Crazy Sailing –
Passage to Pigeon Island … Thurs 22 March 2018
A quick trip to shore to drop off trash gave me the
opportunity to buy a warm baguette and a couple of pain au chocolat, which made
for a pleasant petit dejeuner. Then it was time to hoist the outboard onto the
rail and stow the “dumb dog” on the foredeck. We dropped the mooring at 8.30am
and were on our way from Les Saintes to Pigeon Island. With 15 kts of breeze in
the harbor and the prospect of sailing on a broad reach we decided to put up
full main sail and add in genoa as little or as much as needed. In fact as soon
as we left the protection of the harbor winds increased to 20 – 25 knots from
the ESE and stayed there all the way across the open water of the Guadeloupe
canal and so we sailed with just the main. It was a fabulous, comfortable ride
as we made ~ 7 knots over the ground. As we rounded the south west tip of the
main island of Guadeloupe we entered the so called “acceleration zone” and
winds increased to 25 – 30 knots with gusts up to 33 knots, but the Cotinga
continued to sail solid and true. As I’ve said before, it’s all about
direction. We continued up the coast and as the winds eased we added full genoa
… and then the winds died completely and we were literally bobbing around going
nowhere. A brief stint with the engine got us moving again before the winds
filled in from the west. We finished the last six or seven miles close hauled
with 10-15 knots of wind from the west, which is crazy. All I can assume is
that the easterly trades blow so hard around the ends of the Guadeloupe and the
land itself heats up during the day creating an onshore westerly breeze.
However, Gloria was not surprised that when it came to drop the anchor we were
once again in 20 knots of wind from the east. Crazy!
The Pigeon Island anchorage has little or no protection from
the west and with locals wind in all sorts of directions there is quite a bit
of swell. It was also pretty hot. After lunch we were keen to re-launch the
dinghy primarily so that we could open the forward hatch and get some air.
However, this took some careful timing because of the gusty winds and we wanted
to avoid flying the dinghy like a kite from stay-sail halyard. Luckily it all
went well. Having squared things away we went snorkeling from boat and were
excited to see a couple of turtles feeding on the bottom as well as a couple of
lion fish. Tomorrow we’ll go over to Pigeon Island to snorkel the National Park
sites.
Mike
(p.s. just a reminder
that you should be able to plug the following coordinates directly into Google
Maps to see our position)
16o 10.34
N, 61o 46.80 W
Not a great photo - but it gives you some idea of the layout of the main island Terre de Haut on Les Saintes. The town, Bourg de Saintes is on the bay at the top right of the picture
A timid lizard photographed near Marigot Bay, Les Saints
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