Guadeloupe to Antigua
Flinns
Terry/ Nicola Flinn
Thu 1 Mar 2007 18:23
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Rather than sail all the way round Guadeloupe, we
decided to take the very adventurous and challenging route along the River
Salle, a shallow, mangrove lined canal which divides the 2 halves of the island.
It is further complicated in that the 3 road bridges only open once each day at
5am when it is still dark. The night before, we anchored close to the first
bridge, so that we could have a look at it in daylight and be in the best
position. Next morning, we crept along, with barely enough water depth to keep
us afloat, with Nicola using our big flashlight to illuminate the bridge piers
and the river banks. As soon as we cleared the last bridge, we found a mooring
buoy and went back to bed to wait for the dawn. We continued along the
canal and then cautiously threaded our way between several picturesque, but
dangerous reefs before finally reaching the safety of the open sea. En route, we
caught a Spanish Mackerel, which with its fearsome teeth, looks very like a
Wahoo, but again makes excellent eating.
We spent the next 2 nights in the very charming
anchorage at Deshaies, which is a small town with a decent supermarket, some
nice bars and restaurants and is very French. Terry was even able to watch
France play Wales at rugby on the TV.
We spent most of the next day on an interesting but
quite strenuous hike up the Deshaies River, where we followed the river from
rock to rock, passing many a pretty pool until we reached a
waterfall.
Next day, we had a wonderful sail to Montserrat,
managing to catch another Spanish Mackerel as well as a tuna. Much
of the island was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1995 and most of
the south side of the island is surrounded by an exclusion zone. We noticed a
plume of smoke coming from the crater and saw an outflow of ash which tumbled
down the hillside into the sea.
Unfortunately, it was very windy and the seas were
too rough to allow a safe landing ashore; we were both disappointed not to
be able to explore the island and reluctantly, after a very uncomfortable
night at anchor, we continued to Antigua. After 7 hours beating our
way into wind, we arrived at the charming Nelson's Dockyard in English Bay
Antigua.
The marina is the focal point of a National Park
and most of the buildings have been restored; we cycled to the top of
Shirley Heights, with it's look-out fort and stunning views of English and
Falmouth Bays.
We took the opportunity to catch up with the
laundry, e-mails, phone calls and shopping; Nicola even managed to get her hair
cut and blow-dried.
We moved on to Nonsuch Bay on the easternmost tip
of Antigua, where we spent two very peaceful days in the large, almost
deserted, bay which is protected from the Atlantic swell by a coral reef. We
both love Antigua and we will explore several more anchorages before moving on
to Barbuda.
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