Adventures with David & Gail

Two if by sea! - We have been in Guadeloupe now for a week and have been pretty busy. Let's start with our first two stops on the leeward side, which would be Deshaies and Pigeon Island.

From our last blog, we anchored in Deshaies with a lot of other boats in a pretty small area. Deshaies is a small fishing village and very quaint but a popular spot to visit. We picked a corner of the anchorage away from the crowd but with little swinging room. The winds were light but the depth was pretty deep for a normal anchoring. So to prevent a big swing radius, we only put out about 80 ft of chain in about 20 ft of water. You boaters will note this is only a 4:1 scope and shorter than recommended. But the holding was good and the winds were light. At least until the next day!

Deshaies is in a small valley with mountains to the east. The cruising guide notes that when the wind picks up it is like a wind tunnel that they could test cars for wind resistance. We discovered this ourselves the next afternoon as the winds picked up to over 25 kts and we started to slowly drag the anchor. We tried to put out some additional chain as would be the first response, but another boat was already behind us and a little too close. So we valiantly raised the anchor and looked for better holding in the same area during the blow. On our first attempt, we got it reset and Gail went to snorkel over the anchor to check its position. To her surprise, it was dragging rapidly across the bottom. She quickly swam back to the boat and hopped up the ladder as we were moving backward through the anchorage. We raised it again and with some determination, got it to set firmly this time and had room to put out a better 6:1 scope as, of course, the winds died down for the evening.

What is significant and what could have happened to us is that the next day a single handed sailor without a working engine tried to sail into the anchorage in the afternoon with the winds honking down the hill and could not get his anchor to set. Even with the help of our new friend, Jacque, aboard he drug violently missing several boats until he basically impaled his boat across the front of a power catamaran on a mooring. The mooring line got caught between his rudder and keel so he could not go forward or back. Several of us guys got in our dinghys to help steer his boat and remove some of the pressure with little effect. This is all happening with winds gusting up to 30+ kts and a big chop building in the bay.

Finally, the owner of the power cat was located and he came to the rescue. By powering forward, he "pushed" the sailboat off the mooring line and free, then towed him back into the mooring behind the cat for the evening. Of course, as we got him secure for the night and we all got back to our individual boats, the winds died to almost nothing for the night. It just proves the old saying that "the last person in is the evening's entertainment!"

The main attraction in Deshaies is the Botanical Gardens and we decided to invite our friends, Jacque and Annete (from Holland on their Gulfstar 50) to go to the gardens for the afternoon. It happened to be their 5th wedding anniversary and we were in the mood to treat ourselves to a nice lunch as well as visit the gardens. It turned out to be a spectacular afternoon. You never know how these things might be, but the gardens were exceptionally well maintained and groomed. Lunch was pleasant on a patio overlooking a waterfall and pool below with the gardens and the ocean in the distance. (Check the photo gallery)

If not for the winds, Deshaies would definitely be another place to recommend people to visit. But it was also time to move on. We went south on the coast about 8 miles to the Cousteau National Marine Park, another "must see" spot. The anchorage is much bigger but still deep and now exposed to the ocean swells again. We went in as shallow as we could to anchor and ended up very close to shore. There are actually three towns in the area and we think we anchored off the village of Galets.

But the real reason to visit this area is the diving around Pigeon Island, about ½ mile off shore. Cousteau is quoted as saying it was in his top 10 dive locations. We were very anxious to go see this and immediately got our gear together and went for a dive from the dinghy. There were plenty of moorings to pick up which kept people from dropping an anchor on the corals and made it easy for us.
Needless to say, we thought it was good and the topography was quite exciting with boulders, canyons, and sand flats, and all different types of corals. We realized it might make an even better night dive and since we had a good feel for the site, decided to come back at dusk and give it a try. This was the first night dive we have done on the trip. We did see some urchins out feeding, some arrow crabs and also shrimp that we had not seen during the day. Both were nice dives, but overall we have seen better.

The next day we did one more dive on a different site with a deeper profile. Again, the topography was interesting and the soft corals abundant. While not necessarily in our top 10, we definitely enjoyed the dives and appreciated the ease of access.

After a rolly night and not sleeping very well, we were off a 6 am to go around the south end of the island and then back north to the largest city and port of Pointe a Pitre. This was to be a 30 mile jaunt and since we left so early planned to be at anchor just after lunch. We motored the first 15 miles south along the coast as the early morning leeward winds were very light. Being close in we got a good look at the other bays, anchorages and towns along the coast.

But as we cleared the south end, we came out into the winds and turned off the engine. We sailed out about 3 miles before tacking then put WD on a nice easy close hauled starboard tack almost directly to Pointe a Pitre for the next 20 miles. It was also along the coast and provided a scenic look as we sailed along. We entered the port and dropped anchor just outside the big Bas du Fort Marina in sight of the freighter docks and cargo cranes. The anchorage is inside and "relatively" quiet even though a little ocean swell gets through the reef and harbor.

But more about that in the next blog entitled "One if by land!" as we tour the island by car!