Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Instead of a very long 24 hour stretch, I opted to break it up and do a day trip with arrival at dusk at Nevis, then onwards to the BVI from there. I left late, going ashore to check email and buy some groceries before getting the dinghy aboard and departing Antigua. The wind was strong, but my course was almost directly downwind so I opted to tack downwind and detour past the island of Redonda. This put the significant swell partly abeam and occasionally Zanshin I would roll deeply in the 2-3 meter waves and I couldn't use the full genoa and didn't have any luck setting the genoa boom - but I'll have to do that for the next 130 mile stretch.
Redonda was impressive, I circled it and couldn't detect any access at all and don't understand how a commercial mining operation could have gotten equipment and personnel up and phosphates down; plus there were no tailing visible. I'll have to Google that some time to see how it was done.
The shallow waters between Redonda and Nevis were once again a veritable nest of lobster pots and fish floats; I kept a sharp lookout and twice had to run back to the helm in order to switch off the autopilot and narrowly avoid entangling Zanshin I in them.
The Nevis anchorage was nice until the wee hours of the next day, when a swell kicked around the island and the winds changed enough to let the boat roll; but it is still an unaccountably protected anchorage for one that looks like it is exposed to all seas.
 Go under the raised pedestrian bridge and then right and you are at the dock of the Antigua Yacht Club in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua.
[17°0'42.96"N 61°46'11.48"W ] | | Antigua Yacht Club | |
 dinghying into the docks at Falmouth Harbour in Antigua. This dock often has some amazing megayachts alongside
[17°0'44.15"N 61°46'15.5"W (facing SE)] | | Falmouth Docks | |
 These docks are filled from end to end during the winter sailing season, but once summer approaches they empty out very quickly.
[17°0'41.63"N 61°46'12.41"W (facing N)] | | Falmouth in the off-season | |
 Coming into Falmouth
| | Coming into Falmouth | |
 Sailing downwind towards the kingdom of Redonda between Antigua and Nevis.
[16°56'25.71"N 62°18'46.77"W (facing W)] | | Approaching Redonda | |
 Coming up on the stark coastline and steep cliffs of the island kingdom's SW side.
[16°55'48.17"N 62°20'4.64"W (facing NW)] | | Redonda coastline | |
 This is the only structure on the uninhabited island, and thus marks the center of downtown in the big city.
[16°55'50.24"N 62°20'40.17"W (facing N)] | | Redonda city | |
 Coming around to the west side of Redonda one can see that there isn't much of an anchorage there at all.
[16°56'8.56"N 62°21'4.89"W (facing NE)] | | Redonda cliffs | |
 Approaching the Nevis coast
| | Approaching the Nevis coast | |
 Heavy clouds obscure the mountaintop on St. Kitts.
[17°11'38.15"N 62°41'14.28"W (facing SE)] | | Clouds over St. Kitts | |
 The set in the foreground are easy to see, but the one in the back it tougher and the two floats have a big separation. I hate those things...
| | Fish pots | |
 Open water fish traps
| | Open water fish traps | |
