Guadaloupe
30 January 2018 | Desdhais, Guadaloupe
The Team
Little Harbor, Montserrat.
Yea, yea, yea, Torben complains about the strenuous hikes I have been taking him on, but he's the one that's keeping my fitbit charged! (We are talking about the same Torben!)
Luck would have it a system moved in and we had to stay in this awesome anchorage in Deshaies Guadalupe, for some extra days. This means boat projects galore! NOT!!
Torben decided to organize a hike to some unknown waterfall that was ambigously written in an outdated cruising guide.
We were a party of six. (Did I just say Donner Party?)
Just because Torben hikes the Scenic Trail on Saba, he has now declared himself to be Lewis and Clark!
Off we go, three fellow Americans, and three Danes. (Torben being one of the Danes.) We followed the river as instructed, jumping boulder to boulder. We were in search of a huge waterfall. Well....let's just say the huge waterfall never materialized. And after two hours of crossing the river multiple times, we stopped for a meeting. Torben being concerned about morale, pulled out a bottle of Gammel Dansk and insisted we take multiple swigs. It was then he announced we were lost....I should have known because he pulled out his phone to see where we were!
After MUCH debate, we headed up hill to look for a road, foraging our own trail! Torben with his phone close to his nose. An hour passes. The party is getting the pace. Civilization was surely close. A building concerned. Then we heard a rooster! We picked up could faintly be seen through the thicket. Thank God! As we got closer, we could see a human! Even better, even though this human was carrying a machete!
The look on this mans face was we came through the forest toward his newly planted garden was unforgettable. I muttered to him that we only lost three!
I fear, that one morning when I wake up and reach for my Fitbit, it won't be there. Instead, I'll find it around Torben’s wrist!
OK BREAK…Torben Here.
This is a sail blog, not a hiking blog.
Between all the sweat, we actually did some nice sailing!
After Saba we had a nice reach to an overnight stop at Nevis, then a 40 NM upwind ride towards Montserrat. Half way across we got a rip in the jib and had to motorsail the balance of the way.
In Montserrat, we did a nice taxi tour of the Island, then admired a Norwegian Bavaria come into the anchorage smartly and drop his anchor in front of us. We watched as he got in the water, check his own anchor, then checked that he did not block our anchor. A pro, we decided. Well, Rune came over in his dingy to assure us that we were both safe. That is when we realized that he was on Tivoli in Gibraltar and gave a hand when we put 500 Lbs of new batteries on the boat last 18 months ago! It was celebrated with a cup of rum.
Our run to Guadeloupe was with a reefed main and our staysail (aka storm jib), just the right amount of sail for a windy ride. We averaged 6 knots in that configuration, being very comfortable and hardly wet at all……………end of sailing, now back to the HIKE BLOG!