| Early Sunday morning we were able to see the loom from the lights in Antigua, and when the sun rose a few hours later we could see the island. It was a wonderful feeling. We jibed two more times before finally dropping our anchor in English Harbor on January 25, 21 days and 2 hours after our departure from La Gomera in the Canaries. In all, we had traveled 2823 nautical miles, sailing an extra 123 miles as a result of not being able to sail along our intended route. During the passage we had had very few ship contacts and generally enjoyed a � to 1 knot favorable current, either from the equatorial current or the Canaries Current. During the crossing our boat took a lot of punishment but fared well, although some items on the boat will have to be repaired or replaced. With our arrival, we set our clocks back 4 hours to Atlantic Standard Time and looked forward to our first full night of uninterrupted sleep in 21 days. |
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| After spending time in Antigua, our plan is to sail south enjoying some of the southern Caribbean islands before arriving in Trinidad on April 15. We will be flying home on May 1 for our younger son�s graduation from the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg. Our plan is to return to Trinidad on November 1 and start sailing the boat northward through the eastern Caribbean islands, arriving back in Florida in May 2010. _____________________________________________ Epilog: We spent 3 weeks in English Harbor, Antigua. We were able to repair our 20 year old self-steering vane. We replaced our batteries as they were finally showing their age. Through testing we have diagnosed that it appears that the leak in our fuel tank is due to a broken welded seam on the port side. When anchored and the tank is filled to only 25 gallons it doesn�t leak, but when filled to 30 gallons the diesel seeps through. Naturally we�ll have to have less fuel in the tank when heeled over while sailing. As there is plenty of wind in the eastern Caribbean and the distance between islands is not much, our present plan is to carry extra jerry jugs and wait until we bring the boat back to Florida in May 2010 to replace the fuel tank. |
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| Landfall Antigua |
| English Harbor, Antigua |
| Kuhela |