Florida to Antigua

Hi everyone

To see our first post, just click on "Blog Archive" "April" on the right and scroll down...

We left from Marathon in the Florida Keys with our two crew Barry and Ryan. Punching through the rough Gulf Stream north towards the Bahamas was hard work, but Quintessence did great. Plenty of traffic to see going through the Providence Channels south of Grand Abaco; cruise ships, tankers, boats being towed. We headed East out in to the Atlantic until we reached 65 degrees longitude and then headed South towards Antigua. On the way we caught 3 good size mahi-mahi (also called Dorado) with our fishing rods trolling off the back of the boat. So plenty of lovely fresh fish to keep us going. We tuned in to a frequency on our SSB radio every day where a great guy gives weather and routing information for small boats in the Atlantic. So that was a great help and gave us advance warning of frontal systems coming in and wind changes.

We sailed past Barbuda in the moonlight - at least we hoped it was Barbuda if our navigation after 1600 miles could still be relied upon. Daylight was just breaking as we rounded the southern end of Antigua, heading for Falmouth Harbour. Very exciting to see land up close after 12 days at sea. As we came in to the harbour, the beautiful scent of jasmine wafted over us. Fantastic. We found a spot and anchored up. We were worried that finding a spot might be dificult as it is Antigua Classic race week. But we had no problem. So we watched all the beautiful old wooden racing yachts go out with their huge crews, working the boats ready to start the races.

We have work to do on our boat after the long passage, maintenance never stops it seems. We are enjoying Antigua. The weather of course is wonderful, even the occasional tropical rainstorm. The people great, food and rum cocktails very good. Antigua Race Week proper starts soon, so more partying and hard sailing on the island. We will be sitting in our cockpit with a beer watching them all hard at work. We have not started exploring yet, mostly recovering from the trip and fixing the boat. But when Richards family come over in a few days time, we will do some exploring and short sails to anchorages around the island.

Lots of love to everyone. Will post more pics soon!
xxx
We celebrated St Paddy's day in style in the Dry Tortugas!

Hi Everyone

*** We had to start again with a new blogsite - technical issues! ***

Thanks for all your comments so far. please do keep them coming, it's great to read them when we get to dry land.
Watch this space for updates and pictures when we get to land and free wifi!!

The Dry Tortugas were beautiful. The big fort from the 19thc was fascinating, the swimming and snorkelling great. At one point we had 4 GIANT groupers resting under our boat. Bigger than me and twice as ugly. Ryan discovered them when he jumped off the boat, took one look at them and climbed straight back on the boat again SO fast. We assumed they were harmless, but a fisherman told us today they will go for you as they will eat anything – including students from Colorado. So it was a good job he got out. A fishing boat anchored up next to us one evening and we hoped they might ask us if we had some beer to swop for some of their fish, which we had been told was the norm. We ended up sending the dinghy out to them and asking. They were really nice and gave us some fresh grouper and a deep water fish called tahoe. I cooked them up in breadcrumbs and lemon. The rest has gone in the freezer.

So we arrived in Marathon, 50 miles along the Florida Keys from Key West. Key West was fun, lots of partying and good food. We had a perfect 20 knots of wind for the day trip to Marathon, unfortunately it was right on our bow. We tried tacking but were getting nowhere fast so we had to stick the engine on to get there before nightfall. We arrived at the anchorage and dropped the hook. Once we had showered we head off in the dinghy into Marathon harbour to find somewhere for dinner. Unfortunately the route we picked to go in was a whole lot shallower than we expected and we ran aground, even though we only draw about 2’! So Richard and Ryan (who were the only ones in shorts) had to get out and drag us through the sand and mud to find the channel. They only sank down to their waists a few times. The channel it turned out was very narrow and not lit! Our torch was not powerful enough and we spent ages trying to find some deeper water. Eventually we made it out and could see the funny side of it. We got some funny looks from a passing fisherman, but we just waved and smiled and pretended we meant to be there.
Soon after arrival the heads overflowed and the smell and mess were not pretty. So the cruising lifestyle is not all glamour that’s for sure!
Some friends we made in Florida on the boat next to us arrived in Marathon to settle into their boat with 2 cats and a parrot. Lobster season ends this week so all six of us (including Barry and Ryan our crew) went out bug huntin’ as they call it here. Snorkelling off our dinghies was fun and eventually we found some lobster holes. But they were too small and so not legal for us to take. Believe it or not, you use a tickling stick underneath their bellies to guide them out of their holes and into your net. The next day we went to a hog roast overlooking Boot Key Harbour and all the lovely boats and houses. We are busy working on the boat and provisioning for the long trip down to the Virgin Islands – the Caribbean proper!

We have also been to a beautiful beach here, and have been out on a fishermans boat this week to learn how to fish off the back of the boat while she is sailing along, called “trolling”. Randy very kindly took us out in some rough water and we caught 10 dolphin between us (not dolphin as we know it, they are also known as mahi-mahi). We are are hopefully going to catch ourselves some dinners on route. Afterwards we relaxed in the pool at Randy's beautiful home and looked out over the water drinkiing cocktails. We had some mahi-mahi for dinner and fished off his dock. I managed to hook and bring in a nurse shark! Of course we let her go. Richard turned out to be the snapper king, and caught 5 of them. We had them for dinner last night - DE-LICIOUS.

We have had a couple of losses to the sea – and one successful retrieval! One of our crew lost an oar off the dinghy when they ran out of gas and it took a LONG time against the tide for them to row back to the boat with one oar. Richard dropped the key to the dinghy padlock into the marina next to our friends boat and luckily he had a huge magnet on a rope which I used to fish for the key. It only took about 30 seconds to find as I luckily saw exactly where it dropped in.
This morning I tied off our new hammock to the mast and the pulpit – very comfortable. I think we will all be fighting to relax in it.

This is our last chance to access the internet for maybe 10 days to 2 weeks, as we are heading out to the Atlantic and South to the Virgin islands or Antigua - we haven't quite decided yet!
Lots of love to all
Sarah and Richard

Some pictures from our time in Florida getting the boat ready...