This morning we awoke early ready to head south to Basseterre. Since we left the crazy anchorage in Deshaies a bit abruptly, we still have not cleared customs, immigration and port authority, so we are actually illegal aliens for now. Guadeloupe is a French island, so clearing into customs we will actually clear in and out of France. Unlike some of the small, independent islands like Antigua and Dominique, the French don't really depend on income from customs fees, so they really don't bother with boaters who are visiting their islands for a few days. Which is a good thing for us.
The plan was to go by the boulangerie (bakery) and stop at the Carre Four supermarche to get a few more things that we forgot at the store yesterday (mainly rum for dad) and then head to Basseterre for fuel and water (we are out of water :( and low on fuel). Buy, alas, nothing ever goes as planned. Yesterday while we were at the store, dad and Grant fixed more stuff around the boat. Grant noticed green engine coolant coming out of the bilge pump - I don't know anything about engines, but that is not supposed to happen. So today when. We started the engines we had to make sure they were running correctly before heading out - dad noticed that water was not coming out of the starboard engine which was a problem. We called our buddy Eugene back in Antigua and he agreed that we could not run it as it was. So, Dad basically spent all morning replacing the impeller on the marine engine. We were amazed that he was able to do this. For Father's Day, Grant gave Dad a coozie that says "Dad. The man. The myth. The legend." And it plays the Rocky theme song when you press the button. We had no idea how true that would be on this trip. He has amazed us all with his ability to fix stuff. We think he should charge the charter company his hourly consulting rate when we get back because this boat is going to be in much better condition when we return it that it was when we got it! (And, by the way, he says that he hates fixing all of this stuff, but he said one of his main objectives for taking this trip was to see what it would be like to retire and own/live on a boat, so we think he secretly likes fixing all of this stuff). But seriously, kudos to dad because he has been amazing.
So we got the engines running and headed out to Basseterre with a brief stop at the bakery and store on the way. The French know how to do the bakery stuff right! We got chocolate croissants for breakfast tomorrow and baguette sandwiches for lunch today. To get to the store, you have to take the dinghy down a little river and tie it off at a local fishing dock - which is a little crazy but sure beats walking. Yesterday I forgot to mention that on our way back down the river at dusk a swarm of flying fish jumped out at us as we dinghied down the rivier. It was the freakiest thing we've ever experienced. Flying fish are f or real, first of all. Mom said it was like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" mivie, but with fish. Seriously there were at least 50 of them coming right at us and I don't know how one of them didn't jump into our boat! But today they were nowhere to be found and we navigated the river unscathed.
The trip down the coast of Guadeloupe was beautiful. It looks like a scene from the Swiss Alps (think Sound of Music) but on the ocean in the Caribbean.
We pulled Raindrops into a marina in Basseterre for tonight. Shore power baby! Unlimited water. Fresh showers (real showers where you can let the wa t we run). And, toilets that flush. Heaven on earth - except that the bathrooms were under construction and really sketch. Because of the construction, homeless people had been hanging out there at night. The marina fave us a key to our own personal shower and bathroom, so it worked out fine, but Dad stood guard the whole time and actually had to shoo some people away. A little freaky.
It has been pretty neat to be in Guadeloupe. They don't get many visitors, especially Americans. Hardly anyone speaks English. It is amazing that Mom can speak to them pretty well in French given that she took it for 6 years what 30 years ago?? But she called the marina and spoke to them on the cell phone and has communicated with them well enough for us to get by.
We are looking forward to a peaceful night at a dock at the marina where we can use all the power we want, let the fans run all night, and not rock and twist around with the waves. Dad is loving his French wine, baguettes and fuzzy blue cheese (looks disgusting to me). It was a good day.
(In the photos below if they post, our boat is the catamaran in distance in the center of the picture.)
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