Sunday 11th March

Pigeon Island
Guadeloupe

16.10.00 N
61 47.00 W

As many of you know daylight saving came into effect sometime during the night, dutifully Gerry and I changed our clocks over and we were up and ready to leave when our clocks said 09.00hrs. As we hauled up our anchor, dale called us to say that they were right behind us. We motored out of the harbour and were pleased to note that the exhaust smoke seemed to have vanished, maybe we had cured our problem after all. Once clear of the harbour we hoisted the main sail with the first reef in it and unfurled the jib, turned towards our destination and turned off the motor. We had a very pleasant sail for the next couple of hours reaching our destination without having to motor until we needed to anchor. We chose to anchor near the beach and were a bit concerned to find that the anchoring gremlins were still with us – our anchor didn’t set on the first attempt. Dale and Lorie anchored just to the left of where we had chosen and had no problem so we tried again, it seemed to set but we weren’t sure so Gerry jumped in the water to dive the anchor, it was almost set – a short burst of reverse thrust and we were anchored. A quick radio call had us agreeing to go straight over to the nearby Pigeon Island for a snorkel. The area where we were staying was right next to the Cousteau national (marine) park and the Pigeon Island was one of the dive sites in the park so we expected it to be good. We loaded all the snorkeling gear into the dinks and took off to the island which was just a short distance away, once there we tied onto a mooring buoy and donned all the gear. This was our chance to try out our new underwater camera case, Gerry took control of the camera whilst I followed on behind him. We snorkeled all around one side of the island, and I have to say it was one of the best places we have seen this trip. The coral was still alive and there were all sorts of fish. We were lucky as there were very few other people in the water whilst we were there – we are sure that it is a very popular spot for both snorkeling and diving. Gerry took a few pictures, it obviously needs some practice but he did manage a couple of decent ones. In this final picture see if you can spot the flounder hidding against the rock - it is there! We would have liked to have done the rest of the island but we were getting chilled and it was starting to rain so we decide to get out of the water – itself a spectator sport! We have a small ladder which we use for climbing back into the dink from the water but even with the ladder it is often a difficult job. Gerry climbed in first, getting the giggles half way in which usually has disastrous effects, often ending with him falling back into the water. As I was behind him I pushed him into the dink and then took off my fins to follow him up the ladder, I managed to get onto the first step and then got stuck, Gerry had to give me a hand to haul me into the dink – I shot out of the water like a cork exploding from a bottle, both Dale and Lorie along with Gerry and myself found this incredibly funny and sat laughing at what must have been an horrendous sight. At least we were back in the dink and able to cast off and return to our boats for a hot shower and something to eat. Everyone had a short siesta and then it was time for sundowner drinks and dinner. I had been marinating some meat and invited Dale and Lorie to join us for dinner at 18.00hrs. It got to 18.50hrs and there was no sign of them so we radioed them to ask when they were coming as they were almost an hour late, we threw them into total confusion when we asked about daylight saving – they then told us that there is no daylight saving in the Caribbean. When we asked why they left Deshaies at 08.00hrs instead of 09.00hrs they said they thought we just wanted to get going earlier than we had planned – it was a misunderstanding and I could have stayed in bed for another hour! Anyway they came across to our boat, Lorie bought salad with her and we had an enjoyable meal together discussing our separate trips to here and our plans for the morning. We finally went to bed having turned the clocks back an hour again!

Saturday 10th March

Anse Deshaies
Guadeloupe

16 19.776 N
61 48.771 W

I forgot to add in yesterday’s blog that as I stood waiting on the dock for Gerry to come back that I was approached by a man who asked if our boat was called Orpailleur, when I said yes he handed me the fuel injector that the guys from Fred Marine had reconditioned for us. The man apparently lives nearby Deshaies and was going to drop off the injector at the dive store as planned but recognized me standing on the dock. What great service! Anyway on to Saturday, our day began with a run into town as we had to return the hire car, pick up some petrol for the dinghy outboard, buy some fruit and vegetables and most importantly access the internet so I could at least read my emails and load the blog to date. Whilst I headed straight to the internet café, Gerry bought fuel and returned the hire car, he then joined me in the internet café where I had just finished loading the blog – it was a quick connection for a change. Once we had both finished looking at email we went in search of some lunch at a boulangerie, I hate to say this but I really could get use to the delicious boulangerie offerings. Once we had eaten it was time to buy a few bits of vegetable and fruits from a market street stall and then we got back into the dink and returned to our boat.
Gerry wanted to test out the injectors and see if the newly reconditioned one made any difference to the smoke that we were still getting out of the exhaust. His plan was to change out each injector in turn replacing it with the new one and see if the smoke reduced under load. With me stationed in the cockpit to rev the engine and assess the smoke we began the process of elimination. The smoke had definitely decreased overall but had not entirely gone and there was no difference between each injector when it was changed out – disappointing news. Once we had established that there was nothing else we could do until we found a Yanmar specialist to review the engine we decided to relax in the cockpit with our books and await the arrival of Dale and Lorie who were due to arrive here early this afternoon from Antigua where they had fixed their refrigeration problem. We had been boat spotting for about 2 hours before they finally appeared at the harbour entrance, Gerry grabbed the noodles (floating swim things) and used them to attract the attention of Dale who was on their bow, using the noodles as indicators – much like the ground staff that guide airplanes into position, he guided Gypsy Palace to a spot near to us where they anchored. We then dinked over to their boat for a traditional welcome (not more rum!) and an exchange of horror stories about fixing boats. After an hour of chat we left so that Dale and Lorie could clean up, sleep or whatever, arranging to dink into town for happy hour and some dinner. At the appointed time we took both dinks into the dock and walked the short distance to a place we had noticed for happy hour drinks and snacks. Our conversation consisted mainly of what we had been doing over the past few days – fixing boats and recovering from horrible seas. Dinner was next and we walked along the main street to find somewhere to eat. Having eaten in 2 places that were good we had high expectations. We picked a relatively empty looking place and placed our orders, then we waited and waited and waited. The place filled up, a couple of tables actually left before placing orders and still we waited. It was agonizingly slow service with only one waitress working. If we hadn’t been the first to arrive I suspect we would still have been sitting waiting at midnight. Anyway eventually the food came, it was average and we were very disappointed as we had expected similar standards to the previous 2 nights. It was edible, and half way through the main course we asked for the bill – hoping that we would get it by the time we had finished eating, the waitress seemed surprised that we didn’t want to order dessert – couldn’t wait another 3 hours for that! After paying we all headed back to our boats for the night with plans to leave in the morning for Pigeon Island – a short distance away.

Friday 9th March

Anse Deshaies
Guadeloupe

16 19.776 N
61 48.771 W

We had a very rude wake up this morning at just before 07.00hrs a load thump on the side of our boat had us both leaping out of bed, throwing on the nearest clothing we could find and dashing out on deck to see what had hit us. A dive boat had tied up to a mooring buoy during the previous evening and had such a short line tying it on that when the wind blew from a certain direction and the rest of the boats swung around their anchor chains it remained in a constant direction. We had quite a bit of chain out and as we swung we collided with the very front of one of the dive boat’s hulls. We fended off, hauled in some chain and then started the partially repaired motor in order to move away from the dive boat. We were astounded to find that several boats had people on deck who just watched as we swung into the dive boat – no shouts of warning or offers of help, some of them were so close themselves that they were lucky it wasn’t them. Anyway we hauled our anchor and moved well out of the way of the rest of the anchored boats and sat to make sure that we wouldn’t drift off or swing around near to anything else. Gerry decided to take a plunge and check out the anchor to make sure it was well dug in as we were now too close to the harbour rock wall, satisfied that all was OK he then took the dink into town to throw away the trash, find the internet and see if he could locate a Yanmar (our engine) dealer and hire a car for the day. Whilst he was gone I did some cleaning and polishing on the boat, it badly needs a good lean but we need a marina and running water for that. On his return Gerry had some success, he had got rid of the trash, found the internet and located the dealer and hired a car. We took the injector that we thought was the problem, our boat documents and the empty propane cylinder with us in the hope of being able to check in with customs and find somewhere that sells propane. The Yanmar dealer was located in Point Pitre about 60kms away so after checking out the customs office (no one there) we began our trip into Point Pitre. The road followed the coast line and it was a very pretty scenic drive, we passed through lots of small villages and commented that everyone seemed to have a “house cow” grazing around their property, it made me think of the one you had in Airlie Beach Mary. We arrived on the outskirts of Point Pitre and found a sign for “Marina” which we followed and then we sighted a Volvo marine engine store so Gerry went to ask where we could find the Yanmar store “Fred’s Marine”. It was at the next turning – a stone’s throw away from where we were so we drove around to the store and presented our problem to the technicians there. They had no spare new injectors but they could test the old injector and maybe rebuild it for us. There was much conversation and they said they could look at it on Monday, we must have looked agonized as they revised this when we told them where we were and that we had a hire car for the day just to do this job. The owner of the store then agreed to test it straight away and to cut a long story short using a hand pump he pumped diesel through the injector under pressure and to our dismay it appeared that nothing was wrong with the injector. The conclusion was that there may have been a speck of dirt in the injector which he had managed to dislodge. We discussed the possibility of ordering a new injector to be on the safe side but we told it could take up to a month to receive into the store. The owner then said he had an injector which he could rebuild for us – it would take a day or so, could we return on Monday – we agreed that we could and then one of the workers said that he could deliver the newly refurbished injector to Deshaies that evening so the arrangements were made to rebuild the injector that afternoon. We received instructions to collect the injector from the dive shop in Deshaise that evening and handed over somewhere close to $300 in good faith that we would receive the part later that night. Now that we had our old injector in working order Gerry was itching to get back to the boat, refit it and try it out so without any further touring of the place we headed back to Deshaies and the boat. Gerry left me in the town to try and get on the internet whilst he vanished out to the boat; unfortunately the internet café was closed as were most of the businesses in town so I was stranded until Gerry returned. I had a drink and a pastry at the boulangerie and awaited his return when we both went back out to the boat for some lunch. The injector was definitely working now so we can only conclude that there must have been some dirt which was now cleared out of the injector. As we still had the car we then took back off into town as I wanted to visit the botanic gardens and we still needed to clear customs. This time there was actually someone at the customs office though he didn’t want to clear us - telling us to return on Sunday! After a bit of discussion Gerry got him to clear us in and out as we will probably leave here Sunday morning. By now it was 16.00 hrs and I was sure that we would never get to see the botanic gardens but we drove the 2kms to the place and made our way into the ticket booth. The lady said that we had time as they were open until 18.00 hrs so we paid our fees and went in. I have to say we were very glad that we did as it was one of the most beautifully kept and organized botanic garden that I have ever been into. Mark, you would have loved the place, there were every sort of flower, plant tree etc. that exists. The one sad part was that there were cameras around the cactus plants as some very sick, sad individuals had vandalized the cactus leaves by carving their names into them, shame on them! We both enjoyed the walk through the gardens and just about made it around the entire place before it closed for the night. Then it was back into town and to a restaurant that we had picked out to try. Piano Piano was the choice and we had a very nice meal overlooking the harbour, there was live music which added to the enjoyment. After our meal it was time to return to the boat for the night

Thursday 8th March

Anse Deshaies
Guadeloupe

16 19.776 N
61 48.771 W

Our day started with emails from Lorie saying they had a lumpy trip to Antigua and she expressed her anxiety about anchoring in the dark in an unknown anchorage – I would have given anything to have been her yesterday! Any way we sent them the brief version of our trip and told them about the engine problems, Lorie came back with some ideas about places to get stuff fixed which was our mission for the day. We started the day of right, I made pancakes for breakfast and then it was time to get into it. Gerry took the engine cover off and proceeded to examine the engine whilst I did the dishes and tried to keep out of the way. To recap on the engine problem to date: Gerry had changed the Raycor filter and restarted the engine, it ran for 15 – 20 minutes with blue exhaust then the engine shut itself down again. When Gerry looked at the cooling system he found a split coolant hose, he began today by cutting away the split part and reattaching the rest of the hose to the top of the coolant system, topping up the coolant as he went. Then he changed the main engine fuel filter, with much grunting and groaning as it was very tightly screwed into place. Having done this he started up the engine and progressively opened and closed the fuel lines to each of the four fuel injectors. The fourth cylinder seemed not to be affecting the engine revs so he tried to change the number 4 cylinder fuel injector with the number one fuel injector. In the process he managed to break the rubber bleed line hoses on both, meaning that the problem was now compounded with having to replace these hoses. It turned out that the number 4 injector was definitely not working. So we had a reason for our engine problem, all we had to do now was find the solution. We packed a bag with the broken bits, our boat documents, some cash and the camera and took the dink into the town dock with the purpose of clearing customs, trying to find spare parts, an internet access and explore the town. It turned out to be a pretty unsuccessful trip, there customs office was closed until 14.30hrs (and then it was doubtful), there are no banks and one of the two ATMS wasn’t working – thank goodness the other was. There was no hardware store and the garage was just a fuel stop. The internet café was out of action. We enquired about hire cars and if there was a repair garage anywhere close, the pharmacist told us it was about 2 kms away, he didn’t add that it was all up hill! After a cold drink and a pastry we set out to find the repair garage. I gave up after the first steep hill and returned to the dock to wait for Gerry who went on to find the garage. Eventually he returned to the dock with some success to report. He had managed to buy some hose to replace the ones he had broken but had no luck with finding a new fuel injector. We retuned to the boat and he fitted the new hoses whilst I typed up some blog notes. Once the fuel lines were replaced we moved the boat in closer to the town in the hope that we would be a bit more protected from the wind if it blew up again tonight. As a lot of boats had left during the day we had a wide choice of places to anchor and picked a very central spot. After watching quite a few new boats anchor all around us, some times too close for comfort, it was time to go back ashore and have a meal. We arrived at the restaurant a little too early for dinner so we found a bar and had a couple of pre dinner drinks. After paying our tab we made our way back to L’Amer where we had a delicious dinner before returning to our boat for the night. Tomorrow we will be going in search of the elusive injector, we plan to hire a car and head to Point Pitre where there are supposed to be plenty of boat part stores. I also want to try and see the botanic gardens if we have time but as always the boat repairs will come first.

Wednesday 7th March

Anse Deshaies
Guadeloupe

16 19.776 N
61 48.771 W

We heard from Dale late last night, he couldn’t fix his refrigeration problem, apparently he thinks it is something to do with the starting relay compressor, this means that he has to get it checked out and he wanted to take it to Antigua to a place he used once before. The question then for us was did we want to go to Antigua or should we continue on down the chain to Montserrat, Guadeloupe and Dominica. Going to Antigua would have meant 50 miles of wind and seas straight on the nose and as the forecast was for winds of 15 – 20 knots and 6 – 8 foot seas it wouldn’t be a pleasant trip and we would have to motor all the way, whilst the forecast was the same for going down the chain to Montserrat etc. the wind would be on our beam rather than the nose so we would have a chance to sail at least some of it – if the forecast was right! After a bit of deliberation we decided that we would take the chain and head towards Montserrat and possibly continue on through to Guadeloupe, a total of 70 miles. We were all up and ready to leave at 06.00hrs, Dale and Lorie hoisted their main sail and headed out first, waving goodbye and promising to email us with their progress, we should be able to meet up with them down the chain as they can cut out a couple of the islands and head straight to Dominica. We followed them out of the anchorage, hoisting our main with a reef in it and motor sailing. As we turned to our track for Montserrat we knew that we wouldn’t be able to just sail, the wind was too close to being on our nose so we contented ourselves with motor sailing the 35 miles to Montserrat. It was quite a bumpy ride as the waves tended to knock us about as we progressed but as the weather was meant to be deteriorating over the next couple of days we thought we would make the best of what we had. As we approached Montserrat the sky became very cloudy, we weren’t sure if it was because of the volcano spewing ash and smoke or if it was just the weather closing in around us. I began to take some photographs of the volcano as we approached it, it certainly looked like smoke coming out of the top but there was none of the sulfur smell that we know only too well accompanies volcanic activity. The closer we got the denser the “smog” effect became and suddenly we could see why – the winds were whipping up ash from the ground where it had lain since the previous eruptions and blowing it straight towards us. At this point the wind speed was about 20 knots (a little more than the prediction but whose surprised?) we began to get small stinging sensations on our exposed flesh – the ash had tiny particles of pumice, we were getting a free skin derma abrasion! The volcano eruption covered the town of Plymouth and as we went past we could see the deserted homes and businesses, it was all too familiar to us and a very sad sight.
Gerry and I had discussed stopping at Montserrat, I wanted to and he didn’t so guess what happened here – we continued on to Guadeloupe! The argument for continuing was the same old one – the weather was deteriorating and we didn’t want to be stuck in Montserrat (not that I would have minded!). We cleared the end of the island and suddenly we were getting gusts of wind up to 27 knots – I swear I will become a weather forecaster, I don’t know any other job where you can get it so wrong, get paid and not get the sack! Anyway to continue our day – as we motor sailed onwards I suddenly noticed that one of our spare dinghy hoists had effected an escape. It had bounced or been thrown out of the self at the back of cockpit arch. We quickly grabbed the second spare one which we use to haul the dinghy outboard onto its mount and tucked it away so that we didn’t loose that one too. Our next little problem was that the painter for the dinghy, which was on the foredeck, was dragging in the water. As we were heeling over with our toe rail in the water at the time Gerry said to leave it where it was. We got to about 12 miles out from Guadeloupe and suddenly our engine just shut down, Gerry says with no warning but I recon that it was slowing down and speeding up for a while before it stopped. So here we were in the middle of the water, our main sail pushing us along on our side with the wind howling at 27 knots, the seas at 6-8 feet and no engine! The first thought was that the dragging painter line (or one of the others that had since joined it) might be caught around the prop shaft so I crawled out on deck to pull the stray lines on board. There wasn’t too much line to pull in, certainly not enough to have stopped the engine. The next thought was perhaps we had some dirt in the fuel. Gerry handed over the steering to me and told me to keep us on track but try to keep the boat upright – oh yeah! He vanished down below to tinker with the engine, he changed the Raycor filter and started the engine up again, it burst into life and we breathed a sigh of relief and resumed our course. A few minutes later I pointed out to Gerry that the exhaust was pouring out blue tinged smoke – not good! Shortly after that the engine spluttered and died again. Gerry made a quick decision that it wasn’t something he could fix whilst we were bouncing around through the waves and heeling over on our side so he suggested that we try to sail the final 10 miles to Guadeloupe even if it was going to be a howling white knuckle sail. We pulled out ¾ of the jib and were immediately heeled over with the toe rails back in the water, zipping along at 6 ½ - 7 ½ knots. If the truth be known we had an improper balance of jib versus main and were over canvassed for the conditions but we were trying to get into port before darkness fell, not that there was much hope of that as it was already sun set by this time and we still had 2 hours worth of journey to go. As it got darker I had to go below to turn on the navigation lights, not an easy task when the boat is on its side. Worse was to come though – we began discussing how we were going to get into the harbour – an unknown place for us and once we had done that, how we were going to anchor without an engine. The discussion threw out a couple of ideas but we knew it was going to be a suck it and see situation once we actually arrived there as there were too many variables to set a plan in concrete at that time. We furled away the jib 2 miles out from the harbour entrance and proceeded on with just the reefed main sail up, we were still doing a decent 4-5 knots, the wind wasn’t going to give us a break. The moon didn’t co operate and rise early, well why the hell would it? So we arrived at the entrance to the harbour in the pitch black and of course the wind whipped around the coast at the harbour entrance showing up to 32 knots – just what we needed! The lights inside the harbour were numerous and it was difficult to make out whether they were boats at anchor or shore lights, add into this mix the boats that were anchored and had no lights on at all and you begin to get the picture of what our moment of horror was like. Gerry donned his head set, took a torch and went up to the bow whilst I took over the steering – following his directions so as to avoid hitting any of the obstacles in our way. Getting into the harbour was difficult as the hills on either side caused huge wind shifts and at times blocked all the wind. As we got just inside we realized that half the lights we thought were shore lights were in fact very large sail boats at anchor, probably some of the ones that had been racing in St Martin last week. The only way we were able to get inside the harbour was by tacking back and forth between the boats, with Gerry watching out I threw the boat from one side to the other and back again too many times to recall. Eventually we faced what looked like a line of anchored boats across the width of the harbour and at this point Gerry decided it was time to anchor. In 55 foot of water I turned the boat into wind and Gerry immediately dropped the anchor, letting out every bit of chain that we possess (not really enough for the depth of water but it was the best we could do). He then quickly dropped the main sail whilst I struggled to keep the boat from drifting into the other boats around us. We did drift very close to one boat and the owner yelled at Gerry that we were going to hit his boat – we didn’t but I can’t say I want to have a repeat performance of anchoring in the dark, in a strange place, under sail with no engine to back me up ever again. It would have been so much nicer if the guy had offered us some help when we told him we had a dead engine instead he just disappeared below on his boat again. We both breathed a sigh of relief when the “twang” of the anchor chain told us that we were anchored, we had no back up plan so it was a good job that the anchor set first time. At this point we were tired and hungry so I fixed a quick dinner whilst Gerry tidied away the lines and straightened the cockpit. We agreed to leave the engine problem until the morning and after showering we fell into bed, not that either of us slept very well as we were concerned that we might drift and then we would really be up the creek without a paddle. The wind gusted around us all night but I’m happy to say that we did an excellent job of setting the anchor – we didn’t budge an inch.