Guadeloupe to Viesques, Spanish Virgin Islands

Right Turn
Mike Goldsmith & Kate Richmond
Mon 28 Feb 2011 16:26

 February 2011 Guadeloupe to Viesques, Spanish Virgin Islands

 

Whilst waiting for me to get ready to return to supermarket I caught Mike sitting in the saloon staring into space.

Always a bad question to ask but I fell for it – “What are you thinking about, darling?”

“I’m thinking of all the things I’ve got to do!”

“What things have you got to do, darling?”

“Nothing!”

Why can’t he just admit to thinking about nothing in the first place!

 

Back into supermarket to buy the things I forgot yesterday. The reason we apparently missed buying these was because they didn’t have any! We moved on to Deshaies as we paid for a weeks Internet in Les Saintes and they have the same supplier in Deshaies and Mike wants his monies worth! Also, Barclays have pissed him off and it takes too much time and money to call them so he sent an email that they claim they will answer within 2 days. That was 4 days ago and he hasn’t heard back so is even more pissed off with them now!

 

Deshaies is much nicer than last year as it has got rid of the volcanic ash from Monserrat’s eruption. Tried to sail to Monserrat, took 2hrs to cover only 7 miles in a horrid sea so turned around and took an hour to get back to Deshaies. Mike, overall, wasn’t too downhearted as it meant he could use another day of his prepaid week’s Internet!

 

Next day, we were going to leave at 6.30 when the French bloke who delivers fresh croissants and bread to the boat had said he would show up. However, he didn’t show till 7am, which made the skipper a bit twitchy. Finally, we are pulling up the anchor as he finally shows. Bit difficult trying to steer and negotiate money and eat the warm croissant all at one time! Finally got to Monserrat but the only anchorage looked very rolly and as the sea showed no sign of flattening we sailed on to Nevis and grabbed a buoy just in time for sundowners.

 

Waterspout at Monserrat – best avoided!

 
    

      

 

Blowy sail to St Eustatia (Statia). Decided to go ashore in afternoon in case everything was shut on Sunday. Tied up – no sign of Customs or Immigration who weren’t open till Sunday morning so started to walk into town. Officious lady at the port office wouldn’t let us do so till we had cleared in so she called the bloke up and “he will be here in a while”. Luckily, 40 minutes later he turned up, as Mike was just ready to throw in the towel! Didn’t charge us anything so we filled in his form and walked up the Old Slave Road into a lovely, well-maintained town –Oranjetad - that was shut! Back down the Old Slave Road to check out restaurants on the beach. The one the pilot book recommended doesn’t do dinners! The next had a limited menu including “Pork Gordon blue with rice and veg”! The third appeared shut so we ate on board again!                

 

       

 

Left Statia passing Tumbledown Dick Bay. Got into St Martin after a lumpy old sail with lots of short, horrendous downpours – actually felt cold for the first time in a while. In plenty of time for the 5.30 bridge to get into the lagoon. Unfortunately, when we go to lift our anchor around 5.20, it’s snagged and we cant free it before the bridge closes again. Kept trying to free it, including Mike diving down to have a look but no joy. That will teach Mike to say, as we left Statia, well at least we wont have a rolly night tonight tucked up in the lagoon. Why doesn’t he learn to shut up?!

 

By 5am the next day Mike has come up with a couple of other ideas to try and free the anchor, one of which involves me getting out of bed and the other involves the wind having dropped overnight so the water isn’t so shaken so he can see better. Of course, the wind hasn’t dropped sufficiently so by 6.30 I’m semi-dressed – including a fleece cos its not that warm- and trying to reverse the boat into the wind and all sorts of other nautical impossibilities. Again, no luck, I could have stayed in bed! Retreated to same bed to wait for the Cruiser net to start, while Mike jumps around noisily on the cabin roof (Allegedly, inflating dinghy for trip to Dive Shop). All the cruiser net yields is that everyone knows there is a wreck there and could we give them the coordinates of it so they don’t anchor on it in the future! Meanwhile, Mike has spotted a dive shop on the beach so dinghies over to ask. By then the 9.30 bridge has opened and closed. Eventually, really nice guy turns up and he’s from Maidstone! 50US$ and half an hour later he has had to leave our anchor on the seabed as it’s mangled and too tightly wedged to move it and disconnected the chain. Luckily, we have a spare anchor so 11.30 bridge into the lagoon. Looking through the chandler’s catalogue we find we have just left £1000 worth of anchor at the bottom of the Caribbean!

 

 In the lagoon we spy Zenna who we first saw in Dover marina but never met the occupants. Then (we found out afterwards) they had seen RT when we were both in Lisbon and taken some photos of our canvas work they had admired. Last year we saw them again in St Bart’s and finally got to meet them over drinks on RT the night before they were leaving. Found they are leaving the next day for Cuba so drinks with them at The Yacht Club that evening – of course, loads of banter about us losing our anchor – Fame, at last! 

 We started trying to track down the 2 items of post Hannah has sent out for us (Mikes debit card which showed up in the UK the morning I left and my camera lead I left behind) but no luck yet.

 

Skype with Hannah and Henry (who had to be woken up specially to talk to Grandma). He grows so quickly and has finally shown me his 2 new teeth! We managed to drop the outboard filler cap overboard and having got our sail back from repairers Mike gets to look at the repair – he’s not happy with either the repair or how they folded the sail so back over to the sail maker to complain and to get a replacement filler cap. Both things achieved he sets off back only to run out of petrol so had to row the rest of the way back. Not our best day!

Had to take this pic for my sis!

I woke up with the beginnings of a cold so not a good start, but, bravely, ashore in the dinghy to go to chandlers for boys toys – including the much lusted after Fortress anchor we couldn’t justify buying last year – when we still had a spare! On the way back, we had a chat with Bosse on SeaQwest – the Swedes on a Najad 36 who we met in Domenica. Back on board comfort food of baked beans and eggs and I take myself off to bed with Paracetamol while Mike plays with his new toys, putting them all away neatly when he’d finished playing. He goes off to check for our post, which still hasn’t turned up.

Next day, still hanging around in the lagoon waiting for our post! Repaired the Ensign again!

 

 
 


 

Feeling as though I may live through to the end of the week now. Still checking the post, which still hasn’t arrived. I got the feeling back in 3 of my fingers last night as well so feeling very upbeat. First time in 10 years! Valentines lunch ashore – Meat fest for me! Most of our time in St Martin was spent getting work done to the boat including getting our radar fixed and Kate sewing various things that need repair.

Chris and Geraldine arrived on Scorch of Wessex and came over to swap info on Puerto Rico and Spanish VIs. Lovely to see them again and hope to be able to swap tales with them again at the end of the season.

We left Chris in charge of checking for our post and set off for Anguilla. Mike was up at 3.30am the next morning as the wind has finally kicked in and loads of boats had their flashlights sweeping the anchorage but we still love this island! Italian lunch on the beach to get rid of all our EC$. They forgot to charge for our pre-dinner drinks, desert and my steak – so we were happy!

 
 


 

The big boys are gathering for the Heineken regatta. This motorboat has a 52-foot racing sail yacht on the deck this side and a 40 foot or so motor cruiser on the starboard deck – all matching livery, of course. AAA was also there – the Russian multi-millionaire’s extraordinary motorboat – double “garages” both sides. If you have to have a motorboa, either of these is the way to do it!

 
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final trip back to St Martin, Kate getting up just as we arrived around 8.30! Went to the Mailbox to check for post and were astonished to get 2 pink slips of paper to say post had arrived in Philipsburg last week – why they don’t deliver it to the address on the packet, God only knows! Apparently, they would be able to get it to the Mailbox by “Thursday or Friday”! So we hopped on a bus for the 5-mile trip to Philipsburg and collected them from the PO there. (Thanks, H) It means Mailbox don’t get their fee, so I wonder why they don’t shape up.

The next day, Mike gets us underway for Virgin Gorda around 5am and I strolled on deck around 8.30! Just over 15 hours sail using every combination of sails we have at the start, as the wind didn’t kick in till lunchtime. Anchored, in the dark, with burnt pizza and frayed tempers! Then on to St Johns for the usual finger print check and we are good to enter the USA.

On our way to Honeymoon Bay we catch a big, pretty fish. Our neighbours tell us it’s a Rainbow Runner but, since Sophie Grigson doesn’t list him in her fish book, we have him coated in black pepper and coriander with a fresh mango salsa – delicious and still enough in the freezer for another meal.

 

 

At last, we are breaking new ground but, as we decide to leave, a huge baby bird decides he’s going to travel with us for a bit so he sits on the bow for 20 minutes or so before deciding he’s going to stay American. On to Culebra where we anchor off the main town of  Dewey. Lovely bays as we come in behind the reef – will check them out further when we come back down from mainland. Free Wifi in the bay, so a quick Skype with H and H – that boy wont stop growing!

 

All day just sat at anchor, wind howling through and a bit overcast so we decided to stay put. Free Wifi all day tho. Also, received Charlotte’s first rival blog entitled “Campervan Diaries 1”. Keep ‘em coming, Charlotte – tho we felt quite exhausted just reading them!

 

 

 
 


 

Wind still howling the next day and the free Wifi went off at 8am – glad I rocked out of bed at 7.15 to Skype with H and H. Thought we’d go in by dinghy anyway as we are out of fresh stuff. Tied up to go to the shop at a “restaurant”. Virtually nothing in the shop we wanted and “town” also a bit of an exaggeration! However, it’s pretty – wish Id taken my camera tho as there was a beautifully painted market-type barrow written on the side “Open Some Days, Closed Others!” 2 palm trees with hammock tied between completed the mural. Very wet bumpy dinghy trip back to RT with bloke from the restaurant waving and making the sign of the cross at us! Then final trip of the month to a very quiet anchorage on Viesques – only 1 other boat there – where I saw a ray leap out of the water – WOW! Didn’t know they could do that.

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