Gas Gremlins and Guadaloupe
Gaviota
Tue 22 Apr 2008 23:31
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15.52N 61.35W
Les Saintes, Terre de Haut bay, Tue 8 April.
The customs office at Basse Terre, where we landed on Mon 7
April was never open when we visited, and as the note on the door said, contrary
to our rather out-of-date guidebook, that there IS a customs office on Les
Saintes, we decided to sail over there. The Marina Riviere Sens where we'd
landed wasn't quite as expected either - quite run down and the visitors pontoon
was filled (where the concrete wasn't crumbling into the sea) with permanently
berthed boats and a sinking wreck ! The laundry and bakery were fine
though.
We had another good sail in 20knots of wind, first squall
hit with rain that felt like hailstones ... second squall just shifted the
wind direction to make it a dead beat up a shallowish (compared to 1
mile deep water at the windward end of it) stretch of water so the seas had
become Gibraltar Straits-like ..ie almost vertical even though only about 6 feet
high.... very bumpy!!! so lots of tacking, and a sleek 60+foot yacht
hurtled past us. We tried to anchor beside another Hylas on one side of the
bay, but couldn't get fixed so moved over to the other side, where another guy
came up to us when we'd just finished our afternoon snooze and said he was in
the process of buying a Hylas so we invited him and his wife aboard for a look
and a wee chat. We often get people, usually Americans dinghying up saying
'Is that a Hylas' or 'we're in the Hylas over there'. Sometimes it's
interesting.
Tuesday we signed up with customs in the lovely little town
hall, bought the last baguette in town, managed to avoid the multitude of mopeds
just hired by American cruise passengers, walked over to the other side of
the island, thought about hiring one of the Hobiecats flying around between the
anchored yachts and went back to the boat to plan the next few days. Annabel was
dutifully cooking supper, wondering when we'd find an excuse to eat out again,
having spent a few weeks on French territory now...oh well at least there's good
meat and veg to cook with...Uh-OH ! she suddenly realised the rice wasn't coming
to the boil - the gas had run out ! Luckily the meat was cooked so we had
that with the remaining baguette and re-planned the next few days! We're a
bit ashamed about running out of gas 'cos the other bottle ran out in January.
We've been procrastinating about getting it refilled because a) they're american
bottles and b) we were told in Las Palmas that as they are 10yrs old they should
be replaced. We decided the large marina at Pointe a Pitre,where the Route
du Rhum race finishes, would be a good bet for getting a refill.
So...
Thurs 10 April and...
Off we go ... well the first thing to do is get the sails up
... all going fine until the reefs we had in the main wouldn't come out ... the
ropes deciding to lodge firmly inside the boom .. so up went Syd to the
mast and started a tug of war with the offending ropes where they come out of
the boom (by the way the boom is about at head height at that point ... not good
to get any purchase! But after lots of tugging Annabel wound the sail another
yard or so up the mast ... then Syd heaved again ...Annabel started winding and
up the sail went till a great shriek was heard round the whole bay ..
as a 3" cockroach jumped out of the rapidly unfolding sail .. acrobatically
grabbed the rope Syd was pulling (all of 6 inches from Syd's face .. leapt over
his hand and disappeared down the boom .... Composure quickly regained, Syd
started tugging at the rope .. and loo and behold out leapt the cockroach ..
landing firmly on the coachroof ... with Syd in hot pursuit ... after some
acrobatic dancing by Syd and a fair amount of screaming ... had
it positioned nicely on a bit of open deck .... then a bit of right
foot craftwork that even Beckam would've been proud of as it was lifted up into
the air over the rail and with a dramatic curl to the left floated
gracefully into the the face of the oncoming wave ... Great cries of
elation by all concerned .... But how it got there remains a mystery .... and so
far (touch wood) no others to be seen......
And on we sailed to Marina Bas du Fort at Pointe a
Pitre (at 16.13N 61.32W). Wind had swung back and got a bit of south in it,
dropped AND Annabel helmed and only a bit of tacking and finally
enjoyed a no wind, stern to docking (easy peasy compared to Gibraltar
... the marina chap tying our bows to the big buoy that each
berth has in the French marinas here. The office check-in was slick,
pontoon wide and clean, water and electricity at the ready - just like a spanish
marina ! After showers etc(only basic, typically French) we wandered along
to the also typically european restaurants round one part of the marina and
enjoyed a good french meal. Next day, we contacted the gas refilling
station, but no, they only did french bottles and the chandlery only had french
bottles and fittings, which are different to ours and they use butane
which burns hotter than our normal propane. So another thinking/planning
session about whether it was worth having a french one as a spare, but the
connection changes and storage wouldn't be worth it, so we decided to sail up to
Antigua immediately as we were going there anyway, and being a very 'British'
island, with many yachts passing through, we were sure we could get a refill, or
if not, new propane bottles. Oh and we did phone the yacht services company that
advertises propane refills in English Harbour to confirm - one of the occasions
we were particularly glad we have the satellite phone, as Syd's mobile plays up
terribly on french islands (well what do you expect of things French!) and
won't send txts even though it says it's on french Orange! Oh yes and we spent
the rest of the day (well most of the day really) cleaning and scrubbing all
those endless hidden nooks and crannies that seem to come free with every boat.
... But no sign of cockroaches (relief by all) and after .. no traces of food
for them to eat without having to expose themselves (all part of the battle
plan)!!!!
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