Sailing Stories from Antigua

Sitting in the cockpit of S/V ILEANA amongst the megayachts as the sun sets reminds me of absolutely nothing experienced in my former life as a surgeon. It is a warm evening with a rare westerly breeze blowing gently from the stern. The biggest worry is trying to decide whether it is better to wander over to the Antigua Yacht Club to the megayacht party and listen to the band, or to stay put on our comfortable cushioned cockpit and listen to the music floating across the wharf while playing backgammon. My wife Ileana and I had just returned from visiting Jeff and Melissa on S/V Tribute, a beautiful 50 foot HH catamaran. We sat in their expansive boat and told sailing stories.

This week there is a Charter Boat Meeting in Antigua where charter booking agents get an opportunity to check out the beautiful megayachts that are available for charter. Some of the bigger ones rent for $1.2 million per week……slightly out of my budget, but something to keep in mind if my situation ever changes…. S/V ILEANA stands out as one of the smallest boats in Falmouth Harbour and definitely not for charter….

Melissa and Jeff in S/V Tribute had the perfect venue to share sailing stories. Edwin recounted having a brushing with a catamaran while at anchor the night before. For some reason, the skipper of the catamaran decided to improve his positioning because the winds were changing and ended up smashing into Edwin’s boat at 12:30 in the morning. No damage was done but it’s always shocking when these bumps occur in the middle of the night.

Jeff talked about an encounter he had with a megayacht launch a day or two earlier that was being driven by an inexperienced crew and smashed into him causing some paint damage to his boat. The paint needs to come from China to match the boat perfectly and the cost will probably be about $3000. He discussed how he’s having difficulty getting the skipper of the mega yacht to acknowledge his emails….

I shared a story about how Edwin was able to salvage my $13,000 watermaker. It had stopped making water halfway across the trip south to Antigua. I explained that at one point I had to stop the boat so we could jump into the ocean to wash off the grime and sweat. (My crew later told that they were having concerns about the state of my mental health when they witnessed a bald naked senior citizen jumping off a sailboat 800 miles from the closest land…..) I slyly suggested that Edwin come over for a beer, and after he got comfortable and relaxed, before he knew it, he found himself wedged under the settee in the main salon making adjustments. After a few minutes it was all over with the water maker pumping out 1 liter a minute of pure filtered water.

Lee recounts a problem he experienced while at anchor earlier on that morning. A cable wrapped around his rudder ealier that was preventing him from moving his boat. The Antiguans had installed a new swimming area off of pigeon beach and cabled it off, but in the shifting winds, his boat was stuck, wrapped around the cable. He described in colourful detail how he was able to salvage the situation with minimal damage.

We talked about the best places to visit from Antigua, whether to sail south to Guadeloupe or north to Saint Barts and St. Martin. There was dissenting opinions as to whether it’s worthwhile to visit St. Lucia and Bequai. There was general agreement that the best place to buy liquor was in St. Martin, (the French side not the Dutch side).

We all bragged about how fast our respective boats are. Jeff and Melissa discussed their strategy with Melissa wanting to slow the boat down and Jeff wanting to maximize the speed so they would be first to arrive in Antigua. Lee in his S/V Allegro pointed out that although they arrived after Jeff and Melissa and their deluxe carbon fibre catamaran, they were actually faster because they had a more favorable rating. Edwin told the story about how he had to divert to Bermuda while underway to Antigua to get medical attention for one of his crew who went out of his mind while at sea in the huge waves. The psychological deterioration of this unfortunate crew began shorty after leaving Hampton Virginia.

Despite all our stories and adversities, we were in complete agreement that there was nowhere else on earth we would rather be at this moment. None of us could say with certainty which anchorage we were going to head for or when, or which direction we would be heading, and none of us knew when we would all meet again. We did know that we are all in for a lifetime of adventure over the next few months and there was happiness and satisfaction that we were all in a good place.