love Dire…fact !!

We arrived at English harbour early boxing day and checked in. We decided to crack on up the east coast to Green Island were we had heard their was good kiting and whooo – an anchorage, we were not disappointed. Green Island is a deserted island and we anchored on the north side in a little bay. There was a little beach just around the other side of the bay (you could swim it in a minute or so), it was perfect. The NE wind blew across shore and was flat as you like, protected by the reefs,  was only a small beach though and if you were under powered and went a little to far down wind you would miss the beach-as I later would discover.  Jimmy had a quick go about 4ish that day but the wind had died and we sacked it off.

Needless to say we were up early the next morning, (27^th Dec) think I was up about 6 and read for a while-we were excited. Nipped over to the beach about 7.30 with all our gear. It was 12m weather but I had a crack on my 9m anyway and the inevitable happened, went down wind – Jimmy to the rescue. Tried again a little later- same result, but had a nice little sail anyway till Billy picked me up.  There is a schools that teach off the beach aptly named ‘Green Island Kitesurfing’,  there motto is ‘life starts at 40knts’ – little excessive!!  It’s been a couple of weeks but we have finally found a good spot for the anchor/play spot combo. Prob going to stay around here for a couple of weeks, also go up to check out Jaborwock beach, one up near the airport.

Remember – ‘If you can see the horizon it’s a good day!’  (Some random bloke off the street., Falmouth, 2010)

Oh and also remember, it’s a fooking clichéd notion that in order to have a conventional awesome New Year, you somehow need to have and unconventional shitty time ! So on that premise let’s get messed up and try and crawl into your own shoe in some gutter somewhere!

…..may all acquaintance be forgot…daa daa da da daa da ….AULD LANG SYNE !!

Happy New Year !

After setting up the boat for a few days, we made several attempts to escape Jolly harbour, which is a lovely place by the way, we had the chance to get to know it quite well as we circumnavigated the marina like maritime hobos. We moored in a few different places after the boat was dropped in whilst nursing the boat back to health after 7mths on the hard. We had a few teething problems, batteries, dirty fuel etc. Anyway, in teeming rain (the rainy season is running on a tad longer than usual- makes for a nice shower though!) at high noon we made a dash for it on our madden voyage to Falmouth harbour-approx 3hr motor/sail around the other side of the island. We stocked up provisions before we left- 2 gallons of the infamous ‘Bushy Rum’ 10 quid a gallon, surprising it tastes lovely with a drop of lemon!!

On the back of Jimmy spending about a week deciding which lures he wanted, we caught 3 gorgeous yellow snappers  in the ‘Goats head channel’ just off the south coast of Antigua, which promptly became our supper that evening with some crusty bread.

We left Falmouth at approx 6pm on Thursday the 16^th, destination Martinique a beautiful French Island about 150nm from Antigua. We sailed through the night, took me a while to get my sea legs, interestingly I found solace in staring at the stars particularly Orion, no I’m not trying to be profound, it’s something to do with balance, your perception of movement and all that rhubarb.

We made good time and anchored up in the port of St Pierre in the north of Martinique about 22hrs sail. For the historian in you, St Pierre used to be the capital of Martinique, in 1902 however the population was reduced from 30,000 to 3 in seconds as the result of the volcano behind the town erupting with a force of that 40 times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb!

In the morn we went to the capital Fort de France and signed in then went over to Port de Bout on the other side of the bay where we had heard there was a wsurf/ksurf centre (Fanatic, Neilpryde) off the front of a hotel. We anchored in Plage de Anse Mitan and wandered over. Silly launching area, not to bad for windsurfers but the kiters have to put their kites on a 5ft platform then walk round into the water then launch, which means only one can be launching or landing at a time. It was blowing about 20 knts and we were a little bummed we didn’t get out that day, but we got some local knowledge (using my finest French-‘parlez vous anglais’) off the gadgey at the centre of some other spots to try.

So we cracked on in the morning (Mon 20^th) round to the east coast of the island and stopped off at St Anne for the night, busy little anchorage and small village with a couple of shops. The following morning we sailed to Cul de Sac de Anglais, we stopped had a snorkel and some lunch. This was a beautiful anchorage clear water and well sheltered. I think the some of the surrounding coast was a bird sanctuary and it is prohibited to go ashore. We saw this spot on a kitesurf movie and if there was a bit more of a breeze it would have been a nice flat water spot.

On the way up to Havre de Robert where we were planning to anchor for the night we went past a few spots that Jimmy had found on the net but were not ideal due to the lack of anchorage. Vauclin was one of these and there were some guys windsurfing out of there on formula kit out of there. We also think there is a Kite centre there where they have held a few kite comps over the last couple of years. Havre de Robert was a still anchorage on the south of the bay, surrounded by mangroves. We had caught a Cero (like a Spanish mackerel) on the way up and had it with some prawns that night- was beautiful eating.

In the morning we headed round to Havre do Trinite. There are a couple of play spots on the north coast of the bit that protrudes east of Trinite. Plays de Surfers; that we passed on the way across where there were a few surfers out and Bai de Tartane; again a spot that Jimmy found on the web.

This morning (Weds 22^nd) we jumped on the Number 8 bus from Trinite to Bay de Tartan (1euro30) but unfortunately there was  not a lot of wind. There were a couple of blokes out on 12s but they were struggling. We hung about for a couple of hours to see if it would fill in – which I didn’t, so we wandered up to Plays de suerfers further east and had a look over the bay, waves were not that big and a little messy but can imagine that with bigger swell it could be quite good spot.

So we’re still looking for a first illusive sail, but are hopeful it will be soon. We’re off tonight, heading for Les Saintes a small island off Guadeloupe then back on to Antigua to drop Billy off. Has been a nice first little voyage, and a good teaser of what’s to come.

Bon Noel and a happy new year to all!!

Over looking St Pierre.

Mount Pele.

Little swim before the greenflash !

Somewhere....

Counted over 200 bites after the first night, guess which bits were left out of the sheet!

Captions please !!

So I set to work on it with the trusty drill and managed to shave 2kg off the bag (10%). Took off the wheels; some plastic bits; struts and some of the padding. I know what your thinking, theres more chance of getting your kit damaged, but the thing to do is pack stuff around it to protect. This may have been an obviuos solution to some, but we were quite surprised and it may influence your next board bag purchase !

We’re back! So we managed to actually make it to Gatwick on Weds, to find out that the airport had been closed and all flights were cancelled, much to our annoyance. We were told to re-book for another day. We returned to home and spoke to Virgin, now till this point we were not to bothered about the delays, these things happen and it was nobodys fault -well maybe Gods! However when we found out we couldn’t get a flight till the 10th we a little pissed. It’s psychological more than anything else – when you have got yourself psyched up for leaving and it gets put back, twas a little depressing.

I must say though, I do think this country needs to strap on a pair, I mean a little dusting of snow and the nation grinds to a halt! Maybe we should get some advice from some countrys where it snows all the time like Canada, or even France, they seem to have it dialled when it comes to transport. Failing that have a look at the freaking forecast! I mean what would Churchill say…!?

Moan over.

We then plan to sail south, hopping between islands to end up in Barbados, Billy has never taken the boat there so we figured it would be nice whilist he is with us. We will probably spend christmas in Barbados, then head back to Antigua before New Years. Jimmy’s dad and bro are coming out beginning of Jan flying to Antigua, so we will proabably hang in and around Antigua till they arrive.

After they have left we are still planning to head up to the BVI’s however, after further chat about the trip we decided we probably won’t head up to Miami.

As I am writing this i’m conscious i’ve written ‘probably’ quite a few times. To be honest this does reflect somewhat the nature or the ethos of the trip, as we intentionally are leaving it open ended and will decide when and where we visit at the time, depending on conditions, locations, events, how cheap the rum is !

As we have been told the Rum is cheaper than the mixer out there, so we decided to do some training the other night in our local bar, by drinkning it straight…..silly idea !

The boat is in Antigua, which we fly to on the 1st of December and we’ll be there setting the boat up with the owner (Billy ‘the bricky’ Quinn) for approximately a month. Probably decide where we will spend christmas and new year, when we’re out there.

So from Antigua we are going to head south, hoping to include the islands of Barbados and Grenada and obviously any places we like the look of along the way. We then will start to head north in aim for Miami as this is a place that me and Jimmy defo want to spend some time. On route to Miami, similarly we will stop at any other places we like the look of cutting the British virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, onto up to the Bahamas and  Miami.

Eventually the boat will have to return to Antigua so from Miami back down we haven’t really decided, maybe visit  some good spots we found along the way, who knows, anything could happen!!

We aim to track where we’ve been using, photos, vids,  short descriptions of the spots and posts about any other shannanigans along the way!

So..two dogs, one yacht, 5 months, Caribbean, loads of toys and a shit load of Rum !!