Off to Guadaloupe
True Colours
James Scrimshaw
Sun 11 Jan 2015 16:29
The next morning, safely on our mooring in Falmouth, James was on deck drinking his early morning mug of tea when he saw a blue motor yacht entering harbour. It was Jo, with Josh and Mina on board, so, amazingly, over the Christmas break we have seen all three boys.
We met up several times with Oli, Josh and Mina, and ate ashore more often than we probably should have, notably an amazing meal at Sun Ra, and Cecilia's for Sunday lunch with kitesurfing Oli, plus Ian and Gerry.
We delayed our departure from Falmouth by one day because of forecast strong winds, and eventually left at 6.30 on Thursday morning. Under double reefed main and full Genoa we were making around 7.5 knots and arrived at Deshaises, Guadaloupe at 1.00 pm.
Attempt to anchor was a catalogue of errors. James told Rosemary he planned to let out the full length of chain without asking her to let out the depth length first, and then the rest progressively as we reversed. Result, when he gave the instruction the full length started clattering out. Meanwhile Sarah, who had been posted close to the bow as a communications link, had to rush to the stern to secure the dinghy (skipper's second mistake) . The whole harbour could hear the combined shouts of "stop", except for Rosemary who was rapidly releasing chain, thrilled by the success of the new chain guide made by the stainless welder. Result - anchor did not take and had to be retrieved. A slight tangle of retrieved chain in the locker somehow became an irreversible knot so eventually we gave up and picked up one of the new moorings that have been laid in Deshaises.
Spray, with Ian, Gerry, and Ian's brother Nick and sister-in-law Julia arrived a couple of hours later, and after clearing in we all ate at a waterside restaurant l'Amer.
Swimming off the back of the boat was great, the water is so clear, and Sarah swam a couple of times to the nearby coral bed, and was alongside a turtle for a brief time.
Friday we walked to the beach, generally relaxed, and ate on board.
The plan had been to visit the Botanical Gardens on Saturday, and move on Sunday, but we revised this, and decided to go to the marina at the Southern end of Guadaloupe. This change in plans was in part due to our need to refill with water (when we refuelled in Falmouth we could not get water; apparently Antigua does have some fresh water, just not in the right places), and in part because after an uncharacteristically still night on Thursday, Friday night it blew really hard (the wind funnels into the Harbour between the hills) and we had a pretty disturbed night - a night in a marina was suddenly really appealing.
So yesterday we had a 3 hour motorsail to Riviere Sens marina, docked at the fuel dock in a vain attempt to find the Dockmaster (we had said we would arrive at 16.00, it was 15.45 so he was not there) and then moved into a vacant space with Rosemary on shore to catch and manage the lines (assisted by two men off an adjacent Finnish boat) and Sarah doing all the deck work. After a general tidy up, ate on shore.
Our current plan is to stay here two nights, and then move to The Saintes, but with more strongish winds forecast we may stay here another day.