The Yachting Year 2018

100 | THE YACHTING YEAR 2018

tired and then we would swap over. We did this

throughout the night as we passed by the islands of Saba

and St Eustacia, with Antigua and St Barths in the

distance.  e island’s lights gave a respite from the

complete blackness of the night, as did the giant cruise

ships as they passed close by. We had intended on treating

ourselves to a few days in Saba as we had heard great

things about the diving there but with the squally

conditions, strong winds and limited moorings on the

island, we felt that beating to windward was too much.

STUNNING BACKDROP

It seemed like it was never going to end, but with the

sunrise came the end of the storm. We couldn’t quite

believe that there was no indication of what was out there

when we checked the weather. It was great to see the

islands of St Kitts and Nevis rising out of the gloom. We

decided to go to the smaller of the two islands and moored

o the beach at Charlestown, the capital of Nevis, which

has one of the most beautiful backdrops in the Caribbean.

 e dormant stratovolcano of Nevis Peak, a verdant green

cone, dominates the skyline and is the highest point on the

island.  e government has put down a number of

moorings o Pinney’s Beach. We checked in with no

di culties and took a look around the old town.

Charlestown holds claim that Alexander Hamilton, one of

the founding fathers, was born here, as was Fanny Nelson,

the wife of Admiral Lord Nelson.

A er our long day and night at sea we spent the

a ernoon on the beach, relaxing and dozing. We had

heard about a beach bar called Sunshine’s, which makes a

mean cocktail, the Killer Bee.  e concoction is a well-

kept secret, but needless to say there was some rum in

there somewhere and a er two of them along with our

long arduous sail, we slept like babies.

We were up early, with slight headaches, to continue

down to the French island of Guadeloupe 70nm away.  e

breeze was a steady 20 knots and the islands gave some

protection from the rollers of the Atlantic.

A er leaving Nevis we could see in the near distance the

island of Monserrat with its plume of volcanic smoke and

ash still rising into the sky a er the 2010 eruption.

Between 1995 and 2000, two thirds of the island’s

population was forced to evacuate.  e main town of

Plymouth, the docks and airport were all in the exclusion

zone. Even from a few miles’ distance from the shore the

lava  ows can still be clearly seen and the devastation that

the volcano has caused is evident on much of the island.

 ere was a mystical feel to the island as the volcano’s

smoke shrouded the landscape. Due to the volcanic action

the charts are no longer accurate and it is advised that you

sail a good distance away from the shoreline.

SHORT LEAPS

We anchored in the bay at Deshaies, which has good

holding but has become more di cult over time as there

are more mooring buoys in place. We went to the dinghy

dock in the centre of town and went to locate the clearance

o ce. As with other French islands the clearance

procedure is done through a computer system.  e store

Le Pelican” has a computer to clear in and out at a cost of

€4. It is a brightly coloured building located on the ocean

side of the main street half way between the dinghy dock

and the main dock.  e real treat here were the patisseries

Saint Lucia

Martinique

St Eustacia

Antigua

St Barth’s

St KittsNevis

Guadeloupe

Montserrat

Dominica

Tortola

BVI

Spanish Town

Saba

NORTH

AMERICA

SOUTH

AMERICA

CARIBBEAN

Papagaya

Choate 40 IOR

One tonner

LOA

39ft 8in (12.1m)

Beam

12ft 16in (3.8m)

Draught

7ft (2.1m)

Year built

1999

stop was at Norman’s Cay which was a two-hour sail from

Tortola. It was quite a squally day so what we thought may

be a nice relaxing sail a er our heavy weather from the US

actually became a rather more exciting sail than

anticipated. Norman’s Cay is apparently the location for

Treasure Island and even though no treasure was located

on our trip ashore we did  nd some cocktails as the

cocktail cannon went o at 4pm.

We found setting anchor in the BVI’s was more trouble

than expected, as the drop o from the islands is so deep,

but with the cost of mooring buoys being $30 per night,

this was not a problem. A er choosing our mooring, at

some point in the evening a friendly ‘harbour master’

would come out and collect the necessary fees.

 e following day we took a three-hour sail to Cooper’s

Cay – and were hit by a rogue wave. As we stood there

drenched in our swimwear we felt glad that the warm rays

of the sun would dry us o and there would be no need to

dig out the wet weather gear. Here we paddleboarded (our

 rst attempt), sunbathed and enjoyed the odd Painkiller

cocktail as the cannon  red again 4pm.

I was to  nd out more about the infamous Painkiller as

we explored the island of Marina Cay the following day.

 is blend of rum, pineapple juice, coconut cream and

orange juice, with a generous amount of nutmeg, might

sound unpleasant, but is in fact rather tasty.  e Pusser’s

Restaurant on Marina Cay makes a great Painkiller.

We stocked up our supplies in Spanish Town and le

that night from a mooring o the Bitter End Yacht Club in

Vigin Gorda. Because we were leaving under the cover of

darkness we le through the main channel, unsure that we

would have the draught to make it through the cut. As we

passed Richard Branson’s Necker Island, the breeze was

steady, but we could see in the distance there were quite a

few low lying clouds peppering the horizon and watching

them closely we decided to reef in the main.  e wind

began to pick up and a er two hours the black clouds were

above us and the rain began to fall. We were hoping that it

was just a squall, but the rain continued to fall and the

wind continued to blow stronger.

We had previously had a watch system, but with just the

two of us we decided to do a watch until we became too

OPPOSITE

CLOCKWISE: Iconic

view of Les Anses-

d’Arlet, a town and

commune in

Martinique; one of

many landings in the

British Virgin Islands;

sundowners at

Norman Island; Clear

waters for diving;

telephone box at

Marina Cay Soper’s

Hole, with its marina

at Tortola’s West

End, has checking-in

facilies

TYY4 Caribbean.indd 100 04/12/2017 17:06