Wind from the back and I needed my spinnaker pole for the first time since I had repaired it. No problems and we had a slow and easy sailing day all the way into Charlotte Amalie Bay where a few cruise ships and other sailboats where already waiting.
Here’s the visa workaround: You enter US Territory with an ESTA on an official carrier (like a plane or in my case, a ferry). Then you get a stamp in your passport that says you can stay on US soil for 90 days. You go back with the ferry, fetch your boat and reenter with your own boat since you now have a stamp. That’s what people say on the internet but all these informations were a bit old and I couldn’t find anybody who could confirm this.
One of the few extremely relaxed sails of a good 50 miles. Towards the end the waves got a bit nasty but nothing bad really. The wind was never more than force 4-5. There was a full moon all night and it was so bright that everything could be seen. Almost like a winter’s day at home 🙂 I weighed anchor under sail in Guadeloupe and was able to sail all the way into English Harbour, Antigua where I picked up a mooring and rowed ashore right in to the UNESCO world heritage of Nelson’s dockyard and cleared into the country.
I had originally wanted to go from Dominica directly to the Jaques Cousteau Reserve in Guadeloupe in order to provision for a while. Guadeloupe would be the last relatively cheap country for a long time. I then found out that clearing in and out was not possible there so I sailed to Les Saintes together with Andi and Kudi to do the paperwork there and then continue to Guadeloupe mainland.
We arrived in the capital Roseau by early afternoon and were still able to clear into the country. One of my new floorboards in the dinghy had unfortunately broken in two, so I looked all over town for a new one. No luck but the city had a lot of charm. We had a few beers with a local guy who had watched our dinghies and he told me he would have a floorboard for me the next morning. But I had a bit of a fallout with him over money so I never went over the next day but instead sailed on to Portsmouth.
The next morning I left the anchorage at Fort Saint Louis and went to a place called Californie in the Cohé du Lamentin only a few miles away. This place wasn’t particularly pretty (there was a huge oil refinery in the background) but it was unbelievably quiet and had access to some good stores. I needed to repair my dinghy again and bought a wooden pole, some groceries, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Shlepping my bags back to the beach (3km) was no easy task and I was very happy when a lady in a car stopped and asked if the monsieur would still have to walk far.
She drove me all the way to the dinghy and I was very relieved since it was early afternoon and the sun was boiling again.
Another rough sailing day unfortunately. We had the wind from our back and would have gone wing on wing but the spinnaker boom broke. We now had a flapping foresail and rough seas and were much too slow. It wasn’t fun but it wasn’t scary, only a bit frustrating. Martinique would be crowded because of the Carnaval and so we were happy to find a vacant mooring buoy in front of the Marina L’etang Z’abricots where we were told we would have to leave by ten the next morning but this was better than nothing. We had arrived just before dark and were tired and a bit frustrated. The weather forecast had announced a cold front with storm force gusts passing through that night and we were never sure when that would happen and if we would make it to safety in time. Obviously we had made it and the party lights for the cockpit needed to come out and brighten the mood.
By daybreak we got to St. Lucia and wanted to enter into Soufrière Bay by the two big Pitons. From afar we saw many boats leaving the bay. More room for us we thought, but then we saw the wind gusts. There was spray all over the place and it looked scary from afar. I had a lump in my throat and immediately reefed the genoa to a towel size. The first gust hit with 50 knots the second with 55 knots. I was afraid that the mast would not survive this but it did and we were able to run away from the wind.
Union Island
We made it to Union Island in time to walk over to the capital and still be on time to check into the country. The sailing was fast and easy. We found a free mooring buoy behind Frigate Island which is a big rock in front of the village of Ashton in Union Island. The rock is connected to a reef and you can walk along the reef across a bridge to reach the shore. A very beautiful but a very long, hot and strenuous walk. We had put our dinghy on a beach by a small bar and when we got back (just in time for sunset) we had a few beers and an interesting conversation with the owner.
I walked the 10km to the Airport to pick up Zissi and we took a taxi back. At the airport I had met Gerd who I had got to know in French Guiana. He was also expecting a crew. Unfortunately that crew turned out to be more work for him than sailing single handed but that is another story.
My laundry was still hanging out to dry in the local bar so Zissi and I (unbelievably happy) had a few beers, picked up my laundry and then rowed over to the boat. It was already dark then.
