After visiting the Dermatologist, getting fuel and clearing out at customs we were ready to leave Grenada and head for Antigua.

Anchor up, main sail up, gennaker unfurled and we were making a steady 7 knots on course, and it was noon, so a great start. Wind angle and strength were great…., wish I could say the same about the sea state.

The waves were 1.5 meters, (5 feet), not bad, however the period between waves was only 5 seconds . Experienced sailors know you want the period in seconds to be twice the wave height in feet. Now we are becoming more experienced sailors 😞.

After a few hours we were starting to regret not taking our sea sick pills. I had to remain in our cabin with a large silver bowl for much of the first day. Cathie did an outstanding job at the helm, as I was in the recovery position down below.

After about 30 hours I started to feel better and was able to give Cathie some longer rest breaks.

After coming up one time to relieve Cathie from her watch, she let me know the lazy jack lines on the port side broke. This meant when it was time to drop the main sail, we couldn’t just release the halyard, but would have to figure something out… later, as we were still 20 hours from Antigua.

We hadn’t seen any vessels on our AIS display and wondered if we were the only crazies out in this chop? Or was our AIS not working? All of a sudden 40 hours out ships started to pop up which gave us confidence in our AIS system and kept us a little busier.

Around 52 hours after leaving Grenada (that’s 4pm Wednesday, if you were just skimming this article 😀) we were approaching Antigua and would have to start the “fun” job of dropping the main sail.

With the boom tied off, Cathie lowered the halyard in steps, while I strapped the sail to the boom, while being strapped in myself up on our cabin top. Not easy in the ruff seas and a 20 knot wind, but 30 minutes later it was securely down.

We pulled into one of our favorite anchorages about 5 pm. It was quite full, but we did find a small opening between boats to drop the hook.

Once anchored we had a “we’re here beer”, light meal and went to sleep.

Thursday morning we cleared into Antigua. Then we were free to relax and enjoy this beautiful location.

All three of us swam to shore to play on the beach then we walked to town to buy supplies to repair the lazy jack lines. We reconnected with our friends Chris and Alison and shared a delicious Mexican meal. After a day of boat chores we went on a scenic hike.

Can you spot Catnip?

This may help.

Despite the tuff 300 Nm. sail from Grenada, we certainly are enjoying Antigua. It feels like summer, the temperatures have dropped some and so has the humidity. There’s lots of boats coming and going, Super yachts, huge Monohaul sailing ships, and several catamarans. This afternoon on our way back from Nelson’s Dockyards we went by a catamaran with a Canadian flag. Pulled our dingy over and had a nice chat with five fine fellow Canadians. One couple lives in Powell River, that was a surprise. We had a nice visit and exchanged adventure travel stories.

Apparently,…it’s nice inside as well…However, I wasn’t able to confirm.

Sleek, long and tall. I’ll bet it sails well too.

Thanks for reading,

Catnip crew.