Guadaloupe and Inverters

We are still in Guadaloupe. We had of course planned to be in Antigua by now for the classics regatta but various things stopped us. We had a long beat up from Les Saintes to Pointe a Pitre only to find out that the Riviere Salee was closed and we would have to sail the long way round one or other of the butterly wings that make up the two halves of this large island. We were feeling very bad tempered about this as it had been a real beat hard on the wind to get there and now th ewind had changed direction which was going to force us to beat back out of the bay.

In addition, our inverter which allows us to charge up the laptop from the 12V system had finally given up the ghost. As it only cost £25 from Halfords nearly four years ago it doesn't exactly owe us anything but we did come to realise how much we depend on having access to the laptop. We have therefore splashed out on a posh one made by a company called Victron. It is a lot better than the old one but cost nearly four times as much. Audrey celebrated buying it by cutting my hair as it was getting a bit long and the mad professor look doesn't really suit me!

Still, we now had to make a decision about how to get north of this island. There were two options really, one was to go down to the smaller island of Marie Galante and then sail round the eastern tip of the island. Alternatively, we could sail back round the southern tip of Basse Terre and up the west coast. This would take us back past the Saintes. Owing to a disinclination to go back on our tracks we decided to try for Marie Galante. Of course, the trade winds now have a southerly element in them which put Grand Bourg on Marie Galante dead to windward. There was also not a lot of wind but too much slop to motor through. So, we headed off for Basse Terre and had a long slow sail round past Les Saintes and we eventually dropped anchor off the town of Basse Terre just round the point at the southern extremity.

Now we are in a delightful bay called Deshaies which is full of boats including several we have met with before. Pampero will be over for drinks later on no less!

We now have to work out when we can clear into Antigua as this weekend is the Easter one and we are not sure if offices will be open or not. The intertubes are quite good here so we will keep everyone up to date and I will see about getting plenty of photos up.

For now, here area couple.

Our anchorage at Pointe a Pitre. No! The wreck is not us!

This is where we are now - Deshaies