The Delights of Deshaies

The Delights of Deshaies

Tuesday 9th - Wednesday 10th Jan 2024

Tuesday dawned bright and distinctly breezy. The weather forecast predicted increasing winds and swells and we are happy we made the passage down here on Monday, rather than leaving it a day or two. The harbor in Deshaies is known to funnel winds and we have been seeing 20 - 30 knots. We awoke on Tuesday to the sound of a sail flapping. The Genoa on a boat anchored nearby had become unfurled and was torn to shreds. It seemed like no-one was aboard and a little later we saw the harbor master and his team working on the vessel. Unfortunately the boat was also dragging and ended up with it’s propellor caught in the mooring lines of a catamaran. I later spoke to the harbor master and he said it took them 3 hours to resolve the situation, commenting that some people own boats but have no idea how to sail or look after them!

We really liked Guadeloupe when we visited in 2018 and have often commented on how easy the customs and immigration system works. In Deshaies you simply go the the Pelican Store, fill in the form on the government computer and pay 1 Euro … et voila, c’est finis. However, when the computer is broken it apparently all goes to shit! We, along with many other boaters, hiked up to the customs office many times only to find it locked up. Eventually, a fellow sailor managed to contact the office in Basse Terre, about twenty miles away, and informed them what was going on. By Tuesday afternoon they finally had staff available on the Deshaies site. It was our 7th trip up the hill by the time we got sorted. In fairness, once we got to talk to the officials it went really easily, and they were super friendly and helpful, but it was a bit of a struggle getting to that point. 

The town is quite small, centered around the waterfront with many cafes and restaurants. There is a good grocery store and bakery and it’s a really nice place to be. This morning we set out for the Botanical Gardens, about a mile south of Deshaies and uphill all the way. We were a little nervous that it might not live up to our memories from when we visited previously, but we need not have been concerned. The gardens are absolutely beautiful and we spent several hours wandering around, looking at plants and birds, and taking lots of photos. 

We have decided to stay on the mooring for the next three days, mostly for the extra peace of mind when leaving the boat. We plan to rent a car in town and take off to explore parts of the country that we can’t easily access from the boat.

Mike

A dragonfly (or damselfly ?) photographed down by the Deshaies river.

Gloria and I walked a short way along the river during the hottest part of the day. I returned later in the afternoon, when it was shady, to take some photos. It's tricky getting upstream, with lots of boulder hopping, but also some nice looking pools where you might take a dip.

I had already taken a couple of shots of this banana plant flower when the hummingbird showed up. It is a Purple Throated Carib, the first we have seen on this trip. It made three trips to this flower during the ~20 minutes I stood waiting. I got one shot on each of two of his visits, but was too slow on the third. This was taken using a 105mm micro lens at F20, 1/50s manual setting, with a small flash gun.

There is a flourishing colony of captive Lorikeets in the Deshaies Botanical gardens. They are amazingly beautiful birds. You can see these two are quite attracted to each other ... and you know what happens next ...

This photo would be banned from text books in Florida, for poisoning young minds. Better that children are taught that babies are delivered by fairies than have them face the wonders of nature ... or so the politicians in Florida would have you believe! 

Hibiscus flower. (Photo generated by focus stacking 50 shots)

Not sure what type of plant this is ... also generated using focus stacking techniques

Ditto

Lizard on pink blossoms

The Importance of Preparation

The Importance of Preparation

Monday Jan. 8, 2024

Hoping to make an early start today, we had secured the dinghy on the foredeck.  Other preparation steps were to install the inner forestay and hank on and tie down the staysail.  We also made sandwiches for lunch, and gathered together some snacks. The weather forecast was suggesting winds of 12-18 knots with gusts to 22.  Thinking that the sail to Guadeloupe was likely to be a bit lively, we both applied a scopolamine patch at bedtime.  

Mike was up and heating coffee before 5:30 am.  I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and got dressed.  As we were drinking our coffee, we could see through the windows that it was getting light. We postponed breakfast and started the engine.  We were motoring out of Jolly Harbor at 6:25 am and thirty minutes later, with  the fridge cycle complete,  we were sailing south to Guadeloupe. Initially conditions seemed quite benign with 13-16 knots of wind on the beam.  As the day progressed,  the winds increased to 16-20 knots and the swells were building, probably in the 5-6 foot range. First we rolled in some of the genoa, then we threw a reef in the mainsail.  Even with the reduced sail area we were zipping along at over 7 knots, and there was quite a lot of spray reaching the cockpit. Despite the significant swell, we were both feeling fine while topside.  In fact, I didn’t feel unwell while below—just a lot of rock and roll.  Those patches were doing their job!

Once we got beyond the “shallows” that surround Antigua, we started to fish with both the rod and a hand line (aka, clothesline).  When we reached the ten-mile point (that is 10 miles left to Guadeloupe), I sang for Mike a version of a reggae song “No Fishes—Big cry”! Shortly thereafter, the line started to scream off the fishing rod.  Mike jumped up to reel in the fish, however, our boat speed of over 7 knots was making for serious difficulties.  We furled the genoa to slow the boat.  Very little reduction in speed was achieved.  Letting the mainsail out also wasn’t slowing the boat enough.  Eventually, we had to turn more eastward, into the wind, to reduce our speed to about 3 knots.  Once the boats slowed down, the swell seemed much more noticeable.  Mike continued pulling in line.  Once he could see the fish he sent me below for the fish card and book.  What we had caught was most likely a white marlin (which can get to 180 lbs). We estimate this one was about 4-5 feet long, but not sure how heavy it was. Our trusty fish book suggested that it was no good for eating. Thus, we pulled the fish close to the stern to attempt to remove the hook.  As luck would have it, the marlin didn’t seem to be properly hooked. It was almost as if the hook and leader had created a noose around it’s bill. Thankfully, as we tried to haul it closer to the boat, it dropped off and swam away, leaving the lure, hook and leader intact.  A successful “catch and release” in our estimation.  

Once inside the harbor of Deshaies, a small powerboat with two men on board (one was probably the harbor master) came out and helped us secure our lines to the mooring.  We will spend two nights on the mooring and then decide if we want to anchor.  After getting the boat squared away – mooring lines, sail cover, stay sail put away and dinghy launched—we went to shore to check in.  We walked up the hill to the Customs building. It was closed.  The internet suggested that it would re-open at 4pm so we returned to town. We realized that Le Pelican, a local store with check-in facilities, had re-opened after an extended lunch break.  We went in to find that their customs computer was not working.  The patisserie beckoned.  After a croissant and coffee, we walked up to the Customs building again.  No joy!  We will try again in the morning.  As I write, I can hear the yellow quarantine flag fluttering in the breeze. 

Gloria

16 18.407 N, 61 47.808 W

Cotinga at anchor in Jolly Harbor. The long lens (200mm) makes the hills in the background appear closer than they really are.

A different angle on Cotinga at the same position in the anchorage at Jolly Harbor

Our final sunset in the anchorage at Jolly Harbor

The sun was rising as we left Jolly Harbor

Intense lighting on the ocean swells as we sail south to Guadeloupe

We sailed the entire way, with a reef in both the genoa and main sail, mostly at speeds of 7 knots. I preferred this shot in black in white

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Friday 5th - Saturday 6th January 2024

The Good … our final dinner with Liz and Will was outstanding. We went to a restaurant in Falmouth / English Harbor called Colibri, and both the food and the ambiance were excellent. We shared starters - a trio of sausages (boudin and fish) with a banana chutney, some ravioli and a lobster salad. For main course we had grilled wahoo (Liz and Gloria) or tropical tuna tartare (Will and Mike), and for dessert, crepe suzette and a lemon tart topped with meringue. We sat outside under vine covered trees, with beautiful lighting and great service. We had cocktails to start with and a bottle of Bordeaux with dinner. It doesn’t get better than that. Thanks Will and Liz!

The Bad … whilst eating breakfast in the cockpit on Friday morning, we were running the engine for the fridge and to charge the house batteries, I thought that the raw water flow (circulated sea water) from the engine cooling was less than I expected and so I decided that I would change the raw water impeller later in the day. It’s a simple enough task on paper - close the raw water intake, undo the bolts to remove the cover to the raw water pump, pull off the old impeller, slide on the new one and close it all up. In practice it’s really hard to access and you need to be a contortionist to reach the system. It’s particularly hard to get enough grip on the old impeller to pull it out and you end up tearing off the blades. At this point you realize that if you can’t complete the job you are screwed because the engine would overheat if you ran it. Anyway, with much grunting and swearing the job was finally done. The old impeller actually didn’t look too bad, but it had been 400 hours since it was last changed over the winter and so was probably due anyway.

The ugly … inevitably, changing the impeller results in some salt water spilling into the pan under the engine. That’s no big deal, just mop it up with a sponge. However, whilst doing this this I bumped my arm into a cooling water bleed valve on the gearbox heat exchanger, snapping it right off. It must have been pretty corroded, but now we had salt water leaking out of the engine at a fair rate and no easy way to fix it. I unbolted the gearbox heat exchanger and took that unit off, which in turn caused gearbox fluid to pour into the engine pan. By some miracle I was able to get the remaining part of the bleed valve screw fitting out of the heat exchanger, using a screw extractor. We jumped in the dinghy and headed to Budget Marine on shore to try and find a “bolt” of the correct size and thread to plug the hole. We arrived at the store at 4.32 pm and it had closed two minutes earlier. Thankfully, when we banged on the doors and explained our situation they let us in. We couldn’t find anything with the correct thread in the bolts section, but the lady behind the desk took the screw fitting, still attached to the end of the extractor, and was able to find a bronze plug of the correct size and thread. That seemed like miracle number two! The staff at the store could not have been more helpful. We headed back to Cotinga and had the engine re-built and cleaned up an hour or two later. It was dark by then and we were exhausted, but happy to have solved that particular issue.

It has been great having friends and family cruising with us for periods over the past few weeks. Now we are back to being on our own for quite a while, which will take a little getting used to. We brought Cotinga back to Jolly Harbor this morning and have been busy preparing to leave Antigua. We have greatly enjoyed our month here, but it’s time to move on. Tomorrow we will check-out at immigration and customs, then early on Monday morning we plan to head south to Guadeloupe.    

Before I finish, I just want to comment on our posting frequency. Th reason we aren’t posting every day isn’t simply that we are lazy, although that may be part of it, but mostly that we are reliant on cell phones to access the internet and are only switching them on every other day (to reduce roaming charges).

Mike

The following are some shots from the past several days in roughly chronological order

A wide-angle panorama taken from the bow of Cotinga whilst at anchor off Spanish Point, Barbuda. The wide-angle tends to exaggerate the distance to the only other boat in the vicinity, however, it really was tremendously isolated spot, with calm waters due to the protecting reefs.

We saw a number of squalls on the way back to Antigua, but managed to dodge them all. The light was dramatic.

Looking across the meadows to the ocean from near the top of Shirley Heights

I love dragonflies ... the closer you look the more they seem like space aliens. They eat mosquitos and pose patiently whilst being photographed ... what's not to love?

Dinghies in Nelson's Dockyard

The buildings in Nelson's Dockyard are lit up at night, and there are Christmas fairy lights in the hedges that line the road. This abstract image is a single photo captured using the camera on a tripod, with an exposure of ~ 20 seconds, whilst varying the focal length of the zoom lens

Antigua and Barbuda, while being spoilt rotten by Mike and Gloria

Antigua and Barbuda, while being spoilt rotten by Mike and Gloria

We arrived by taxi in Jolly Harbour, and right there where met with a cheery wave from our nautical hosts. Suitably fortified with both cash and lunch, we dinghied out to get familiar (or in Will’s case, refresh his acquaintance with) Cotinga - such an elegant boat! The afternoon was spent on a beautiful beach and with a stroll out to Pearns Point, surrounded by lots of butterflies. We cooled off with a swim, and then back to the boat for the first of Mike’s magnificent culinary productions - chicken with lemon and caper sauce.

The 31st saw a sail up to Barbuda and to Coconut Point. There was enough motion in the ocean to cause a little discomfort all round, but it was still exhilarating and there were flying fish of various sorts to keep us distracted. Barbuda was fascinating - really quiet and wild, and our anchor point was close to a striking resort building that had been destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The whole island is extremely low-lying, so it’s a place of big skies and big vistas over the sea, both the Caribbean (to the west) and the Atlantic (to the east). We swim off the boat and toasted the last sunset of 2023 with cocktails - truly one to remember! Dinner was also one to remember - tuna steaks!

New Year’s Day was a major highlight, and Mike has already blogged about it (George Jeffrey and the Amazing Frigate Birds). The dinghy ride in was unexpectedly lively (en route baling necessary, given the amount of spray we were taking on board; temporary engine failure mandating unscheduled dropping of anchor in the middle of the bay while getting it restarted).  We loved spending time with George, who was graciousness personified - slow of speech, with every word a gem - and then the bird sanctuary itself was beyond words! It’s in a large area of low-lying mangroves and we nosed among them with the boat, very close indeed to countless frigate birds, as well as tropicbirds, terns and brown boobies. We were all overwhelmed with the wild beauty of it; a place never to be forgotten. The afternoon saw us walking a fair way up the pristine Coconut Point beach, finding beautiful tiny pink shells that looked great against the turquoise water. Will swam the quarter mile or so back to the boat as the sun was dropping, Dinner: butter chicken: full of flavor!

On the 2nd we went to the southern part of the island and anchored off Coca Point for our first snorkeling. The fish were striking, especially when swimming in schools around the nooks and crannies in the coral. Although neither of us is very good at identifying what were were looking at, the colors and the incredible diversity was plenty satisfying enough for us!

Dinner: Pasta - very fortifying after our swimming around.

Jan 3rd: sailing south to Rickett’s Harbour on the eastern cost of Antigua, arriving in time for more snorkeling at two separate reefs on each side of the boat, watching the party boats coming and going from the beach, and the luxury yachts sliding past into Nonsuch Bay. Sunset saw a new favorite cocktail for Liz: a Dark and Stormy - her first encounter with ginger beer with rum. Yet another yummy dinner: pork with apple and leeks. It’s really amazing what Mike gets of that galley.

On 4th (today) we started with a snorkel back to yesterday’s reef, and this was the best of the trip, with clear water and lots of fish, and then had a beautiful sail over calm seas to the south side of the island and Falmouth Harbor, which is adjacent and just past English Harbor, where Nelson had a dockyard back in the day. This is where the super yachts really like to hang out, along with all sorts of other boats, so it’s excellent people- and boat-watching. We met our second set of folks who are sailing across oceans - in this case a New Zealander called Pater, who’d flown to Greece to buy a boat when he saw it become available online, and has made it to the Caribbean so far en route (via the Panama Canal) back across the Pacific. What a life! 

And speaking of a life… we are both blown away by the warmth, generosity and hospitality of our wonderful hosts. Mike and Gloria: thank you, thank you!!

Liz and Will

The first of several pictures that (we hope) speak for themselves :)

Every time you look you just have to have another try at capturing the beauty

We'd heard about the squalls that blow through; here's one over Barbuda

Love this stage of a sunset, when you're reminded of how much bigger it is than you are

Low Bay beach - what a colour palette!

Yes, we were there

The water felt good, too

Liz keeping us going in the right direction

Nothing more exhilarating than going where the wind takes you!

(All pictures off Will's Samsung phone)

George Jeffrey and the Amazing Frigate Bird Rookery

George Jeffrey and the Amazing Frigate Bird Rookery

Monday 1st January 2024

George Jeffrey is a legend in Barbuda. An exceptional guide who comes highly recommended in cruising guidebooks and on Sailing websites. We phoned on New Years eve and were pleasantly surprised that he was available to take us on a guided tour the following day. We agreed to meet at the dock in Codrington village at 9 am. Codrington lagoon is 8 miles long and almost two miles wide and used to be separated from the ocean by a 16 mile long sand bar. However, in 2017 Hurricane Irma breeched the bar and there is now a passage from the ocean to the lagoon and onwards to to Barbuda’s only “town”. We were anchored on the west side (Caribbean Sea) of the sand bar, just to the north of the cut. Whilst the gap appears maybe a mile wide, the channel that is deep enough for a small boat is relatively narrow and marked by a cluster of buoys, which only become visible when you are close to them. If you don’t find the channel you run the risk of running aground or being swamped by waves that break on either side. Our journey in the “Dainty Dog”, along the coast, through the cut and across the lagoon to Codrington Village is the wettest dinghy ride we have ever taken. The winds picked up today to 14-19 knots and we were heading right into a parade of short steep waves. We all got completely soaked and had to bail out the dinghy to reduce the water we took on board just from the spray. I was steering directly into the waves, which exacerbated the spray, but I was worried that taking them at an angle might cause us to capsize. Half way across the lagoon the outboard motor died and we had to quick deploy an anchor to stop us being swept away. We did manage to get the motor restarted fairly easily. It was a harrowing experience and an inauspicious start to the day. When we arrived at the dock we immediately met George Jeffrey who was both friendly and welcoming. We were happy to jump into his Boston Whaler and set out on our tour.

George is a fountain of knowledge about Barbuda and it’s natural history. He also shared a fascinating perspective on life in Barbuda. It is evident that the cultures of Antigua and Barbuda are radically different. Antigua is very much focussed on development and building wealth, whereas Barbuda is owned by the people, and they are strongly committed to trying to preserve their land and way of life. The inhabitants of Barbuda were forcibly evacuated to Antigua after hurricane Irma and George clearly held a strong sense of resentment against this. He feels that the Antiguan government tried to exploit the circumstances of the hurricane to force through changes and development on Barbuda that were not wanted by the local population.

George took us round the lagoon showing us the site of the previous Frigate Bird colony, which was destroyed in a hurricane in the mid 1960s. He then took us into the current nesting colony, which is an area of mangroves 3/4 mile long by 1/4 mile wide, jam packed with Magnificent Frigate birds. Frigate birds haver the largest ratio of wingspan (~ 7ft) to weight (~3 1/2 pounds) of any bird on earth. They eat mostly flying fish, but are ungainly during take-off and landing and cannot do either from the water, instead catching fish from the surface or in mid air. The males are all black, with bright red air sacks on their throats, that they puff up to gain attention. Females have white chests and juveniles have white heads. A team of Canadian ornithologists estimated that there are 20,000 birds in Codrington lagoon. They were all around us and we got close enough to some of the birds to be able to touch them had we wanted to. It was an incredible experience. Before heading back, George took us to the edge of the lagoon and we were able to walk across the sand bar to the northern end of beach that we were anchored of. It is such a beautiful place.

It was noon by the time we returned to the dock in Codrington Village, and we were delighted when George agreed to tow our dinghy and take us in his Boston whaler back across the lagoon and through the cut. Once we were in the lee of the sandbar the waters were calm and we transferred to the Dainty Dog and said goodbye to George. This tour was an exceptional experience.

Mike

17 39.270 N, 61 51.456 W

George Jeffrey - excellent tour guide, father of four girls and four boys, and a fierce supporter of the independence of the people of Barbuda

Male frigate bird in flight

Male frigate bird showing off

Baby Frigate bird

Juvenile Frigate Bird ... I don't know at what age you can start to tell apart males and females

Male frigate bird in flight ... they may be ungainly when they take off, but they are fast and aamazingly agile once air born ... hard to photograph!

In flight, all puffed up

The female looks up as her mate passes overhead

George in the lagoon

The former resort on the north side of the break through to Codrington lagoon. The beach used to extend ~ 200 feet in front of the resort but hurricane Irma eroded the beach, caused the buildings to collapse, and opened a channel into the lagoon

A wide angle panorama showing the sand bar that separates the Codrington lagoon from the Caribbean sea. It used to run continuously for 16 miles but now is breached on the ocean side. The lagoon is a nursery for fish who previously entered via a small shallow channel to the north. Now bigger fish and sharks can enter through the break

Liz and Will on the the beach

Airborne Repairs and Sailing to Barbuda

Airborne Repairs and Sailing to Barbuda

Saturday 30th  and Sunday 31st Dec 2023

It’s always a bit nerve wracking when your nearest and dearest is being winched up the mast.  Today was perhaps even more worrying than most occasions as Mike was climbing/being winched up the backstay.  His objective was to reconnect the cable to the antenna for the single side band radio (SSB).  As it transpired, the main halyard was not long enough to reach the backstay at deck level.  Mike tied an extra piece of line to the halyard.  Then using prussic loops, he started to climb the back stay with me winching up on the main halyard to hold him in position while he slid each leg loop past each insulator (which keep the cable secured to the back stay.) I was so slow at grinding the winch that we were forced to resort of short bursts of the electric winch to tighten the halyard.  Slowly, Mike made his way up to the point from which the cable had been disconnected.  He quickly realized that he didn’t have the tools he needed to affect the repair and asked me to lower him to the deck after placing a carabiner around the extended halyard and the back stay.  Unfortunately, as I lowered him, the knot securing the halyard to the extra piece of line became jammed in the carabiner.  Once again Murphy’s law had it’s way with us!

I can’t even describe how Mike solved that problem, I’m not sure I was taking it all in as he was doing it.  I was able to lower him to the deck. Then with the correct tools, he re-climbed the back stay and secured the cable to the antenna. Wiping the sweat from my palms, I lower Mike to the deck!  Once he had told me that we had now completed the last task on the list, I felt a lot better about the whole thing. 

Later we went to shore to meet up with our friends Will and Liz who will be spending the next week with us.

Gloria

One of our goals for the week with Will and Liz was to visit Barbuda, an island 25 miles to the north of Antigua. After a couple of weeks of mostly light winds, it seemed that Sunday would have more moderate trade winds and so we decided to jump on the opportunity to sail northwards. As incredible as it may seem, given that lack of wind forced to motor pretty much everywhere with Tasha and Mac, we did actually sail the entire way! We had 8-12 knots from the east north east and sailed a close reach at better than 6 knots for most of the passage. It was surprisingly bumpy, but we all managed to keep our breakfast down (just!). We also ran into a squall shortly before reaching our destination, but by mid afternoon, after a six hour passage, we were anchored off the west coast of Barbuda. We could see one other boat a couple of miles south of us and one a similar distance to the north, but other than that we got to enjoy New years Eve in splendid isolation. We ate tuna steaks, sautéed sweet potatoes and salad, followed by chocolates and peanut brittle from San Francisco. 

Mike

17 39.270 N, 61 51.456 W

Mike, 25 feet off the deck, reconnecting the cable that turns the backstay an arial for the single sideband radio (SSB)

Our final approach to Low bay on the west side of Barbuda. The genoa has been furled and we dropped the main sail shortly after, as we navigated around some shallow coral heads before dropping anchor

Will and Liz swimming off the boat in Barbuda

A squall passes to the west of us whilst at anchor in Low Bay

Sunset on New Years Eve after all the squalls had passed