It was always my intention to write a blog, given the favorable feedback from folks on the Atlantic crossing; however, I never really got started with it. I think the combination of getting Anna and Eva on board and managing an ongoing list of boat issues got in the way. Transitioning from a life on land to living on a boat and cruising unknown waters was just enormous, something I completely underestimated! So, now we have finally got our blog set up, and I’m going to summarize our first 6 months and capture Part 2 of our journey in real-time.
We all moved aboard Nahla on December 19th, 2022, arriving at Port Louis Marina where she had been moored for a month after her crossing from South Africa. We had decided to get some help in the first few weeks and employed Mark, an RYA Yachtmaster instructor, to help Anna with her boat handling skills and both of us on how to manage Nahla with just the two of us as a crew – myself as Captain and Anna as Admiral!
Christmas was spent anchored on the south coast of Grenada with Christmas lunch at The Phare Bleu resort. It felt like a very different Christmas from those spent in England, but Eva was happy as Father Christmas found the boat, and Christmas lunch was followed by games in the pool!
We want to make the most of the places we visit, and in Grenada, we headed inland to a Cocoa plantation and chocolate factory. We had a great tour and came back with extended knowledge of how chocolate was made – this became Eva’s first project.
From Grenada, we headed North through the Grenadines to Bequia, where we hung out for a few days, enjoying the markets, restaurants, and lovely beaches before heading further North to Martinique. A big learning for me was the bureaucracy involved in checking in and checking out of countries, and the Caribbean has a lot of countries! The worst were the originally British Islands, which had many forms to fill out and charged high fees for the privilege of doing so – Bequia was the worst! I learned fast to take a deep breath and accept it would take as long as it would take, sometimes up to 3 hours!
We met another Balance catamaran in Bequia – Sage a 442. They were doing the same trip North and had decided to do it overnight, leaving around 5 pm in the evening with a view to arrive the next morning. We thought this was a great idea, as we could get Eva to bed and sail through the night whilst she slept, arriving around breakfast time. It was a 100 nautical mile passage, and we left Bequia around 5.30 pm, with about 15 knots of wind on the beam. The wind gradually developed to around 20 knots, and we were flying! At about 2 am, Anna finished her watch and handed over to me with the lights of Martinique clearly visible. I spent the next 4 hours slowing Nahla down to avoid arriving in the dark; we eventually dropped the anchor at first light.
We loved the French islands, starting with the check-in procedure! A quick trip to a local store, 10 minutes on a computer, and 10 Euros later, and it was all done! Then off to the boulangerie for baguettes and croissants and a decent coffee – wonderful! Martinique provided great exploring and a lot of cultural history. We visited the Banana museum, Rum distillery, and a number of beautiful gardens up in the mountains. I gave Eva an old pocket digital camera, and this became a real winner as she loved photographing the scenery around her. The anchorages were beautiful, and away from the beaten track, we had some great snorkeling and spotted many turtles. Our final anchorage in Martinique was at Saint Pierre, famous for its volcano that destroyed the city and close to all its 29,000 inhabitants in 1902.
From Martinique, we headed to Dominica and stayed as recommended by the cruising guides in Portsmouth bay. We were met a few miles out by the local boat boys; they essentially offered to help with mooring our boat and arranging any trips we wanted on the island. Well organized, it was close to a “Mafia protection racket” – by signing up for a trip, your boat and dinghy were looked after for you – part of cruising is about embracing the local economy, and this is how it worked in Dominica, like it or not. To be fair, the tour we had to visit the interior of the island was excellent, and our guide led us on some great hikes through the rainforests, pointing out a massive array of flora and fauna.
From Dominica, we had a fabulous sail in flat water to the Iles de Saintes. When the weather is good, I like to mix up the home schooling routine, often choosing to do my lessons on the trampoline, listening to the water rushing by. The Iles de Saintes were one of our favorite spots, an archipelago of three mountainous islands with a rich history. We sailed in mid-morning and fortuitously found a mooring ball free under the Pain du Sucre offering great protection from the prevailing winds. Here we met up with a number of kids’ boats and joined in the daily routine: lessons in the mornings and then adventures in the afternoon: hiking to the top of Le Chameau, visiting Fort Napoleon, games on the beach, or snorkeling in the bays. It was great for Eva to mix with such a diverse bunch of kids from Canada, South Africa, the UK, & USA. We hung out for over a week just enjoying the location and the company, but we needed to move on as we had family arriving in Antigua to see us.
We had a short but windy passage to Guadeloupe and managed to break one of our snap shackles on the mainsheet. I was doing running repairs in 25 knots of wind as Anna steered Nahla North to Guadeloupe. Once we got there and anchored up, we had a fabulous week or so touring the island, visiting an amazing zoo and some incredible rainforests. The highlight for us, however, was Pigeon Island and the Jacques Cousteau Marine park. We anchored about 4 miles away, but each morning we would get up early, put our wetsuits on, and head off in the dinghy to Pigeon Island. We then had the whole place to ourselves, as any tour boats would not arrive until after 9 am. The snorkeling was great, and Eva having started from the beach in Grenada snorkeling in 6 ft of water was now jumping off the dinghy and snorkeling with the two of us over the coral in deep water. She loved it, and we returned a number of times to a variety of dive spots.
We moved North up the coast of Guadeloupe to Deshaies to stage for the 40 Nm sail to Antigua. The weather had been unseasonably windy the past week, so the harbor in Deshaies was busy! We managed to squeeze Nahla into a spot and dropped the hook ready for the next day when we had a weather window to make the trip to Antigua. The next morning, we woke to find the anchorage had emptied, obviously everyone else was heading North too ! As we pulled out of the anchorage and looked North we saw sails flying into the distance . We raised our sails and headed North on a tight reach in 15 knots of true wind . Nahla was flying and as the day wore on we had reeled in all of the yachts and arrived in Falmouth Harbor Antigua at the had of the pack . Boy it’s a good feeling !