Got up this morning a motored over to the marina dock to
fill up the boat with diesel and fresh water.
Bought more ice, our newfound friend who chills our sodas. Our appreciation for those miraculous frozen
cubes has hit an all-time high. With a
fridge that isn’t really keen on staying dependably cold, ice has become a
prized possession we seek on every shore.
We met a fellow boater who told us that on his way in he saw
a lot of sailboats making the passage to Anegada-- good sign that weather would
be favorable to make our way up north too.
We usually get our best advise from other boaters—be it
weather, mooring instructions, or, more importantly, where the best food on any given island can
be had.
We shoved off and Connor got strait to work keeping the lines nice and neat.
On the passage up to Anegada we unfurled the sails but only
made about 5 knots the whole way. The
trip took us about an hour and a half.
The winds were strong and the sea was fairly calm. It was a beautiful day for sailing, just not
the perfect wind direction for a hearty sail.
This yacht was coming in as we were leaving. Made us look like a bunch of refugees on a dingy.
Keith plotted our course and we set off...
On our way out we got a closer view of Richard Branson’s
Necker Island and a fairly close view of the fire damage. Sadly, it looked pretty bad.
As we got closer to the island, Anegada looks as flat as a sheet
of paper adrift on the ocean’s surface and almost as white, with its fine pale
sandy beaches. A few trees dot the
landscape but on closer inspection, not near enough of them if you happen to be
looking for a shady spot to hide from the scalding sun. It’s mostly covered with a tangle of scrubby
bushes and sprinkled with a generous helping of goats, burros, and some rather
menacing looking cattle with long pointing horns. The water surrounding the island is very
shallow so coming in to anchor on its beach is as challenging as threading a
needle during an earthquake—you gotta pay attention or something’s gonna get
punctured.
Notice the red around the island. The way in is that tiny blue strip of deeper
waters (deep as in 12-14 feet at its lowest point). We were happy that good weather was the theme
of the day so lacing through the shallows was fairly easy.
Keith said our anchorage here looked like a Walmart parking lot...
We found a sandy bottom in which to set our anchor and set
off in the dingy for shore.
Keith took posed for this picture in memory of Pete. The last time he sat at this very table Peter
was with him. We all are definitely
missing Pete on this trip.
We strolled the beach which, to Chloe's delight, was laden with shells. Mark stepped on something that trashed his foot (which we find comical as he never wears his shoes anywhere)
...and Connor decided to climb a coconut tree:
Notice Connor's ascent is much better than his tree dismount:
Keith and Kathy went for a long walk which to me appeared more like a long sit:
Then we spent the rest of the afternoon napping out of the sun’s reach. I used this time to get out my new
hammock. I love a good hammock but
didn’t pack my trusty old friend as it is big and bulky and took up way too
much space in my luggage. I was happy to
find a store a few islands back that sold a sweet nylon hammock that I couldn’t
resist. This was the perfect time to pop
it out of it’s bag and hooked it up to the back of the boat. Best nap I ever had! I swayed back and forth to the sounds coming
from my ipod and fell asleep.
Later Keith decided the hammock looked like the perfect place to enjoy the sunset.
That night I fixed some yummy Italian pasta and finished it
off with my favorite dessert--baked lemon bars.
I still don’t have the misfit oven down like Kathy seems to so one end
of my pan baked up a little crustier than the other despite my vigilance in turning
the pan every few minutes to avoid hot spots.
The boys decided to make fun of the crispy end of the pan
with a few gregarious antics--fork stabbing and then a saws-all:
Happily, more than half the pan turned out like lemon perfection. Mmmmmm.
We’ve made reservations in the morning for some scooter
rentals so we can go see the island.
Hopefully we’ll all remember to drive on the left side of the road.
The locals reminded us that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Being British they don’t celebrate this sort
of loathsome holiday but clearly we’re a bunch of rag tag sunburned Americans
so they figured a hearty Thanksgiving well wish was in order.
There’s no way were fitting a turkey in “Hakuna Matata’s”
oven. And even if we did chances are it
would turn out half raw and the other half burned to a crisp. So we’ll try to make some reservations for a
nice dinner somewhere at our next destination…probably Jost Van Dyke.
Cheers!
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