We spent all day preparing the ship for crossing. Yesterday we had a good look at the button of the ship. We're not talking the ship on land. She looks fine "underneath", and the price for paint is 6000 Danish kroner, at least. On top of that the cost for taking the ship on land. Another 5000 kroner.
At the moment at a bar where I'm deciding which rum I'm gonna take home :-)
It's very cheap here.
Arrived at jolly harbour at 4:30 pm after a nice eight hours on the ocean. Not much wind though, so running on engine all day.
Here in jolly harbour it's very European. We were to late for clearing in, but the custom guys let us use their bridge for the night. We ten metres from a seaside restaurant, with live jazz music. Very nice. Well, Bjarke thinks the music is awful, and find us embarrassing when we give the musicians applause. :-)
Tomorrow, we're gonna find a place were we can stay for about 9 days, preparing the ship for crossing the Atlantic. We're heading back to Guadeloupe before crossing to pick up the last crew member, Tonny.
The photos are from Jolly harbour.
A little work in the morning, then a hike to a nice beach and a Geocache.
The whole crew went him hiking today. Just a little hike. Vertical 200 metres. Peace of cake :-)
Even with five year old Tor, who is taking twice the steps we do.
At the beach we found a Geocache. Bjarke was the first one to find it. Our third Caribbean cache.
The beach was a real postcard beach. Palms and nice sand.
Right now Henning and I are enjoying a beer, and some "kids free time". The sea is 2 metres away, we have wifi access. Pleasant 25 degrees, Can we ask for more? well, that would be another beer!
After working all day long yesterday, a "Tarzan hike" was waiting today.
A hike following a river, and we had to walk from rock to rock in the river. Excellent exercise, and very fun and challenging. Lovely temperature.
We had a swim at a little waterfall. Great with a freshwater bath. The second one on my trip. The first one was also at a waterfall...
We found lots of mango fruits on the way back. So nice to eat them right away instead of the ones I'm used to in Denmark. Brought some green ones to ripe on the ship.
Back on the ship Rasmus and I cocked dinner. A nice vegetarian wok with salad.
Henning had found Haribo Candy in the local supermarket today. Excellent desert :-)
A day on board the ship.
We did a lot of work on the ship today. We tested a new sail which is probably gonna take us across the north Atlantic sea, it looks great.
I did a lot of cleaning inside the cabin today. With 30 degrees, the dresscode was boxershorts. Well the dresscode is usually boxershorts when onboard the ship.
The weather is nice here. Some showers. The water is 25 degrees, and the air temperature is between 25 and 30 degrees. All day round.
The temperature inside the ship hasn't been under 27 degrees...
We have seen turtles next to the ship plenty of times.
We jump in the sea several times a day. Usually the three kids and I. Tor is wearing a lifesuit, and like to swim around the ship.
The rest of us does a lot of snorkling, and a bit of playing around, stealing each others flippers. :-)
Tors voice woke me up at 7:30. "is Thomas awake?"....
Well, almost. Breakfast, coffee and then a morning swim before anyone flush the toilet :-)
The closest ship, and Frenchman shouted at us last night. According to him we were to close to his ship. Usually no problem, but his attitude was REALLY French, so we only moved a little. Moving in a harbour full of other ships can cause trouble. We got very close to a speedboat, but didn't hit it during the night.
In the morning the Frenchman left, and we moved back to a "safer" spot.
Today we did a little sightseeing in Deshaies. In little groups. Time on your is sometime nice when travelling in a little ship.
Tomorrow, a hike is waiting. Probably in the river where the photo is taken.
Left the windy anchor spot outside Basse-Terre harbour this morning.
Beautiful weather, and for a change not much wind. And the wind we had was not suitable for sailing.
We had a stop at Ilet Pigeon. One of Jaques Cousteau's favorite diving spots. On a sandy spot there's a statue of him. Dept = 12 metres. Lots of diving companies operate here. Only divers went to the statue. Of course we went there with our snorkling equipment, and of course Bjarke made it down to the statue. A challenge for me, and I made it to. My deepest freedive ever.
A very great place for diving/snorkling. A lot of dead coral though. But lots of colourful fish.
We had lunch here to. French bread with tuna...
Next stop was Deshaies in the north west part of Guadeloupe.
A place which is known for it strong winds.
Right now we're sitting in the cockpit. It's 9pm, 25 degrees, lots of stars above us, jungle sounds from the nearby forrest, no wind, peppermint tea in my mug. The kids are asking for chocolate, but think it's all gone... :-)
