St. Croix, Saba Island, Monserat to Guadeloupe

July 2nd, we leave Ponce in Puerto Rico and leave for St. Croix (which is a US territory). After 116 miles and 24 hours of mostely motoring we arrive in St. Croix and decide to go to Buck Island about 5 miles south of the main town, Christiansteed. We have a few hours sleep and dinghy to the little island, which is quite nice and pristine - we go for a snorkel and enjoy island life. In the evening we have dinner and get ready for another nightsail to Statia. About four hours into it, we are taking in water through our "new" window hatches by the cup full (thank you Crowley's boatyard!). The waves are so bad that we can barley stand up - we decide to go back to Buck Island - arriving again in Buck Island around 3:00 a.m. the next morning - completely exhausted. What a nightmare. We stay at Buck Island for three more days to wait for the next weather window and head off again for another night sail to Statia. This time it was even worse and after six hours we are back at Buck Island - drying out the boat AGAIN.Since we have not checked in to St. Croix we are feeling a little "illegal" and decide to head for the main town and clear customs. Since it is US territory, the customs people just looked at us strangely, say thanks for coming in and send us away - so much for "doing the right thing". Christiansteed was a quaint little town - we hired a car and toured the island. It was a quite nice island, we did some shopping at the local fruit and veggie market - we bought a yellow fruit called egg-fruit which made a most delicious milkshare; bought some soursop which also makes a nice milk shake and tastes like fruitsalad - but has a "strange" texture; both milkshakes are greatly improved by the local rum in the evening! We found a large supermarket that also caters to a lot of Middle Eastern people on the island - St. Croix has the largest US oil refinerey - who would have thought - we had lots of curries - mhhh.Third time is a charm - we left for Statia again on July 14th. This time we just stuck it out. Chris siliconed and duck taped the windows shut in hope that they won't leak anymore. Well they did, but we did not have to put a bucket under them - so it was quite all right.After about twenty hours our engine had some trouble getting enough fuel and we got very worried that in the huge seas we will loose the engine completely - the winds picked up to about 25 to 30 knots and of course, as always straight on the nose. Chris tried to be a trooper being seasick for hours trying to do his shift. I had to wake him and tell him that I did not think we would make it to Statia. We changed our course and went for Saba which was about fifteen miles closer. The seas were rough and the waves were huge, no stars, no moon and we are in the middle of a busy shipping lane. About twelve miles before Statia a large Tanker crossed our pass and we slowed down - it was very doubtful that he even saw us on his radar.The wind is blowing a steady thirty knots and we have the main sail double reefed - trying to find a mooring ball (as per crusing giude). Chris is in the front with a big light trying to "see" a little ball in a pitch black ocean. A very impressive unbelievable steep Saba island just a few yards somewhere in front of us, Chris finally spots the one and only vailable mooring ball and grabs it with the boot hoock. I have never tried to drive the boot while we moor, so I guess I did pretty well for the first time since I did not miss, but I also did not stop in time and by the time Chris Yelled reverse, he almost lost an arm trying to hold on to the rope attached to the ball. Well, we have another go, this time he sits on the back on the sugar scoop trying to hold on to the ball with his hands - he lost the boat hook when we overtook the ball in a blinding rush. The current is strong, the boat is still in gear and Chris swoops of the boat on his backside like he is waterskiing. It is still pitch dark but the winds are kind and stopped blowing like crazy, Chris swims like a mad man and Jackie thinks it's all a great game and get's her ball and throws it in the water. The third time we manage to moor sucessfully and get the sails down - low and behold, the minute we have the sail down the wind is back at thirty knots and continues to blow all night. The next morning Chris spots the boot hook in sixty feet and dives for it sucessfully. Just as well, because we will loose our second hook about a week later on our arrival in Guadeloupe - but that's another story.
We stayed two days in Saba to wait for the weather to get better and for our fuel to settle down. And finally we are off to Statia. Statia is a very cute Island with lots of history. In Oranje Baai (Orange bay; it's a dutch island)at the base of a cliff are old stone ruins tumbling into the sea. On top of the cliff the present small town peaks through trees. A 2000 feet volcanic cone makes a perfect Kodak moment. In it's golden era during the mid to late 1700's, Statia was the trade capital of the Indies and they cleared more than 3.000 ships a year - it was the busiest harbour in the world. The dutch who owned Statia remained neutral and opened Statia as a free port whilst European powers were fighting with each other.We visited the island, walked the slave road, drank the ginger beer and enjoyed a few days there while waiting for the next weather window. We read that the anchorage was rough during certain conditions - little did we know. The third night we were there, the winds and the seas picked up and at 10:00 p.m. it was so bad that the entire inside of the boat was flying around. We must have tilted about 40 feet at the top of the mast. It was terrifying. The most terrifying thing was that we could not do a thing about it. All we could do is spread our arms and legs so we did not get thrown out of bed holding on to the dog who was so frightend that I thought she will have a heart attack. It was all over about 3:00 a.m. and we got a few hours sleep - the next night was rolly but doable. We left the day after to head for Nevis about 32 miles away. As usual we had high seas and strong winds and stayed for one night at Nevis which has a 3.000 feet volcanic peak. We did not go ashore because it was Saturday night and it sounded like the whole island is getting together and listening to about as many different songs as they have people all at once. We took Jackie to the beach and had an early dinner and went to bed to head out the next day to Monseratt. We stayed at the north-west end of Monseratt because the South is still off limits for anybody. The southern half is a harsh terrain dominated by the Soufriere Hills volcano, barren and smoking agains the skyline. The remains of the ruined capital, Plymouth are a humbling reminder of nature's power. Everything is burned or burried in ash and boulders the size of large houses spewed out by the volcano lying everywhere.
Off to our "final" destination - the island of Guadeloupe. A thirthy five mile trip to Deshaies a little fishing village and the first sign of "french culture" for us. We are in heaven. Just listening to "bonsoir" and seeing all the cute restaurants made us feel "home". All we could talk about was fresh baguette, cheese and wine. What else does one need in life?It says in the cruising guide that Deshaies acts as a giant windscoop and the wind howls in an alarming manner. And did it ever - we had 40 knots of wind blowing high over us - but the water was calm and we had a good night sleep. We got up early to head for the Marina about 48 miles away, but we have round the island of Guadeloupe. In the first ten minutes our engine did not want to work anymore. The fuel line problem finally caught up with us. Chris had to take all the floor boards up while I tried to sail the boat - of course - for the first time in six months there was no wind - I took the sails down and we drifted for about two hours until Chris connected the fuel tank directly to the engine. It worked like a charm - just as well - because once we got around the west corner of Guadeloupe around the bottom part - we thought we are at Cape Horn. It was blowing a steady thirthy five knots and the waves were huge and of course, right on our nose. Every two minutes we spoted a crab trap that was "very well marked (not?!)" with a clear see-through plasic bottle. A huge wave hit us from the side and for the first time our little gardens (large pots with Basil, chives and parsley) flew across the boat. So not only were we soaked in saltwater, now we also had some dirt mixed with it - it was just one lovely trip. About a mile before we see the first marker to the channel Chris climes up the radar arch and gets our fenders ready - the boat is going up and down in waves that hit us now hard from the side and while he climes down we loose our beautiful mahogany boat hook that had a nice "Lucky Star" engraved plate on it - oh well, it was just not our day.
We reached east coast of Guadeloupe late in the afternoon on July 24th of 2007. We were absolutley shattered but happy and relieved that we finally made it to our hurricane destination. We are staying at a nice marina in Pointe-A-Pitre a large town in Guadeloupe. The people here are very nice and shops and restaurants very plentiful inside the marina/apartment complex; all is within walking distance, including a supermarket and of course, the boulangerie!! We had our first real French baguette the morning after we arrived - and it was wonderful. The boat took quite a beating getting here, so we have a bunch of things to fix over the next few weeks. The hatches the boatyard in Chicago replaced began leaking badly just after Puerto Rico, so things got a little damp during the really big seas (of which there were many in the last month), despite our extensive use of silicon and sealing tape.
We have started to take French lessons and our teacher, Christelle is very patient with us. She comes to the boat three times a week and we feel that we make good progress. After all, we do love the french language - and oh, did I mention the food and the wine?
Guadeloupe has a population of 330,000 and is a part of France. They grow a lot of sugar cane - for their rum which everynbody seems to drink in great quantities (why bother if you can have french wine?). It is composed of two islands; Basse Terre and Grand Terre. Between those two islands is the Riviere Salee (Salt River) which is not really a river. Great protection for boats during a hurricane because of the mangroves. We really hope that we will never have the need to go there. But today, August 13th, the first hurricane (Dean) is already threatening to come and "visit".