Catching Up…

…on pictures…

Our friends Dirk and Nancy, on SV Renegade, were in St Lucia. Dirk had to fly home but Nancy was still there so we visited with her for a couple of days before heading north again. Thanks for the beer Dirk!

Reunion at Rodney Bay, left-Brita (and Jason) on Blue Moon, center-Nancy on Renegade. Later in the evening Henry and Catherine on Mowzer joined in:

While having a beer with friends a small band came by, it was National Day in St Lucia:

Our next stop was the French island of Martinique. Although we were only there for a few days, Martinique is now one of our favorite islands. We will be spending time here on the way back down. Our first stop in Martinique was the town of Le Marin. There are at least eight hundred or a thousand boats in Le Marin but the anchorage is so big you could fit a couple thousand more in there! There is a big marina in there too and the staff was very cordial and welcoming even though we were not guests. Actually everyone we met in Le Marin and St Anne was very nice.

Small part of the marina, long white building in the center is the general hospital:

A couple of closer shots:

The marina office is way in to the northeast, this is the northwestern anchorage. We’re in there somewhere:

 Looking east, marina office is down there somewhere:

Football shaped yacht:

In Le Marin we had a rough time getting the anchor to set, six times a charm. It’s a bit crowded in there because everyone wants to anchor close to town…so we just checked in, looked around a bit, had lunch, and the next morning we moved just outside to St Anne. Dinghy dock at the center of St Anne:

St Anne anchorage:

Hotel near the center of town:

Church in the center of town:

“Water Street”

Police station and dinghy dock:

The weather report told us we needed to move so we were only in St Anne for a few hours. The town was really nice and we will be spending more time here in the spring!

We have to be in Sint Maarten in January and the weather window was closing rapidly, so we pulled up anchor and jumped north. We bypassed Dominica and landed in Guadeloupe after a lumpy and very wet 24 hour sail. And the weather window did close! About an hour before reaching our anchorage the winds picked up to gale force and continued to blow for about 36 hours. After we anchored the true wind reached just shy of 40 kts, it was crazy! Yesterday afternoon the winds began to subside so we went snorkeling, and last night it was actually quite peaceful. Rainbow, Deshaies (day-hay) Guadeloupe:

We got the tree out again:

We love our tree!

Overcast and cool this morning. It’s getting chilly here, down to 81F this morning!

Deshaies is a very protected anchorage and even though the winds get in here, there is no wave or swell to deal with. Our anchor is set and we have tons of chain out so we are hanging here for a few days while mother nature blows herself out. There are two industrious young ladies that have started a food delivery service here in the anchorage. Just after anchoring (7:00am) they came by with fresh warm croissant and baguettes, what timing! Yesterday we got some wonderful avocados and made guacamole.

Anyway…when we get another weather window we will move up to Antigua and/or St Barts and then Sint Maarten.

Merry Christmas everyone!