Here at 0600 the day comes in dark with some rosy sky off to the east. The fresh tradewinds have moderated and have laid down some, with seas reduced as well. Never one for heeling much, the Picton Castle stands up straighter in the seas. We remain braced up on the starboard tack. The watch is loosing and setting the flying jib as dawn breaks. No flying fish on deck yet. In the dark of night we could see the loom of the lights of Anguilla off to port, just over the horizon. A faint glow telling us that there is an island with people living there on that heading.
We caught a big mahimahi yesterday, aka “dorado” or “dolphin fish.”. The gang got quite excited about this. Donald turned this unlucky fish into a fine dinner for all.
Anticipation for the island ahead is high onboard: for swimming, exploring, walking on a beach, meeting new people, and as they are saying amongst themselves “seeing land that is not Canada”. With all our delays they got to see a lot of Nova Scotia.
Just after dawn we could see the 1,000 mountains of St Martin over low Anguilla, which is little more that 150 feet high in spots. Land Ho! A small hand held transistor radio (remember those?) can now pick up all sorts of stations in these islands. In English, French and Spanish, all residue of the colonial pasts of the islands; sports, religion is big, reggae and Rihanna are major muical forces hereabouts.
The ship is pretty scruffy looking still but getting better all the time. All the old varnish needs redoing. Pinrails and fife rails all need taking down to wood. Here in Anguilla we will also spruce up the topsides, this being a normal expected thing, attend to some small rigging adjustments and generally shine up here and there. We need to oil the decks soon too. But first we must find Sandy Ground, anchor, stow sail and then SWIM CALL in the Caribbean!