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Guadeloupe

The island of Guadeloupe is very mountainous, lush and, green compared to the others we had visited. A very welcome sight for sure. The anchorage of ‘Islets A’ Goayaves’ is just east of the ‘Jacques Cousteau’ marine park and in front of a nice town. Perfect for some diving and a little island exploration.

I did a few dives in the marine park with Don and Marcy from S/V ‘Firstlight’. It wasn’t the best diving I’ve done but still an interesting place. We also took a couple of trips in the island to waterfalls and mountainous areas to ‘feel’ the green around us. Maybe other sailors don’t get the urged but, I need an infusion of terra firma and foliage occasionally. Helps to keep me grounded I guess. HA!

The next stop was at Basseterre, in the south, to check out with customs and immigration. There is no actual bay to anchor in but in the lee of the mountain, just south of the town and marina, the beach area suffices. The only problem is the ferocious gusts that rush down the mountain some evenings. Our friends recorded up to 50 knots on their anemometer whilst fending off a catamaran that was dragging down on them. It, and three others, eventually blew out to sea and tried, unsuccessfully, to re-anchor all evening.

The cat in front of us was unmanned until 1:00am when the drunken crew returned to find me trying to guide it passed Adagio with our spinnaker pole. They had started dragging slowly around midnight and came close to hugging our bow. Finally they started the engines, weighed anchor, and proceeded to re-anchor, unsuccessfully, in front of us again. A bout of screaming from us dissuaded them in the end. I apologise to catamaran owners but, cats have high windage and usually carry smaller anchors – keeps the bow weight down, than they require. Our policy now, in areas of strong winds, is to stay away from cats or anchor upwind. Sorry guys.

After a sleepless and very stressful night we weighed anchor and charged off to ‘Les Saintes’.

posted by AdagioNuts @ 10:25 AM