Sunday 23 December, Jolly Harbour Marina: Today we move … yeah! Back to cruising mode, at last. Anchor in Hermitage Bay.
A leisurely morning, contemplating on the action plan for the next days. The moving on plan, to be precise.
After the week in the yard we carried on with boat maintenance jobs here in the marina for 4 more days. And although we still have some more jobs yet to complete, we have kind of had enough. We need some time off, to allow ourselves to relax and be infused by the Christmas euphoria.
Somehow, it’s hard to feel the Christmas spirit without the winter jackets! Or maybe is it because we don’t have the Christmas rush here, no crowds, no shops covered in Christmas decorations, no frenzy running around for last moment shopping or preparations. Which is good in a way…
Anyway, the early morning plan was to remain here and have the Christmas Day in the marina. At least there are some restaurants we can go to for the Christmas lunch. And on Boxing Day to move on and sail to Montserrat. But then we thought this time we haven’t had the sailing experience in Antigua, so maybe we should go and anchor off of some beaches.
Looking on the chart and pilot books we decided Long Island, off the NE coast, looks interesting. So the late morning plan is we leave the marina today, anchor for a couple of nights then Boxing Day we return here for customs check out formalities. Good! That might get us into the vacation mode!
So we check out of the marina and start preparations for cruising mode. The over-boom sunshade gets taken down and we reinstate the bimini. It hasn’t been up since Annapolis so the bars need quite a clean and polish. Amazing how they got rust marks in just 2 months. So nice to have it up again. It kind of marks return of summer weather for us.
By 3pm we slip our lines and depart the marina. Feels like ages since we had Cloudy out in open water. We can almost feel her gunning to get out of Jolly Harbour and out to sea – like a horse galloping home!
Rather than head all the way around to Long Island tonight, we simply nip around the headland north and into Hermitage Bay where we anchor next to a beautiful beach and resort.
After our late lunch, we fly the drone in the early evening light before the sun slips into the Caribbean Sea. OMG it’s so nice to be at anchor again, rocking gently, listening to the chorus of tree frogs on land, the waves lapping up the beach and the lovely breeze passing through the boat. We are definitely back to cruising mode!
We were planning on having a walk on the beach, but it’s now in the shade of the hill so we decide to just chill (for once!) and take in the delights of the evening sky from the cockpit … with a glass of wine in hand.
