Up to Deshais. 16 18.335N 61 47.895W
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Thu 2 Mar 2017 23:38
Tucked in the lee of a rock called Pain de Sucre, we were protected from most of the swell until the wind direction changed slightly. Plus, it is a long dinghy ride in big waves to get to civilisation from Petit Anse, as the little bay is known.
Its also deep. All our chain and about 20m of rope were needed to ensure a safe hold in the gusts of up to 30 knots. I say 30 knots but we don't know for sure as the cups on the anenometer at the top of the mast are barely turning, so clearly some part of the Raymarine kit has gone wrong.
Persephone has a manual anchor windlass, powered by, well, me! A winch handle and some grunt is required as we use an oversized chain (10mm) to make anchoring more secure. Its rare for us to anchor in water deeper than about 8m so we generally use about 30 to 35m of chain. That is fairly heavy but comes up ok with a small increase in my heart rate. But the warp (rope) on the end of the 45m of chain, doesn't pass easily around the gypsy when under load, and boy, was it under load in Petit Anse. So to leave on 1st March required a lot of effort and some teamwork. We used a second line, the genoa sheet in fact, attached to the anchor warp by a rolling hitch, to take the strain and then the main primary winches, powered by Karen, to pull the anchor rope up, and along the side decks. This manoevre was repeated until the chain started to come over the bow roller. Then I used the snubbing hook to take the load to the cleats on the foredeck and pass the unloaded chain around the gypsy for the main lifting performance.
To lift the whole chain, I needed a long winch handle and to get a proper purchase, stood in the chain locker on the bow, while Karen feathered the throttle on the engine to keep us in line with and over the chain. It all worked well, but how we envied everyone else with their electric windlasses....pressing buttons on a handset is as energetic as it gets for them.
The sail across to Guadeloupe was straightforward, if breezy. Under genoa alone, we surged along across the channel between les Saintes and Guadeloupe at 8 knots, rounding the south western corner of the island within an hour. Then we were in the lee of Guadeloupe, finding gusty wind, interspersed with none at all. We sailed through squalls and periods of sunshine and finally, we relented and motored for an hour or two, taking the opportunity to run the watermaker and refill our depleted tanks.
In mid afternoon, we pulled into the delightful haven of Deshais, on the north west corner of Guadeloupe.
This is a pretty village, known to viewers of a certain detective series, as the main location for filming is here. There are good restaurants fringing the bay, including one where the main protagonists in the TV series relax after solving each case! No sign though, of the crime wave their weekly activities imply. We wandered the lanes of Deshais this afternoon, enjoyed a creole lunch overlooking the bay and contemplated our next move.....to Antigua.
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