Another Day, Another Anchorage

Thursday, February 1
Falmouth Harbor, Antigua
N 17 degrees 00.669 minutes
W 061 degrees 46.647 minutes

Since our last missive, we've really gotten around. After weeks of fairly settled weather, our trusty weather guru reported that a northerly swell would set in along the northern Caribbean, followed by an increase in the trade winds. We decided to get ourselves to Antigua before things got rough. So from Marie Galante we sailed 16 miles north to the lovely anchorage of St. Anne, Guadeloupe. We anchored in a small harbor (there was only one other sailboat) and spent some time on the beach at Club Med and also on the public beach. Both were absolutely phenomenal. But all good things come to an end, and we went south again (to make it easier to go north, naturally), ending up back in Iles des Saintes, where we anchored right behind our friends on S/V Nancy Dawson and S/V Mange Tout. One thing led to another, and after having drinks with new acquaintances from S/V Vamoose (out of Marblehead) in our cockpit, we were hosted by S/V Providence (with Nancy Dawson in attendance).

Are you bored yet? Shall I tell you what we ate and drank?
Perhaps another time.

We left the Saintes on Tuesday and sailed north, stopping briefly at a mooring at Pigeon Island (home of the Jacques Cousteau National Underwater Park) to do some fantastic snorkeling and to look for the underwater bust of Cousteau, which we never found. Last spring, on our way down, we gave this snorkeling spot a pass, as the mooring looked way too close to the rocks. Since then we have become either more adventurous or more careless.

We anchored in Deshaies on Tuesday and Wednesday, planning to rent a car so we could hike the Soufriere volcano. No joy. Jill had been planning this hike for weeks, but we could never seem to find a car rental place with any cars. To console ourselves we went to the botanical gardens in Deshaies for the second time. Stupendous. Sadly, since we were there last, stray dogs came in and killed all of the flamingos. The management of the gardens was obviously very upset about the event and have not done anything to replace the birds.

After stocking up on fabulous French cheese, bread, yogurt, cheap wine, and granola (it's a long story) we set sail this morning for Antigua. We had a zesty sail, with the wind strength varying widely, even (so Jill says) hitting 30 knots at times. We'd put in a reef, and the wind would die. We'd shake out the reef, and the wind would pick up to twice its original strength. I am extremely tired, having done more sail changes today than I have in the past few months together. Needless to say, we were close hauled for the whole voyage. But it was all worth it, as we made 7 knots at times, and 6+ knots for hours on end. We have verified that we do indeed leak water into the galley when our port rail is in the water. That's not nice. Jill has tasked me with finding the leak this week. Good luck, me!

The best part of anchoring this afternoon in Falmouth Harbor was that, just as we put the anchor down, our friends from Carapan and Eira showed up to say hello. We were not sure whether we would see them again on this trip, and we enjoyed catching up over the bread, cheese, and wine we had stocked in Deshaies.