Sailing in the Caribbean

Wednesday, 15.11.

We finally find the harbour!

• The first day in the Caribbean starts almost like a cliché with an excellent breakfast in the hotel accompanied by a splendid sea view. =)

• Afterwards it turns less romantic and I work on the PhD thesis, for which the committee has of course sent the comments now of all times – before we are on the sailing ship and unreachable for ten days.
• Then we head into town, firstly out of curiosity and secondly to get snorkeling equipment and flip flops.
• This turns out to be more difficult than expected. It reminds me a bit of the pass A38 situation from Asterix and Obelix: we are sent from one store to another and everyone tells us “No, we don’t have it, but maybe try there.”
• We finally find a snorkeling set in a fancy store run by a British woman who apparently lives here (i.e. on the island, not in the store).
• What we also discover on our search is a bookshop, which of course I can’t resist. We take a quick look inside (before Matthäus literally pulls me out) and they have a really great selection and best of all: there’s a café right next to it/inside.
• Off we go to another café right by the harbor, where we meet up with our sailing crew.
• Most of them are already there and it turns out to be a great group: We are sailing in a flotilla with two ships. Our ship is the German-speaking one and our crew are: Nicole, our skipper, Marlon, the coskipper, Nicole aka Nicki, Adriana, Andi, Johanna and the two of us. The second boat is the international one with Leon as skipper, Duncan and Mingsu from Australia, Nathan and Brent from the USA and Kristin and Annika from Germany.
• Nicki tells us that she and Adriana arrived together on a super small plane with mainly Caribbean passengers, although apparently some were not entirely convinced of the airworthiness of their plane and shouted “Amen, Amen” loudly after landing (Nicki manages to imitate the Caribbean-English accent perfectly).

• We start writing the shopping list, because a group is about to head to the supermarket. In the meantime, I set off for the harbor with our skipper team and luggage as the designated luggage guard.
• Together with our Uber driver, we search the entire harbor basin for the harbor – first we drive to one side of the basin, then to the other, only to drive back again and finally find it after three attempts. Of course, the wildly waving Brent and Nathan are somewhat of a help in the search.

• We find our boats, store the luggage on board – and wait a while until the shopping team comes back completely exhausted.

• Everything is stored on board, then there is a short round of introductions, a few words of welcome from our skippers and we round off the evening with drinks.

Thursday, 16.11.

Ukulele-Evening

• We get up early and, thanks to technical defects that still need to be looked at by the technician, we have a delay in our departure.
• The charter master (and rarely is the word as appropriate as here), a real personality, takes us and our boat out of the harbor- a route she likes to take together with the skippers the first time, as the water here is full of reefs and other obstacles.
• “Wow, she just shot out of there at 8km/h…”, says Marlon in amazement and I couldn’t have put it better – she indeed shot out of the harbor at full throttle while pointing out passing obstacles and reefs to Nicole.

• Our destination today is a small bay nearby, which we reach – under sail =) – so quickly that we simply sail the same route there and back again because we enjoy sailing so much.
• Once we arrive in the bay, we drop anchor with a shore line before the other boat joins us later.

• Swimming, snorkeling, chilling on the SUP and floating around on inflatable platforms is all we do for the rest of the day and the athmosphere is super relaxed.

• In the evening, we all meat up on the other boat, Nicki and Leon unpack their ukuleles and we start singing together – mega! Campfire atmosphere without a campfire.

• Nate and Brent learn to sing “99 Luftballons”, and Nate in particular has a talent for shouting “Luftballons” at the right moment.

Friday, 17.11.

The Famous Baths and a Fish

• We set off early, covering the short distance to the famous baths in no time at all. The baths are very famous stones, apparently.
• Adriana and I get a bit (totally) seasick.
• It’s a relief when we set off in the dinghy towards the shore.
• It’s a bit of an adventure because you have to swim the last stretch and the red flag indicating that you shouldn’t swim is raised for a reason – one wave after another runs into the bay and smashes against the rocks with quite a lot of force.
• Nevertheless, we all make it to the shore and discover that we have to pay an entrance fee for the tour and are only allowed to walk along it in one direction.

• Indeed, in some places, the path is really narrow and the crowds are obviously usually big – at least judging by the Instagram photos we saw beforehand.
• It’s not quite as busy today, the cruise ships won’t be back for a few days.
• At first, the path is completely unspectacular, but later comes the highlight: the path leads along the shore through very closely spaced and towering rocks through which the seawater is washed in.

• In some places it reminds us of the Antelope Canyon with its play of colors due to the light of the sun shining through the narrow rock passage, which is reflected in the water in a very spectacular way.

• At the end, a bar (“Poor man’s Bar”) is waiting for us – the name is not appropriate, by the way.
• No wonder, as most of the people visiting are cruise ship passengers or celebrities who come here for photo shoots or whatever.

• We have a drink and a bite to eat before swimming back to the boat and continuing our journey – under motor.
• Marlon casts out his fishing rod: The last thing I note before I take a nap.
• When I wake up, we have already arrived in the bay where we are anchoring for the night.
• Later I find out that Marlon has caught a fish (his first in the Caribbean!).

• He tells how first a huge fish bit (“Such a huge (arms stretched wide apart) fish”), which then bit off the bait and disappeared. Then, just as he was about to reel in, a small fish bit, which he successfully brought into the boat.
• A mackerel (says Google Lens) and probably a very young one, as small as it is (adult specimens grow up to 1.8m).
• Nicki and I cook coconut curry for dinner, which is delicious.
• Then Marlon prepares his fish, which is super tasty (really delicious) and which he, Matthäus, Nicki and I enjoy.
• It’s a bit of a sleepy day otherwise, so it’s not long before we all head off to bed.

Saturday, 18.11.

“Can you show my wife?”

• The wind is good and the weather is perfect, the sails are set.
• It’s mega: sailing through the beautiful turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, we pass green, hilly islands with white sandy beaches lined with palm trees.

• Reading, chilling on board, all in all a very cozy afternoon.
• We virtually sail the route back again and then anchor in the bay of Willy T, a bar that floats in the water.

• Drinks are quickly organized and we find a seat on the 2nd floor, as it still is rather empty.

• Nicole, Nicki, Adriana and Johanna decide to get tattoos: The whole thing is a bit suspicious, the guy already says “only ladies” and when Nathan, who we only call “David” (á la David Hasselhoff) after seeing his swimming skills, asks: “Yes, but what if I identify as a woman?” the tattoo artist replies: “We do not do identifying.”

• So the four of them go there and suddenly we hear a loud slap before Nicki comes back with a tattoo on her butt plus a handprint. We are shocked to say the least – WTF!!!!
• A guy comes along and asks Nicki: “Show me the tatoo, please?”, and when she stands up and shows him, he says “wooow”, exhaling loudly. Two minutes later he comes back with a woman and says: “Can you show my wife?”, five minutes later he’s back: “Can you show my friends?” (Are you kidding me?)
• It’s a tradition to jump into the water from the 2nd floor – so it doesn’t take too long until everyone has jumped into the water at least once – very nice.

• It gets wilder and wilder, we drive back to the ship, have a few more drinks, drive back to the bar and have a great time there.

• Finally, we decide to jump in one last time: We are all standing at the top of the railing when we suddenly see a shark moving gently through the brightly lit water below us.
• Our skipper Nicole had warned us beforehand that you shouldn’t swim here at night because that’s when the sharks hunt.

Sunday, 19.11.

The rusty nail

• I don’t wake up until noon, finally get up at 1 p.m. and we’re already sailing through the water under set sails – nice!
• Off we go to a bay with a shipwreck.

• We spend a long time looking for an anchorage as it’s wavy and windy, but eventually we find one.
• Marlon makes cheese toast for lunch, which is delicious, but unfortunately we don’t have any cheese or toast left afterwards, even though we had planned to eat it for lunch for four days – oops.
• A group of us take the dinghy ashore and go to the wreck: Marlon promptly steps into a rusty nail, so they get back quickly and fortunately he gets medical aid immediately by our medical staff on board (Adriana is a midwife and Johanna is a physiotherapist).
• We even spot a turtle while swimming and snorkeling!

• We have a potato mix for dinner – with tzatziki made by Johanna.
• We chill out on deck while Adriana takes the dinghy to the others because we’ve run out of beer and have planned an egg-for-beer swap.

• It goes disastrously wrong and ends with Adriana drinking beer with the others and there are now eggs and beer on the other boat and nothing left with us (ok, we kept a few eggs).
• Annika comes over later and we chat a bit.

Monday, 20.11.

Flamingos and Lobster

• We set off very early as we have planned the long crossing to Anegada.
• So we just have a quick breakfast before we cast off and set sail – nice!

• We listen to Ballermann music all the time (and the route is long), Konsti would love it.
• Marlon puts out his fishing rod, but although something bites now and then, the bait usually breaks off afterwards or the fish doesn’t bite properly and so we don’t have fish for lunch but potatoes with green salad.

• As soon as we have moored at a buoy before lunch, a guy with a dinghy approaches us, who we think is the harbour master coming to collect money. It turns out to be not the harbour master but Sam, a random guy who greets us loudly with a song – a memorable experience.
• At lunch, we enjoy “Hafenkino”: A sailing boat arrives, which immediately catches our attention as a woman is standing at the bow like some kind of Amazon with a boat hook held horizontally (presumably to indicate the position of the buoy).
• Then the guy at the steering wheel and her try to moor at the buoy together: After the guy has run over the buoy about 5 times, his wife/friend finally catches it with the boat hook, whereupon the guy runs over the buoy and the boat hook without batting an eyelid. Unsurprisingly, the boat hook cannot withstand such forces (a catamaran running it over) and breaks off. After our skippers saw this, they insist even more than ever on picking up buoys at the stern instead of the bow and, if at the bow, then to the side of the catamaran and not in the middle. So there they are, without a boat hook and buoy, looking slightly desperate. Sam finally takes pity on them (after watching the scene slightly amused for a while) and comes to them with his little dinghy, picks up the buoy and the ruined boat hook and hands both to the woman. To top it all off, she lays the line so that it runs over the railing, which is almost torn down as a result.
• After all the action, they both look really exhausted.
• We take the dinghy ashore, where we borrow scooters to explore Anegada.

• The island is special because, unlike the other BVI islands, it is flat, surrounded by reefs.
• Therefore, riding a scooter is easy cheesy lemonsqueezy.
• Although: you drive on the left-hand side (it is the British Virgin Islands after all), which takes some getting used to and shortly after we set off, a car promptly comes towards us on the right-hand side – ha, we’ve got him, the tourist (or he almost got us)!
• Our first stop is a viewing platform from which you can watch flamingos: We all climb the platform, look over and all ask ourselves: “Where are the flamingos?” Finally, we spot a huge flock almost on the horizon.
• We continue to the other side of the island, where there is a beautiful beach at which we meet the people from the other boat.

• There we chill out on the beach in comfortable armchairs and Adriana and I organize a round of beers for everyone at the beach bar.
• We continue on to a rescue center for baby iguanas, which are raised in cages to protect them from cats.

• We arrive and no one is there: Matthäus has already read this in the guidebook: “If no one is there, just go inside”, and that’s exactly what we do.
• The whole thing is a bit wild: some of the cages are simply open and even the ones with iguanas are only secured with an open padlock.
• Looking at the iguanas is reminiscent of a visit to the reptile house at the zoo: We stand together in front of a cage that is supposedly empty until someone calls out: “Look there!” and you finally realize that the cage is not empty. One of the iguanas is sitting on the bars at the back, a bit like someone has – bam – slapped him against the wall.
• We come to two more very beautiful beaches and at one we treat ourselves to another round of drinks and at the other Marlon finds his new dream house.

• However, there are lots of mosquitoes and we all get stung. It doesn’t get any better when we arrive at the lobster restaurant and meet the other group there.
• Thank goodness the restaurant has mosquito spray, which we spray ourselves with every 10 minutes or so – otherwise it’s really unbearable.

• The lobster, of course, is exquisite!

• The others are obviously even more troubled than us by the mosquitoes and leave shortly after they have finished eating.
• We (the group from our boat) stay for a while with our wine, chatting and enjoying the atmosphere, which is very nice here right by the sea, despite the mosquitoes.

Tuesday, 21.11

No Service on the Island or sailing in reverse gear

• We are all happy when we see the island of Anegada, which has been overrun by the seaweed, disappear on the horizon and our destination for today, Joost van Dyke, appears in front of us.
• The sailing is once again picture-perfect: wind and weather are great until a huge rain cloud rolls in – ah, that’s typical of the Caribbean, says Nicole unperturbed.

• And indeed, after a brief shower, the whole thing is over.
• Marlon casts out his fishing rod.
• The atmosphere is very chilled, so chilled in fact that everyone is asleep for a while.
• Suddenly Marlon shouts: “A fish, a fish!”, and there is action: Everyone jumps up, Nicole puts the boat into reverse gear with the sails set to reduce speed – and we sail in reverse, so to speak – you don’t do that every day!

• The fish is taken out of the water and killed with a blow to the head, causing a huge bloodbath on deck, which we are just trying to clean up with a bucket of water when Nicole suddenly shouts: “Dolphins!”
• Everyone droppes their activties around Marlon and the fish and runs to the bow, where a whole swarm of dolphins has surrounded the boat.

• The animals are very close, very playful and jump around the boat.
• We see several mothers with babies swimming alongside them.
• You can see how the animals glide elegantly through the water and catapult themselves away with a quick flick of their tail fin – great!
• And that’s after Johanna had just said: “We’ve already seen turtles, rays and flamingos – I’d still like to see dolphins!”
• A wish that came true immediately!
• After a few action-packed minutes, calm returns, the dolphins leave, Marlon’s fish is stowed away in the freezer and we have another nap.

• Suddenly Marlon’s voice echoes across the deck again: “Fish! Fish! And a big one this time!”
• The reactions are now almost routine: Nicole starts the motor and puts the boat in reverse, Nicki is already waiting with the winch handle and knife and Marlon hauls in the fishing line.
• We can already see the fish as it comes through the water 80 meters or less away.
• But then it rears up once more and swims away, hanging on to the line, which Marlon lets out a little, otherwise it would break off. Round after round the line unwinds from the fishing rod with a whirring sound.
• There’s no end to it and we’re already asking ourselves: “Wow, is the line long enough?” And Marlon slowly gets a cramp in his hand from holding on – a real fight with the fish.
• Unfortunately, the fish manages to break free with such force that it even tears off the entire front spring – wild!
• We drop anchor again today off the very (very!) small island of “Sandy Spit”, which looks as if it has been plucked off a postcard and cast into in the Caribbean.

• The small island stands out from the turquoise blue sea with its white sand and there are (exactly) three palm trees in the middle.
• The island has a diameter of around 20 meters at its widest point and “no stores, no service”, as our guide warns.

• It is very wavy and shallow and therefore navigating the boat is somewhat of a challenge, which Nicole manages really well of course and soon we are at anchor.
• We put on our swimsuits and are just about to jump into the water when the wind suddenly picks up and a thick cloud of rain moves in our direction.
• Soon heavy drops begin to fall from the sky and we are glad to have a roof to chill under.
• Again, it’s just a brief shower that’s over in a moment.
• So we take the dinghy over to the small baby island and take a look around: We see the reef, which starts impressively right behind the island and on which the waves break, from every possible direction.
• We also spot hermit crabs and small, almost transparent crabs that you can barely see as they run across the sand (or do the typical crab move).

• Someone has also laid a stone circle in the sand.
• The only thing we don’t find: The box with the rum, which must be buried somewhere.
• We snorkel back to the ship and see some unfortunately dead corals and lots of colorful, shimmering fish.
• We end the evening in a relaxed atmosphere: We play Schafkopf together with Marlon and Nicki and then switch to skat with Marlon – really nice altogether.
• We give Marlon and Nicki new nicknames: Mike and Elli. We came up with Mike, by the way, because Nicki learned the Nato alphabet today.
• Our ship’s name in the NATO alphabet is: “Mike Alpha November Uniform India Alpha”, better than that of the others: “Schabracke 6” (affectionately christened by us, actually Charette 6).
• Nicki already knew a few letters from the song “Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo”.

Wednesday, 22.11.

“Meiner Mutter ihrm Haus seinem Bauplatz”

• When I wake up, we’ve already sailed a bit and moored in another bay.
• There’s the Bubbly Pool here, which Adriana vehemently calls the “Shaggy Pool”.
• You can walk from the shore to this naturally formed pool, in which the waves break in such a way that it is like a whirlpool, which we do – together with the others.

• It’s amazing how you can see the waves roaring towards you before they smash between the rocks with an insane force and come towards you.

• The current is so strong that you are always swept back a few meters and then forward again by the undertow – quite a picture with all the people in the pool.

• After a bit of bubbling, we make our way back and stop at the beach bar, where we treat ourselves to drinks, of course.

• From the beach bar, we watch a pelican fishing on the shore. It swims, then dives under with a speed you wouldn’t have thought it capable of and then – bang – swallows the fish.
• Back to the boat and on to White Bay, where the famous Soggy Dollar Bar is located.
• It is known for having invented the Painkiller, a fruity rum mixture, and is so named because sailors swim across with the dollars in their pockets and then arrive there with “Soggy Dollars”.
• We do as they do, but we cheat a little and use the dinghy to reach the shore, which means we don’t get wet at all.

• The group from the other boat got stuck in the first bar that came along (typical), which isn’t the Soggy Dollar Bar at all, but some other overpriced beach bar.
• We move on to the real Soggy Dollar Bar and of course order Painkiller straight away – nice!

• Then we pop into the store and buy a round of souvenirs.
• Nicki, Matthäus and I take a walk along the beach, which is totally relaxing and nice, especially as the beach is once again a picture-book white Caribbean beach at its best.
• Because we like it so much, we stay there until sunset before continuing along the beach to another beach bar, where we decide to have dinner: they have an all-you-can-eat Caribbean barbeque.
• The rest of the group wants to go back to the boat first, but Marlon and I decide to just walk over and have a drink. A plan that comes close to failing as neither of us has any money with them.
• Luckily for us, we meet Nicki and Nate on the way over, who have been surfing together (Nate- following every cliché- is a surf instructor from California and lives in …. Orange County).
• Both are in their bathing suits and wet because they brought the SUP back to the boat and then swam here, as they should.
• However, they are hoping that the others will bring at least one for them and of course Adriana has brought one for Nicki.
• Meanwhile, the four of us sit down in the bar and Nate, who has a drybag with him, organizes a round of drinks.
• Soon the rest of the group arrives, more drinks are ordered and the atmosphere is relaxed.

• It’s hard to believe, but here in the middle of the Caribbean, someone suddenly approaches me about the Woodquarterrock T-Shirt and asks enthusiastically: “Wow, where is this nice festival happening?”

• Back to the boats, we have more drinks and Adriana tells us about “Meiner Mutter ihrm Haus seinem Bauplatz”.

Thursday, 23.11.

Getting up at sunset

• Today I have a somewhat sleepy day and get up in time for sunset.
• Meanwhile, the others were at an island very similar to Sandy Spit and then drove a little further to the spot where we are now – off Tortola with a view of St. John, the main island of the US Virgin Islands.

• Matthäus reads in the travel guide: “You need a license to bring firearms to the US Virgin Islands. On the British Virgin Islands they are prohibited.” A nice demonstration of cultural differences.
• The sunset, by the way, is totally worth getting up for, it’s the most beautiful we’ve had on the sailing trip so far.

• We all sit together on the roof and watch it, it’s a magical and beautiful moment.

• Then, at Nicki’s instigation, we play the 5 things game: “Name five things you see right now.” And since we said bland things in the first round, she asks us to be a bit more romantic. Matthäus: “The waves, the way they move in the wind”, Nicki: “Yes, that’s nice!”, me: “The transmission mast on the hill”.
• It continues with four things you can feel, three things you can hear and two things you can smell.
• Speaking of smells: For dinner, Johanna makes spaghetti lime, a recipe from Nicole that turns out to be delicious.

• Afterwards, we are all full and satisfied and lie around on deck in a schnitzel coma.
• I’m not in the mood for alcohol today anyway, but one group is still motivated and takes the dinghy to the other boat, which is moored at a buoy next to us.
• Matthäus and I chill out in the net at the front and chat under the beautiful starry sky.

Friday, 24.11.

“Today we are the bigger fish”

• Right at breakfast, when Nicki is talking about men and cars, Andi makes our day by stating: “If you want to impress me with your car you better have a food truck.”
• Off we go – and the sails are set.
• Marlon casts his rod and catches a mackerel almost instantly, just like the one we ate on the first day.
• Encouraged by this success, he casts the rod again and says with a big smile: “Wow, if we catch three fish, we can just give one to the others,” and Matthäus adds: “Today we’re the bigger fish.”
• And less than three minutes later: a tuna bites! The fishing line wasn’t even fully out yet.

• Shortly afterwards we reach our first destination for the day, which perhaps explains our fishing success: off Pelican Island there are three rocks in the water, the Indians, which are surrounded by coral reefs and therefore a perfect spot for snorkeling.

• Which is exactly what we do, of course. And the reef really is full of fish. We see Nemos (clownfish), Doris and other striped fish, which we can unfortunately only identify as “striped fish”.

• We also see lots of jellyfish.
• My favorite is a fish that moves both fins at the same time to move forward, like a bird flying, so to speak.
• Later, Duncan and Mingsu, who often go diving, explain that this was probably a parrotfish, which has a kind of beak and shimmers brightly.
• We snorkel around for a while, but then a few sailing boats dock and suddenly it gets uncomfortably crowded.

• By the way, we are lucky with the weather: it is bright sunshine and mega beautiful.
• We continue – under sail – on an upwind course to Tortola, into a bay near a restaurant, where we have dinner tonight.

• Once there, Marlon prepares his fish and we cook some rice to go with it: It’s a delicious and really local dinner.
• In addition, everyone from the other boat swims over and we drink a gin and tonic together as a “Anleger” (that’s the name of the drink you drink after a successful mooring maneuver while sailing).

• It’s time to pack up before we head off to the restaurant – in the dinghy, of course.
• The restaurant is beautifully situated on top of a hill and is really nice and cozy.
• They serve very fancy dishes and we order fish and seafood of course, Matthäus even orders a dish with lobster.

• There is also a cat roaming around our feet, hoping for some leftover fish.
• While we are in the restaurant, it starts to rain and we realize that we have all the hatches open! Great! Of course, as the hatch master, I’m immediately blamed for this, but it’s probably too late now.
• We take the dinghy for a spin around the boat and realize that yes, all the hatches are indeed wide open.
• It’s a good thing we’ve already packed, at least our stuff hasn’t really got wet.
• Afterwards, the others join us on our boat and we are all sad that it is already the last evening.

• Nate and Brent swim over with the crate of leftover alcohol and we distract ourselves by dancing, singing, drinking and chatting.

• We finish all the bottles of rum, only for Duncan and Brent to take it in turns to say: “Why is the rum gone?” Unfortunately, I can’t remember Elizabeth’s response (“Because it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels.”)

Saturday, 25.11.

So long, farewell

• We start early: first we have breakfast under the roof, as it’s raining, before we clean up a bit, etc.
• Off we go for the last mile to the gas station and then into the harbor.
• Refueling goes smoothly and I’m proud to throw the line around the cleat from the boat, nice.
• The cab to the airport has already been ordered: We take one together with Nicole, who also has to go to the airport, and the rest of the group from Leon’s boat and Marlon, who have booked a few more nights in a hotel on the island.

• The cab driver drives there first, which makes us slightly nervous as our flight departure is nearing.
• In addition, the drive is a bit wild: it’s up a mountain road with a hell of a gradient, which is so steep that our car starts to smoke.
• The cab driver is understandably reluctant to step on the gas and instead rolls downhill to gain more momentum.
• The car stalls several times and I think my favorite moment of the trip is when we come to a stop in a very steep switchback right up against the precipice, the cab driver tries to put the car in reverse, which he fails to do, and Duncan, who is sitting in the front passenger seat, looks slightly worried.
• It’s just as wild and winding down to the hotel where the others are staying.
• Marlon says: “Well, I’m not sure if the cab driver will make it back up there.” – and I find myself having the very same thought.
• We finally make it to the airport on time and this adventurous trip up the mountain marks the end of our super nice sailing vacation!
• And here is the route we covered in the 10 days: