Joana's Yarns: December 2011

Saint Martin

Jo-Jo under sail

Ten days to Christmas and the winter trades are here! We looked at the forecast, and we have one day to get to St Martin from Guadeloupe before the 20-30 kt winds and 10-12 foot seas kick in and are forecasted to last through at least Christmas. We were debating going to Antigua and then over to St Martin, but we thought we would get weathered in in Antigua, so everyone decided to make the 125 mile over night trek to St Martin to make sure we are there for Christmas. Leaving Guadeloupe, we had decent swells – 6 to 8 footers, but they were of the slow roller variety so actually relaxing! The winds were fairly light but forecasted to pick up early in the morning, so we motor-sailed for the majority of the night. It was a pretty easy night sail and right about 5 am the winds picked up to about 20 kts and the seas heaped and instead of the long 9 second interval, we were pounding in to 6 - 8foot seas about 4 seconds apart. Luckily we had less than 20 miles to go so only had to beat into it for about 4-5 hours. As always, Jo-Jo performed like a champ! Our downhaul on the flying jib did unravel and was trailing in the water so I had to go forward to retrieve it. Josh was at the helm and I swear he steered into the biggest wave he could find and I went airborne and then got smacked in the face with a wall of water! What a rush!!

Everyone made it to St Martin with no problems and we anchored in the bay before coming into the lagoon the following morning. What a nightmare that is going through the bridge! It is only about 50 feet wide and there are only a few bridge opening times. The bridge operator is very impatient and wants all the sailboats in the front of the line, right up close to the bridge before it opens and then all the mega yachts (and I do mean mega, mega yachts) behind. The channel to the bridge is lined with rocks and on the morning we went through, the winds were a healthy 15-20 kts. We were in line fairly close to the front, about 5 feet behind Sol mate, so we had to be careful not to ram him, and we had a 250 foot mega yacht right behind us – maybe 10 feet away, trying to nudge us up. There was a very handsome deckhand on the bow, about 50 feet above us, peering down trying to tell Maria to go forward, and she glared, communicated through certain hand signals, and held our ground! We made it through the bridge with no problems, but lots of stress, and found our anchoring spot on the French side, where we will be through Christmas.

Guadeloupe

As we continued our journey north, we stopped at Pigeon Island in Guadeloupe. The main attraction is the Cousteau Underwater Park. We did three dives here over the course of two days and all of them were fantastic. Rocks, cliffs, great coral and lots of fish made for beautiful dives!

From Pigeon Island we traveled up the coast to Deshaies. The following day, we gathered everyone together, including four friends from s/v Song and s/v Blue Moment and decided to do a hike up a river bed to a waterfall. It wasn’t really a hike – it was really river rock hoping! It was so much fun! We even brought Niko and Sol mate brought their dog, Bella. Niko thought she was a mountain goat as she bounded from rock to rock! We hiked for about an hour and a half and then stopped for lunch and a swim. A little further up was a road that you could walk back to town on, and about half the group opted to do that while the rest continued on to the waterfall. Another half hour of rock hoping, a few Spiderman moves over some rocks and we were standing in a semi-cave with thousands of gallons of water pouring down from above. Another great day in paradise!

Josh bosun chair swinging

Wild women

Rock hopping

Monkey see Monkey do

Baguette anyone?

Making our way over the rocks

Entrance to the falls

The falls

Les Saintes

We weren’t quite tired of the French islands, so our next stop was Les Saintes. On the way down, we were able to get a mooring ball for free, but they have started charging for them, and charging a lot! It would have been about 15 Euros a night for a boat our size, so we decided to anchor around the corner from the main town. Our friends followed suit, so we had the “cool kids corner” in Petite Anse. It was a beautiful spot, in front of a little resort with a mini piton just abeam of us. The water was crystal clear and a nice turquoise blue. We spent the next few days walking around the picturesque town, relaxing in the great water and even got another dive in. The nights were spent frequenting the local watering holes. Our favorite was a place called Coconuts which played great music and we danced well into the morning there. Two of our friends who shall remain nameless tried to re-enact a Dancing with the Stars move – the one where one person is swung under the legs of the other and then back again…well, they did it great once – I mean toes pointed perfectly and everything…but then they got greedy and tried it again and all I will say is one ended up with a big bump on the head and the other with a black eye! I didn’t know dancing was a contact sport!

Josh and Connor before they jumped from the top of the crow's nest!

The three pretty ladies

Girls' day in the water

After the dive

Martinique

The next stop on party caravan north was Martinique. Our first port was Marin, which we had not been to on the way south early this year. The anchorage was a little tight and the water unswimable, but the town was cute and is a big yacht center so it has all the supplies one could want. From Marin we sailed about 15 miles to Grande Anse d’Arlet. We had stopped here on the way down and fell in love with it. It is like a little Riviera with bars and restaurants lining the beach flying their colorful umbrellas. Unlike last time, we did a ton of diving…got to love it when the only cost to doing an unbelievable dive is an air refill ($7 Euros) since we have our own equipment. Brandon from Sol mate even talked us into doing a night dive. It was awesome! The visibility on all the dives was 80-100 feet and the reefs were beautiful with bright, neon colored coral and tons of fish. We must have seen 30 eels, a few octopus, brain coral with all of its feelers out and luckily no sharks!

We next hit the big city Fort de France and stayed there for two nights before continuing up to St. Pierre. We explored St. Pierre for a day and then decided to boogie as we had been there before and wanted to keep moving. But of course, we didn’t leave before buying two cases of 3 Euro wine, brie and baguettes!