ANGUILLA, THE RENAISSANCE ISLAND.

Anguilla is one of the oldest islands in the Lesser Antilles eroded to a flat island that was then  submerged and later uplifted by volcanic action. A coastline of white beaches with restricted areas to anchor. A marine park has been set up to protect the creatures and environment of the off lying Cays. A cruising permit is required to visit these areas and only in daylight hours.

It was a struggle to find out more about the island's history but Anguilla is still British but mainly self governing. In 1967, Britain decided that Anguilla should be made an autonomous state with St. Kitts and Nevis. The Anguillans wished to remain British and they formed an armed rebellion against St. Kitts which ended with St. Kitts backing down. Several financial schemes to aid the Anguillans to become independent spooked the British, who invaded in 1969 and now the island is under British administration.

Anguilla relies on tourism, catering for the beach life, plenty of excellent restaurants, holiday homes for the wealthy and a small airport for the private jets.

We anchored in Road Bay, the main anchorage in Anguilla in turquoise water. Sandy Ground Village fringes the beach with a huge salt pond at its rear, where many wading birds are seen. Sitting at anchor we were visited by turtles, pelicans, tropical and Booby birds with the high pitched song of the Terns whizzing overhead.

The generator failed to fire up first time which we thought we had solved back in St. Maarten. Consequently the manual came out again and we replaced the exhaust elbow and checked the muffler. It started first time only to play up again later.

We jointly cleaned the hull, Stephen with fins and snorkel, Debbie on her SUP (stand up paddle board). 

The SUP originally belonged to Ju and she sold it to us before we left. We are at present trying to master this water-sport with mixed success. Going upwind is trickier than sailing!

Having had three weeks in St. Martin when the only time we got wet was in our shower or caught out in a rain squall, here you can't keep us out of the sea which is beautiful and inviting. 

BBQs have started up again on Amelie mainly due to the restaurant pricing policies, 27$ for Moules and Frites, which must be the most expensive we've ever tasted and the portions were quite small. With a supply of food in the freezer which needs to be eaten before we return to the UK in three weeks time, we are eating like royals.BBQs have started up again on Amelie mainly due to the restaurant pricing policies, 27$ for Moules and Frites, which must be the most expensive we've ever tasted and the portions were quite small. With a supply of food in the freezer which needs to be eaten before we return to the UK in three weeks time, we are eating like royals.

During our time we got to see the island’s capital by walking the 4 miles from the anchorage, we were asked four times by passing motorists if we wanted a lift - very friendly this island, but also don’t think walking is their thing! We got to top up Debbie’s Grenada mobile with 10$ which lasted all of one phone call to Clive and Ju! Our interent search for Bicycle hire led us to a deserted premises - oh well walk back home again - did us some good exercise.

We adopted Roys Bayside Grill as our sundowner drinkies watering hole, it was also our internet access whilst in Anguilla.  The staff were delightful and we got to look out over the bay to Amelie at anchor.

We got the chance to plan a visitation from Clive and Ju who are ensconced in an apartment in neighbouring St Martin.  We decided on a trip to Sandy Island - basically a sand spit a couple of miles offshore with a Restaurant.  Clive and Stephen got to taste a trio of lobster/crayfish which was delicious whilst Ju and Debbie were less fortunate with their meat/fish platter - and wow do they know how to charge.  Service was friendly but vague and Clive did offer his services behind the bar to show them what a vodka martini was all about.  Inevitably a protracted and enjoyable lunch got in the way of planned snorkelling over the reef but it was fantastic to catch up with the guys and equally hard to say goodbye again.

We discovered an alternate bicycle hire outlet and Aslin delivered our bikes to us for two days of exploration. Our first day, without map, had us aimlessly wandering into a quarry before being helped out by a spanish maid to a fancy house when we were directed to Shoal Bay, one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean.  If somewhat random it ended up as a great day and we certainly found out the island wasn’t quite as flat as promoted.

More organised for the second day we had a map and a plan - scary. We arrived at Meads Bay and wondering where to lock up our bikes we were helped by a friendly security guard to the beach hotel.  We got to have a fancy three hour lunch in a french restaurant right on the beach before heading back over the hills to our anchorage.

The beauty of our relaxed cruising has been the ability to decide when to leave port according to how the wind and wave forecasts bode for our passage - well that is unless you have an aeroplane to catch! Our 17 days in Anguilla had been totally chilled and now it was time for getting to Martinique, laying up Amelie for her month’s stay and get our stuff together for our flight back to the UK.  The wind gods decided our Caribbean cruising to date had been just too easy, favourable and predictable winds and small seas, and that they would have a laugh.  Our passage was only 160 nm in a South South East (“SSE”) direction and that would normally be just over 24 hours sailing, however, not if the wind is SSE and therefore dead on the nose and to add an extra dimension the prevailing current was North West, or sending us backwards.  Our first 24 hours saw us sailing 140 nm to make only a 39 nm dent in our passage distance - at this rate it would take over 4 days to make Martinique.     We did have the joy on our first afternoon of spotting a whale who put on a good display of fluking his tail - always a great sight if not too close to Amelie.  We game-fully plugged on under sail and in the event made our landfall in just over 3 days sailing 433 nm and we reckon tacking around 50 times - more than in our entire trip around the planet.  We’re now docked into a Marina for the first time since leaving Grenada in November last year and tucking up Amelie to leave her alone for our UK visit - looking forward to seeing a number of you very soon.