Deshaies to Les Saintes

Well we left Deshaies in the rain and overcast skies – a first for us this season - it is still hot and humid though! The shoreline of the western side of Guadeloupe is pretty even without the sunshine. There are beautifully green fields of sugar cane on the hillside – all part of the rum distilleries in the area of Basse-Terre and Riviere Sens.

Fields of sugar cane for the Rum factory

Doesn't get better than this!

Yet again, as we approached the end of the main island of Guadeloupe, the wind started to pick up and within a few minutes we had a great 15 knot wind to sail the remaining 10 miles or so to Les Saintes. But as you know – when the wind comes up often is is not from the direction you need ….. so our little 10 mile destination after completing 4 tacks was  15 miles but ever so pleasant.

Life is good....

It is so nice to see that any damage from hurricane Maria was not substantial. There remain a few yachts up on the beach and some of the palm trees are looking a little bare but new fronds are growing well!

Pain du Sucre

The pleasures of Les Saintes are all still open for us … Maryse made a priority to get to Robbe Staeck (yup it is spelt that way!) – she has been soooooo waiting to pick up some of their pâté. Life is good.

Maryse's sister and brother in law head out for Martinique  onboard Rodignard. 

Maryse has been busy pulling out items from storage that I never knew we had on board… well HoHoHo time on board Ambition!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

The ONLY snowflakes for us!

Tuesday it was the end of the line for one sailboat that was blown aground in Maria – when all was said and done, the backhoe won. The sailboat was carted off in pieces to the dump. A sad day for any boat owner.

Wednesday was a day that our plan was to hike up to the Fort Napoleon. Well this plan was put together last evening with friends over accras and wine. This morning at 7:30 it became abundantly clear to me that the plan was made with some important and critical information lacking ….This cruise ship arrived in the bay.

Wind Surf

Twenty minutes later this cruise ship arrived in the bay….

Well I am guessing that there may be just a few more folks at the fort and in town than we expected today! Even getting a wifi connection will be a challenge today!

Then last but not least this Pirate ship showed up …. So now the plan is to find my black eye patch and pirate hat because it will be easier to join them than fight them!

Arrrrgghhhh!!

We will hike to the fort tomorrow! 

Our plans are to leave Les Saintes on Friday Nov 30 to return to Deshaies and then on to Falmouth Harbour, Antigua on Saturday. The weather forecast for Sunday afternoon and all of next week is for North-east winds 15 to 20 knots and sea swells to 10+ feet, which would mean an uncomfortable upwind sail to Antigua and we try to avoid that kind of sailing as much as possible.

Next stop will be to fly back to Montreal to see family and friends for Christmas ........please no snow storms or bitter cold ......

Upgrades, Repairs and Maintenance Done – CHECK!

Well the weeks of putting Ambition back together again and knocking all the major maintenance items off the list, are all behind us now. A few pictures of Falmouth Harbour, Antigua...

Some of our neighbours!

A beautiful sunset....

Not sure this big guy has internet connectivity issues!

A little home away from home...

We are absolutely thrilled with the final results of the installation of the water-maker. All the pieces found a new home under the floorboards and in the cupboards without loosing too much in the way of storage places on board. The task of running all the plumbing related to the water maker installation turned out to be a far simpler task than I envisioned. I love the accessibility of most of the of the spaces on this boat. I said MOST , but not all, just most! Anyone who maintains a boat can appreciate this statement! 

Some assembly required picture

The main filtering membrane and high pressure pump

Nicely tucked under the floor

A little gauge to tell us how much we are producing

Low pressure pump and primary filter

We are making our own water now on a regular basis so that we only need to run the system for a few hours every other day to top up what we have used. We installed at least temporarily a way to connect our stern shower to the wash-down hose so we can now rinse the salt off the boat as well as clean the hull. As you know our hull is black and just like in Montreal winters, a black hull rather accentuates the salt crystals.  The black hull is beautiful when nicely shined but keeping it spotless is a task indeed. The other major downside of the black hull in the tropics is the heat. Just like a black car the hull is often too hot to touch.  This has spawned a sewing project for Maryse to create a shade panel for the section of the hull where our refrigerator and freezer are located. I believe we can save some energy if we shade the area while we are at anchor. In the prevailing winds the port side of the hull is ALWAYS in the sun – quelle coincidence – the fridge and freezer are also on the same side!

One last stop in Jolly Harbour to top up on groceries and adult beverages and off we head to Guadeloupe. As is the case in every island, you can’t leave until you clear out of one country to be able to clear into the next. In Jolly Harbour the building is comprised of 3 offices – each one is separate – Customs, Immigration and Port Authority. Each office is about 12 square feet! You start at Customs, fill in your clear out on the computer and receive a document. Take that document and two doors down to Port Authority who checks papers and provides you with yet another duly signed form which you take to Immigration – check of the passports to match the paperwork – stamp stamp stamp. Now back to Customs who does one final validation of everything and with a smile wishes us a safe voyage!

Dinghy and outboard stored and off we head early morning for the 56 mile sail from Jolly Harbour to Deshaies on the north west corner of Guadeloupe. Winds were expected to be 080 – 100 degrees (east) at about 15 to 20 knots which would have made for a great ride. The wind gods had a different plan and only gave us 6 to 12 knots to play with. None the less, full genoa, staysail and mainsail pulled us along at a nice and leisurely pace of between 5 and 7 knots of boat speed. Life is very good!

After arrival in Deshaies, now time to clear in to Guadeloupe. The Customs office in most of the French islands is a tad less official than the old English islands – here you find the customs computer in the back of a T shirt shop. After waiting out turn behind two charter catamarans – Germans with limited English and French skills try to complete the forms which entails providing all of the 10 crew members passport details …. Oh boy! Once we get done and pay our entrance fee of 4 euro, we are in! No passport check, no check of prior country documents ….. This is NOT Homeland Security!

Maryse wastes no time fining some great pate, baguettes and a chilled Rose de Provence!  A super dinner menu indeed.

We chilled on board for a few days and then plan to head further south to Les Saintes – one of our favourite places. 

Our 2017 / 2018 Winter Sailing Season Starts

Our winter season is now OFFICIALLY under way. We arrived in Antigua on Oct 29^th. We had in tow with us 450lbs of baggage. Yup we travel light! As many of you know and helped, we packed up 3 HUGE bins of humanitarian aid for the folks of both Barbuda and Dominica. In the end I have to thank Air Canada for picking up the tab for all the aid bins and then some. Their request process is terribly overburden some and it was 4 weeks of effort but it did pay  off in the end. Upon our arrival even the customs and immigration folks were very appreciative of the efforts that you and we went to in providing aid – thanks Mom for your generous donation!

The number one item after arriving was to check on Ambition and confirm that she made it through one of the very worst hurricane seasons in the Caribbean completely unscathed.  It is almost unbelievable to me that less than 40 miles away on the island of Barbuda (part of Antigua) Hurricane Irma completely devastated the island and its 2000 now homeless inhabitants and in Antigua nothing!. All the residents of Barbuda were evacuated after the hurricane to Antigua and are still living  and going to school here. It will be many many months before they get back to their island. Very sad indeed and the Antiguans feel VERY blessed to have missed the wrath.

For our first 4 days, we stayed in a AIRBNB villa in Jolly Harbour while we prepared Ambition for launch. Our arrival in 85F and humid temperatures is a struggle but still much better than dealing with the cold! We knocked off all the “must do before launch” items in plenty of time and Ambition splashed down on Oct 31^st – wow so good to see her back in the water.

Next task was to get all our luggage on board including all the boat parts and project items that we gathered during the summer. Yes as you might have imagined – out came my project plan appropriately titled “Ambition Winter prep 2017”!!!  Once a Project Manager always a project manager!

Race Day!

After 10 LONG days of work our interior project plan is 93% complete and outside we are at 75%. GREAT progress and Maryse has spent hours polishing stainless, fiberglass and cleaning woodwork, treating canvas for waterproofing not to mention getting everything stored in its rightful place onboard.  Best crew ever!

A small stingray swims past at the dock

Retrieving the dinghies from storage!

One job that should have taken me just 15 minutes to complete was the reinstallation of the three blades on the wind generator that makes electricity for free! Well the post that holds the generator is hinged to facilitate the servicing. Blades all attached – all is good … or so I thought! Well about 20 minutes later Maryse yelled that she smelled smoke like an electrical fire on board … this is never a good thing! An all hands or I should say noses try to locate the problem …. nothing found – not good either. Now would be a good time to test the on / off switch for the wind generator – huummm it is warm and doesn’t work????? Kind of answers the electrical smell …. but after I removed the switch – it was melted … another no good sign!!! Turns out that that when I tilted the pole forward, I stripped the insulation off the wire and shorted out the whole system. Well – after 5 hours of shopping for new wire and switches, running the 20 feet of wire through the small spaces and redoing the connections we are now finished with the 15 minute job. This is my life of boat projects!

Smelly melted switch

One of  our major tasks was to prepare the basic work for the installation of our new water maker.  This involves removing all the salon cushions to gain access to the inside of the boat. A couple of pictures of one of our electrical panels to connect the new wiring – thanks Richard! Now the 40 feet of ¾” tubing is run below the floor to connect various parts together!

Electrical panel - a work in progress!

Water maker parts and pieces

tools tools and stuff everywhere

We have reached a point where can now actually drop the dock lines and head out of Jolly Harbour and change our view just a little – not going too far away – just 15 miles around the coast to Falmouth Harbour. Here we will complete the installation of our MAJOR new addition to Ambition – a Spectra water maker – this will allow us to convert salt water to drinking water. What a real luxury to have the ability to be autonomous for fresh water and for washing the salt off the boat. Ambition will be soooo happy!  Thank you ever so much James and Chantal for making this all come together – you are awesome friends. 

Starting to look like a sailboat again!

Even this side looks good!