Squall City 6th January 2018

6^th - 7th January 2018

We spent Saturday morning wandering the streets of Gustavia, drinking coffee at one of the local restaurants (with WiFi). It really is a lovely town. We were keen to get up to a fort that overlooks the harbor entrance, but this turned out to be the local Gendarmerie and as it’s still in use there was no access. So we hiked up to another small hill with the remnants of an old fort on top. No sooner had we arrived then a  squall came through and we got totally soaked. We decided to have lunch in town and found ourselves at a bistro specializing in French Creole cuisine. The food was excellent; home-made boudin sausage as an appetizer, followed by conch fricassee and grilled Dorado. The only drawback was the building was air-conditioned and our clothes were still wet, so we felt a little chilly. In the early afternoon we headed back to Cotinga, only to find the rolling was even worse. My efforts to keep the boat pointing into the swell, with a bridle line leading back from the anchor chain and fairlead on the beam of the boat, seemed to work for a while, but as the wind picks up Cotinga “tacks” and the aforementioned line ends up running under the hull. It may work to clean the bottom of the boat, but it sure as hell doesn’t help the bouncing!

We had just jumped back on board when another squall came through, then another, and another…! After several attempts to address the bouncing we gave up, lay down in the main cabin and took a nap. When we next woke it was 11pm. Needless to say we had no interest at getting up at that time, so we just went back to sleep.

It’s now almost noon on Sunday. We came ashore and cleared out of immigration, took a walk up the lighthouse where the views were spectacular and then returned to town via the bakery, which, amazingly, was open, and our favorite café. Our plan is to take Cotinga north for a couple of miles to a bay that we think will be a better anchorage and spend the night there. Tomorrow we will leave early and head south to St Kitts and Nevis. Winds are predicted to be 15-20 kts from the east and 6-8 foot waves. It sounds a little fierce but that’s about as mild as it gets for the next week – so we’ll just get out and go!

Mike

Blue boat during afternoon squall

Four shots overlaid - trying to give a sense of the motion of the boat

Looking backwards from Cotinga during the squall

Our "next door neighbors"

One of the docks in Gustavia - boats attached front to dock stern to mooring

After the morning downpour in Gustavia