I was sure that the space to the right of me would remain empty, as it was rather narrow for another boat, but the French are creative and while doing some work belowdecks in the morning I heard commotion and went topsides to see a boat bigger than mine, a steel ketch, backing in beside me. I tried to get the dinghy out of the way and put out more fenders on that side (I’d only put out 2, more for show than anything else) to fend off the new boat. They, too, had fenders out and people manning extra fenders so the exercise went well.
With unlimited electricity aboard I could finally start some of my cleaning and maintenance tasks which are too uncomfortable to do during the heat of the day at anchor. My first tasks were cleaning the two forward heads and cabins, somehow the starboard head had gotten filled with salt spray and I couldn’t find a leak or evidence of water ingress in the hatch area, so my guess is that the pounding of the boat when going upwind forced water up the sink and that splashed all around. Once the cabins were ready I had to search around for the sheets, the starboard cabin with the one bunk was easy but the port one with 2 berths in a Pullman arrangement was tougher as I could only find one set of sheets; but after a bit of searching I located the others – all vacuum sealed to keep them fresh during storage.
Then I plugged in the vacuum cleaner and proceeded to vacuum the floor and opened up all the floorboards to vacuum the bilges as well, occasionally there would be a loud “kerchunk” coming from the vacuum and I’d have to check what I managed to suck up from the depths of the bilges.
I’d taken a break to get a rental car before noon after checking into the Marina office and found, much to my dismay, that the only car available to me was a scale model one, at least it seemed to be that way when I checked it since it was a real car, but somehow smaller. According to the agent it would hold 5 people but it had no real trunk and I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to stuff my 4 visitors and their luggage into the car and decided it would be best for them to take a cab to the marina. The car, if I were to take it, would be available after 4PM. After lunch I opted to get the car, since it would be nice to meet my friends at the airport and then we’d split up and take some stuff and people in the rental and the rest in a cab. I drove around the block to get a feel for French traffic and driving a manual stick car again before parking close to the boat and going back to work.
I got a special adapter for the water hose and started to wash off the decks of their salt, then switched tasks as time was running out and proceeded to taking off the cushions in the cockpit in order to give that a quick wash. I only got halfway done when Bjorn from the neighbouring boat held out a happy-hour/sundowner beer and I couldn’t refuse a libation after all that work; and suddenly I no longer had 2 hours but it was 18:30 and the flight was scheduled to arrive at 19:15! I got into gear and quickly showered/shaved and changed into clothing whose useful life-cycle hadn’t yet expired and drove off towards the airport. I’m glad that the rental agent had given me some directions, since the signage to the airport on the roads was lacking!
Approaching the airport there was something indefinably wrong, but it wasn’t until I saw flashing blue lights ahead that I realized that everything was dark, completely dark. I veered off to the short-term parking lot and found a spot then walked towards what I assumed was the terminal building as it was partially lit with a big Klieg light and several smaller lights from various firetrucks and other emergency vehicles. The terminal building was empty and there were thousands of people milling about or sitting on their luggage. I asked one of the passengers and found out that the power had been out for a couple of hours already but that there was no official word about when things would return to normal.
While I’d seen the runway lights when I arrived, I doubted that they’d let aircraft land since the VOR, the IFR and the Tower were most likely not working and after waiting for almost an hour I finally got through to my friends using my cell phone, which had been located, charged and turned on for this special occasion and they confirmed that they’d landed at the alternate airport in Martinique and would be flying in to Guadeloupe later that evening. I thought to myself “Fat chance of that happening” and we agreed that they’d keep me informed and I’d return to the marina; we couldn’t talk since the circuits were probably overloaded and I couldn’t understand a word they said, but used SMS messaging for this exchange. Back at the marina I had dinner at one of the local restaurants and my friends sent an SMS stating they’d be flying in the next morning (Air France and the Guadeloupe Airport willing) so I returned to the boat for a quiet night aboard, alone.
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