You lie in your cabin in bed, wake up, look out of the window and a small town passes by sneakily. The cruise ship MSC Preziosa just entered the harbour where we are anchored. It is quite impressive to see these giants at close range.
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After a small excursion to the southwest of Guadeloupe we returned to the capital Pointe-a-Pitre. We are still waiting for a spare part for our steamer light. It should have been here a long time ago, but somehow got stuck in Paris. So it was sent off again, this time by DHL. Parcel tracking showed that it travelled from Nantes first to Leipzig and then back to Paris. Now we hope that this part will hitch a ride on a plane to Guadeloupe this time 😉
We used the time for many nice days at anchorage and some sightseeing of the island. In front of Islet de Gosier we anchored a few nights, it is a good spot for snorkelling and swimming.
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There are many swimming groups here. One morning, a group of women came swimming by and had a lively conversation at the same time. I sent a photo of it to the Alvesen women’s group, who commented: “Well, I am glad that we can sit in the dry and drink wine while chatting” 🙂 Yes, different countries – different customs 😉
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During our first visit to Point-a-Pitre, a customs ship came to the anchorage to check the boats. They stopped at our ship for a short time and asked the usual questions about alcohol and cash on board, then they continued their journey and stopped at other boats. But a little later they came back and wanted to come on board after all. We were chosen completely randomly and without reasonable suspicion for a check just because we were the most interesting boat in the area 😉 So for the second time we had the French customs on board. This time the search for drugs and the like was more thorough than the first time, but they still didn’t look into all the cavities and were done in time for the lunch break.
At Basse-Terre, we shared the bay with a real super yacht for the first time, meaning a private yacht that costs tens of millions of Euros and in the range of 100.000 Euros for refuelling. Due to the size, she was a little further out at anchor than we were.
We admired the super yacht from afar and were very surprised when suddenly her “dinghy” approached us. It was a motorboat, on with comfortable seats for at least 10 people. But there were only two young men on board. One of them was very interested in our trimaran and asked a lot of questions, which Mathias answered. Some questions were formulated in such a way that I said with a smile: “You are welcome to come on board and have a look.” Whereupon he said, “Oh, thank you, I’d love to, but I didn’t want to ask.” But first he had to transport people. He was probably part of the crew of the super yacht. In the evening he came back and we gave him a tour. A really nice young man who founded a company that offers services with drones. He intends to earn enough money to buy a ship on which he can live. He noticed the Neel trimarans and he liked the spacious design of the living area. He took some photos and now he has to convince his wife that it is a good plan. 🙂 You are allowed to have dreams.
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Some pictures of our excursion on Land in Basse Terre:
We always use excursions ashore for visits to the supermarkets and sometimes to stroll through the shops. In Basse Terre there was a small supermarket that sold canned pineapple, which you can’t get everywhere here. So Mathias said he would wait for me and I went inside to buy some cans. It always takes quite a while at the cash desks here until it is your turn. The people all have a lot of time, which is understandable in this heat, hectic wouldn’t be healthy. But this time Mathias was very surprised how long it takes to get some cans. The reason was that there was a nice clothes shop right next to the supermarket. Since Mathias was waiting anyway, I took the opportunity and looked into the shop. While I tried on a dress and a top and had a nice chat with the store owner when I bought the dress, a tiny bit of time passed by. But it was worth it, wasn’t it?
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The next day when we left the bay, the young man from the super yacht watched us again. Unfortunately it took a while until we had the sail up because the wind constantly changed direction. But it must have looked good when we were sailing. It was an nearly perfect wind, at least according to my taste. Just enough for the windward swimmer to come out of the water and the water rushing around the bow. I sat first on the sun deck and then in the bow on the trampoline. That is almost like trapeze sailing on a cat 🙂 Considering that there are supposed to be only 10 very good sailing days a year, I had to enjoy this wind. (For Mathias it was probably not fast enough).
From Point-a-Pitre we made a tour on Guadeloupe and visited a place with pre-European paintings carved in stone, a waterfall and a rum distillery.
Engraved Rock Park
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Carbet Fall
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Longueteau Rum Destillerie
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Now that Mathias’ brother has left the ship, we are again only the two of us. First things to do after the visit are cleaning and washing, and of course Mathias’ handicrafts.
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Mathias’ list never gets any shorter. It is constantly being worked through, but there are always enough new ideas and points to be included.
Hose and water line connection replaced by a hose that can withstand more water pressure. This is a weak point that on other Neel ships had led to the entire water tank contents spilling into the technical room. We were on board and were able to prevent a complete flooding so far. But prevention is better.
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At last we have a pole to hold on to while climbing up and especially down the stairs to the helmstand. So far that was not easy in big waves. But the pole is not suitable to practice pole dancing on, it would be very one-sided dancing 🙂
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Mathias extensive spare parts collection proves to be very helpful again and again. At the moment he is tinkering a lot with the SSB radio system and tries to improve the transmission and reception. In the course of this work he has attached ferrite toroidal cores to some cables. They are to suppress HF frequencies on the cable and ensure that the SSB system is not affected by the on-board power supply. His stock of these parts shrank to 3 pieces and he thought: “Should we stock up on this again sometime?” He asked for ferrite toroidals at the Marine Supply Store here in Guadeloupe. The storekeeper said he had two in stock, but he needed them to put in a customer’s ship. So Mathias’ stock is fuller than the one of the specialized shop here. 🙂
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What also happened:
On the journey from Marie Galante to Islet de Gosier we lost our Watt and Sea Hydrogenerator.. There was quite a lot of wind and waves, but no storm or anything like that. The thing is meant to hang in the water during the trip. It somehow slipped up out of its mooring. The barrier was not strong enough. We complained about it. The first answer was again, of course, “That’s never happened before.” Let’s see what they will do.
At home in Germany our ARC+ badge for 3rd place arrived.
Our ship’s own cricket, Jeremiah, continues to hold out and always starts chirping in the dark as soon as the music starts.
Our sister ship, the Neel No.15, has gone into charter. The Norwegian owners have changed their plans and are unfortunately already back in Norway. We would have liked to meet with them again. But maybe they will come and visit us.
At our anchorage you can do good cruiser-spotting, here are some pictures of the outgoing Aida Perla:
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Next stations planned: Deshaies on Guadeloupe and then on to Antigua. Maybe we catch up with the Zan again. They are on their way north and also want to go to Panama.
