How We’ve Fared in Antigua

Classic Race Week was such an experience. Wouldn't have missed it for the world and probably would never do it again.

There are some marvelous photos by an insane guy named Tim Wright at PhotoAction. Check into Antigua Classic Race Week and then Maggie B. My favorite is CLAS06-2355. We are going to buy some with Covey Island to get them up on this site, but haven't quite gotten there. Also you can see his photos of some of the other boats. Check out Endeavor, Ranger, Altair (the most beautiful schooner in the world?), and Mariella. Imagine that I had to call "STARBORD" to Altair as we were doing about 9 knots and she was doing 15 as we came simultaneously to a mark. We missed getting crushed by at least 15 feet.

Tim Wright goes out in a tiny high speed boat strapped to his feet and gets right under the action in all conditions. He also is a really nice guy.

We came in third in the single handed competition, third in the Classics and first in the gig races, men's doubles, in the Reepicheep. But best of all were the interesting and very favorable comments from the best professionals. We had a boat parade in English Harbor after the second race, where a neat local commentator "announced" the boats as we came past. The Maggie B was described as "a wolf in sheep's clothing." What was a real high point was that as we passed, the crew of the Altair (which came in first in the races) lined her rail and gave us three cheers. Totally cool.

There will probably be a lot of press coverage. Boat International had two reporters on for the races and Wooden Boat is doing an article.

But all is not glory. Backing into our slot at Antigua Yacht Club Marina, we caught an anchor line in our prop, wrapped it and slashed up our rudder and king post doing it. The line fused onto the shaft and had to be chiseled off. Right now we are hauled out to fix the damage to the rudder and king post (can't let water in under the epoxy). When we hauled we found that the huge (six inches across) pin for the centerboard had bent its restraints and was in the process of popping out. Sigh. But at least we are on it and it won't come out in the middle of the Indian Ocean or wherever. We hope to be back in the water soon and off to other islands. The current thought is maybe St. Barts, then down to Isle des Saints, Martinique, Barbados, the reefs around Trinidad and then on to Recife.

All is well.

Antigua Classic Race Week

Antigua Classic Race Week is quite something. There are about all the coolest sailing yachts on the planet here. It is neat that the Maggie B is a little part of it. Check out their web site at Antigua Classics.

I raced the Maggie B yesterday in the single handed race and we were first through the course, but only third on corrected time. One might ask how you can handle a 62 foot gaff schooner by yourself, and the answer is "not too well." You have to have an emergency second person aboard and I chose the designer, Nigel Irens.

You can have extra crew to get your sails up, and John Steele, Dorian Steele, Sandy MacMillian of North Sails and Paul Baskett got us going. They have to be off the boat before the ten minute gun and Paul and Dorian exited in great style with cannon balls. John and Sandy stepped off into a passing outboard. There were about 30 boats of all sizes and we got a good start and just stayed out in front.

Today was the "Old Road" race and we finally had a nice blow. Tons of huge boats like the Ranger, one of the famous J-boats. There were lots of photo boats and helicopters around, so hopefully someone got a good photo of us.

It was just marvelous to have the builder, the designer and the sail designer aboard. We all learned so much about the boat as well as seeing some of the coolest sailboats in the world banging around us. I have never participated in such a sight. And we get to do it again tomorrow!

All is well.

Location: 17° 0.52 N, 61° 45.89 W
Sunday 12:00, 04.16.2006

The Schooner Maggie B arrived safely at Nelson's Dockyard, English Harbor, Antigua at approximately noon on 16 April. Almost exactly a week from Bermuda to here. Our position is 17° 0.52 N, 61° 45.89 W. Drill down some on the Google map and you can see that we are literally at the dock the Hero of the Nile blessed.

Last night the excitement was catching a nice small (4 foot, @ 25#) Wahoo. Almost no fight until close to the boat. Frank cranked in, Paul handled the boat with Bori, and Anne Louise handled the gaff. Not too much mess on the stern and Anne Louise only gaffed herself a bit (only a flesh wound as they say In Monty Python). The fish was cut up and sautéed in oil, butter, garlic and a bit of lemon and on the table in an hour. Absolutely delicious.

English Harbor is full of Big Dogs. Lovely hundred foot sloops with tons of brightwork and professional crews. Also lots of plastic white sloops with more biminis than sail area. We should have lots of fun. The next step is to put the Reepicheep in the water and row around to see the other boats.

All is well.

Location: 19° 49 N, 61° 29 W
Saturday 12:00, 04.15.2006

Finally we are in the pleasant NE'erly Trades, bowling down to Antigua, except that the wind is from the NW. Our noon position on April 15th was 19° 49 N, 61° 29 W. Our course is 197 degrees, right for Antigua and our speed 8.4 knots. Our ETA in English Harbor is noon tomorrow, or seven days from Bermuda.

Not much to report otherwise. We saw a swallow, the first land bird for a while, but I imagine that he was blown off course and rather glad to have us to perch on for a bit.

The trip has been good to us, but we are all rather looking forward to the land -- to see pals, to explore Antigua, for the fun of Race Week, and to fix some things.

All is well.

A Little Paranoia is a Good Thing

On this leg from Bermuda to Antigua we got reminded that a little paranoia is a Good Thing.

We set out from Bermuda for the 940 mile trip to Antigua with three good pieces of weather advice: 1) the excellent four day forecast from Bermuda Weather, 2) a trip plan from Commanders Weather and 3) Advice from the marvelous Canadian Weather Sage, Herb, of Southbound II.

We also left with the expectation (Gee, it's in all the brochures, isn't it?) that we would quickly get into the Easterly Trades and bowl on down reading our novels and never touching a sheet for days at a time.

All three professional forecasts said that we would pick up the Easterlies at about 29 or 30 North, and we did on Tuesday, two days out.

It was just like in the brochures.

Our forecasts generally covered four days and were right on. For four days. The plan had been to give Herb a call each day at 2000 to update, but propagation was terrible and we didn't get through.

Four days out the barometer started to fall modestly (to 1011 millibar's from 1019 the day before and the wind picked up from the SSE.

That evening we had a Southerly gale, Beaufort 8. The boat and crew handled it fine, but we should have anticipated it better. We would not have done much different, though it would have made sense to have run East a bit more when we had an easterly to moderate the impact. I should have, when unable to contact Herb, spent more time with the difficult-to-understand USCG SSB weather reports, called Commanders Weather on the Sat phone, and gotten the weather fax working in Bermuda. All three. We're still learning.

Now we are a day out of Antigua, bowling along in a nice 15 knot Westerly, reading our novels and improving our tans. God and Herb know where the Easterly trades are.

Dinner, Friday 4.14.2006

Dinner was scones and chocolate.

Location: 22° 07 N, 62° 27.5 W
Friday 12:00, 04.14.2006

Well, we got spanked last night.

Our noon position on April 14 was 22° 07 N, 621° 27.5 W. Antigua is 180 at 290 miles, our course is 165 degrees at 7.5 knots. The wind is 200 at 15-20. Waves are 2-3 meters and relatively sharp. We are motor sailing a bit east of our rhumb line to Antigua to have a somewhat faster, more settled passage. If we head right into the wing and waves, our SOG (speed over ground) is about four knots, if we come off 15 degrees SOG is 7.5 and the ride is much easier.

As you can see, we made good only 75 miles towards Antigua in the last 24 hours. But we sure did a lot of sailing. There is a developing low in our area and it seemingly developed right over us.

We knew we were in trouble when we saw the ABN AMRO racing boat go past us at about 20 knots with a huge spinnaker up. They reported that they were currently #1 in the Volvo Round the World Race, for the Rio to Baltimore leg. Two things can be immediately surmised by this. First that they are going in the opposite direction that we are, and second that they have sought out the worst possible, strongest weather to push them to Baltimore.

Shortly after seeing ABM AMPO, we commenced to reenact the role of Joe Bsfkick, the Little Abner character who always had a rain shower over his head. As we went into dark, we had about six hours of a southerly gale, with winds steady over 30 knots with higher gusts.

We had a 1/2 jib (nice roller reefing design by North!) and two reefs in the main. We stayed on a close reach for control, sometimes East to get clear, then back west as it seemed possible to head for the Anguilla Passage. The waves were quite sharp and 3-4 meters with occasional breaking crests. It was a long night. The Maggie B stayed controllable and steady and below was mostly dry and warm. All gear worked fine and only one glass was broken. Dinner was scones and chocolate.

We regretted not making suitable toasts to the everlasting gods on departure from Bermuda.

All is well.

Lunch, Thursday 4.13.2006

Lunch today was Lecso, a traditional Hungarian dish of eggs, tomato and mushroom. Bori is a bit cranky because no paprika was available in Bermuda, so the dish lacked full authenticity. It is a tribute to the Maggie B's sea kindliness that we could sit down all four and have a comfortable hot lunch in these conditions.

Location: 23° 40 N, 61° 40 W
Thursday 12:00, 04.13.2006

So much for easy trade wind sailing. The Schooner Maggie B's noon position on 13 April was 23° 40 N, 61° 40 W. The wind has veered to 150-160 degrees and increased to 25 with gusts to 30. Rain squalls come and go. We are reefed down to two reefs on the main and one on the fore. Our course is about 230 and speed 8 knots. There are moderate swells from the SE and four foot waves on top. The sea is building.

Our expectation is that the low will pass north of us and the wind will veer further. The East side of Antigua bears about 195 at 365 miles. Our plans are to tack if the wind veers much past 195. Plan B is to make for Anguilla Passage between Anguilla and BVI, but that is about a day away.

The barometer has only fallen to 1014 from 1019 yesterday.

Lunch today was Lecso, a traditional Hungarian dish of eggs, tomato and mushroom. Bori is a bit cranky because no paprika was available in Bermuda, so the dish lacked full authenticity. It is a tribute to the Maggie B's sea kindliness that we could sit down all four and have a comfortable hot lunch in these conditions.

Last night at five AM, the second watch (Paul and Bori) woke me because we had a meeting situation with a VLS (very large ship). We had right-of-way both for being a sailing ship as well as being at their 1 o'clock, with them being at our 9 o'clock (with steady bearing angle - gulp).

We were finally able to contact them (wake them?) when they were about one mile away. When the groggy voice announced "Yes I am seeing you, I will go to your left behind but maybe I am OK crossing you" we began to reach for the flare gun. Paul dogged it, heading up and luffing and they passed about 1/4 mile ahead.

Two Tropic Birds made repeated passes to attempt to alight on the main gaff peak, but it was just too well finished. Two flying fish came aboard in the night and were hooked up as bait, but without success. Probably next time we should better appreciate our place in the food chain and just fry them up for breakfast.

All is well.

How to Send Us Snailmail

As we are headed to Barbados, you can write us at this address, good thru Monday, 5 June, 2006:

Schooner Maggie B
Hold for Arrival
The Barbados Yacht Club
St. Michael
Barbados