From Martinique to Les Saintes.

Moonshine
Thu 29 Mar 2007 15:31
Les Saintes are a little group of Islands about 25 miles south of
Guadeloupe.They have a similar relationship to Gualdeloupe as do Scilly to
Cornwall. - Except of course the tropical weather.
We left Martinique at about noon on Monday. First we had to formally enter.
We found the customs post (which closes on the weekend) on a pontoon off the
beach about 10 minutes walk from the marina. Clearly the customs officer had
a hand in deciding on it's location. It was the most beautiful setting you
could imagine.A floating pontoon off a crystal white beach, with his office
at the end. The customs officer, who in France would be carrying a gun, and
in England a very stern expression, was in Martinique, wearing seashells on
a necklace under an open floral shirt, shorts, barefooted, and with his hair
in a loose pony tail. He was the same age as me, but had more nerve.He will
probably live forever.

Clearing customs, in and out at the same time was easy and pleasurable.
We bypassed Dominica for the 18 hour trip to Les Saintes.

The trip to Les Saintes was good at first. A good beam reach (wind at 90
degrees - the best point of sailing) from Martinique to Dominica.We saw a
pilot whale leaping out of the water whilst hunting. They are huge animals,
and it looked like slow motion as it came completely out of the water before
crashing back on it's side, quite unlike the gracefull leaps of dolphin. We
saw a turtle, swimming lazily away from the boat, apparantly unconcerned.
Then the wind died in the shadow of Dominica as night fell, and we motored.
We had been trailing a line through the day, and as it got dark, caught a
tuna. A beautifull fish, that would be our next meal. Motoring up the coast
was quite surreal. It was completely overcast, still and threatening. The
only things to see were the ribbons of lights of the houses ashore.
Dominica is not well lit. The only lighthouse visible is high enough to be
obscured by cloud and mist.
We were 5 miles off the coast, but with only pinpricks of light to see, it
felt as if we were scraping the rocks.
My radar told me otherwise, but I know he is good friends with the engine,
so he may well have been lying.
Then it started to rain. Really heavy stuff. If we'd had a tin roof it would
have been deafening. Couldn't see through it. Dominica disappeared. The
radar was delighted. It likes a good signal, and gleefully told me where
every cloud was, but not where Dominica or Les Saintes were. Nothing I could
do would persuade him to look through the rain. No, getting a strong echo
off raindrops is far more fun.
Back out of the shadow of Dominica and in open water,the wind piped up
again, and the rain quietened. The sailing once again a beam reach on to Les
Saintes.
We approached Les Saintes at dawn. All we could see was rain, all the radar
could see was rain. Occasionally we would get a glimpse of the lights on the
islands, but with the dawn, they blinked off, leaving just the rain.
Only my GPS was helpfull. It is a low tech piece of kit, not 'interfaced'
with the other instruments, and still loyal to me. It guided us towards a
waypoint in the entry channel that we could not see until finaly there it
was, only half a mile away and spot on target.
We had been in the cockpit all this time straining our eyes to see the
islands, and were wetter than we have ever been.
We anchored in the rain.

Rod Sandra and the mouse.




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