Antigua to St. Maarten Bareboat Charter Advice

[Hud3]

Originally Posted by Parksie

We are planning a similar charter this November but not one way. We wanted to do a circular trip St Martin - St Kitts - Nevis - Antigua - Barbuda - Barts - St Martin.

We have 2 weeks on a 40' cat to complete the trip.

I would be interested in any comments / advice about the planned route. I am assuming a CCW direction would be slightly better in the NE trades ?

Thanks for any help.

CCW would be my choice for that route, unless something really weird and unusual was going on with the winds. You'll definitely get some nice sailing in between island stops, although I've always just motored up to Antigua from Nevis. We're pretty much dead downwind from them.

I always suggest to people that they clear in in Nevis and pick up a mooring at the south end of Pinneys Beach. Then if you want to "do" St Kitts, it's most convenient to take the 45 minute $10 ferry from Charlestown to Basseterre, find a taxi driver, and have a tour of the high spots, with a lunch stop.

Anchoring in Basseterre Harbour on St Kitts isn't that great. Be sure to get all the anchorages you might visit listed on your cruising permit: Pinneys, Tamarind & Oualie Bays on Nevis, and Cockleshell, Majors, Shitten, Ballast, and Whitehouse bays on St Kitts. It doesn't cost any more, and you might like a change of scenery. Pinneys, Oualie and Cockleshell are the ones with beach bars/restaurants.

[sailingaway221]

Generally, unless you get lucky and in November you may.. usually not that windy..... but if the trades are blowing from the east it is a pretty nasty sail up to Barbuda from St. Martin. Pretty much sailing upwind in the open Atlantic. However I would reccomend going that way from St. martin and not through the other islands first..... as once you get to BArbuda its all off the wind from there and getting from down island ie Nevis etc to Antigua sometimes if its windy is REALLY not something you want to do... even in someone elses boat. ( i'm sure HUD 3 will also agree with that route sometimes being horrible ) Not really a lot of fun.... Usually if we have guests onboard that don't sail a lot I head for St. Barts. Spend the night or a few there and use the little trip as a get used to the boat for everyone and St. Barts is a really nice spot. Then when you are ready to head off get going at three or four in the morning... before the wind pics up and head due east motoring ( again this is what I do.... ) until you get far enough east to lay Barbuda..... By the way this is usually a whole day long trip to get there at least... thats why we leave so early as there are lots of little rocks and reefs around Barbuda and you want to get there with plenty of daylight left. As a time reference... St. MArtin to St. Eustatius @ 8 knots is 4 hours... St. Barths Upwind to Barbuda can take 10 and if its really nasty more.....If you get any North in the wind you're ok. Once you get to Barbuda, everything else is pretty easy off the wind sailing... except the last leg from Saba back to St. MArtin....as long as theres no North its a nice tight reach... hope that helps.

[Parksie]

Thanks for you comments. I was thinking a CCW route would mean leaving Barbuda for Barts in darkness which is probably not good for navigating out through the Barbuda reefs ! We could have perhaps done the passage overnight.

So perhaps it is best to go CW & get a very early start from Barts.

From my last visit to the area 7-8 years ago, we had mainly NE trades. Is November more likely to yield an E blow ?

Finally can you suggest the most reliable weather forecast to check before we leave Barts.

Many thanks for your help. I may be back with more questions !

[Connemara]

I know it's a typo, but the title of this thread stopped me cold....I'd love to charter a barboat.

Connemara

[Hud3]

Originally Posted by Connemara

I know it's a typo, but the title of this thread stopped me cold....I'd love to charter a barboat.

Connemara

Heh!

I can fix that...

Originally Posted by parksie

Thanks for you comments. I was thinking a CCW route would mean leaving Barbuda for Barts in darkness which is probably not good for navigating out through the Barbuda reefs ! We could have perhaps done the passage overnight.

So perhaps it is best to go CW & get a very early start from Barts.

From my last visit to the area 7-8 years ago, we had mainly NE trades. Is November more likely to yield an E blow ?

Finally can you suggest the most reliable weather forecast to check before we leave Barts.

The trick is to work your way up to the anchorages along Barbuda's western side in daylight, creating a GPS track that gets you past the reefs into open water. The reefs aren't very numerous on that side, but a good GPS track is the ticket. Then you can depart before daybreak with no worries.

You don't want to miss that part of Barbuda. The beach there is nine miles of white sand with only one abandoned building that I saw, and the water is an incredible turquoise. You can call on the VHF for a water taxi to meet you on the lagoon side of the beach to take you over to Codrington to clear out.



Here's a sketch chart from Chris Doyle's website...



We went in through the reef on the southeast corner, spent the night, then worked our way west through the coral heads, around Palmetto Point and up the west coast. Doyles' Leeward Islands guidebook has everything you'll need to know about navigation, clearance, etc.

The counterclockwise route exposes you to much less beating into headwinds overall. Look at Windfinder for a seven day forecast, and also wind statistics by month. The NE Trades don't blow from the NE very much down here. It's mostly between ENE and ESE, with E being the predominant direction, as you can see from this page on Windfinder.

[Parksie]

Thanks for that very useful info. Would prefer to do the long passage from Barbuda to Barts with the wind rather than against it. So of the 3 options:

a. Leave Barbuda early (in darkness) to arrive Barts before sunset.
b. Leave Barbuda at sunrise to arrive Barts possibly in darkness.
c. Leave Barbuda just before sunset for overnight sail to Barts.

Which do you recommend ?

[Zanshin]

Arriving in St. Barths in the darkness may not be so bad, but you will most likely need to anchor relatively far out because both main anchorages are rather crowded. Nonetheless, the holding there is good and the depths are shallow as well, but there is usually a bit of a swell. You might continue around the island into Anse Columbier for a sheltered anchorage and drop anchor between the two mooring fields but there are usually a couple of boats there and often they don't have an anchor light set.

What size boat will you have? The trip is about 70nm and will be on broad reach. In December sunrise is a 6:21 and sunset at 17:30 giving you roughly 11 hours. That would mean you would need to average 6.4 knots in order to make it in time.

I don't know the Barbuda reefs but if you have a GPS track going in and can follow that going out, you could depart in the dark and arrive at St. Barths with sufficient sunlight to anchor - or perhaps even earlier so that you can clear in and legally go ashore for dinner that evening.
I like sailing at night. If you depart at 17:00 (hmm... you'd be sailing directly into the sun in order to clear the Barbuda reefs, which is probably just like sailing via GPS track) and plan on arriving at 07:00 you would average 5.4 knots, a more realistic speed with the wind conditions. While there isn't that much traffic on that direct route, it would be nice to have sufficient crew for a good lookout and/or radar.

[Hud3]

I agree with Zanshin--would do a 4am departure. If it's your first time to St Barth, his advice to continue on to Anse Columbier is the best option. Trying to figure out where to anchor in the crowd around Gustavia at the end of the day could be confusing and stressful, although you can check it out as you go by. Be sure to heed your charts going in, as there are a few spots where you could ground the boat.

From Chris Doyle's website...


p.s. does your charter company allow sailing in the dark hours?