Caribbean finale
Docked in a marina and packing to go home again. The last week of sailing was a lot of things, but first: I (finally, some of you will think) realized that the photos I’ve added to my posts haven’t shown up! After some messaging with Squarespace, they figured out and fixed some code issues on my site so now (hopefully) all the photos I’ve added over the years are finally there! And a story I forgot to share in the earlier posts: we heard a Pan Pan (emergency broadcast) on the radio from the local coast guard as we were sailing up to Guadeloupe, about a catamaran drifting out to sea with a dog locked onboard, and with description of the boat and request to keep a look out and report any sightings. I was very worried about this dog and tried to find out about the boat on Google, to no avail. When we were driving around in Deshantes two nights later (when we had to leave the buoy and go out and anchor) we drove by a boat that matched the description of the drifting boat, and on deck I saw a woman with a dog in her lap. I yelled and asked if their boat was the one that I’d heard about and it was! And we both had a remote emotional yelling moment how great it was that she was reunited with her dog! Can you imagine the stress of heading back to your boat and realizing it’s not there - stressful enough!! But then to have your beloved pet trapped onboard!!
Oh and update about our friends on Leopard 3
Back to Arkyla: after lovely Barbuda, we sailed down to Nevis under parasailor all day (I know I already said this - just had to say it again 🤣). We stayed there a day hoping to climb the volcano, but found out that Poseidon wasn’t done interfering: not only is it a very intense climb (ropes required), but as it had been raining a lot lately, it would be incredibly slippery and muddy. And as it was covered in clouds: so no view.
So we did a lower climb that was still strenuous enough (you don’t get a lot of cardio done on a sail boat 😳) and then I dragged the Englishman (James) to the house where Alexander Hamilton was born, and made him listen to my favorite songs (from the musical). Went as well as you would suspect😉
Next day we had a great sail to Statia, where all forecasts and witchcraft had said it wouldn’t be too rolly. Ha! It was insane! James even wondered if we should leave right away. But we were sleep deprived as it was, and we’d have to drift around in heavy weather for quite a few hours to wait for daylight the next morning at our next destination so we decided to hang in there one night. Statia was incredibly small but had a cute Dutch history vibe. But for sure not worth it. Not sure what the cruising guide and apps were thinking…? (Its claim to fame is, as it turns out, is as an oil storage hub for the Caribbean. Crazy getting in and out between tankers and tugboats and mooring balls the size of Arkyla trailing floating lines of several hundred feet!). Anyway, we got no sleep.
At first light we sailed up to Anguilla. Quite a few squalls on the way - felt like when we were sailing in from the Atlantic crossing with constant squall prep. And quite a few naps in-between. After clearing in we went to to Elvis’ bar and drank and ate too much, and exchanged all sorts of stories (like sinking dive boats!), military services, baldness, who brings and leaves old license plates to bars like Elvis’ etc, with a group of Americans that have come here at least once a year for a month for 33 years!! I had less to contribute to some of those topics…😉. We hung around Anguilla for a couple of days to catch up on boring admin and relax a bit, then headed to here: St Martin. It’s from here Arkyla will cross back to Europe. Without me but with two friends of mine as crew. Very very jealous! But I have some exciting work waiting at home. More on that in next post!