Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 June 2014

 

 

When we arrived in Les Saintes on Wednesday we noticed a waterspout beyond the nearby island.  It had virtually disappeared by the time I got the camera out but you might just be able to see the remaining tail in this photograph:-

 

 

 

 

On Thursday a lot of catamarans with various inflatable toys on them started to appear in the bay.  We soon realised from the flags that they were taking part in the ‘Hippo Cup’ which is an annual regatta for doctors.

 

Some of the toys were ‘adventurous’.  One had an inflatable penis and this catamaran had a rubber doll tied to the bow.  As one does:-

 

 

 

 

We noticed that 2 or 3 of the boats had large petrol generators on deck.  This was puzzling until we noticed the large speakers lying nearby which Lin described as the size of kitchen cupboards.  Not a good sign and sure enough we were soon treated to the sound of various petrol generators.  This is normally bad enough but the noise was soon drowned out by the sound of throbbing music.  Unfortunately two of these boats were adjacent to us on either side.  To avoid clashing they didn’t perform at the same time but it did ensure that when one boat gave up the other was able to take over without a break.  Deep joy.

 

However everybody was in good spirits and the atmosphere was very good.  The 4 ladies dancing in a line on the foredeck of the nearest catamaran provided entertainment for both of us as well.  Caribbean style dancing is somewhat suggestive!

 

There was a cloudburst in the early evening and everybody ran around trying to get the electrical equipment out of the rain.  This involved turning the music off which provided a welcome rest.  Many of the crews went ashore in the evening and were taken to a beach across the island for a party so we had an unexpectedly quiet evening.  I started to hear dinghy out board engines returning with revellers from about 3 am onwards and sure enough the music restarted on a catamaran next to us at 4 am and the party continued.  The ‘party boat’ then moved across the bay which reduced the volume for us a little.  As dawn came we could see that most people had left their boats to board the party boat and it’s neighbour.

 

There were many more people on board about an hour before this photograph was taken and the hulls had been very low in the water!  The mountains of Guadeloupe can be seen faintly in the background:-

 

 

 

 

The music stopped at 10 am and the boats slowly prepared to set off to Guadeloupe on the last leg of their regatta.  Lots of bodies were lying around on decks and in cockpits as they sailed off.  It must have been a very unpleasant trip for some of them.

 

Later on Friday we left the mooring boy to go to a nearby bay by a rock called ‘Pain au Sucre’ (Sugar Loaf).  It is a peaceful little bay with two small beaches, one of which has a small hotel.

 

 

The smaller beach off which we spent an hour or so snorkelling over some reefs on Saturday:-

 

 

 

 

 

The larger beach and hotel:-

 

 

 

There were very few guests at the hotel when we went ashore for a coffee.  Unfortunately the low occupation was not enough for the hotel to relax it’s guests only policy for it’s internet service so weather checking was out for the time being

 

 

The beach from the hotel:-

 

 

 

 

The anchorage from the hotel.  Our boat is the nearer one to the left of the picture.  ‘Sugar Loaf’ is the round rock to the right of centre:-

 

 

 

 

It was my birthday on Sunday and we returned to the moorings off the main town.  We knew there was some bad weather coming so we really wanted to check the forecasts on the internet.  Also we wanted to go ashore for a birthday meal on Monday.

 

 

Our Sunday roast was followed by my ‘birthday cake’.  Lin had made a lovely plum crumble and fortunately decided that only a token candle presence was needed:-