The Green Flash

No, not the Dunlop Green Flash tennis shoes some of us more mature people may remember; rather a trick of the setting sun down here in the West Indies. It is a momentary flash of light - green as the name suggests - emitted from the tip of the setting sun as it disappears behind the horizon. Of course, the horizon has to be completely clear in the right atmospheric conditions to see it but once seen, never forgotten. We had never heard about this phenomenon (not even ‘it's-the-physics-of-it’ Michael Bennett!) until I read about it in one of the sailing guides for this area. And now as we sip our sundowners every evening looking out west, we wait with baited breath … will we see the green flash this evening or not? So far we have only seen it twice but with a few more sundowners I'm sure we'll see it several more times!

Having completed the usual customs and immigration paperwork on Tuesday morning, 4th April, we set sail from Dutch administered Sint Maarten bound for Anguilla, now administered by Britain. Dropped anchor in the north corner of Road Bay.

Follyfin, centre stage

Looking south to the rest of the bay

The sand is white and powdery soft and the water is warm and turquoise blue as you can see. The place has a very nice ‘feel’ to it, greatly helped by the welcoming people in the Customs and Immigration office. When we enquired about fresh fish, one of the women there even offered to buy us some in the fish market some distance away as she was going there during her lunch hour. Now that’s friendly!

We had a walk round this very small island; saw the salt ponds which was the main industry on the island until 1986. The pump house is now a bar...

There are some well kept houses,

and some not so well kept.

It's our 42nd wedding anniversary today (5 April) so we treated ourselves to lunch out at Roy’s Bayside Grill on the beach.

Rum punches plus lobster salad for me and excellent burger for the Skipper.

Then back to the boat for a swim and some zzzzz. How better to spend an anniversary?

Tomorrow we head to the Virgin Islands, some of which are American but the majority are British. Discovered by Columbus on his second voyage to these parts in 1493. Apparently, seeing the numerous islands, he named them “the Virgins” in honour of St. Ursula and the 11,000 virgins who, threatened by the marauding Huns in 4th century Cologne, sacrificed their lives rather than submit to a fate worse than death. The distance from here is about 85 miles so it will be an overnight passage, leaving here about tea time and aiming to arrive soon after dawn. All the Virgin Islands are fringed with coral reefs so it's very important to arrive at one’s destination either with the sun behind you or overhead so you can see what’s underwater! The forecast is for a light easterly wind which will suit us perfectly, and we will be looking out for the elusive green flash as we sail westwards!