Which of the following two boats would benefit from a consultation with a naval architect?
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| Is this a cruise ship or a sailboat? |
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| Not confused about it's naval orientation |
Volver had a fairly uneventful overnight journey to Guadeloupe. The guidebook mentions to be careful to avoid hitting Montserrat, which is directly in the line of navigation between Nevis and Guadeloupe. This is not so hard, as half of the island is lit like an arbor de Noel (the other half is pitch black, as the volcano has necessitated evacuation). However, there is no mention of the need to avoid Redonda, which is directly in the way of getting past Montserrat. Hint, hint: if any country would like to claim sovereignty over a peice of rock, we recommend building something on it, (like Canada is doing in the arctic). Anything will do, but in this case, we suggest a lighthouse, lit navigational buoys, or even reflective tape! A million stars were out that night, but they did not make up for the absence of Mr. Moon, who did not join us until 11:30 pm: his light was sorely missed. Volver is quite grateful for the accuracy of the charts on our chartplotter, particularly since our paper charts note the last survey of St. Kitts and Nevis was completed in the time of Sir Francis Drake (okay, we made that up, but it does state it was the 19th Century). We were able to sail our course half way (after motorsailing the half of the passage), and we arrived in the very busy, though not too crowded, anchorage of Deshaies by 0800. Once again, we entertained our British neighbours with our fine display of marital harmony, as it was very gusty while we were trying to anchor, necessitating the need for speed to keep from getting blown into your neighbouring boats, whilst desiring the boat to be stopped so as to avoid running over your anchor while dropping it! Best to drive around in circles until we get it right. Glad we could add some fun to their morning!
Deshaies is a fishing village, quaint, and appears to attract both tourists and locals, who come for the fish and produce markets, as well as the view and the beachfront restos. Being one of the northernmost anchorages of Guadeloupe, it is a jumping off place for many places North, and many boats arrive late, stay overnight, and leave early in the morning. As at our last four anchorages, we are awoken here by the soothing sounds of the surf each morning, and there is live music most nights. We were treated to a live latin Sunday brunch performance at Hemingways; the music carries nicely to our boat.
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| Deshaies Anchorage |
There are currently 6! Salty Dog boats in this anchorage. One must have arrived later in the evening last night, after Wayne and Mary from Meander invited the rest of us and a South African boat/couple over for happy hour. It was nice to reacquaint/meet new people and we learned good cruising tidbits from people who've been here before.
When Volver arrived in Nevis, we felt as though we finally arrived in the REAL Caribbean. Here, we feel like we have arrived in the REAL French West Indies. Like us, people here are mostly unilingual. Even the tourist information staff only speak "un peu de Anglais." Fortunately, Chick and Cheryl from Great Habit are in the process of selling their boat and generously gave us their copy of "French for Cruisers," which we are studying each morning. We try to spend a few minutes each day only speaking French, albeit quite badly. We do appreciate that Charles has taught us to swear: just take any word associated with the Catholic church, and say it with attitude, but we think this may be just a Quebecois thing. We have learned that it usually works when paying to try giving the nice people 50 euros and hope you get some change!
We visited the spectacular Botanical Gardens. The guidebook did not lie when it advised of a 1.5 km walk straight uphill to get there. One can phone for a shuttle, should one have phone service, but as the nearest place to buy a SIM card is 6 km away, we do not. It was good to get some exercise. Yesterdays walk was thwarted when the trail turned out to be hoping from slippery rock to slippery rock up a river until you find the waterfall. Now is not the time for breaking an ankle or a wrist! As for the trip uphill, we nearly did not make it after the cap'n announced that there was a werewolf between us and the gardens. The fearless first mate blazed a trail, onward and upward, to discover a bull, chained to the side of the road by his horns, yowling in an otherworldly fashion. Mystery solved: fears resolved. The cap'n may have watched too much Buffy in his youth (he says, "of course, Buffy was hot").
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| Flamingos at the Botanical Gardens |
Besides a gorgeous display of tropical plants, including many trees colonized by orchids, there was wildlife. The Australian lorakeets were no dummies. As soon as you take your 50 euro cent coin out they know they are about to get some nectar, and instantly they swarm you: too colorful to be a scene from Hitchcock, but also less pleasant than alarming! Try and look like you are having fun with those sharp beaks and feet clinging to you!
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| Lorakeets or Lovebirds? |
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| Four can feed at once |
The parrots were nicer, they also spoke French!
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| Beauty |
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| Comment Ca Va? Tres Bien, et Tu? |
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| This hummingbird was not shy! |
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| And for the child in everyone, babies never disappoint! |
We tried to rent a car to go exploring the waterfalls in the National Park of the Basse Terre mountains, but the gent at the local rental agent advised that "peut etre" (maybe, maybe not) he would have a car on monday. We've decided to go to a bigger city and rent from the Hertz, so that even if we have to sign a contract in French, if something was to go wrong, our insurance co. can talk to Hertz in English.
We planned to move on today but had a very eventful night, with little sleep, so it became a no-brainer to stay another day. The winds piped up to 25-30 knots with 35 knot gusts. Not only was it very noisy, but we watched about 7-8 boats from the northern side of the anchorage (where we had heard there are rocks and poor holding) leave at 0330 due to dragging their anchors. Then our neighbour started to drag out to sea and we were left with the dilemma of whether or not we should launch our 4 Hp dinghy and go knock on their hull to let them know, not being confident our little engine had the power to keep the wind from blowing us to Mexico. We were relieved to see someone up on their deck, which obviated our need to make that decision. Still not sleeping early in the dawn, we watched a catamaran and a backwards monohull drift out to the sea together in an unwanted coupling, likely having got their anchor chains wrapped around each other. Eventually, they disentangled: only one of them returned to the anchorage. We can see a lot of boats with damage: broken wind generators and stanchions. All this was after a Bavaria 40 went out to sea yesterday and came back without a mast. We don't know the detes, but the talk of the happy hour was that they were dismasted at sea. Although the first mate battened all the hatches this a.m, just in case we needed to get safely to sea, we plan to stay put as long as our anchor/rode continue to perform nicely (thank you to Ron for selling us his trusty CQR: the pivoting shank is most helpful, as Volver skates around like a drunk on ice).
We'll wrap up on a lighter note, with a top 10 list. Here are the top 10 ways you know you are a cruiser:
10. You have developed a method of collecting rainwater for your solar shower.
9. You are completely independent of visiting a marina or yacht club for shower or power. In fact, you have learned to lather up in the cockpit despite having made acquaintance with the people in the boat beside you!
8. Despite your sincere attempts at hygenic practices, your sense of smell has been trained to be less acute and you accept that everyday is a bad hair day.
7. You secretly laugh when well meaning wait staff tries to sell you fancy water imported from France: not only do you drink the local water, you drink it from a hose!
6. You are able to ferret out a book exchange in unlikely places (thank you, St. Barth's port authority!). Ditto for WiFi.
5. Out of necessity, turtle watching has become your new favorite spectator sport (they have some great yoga moves)!
4. You walk into every supermarche you pass, just in case you find something you "need."
3. You seek garbage disposal and laundry facilities with the same enthusiasm that you formerly reserved for seeking out the best beach bar. You know the difference between a laundry and a laundromat (hint: someone else folds your small things in the former).
2. You truly are tired (and usually are in bed) by "Cruiser's Midnight (9 pm)!
1. The restos you eat at all serve: Rice and Peas, Rice and Peas, Rice and Peas!
Au Revoir pour Maintenant!
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