Caribbean nostalgia
Amy and David Alton have just completed a four-year circumnavigation aboard Starry Horizons, a Fountain Pajot Helia 44.
21 April 2020
Advertisement
Amy and David spent over seven months cruising in Australia, tracking up the East Coast from Coffs Harbour to Thursday Island. Their posts are full of good information and insights. Their vlog Out Chasing Stars is one of the best of the genre the Sails team has come across – and we’ve watched a few.
We asked Amy to reflect on their voyage, having crossed their wake and tied-up once again in Antigua.
On 26 March this year my husband and I sailed our boat, Starry Horizons, into St John’s, Antigua. We’d traveled 34,000 nautical miles since we last were in Antigua, four years and three months ago, in 2015.
Having finished our circumnavigation of this blue planet, we now get to experience a rare feeling – not just the exhilaration of finishing a circumnavigation, but a feeling of nostalgia.
Advertisement
Part of doing a circumnavigation, even one over a few years like ours, is that you are constantly on the move and headed west.
There are always pressures of a deadline, the start of cyclone season or an airport to find so you can fly home or fly a friend in. We rarely ever found ourselves in a familiar anchorage. And the unfamiliar can be exhausting. We always have items to tick off the list: where is the best place to anchor, how do we get to shore, where we can put our trash, fill up with fuel, or find a replacement jar of American peanut butter since ours is running low in our pantry.
But we made it to Antigua. We dropped our anchor within fifty feet of the last time we dropped it here.
I walk the aisles of a grocery store that I last walked with my mom when she came to visit.
It is a great thing about cruising. We can visit a country like Antigua for weeks, and have both the familiarity we so desperately crave after our circumnavigation, and the joy of finding new places to visit.
Our nostalgia takes on rose-colored glasses too. Our first time through the Caribbean on Starry Horizons we spent three months hopping down the island chain. While many people spend multiple seasons sailing the islands here, we said that we could always come back; as Americans the Caribbean is practically our backyard, and chartering will surely be an enjoyable vacation for the rest of our lives.
Now that we’ve experienced so many places in the world, we find that we appreciate the Caribbean more. While many places were wonderful, and every place had a silver lining, some places were just downright hard, from poor sailing conditions to complex customs procedures.
The Caribbean is a bounty of cruiser-friendly amenities. I don’t think we have participated in a Cruiser’s Net in years, and we certainly haven’t seen a chandlery this well-stocked in about fifteen months. We’re anchored in sand with eight feet of water underneath us, and the trade winds blow constantly, keeping us cool and comfortable.
No place is perfect. I’m sure before long I’ll have a craving to return elsewhere, back to the beauty of the South Pacific or the food and culture of Thailand, or to explore a new place, a country I’ve never been to before. But for now, I’ll keep feeling nostalgic and be content where I am.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
