People & Country

After more than three days of crossing, exhausted and satisfied, we drop anchor in the bay on the northwest side of Isla Mujeres. The anchorage is calm with a light breeze. Here we want to clear in to continue sailing south in Mexico later. We go ashore and first of all have dinner in a marina. The island is a tourist hell, but after Cuba Mexico seems to us like a gourmet temple: guacamole and tacos, fresh fruit juices and juicy meat.

As we approach Cuba on an early morning in May, after three days and three nights on the open sea, we immediately realize that everything is different here. In the bay off Santiago de Cuba, on the eastern edge of the big island, men drift across the water on truck tubes, a paddle in one hand and a fishing line in the other. The sailing itself should also be somewhat unusual here in Cuba.

Our journey from Antigua via Barbuda to St. Maarten.

On the morning of January 21, we leave Montserrat and set course for the neighboring island of Antigua. The distance to Jolly Harbor would be 22 nautical miles by direct route, but we have to tack upwind and that takes time. The waves are high and the ride is rough. We have one reef in the mainsail and initially one in the genua. Mabul rides the waves up and down so that the seawater flows over the bow and deck into the cockpit and from there back into the sea.

A small, at first glance inconspicuous, island in the Caribbean away from charter tourism catches our attention: Montserrat. Two natural disasters have struck the island in the past 30 years, and now almost two-thirds of the entire island is off-limits.

«Ten, nine, eight…..one! Happy New Year! Welcome 2023!»
A new year, a new life, a new island. We celebrate the turn of the year on SV Take 5 of Suzi and Emmanuel, together with our Dutch-Indian friends.

Finally, the real Caribbean again! That’s my first thought as we drop anchor in Prince Rupert Bay in the northwest of Dominica. We are immediately greeted by local fishermen offering buoys, fish, vegetables and everything else.

Martinique surprises us. Not because the island offers special nature experiences or a particularly interesting history, but because it is a kind of mini-Southern France in the Caribbean. Already on the first evening, after we wearily anchored in Sainte Anne on November 25 and cleaned up the boat, we make a short shore leave. Behind the dinghy dock of Sainte Anne is a small park, behind it a church, in between a post office, a few restaurants and a Carrefour Express.

Bequia’s Admirality Bay has been considered one of the safest and quietest natural harbors in the Caribbean for centuries. The water is calm and clear, the green forested hills surround the bay in a safe embrace and fine sandy beach wraps around the turquoise waters like a belt. No wonder pirates and pop stars alike have chosen this bay to anchor their ships and we don’t want to leave either.