 |
| Simpson Bay Lagoon Bridge (an escape hatch) |
On
a very quiet Sunday morning in Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe, and with a
ready source of wi-fi, it seems an appropriate time to write up our trip from
St Martin. Although we had great plans,
this crazy summer weather put paid to all that.
Will those trades (winds) ever ease?
After our release from Simpson Bay Lagoon, first stop was back to
Marigot Bay (French side) offering better protection to (hopefully) raise the
main sail, bagged since Turks Caicos, back into its rightful position.
The
following morning, an early rise gave us sufficiently settled conditions to
achieve our task. And was it so good to
have that powerful main back in use!
(Lack of it, we realised, explained our feeble crossing effort from Turks
Caicos! ) Hey ho! And round the north side of St Martin we go –
something we’ve not done before. The
north side is much drier and home to many beautiful sandy beaches and a jumble of
seaside resorts. The little island of
Tintamarie looked like a parking lot. It
was Sunday after all and locals were certainly out & about in their boats.
 |
| Ile Fourchu ahead, Cap'n |
Rounding
St Martin to the north gave us a good heading on our planned stop at Ile Fourchue,
a tiny private island and wildlife reserve with moorings. The Cap’n had plans to snorkel over reefs and
brush up his fish-speak. It was not to
be. The bay was filled to the brim with
vast catamarans. Is it compulsory for
all catamarans to be over 50 feet these days?
Miffed, we moved on to St Barts and settled in at the very protected but
equally busy Anse de Colombier. Here,
the beach is clothing optional, so you’ll be pleased to know, that bino’s in
hand, the Cap’n viewed and discussed the architecture of avant-garde cliff top
dwellings with GS. (Oh, sure!!)
 |
| Oh look, Mike Nelson's found St Barts! |
We
left with the birds early next morning for the longer trip to Nevis, where we’d
planned to stay for a couple of days.
From St Barts we had a good run down but couldn’t maintain our course for
the north side of St Kitts, so floated into the passage between St Kitts and
Statia, marvelling at the green and pleasant fields surrounding the high peak
of Mt Liamiuga, wearing as it regularly does, a quaint cloud cap with obvious Caribbean
panache.
Near
St Kitt’s southern salt ponds, we made a brief stop at White House Bay, to
check the weather. We were expecting a nasty
front with high winds, forecast for about Thursday-ish, and wanted to check on
the system’s position in relation to our own.
A decision was quickly reached to skip Nevis and make for much better
protection offered in Deshaies, Guadeloupe.
 |
| Looking back at St Kitts |
Accompanied
by a family of Brown Noddy’s and pods of dolphins, sliding behind the islands
wasn’t too much of a challenge, however by now, the seas were well up and
rolling through the passages between them.
We were also obliged to stay clear of Montserrat as its volcanic state imposes
an exclusion zone extending on land and off shore. This pushed us out into some
mean seas. Deshaies then “welcomed” us
with a rather nasty front, offering squalls over 30kts. After settling onto a mooring in the harbour
and calming down with a shot of something sustaining, we both agreed that the
conditions between Montserrat and Guadeloupe were very similar to the gale we experienced
mid-Atlantic on the way to the Azores in 2011.
Windjammer then remained on her mooring, strengthened with additional lines, to ride out this
coming system. Katabatic winds regularly
rolled down the steep hills surrounding our little harbour hide-away, so if it
wasn’t for the rolling swell, we would hardly have noticed any increased wind
state when it did eventually strike. Deshaies
township itself was in “off season” mode so finding anything other than a
rather nice pâtisserie open and rationed internet, we cut short our stay. Besides,
we had no working knowledge of the French language and no euros. (It should be noted here that the Marina
manager and the Customs/Immigration official were both exceptionally friendly
and very helpful.)
 |
| Deshaies under rain & cloud cover |
On
a bright sunny morning we slipped our (€25 a night - eek!) mooring and headed for
Pointe-à-Pitre. The seas were
calm and turtles came out to play as we chugged our way south. The island appeared green and very lush,
plenty of cultivated farms sat amidst rugged peaks – all a picture, oh so
tropical! Carefully, we picked our way
into the main harbour; a busy shipping port indeed and it seemed like half the
cruising community were in town and on anchor. The old mooring field has been moved and
expanded, however the Cap’n considered it too exposed, so we snuggled in with “the
regulars” in a spot just off the rather flash new Museum. Now we really could talk architecture.
Still,
it was good to be safe and sound and much further south, as the end of June loomed
closer and hurricane season swings in. The
old rhyme goes: June too soon, July stand by.
So, now we are seriously keeping out a weather eye.
 |
| Modern Museum in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe |
