Text Author: John-Frederick Thye

Wildlife had a fantastic sail from Martinique to Antigua, 180 nautical miles. We passed the dramatic island of Dominica at dusk. With its towering cliffs and steep volcanic mountainsides, we sailed on the leeward, Dominica's black shapes outlined against the red sun. It took us 24 hours to get to English Harbor from Le Marin, Martinique. Except for a 40-knot squall we experienced consistent winds of 20 to 30 knots between the islands. The wind often decreased to 2 knots in the wind shadow of the islands, of which Guadeloupe was the largest, which we passed. We decided to sail to lee of the Caribbean Leeward and Windward Islands to maximize on their sheltered calm waters. Our arrival was "wet," as we noticed that we had not closed one of our hatches correctly and the port bilge took on a few inches of water. One of our lockers was flooded, and, as chance would have it, this was the locker with all our medical gear and spare parts. I took some funny pictures of us drying hundreds of individual Band-Aids in the sun. Check our photo gallery for that soon. We are on our way to Barbuda to explore its pristine ecological habitats, crystal clear waters, and plentiful reefs. See you there!