Guadeloupe

The weatherman said this was the window to head for Guadeloupe. Mia Tia, Gary and Marie’s 44’ Lagoon, beat us and came by to say good bye. By 7:45 we were underway and we said good bye to Lutz, a Lagoon 380 from East Germany, as we motored out. There was very little wind so we motored to the end of the island of Dominica. As we nosed out toward the open water passage we set sail with a reefed main and as the wind picked up to 15 kt. from the ESE we soon shutdown the engine and we were sailing at 7 – 8 kts with a 3 –6’ swell and a 1’ chop. It was a great sail to Guadalupe! We made the passage in 4 hours averaging 7.5 kts. and had a couple of gusts pushing us to 9.7 kts. Then in the lee of the island we sailed for another 30 min. before the wind shifted 160 degrees and we had to motor to the Jacque Cousteau dive park at Pigeon Island.

Pigeon Islands

Guadeloupe is a French speaking country and actually is made up of 2 main islands with a canal separating them. It is shaped like a butterfly with plantations on the east  island and rugged mountains on the west. We spent about a week stopping in two harbors. The first, Pigeon Island, is a Cousteau Underwater Park with the mainland shore a day time beach area with little bars, restaurants, and bistros along with water sports shops. They rent snorkel gear, kayaks and floats there and have ferries that have water slides and jump platforms, to Pigeon Island. There are also a

Rigeon Island Beach

 number of scuba diving operations running to the island. People snorkel far out into the bay to see turtles, or kayak the quarter mile to Pigeon Island to hike and snorkel, or lay on the white sand beach with a drink from the bar. During our stay we saw many turtles from the boat and, while Carl was snorkeling to check the anchor, one swam under the boat with three Remora fish attached to it.

Turtle with Remora Fish attached

 Carl arranged for a scuba trip to Pigeon Island and said it was beautiful. He saw 3 Lion Fish, a Sea Snake, and when he put his hand into the sand in certain spots it felt warm from the magma below. The dive master blew into a large sponge and a ring of bubbles floated up from the top edge of the sponge. We also needed ice so Leslie found a market a mile up the road that sold cube and block ice. So we walked there and carried back two 5 kg bags of cubes, 11 lbs. each, and a 14kg. block, about 30 lbs. The walk was uphill on the way back and Carl was not a happy camper with the 30lbs. of ice on his back. 

Me and my dive buddies

Blowing into sponre and bubbles coming out

Lion Fish

Dive Master with Sea Snake

 It lasted a week which was the only saving grace.  The next day the wind howled down the mountain whipping up small waves and streaks of foam as well as sending sheets of spray across the anchorage, and we were only 200 yds. from the beach!  We set a second anchor and rode out the squall.  

Lobster hanging upside down

Deshaies looking at cemetery

Our second anchorage was a quaint little fish town in the north end of Guadalupe called Deshaies (pronounced Day-ay). We anchored off this picturesque little town which has two streets and the narrowest sidewalks I have ever seen! The wind was stiff so we stayed to wait for a weather window to head for Antigua. While we were there we hiked to an old cannon battery and out of town to a big crescent sand beach. We also caught up with some friends, Rick and Elizabeth on Sojourn Mariner. They had some rope caught in their propeller so Carl dove down and cut it all off, about 10’.

Leslie and Elizabeth

Then we all went to the most beautiful Botanical Gardens we have ever seen. Not only were there innumerable labeled plants, unfortunately in French, but interactive parrot cages and ponds of fish at the bottom of waterfalls which were overlooked by a nice restaurant. When the winds finally abated it was off to Antigua.

Parrots in the interactive cage

Leslie, Rick, and Elizabeth

Pretty  Bird

waterfall with where we ate above

Antigua

Nelson's Dockyard

The sail to English Harbor Antigua from Deshaies Guadalupe is 42 miles of open ocean. The winds we still strong so we set sail with double reefed main and jib. As we left the head lands we hit 25 – 30 kt. winds and a 2 meter sea. We sailed close hauled at 8 – 9 kts. past the end of the island. There the wind lessened and shifted about half way across. We shook out the reefs from the jib and sailed at a beam reach in about 15 kts. of wind quartering into a 3 -5’ swell and 2 2.5 meter seas to Antigua. We averaged 7.5 kts. for the first 3 hours, but the wind started to die the second 3 hours so we only averaged a little over 6.5 kts. As we sailed up to the entrance of English harbor we were met by a low walled fort with a dozen gun ports at the end of a point of land that you had to round to get into the harbor. After dropping the sails we motored around the fort and past a small bay to starboard full of sailboats toward Nelson Dockyard.

English and Falmouth Bays were the British harbors in the 1800s. Nelson Dockyard was the refit and repair harbor for the British in the Caribbean. It is protected by several forts and batteries as well as a high stone wall. The whole complex has been restored, but now houses modern shops, restaurants, Inns, and businesses within its old stone and timber buildings.  The perimeter has room for 33 mega yachts stern to. It has numerous yacht stores and services and is the host for many sailing events including Antigua classic yacht sail week and Antigua race week. As we came into the dockyard we were awed by the number and size of the yachts moored there, including Leander, one of the Royal Yachts. We anchored just north of SunSail as we are still on shake down, and the SeaTalk cable had managed to come thru the topping lift hole and the main halyard hole in the mast.  SunSail sent out a tech and we squared it away with enough time for Carl to get us entered thru customs and immigration.  As he was leaving the offices he saw an ad for a Fri. Fish night and the prices were right.  This is a big deal at the Dock Yard, we thought they were setting up for a wedding. It is just that many locals as well as cruisers come to this dinner.   We ended up sitting with Susan and Andrew of Andromeda of Plymouth and had a great time comparing adventures.  They invited us as their guests the next night for THE TOT.

SunSail at Nelson's Dockyard

Sue, Andrew, and Anne