Log 43T Anegada to Anguilla

Written at: Sunshine Beach, Nevis, June 20, 2007

After dropping off Michael and Sarah at the airport and returning to Christmas Cove on St. James Island, we dinghied over to Red Hook Bay to make a doctor’s appointment (for only two days hence) to check a growth I had for six weeks on my left shoulder. The dermatologist diagnosed it as a "basal cell carcinoma", and recommended cryogenic removal as opposed to a surgical procedure. That was fine with me and he did two 30 second bursts with his cryogenic wand, and sent me off with a band-aid and instructions to have the site evaluated one and three months later, which we could have done in Grenada. If we had any concerns, he advised us to send him digital pictures of the area. As I had a "melanoma in situ" removed surgically eleven years ago, I felt relieved that this was not as serious, and had been dealt with early. My mortality is on my mind as I have had not only this contact with cancer, but have had angina treated with angioplasty and a stent ten years ago, plus having high blood pressure and cholesterol, hopefully under control with medication. So, I am thankful that I am able to realize my dreams and sail the world, and appreciate each day, week, year, and hopefully decade that I can continue to cruise and enjoy life.

June 2nd, we left Christmas Cove and headed the 10 miles over to Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke to check in and out of the B.V.I. That evening, I treated Judy to the enjoyable buffet at Foxy’s. I still enjoy the Pain Killer rum drink they make. There were many charter yachts there, as this is a favourite stop for a swim and supper at Foxy’s. Most charterers on a one or two week holiday enjoy eating out at local restaurants every night as opposed to eating on board. We cannot afford such, and so the occasional meal at a local restaurant is a treat. When we ordered wine with our meal, one of the charter groups picked up the tab for it, as that afternoon, after watching them rowing towards shore, I had given them a couple of gallons of gas for their outboard.

Next morning we motor-sailed the 14 miles over to Lee Bay, one of our favourite quiet anchorages in preparation for the 19 mile passage up to Anegada the day after. While in Lee Bay, we had Kyle and Mike (fellow Canadians from the Georgian Bay area of Lake Huron) from Meggie, an attractive but small (30 foot) wooden Bermuda yawl, over for drinks. They knew several people we knew. Small world.

We were actually able to sail half the distance to Anegada. Other than wanting to see this B.V.I. island, it took us a bit north, for a better angle of attack into the easterly winds to head southeast to Anguilla. The entry into the main harbour is shoal infested, as is most of the entire island. There are nice diagrams of entry buoys in our pilot, but a few were missing, causing some concern. However. Judy had our waypoints entered into the GPS, and with those reference points plus the few buoys that were visible, we entered the large sheltered (by shoals) harbour. As we were approaching the entrance, we were overtaken by a larger catamaran that went ahead of us. I didn’t like the angle of his approach, and stayed with our own evaluation of the entrance. About half way in we saw him slow and start to turn. He seemed uncertain of his position, and did a 360 degree turn, coming astern of us, to let us lead the way in. (The best minesweeper is the boat ahead of you.) Because the island is surrounded by shoals, many charter companies put Anegada out of bounds to their customers, and rightly so.

The bay we anchored in had only 10 feet of water throughout, and the edges of shoals were not marked. However we had good holding for our anchor (18 43.37N, 064 23.18W), although most of the charter boats (there were more than thirty boats in the anchorage, very few not charter boats) picked up mooring buoys at $25.00 a night. The anchorage was quite windy as it was exposed to the east and south, and the winds blew right across at full strength (15 to 25 knots), but the wave action was minimal due to the surrounding shoals. For us windy anchorages mean free power with our wind generator pumping out six to ten amps in such wind.

Anegada, in contrast to the verdant mountainous volcanic islands of the rest of the B.V.I., is a low lying coral and limestone island only 28 feet above sea level at its highest point. It is 11 miles long, and perhaps two wide at its widest. The treacherous Horseshoe Reef extends another 10 miles southeast of the island, and has claimed over 300 wrecks. Things are expensive on this remote island. We did not go to a local bar\restaurant for lobster as a lobster meal cost $48.00 U.S. The fishermen would not sell lobsters or fish to cruisers as all their catches were committed to the restaurants. 

We rented a motor scooter for a day, costing $61.00 U.S. and toured the island, stopping at Lobloly Bay for some extremely good snorkeling off the sandy beach. In addition to seeing live conch, a sting ray wafting through the shallows, and a four foot barracuda guarding its overhanging ledge, we saw many colourful tropical fish feeding in the coral chasms between the irregular lines of shoals. On we motored to follow a rough trail along the large salt ponds, stopping to try, unsuccessfully, to catch sight of the Pink Flamingo, a bird that has been reintroduced to the island’s wildlife. We saw many century trees in bloom (They only bloom once in about a 28 year period.), and several long-horned cattle meandering on and alongside the road.

When we arrived in Settlement, the only town on the island, our scooter had a flat tire. We called the agent, who came out to fix it while we had lunch at Dotsy’s bakery.

We donated the set of three children’s books that Judy’s Dad has written on prehistory to the local library.  We put about 50 kilometres on the scooter in our circumnavigation of the island; less than a third of the roads are paved, and of course they drive on the left. However, we saw only three or four other vehicles on our trip, not counting while we were in Settlement. The island has a good "laid back" atmosphere, with sandy beaches, good diving and snorkeling, and other water sports such as sea kayaking and para surfing. There are no mega resorts, but several smaller guest cabins and beach side hotels available for tourists.

Since Anguilla, our next destination, was 86 miles away, we made a late afternoon departure for an overnight passage to arrive in daylight. We rounded the end of Horseshoe Reef just after sunset and sailed for a few hours before having to motorsail into the force 5 easterly wind on a magnetic course of 120. We made good time, arriving after an 18 hour passage to anchor in Road Bay (18 12.09N, 063 05.58W) by 1230.

Anguilla is an independent territory linked to the U.K. In 1967 the British Colonial Office lumped Anguilla in with St. Kitts and Nevis as part of an independent state, but such was not in to be as Anguilla had a type of rebellion that resulted in Anguilla being a separate autonomous territory administered by Great Britain. It is a 12 mile long island with a population of about 7000 relying mainly on tourism. We wandered the powder white sand beach of Road Bay and the shores of the salt pond behind, noting especially the active bird life of long legged stilts and snowy white egrets. There were several beach bars and a few Anguilla sailboats along the beach. Once around the beach and salt pond was enough and we left next day at noon for the 13 mile passage over to the French section of St. Martin at Marigot Bay.

 

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