16:18.20N 61:48.80 I'm not complaining but!
Lady Corinne
iain and gaynor macalister
Sun 11 Apr 2010 13:52
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Hello everybody and greetings from Lady C and crew in the
bay of Deshaies on the Northwest coast of Guadeloupe. I know I promised that I
wouldn't ever complain about the heat and I won't, but this rain just
won't stop!!!! and it's supposed to be the dry season. Well to me it's starting
to feel like every other summer holiday I've ever had in the UK. At first I was
very happy to see rain because some of the islands were in a drought situation,
but honestly enough is enough, will you just stop please? We arrived
here after an early alarm at 0615 in Bourg des Saintes, we were
sailing here in company with Ben & Nicky who were on their lovely steel
ketch "Midnight" having spent a very enjoyable couple of days in their very
pleasant company. They were on their way "home" to St Kitts but
decided, after a couple of bottles of very nice wine, to sail up to Deshaies and
join us for the evening before we went our separate ways. We upped two
anchors ( twice the work as we had to put the fisherman's anchor out astern to
try and make LadyC behave herself, I think she was so happy to be there that
she just wanted to visit all the other boats anchored and moored around us
in turn ) and set off at 0800 across the Canal des Saintes. We
had a fantastic sail off the wind up to the Southwest corner of Guadeloupe and
we were holding with Midnight most of the way and doing around 7 knots, it was a
great sail. Ben,on hearing about Gaynors fishy dilemma, very kindly
presented her with a red squid lure and two large hooks all made up and ready to
go and this was launched soon after we set off. Once around the corner we ran
into the wind shadow created by La Soufriere, the highest mountain on the island
at 1467M and ground to a halt. After a short time Ben & Nicky radioed to say
they had decided to head back out to where there was wind and carry on up
towards St Kitts as they thought they could make it by midnight so we bade them
a fond farewell. We hope to meet up with them later as they have very kindly
offered to show us around their island. People say that in some ways it is
very similar to Dominica, which we loved so it would be nice to be able to
see it with people who have lived there for a while. We carried on up the
West coast in a NNW direction putting the sails up when the wind managed to find
a way through between the high rugged mountains that made up the stunning
landscape beside us and putting them away, and motorsailing, when it
died. About an hour before we arrived the weather deteriorated
and the rain came down. We arrived at the entrance to the bay and I
could hardly see to steer the boat into the anchorage the rain was so heavy,
we've been here about an hour and it hasn't stopped yet and we still don't
have fish on the dinner menu. This is going to be a short stop as it was
only intended to be a break in our journey up to Antigua for the Classics
next week so we will probably continue tomorrow, I think it's only a little more
than 40 miles to English Harbour.
Hasta Antigua
LadyC without fish
Richard - Thanks for the Pic's and for staying in touch, I
hope we cross paths on your imminent visit.
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