Antigua to St. Martin

5th March

Alex and Martin

We spent the next couple of days in Antigua, I met up with Eifion my old boss from the lakes. He is sailing a tall ship called Tenacious from Antigua to Bermuda. We had a good look around the ship, it made us realise we should be able to remember what all the ropes on our boat do, as they have hundreds, and they don't even have labels on them. We then set off for St. Martin so that Martin our skipper could find a stewardess for when his boss arrives. The journey to St. Martin was very odd. The first day was dead calm and we motored all the way to Nevis, the next day was a short day to St. Kits and then a real sailing day up to St. Martin, Jo vomited and we all got covered in water as we sped across the sea to the yachting mecca that is St Martin.

Clare

Nevis and Saint Kits are very different to the other islands we've been to. They are more like American fishing towns then the paradise islands we had been to. When we were in the police station in Nevis, we laughed at the named and shamed notice board where names and drivingoffencess were written on a chalk board for everybody to see. However we did think you would need a huge chalk board back in the UK. We only went ashore briefly in St. Kits for a quick look round the main town Bastere. It was just a small working town not that exciting.

We left for the next day for St. Martin, this was out longest sailing day so far and the pressure was on to make it by 5.30 as the road bridge to the marina only opens 3 times a day. The island of St. Martin is half Dutch, half French and well developed and a bit touristy. The marina was the obviously the playground of the rich and wealthy. Although you are very well catered for you could have been in the south of France, or America. The 'best beach this side of the island' failed to impress our now high standards. Although the colour of the water was amazing there was loads of litter on the beach.

English Harbour, Antigua

Martin had success finding his stewardess. Today has been another day of cleaning and polishing, tomorrow we plan to hire a car and then we are going to leave for the British Virgin Islands. We plan to sail over night on Sat, should be an experience!

Named and Shamed

The honeymooners