Cowabunga in Guadeloupe!
March 8 ,2009
Monday
St. Anne, Guadeloupe
Had a great sail from English Harbour, Antigua, to Guadeloupe on Fat Tuesday, February 24, 2009. Jim and I decided that these were the biggest seas we've sailed in on Bees Knees....about 8-10' seas, but not quite breaking at the top. The wind was about 15-18 K out of the ESE and our heading was just due South....so it was a great sail! It's still amazing how the boat just floats to the top of each of those waves....it's just when you watch them pass you that you realize how big they are. We anchored in Deshaies, Guadeloupe,
as the anchorage filled up within a half hour of our arrival.
We had a great stay in Deshaies (pronounced Day Hay)....back in the land of French baguettes, espresso, good cheese and cheap French wine!! We were able to clear into Customs the second day there and now we're free to roam around the country!
We went for a "little" hike one day.....started walking up a road along the Deshaies River...then decided to turn around and walk the main road up and up and up, through neighborhoods....to get near the top of the river. We came across a huge fenced-off property near the top after passing a shrine of the Virgin Mary.
The land was well-manicured and we passed several workers landscaping the property....but the unusual thing was that they were wearing long smocks (kind of like a monk) with crosses on the front.....using weed wackers on the lawn!! We just kept walking....but just a little faster!
We found the top of the river and decided to walk down the river
...hopping from rock to rock. It was a blast!! It reminded us of the Gorge Trail in Acadia National Park that we hiked up to get to Cadillac Mt. But this hike had a river running down it! Plus....about a zillion spider webs!! We passed only 2 shack-like buildings....not sure if they were occupied and if they were how they hiked in and out with supplies???? 
After about 3 hours we were back to the lower beginning of the river and in the town of Deshaies. It was a great hike!
One day we were making water with our reverse osmosis AquaMarine....that makes about 24 gallons per hour.....and Jim heard a "pop"!! After a little investigation....and seeing water seeping out from under the Vberth floorboard....we found a high pressure hose that had chafed through and spraying salt water everywhere!! Luckily the compartment that it lives in is the most posterior Vberth compartment...and everything is in plastic bags!! So...no problem...other than we couldn't make water....wouldn't have water....would dehydrate.....and die!!!! Just joking!! We tried to find a local business to supply the hose, to no avail. So....Jim came up with a great idea and we moved the membrane to another wall where the hose would reach after slicing at the chafed part! So clever, that guy!!!! So....we ordered another hose from the company and it should arrive when we get to Dominica. In the meantime we're still able to make water and the connections are bone dry....whooohoooo!
On Sunday we moved around to the North end of Guadeloupe, in the Grand cul de sac Marin, to anchor behind another reef.....
in the middle of nowhere! It was just beautiful!! Blue blue water and white sandy bottom....a completely different Guadeloupe than we experienced last year when we just stayed on the West side. This has got to be the clearest water we've seen yet in the Caribbean! 
The following day we moved thru the reefs (the chart was completely off on the depths.....was prohibiting passage thru the reefs) but we had no problem!! We were seeing 30' between the reefs. Of course...the day before we went thru with our little depth sounder in the dinghy to spot check depths and found the same depths! Our Doyle guide is 9 years old...so not sure if he recommends this passage or our new anchorage off of Ilet a Fajou. Ilet a Fajou is a mangrove island.....that looks like Peanut Island on the weekend with alot of local motor boats and partys going on!! Another little island just North is Ilet a Carat
....I call it Carrot Top....and it is truly a tropical island....just white sand and palm trees!! So...we dinghied over there on Monday, March 2, to explore the little island. Just after we arrived a tour power catamaran came in filled with tourists.....kinda ruining the private tropical island atmosphere! We did find these sea "snakes" on the beach...half buried
...and of course Jim had to dig into the sand to find the other end!!! Really don't know what these were....couldn't find them in our Audobon Seashore Creature guide! Luckily we didn't bring them back to Bees Knees for pets!!!!
On Tuesday, March 3, we decided to move from our beautiful anchorage and move into the Riviere Salee (the Salee River) which splits "the butterfly" of Guadeloupe in half...between Grande Terre and Basse Terre. On the way to the river is a little anchorage behind just another reef....where we secured Bees Knees....then took off in the dinghy to explore the longest navigable river in the Eastern Caribbean, called the Grande Riviere a Goyave.
The guidebook says it reminds him of a long gentle river in the States but has weeping willows, bamboo
, breadfruit trees
, sugar cane and white ginger fields.....as well as zillions of cows. Alot of the cows are roaming freely in the fields along the river, but then some of them are chained or tied to a post or tree so they don't wander too far. The guidebook also warns not to swim in this river due to "Bilharzia". Jim and I tried to look that up in two travel medicine books we have onboard....but couldn't find what it was!! But....we didn't go swimming anyways! It was just beautiful and we saw all the trees listed. There were several locals that we passed....either working in the fields or fishing. Everyone was very friendly and waved 'till it looked like their arms would fall off! In one place a couple of guys were waving, then they started flagging us over to the side. Jim and I waved and just kept dinghying up the river. About 30 minutes later, we turned around to head back to Bees Knees. We passed all the same people...but the couple of guys who were waving at us to come to the shore were still hailing us! I glanced over to the other side of the river from where they were....and there was a COW in the river, nearly underwater! So.....it looked like they needed help to get the cow back across the river. So, Jim and I turned around and went to help. We first determined that we didn't speak French, so all of our communications from that point forward was thru hand motions! The two guys seemed to be father and son....and the father wanted us to take him across the river to save the cow. So....we agreed readily and he passed a stick and a HUGE machete to me...which I placed gently on the floor of our inflatable dinghy....and the man asked permission to enter the dinghy....very polite man. So....I helped him in and he was carrying a long rope also. So...in the short amount of time we had to cross the river to the cow (about 100 feet) I was trying to figure out what he was going to do. Jim and I really weren't discussing anything...just following this man's directions on how to save the cow. When we got close to the cow we could see that his harness that was around his head and neck was tangled in a tree floating in the river. His nose was above the water and his huge belly was floating off to the side...but that's about all that was above the water. We moved the dinghy as close as we could to the cow (by the way the cow also had two sharp pointy horns.....real close to our inflatable dinghy!!) The man took the machete and started sawing thru the webbing that was tightly across the top of the cow's head. I had to look the other way...thinking that there was no way he'd cut thru that with that huge machete and not chop into his head!! I just didn't want to watch....so I moved to the front of the dinghy and held onto a bamboo tree to try to stabilize the boat. The cow was kinda floating, looking at me with his huge eye, as Jim was kinda patting the back end of the cow to keep it calm. It took a few minutes for the man to get thru the webbing and the cow was now free....but luckily the man did place that rope around his horns....so he gently pulled on the rope to guide the cow back across the river. Well....the cow started swimming and pulled all three of us in the dinghy across the river. In the meantime...Jim actually tells me to try to get pictures!!!! What a great idea, but it was hard to get pictures when I was slipping in the mud now in the dinghy....moving around the dinghy out of the way of the man with the machete....and thinking of how we were going to swim with a cow on a rope once he punctured the dinghy....plus in a river with Bilharzia!!!! But, amazingly we made it back across the river to the steep bank. Now we had to get the cow to move up the bank.
He tried a few times and the man had jumped out of the dinghy to try to pull him ashore with his son....to no avail. So....he pointed further down the river where the bank wasn't as steep....and he jumped back into the dinghy....still holding the rope attached to the horns of the cow. So.....we pulled the cow and he happily followed by now...probably getting a little tired....and he climbed up the hill on all four knees, slipping in the mud. In the meantime...the man jumped from the dinghy, in a hurry to get ashore to keep control of the cow with his son......but he jumped right into a "monkey no-climb" bush...but didn't even yell!!!! So...he hurried up the hill and helped his son get control of the cow. Jim and I realized our job here was done....so we all waved good-bye to each other and Jim and I continued on our journey down the river! Just an amazing story, don't you think? It was great to be able to help, but I still feel bad that we didn't stop the first time we saw them as we were going up the river. The other amazing thing is that we almost didn't go dinghying up the river because we had a hard time anchoring Bees Knees in the grass at the mouth of the river....we got it stuck on the third try! So....there is a reason for everything, right?
The dinghy was full of mud...so Jim got buckets of water and a brush and cleaned it up a bit....then we upped anchor and continued on to the Riviere Salee where we anchored just off the channel in about 7' of water to await the bridge opening the next AM.
We set the alarm for 0345 to ready the boat and be at the bridge with our lights on at 0430! We made it with about 10 minutes to spare...and the bridge opened right on time. We were the only boat to clear the first bridge. Now we had to continue on to make the 0500 opening at the next bridge, in the dark, down a narrow mangrove river with well maintained markers with lights. We made the next bridge with 2 minutes to spare and it opened right on time. We passed uneventfully thru the narrow bridge and anchored on the South side to await daylight to continue to Pointe-a-Pitre.
We spent one day in Pointe-a-Pitre.
...long enough to get French bread, wine and cheese! The "general strike" has now been settled and all the stores were busy re-stocking. We really didn't explore the town, just anchored outside the Marina Bas-Du-Fort
.....which had all the amenities....grocery stores, restaurants, bars, WIFI. Jim and I spent a few hours on Wednesday afternoon, sipping a beer and getting WIFI at a local restaurant/bar. The problem was that we could receive email, but couldn't send any email thru their server.....so.....I wrote alot to send another day!
On Thursday, the 5th, we moved about 3nm to go to Ilet du Gosier in Guadeloupe.
It's just a cute little island off the SE coast with a lighthouse and ruins. 
There was a huge swimming club there....they seemed to start from the beach on the mainland and would swim out to the reef, beyond the furthest boat, then swim back. It was just unusual to see sooooo many swimmers....some had paddles on their hands, some had snorkels, and a few were wearing fins...but mostly free-styling. There were also many runners on the beach....leading one to believe that there was a triathlon in the near future!
We moved to St. Anne, Guadeloupe
, on Friday, March 6...only about 6nm away from Ilet du Gosier...so we motorsailed into the wind. We came through the opening in the reefs easily and anchored in about 8' of flat calm water. The beach is beautiful 
and has alot of restaurants along the shore...as well as fresh vege market, an artisan market, a walkway for pedestrians and a church that has bells that toll every hour! Really a nice little town with, again, a huge swimming contingent, sailboarders, kayakers, little tin can sailors
and lasers....just a busy, fun place to be. So....we decided to stay a few extra days and enjoy the area. We went to dinner one night and today enjoyed a nice lunch ashore....Creole French food and decent prices....with an "apertif" a la maison after lunch! So, not bad! We did a little shopping in the markets
and alot of swimming around the boat. Jim cleaned the whole bottom of the boat over two days. We had a real fuzzy bottom (last bottom paint was applied in Marathon, FL, in January 2008)...right before we left the States. So...it's time to get it done again...but we're trying to hold off until Grenada...just a few more months. So....I've been reading alot of books and enjoying just taking some time off! You probably wonder from what....as I do...but I did!!!!
Tomorrow we plan on sailing off to Les Saintes....an island that is still part of Guadeloupe, about 20nm away from St. Anne.
Bye for now!
Monday
St. Anne, Guadeloupe
Had a great sail from English Harbour, Antigua, to Guadeloupe on Fat Tuesday, February 24, 2009. Jim and I decided that these were the biggest seas we've sailed in on Bees Knees....about 8-10' seas, but not quite breaking at the top. The wind was about 15-18 K out of the ESE and our heading was just due South....so it was a great sail! It's still amazing how the boat just floats to the top of each of those waves....it's just when you watch them pass you that you realize how big they are. We anchored in Deshaies, Guadeloupe,
as the anchorage filled up within a half hour of our arrival. We had a great stay in Deshaies (pronounced Day Hay)....back in the land of French baguettes, espresso, good cheese and cheap French wine!! We were able to clear into Customs the second day there and now we're free to roam around the country!
We went for a "little" hike one day.....started walking up a road along the Deshaies River...then decided to turn around and walk the main road up and up and up, through neighborhoods....to get near the top of the river. We came across a huge fenced-off property near the top after passing a shrine of the Virgin Mary.
The land was well-manicured and we passed several workers landscaping the property....but the unusual thing was that they were wearing long smocks (kind of like a monk) with crosses on the front.....using weed wackers on the lawn!! We just kept walking....but just a little faster! We found the top of the river and decided to walk down the river
...hopping from rock to rock. It was a blast!! It reminded us of the Gorge Trail in Acadia National Park that we hiked up to get to Cadillac Mt. But this hike had a river running down it! Plus....about a zillion spider webs!! We passed only 2 shack-like buildings....not sure if they were occupied and if they were how they hiked in and out with supplies???? After about 3 hours we were back to the lower beginning of the river and in the town of Deshaies. It was a great hike!One day we were making water with our reverse osmosis AquaMarine....that makes about 24 gallons per hour.....and Jim heard a "pop"!! After a little investigation....and seeing water seeping out from under the Vberth floorboard....we found a high pressure hose that had chafed through and spraying salt water everywhere!! Luckily the compartment that it lives in is the most posterior Vberth compartment...and everything is in plastic bags!! So...no problem...other than we couldn't make water....wouldn't have water....would dehydrate.....and die!!!! Just joking!! We tried to find a local business to supply the hose, to no avail. So....Jim came up with a great idea and we moved the membrane to another wall where the hose would reach after slicing at the chafed part! So clever, that guy!!!! So....we ordered another hose from the company and it should arrive when we get to Dominica. In the meantime we're still able to make water and the connections are bone dry....whooohoooo!
On Sunday we moved around to the North end of Guadeloupe, in the Grand cul de sac Marin, to anchor behind another reef.....
in the middle of nowhere! It was just beautiful!! Blue blue water and white sandy bottom....a completely different Guadeloupe than we experienced last year when we just stayed on the West side. This has got to be the clearest water we've seen yet in the Caribbean! The following day we moved thru the reefs (the chart was completely off on the depths.....was prohibiting passage thru the reefs) but we had no problem!! We were seeing 30' between the reefs. Of course...the day before we went thru with our little depth sounder in the dinghy to spot check depths and found the same depths! Our Doyle guide is 9 years old...so not sure if he recommends this passage or our new anchorage off of Ilet a Fajou. Ilet a Fajou is a mangrove island.....that looks like Peanut Island on the weekend with alot of local motor boats and partys going on!! Another little island just North is Ilet a Carat
....I call it Carrot Top....and it is truly a tropical island....just white sand and palm trees!! So...we dinghied over there on Monday, March 2, to explore the little island. Just after we arrived a tour power catamaran came in filled with tourists.....kinda ruining the private tropical island atmosphere! We did find these sea "snakes" on the beach...half buried...and of course Jim had to dig into the sand to find the other end!!! Really don't know what these were....couldn't find them in our Audobon Seashore Creature guide! Luckily we didn't bring them back to Bees Knees for pets!!!!On Tuesday, March 3, we decided to move from our beautiful anchorage and move into the Riviere Salee (the Salee River) which splits "the butterfly" of Guadeloupe in half...between Grande Terre and Basse Terre. On the way to the river is a little anchorage behind just another reef....where we secured Bees Knees....then took off in the dinghy to explore the longest navigable river in the Eastern Caribbean, called the Grande Riviere a Goyave.
The guidebook says it reminds him of a long gentle river in the States but has weeping willows, bamboo, breadfruit trees, sugar cane and white ginger fields.....as well as zillions of cows. Alot of the cows are roaming freely in the fields along the river, but then some of them are chained or tied to a post or tree so they don't wander too far. The guidebook also warns not to swim in this river due to "Bilharzia". Jim and I tried to look that up in two travel medicine books we have onboard....but couldn't find what it was!! But....we didn't go swimming anyways! It was just beautiful and we saw all the trees listed. There were several locals that we passed....either working in the fields or fishing. Everyone was very friendly and waved 'till it looked like their arms would fall off! In one place a couple of guys were waving, then they started flagging us over to the side. Jim and I waved and just kept dinghying up the river. About 30 minutes later, we turned around to head back to Bees Knees. We passed all the same people...but the couple of guys who were waving at us to come to the shore were still hailing us! I glanced over to the other side of the river from where they were....and there was a COW in the river, nearly underwater! So.....it looked like they needed help to get the cow back across the river. So, Jim and I turned around and went to help. We first determined that we didn't speak French, so all of our communications from that point forward was thru hand motions! The two guys seemed to be father and son....and the father wanted us to take him across the river to save the cow. So....we agreed readily and he passed a stick and a HUGE machete to me...which I placed gently on the floor of our inflatable dinghy....and the man asked permission to enter the dinghy....very polite man. So....I helped him in and he was carrying a long rope also. So...in the short amount of time we had to cross the river to the cow (about 100 feet) I was trying to figure out what he was going to do. Jim and I really weren't discussing anything...just following this man's directions on how to save the cow. When we got close to the cow we could see that his harness that was around his head and neck was tangled in a tree floating in the river. His nose was above the water and his huge belly was floating off to the side...but that's about all that was above the water. We moved the dinghy as close as we could to the cow (by the way the cow also had two sharp pointy horns.....real close to our inflatable dinghy!!) The man took the machete and started sawing thru the webbing that was tightly across the top of the cow's head. I had to look the other way...thinking that there was no way he'd cut thru that with that huge machete and not chop into his head!! I just didn't want to watch....so I moved to the front of the dinghy and held onto a bamboo tree to try to stabilize the boat. The cow was kinda floating, looking at me with his huge eye, as Jim was kinda patting the back end of the cow to keep it calm. It took a few minutes for the man to get thru the webbing and the cow was now free....but luckily the man did place that rope around his horns....so he gently pulled on the rope to guide the cow back across the river. Well....the cow started swimming and pulled all three of us in the dinghy across the river. In the meantime...Jim actually tells me to try to get pictures!!!! What a great idea, but it was hard to get pictures when I was slipping in the mud now in the dinghy....moving around the dinghy out of the way of the man with the machete....and thinking of how we were going to swim with a cow on a rope once he punctured the dinghy....plus in a river with Bilharzia!!!! But, amazingly we made it back across the river to the steep bank. Now we had to get the cow to move up the bank. He tried a few times and the man had jumped out of the dinghy to try to pull him ashore with his son....to no avail. So....he pointed further down the river where the bank wasn't as steep....and he jumped back into the dinghy....still holding the rope attached to the horns of the cow. So.....we pulled the cow and he happily followed by now...probably getting a little tired....and he climbed up the hill on all four knees, slipping in the mud. In the meantime...the man jumped from the dinghy, in a hurry to get ashore to keep control of the cow with his son......but he jumped right into a "monkey no-climb" bush...but didn't even yell!!!! So...he hurried up the hill and helped his son get control of the cow. Jim and I realized our job here was done....so we all waved good-bye to each other and Jim and I continued on our journey down the river! Just an amazing story, don't you think? It was great to be able to help, but I still feel bad that we didn't stop the first time we saw them as we were going up the river. The other amazing thing is that we almost didn't go dinghying up the river because we had a hard time anchoring Bees Knees in the grass at the mouth of the river....we got it stuck on the third try! So....there is a reason for everything, right?The dinghy was full of mud...so Jim got buckets of water and a brush and cleaned it up a bit....then we upped anchor and continued on to the Riviere Salee where we anchored just off the channel in about 7' of water to await the bridge opening the next AM.
We set the alarm for 0345 to ready the boat and be at the bridge with our lights on at 0430! We made it with about 10 minutes to spare...and the bridge opened right on time. We were the only boat to clear the first bridge. Now we had to continue on to make the 0500 opening at the next bridge, in the dark, down a narrow mangrove river with well maintained markers with lights. We made the next bridge with 2 minutes to spare and it opened right on time. We passed uneventfully thru the narrow bridge and anchored on the South side to await daylight to continue to Pointe-a-Pitre.
We spent one day in Pointe-a-Pitre.
...long enough to get French bread, wine and cheese! The "general strike" has now been settled and all the stores were busy re-stocking. We really didn't explore the town, just anchored outside the Marina Bas-Du-Fort.....which had all the amenities....grocery stores, restaurants, bars, WIFI. Jim and I spent a few hours on Wednesday afternoon, sipping a beer and getting WIFI at a local restaurant/bar. The problem was that we could receive email, but couldn't send any email thru their server.....so.....I wrote alot to send another day!On Thursday, the 5th, we moved about 3nm to go to Ilet du Gosier in Guadeloupe.
It's just a cute little island off the SE coast with a lighthouse and ruins. There was a huge swimming club there....they seemed to start from the beach on the mainland and would swim out to the reef, beyond the furthest boat, then swim back. It was just unusual to see sooooo many swimmers....some had paddles on their hands, some had snorkels, and a few were wearing fins...but mostly free-styling. There were also many runners on the beach....leading one to believe that there was a triathlon in the near future!We moved to St. Anne, Guadeloupe
, on Friday, March 6...only about 6nm away from Ilet du Gosier...so we motorsailed into the wind. We came through the opening in the reefs easily and anchored in about 8' of flat calm water. The beach is beautiful and has alot of restaurants along the shore...as well as fresh vege market, an artisan market, a walkway for pedestrians and a church that has bells that toll every hour! Really a nice little town with, again, a huge swimming contingent, sailboarders, kayakers, little tin can sailors and lasers....just a busy, fun place to be. So....we decided to stay a few extra days and enjoy the area. We went to dinner one night and today enjoyed a nice lunch ashore....Creole French food and decent prices....with an "apertif" a la maison after lunch! So, not bad! We did a little shopping in the markets and alot of swimming around the boat. Jim cleaned the whole bottom of the boat over two days. We had a real fuzzy bottom (last bottom paint was applied in Marathon, FL, in January 2008)...right before we left the States. So...it's time to get it done again...but we're trying to hold off until Grenada...just a few more months. So....I've been reading alot of books and enjoying just taking some time off! You probably wonder from what....as I do...but I did!!!!Tomorrow we plan on sailing off to Les Saintes....an island that is still part of Guadeloupe, about 20nm away from St. Anne.
Bye for now!
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