Astra Log 17th Jan to 29th Jan

17/01/2008 On the last day in Les Saintes we ventured up to
After a tough morning we left Les Saintes and motored straight into a strong headwind all the way to Pointe a Pitre (because that was the only place we could get our washing and provisioning done!?) which was a bit uncomfortable but we got there just before it got dark. Then after a quick G&T on board we hit the town, first on the list was the Route du Rhum Bar which was not as good as cracked up to be but then it was a Thursday. Wandering a bit further into town we found a Moet Chandon Bar: great barmaid, nice cocktails etc. Found a fantastic restaurant around the corner called Voile Blanche and had some lovely grub. Jeremy had grenouille followed by a superb beef Rossini, Sally had ravioli and duck and Ash had escargots and some large prawns followed by eau de vie (not to be recommended). Suitably revived we returned to the same bar with the pretty barmaid who Jeremy then tried to chat up. Ash was in hysterics and Sally was ready to throttle the pair of them! Nevertheless we all survived and after way too many cocktails staggered back to the boat. In the morning we did some jobs and visited the aquarium which had a wonderful display of fish including some very large nurse sharks. 19/01/2008 Slipped our moorings and headed for 20-22/01/2008 The first dive was meant to be in a swimming pool so you can stand whilst practicing taking off your mask, regulator, BCD etc. No chance!! We plopped straight into 20 feet of salt water, put kit on and went straight down to the bottom! Aaah, sinking, help….OK breathe!! Once on the sea bed Sally was motioned to remove her mouthpiece – uh…what do you do to clear it when you put it back in again!? After 30 gruelling minutes we surfaced and the instructor said “Oh, well done, you didn’t freak out…most people have a panic attack!” Sally nearly proceeded to show him a whole new side to diving hand signals but managed to suppress herself! Thankfully the following day we had a different instructor called Richard who was a lovely guy. We saw barracuda, a beautiful spotted eagle ray (5 foot “wing span”) and a couple of large turtles, along with the most stunning fish and coral. 23/01/2008 Completely hooked set off for We parked up next to a little 35 footer which had
2 guys (Bill and Theo) on board who had literally just arrived from the
25-29/01/2008 After a fantastic night sail we arrived in
The following day we went to test Sally’s new dive equipment – all matching, very smart! Testing was successful and one scattered wreck was discovered. Fantastic place for almost everything as it is duty free. The whole lagoon was bursting with super yachts stocking up on provisions (seriously impressive yachts many of them not far off 100 metres long). Spent some great evenings in the crew bar (Soggy Dollar), occasionally these very unattractive girls would turn up and do something strange with a pole…sent Jeremy and Ash a bit x-eyed, bless them! |