Sailing with the Treleavens - Antigua
by Andrea and Ian Treleaven on 27 Apr 2008
White Hawk Ian & Andrea Treleaven
What a wonderful treat to be in Antigua for the Classic Yacht Regatta 2008, with over 60 vessels competing from 148ft down to 30ft. Our favourites ones are the vintage gaff rigged yachts built from 1890 to 1915. Some of course were only built 5 years ago but to the original drawings, construction and rig. It seems to be that vintage is the new toy for those that have everything.
Of particular interest was the dog fight between the old Americas cup J class ‘Ranger’ and ‘Velsheda’ both at over 130ft with close match racing around the course. ‘Eleonora’, a 120ft gaff rigged schooner, is an exact replica of the Schooner Westward designed and built by Herreshoff in the early 1900’s and successfully raced with the famous Charlie Barr as skipper. She looks stunning under sail and was even more amazing to go onboard.
The regatta only competed 3 of the 4 races as the last day was abandoned due to no wind, a first for us in the Caribbean since arriving 4 ½ months ago.
Between the two regattas and with Annie and Baney on board we have an opportunity to sail around to Green Island for a few days. On approach to the entrance of the lagoon we spot a catamaran up on the reef and always a reminder to be very aware. The unfortunate owner was
late leaving port and arrived in the dark to negotiate a narrow channel between reefs. There was no hope of salvage and the owner was trying to save everything possible.
A stunning area of shades of blue and green, white sand and conch shells everywhere. Conch is a local food and the beautiful shells lie everywhere broken on the beach but live ones can also be found at your feet in very shallow water. It’s very hard to
accept the waste of these beautiful shells but to them they are like oysters to us.
At anchor in the lagoon one of the yachts organised a beach party and before long as the sun was setting over 10 inflatable’s were lined up on the beach as we all shared stories of our travels.
Lobster is also plentiful around the island and relatively inexpensive if
purchased from the local fish market. It is always a treat to have them freshly killed and head straight back to the yacht to BBQ. Along with the rum which we can buy by the cask in the Caribbean we are certainly enjoying the local produce.
Antigua Sailing Week starts tomorrow and should be a lot of fun. Not too much preparation as we are in the cruising division with no spinnaker so plan to enjoy as the big maxis ‘Leopard’ and
‘Rambler’ fight it out. There are nearly 200 entries with about half the fleet in cruising divisions.
Passing the mid winter marks the weather warming up, the sea temperature will rise to 28deg and this means the hurricane season is fast approaching. Most owners will start to store their boats outside the hurricane belt (south of 12 degrees) around the end of May. Our plan is sail 350nm south on the 5th May to Grenada
taking 3 weeks. Geoff and Pip Lavis from Sydney are joining us, so we have plenty of time to enjoy as we sail back down the arc of 11 islands.
Storage will mean hauling ‘Cape Finisterre’ out of the water, placing her in a one piece cradle and strapping down to very deep anchor points in the compacted ground. We will strip the mast and deck of all the sails, halyards, remove the dodger and bimini and lay the boom on the deck. All this reduces windage when and if a hurricane does pass through. We will keep our fingers crossed!!!!
Plans for next season are to return early November and sail very quickly back to Antigua and then enjoy the rest of the Leeward Islands, the stunning Virgin Islands then all the way to the white sands of the Bahamas passing through the Turks, Caicas Islands and maybe Cuba on the way.
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