Sailing Miss Daisy

21 Feb – 1 Apr 2017
(Antigua to England back to Antigua and then to St Barts!)

Hey folks it’s been a while since we’ve posted and an awful lot has gone on. Therefore it’s going to have to be a quick summary rather than the usual in depth detail that I like to include.

We spent quite a while in Antigua and did a few very short passages with Daisy Bean which were all successful and she slept for most of them. Feeling it was time to move on to new pastures and make some fresh memories as a family we decided to attempt our first proper sail with the baby. The plan was to head for the half French half Dutch island of St Maarten, 90-100 miles and about a 20 hour passage. Unfortunately it was a little uncomfortable and 13 miles in we had to turn around heading back to Antigua as it transpired that our gorgeous little boat baby gets sea sick. A little disheartened but I took away lots of positives, it wasn’t a very nice experience but Simon and I had worked well as a team and didn’t kill each other.

Photos above: 1) Daisy barricaded by cushions on a short passage.
2) Visiting Nelson’s Dockyard again in English Harbour.
3) A sick baby, scared doggy & uncomfortable mummy on the 3 hour trip back to Antigua.  

Our failed attempt kind of turned out to be fortunate in a not so fortunate kind of way as a few days later we got the very sad news that a close family member had past away. Being in Antigua meant we could get back the UK straight away on a direct flight. I won’t dwell on it within the blog as losing someone close is a very private and personal experience.
Being back in the UK so soon was surreal but it was lovely for everyone to get to see Daisy again especially as she has grown into such a happy fun little bean. After 12 days back in England we returned back the boat, ready to try and pick up where we left off. We spent some more time with our much loved friends Rick & Helen on Catamaran Symmetry who had also been in Antigua. They have helped us so much with all sorts and we really enjoyed their company, it was sad saying goodbyes but that is the cruising life and hopefully we’ll meet again.

Photos above: 1) Back at the airport again. 2) Returning to Tudor Rose moored alongside

Ready to try and set sail again for St Maarten we decided to pick a very calm day, which meant we had motor but Daisy’s comfort was much more important than saving the diesel and engine running hours. This time it was a success, despite being at sea the entire day she had 2 good naps, plenty of play time, some solids for lunch and her usual evening bath in the cockpit. We even caught a fish for dinner on route. In the end we decided to stop off at St Barthelemy as it was a little closer and on route to St Maarten. Half an hour before our arrival Daisy was seasick again but was in good spirits and had managed 12 hours at sea until this only poorly incident.
Trying to anchor in the dark, in an unknown and very busy anchorage on the other hand was not so enjoyable. Daisy Bean was a little angel sleeping the entire time and when it comes to situations like this Simon and I communicate and work well together. Probably because our lives and the boat remaining intact depend on it, however a relatively straightforward trip to the supermarket is quite a different story (which you will hear all about in due course)…… and we totally lose our heads!!!!
Extremely tired but very glad to finally be on our way and excited to explore a new place we crawled into bed for a well deserved sleep. Our luck was all out by this point though and the dreaded Northern swell rocked & lurched the boat all night waking us up repeatedly.

Photos below: Life back onboard in Antigua shortly before heading to St Barts 

Special Thanks to Trish & John (Holly & Fred) for giving Scrumpy a nice break from us & looking after him while we were back in England XXX