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Larry's LogThat night though, I did manage to replace the anchor in its roller. I had removed it to make room for the mooring line that I used. I do that because, unfortunately, the fairleads on Destiny are very far back and if I were to use them at a mooring, the boat would swing and yaw too much from side to side in a breeze. Since I only have one roller at the bow, I have taken to removing the anchor and placing it on deck so I can use the roller for the mooring line. The mooring line also has a length of hose where it goes over the roller since it has a tendency to touch the metal of the roller as the boat swings. A light line tied to the toerail attaches this hose and keeps it from slipping down. I also rig a safety line from a fairlead directly to the mooring. I tend not to use the line provided with the mooring at all; they are generally too small and in poor condition. For that night, since the wind was down, I just used the lines from the fairleads that would be easy to undo in the morning without using the dinghy. The next morning we got up early, around 5am, to finish preparations. I hoisted the dinghy on deck and together we flipped it over. Unfortunately, there was still some water in the dinghy and it spilled on deck and some seeped through the closed but not dogged forward hatch; right onto our berth soaking the linens. Oh well, it would dry. Note to self - remember to dog down the hatch next time. We finally dropped the mooring at 0615 and motored out of Jolly Harbour. Diane had paid our bill there the day before and we were set. I raised the main as soon as we cleared the last of the entrance buoys in the 15 knot easterly. We would try to listen to the weather at 0830, but so far, so good. Of course, in the lee of the island, we had a nice breeze and low waves. We would have to see what it was like once we got past Pelican Island again. As we got nearer, we were still motorsailing since I needed to run the engine anyway to charge the batteries. Although we have a wind generator and two (2) 75-watt solar panels, there are times when they just can't keep up with the demand, particularly when I run the watermaker or the inverter to keep the laptop battery charged. Once past Pelican Island, we started to experience the wind driven waves of the Caribbean without benefit of the blocking effect of the island. Already the waves had built to about 3 to 5 feet. If the wind built much more, so would the waves. Luckily, the direction was from the east rather than southeast, which meant we would be reaching more than beating. Although reaching with big waves is also uncomfortable since the boat rolls, its definitely better than trying to beat (go upwind) into them and pounding through each big one. Since it didn't seem too bad, we decided to continue on. Once past Cades Reef, which had afforded some protection, we started to get 5 to 7 foot waves and 18 knots, still from the east. At this point, Diane was starting to look a little green! I went below to check the charts and our progress and when I returned to the wheel, Diane was definitely not feeling well. I didn't ask if we should turn back since we were already 2 hours into the passage and although we could have turned around, I thought we would be OK. I went below again to try to get the weather from David Jones but not very successfully. There had been very bad radio propagation for several days and we were to later learn that this was a period of increased sunspot activity. When I got back on deck and took over the helm, Diane tried relaxing on the cockpit cushion. After about 10 minutes, she threw up over the side. I steered while she tried to relax and settle her stomach. We later talked about it and decided that we should have waited another day or two for a number of reasons. First, her back still hurt terribly from her encounter with the clearance dock and second because we knew that the wind would be at least 15 to 20 knots. From our inexperience, we thought that since it would be from the east, it wouldn't be too bad, and while it was from the east, it was bad enough! If you remember, our first inter-island passage from St. Martin to Antigua was at night and done in extraordinarily calm conditions. The only time Diane was at the wheel after that was when I asked so I could check our position. During the passage, the wind built steadily to about 20 to 23 knots with the waves also building to 6 to 8 feet. Even though we had experienced much worse conditions going down to Bermuda, here we were close reaching with the wind forward of the beam. That meant a much more uncomfortable ride. Diane was sick several more times on the way to Guadeloupe, but we made it. Interestingly, the wind and waves curved around the point of the island as we started to pass it, keeping us in a stronger pattern longer than you would think from looking at the chart and calculating when the land would break the wind. The guidebook had a good photograph of the anchorage, showing a large hill that protected Deshaies from the north. I saw this hill, Le Gros Morne, and told Diane, "Its right behind there." She replied, "Thank God." About 20 minutes before we cleared this headland, like a hand threw a switch, the wind calmed down and the waves were reduced. We had finally entered the lee of Guadeloupe. We then went around the large hill that protects Deshaies. There were about a dozen boats, mostly cruisers but some local ones, already in the anchorage. The bay is very deep until fairly close to the beach where the town is built. We anchored in about 17 feet of water at around 1:30pm. It had taken us about 7 hours from dropping the mooring to anchor down and set for a distance of 47 miles. I can smell the fresh baguettes now! |