Guadeloupe and Antigua
18 May 2014
Jane, warm and sunny
We spent nearly two months in Guadeloupe and Antigua, so it has been a while since we updated our blog. We had a great sail to Iles des Saintes from Dominica and enjoyed four nights anchored in Pain a Sucre, the only bay now where you do not have to pick up a buoy. We tendered across to Cabrits where we had anchored before, enjoyed a great snorkel and met up with friends who we had not seen for five years. The town has not changed at all and is still very quaint with lots of fantastic restaurants; which we enjoyed and a wonderful patisserie. It is an easy island to walk around with lots of sights, however our waistlines are now showing the signs of slight overindulgence ☺
We had another fantastic sail to Gosier Island just east of Point a Pitre the capital of Guadaloupe. It was a lovely setting with lots of swimmers coming from the mainland every day, we were very impressed. The snorkeling however was not very good so we only stayed a couple of nights before we went to Ilet a Cochons, opposite Point a Pitre Marina, where we met up with s/v Stormvogel who we had not seen since Turkey. We had a couple of great evenings catching up before we went into the marina and hired a car so we could go shopping. Even managed to get a few of the items on the list, always a challenge in a foreign country at the best of times, it was fun driving around.
We went back to Gosier for a night before we set off for Pigeon Island on the west coast for four nights. Happy Hour were there with some other friends and athough it was a bit rolly the snorkeling was fantastic and we stayed for four days. The area is famaous for the Cousteau National Park which includes the island and goes up the north coast for about a mile. Russell and I had a most magical experiences while we were there. Five dolphins came alongside our boat one morning while we were at anchor, we immediately jumped in the water and snorkeled with them for over an hour, incrediable. There was one young one who was very playful, we shared in his games and watched as he jumped in and out of the water, swimming under his mum and around and around us. They were all terribly effectionate towards each other and seemed to really enjoy our company. I was on a high for days after and it is a memory I will always treasure.
As we were leaving the Dolphins, which we saw every day, came to say goodbye and even used our hulls for belly rubs which we have never seen before. Since we have been back in the Caribbean we have seen a lot more dolphins, turtles, whales and sting rays then when we were last here. I have never seen sting rays fly out of the water before, can be quite the surprise when they are close by. There were a lot in Jolly Harbour in Antigua, but sadly they are too fast to catch on camera.
Before leaving Guadaloupe we spent a few days in Deshaise, luckily there was very little wind, although we did have one French boat that tried to come alongside to say hello when the owners were ashore one afternoon. We hired a car to explore the island with Happy Hour one day and also had an amazing morning visiting the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies which was spectacular. Deshaise is a picturesque fishing village with some great restaurants. We went to one called L’Amer twice it was so yummy and also had excellent music one night.
We left early for Antigua and had a great run arriving at Falmouth Harbour before lunch where we anchored alongside Stormvogel, who we crewed for during the Classic regatta. I have never raced before, so it was a very exciting and new experience for me. Our friend Ian has been the skipper of Stormvogel for seven years and often runs the 90+ foot boat on his own - did I mention that he is only 29 and is a shipwright?. The boat was built in 1961 and was used in the film “Dead Calm” she’s awesome. There were 24 of us onboard for the racing, a very mixed bunch, with only a couple who had raced with Ian last year and knew the boat. The Italian owner’s daughter was on board, as well as Ian’s new wife, and they did a wonderful job of feeding us all after each race. We came in second, but were only behind a bigger boat with all the expensive mod cons by about 1.5 minutes overall. It was a phenomenal time and we can’t thank Ian enough for the opportunity he gave us, another incredible memory.
The Classic boats were gorgeous, no money spared on some with large paid crew on board to maintain them. There were fishing boats from Carriacou, and numerous other classes of different sizes and eras of yachts. Lots of socializing and I had a terrific time on my birthday going out with a crowd of new and old friends, ending up dancing the night away at the Lime Bar, run by Garrick one of the crew.
Whilst in Falmouth Russell decided to become a member of the Royal Navy Antiguian Tot Club with a few other buddies. It was started in 1991 to carry on the tradition of rum tots given to sailors at the end of each day. Every evening members get together and drink a gill (half a tumbler) of neat rum (supposed to be down in one) at 1800 hours. They toast the Queen beforehand and read out daily navel history which was quite amusing. Anyway after seven days of tots and an exam of navel history you can become a member. It was a close thing though (not because of the exam) but Russell got very sick with an ear infection halfway through. Luckily the club made allowances for him and we are now the proud owner of a Tot Ensign which when flying means that we will host a tot evening for any tot members nearby. Apparently there are about 1,400 members worldwide. Not only that, but at last Russell is back on his feet.
Before we left Antigua we had our friends Pip and Richard come and visit from England. We got to sail around the island in great weather and would recommend the East coast highly. Lovely little islands with lots of wonderful reefs for snorkeling and hardly any other boats – magic. Their visit ended way too quickly, lots of laughs, too much rum and great companionship is always a fantastic mix.
After they left we started to have issues with our watermaker, not a problem as we loaded up with water in Jolly Harbour and were due to have our favorite electrian on board in St. Martin. However, we also started to have problems with our freezer; which was fully loaded with goodies. We planned to stop in Barbuda for some chill out time, but had to rush to St. Martin after a few days so as not to loose all our food ($$$). Thankfully our friend Keith from Frostline got it sorted out within 24 hours, and with the help of a friend’s deep freeze I hardly lost anything – phew!! Barbuda is as gorgeous as we remember. There were only three boats anchored with us along 11 mile beach and we were able to explore the famous Coconut Beach Hotel (Lady Di’s favorite haunt) as it was closed and there was no security.
We had an exhilerating (and wet) trip to Barbuda in 25-30 knot winds, but just the most perfect sail (sunny) to St. Martin in 12-18 knots wing on wing over the 90 miles, with an average of 6.8 knots overall. We even made it in time to catch the 1730 bridge opening and are now anchored in Simpson Lagoon French side (free). Now it is mega job time. We have already sorted out a new tender and engine (my birthday present) as our old one is dying on us. Our electrian was on board today and will hopefully get through our long list of “to dos” sometime next week. Tomorrow we will see if we can get our scuba tanks inspected and tested, plus we need a new part for our compressor. North Sails are going to sort out repairs we need done next week, we will soon be broke. It is tax free here and easy to have items shipped from the states, so we will be shopping (bigtime) online over the weekend as well ☺
The weather over the last week has changed and we have seen a front come through with a bit of wind and rain. However as I write it is warm and sunny although not as hot as normal, so it is perfect. It will be interesting to see what the summer brings us. We have been thinking of all of our friends that left recently to cross the Atantic and hope that they are having fair winds.
We are slowly catching up with some of the people we know here in St. Martin, but it seems a lot quieter than when we were here last and the locals say it has not been a great year for them. It is good to be back in the swing of it with the best mussels in Marigot yesterday, a BBQ party ashore tonight and yoga tomorrow. We will stay north until we are forced to make our way south to Bonaire because of hurricanes, we hope to get to Puerto Rico as we fell in love with it when we were last there. Until next time please take care everyone and enjoy the your summer.