Tuesday, March 17, 2009
A. and I took a day off from our push North toward Antigua to explore this small group of islands off the South coast of Basse Terre, Guadeloupe. The islands form the rim of a collapsed volcano rsing out of the sea. It is quite dry and stark, seen from the sea. The approach from the South takes Django over a steep slope of the volcano, the bottom rising 1,000 feet in half a mile, causing lots of turbulence or bouleversement on the surface. Good thing Chris Parker got his sums wrong and we were in 15 knots of wind and not over 20 as predicted. We are in the little bay by Bourg des Saintes, a tiny town populated by Brittany fisherman in the 17th century. Today, its old small buildings are boutiques offering jewelry, art and clothes to the flocks of day tripper tourists who come in on the ferry, as well as to the cruisers anchored in the bay. Quaint, tiny little roads, and pedestrian only traffic on the main street make it a unique destination in the Caribbean. The Artist can scarcely be restrained, she wants to move here, buy a building and set up shop. It reminds me a bit of a Disney product, or a more laid back Croatia, although the urge to gouge mercilessly is not so apparant here.
The previous two days have been a hard push North. First Anse d'Arlet in Martinique to Roseau, Dominica; then Roseau to the Saintes yesterday. The weather cooperated reasonably despite Chris Parker's talk of "washing machine" conditions.
Guadeloupe is still torn by strike, with little progress being made. Tomorrow, the power will go off all day. Les Saintes is relatively unaffected, as no one here is interested, but there are few to no products in the grocery stores. The cruising world knows Les Saintes to be safe and so the bay is full. We had some difficulty finding a decent place to anchor and had to move three times, finally moving after dinner as we came perilously close to bumping up against a moored boat beside us. As soon as we got repositioned, the wind came up and we had a squally night of wind and rain. I am glad we decided to move before it started to blow, as it was we enjoyed reasonable peace through the night.
Unfortunately, we left the boat this morning with nearly dead batteries in the camera. A. took lots of photos anyway, but only succeeded in wiping out most of the past few days efforts. There we are then, no sense in crying over spilt milk. How about that stock market then?
The good news is we have moved into HotHotHotSpot internet territory and enjoy strong signals and a month subscription in most ports from Dominica on up to Antigua.
Tomorrow and Thursday are our window in the weather to Antigua. I am going now, so as not to be caught by weeks of adverse wind and sea for the last leg due North into Antigua through 42 miles of open sea. So we will move up to Deshaies on the Northwest coast of Basse Terre, then take the predicted East wind and calm sea on North.
The HotHotHotSpot in Deshaies is temporarily out of service (strike??) so we look forward to bringing you up to date once we arrive in English Harbour later in the week.
A. and I took a day off from our push North toward Antigua to explore this small group of islands off the South coast of Basse Terre, Guadeloupe. The islands form the rim of a collapsed volcano rsing out of the sea. It is quite dry and stark, seen from the sea. The approach from the South takes Django over a steep slope of the volcano, the bottom rising 1,000 feet in half a mile, causing lots of turbulence or bouleversement on the surface. Good thing Chris Parker got his sums wrong and we were in 15 knots of wind and not over 20 as predicted. We are in the little bay by Bourg des Saintes, a tiny town populated by Brittany fisherman in the 17th century. Today, its old small buildings are boutiques offering jewelry, art and clothes to the flocks of day tripper tourists who come in on the ferry, as well as to the cruisers anchored in the bay. Quaint, tiny little roads, and pedestrian only traffic on the main street make it a unique destination in the Caribbean. The Artist can scarcely be restrained, she wants to move here, buy a building and set up shop. It reminds me a bit of a Disney product, or a more laid back Croatia, although the urge to gouge mercilessly is not so apparant here.
The previous two days have been a hard push North. First Anse d'Arlet in Martinique to Roseau, Dominica; then Roseau to the Saintes yesterday. The weather cooperated reasonably despite Chris Parker's talk of "washing machine" conditions.
Guadeloupe is still torn by strike, with little progress being made. Tomorrow, the power will go off all day. Les Saintes is relatively unaffected, as no one here is interested, but there are few to no products in the grocery stores. The cruising world knows Les Saintes to be safe and so the bay is full. We had some difficulty finding a decent place to anchor and had to move three times, finally moving after dinner as we came perilously close to bumping up against a moored boat beside us. As soon as we got repositioned, the wind came up and we had a squally night of wind and rain. I am glad we decided to move before it started to blow, as it was we enjoyed reasonable peace through the night.
Unfortunately, we left the boat this morning with nearly dead batteries in the camera. A. took lots of photos anyway, but only succeeded in wiping out most of the past few days efforts. There we are then, no sense in crying over spilt milk. How about that stock market then?
The good news is we have moved into HotHotHotSpot internet territory and enjoy strong signals and a month subscription in most ports from Dominica on up to Antigua.
Tomorrow and Thursday are our window in the weather to Antigua. I am going now, so as not to be caught by weeks of adverse wind and sea for the last leg due North into Antigua through 42 miles of open sea. So we will move up to Deshaies on the Northwest coast of Basse Terre, then take the predicted East wind and calm sea on North.
The HotHotHotSpot in Deshaies is temporarily out of service (strike??) so we look forward to bringing you up to date once we arrive in English Harbour later in the week.
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