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Guadeloupe |
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15th January
Our first stop was at Iles des
Saintes, which is a group of islands between Dominica and Guadeloupe. It
was a interesting sail in between the various little islets. We rounded
Pain de Sucre (a miniature of the Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro) where Anse
du Bourg opened up and we anchored for one night. This is a very
busy anchorage specially with French yachtsman. Bourg des Saintes is
very picturesque village, with colourful wooden houses. After Dominica we
found it all very touristy and pricey. We left the following day to
Ponte-a-Pitre as we were due to do some maintenance work on the boat.
Facilities there are readily available as well as a 1000 berth marina.
Guadeloupe is actually two islands separated by a narrow channel, the
Riviere Salee. Basse Terre is the mountainous part with the fantastic
National Park while Grand Terre is flat and agricultural. |
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| The
Suspension Bridge, Riviere du Corbet at the National Park |
17th January
The following week was spent in
the marina, among some huge racing trimarans and a few super yachts. The
most impressive was trimaran Geromino. Both of us had a chance of appreciating its
size from the top of the mast, while rewiring our anchor light. It is
huge!
We had a hard working week due to the heat and specially for Graham who
suffers from vertigo and had to go up the mast 3 times. The last day we
rented a car to have a look around the island and do some provisioning.
At the supermarket we found out that the car was infested with
cockroaches, they would inevitably end up in the boat. After complaining a
lot and a waste of the morning we got a new car! The car hire's clerk was
the most unhelpful and rude, claiming that it wasn't her problem. |
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Finally we were ready to
leave, glad to be away from the smell of the marina and lack of wind
flow through the boat. The plan was to go back to Isles des Saintes and
then Dominica. But now we are using our last bottle of cooking gas and up to
now, nowhere in the Caribbean is able to refill butane gas. We decided to
head to Antigua to see if it is possible to fill them there. The quickest
route was to sail the Riviere Salee, then we would be in the north of Guadeloupe.
From there Antigua is 37 miles. The river Salee has 3 bridges, the first two
open at 5 am, then there is a 1.2 miles stretch of river through mangroves
and the last bridge opens half hour later, all for a very short period.
Only small boats with maximum 2 metres draught can make the
passage. |
| Geronimo
The largest Trimaran, 110 ft long and 72ft wide. Moored opposite us in
the marina.
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That meant getting up at 4.30 am
to be at the first bridge on time. The access to the first bridge was poorly
marked, after figuring out the unlit buoys we were through the two bridges
and stressed to get in time to the third bridge, if we missed the opening
time we would be there until Monday, when it opens again. After
getting through we picked up a buoy and waited till sunlight, in the mangrove
while being eaten alive by hundreds of mosquitoes. Now ahead of us we had
to sail through the reefs of Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin. It took us 2 hours to
work the red and green buoys out as they were so sparse that you could
hardly see the next one. Without CMaps it would have been very difficult.
Not for the faint hearted ones!! We were exhausted by the time we got back
into open water. |
Iles des
Saintes
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09 February
Back to Guadeloupe from Antigua. On our way back we passed 20
miles east of Montserrat. We saw some volcanic activity at 12.30 pm. Grey
clouds covered Chances Peak (Gallway's Soufriere) from top to bottom
followed by a reddish cloud. It all disappeared and then all happened
again! It was amazing! Obviously not for the locals. Since we arrived to Caribbean
we have been following the volcanic activity as we were eager to
visit the island. But it has been very active and not safe to go. We
stopped in Deshaies for 2 nights en route to Iles des Saintes.
11 February Iles des Saintes was so charming that we wanted to
spend some time-off there, to explore the islands and go snorkeling. We
couldn't imagine the nightmare that was awaiting for us though. We had
major problem to dig the anchor at Iles de Cabrits, even when we went to
bed we were not sure if the anchor dug in the sand. The anchor alarm was
left on and it beeped at midnight. We were dragging out to the channel. It
took 3 hours of constant monitoring of the GPS and checking bearings until
we felt safe enough to go to bed. Next morning, both ready for snorkeling
when we noticed that Nomad Life was slowly moving. Again we re-anchored,
then stayed aboard for 3 hrs, Judit dived down and checked the anchor,
then Graham as well. The hike up to Fort Josephine was a
long walk, but the views over the Saintes were fantastic. After all that
walking we had a barbecue at the beach, followed by a couple of drinks.
That was the end of a great day. But something disturbed Graham's sleep.
He woke up with a feeling that there is something wrong. Again we were in
the middle of the channel, some 1 mile away from our anchorage! That was
enough for us. We headed at 3 am to Basse Terre where there is a marina.
At Iles de Cabrits the sea bed is fine sand, not very good holding ground.
Added to strong gusty winds from differed direction and a strong
tide make this particular anchorage not too safe. The passage over to
Basse-Terre was fast and we arrived there in darkness. The entrance to the
marina is not advisable at night so we waited outside until daylight. Only
to find out that the marina was almost in ruins due to a hurricane a
few years ago, the pontoons were falling apart and the marina even had their
own sunken boat near the entrance! Both were so exhausted that we dropped
hook outside near the cement works and went to bed. |
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