Sailing BrainWaves

November 30, Thursday.  We thought we'd have a calm night for sleeping but there was a lot of rocking.  We left at.  for Les Saintes, a group of islands off the coast.  We got into the mooring field by bourg at.  The town looked like an idyllic village of red roofed bungalows.  There were many boats moored and more came all day long.   The islands are a popular spot for day trips with a variety of ferries coming and going all day.  We swam immediately and lounged around until Don went into town around 1500.  He said looks were deceiving and that things onshore were pretty ramshackle. We went ashore around 1630 to explore a little and get dinner.  We passed a creperie, several gelato shops, a pizza place and one upscale restaurant.  There were a couple of nicer shops.  The roads are horrible with a few very narrow sidewalks.  Mostly you walk in the very narrow streets and try to avoid being run over.  ...

November 29, Wednesday.  We left at  to go to Pigeon Bay and we wanted to pick up a day mooring at Pigeon Island.  The weather deteriorated as we went, the sky getting very dark with rain all around us.  There had been little wind until we neared Pigeon Island when it got very windy.  There were a number of dive boats at the moorings in all three mooring spots and it was raining hard.  The skies looked better ages ahead of us so we kept going.  We anchored in.       . There was a fleet of small fishing boats and about the other sailboat moored in the bay, all of which appeared to be local and units uninhabited.  We had to anchor in 40 feet over what the guidebook said was not great holding.  We got a good hold and never dragged.  Near sundown a large catamaran came in.  They dropped their anchor about six times, then gave up and moved on. Deb

Nov 28, Tuesday.  It was rainy when we got up and I was feeling pretty dragged down with my cold, so we decided to stay put in Deshaies for one more day.  We spent a lazy day opening and closing hatches and dodger as it rained much of the day.  The upside of that was that we didn't have to hide from the sun and the boat got a good cleaning outside.  We'd taken a lot of spray on the way to Deshaies and everything was pretty salt encrusted.  Deb

November 27, Monday.  Don went and checked in and got a baguette and some pain au chocolate for breakfast.  Yum!  It was very windy when we came in yesterday but today was quite still and therefore hot.  We swam and Don snorkeled some. There is a lot of activity in the harbor so you have to be careful to not get hit when snorkeling.   Went in at 1700 for groceries, which is always a challenge due to the unusual stores   went back at 1900 for dinner at L' Amer.  We're using their WiFi so want to support them.  Don had a plate with the different types of fish, which was good.  The waiter and I couldn't come to a conclusion about whether the fish I was going to get was cooled or raw due to my bad French, so I went with chicken.  It was good but it was SPICY! - Deb via email

Sunday, November 26, 2017 Nov. 26. Sunday. We left Rendezvous Bay in Montserrat at 0700 heading for Guadeloupe.  Went north of the island which was slow going against big seas.  We did get a good view of the volcano venting gasses. The seas settled some and we had a nice sail, arriving in the bay at Deshaies   at 1500.  Kind of a cute little fishing village surrounded by hills.  Don went ashore but couldn't check in on a Sunday.  He got a code for the WiFi from L'Amer so we were able to talk to the kids. - Deb Guadeloupe We made it to Guadeloupe today. We're having problems with the alternator again but don't think we'll have any trouble getting to our final destination on Sunday. We had two long, bouncy, heeling days to get here. It is very beautiful!! -  Deb Amanda Roth Brennan Glad you made it there. Hope you can get the alternator fixed! Debbie Lawrence Roth They should be able to do it in Point à Pitre. It seems to charge righ...

November 25, Saturday We left at 0700 heading for the island of Montserrat.  We were heading right into a 10K SE wind.  We motored and made good time, arriving at 1530.  We anchored in the little bay north of the town anchorage.  It was just us and a barge with it's tug anchored quite a bit further out.  It was a beautiful spot next to 500 foot cliffs.  There were ledges about 300 feet up with trees growing on them.  My pictures are bad because they were taken from inside the boat.  Longtailed tropic birds were doing acrobatics off the cliffs. We passed the island of Rodonda on the way.  It's pretty forbidding looking and is currently uninhabited.  It has a history similar to King Strange on Beaver Island. The alternator had not been charging correctly while we motored, so Don took the stairs down (which is why my pics are from inside) and we checked out the motor.  The belt seemed to be slipping and the hose leading to the im...

Nov 23-24.   The last entry should end on the 22nd.  The 23rd was  Happy Thanksgiving!  Strangest Thanksgiving we've ever had.  We took a long dinghy ride over to Carombola's, the restaurant in Friars Bay because we thought we'd have a Thanksgiving lunch and be able to call the kids.  It was incredibly hot, no AC and the WiFi didn't work.  We decided to make reservations for dinner and skip lunch.  We took the dinghy back to the development at Christophe Harbor.  Don got a sandwich and a Coke and I got another iced coffee.  We were able to talk to the kids and a couple of Don's siblings.  We were bummed that we didn't think we could have called Rod, since he had the app we're using to make calls  We moved the boat to Friars Bay to go to dinner at 5:30.  They had a Thanksgiving buffet.  The foods were all quite different but very good, except for the turkey, which was very dry.  We are outside under the st...