A Beautiful Sail

We left Jolly Harbour Marina in Antigua at 7 am.  It was significantly easier to get out of the stern-to dock that it was to get in. Adventure I has a bow thruster and that makes a tremendous difference when you are trying to maneuver a 48 ft boat in crosswinds.  

For the first hour we traveled under engine south along the coast, within the Curtains Reef, in order to stay out of the swells and improve our angle for the sail to Guadeloupe.  When we reached English Harbour (around the bottom of Antigua) we set sail and bore off towards Guadeloupe.  With 20 knot winds coming from the east, we decided to go with a reefed main and full jib.  It was a beautiful sailing day with blue skies and some seas but not as significant as what we had seen over the past several passages.   

Before we set out, some sailors were reconsidering their departure from Antigua as a cold front was moving in, but we had determined that this was our best weather window if we were to make our way south in the next week.  Apparently, a significant other group of sailors had decided the same as we encountered a number of boats heading north to Antigua.  Our AIS showed that one large catamaran sailing downwind was on a direct collision course. He was on on starboard against our upwind port tack so he decided to take his right of way and we were forced to alter course (racing style). 😁

After 6.5 hours of exhilarating, rail down up-wind sailing we arrived in Deshaies (pronounced Day-ay), a cute little fishing village near the north end of Guadeloupe on the west (protected) coast.  

Guadeloupe is also known as Karukera (Island of Pretty Waters).  As we came into Deshaies we could see how true this is.  The anchorage is also known for being a bit of a wind funnel as a result of the surrounding hills and mountains, yet when we arrived it was perfectly calm.  For some reason the mooring balls here do not have pennants which you typically simply snag with a boat hook. In addition they are too heavy to lift so if you have a larger boat it is not possible to reach down and tie up. We later observed that most people back into the mooring ball and tie up from the low stern swim platform or hope someone will come out and assist them. We did not know this trick but luckily I came in a bit fast and the mooring ball ended up amidships which is lower than the bow so Roger was able to attach the line and secure us quite smoothly.  That learning behind us, we headed in to do customs at Le Pelican, a small souvenir shop that has the local customs computer for official check-in.  However,  we were told the computer was not working that day and as it was Sunday, which is Carnival day, there were no other options as everyone was celebrating at the next town up the coast. We were told to try again on Monday after 9:00 a.m. at Le Douane up the road. The French islands do not seem to be overly concerned with formalities. Thus headed back to the boat and had a lovely night enjoying the sunset while sipping wine and eating jerk chicken from our stern rail BBQ.   Life is good. 

On Monday morning, after finally clearing customs, we headed into town to get caught up on some emails as our Solis Wifi (a hotspot technology) which will not connect in this anchorage or, as we learned, generally in Guadeloupe.  Next year we will get Starlink.  We had heard mixed reviews about Starlink but have met many sailors down here who are are very happy with it.  It does have a significant draw on power though, so we are likely going to add to our current single 310 watt solar panel in order for the boat's battery bank to keep up with the consumption.  In the meantime, here I am sitting on the bow of the boat trying to get connected to the Guadeloupe Public Wifi.  This was only sufficient to do a few texts, and most definitely not strong enough to update our blog....and thus the delay in getting this out. 

On the way back into town of course we found a little boulangerie and Roger picked out several decadent, evil chocolate-infused whatevers which we consumed with a capuccino at a small table on main street (one of two streets in the entire town). We then hit an ATM to get some much needed Euros as that is the preferred currency on this particular island. We also went on an unsuccessful hunt for propane. Most sailing vessels use propane for the stove and it also powers our primary BBQ. It seems that they use butane, not propane, in Guadeloupe and all the French islands and the tank connections are not compatible. Who knew? Yet another learning. We have two propane tanks onboard but if we don’t find a place to refill them soon we may be eating PB&Js for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  

The next day we spent a rainy day on anchor followed by a beautiful sunset, and then we were ready to head to our next destination, Pigeon Island, Guadeloupe.