We have just returned from a 3 week sail/surf/kite trip from st lucia to st martin and back .... A great trip but we got a bit of bad luck on the wind situation. Leaving St Lucia we sailed 40 hours straight to st martin in 20 to over 30knots of howling wind to pick up our new dinghy and motor. Along with great sailing we had good luck on the fishing, catching 4 nice yellowfin tuna and a couple of tasty barracuda.
Almost as soon as we dropped anchor in simpson bay the wind turned off like someone had flicked a switch. ..... After a couple of days of spending money on the boat and a few late nights enjoying the party atmosphere out we headed up to tintamarre island on the hope of some kiting or at least some surfing, the latter we were able to do and we scored a nice peaky reefbreak for several hours to ourselves.
Wind never showed! after a few days at tintamarre we had to return to St Martin to pick up yve and zvika who were coming to join us from israel. With them onboard and a couple of days waiting for wind in St Martin we decided to sail down to beautiful barbuda, with a nice swell on the way and wind actually forecast we were thinking we were going to score big time (when you get barbuda with wind AND waves it's unforgetable) Unfortunately the wind never really showed as forecast (Zvika's OZONE ZEPHYR 17M got alot of use though), i did one session in my 12 .... The swell bumped up as predicted and we got some very nice very hollow rights at a location that will remain nameless.
After several days enjoying Barbuda we headed for Antigua, 8 miles south of barbuda we recieved and amazing sight none of us had ever experienced before ..... a pod of humpback whales breaching right behind the boat!!! Amazing! we even saw another pod off St Johns as we arrived in antigua.
After refuel and re-supply we headed for the east coast of antigua and kited the north sound before moving off to green island .... Zvika and Toddy Kited along with us. Green Island is great fairly flat water spot with a cool little school setup (40 Knots Kiteboarding, Excellent place for sailors to learn because they will pick you up right from your boat in the anchorage)
We all had a nice session the next morning but then the wind went so light even Zvika couldnt kite on his 17m so we made the decision to flag kitesurfing for a couple of days and sail to dominica.
Dominca is one of my favourites to relax and take in the scenary. Our last day there we all visited the home of some friends Tim, Jessica and Skye. Words cannot really explain how awesome their property is so here's some pics.
After a delicous BBQ and some rums and freshly squeezed grapefruits from the garden we had to return to the boat for sail to st lucia so Yve and Zvika could catch flights in the morning, bit slow going due to the light wind but arrived in time for them to grab a taxi and race to the airport.............
Now we are back at home in Rodney Bay getting a few little jobs done before heading down to the grenadines for some more kite action on April 2nd.
