Dominica - Island Paradise and Johnny Depp

Dominica (pronounced Dom in eee ca, stress the eee) is the last island in the part of the Lessor Antilles that's know as the Leeward Islands. Tomorrow, Mar 17, 2015, when we leave here we'll cross the Dominica Channel and sail to Martinique, the first island of the Windwards. But back to Johnny Depp and Dominica right?

Rugged Coast of Dominica

Well for starters its where much of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Dead Man's Chest, was filmed. All the parts that show lush jungle, mountains and chasms were here. The parts with the white sand beaches were filmed in the Exumas, part of the Bahamas. Movie's, being magic, manage to squash lots of that together and make it look like its on one island. But while Dominica has lush rain forests it also has five active volcanoes so there are absolutely no white sand beaches. The beaches are the brownish to black sands that are a result of volcanic action. This is the loveliest and lushest island we've been to. Greenery erupts everywhere – huge trees with buttress roots the size of a small house, two story tall tree ferns, hanging vines that Tarzan would have loved, 140 species of ferns plus birds and butterflies. The roads are lined with colourful plants like crotons, ginger, heliconia, hibiscus, red and pink dracaena. It's as if the tropical greenhouse at Banting's Nursery ran wild.

Swinging Bridge and river crossing

45° up AND 45° sideways!
(Is it called hiking if you're crawling?)

 In our desire to experience all we can, we've done stuff I would NEVER EVER have imagined doing. We've crossed swinging bridges over deep chasms, we've climbed the ridge of a mountain to an overlook high, high, high above the harbour. We've hiked up and down mountains to four of the 7 waterfalls and crossed rivers clinging to rocks and fallen logs. We're saving the sulphur springs and boiling lake until our return next year! But, visiting Ti Tu Gorge we swam in a slot cavern to a waterfall, climbed through that waterfall to visit another waterfall. (You saw Orlando Boom and crew fall into this gorge and swim in this river when breaking out of the bone cage). We also had the fun of being rowed up Indian River, just like Capt Jack Sparrow and the crew of the Black Pearl, and saw the house of the witch. In real life it's nearly as mysterious, magical and beautiful as in the movie.

Witch's House

Indian River

Columbus visited this island in 1493 on his 2nd voyage, his first landing of the voyage; and, as he landed on a Sunday, he named it "dies Dominica" for the day of the week. When Columbus explained this island to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain he took a sheet of paper and crumbled it up to show the rugged peaks, deep valleys and gorges of the island. It's history like much of the Caribbean is tied to the wars of the European nations. For 100 years after its discovery it became the last home of the Carib indians who held on to it with a ferocity that kept the Spanish at bay. They live here to this day. While the vast majority of Dominicans are of African descent this is the one place where there is a sizeable population (about 3,000) of the pre-columbian natives that we call Caribs. in 1903 a special Carib Territory was set up for them by the British crown. Today most of them live here in 8 villages.

Carib's still make dugouts from the Gommier Tree

Gommier Tree

It was French small landholders from Guadeloupe and Martinique who first settled the Northern part of the island and started growing coffee and sugar. Eventually slaves were imported and sugar was planted and Dominica became a French colony. During the 7 Years War (French and Indian War to us Americans) Dominica was fought over as the English tried to stop the French from owning the 3 islands in the middle of the island chain. In 1763 when hostilities ceased Dominica was ceded to England and they established their own plantations overlaying the French culture with British overtones including a legislative assembly. Today while English is the official language of the island and every one speaks it, the locals speak to each other in a French creole patois.

An hour hike got us to this waterfall in Syndicate Forest

When Britain passed the Brown Privilege Bill many slaves from the French neighbouring islands fled to Dominica and by 1838 Dominica had the only legislative assembly in the British colonies to have elected a majority of African legislators. The planter class was not happy with this situation and eventually Dominica became a Crown Colony with direct rule from England. In the 20th Century as England shed it's colonial nature Dominica became the Commonwealth of Dominica on Nov 3, 1978.
Today it is still recovering from the effects of hurricanes and the collapse of the banana market in the 1990s. But the small farmers, often Rastafarians, have become the vegetable source to all the other Leeward islands. We've been eating Dominica produce since we arrived in St. Martin.

Rastafarian Farms produce a plethora of organic fruits and vegetables

All locally grown!

 Dominica depends on tourism. It is not an easy island to visit, so more than most other islands, it has encouraged the cruising sailors to come. About 10 years ago Dominica decided to refurbish its image and make the island attractive to boaters by establishing a simplified clearance procedure and even more important, the boat boys organised!

Boat Boys of the Caribbean~

Titus, our "boat boy"

Unlike in the US this is not a tern of disrespect. In the poorer Caribbean islands it was and is difficult to find even the most basic necessities. Since cruisers need access to fresh water, fuel and food not to mention help with boat problems, the local men found ways to deliver these services. As you can imagine competition among the locals for these cruising dollars was fierce. They approach boats coming into a harbour vying for the chance to earn a few bucks. The idea was that the first boy to reach a boat would provide services and keep the others away. This didn't often work, as we saw in Ile a Vache, Haiti last year. The cruisers felt intimidated and as crime started it's awful rise in the Caribbean cruisers stopped coming to these islands. Crime, especially dinghy theft, is now prevalent and we cruisers know to "lock it or lose it". But in Dominica the Boat Boys organised PAYS, Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services. In the Northern harbour of Portsmouth it is better organised, but there is something similar in the southern anchorage of Roseau. They have full page ads with their pictures in the cruising guide. They have a system to allocate which "boy" gets which boat. By now each "boy" is often a small business with the guys on the water being your first contact but with vans and tour guides for your inland hikes. In Portsmouth as their boats, all brightly coloured with the name of the company in bold letters, whiz around the harbour any of them will look over, wave and make sure you don't need anything. They provide security, often going out at night to capture boats adrift who made the mistake of not getting a mooring. Their services are funded by the moorings and water buoy but mainly by a Sunday night BBQ held for the cruisers, $20 for a great dinner with music, dancing and lots of good times. After being on your own in each new island their attentions spoil you so that you never want to leave!

  

Roy's birthday March 6, celebrated in the PAYS Event Shed with Cruising Friends

Old French Plantation House

People of Dominica werewonderful but a real shout out to our guide Gordon who gave me a hand in the rivers, encouraged and cajoled me over log bridges and, when necessary, boasted me up rock inclines - can't believe I don't have his photo!

Now here's Ti Tu Gorge – a slot canyon with a river at the bottom fed by waterfalls

 

The Entrance from Above

Swimming against the current into the gorge.

Looking Up - This is where the bone cages came crashing down

 Getting to the first waterfall and coming through the second.

Jibs and Anchors and Guadeloupe

Well here we are swinging at anchor in one of the loveliest parts of the Caribbean, Iles des Saintes. Cruisers say that once you're here you know what it means to "go cruising". We know that the cruising lifestyle DOES NOT mean you are on a perpetual vacation. Time on the water can seem to stretch out like long slow rollers or go to quickly like the small waves at the seaside. Today it feels like forever...

Sailboats on mooring in the harbor at Iles Des Saintes

We are tired and bleary eyed from being on anchor watch all night and now at 1:30 in the afternoon we know it will probably continue until early tomorrow morning. All we can see of the Saints is blustery white caps, several boats dragging and rain squalls. But worse is what happened as we were approaching the islands. During what should have been an easy 25NM crossing from Point a Pitre Guadeloupe to Iles des Saints our jib reefing/furling mechanism blew out.





What's a jib reefing/furling mechanism you are probably asking.

The Reefing/Furling Mechanism - broken

~Most modern boats have a gismo that allows you to keep your jib (that's the forward sail) always raised but not always flying out there. The sail rolls around the forestay, a wire cable which goes from the bow up to the top of the mast. The really good ones also allow you to reef your jib and are called a reefer/furling thingy. This means that you can roll out as little or as much of the sail as you want. When the wind is really high you might only want enough sail to steady you and keep you moving forward. That's what we were doing when the reefer/furler gave out. This let all the jib out which was more sail than we wanted but also meant that we would have to roll it up by hand from a pitching deck before we could enter the anchorage and get our anchor down. As we approached Iles Des Saintes, Roy got his life jacket on and snapped a connecting line from the jacket to the deck's safety webbing, then made his way forward until he reached the jib. It took him awhile with vice grip in hand to get the sail furled (rolled in). Meanwhile I kept the boat pointed downwind to minimise the seas and wind while he worked.


Once anchored he went to take a look at the problem. We were hoping that the furling line, which is the line that controls rolling the jib in and out, had broken. This had happened once before and while it would have been a surprise as Roy had inspected that line just a few days ago, its what we figured had happened. This was a new reefer/furler that had been replaced in Feb of 2012. It has a lifetime warranty so clearly we didn't think the problem was there. But it is and now, unless we can find a way to fix it down island, we need to send the whole thing back to the States! Meanwhile we'll be sailing with just the main sail. C'est La Vie!

Winding street in Bourg des Saintes

Once anchored the wind continued to increase and by last night was accompanied by squalls. The Caribbean version of a cold front. One of the many fronts that have been plaguing the East Coast made it down to the islands. Because it's so windy, we are not willing to leave the boat in case we drag or, more likely, someone drags into us. Luckily we had a little time ashore yesterday to enjoy this pretty, pretty little town. Which brings up another important part of cruising.



Anchoring, anchors and what makes a good anchorage.

~Anchoring itself is an art form I've come to believe. The anchor(s) you carry must hold you safely in place through all kinds of upheaval. You want your anchorage to offer protection from wind and swells, with a bottom that has good holding for the anchor and not too deep so you can dive the anchor and see that it's set properly. While you can control the anchor you carry (we carry two for different bottoms and greater holding) and learn good techniques for getting the anchor to hold you often have to take what you can get when it comes to an anchorage.

Making the problem worse is that all over the Eastern Caribbean harbours have put in mooring fields in the most desirable part of the anchorage. Good for the harbour as they can charge for the mooring ball, good the the vacationing cruiser as he doesn't have to be good at anchoring (and so many aren't), but awful for the live aboard cruiser who rarely has the budget to pay for a mooring every night of his life. This is exactly the case here in Iles des Saintes. The 80 or so mooring balls fill up fast and at $12. a night, are a little costly. There is a place to anchor but its exposed to wind and seas plus the depth runs 35 to 40 ft. This is something Roy & I have had to adjust to. We were used to anchoring in 12 to 15 ft of lovely clear water until we arrived in the Virgins. After that anything less than 30 ft was a plus.

Here's the anchoring technique we use. I'm on the wheel after Roy has selected the spot, he goes up to the anchor and as the boat slows he drops it with enough chain to reach the bottom. I then slowly backup as he plays out the rest of the "rode", that's the nautical term for the combination of chain and line that attaches the anchor to the boat. You need enough chain to keep your anchor at the right angle to bite into the bottom and stay there. The anchor should "set" so that the more it's pulled by the force of the boat the more it digs into the bottom. Optimally you want a 6:1 ratio of the amount of rode to the depth of the water plus the height of the bow above the water (5ft). if we are anchoring in 20 ft we want to have a minimum of 150 ft of rode out. After I've backed down and the Roy feels the anchor is set he instructs me to increase the engine speed so that we force the anchor down, down, down into whatever the bottom is. I used to then snorkel over the anchor and check that it wasn't hooked on coral or something else that could give but in 30 to 40 ft of water that does't work so well. So now we wait and watch. And I should add, hope no inexperienced sailor anchors too close to us (you can swing into each other) or anchors over our anchor meaning that if we need to leave first we can't.

Deshaies, Guadeloupe

Rum offerings on grave sites in Deshaies

Hiking along the river

~Guadeloupe has been very nice - it's French you know. So lots of crusty baguettes, croissants and pain de chocolate for breakfast. Fricassees, cassoulet, pate, terrines and great cheeses are in every little market. It's also the largest island after Trinidad (which is or isn't part of the Lessor Antilles), the largest island with the largest population. The coastal towns are picturesque in their Frenchiness with small winding streets filled with sidewalk cafes and small wooden houses climbing up the hills. We particularly loved our port of entry, Deshaies (pronounced day-ay). Not only was it charming, including other cruisers to have fun with, but we had just started watching a BBC production named "Death in Paradise" when we arrived and recognised the town. The show, now in it's 4th season, is filmed there!

Market in Point a Pitre

Rum Box!

Martine and Cedric our wonderful hosts.

Once we tore ourselves away from Deshaies we headed down the coast with stops at Pigeon Island for a chance to snorkel in the Jacques Cousteau Nature Preserve. Then on to a rolly two night stop in the capital, Basse Terre, and finally around the southern coast and to the oldest and largest city of Guadeloupe, Pointe a Pitre. Here Martine and Cedric, folks we'd met back in St Kitts, were waiting. How wonderful to have locals show you around! They couldn't have been more generous. When our friends from LaDivina arrived with their onboard guests we just continued having fun. Cedric and Martine took us to their house for dinner and to visit a rum distillery. We discovered that not just wine can come in boxes and they introduced us to our new favourite drink, Ti'Punch. Roy & I hosted Mardi Gras aboard Wahoo complete with Jambalaya (I'd been hoarding my Louisiana smoke sausage just for this), King Cake and beads.

Looks like home - except for the palm trees

Part of the fermentation process

We could just wander all over and even taste the raw rum

He didn't drink ALL of those!

Classic Ti'Punch Recipe

1-1/2 oz Rum Agricole 

(This is a special rum mostly from the French islands that is made from pressing water out of  sugar cane not after processing the sugar cane into molasses as is done in the English Islands)

1/4 oz cane syrup or cane sugar

(this is NOT Keens syrup but more a simple syrup)

1/4 oz freshly squeezed lime

You mix the cane syrup 

and the lime juice then you add the rum and lastly, maybe ice.

Served before dinner as an aperitif not after dinner as a digestive

This is a highly individualised drink and the recipe is just a starting point. Usually limes, sugar or cane syrup and rum are set out on the table. Everyone takes his own special Ti'Punch glass, bigger than a jigger - smaller than a rock glass, and starts mixing.

A bowl of ice on the table is nice for us Americans who like ours a little chilled. Don't add much it messes with the flavour.

Flying the Colours - Mardi Gras Aboard Wahoo

Nevis - Montserrat - Antigua

Wahoo at Sea

It’s a Swell day!

In the Caribbean there are waves and then there’s Swell. Waves are formed by wind and are bigger or smaller depending on how much the wind is blowing. They come at you from the direction of the wind. Swells have nothing to do with your local conditions. They are caused by the strong winds that are blowing out in the Atlantic. In the Caribbean there’s always some swell; what matters to you is how high and from which direction and whether your chosen anchorage will protect you from it. Swells don’t follow the course of the wind so they can come at your boat from a different direction than the one you are pointing into.  At anchor the swell can make for rolly conditions  and give you an uncomfortable night if the anchorage you have chosen is unprotected from the direction of the swell. While sailing the sea state is a combination of the swell and the wind driven waves. What you are looking for is that the direction of the swell is close to the direction of travel and that the timing between each of these swells is longer than it’s height. For instance a 5 - 6 ft swell at  an 8 sec interval is far better than 5 - 6 ft swell at 4 sec. The first allows the boat to comfortably ride up and over while the second is a very lumpy passage!  

Jane and Dave from LaDivina

Putting aside the weather - Part of the fun of cruising is hooking up with other cruisers and Partyiiing as Kermit says. Basseterre Marina in St Kitts brought us many cruising buddies to hang with.  Martine and Cedric where one of the couples we shared the Marina’s scant electric hook-ups with. They live in Guadeloupe. Several nights of cocktails led us to New Year’s Eve aboard their power boat sharing champagne as the fireworks exploded around us. We hope to see them when we get there for Guadeloupe’s Carnival which nicely coincides with our New Orleans Mardi Gras (Feb 16 & 17). Fern and Steve on an Outbound 44 are New Yorkers. Their boat is appropriately named “Fuhgedaboutit”. You can imagine the fun they have when ever they need to say the name of their vessel! Then there was Captain Bradshaw from Tortola who gave us much wise advice and helped all of us escape from the marina in St Kitts when the wind was blowing so strong. It’s been great hanging and traveling with Dave and Jane Mitchell on La Divina. They are from Toronto and on a 6 month charter. This is a trial run to see if they would like the cruising life. We sailed the longest with them and hope to meet up again also in Guadeloupe for Carnival. A pleasure that you know will end - the shared cabs and buses, stumbling through new ports to find laundries, ATMs, groceries and the inevitable Customs Office. Always  happy hours and sundowners which inevitably always lead to a parting with the exchange of emails and phone numbers and the hope that your paths will cross again. AND happily sometimes they do.

Monkeys ready to order

swinging at anchor

On January 7th we had enough of Marina life so together with La Divina and Fuhgedaboutit we left the protection of the Basseterre marina and sailed five miles South. We weren’t exactly sure what conditions awaited us in the bays of St Kitts' Southern Peninsular but after the excitement and (loud) music of Sugar Maz we were ready for a change of pace. We knew the mighty North swell that had been affecting us was dropping for a few days and winds were down to a more moderate 20 kts. We found good conditions at South Friars Bay and collectively breathed a sigh of relief to be at anchor again. Each new beach calls for exploration so we dinghied ashore and tied up at Carombola Restaurant's new dock. They were closing for the day which was fine by us as we wanted a walk. 1/4 mile south was Shipwreck’s Beach Bar just waiting to serve us. The wild monkeys were adorable, the drinks strong and watching our boats swing at anchor made us feel mighty fine. Next morning Fern and Steve left to head to Antiqua as their time in the Caribbean was about up. Fuhgedaboutit would wait for them in Jolly Harbor. I didn’t envy them bashing right into the Eastern trades with 7 ft seas. We were glad to get an email saying they made it in safely. Our next stop would be the island of Nevis just a couple miles south.

Clearing Customs in beautiful Nevis

We, along with La Divina, picked up one of Nevis’ mooring balls along the prime anchorage area of Pinney Beach. The mooring balls have been installed to discourage anchoring and protect the grassy sea beds which are home to turtles and rays as well as fish. Let no one tell you any different, this is a great anchorage! The winds blew and we heard the swell was as high as 8 - 10 feet in the Eastern Caribbean but we had quiet seas and only a slight rocking motion to lull us to sleep. Lovely!! Looking at the charts you would never believe what a good harbour this is. It seems an open roadstead but the submerged reef running through the Narrows between St Kitts and Nevis provides a backbone which protects and defends. 

Nevis Peak from one of the Sugar Mills

Nevis Peak, an impressive 3000 ft high sleeping volcano. It’s usually surrounded by clouds which cling to the mountain side. Columbus named the island “Nuestra Señora del las Nieves”, Our Lady of the Snows. While there have been no eruptions in recorded history Nevis has had its share of cataclysmic events. The first attempts of settlement was by English residents of nearby St Kitts. A few hearty souls founded Jamestown in 1628 which sank into the sea after an earthquake and tidal wave in 1680. Once British interest were firmly established in the area after the Treaty of Versailles (1783), Nevis flourished as an English plantocracy. Its fertile land made it the most prosperous of the islands for a time. Not so much on the tourist map, Nevis has retained it’s old world feeling from it’s Caribbean stone and wood buildings in Charlestown to the beautifully re-invented plantations which today house Inns and restaurants among beautiful gardens.

Nevis is associated with two important historical figures. Alexander Hamilton was born here and Horatio Nelson, when not yet and admiral, met and married his wife here. He and Fanny Nesbit were married at Montpelier, her uncle’s plantation. 

Alexander Hamilton's Birthplace in Charlestown, Nevis

Horatio Nelson

A short dinghy ride takes us to the only town and capital of Nevis, Charlestown. This is a good thing as unfortunately there is no dinghy dock along the expanse of Pinney Beach. This is sorely missed as this beautiful beach with several great beach bars and restaurants call out for the cruisers moored nearby to visit them. Seems a communal dinghy dock would be a good thing. Sure seemed strange to us especially when we remembered the happenings each night at Yoli’s in Placencia where yachties congregated every evening for happy hour and strolled through all day for coffee, lunch or just a chat and a Belikin. 

Lunch in the gardens at Golden Rock Plantation

Our first night the four of us braved the steep beach and rollers to go ashore. It was a lovely evening. The bars serving great drinks have a beautiful view; the service is friendly and the food is good. But getting the dinghy back into the surf and away with us all safely aboard was a feat we never tried to repeat. Four Seasons is the only large resort on the island and they are a short dinghy ride away, but they discourage use of their dock we were told. And so four great beach bars went un-revisited. We spent our happy hours on one boat or another watching sunsets and telling sailer’s tales. 

After my long rant about Wifi in the last blog I must say that Four Seasons does come through for us cruisers, if you have a high gain antennae and WiFi booster. Our Bullet was able to use the Public Four Seasons WiFi Access Point much of the time we were there.

 On our 11th day in Nevis we were under the mistaken belief that the winds had become favourable to set sail for Montserrat, the island SE with the active volcano. Why is it so hard for us to remember that weather is changeable? On Thursday morning the forecast said the winds would dip below 15kts by Friday. So on Friday morning we were up and departing while on the radio Chris Parker was saying things had slowed down and that Saturday would be a better day. The winds were still SE (the direction we were heading) and the seas still high. But we were already underway, ignoring both Chris and the old sailor’s superstition that says not to start a journey on a Friday. Believe me, Never again! It was one of those times when you could easily see where you wanted to go but couldn’t possibly get there. Beautiful blue skies aloft but with 22kt winds gusting to 27 and seas high enough to knock our forward motion down to 3kts at times. We sailed and tacked, sailed and tacked and sailed and tacked some more. Felt like the longest 27 NM I’ve ever done. But like childbirth it’s eventually over and forgotten. After clearing in and sharing a beer and the best wings ever with the crew of La Divina we were glad to be in Montserrat. 

Soufiere Hills Volcano venting!

We had heard there was nothing to do at Montserrat but that didn’t deter us from visiting. Seemed only right to drop a little money here to help their struggling economy plus a chance to hear about the volcano first hand was intriguing. We were sorry not to be there on a weekday as both the Volcano Observatiory and the Nevis Museum are closed on weekends. We hired a  guide for an island tour and ended up with the ex Deputy Chief of Police who had been in in charge of volcano evacuations. Needless to say we had a first hand account. 

Montserrat had suffered mightily in 1989 from Hurricane Hugo and just 6 years later, 1995, Soufiere Hills volcano started erupting. There have since been eruptions regularly and it is still active today. Lava and ash buried the South half of the island. The capital city of Plymouth has been completely covered by the flows.  When Soufiere Hills volcano started showing signs of life volcanologists were called in and once it became obvious that an eruption was evident everyone was evacuated North. But days went by, then 1 week and then 2. People wanted to go back to their homes, they were too crowded, had forgotten something, wanted privacy, wanted to pick their crops. A small group of evacuees left the tent city and went back into town. Of the 3 dozen people who went back 19 lost their lives, the others escaped by climbing the hills to the side of the flow. Today the Southern half of the island is an exclusion zone and Montserrat’s only export is gravel and rock, from the volcano.

Gate to AIR Studios

AIR Studio

Some of my hippie friends may remember that AIR studio was in Montserrat. Destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The recording studio was the inspiration of Sir George Martin, the Beatles Producer. Many of our favourite musicians recorded in Montserrat and held a grand benefit concert for the people of the island in London after the loss of Plymouth. Sir George still has a home here and visits but AIR studio is in the exclusion zone.  

Montserrat's capital city of Plymouth is under that ash and mud. White spots are the roofs of houses.

Signs like this mark the Exclusion zone

That sign says it all - we hope to return

It might have been a rough sail over but the ESE wind gave us calm nights at anchorage. The guide book tells us if the wind is N or NE the anchorage at Montserrat can be rolly to terrible. Glad to have missed that.

Drinking from the burn

Sunset overlooking English and Falmouth Harbor

Sunday Wahoo and La Divina left Montserrat for Antigua. The wind was favourable for a NE sail with 5 - 6 ft seas at an interval of 8 sec. Roy and I enjoyed letting Wahoo strut her stuff. We are now in Antigua, anchored in Falmouth Harbour, which is a short walk from English Harbour. This is the heart of Sailing and Racing in the Caribbean. Three of the most prestigious sailing regattas happen here. Antigua Sail Week brings boats/yachts/ships from around the world, in fact they are already arriving. The famous Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta is held the week previous when square riggers, clippers and beautiful classic sailing yachts race and then have a parade of boats through the harbour. Also there’s the RORC 600 which starts and finishes in English Harbor, a 600 mile race around the Caribbean that must be completed in 4 days.

These pillars held up the sail loft 

Roy in the careening yard

Antigua was discovered, but never visited, by Coumbus in 1493 (2nd voyage). it was settled by the British in 1632 and together with Barbuda remained a Crown colony until the two island nation gained Independance within the Commonwealth in 1981.  Due to the safety and security afforded by English Harbour, Antigua was never conquered by any of the other European nations fighting for West Indian possessions. In 1621 the English discovered the safety given to ships anchored in English Harbor by the natural shape of the entrance. When other ships were destroyed by hurricanes ships here remained unscathed and sometimes even better, unseen. During sieges a chain could be run across the narrow entrance and with Fort Berkeley high on the surrounding hilltops the fleet was safe from attacks. England built 22 forts to surround the island and ensure its safety. The Dockyards were built here so that British ships could be protected and repaired without sailing back across the oceans giving another reason that England was the scourge of the seas. 

A Classic!!

The huge ships would be careened (pulled over on their sides) and their bottoms cleaned and repaired. Ships in the warm waters of the Caribbean were in constant danger from worms, termites and barnacles. Every service needed to keep the ships in good order was here from the massive sail loft to wood and metal work to provisioning. Keeping the fleet in the Caribbean insured protection of British shipping  from pirates, privateers and other nations. 

Falmouth Harbor at night. Every red light is a sailing yacht with a mast over 100 ft tall.

Today Nelson Dockyards in English Harbour is so beautifully, yet functionally, restored that it’s still where you want to come for repairs. In many ways it’s like a maritime Williamsburg yet it’s home to yachting services of the highest caliber. We availed ourselves of both upholstery makers, to have our cushions resown and AC services to make both of Wahoo’s units function again.

Nelson came here as a 26 yr old Captain of the frigate Boreas to enforce England’s Navigation Laws after the North American colonies became the United States. He became Senior Captain and Second-In-Command of the Leeward Islands Station headquartered in English Harbour. He left in 1787 to go on to greater glory taking, his Nevis born wife Fanny Nesbit with him. The dockyards predate Nelson by many years but they were renamed for him after the Battle of Trafalgar.

Nelson's famous signal

VICTORY - Nelson’s flagship, First Rate Ship of the Line 

6000 mature oak trees were required for building

Hull at water line was 2 ft thick

Length: 227ft

Beam: 51ft 10 inches

Weight: 2,162 tons

Speed: 8-10kts

Number of Sails: 37

Guns: 104

Crew: 850

Cost: £63,176 (about £50,000,000 today)

Sitting in the cockpit we can watch a constant parade of beautiful sailing yachts. We’ve seen Clipper ships raise their sail by moonlight, classic yachts glide by and 200ft racing yachts go out to practice. If you love sailboats being here is the epitome of your dreams.