The day after Leigh's departure, after a last sunset,
we moved to Ste Anne to visit our Swiss friends René and Ginette on Opus. We had a nice week together, visiting Le Marin to chase arcane or unobtainium spare parts, enjoying dinners on board and on shore.
The weekly couscous fiesta
is a great dancing opportunity. The restaurant owner takes the mike for everything from French oldies to American standards and Latino music.
We also
enjoyed walking part of the trail that rounds the Ste Anne peninsula –
beautiful beaches and utter calm 5 minutes from town.
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| Ste Anne Anchorage |
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| Anse Caritan Ste Anne |
When the
next weather window opened, it was time to make way North towards our end-March Puerto Rico appointment. We decided to go to Nevis, with a quick
overnight in Deshaies, Guadeloupe.
The
crossing along Martinique, Dominica, Les Saintes and Guadeloupe was a mix of
fast sailing between islands and slogging along the coasts; in Deshaies we
caught the last free mooring ball and were able to avoid the anchoring
demo-derby taking place daily in this small bay where wind and current have
their own minds and squalls are frequent.
We
restarted the following morning in the dark, in light airs, towards Montserrat,
Redonda and Nevis.
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| The Kingdom of Redonda |
The going
was slow enough that we deployed the spinnaker, which immediately caused a
squall to descend upon us upwind of Montserrat. We weathered it, but ten
minutes later, as we were doing a brisk 9 knots, we saw the spinnaker fall like
a tree next to the boat – ripped head. After 30 minutes we had recovered the
whole soaking mess from the ocean, never stopping on our way to Redonda. JP had
not blown a spinnaker since his regatta days, a few decades ago…
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| Spi aftermath |
We made
Nevis just for the sunset, 12 hours for 70 miles and picked a mooring close to
the only town, Charlestown. At Customs and in town, people were universally friendly and helpful.
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| Restored building at Golden Rock |
The next
day we undertook an island tour – the main attractions are big plantation
houses converted to high-end hotels, some very tastefully.
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| Montpelier Hall |
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| Verandah at Hermitage |
We were particularly
impressed by Golden Rock (great landscaping and use of nature), Montpelier
(beautiful hall) and Hermitage (fully restored colonial wooden house).
We also
stopped at old churches with tombstones from the 1600’s and hot sulphur
springs.
Wild
donkeys run free in the hills.
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| Talk to our agent! |
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| Orchids - so hard to photograph |
Lunch was
at the delightful botanical garden, overlooking the south coast and featuring a Thai restaurant and flower extract
drinks.
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| Did you say purple flower? |
An
excellent fish dinner at Double Deuce, a beach restaurant concluded our visit to Nevis.
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| Squall and rainbow on Nevis peak |
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| The ship's mechanic |
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