We’re planning to go to Jolly Harbour today and overnight I figured out how to rig our whisker pole for the trip. It should be pretty much 100% downwind. We’re a little late starting and I’m rigging up the pole getting ready to go when Jackie and David come motoring into the bay. They are just stopping for lunch but tell us they were concerned about the coming windy weather and decided not to go to Nonsuch Bay, a beautiful area on the southeast side of Antigua and though protected by reefs, can be rough in the wrong winds. We think the wrong winds are coming.

They will stop in Jolly so we say we’ll see them there.

Off we go. I must admit the whisker pole is magical and makes downwind sailing very comfortable. No chance of an accidental jibe and no flopping and flipping of the foresail. We don’t put a lot of sail out but another benefit of the way I have rigged it is you can take sail in and out from the cockpit. It’s a very nice sail around the corner to Jolly.

It’s quite shallow all around Jolly but not very windy nor rolly at all and we’re quite happy to find a good anchorage just outside the harbour. We dinghy into the marina where there is an excellent, five star dinghy dock and tie up. We explore the very nice dock community around the harbour and then Christy goes to the very good grocery store (strawberries and broccoli on sale!) while I hit Budget Marine down at the other end of the street.

We’re starting to like this country – they commemorate, preserve, maintain and actually document their monuments and they make sailors comfortable with excellent facilities and plenty of services. Everything is very civilized. On top of that, Christy tells me there are 365 beaches here. We know there are coves and bays all around Antigua, even on the Atlantic side. We see why Roger, David and Jackie like it here and we will definitely return. But for now, we only have 5 days before we want to start heading back to Grenada so a longer exploration will have to wait until next season.

I get a text from David saying they’ve anchored not far from us so on our way back we swing by Tara B for a chat. We’re going to hang out on our own boats this evening but we’ll go for a foil with David in the morning.

Back on Milu we put away our goodies and settle in for the evening. It’s a very nice anchorage, we’re not sure if it’s the conditions or it’s always like this, probably a bit of both, but it’s quite calm and not rolly at all.