Leaving Anguilla 3-27

Today we checked out of Anguilla, which went very smooth. The customs people are very friendly asking if we enjoyed our visit and welcoming us back again. The kids take some books down to Roy’s where they have an book exchange room. We also try to buy a few more groceries, but the only store in Road Bay is very sparse, and we end up with only a small loaf of bread (the British really need to take some baking lessons from the French) and some crackers. Kids have a nice swim on the beach, and by 11 we are ready to head out. As we leave the dock we see a large fish swimming towards the dinghy. It looks like a 4-5’ shark. Can’t tell what type, but it didn’t have the sucker like head of nurse shark. I tried to follow it, but it disappeared under the dock before we could get a better look.

Wind is from the east, and no matter which side of the island we choose it will be into the wind. We opt for the north side of Anguilla and taking the cut between Scrub Island and Anguilla. We have read that whales come to the area around scrub island from Jan to May, so we are hoping to spot one. Its a long slog into the wind and waves to the east end of the Island. Wind is around 17 knots and the waves are pretty steep. Lots of pounding. The cut between the islands is tight, but the charts do not show any hazzards (other than the reefs on both shores). With the height of the waves, I’m a little concerned about breaking waves through the cut, but it turns out to be calm in the middle, and a simple passage. We take many pictures of the cut, with the waves crashing on the rocks, trying to capture the water colors. Sorry, pictures just do not capture it.

Once through the cut, we turn south towards Tintamarre. It’s taken about 2 hours for us to make it this far, a little longer than expected, but we are still in good shape to get there in Mid/late afternoon. We are dragging ‘Lucky Louie’ the lure the whole way, but for the first time have no luck.

We make it to Tintamarre about 3:30 and the people that have come for the day are starting to leave, so there are a couple of balls available. We grab the first one, but it may be a little close to the point. We can see some of the swells making it around and rocking the closest boats. A small fishing boat leaves a mooring that is further south and closer to shore. Hoping that this will provide a quieter night, we drop the first ball and head over to the other one. Somewhere the Boat Channel cameras must be rolling. Our boat hook has been a bit flaky, sometimes not tightening down properly. We have it locked, but at a short length. At this length, its a bit of a stretch to reach the ball, and oops, Tracy drops the hook. (Tim and Katie, we are having flashbacks to that time at Put-In-Bay when this happened during the big storm). This time the weather is clear and, so I hop in the dinghy to try and save our only boat hook. As I make it around to the front of the boat, some girls on the next boat are yelling and pointing at the back of the boat. I look back there as Noah is grabbing the hook from the swim deck. We almost run over another ball while I’m getting back on the boat, but regroup and head back to pick up the chosen ball. This time we hold on to the boat hook, and pull up the line. But it has been damaged by a prop, and has only a few good strands left. So we drop this one and head for yet another ball. The pennant on this one is fine, and at last we are set for the night. We head in to shore for a quick swim and hike. Technically this is not allowed since we have not cleared in to St. Martin, but its a deserted island and unlikely to be a problem. On shore we see lots of hermit crabs wandering around through the scub brush and two large tortoises (not sea turtles). I’m hoping for another big iguana, but no luck there. Back on the beach the waves are coming in pretty hard. We have the dinghy well up on shore and the anchor buried in the sand. We sit and watch as each wave takes the dinghy closer to the water, while our anchor slowly pulls out of the sand. So much for that system. We wait until the waves have pulled the dinghy into the water, and then jump in to go to the boat.  For dinner we fry up the last of the red snapper from the freezer. We are getting low on meat, and will need to re-provision in St. Thomas. We have a few showers in the evening, but overall it was calm and nice.