I feel like I overslept today, I didn’t wake up until 07:30; the longest sleep I’ve had in quite a while. Suitably refreshed I made some coffee and processed the pictures from the previous day and updated my blog entry (offline, since I have no internet connectivity in this anchorage). I’m writing this at 08:30 and still have to wait 30 minutes before getting into my dinghy and motoring all the way into town so that I can do my clearance and, hopefully, stock up on emergency beer and wine supplies. I think I’ll head across to Guadeloupe proper after clearing in and will go do one more dive at Pigeon Island; but that depends upon the conditions there. Here at this anchorage the waters are crystal clear, last night I could see the bottom clearly from the calm waters at the surface at 30 feet of depth, so if Pigeon Island visibility is anything close it will be a fantastic dive, or perhaps even 2 dives.
I went into town for emergency supplies (Corsair beer) and to clear into Guadeloupe. The coffee shop opened at 9AM and I was there at 09:15 but I was already 4th in line. I noticed the name emblazoned on the skipper’s shirt who was in front of me, and as captain of Milk & Honey he told me that they only had 7 crew and 2 guests so luckily it wasn’t going to be a very long wait. The person at the keyboard doing his clearance was a bedraggled and bearded single-hander and it seemed to me that he’d never seen a computer or keyboard before, as he was excruciatingly slow in typing his entry. While waiting I saw Jan and Richard from Morpheus of London, who I had last seen the previous season (or perhaps the one before that) aboard a chartered Jeanneau 54 that was having a big party – I think everyone knew each other from an online forum and most had met in person for the first time while aboard. They had just come up from St. Lucia and we chatted to pass the time, which now seemed to speed up and I was soon typing away. I’ve gotten pretty fast at the French computer program and despite being handicapped by the convoluted keyboard I was soon finished and off to my boat, emergency beer supplies in hand.
I departed at 10:30 but it soon became clear that diving wasn’t going to happen that day as the passage speed was only about 5-6 knots and Pigeon Island was a loooong ways away. I did get some nice bursts of speed with the fickle and changing winds, but after passing Basseterre the winds shifted and I had a headwind so I switched on the iron genny and motored the rest of the way to Deshaies in the north of Guadeloupe. I saw that the anchorage at Pigeon Island looked rolly and uncomfortable, otherwise I would have stayed there for the night. I arrived in Deshaies at around 17:00 and managed to get a bit of things at the supermarket before heading to Golightly an Island Packet 370 with Les and Jeremie aboard – with the 4 from Katzenellenbogen and myself aboard it was tight but not crowded. We had some of the best appetizers as snacks and I went home well sated afterwards.
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