04/21/2012, Rodney Bay St Lucia
So yesterday we sailed up north from the Saints to Point a Pietre on the main land of Guadeloupe .. The winds were as expected on our nose, but we managed to do some nice close hauls
So for the 24H sail to St Lucia I was really looking forward to the first leg between Guadeloupe and Dominica , as we would be going the OTHER direction
= beam reach pretty much ...
Guess what - the winds also seemed to have some commitment in the south for this day and therefore had turned south
= close haul all the way = I was mentally not prepared of that
F%#@* Winds - just like riding a damn bicycle again ..
At the end it was not that bad and we had a nice sail to Dominica ...
Next Problem - Massive cloud formations hanging to the east of Dominica and the rest of the south
Did I read the weather forecast correct ?
I was about to abandon the idea to sail direct to St Lucia because of it (can you imagine Jills disappointment ??? ) when we came up with a compromise
How about we stop a Dominica , double check the weather over the Internet just to make sure ...
Lucky us, because of our long range Wifi antenna on the boat, we didn't even have to stop going - I was able to pick up the hotspot from 5 miles off shore and could confirm what I remember = lot's of rain on the east side of the islands but decent condition on the west side
On we go ....
As it turned out the forecast was dead on - actually the conditions were slightly better then I expected ( we didn't get wet until Jill had here shift at 3 AM , where she had to "survive" two squalls while I was sleeping below)
We dropped sails pretty much 24 Hours after we started in Point a Pietre
| March 2012-May 2012 |
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04/20/2012, Point A Pietre Guadeloupe
So we spent a wonderful week with Becky around Guadeloupe
We didn't make it to all locations I had planned, but never less, the two "girls" managed to find some of the better snorkeling spots we've seen in the Caribbean on the way...
For those who don't know Becky, her upbeat and positive attitude made the week fly by and help during some "hard" times , when the food was just not up to par for example (You got it right - those are our biggest problems these days)
Becky has her own special way of coming up with "new" foreign words - and she does it all the time and is not shy about it too :-)
Her special vocabulary of "Becky" German words is quite amusing (actually here German is very good)
Now my own French skills don't allow me to understand if she actually does the same in French -but based on the looks of some of the French "Islander's" when listening to her words I'm convinced that she also has created a full set of Becky French words....
Today April 20th we dingy'd over to the marina at 5:30AM to send her off on her way to the east coast ...
| March 2012-May 2012 |
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04/13/2012, Deshalies
We went to the airport last night to pickup Becky ... No mishaps on this pickup this time - what a surprise
This morning we ended up going to town around 8 to get a Baguette (who ever invented the Baguette should get an a world wide award)
(Nothing better then grabbing a freshly baked 1m long piece of bread in the morning)
Then we motored out of the windy channel towards the open water ( takes about 45min) .. once outside the reef we noticed a few snorkeling boats with tourists and decided to do a little side tour to check out the spot
As it turns out this is one of the best spots we've seen around here ( according to the expert Jill) So Becky and Jill stayed in the Water for some time and enjoyed it.
In the early afternoon we left and started our nice sail westward towards Deshalies ... unfortunately with no Wind ???? (yesterday we had to motor 2 Hours into 15 knts of wind... and I was really looking forward to sail in the other direction today - Well so much for that !)
- Sometimes sailing reminds me of riding a bicycle= ALWAYS INTO THE WIND IT SEEMS
On the way to Deshalies we must have picked up a fishing ball = I noticed low speed and it just didn't feel right when using the engine..
When we dropped Anchor in Deshalies and I asked Jill to back up a bit I heard this strange noise (and so did Jill and she put the gear in neutral ASAP)
I Jumped into the water and saw a big piece of bamboo wrapped around our Keel and two fishing balls.
We must have dragged this thing for a while and when we backed up our Prop knife must have cut one of the lines (that's the noise we both heard)
!!! YOU NEED TO HAVE A PROP CUTTER AROUND HERE !!!!
| March 2012-May 2012 |
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04/12/2012, Baie Mahault Guadeloupe
Left Antigua at 6AM ... Forecast called for winds turning to the south and thats exactly what we got ( not what I needed of course)
It turned out to be an Ok crossing at an average of 7knts (we definitely left EVERYBODY in the dust today) she was just dialed in perfect ...
We had to motor sail the last 8 miles or so ... but that was expected and really not that bad for the situation.
We entered the North end of Guadeloupe through a narrow bouyed channel and dropped anchor at Baie Mahault ... we are definitely in the right spot, as any approaching air plain flies right over our heads at low altitude
So then we went in town this afternoon, thinking we could arrange a taxi for tonight....as it turns out there are NO taxis In Baie Mahault and no public transportation that would get you close to a center with Taxis or .....
- also on a side note - what a waste of time to try to teach me French in school - I could have missed all classes and would know about the same about French ...
We tried and tried and at one point we had a cashier lined up at nine to make a call for a taxi from a grocery store
- Oh second side note - NO restaurants in town
Finally Jill talked to a women in a vegetable store and she ended up offering to give us a ride to the airport tonight ... It seemed the only option from here (and she lives in this town !)
| March 2012-May 2012 |
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04/10/2012, Antigua
We moved from Barbuda to Antigua on Sunday ..
It did not work out quit as expected that day .. but that's really nothing new I guess
We started on the Southwest end of Barbuda and where heading towards the Northeast end of Antigua (starting in the west heading towards the east always indicates some sort of trouble in the Caribbean ..)
We had no access to any weather forecast for the past 3 days so I should get a little bit of slack on that call..
The started out great and it shure seemed like we would make our target .. but then the winds turned and soon we where heading towards the west coast of Antigua (I also managed to do a nice pirouette = full circle, at one point after a squall because sleepyhead(me) was not paying attention and we backfilled our Jib)
I had to motor sail 1-1/2 Hours straight into 6-8 feet swells to get us back on track - I hate doing that - but we ended up with a decent close haul down the east cost of Antigua
All In all it really wasn't that bad - Next time we start at Coco Point Instead :-)
We stayed two nights at the anchorage at Green Island and today move towards the Yacht capital of Antigua = English Harbor and Falmouth Harbor
The fist anchorage was FULL so we ended up In Falmouth Harbor ....
| March 2012-May 2012 |
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04/06/2012, BARBUDA
We moved around the reef of Coco Point and dropped anchor just west of Spanish Point.
We also have figured out the schedule for the next week until we pickup Becky..
We will move up the west coast of Barbuda tomorrow across the lagoon - maybe we will do a short frigate bird tour ....
Then on Sunday we'll sail down the east coat of Antigue and stay overnight somewhere around Green Island ... we will see ..
| March 2012-May 2012 |
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