Friends Vicki and Suzanne from Colorado came to have dinner with us in Antigua. It was great fun seeing them!
Deshais, Guadeloupe after the torrential tropical downpour. It is a river of debris and mud in the harbor!
Just another great sunset over the Caribbean Sea in Guadeloupe.
Guadeloupe is on the horizon!
Pretty view of Iles des Saint, Guadeloupe and the red roofs of the main town.
Scenic waterfront of Deshais, Guadeloupe with one of the rare mooring balls being used!
Maria getting caught up on news with a WIFI connection in the Saints.
Toes in the sand in Iles des Saints
S/Y Aspen – November 26, 2017 – Log #152
Aspen Position: 14 degrees 27’ N 060 degrees 52’ W
Le Marin, Martinique, Caribbean
Leaving Antigua we had a no-wind motorsail to Deshais, Guadeloupe where we got very lucky in finding a vacant free mooring ball on our arrival. Finding a mooring in the bay is never easy but since it is so early in the sailing season, several mooring balls were empty so we grabbed one. Anchoring in Deshais is usually a challenge because the bottom is poor holding and boats drag into one another all the time. At least on a mooring we should stay in one place as Aspen does circles around the ball with the constant winds shifts at Deshais.
Just as we arrived in Deshais, the heavens opened up and a monster tropical deluge engulfed the anchored boats for three straight hours. The rain was so heavy it filled the streams that empty into the bay and brought large trees in a tidal bore that engulfed Aspen and everyone else in the anchorage. The pretty blue water turned a sad shade of black from all the sediment carried by the rivers into our bay.
Because of all the debris and mud, we decided to stay on Aspen and not go ashore until the next day!
Of course the next day was a Sunday and nearly everything in town was closed except a few restaurants. Customs was supposed to be closed but was open for about an hour, enabling us to check into Guadeloupe. The owner was using his wifi to update his computer operating system and the computer had locked up, much to his dismay. So just as we finished checking in, the owner locked his door and went home.
Our next stop in Guadeloupe was Iles des Saints - a spectacular little group of islands that belong to Guadeloupe. The French love to vacation in the Saints and we joined them of course.
While anchored in Iles des Saints we tried to get our trusty water maker working. Well that was a complete failure. No amount of coaxing by Captain Steve persuaded the non-functional machine to give up a drop of water. So Admiral Maria took over and wasn’t as nice with her fury aimed at the dead piece of steel.
So, we can’t make water and that is a problem as you might guess. Luckily we found out that water can be purchased at the main dock: 1 Euro for 100 liters (26 gallons). What a deal!
The only problem is that you can either bring your nice boat against the gooey black rubber tires and fenders on the big dock and be bashed by the constant swell or put the water into your 5 gallon jugs and dinghy the containers back and forth between the dock and Aspen.
Well, there was one other problem. Aspen only has 1-five gallon container for water (who would think our water maker would quit???). And we needed a lot of water.
Luckily we met another Island Packet sailboat in the bay who was on a mooring ball right beside us and the owner, Skip, offered us his 3 - jerry jugs to use. Instead of 15 trips back and forth to the water tap on the main dock, we only needed 4 round trips with our dinghy.
Admiral Maria and Captain Steve loaded 600 pounds of water into Aspen’s tank over the course of 2 hours. What a job that was!
Once Aspen’s water tank was full we needed a beach break. The best beach on the island was a 20 minute walk away so off we went to lie in the sand and enjoy the warm Caribbean Sea and abundant sunshine. Isn’t that was sailing is all about?
With a full water tank we sailed south to Portsmouth, Dominica. As many of you recall, Dominica was destroyed by hurricane Maria in September of this year (2017). The category 5 hurricane had a bullseye at the center of pretty Dominica and the destruction was complete.
We wanted to stop at our favorite island to at least tell our local friends we were thinking of them and would return later in this sailing season, once the area is ready for visitors. It was a great sight, seeing Lawrence of Arabia in his little boat as he came motoring up to us to say Hi.
Lawrence talked about the hurricane and the area’s clean up and how everyone was coping with no electricity since September. Most houses suffered severe damage and are slowly getting put back together. In the words of Lawrence, “we will be back as we were, just slowly though.”
We weren’t able to visit the Kalinago Reservation (Carib Indian Reservation) on the other side of the island to see how Sexy Bones was doing. As resourceful as he is, we are certain he is still tending his vegetable and herb garden while enjoying life!
With only a short visit to Dominica we headed south again and made landfall in St. Pierre, Martinique where there was no hurricane damage this season. But more on Martinique will be the next chapter in this journey on Aspen.
Sail on, sail on Aspen…
Also, our book, Voyage Into Hell, is available at Amazon.com
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