One bumpy ride, One stroke of good luck

One bumpy ride, One stroke of good luck

Wed 17th - Thur 18th January 2024

The sail from Anse de Bouillante to Les Saintes was wild, wet and windy. It was about 16 nm in total, and to be fair, the first 8 miles were flat seas with light and variable winds. However, as we approached Vieux Fort on the south west corner of Guadeloupe the seas and the winds started to increase dramatically. We were motor sailing with our staysail and main, but decided to put a reef in the main before rounding the point. This turned out be a smart move. The wind picked up to sustained 22- 24 knots and the waves were 5 ft plus, short period and breaking. It’s quite typical for the wind strength to be accelerated around capes, and because the direction was also impacted, we found ourselves beating in stiff conditions at about a 30 degree angle to the wind . It was extremely bumpy with a lot of spray and some “slamming”. We kept the motor going to help our progress and it took us about an hour and a half to make it across the channel to the offshore islands of Les Saintes. 

This is an extremely popular tourist and sailing destination, and most of the good anchorages have been converted to mooring fields. In total there are 80 moorings available, with 60 off the main town of Bourg des Saintes and 10 each at two other locations, Ilet a Cabrit and Pain de Sucre. There is only one area where you can anchor in a reasonable depth of water and that isn’t well protected. The experience of getting a mooring has been described in the guidebooks as like “The Hunger Games”, with boats circling in the early morning to identify people who are leaving, dispatching scouting parties in dinghies and sending coded radio messages to their friends. We have had some experience with that in 2018, when we arrived mid-morning from Dominica and happened upon an empty mooring at Bourg Les Saintes. We picked it up immediately, but then received a blistering earful from another boat that claimed to have been circling for an hour. I’m ashamed to admit we didn’t give up our recently acquired mooring … “pardonez moi, mais je ne comprend pas quesque vous direz” … and have expected to be struck down by a curse ever since!

Anyway, we had decided in advance that if a mooring were free at Ilet a Cabrit, our arrival point in Les Saintes, we would grab it. As we entered the protection of the harbor I was counting masts … “I see 8 masts, no make that 9, maybe there’s one mooring free”… and so it was, at 10.30 in the morning, completely saturated with salt spray, we picked up the one and only free mooring in the whole of Les Saintes. It took us some time to figure out how best to tie ourselves on because the attachment ring at the top of the ball is so high it would grind into our hull if we simply tied in via the fairleads (as we would normally do). Instead we have a short line direct from the bow roller, which stops the ball crashing back into the hull, but it did require us to partially drop our anchor and pull it back from the bow. Anyway, we are now quite secure in 50 feet of water, tied to a 6 ton block of concrete. It’s the most protected location in the area and only 100 yards from the beach of the beautiful, uninhabited Ilet a Cabris. We watched countless boats during the day, looking for a free mooring. We got really lucky!

The one disadvantage of our location is the 3/4 mile dinghy ride to town, directly into the wind and chop. We did this journey on Thursday morning and were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t too bad. We spent the day wandering around Bourg des Saintes and hiked up the hill to Fort Napoleon, which has incredible views and an interesting museum. We followed up with an excellent lunch at a local restaurant overlooking the bay. The ride back was even easier downwind. 

We have been really pleased to meet two couples David and Nora, John and Dinah from Massachusetts who were on the mooring next to ours, in a boat they chartered out of Pointe La Pitre. We got together for drinks on both Wednesday and Thursday evening. They left this morning, but we hope we’ll be able to stay in touch and see them when we are back home.

Well lots more to tell … like trying to get our water maker going (agghhh) … but this is already too long, so that can wait until next time.

Mike

A panoramic view northwards from Fort Napoleon. Ilet a Cabrit is the island blended in with the top of the tree on the left (we are moored behind the island). Basse-Terre (mainland) is in the center.

Small fishing boats tied up in Bourg des Saintes

Lots of colorful buildings

The lovely Xanadia doves, which are common in the Caribbean

An unusual and beautiful, butterfly in the gardens up at Fort Napoleon

Tiny lizard, also up at the fort

An old dog sitting outside the restaurant where we had lunch (it belonged to the owners or staff)

The view from our lunch table. Ilet a Cabris is the island in the background on teh right hand side (we are moored behind)