Alison Clayton

Final sail of the trip for Ian & Ali😢, final sail of the Caribbean season for Viv ⛵️😢🥰! A great couple of weeks for our guests - fun-packed for days on end!

A very lumpy motorsail upwind into 20 kts and 3m swells. Ouch! Made up for by an amazing afternoon at The Reef…… again!

A leisurely sail under just the mainsail, mostly downwind. Refuelled in Jolly Harbour fuel dock and then headed outside to drop the anchor.

Quick motor round the N coast of Antigua inside the Boon Channel, past Prickly Pear Island, down alongside Long Island in a dredged channel. Ended up anchored at Parham. Dinghies in for an explore but were cleared off one dock and couldn’t find anywhere comfortable to land and drop the ladies off. Headed back to the mothership for sundowners.

Beautiful day for a sail. Sun was out all day. Took the Code Zero round into Carlisle Bay but were asked not to stop due to a swim race event. Carried on and took a couple of turns into the shelter behind Cades Reef for lunch and a snorkel. Spotted the “largest lobster ever” under a rock outcrop near our anchor. Snorkelled the reef with the largest variety of fish I’ve seen all season. Continued on and dropped anchor in less than 2m of water outside Jolly Harbour. Dinner planned at the Fat Urchin in the marina.

Left Green Island between showers. Unleashed the Code Zero once we were off the wind and surfed down to Falmouth Harbour, dodging the Antigua Race Series fleets along the way and sailing past the Pillars of Hercules outside English Harbour. Picked up mooring #14 ready to drop Caragh off 😢!

Upwind from Nelson’s Dockyard with a reef in the main. Made good progress after fault-finding why the windlass wouldn’t lift the hook - looks like a corroded contact in the hand control, but still worked from the helm. Arrived slightly late for lunch booked at “The Reef” on Green Island. Highly recommend it, only been there 4 years….. definitely equivalent to “The Hut”. Excellent!

A trip to Yarmouth with the famalam! We could have done without the easterly wind and the lumpy sea conditions, but thankfully they all traveled well and even had a snooze before we reached Hurst. Very slow going. Motor-sailed all the way (the wind was straight on the nose). Rafted alongside another yacht on Yellow Pontoon. Max F5.