Guadeloupe to Viesques, Spanish Virgin Islands
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February 2011 Guadeloupe to Viesques, Spanish Virgin Islands Whilst waiting for me to get ready to return
to supermarket I caught Mike sitting in the saloon staring into space.
Always a bad question to ask but I fell for
it – “What are you thinking about, darling?” “I’m thinking of all the things I’ve got to
do!” “What things have you got to do,
darling?” “Nothing!” Why can’t he just admit to thinking about
nothing in the first place! Back into supermarket to buy the things I
forgot yesterday. The reason we apparently missed buying these was because they
didn’t have any! We moved on to Deshaies as we paid for a weeks Internet in Les
Saintes and they have the same supplier in Deshaies and Mike wants his monies
worth! Also, Barclays have pissed him off and it takes too much time and money
to call them so he sent an email that they claim they will answer within 2 days.
That was 4 days ago and he hasn’t heard back so is even more pissed off with
them now! Deshaies is much nicer than last year as it
has got rid of the volcanic ash from Monserrat’s eruption. Tried to sail to
Monserrat, took 2hrs to cover only 7 miles in a horrid sea so turned around and
took an hour to get back to Deshaies. Mike, overall, wasn’t too downhearted as
it meant he could use another day of his prepaid week’s
Internet! Next day, we were going to leave at 6.30
when the French bloke who delivers fresh croissants and bread to the boat had
said he would show up. However, he didn’t show till 7am, which made the skipper
a bit twitchy. Finally, we are pulling up the anchor as he finally shows. Bit
difficult trying to steer and negotiate money and eat the warm croissant all at
one time! Finally got to Monserrat but the only anchorage looked very rolly and
as the sea showed no sign of flattening we sailed on to Nevis and grabbed a buoy
just in time for sundowners.
Waterspout at Monserrat – best
avoided! Blowy sail to St Eustatia (Statia). Decided
to go ashore in afternoon in case everything was shut on Sunday. Tied up – no
sign of Customs or Immigration who weren’t open till Sunday morning so started
to walk into town. Officious lady at the port office wouldn’t let us do so till
we had cleared in so she called the bloke up and “he will be here in a while”.
Luckily, 40 minutes later he turned up, as Mike was just ready to throw in the
towel! Didn’t charge us anything so we filled in his form and walked up the Old
Slave Road into a lovely, well-maintained town –Oranjetad - that was shut! Back
down the Old Slave Road to check out restaurants on the beach. The one the pilot
book recommended doesn’t do dinners! The next had a limited menu including “Pork
Gordon blue with rice and veg”! The third appeared shut so we ate on board
again!
Left Statia passing Tumbledown Dick Bay. Got
into St Martin after a lumpy old sail with lots of short, horrendous downpours –
actually felt cold for the first time in a while. In plenty of time for the 5.30
bridge to get into the lagoon. Unfortunately, when we go to lift our anchor
around 5.20, it’s snagged and we cant free it before the bridge closes again.
Kept trying to free it, including Mike diving down to have a look but no joy.
That will teach Mike to say, as we left Statia, well at least we wont have a
rolly night tonight tucked up in the lagoon. Why doesn’t he learn to shut
up?! By 5am
the next day Mike has come up with a couple of other ideas to try and free the
anchor, one of which involves me getting out of bed and the other involves the
wind having dropped overnight so the water isn’t so shaken so he can see better.
Of course, the wind hasn’t dropped sufficiently so by 6.30 I’m semi-dressed –
including a fleece cos its not that warm- and trying to reverse the boat into
the wind and all sorts of other nautical impossibilities. Again, no luck, I
could have stayed in bed! Retreated to same bed to wait for the Cruiser net to
start, while Mike jumps around noisily on the cabin roof (Allegedly, inflating
dinghy for trip to Dive Shop). All the cruiser net yields is that everyone knows
there is a wreck there and could we give them the
coordinates of it so they don’t anchor on it in the future! Meanwhile, Mike has
spotted a dive shop on the beach so dinghies over to ask. By then the 9.30
bridge has opened and closed. Eventually, really nice guy turns up and he’s from
Maidstone! 50US$ and half an hour later he has had to leave our anchor on the
seabed as it’s mangled and too tightly wedged to move it and disconnected the
chain. Luckily, we have a spare anchor so 11.30 bridge into the lagoon. Looking
through the chandler’s catalogue we find we have just left £1000 worth of anchor
at the bottom of the Caribbean! In the lagoon we spy Zenna who we first
saw in Dover marina but never met the occupants. Then (we found out afterwards)
they had seen RT when we were both in Lisbon and taken some photos of our canvas
work they had admired. Last year we saw them again in St Bart’s and finally got
to meet them over drinks on RT the night before they were leaving. Found they
are leaving the next day for Cuba so drinks with them at The Yacht Club that
evening – of course, loads of banter about us losing our anchor – Fame, at
last!
We started trying to track down the 2
items of post Hannah has sent out for us (Mikes debit card which showed up in
the UK the morning I left and my camera lead I left behind) but no luck
yet. Skype with Hannah and Henry (who had to be woken up specially to talk to Grandma). He grows so quickly and has finally shown me his 2 new teeth! We managed to drop the outboard filler cap overboard and having got our sail back from repairers Mike gets to look at the repair – he’s not happy with either the repair or how they folded the sail so back over to the sail maker to complain and to get a replacement filler cap. Both things achieved he sets off back only to run out of petrol so had to row the rest of the way back. Not our best day!
Had to take this pic for my
sis! I woke up with the beginnings of a cold so
not a good start, but, bravely, ashore in the dinghy to go to
chandlers for boys toys – including the much lusted after Fortress
anchor we couldn’t justify buying last year – when we still had a
spare! On the way back, we had a chat with Bosse on SeaQwest – the
Swedes on a Najad 36 who we met in Domenica. Back on board comfort
food of baked beans and eggs and I take myself off to bed with
Paracetamol while Mike plays with his new toys, putting them all
away neatly when he’d finished playing. He goes off to check for our
post, which still hasn’t turned up. Next day, still hanging around in the lagoon
waiting for our post! Repaired the Ensign
again!
Feeling as though I may live through to the
end of the week now. Still checking the post, which still hasn’t arrived. I got
the feeling back in 3 of my fingers last night as well so feeling very upbeat.
First time in 10 years! Valentines lunch ashore – Meat fest for me! Most of our
time in St Martin was spent getting work done to the boat including getting our
radar fixed and Kate sewing various things that need
repair.
Chris and Geraldine arrived on Scorch of
Wessex and came over to swap info on Puerto Rico and Spanish VIs.
Lovely to see them again and hope to be able to swap tales with them
again at the end of the season. We left Chris in charge of checking for our
post and set off for Anguilla. Mike was up at 3.30am the next
morning as the wind has finally kicked in and loads of boats had
their flashlights sweeping the anchorage but we still love this
island! Italian lunch on the beach to get rid of all our EC$. They
forgot to charge for our pre-dinner drinks, desert and my steak – so
we were happy!
The big boys are gathering for the Heineken
regatta. This motorboat has a 52-foot racing sail yacht on the deck
this side and a 40 foot or so motor cruiser on the starboard deck –
all matching livery, of course. AAA was also there – the Russian
multi-millionaire’s extraordinary motorboat – double “garages” both
sides. If you have to have a motorboa, either of these is the way to
do it! Final trip back to St Martin, Kate getting up just as we
arrived around 8.30! Went to the Mailbox to check for post and were astonished
to get 2 pink slips of paper to say post had arrived in Philipsburg last week –
why they don’t deliver it to the address on the packet, God only knows!
Apparently, they would be able to get it to the Mailbox by “Thursday or Friday”!
So we hopped on a bus for the 5-mile trip to Philipsburg and collected them from
the PO there. (Thanks, H) It means Mailbox don’t get their fee, so I wonder why
they don’t shape up.
The next day, Mike gets us underway for
Virgin Gorda around 5am and I strolled on deck around 8.30! Just
over 15 hours sail using every combination of sails we have at the
start, as the wind didn’t kick in till lunchtime. Anchored, in the
dark, with burnt pizza and frayed tempers! Then on to St Johns for
the usual finger print check and we are good to enter the
USA. On our way to Honeymoon Bay we catch a big,
pretty fish. Our neighbours tell us it’s a Rainbow Runner but, since
Sophie Grigson doesn’t list him in her fish book, we have him coated
in black pepper and coriander with a fresh mango salsa – delicious
and still enough in the freezer for another
meal.
At last, we are breaking new ground but, as
we decide to leave, a huge baby bird decides he’s going to travel
with us for a bit so he sits on the bow for 20 minutes or so before
deciding he’s going to stay American. On to Culebra where we anchor
off the main town of
Dewey. Lovely bays as we come in behind the reef – will check
them out further when we come back down from mainland. Free Wifi in
the bay, so a quick Skype with H and H – that boy wont stop
growing! All day just sat at anchor, wind howling
through and a bit overcast so we decided to stay put. Free Wifi all
day tho. Also, received Charlotte’s first rival blog entitled
“Campervan Diaries 1”. Keep ‘em coming, Charlotte – tho we felt
quite exhausted just reading them!
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