Letter from the Indies - Anguilla

Perfect SW

Road Bay Harbour © SW

Inside we are surrounded by aquamarine, sapphire and turquoise seas and then whiter than white fine sand beaches. Ashore there are luxury hotels and very good restaurants, but that’s where the paradise island ends.

Perhaps development has been too fast and the infrastructure and local needs forgotten.

Anguilla was one of the English Islands in the area, and when the British decided to decolonise all their islands, they lumped Anguilla together with St Kitts and Nevis 75 nms south. Anguilla revolted, and after a few little skirmishes the Colonial Office made them an autonomous colony. The

Rebuilt bar after Hurricane Omar © SW

island still has direct ties to the 'motherland'.

Hurricane Omar which passed through the Caribbean in October 2008 tracked through this island. No-one complains, they just rebuild quickly and move on. The beach in Road Bay was apparently littered with yachts and fishing boats but due to the soft sand surrounding the bay they were all easily dragged off.

Road Bay Harbour is one of the nicest harbours and there is no charge to anchor. If you visit other bays and the islands offshore you need to buy a daily permit, for us US$50. Some cruisers get upset about paying but from our perspective it doesn’t hurt

Tommaso © SW

to pay sometimes, especially when the fees go towards protection of the coral and sea life.

Returning by hire car for another day we have to revisit Shoal Beach to confirm it wasn’t a dream. For anyone seeking tranquillity to heal the mind, body and soul, this would have to be one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. All wrapped in blue, the air is clear and breezy, the sky is bright and the water inviting.

Also enjoying this special part of the world is Italian windsurfer Tommaso Wirz and girlfriend, who has many friends amongst the windsurfers of NZ and

Just Another beach © SW

Australia.

As someone once said, “Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints”.

Anguilla is our departure point for the British Virgin Islands 80 nms to the west. For us that will be a day sail as we can average 8 knots in a good wind. We have two weather web sites we check regularly, one is www.windguru.com used mainly by the surfers and kite boarders showing the windiest places.

It suits me. At a quick glance I get wind strength, direction and, most importantly, wave height and direction. Ian prefers www.bouyweather.com, which

Salt pond birds © SW

shows the whole area in which we are sailing. At the moment we are looking for wind so that we don’t burn diesel fuel even though it is cheap at US83c a litre.

Saturday shows the perfect picture - with just enough wind to keep Ian happy and a following two metre wave height which makes me happy.

A day trip to the marine reserve Prickly Pear Island is a paradise of coral and crystal clear water with only two bars ashore. Saturday has arrived and with dawn breaking at 0630hrs the anchor is up, the mainsail hoisted and a tropical storm passes over.

Now THAT’s a Wahoo © SW

A quick glance at the chart to ensure we clear the very low Sandy Island to the north as visibility is nil, and a beautiful day follows. By 1100hrs we are half way. Rolling along and dreaming, our quiet surrounds are interrupted by zinggggggg and the forgotten fishing line we are trolling takes our attention. Out comes the fish book and it’s identified as a 10 kilo Wahoo a first for us and - read the book - yes we can eat it.

With all the coral around, fish can be contaminated with the poisonous Ciguatera. According to the locals there are two methods of telling if a fish is poisonous. The first is that if ants don’t crawl over the fish it is poisonous (The only problem is that I don’t have ants on board). The other is to place a slice of potato in the flesh; if it goes black the fish is poisonous. My theory is: 'If in doubt let it go.'

But the Wahoo did have a small win; when flicking him into the inflatable dinghy which we always haul up on the transom, the hook managed to puncture one of the tubes and it deflated very quickly. So it's just another job to do when we anchor.

The weather sites are both correct and we have a perfect crossing sailing all the way taking 9 hours.

So here we are in the British Virgin Islands and yes, this is very different. We pass Necker Island, Richard Branson’s private paradise island complete with imitation palms on the small sand cay in the lagoon. Helicopters come and go from the cruise yachts as beautiful lush islands greet us.

We are here for over six weeks so we will have plenty of time to explore the many islands of the Virgins, which many cruisers consider equal to the Ionian Islands of Greece.