Chapter 112: Guadeloupe and Beryl!

We left English Harbor, Antigua on Thursday to head to country #13, Guadeloupe! We had a great sail- wind on the beam and cruising along averaging around 8 knots! We arrived around 1pm as it started to rain. We could see it rolling over the mountains. We barely had the anchor set when the squall hit. It was the biggest squall I think we have seen since the Bahamas. It definitely washed all the salt off the boat and Bob, who was still setting the anchor bridle got a good soak! The squall passed pretty quickly so we hurried to get the dinghy in the water so Bob could go to try and clear in before customs closed at 2pm. Bob left but returned shortly after – they did our paperwork but we needed to return the next day as they would only take payment in euros.

On Friday, we awoke to a sunny morning and headed to shore to find an ATM. We successfully got some euros and then headed to the boulangerie for breakfast. The pain au chocolat, croissants, and cafe au lait were very good! This is a bit dangerous as it is right next to the dinghy dock, way too easy to go every day for breakfast!! We made a quick stop at customs to pay our fee and then headed back to the boat to do some boat chores and figure out our plan. Deshaies is a pretty little fishing village but is most well known for the pretty beaches nearby and for being the main filming location of the BBC show, Death in Paradise. Apparently the cast and crew are usually here for six months of the year filming the new season. It is quite a big tourist draw for the town. There is also a very nice botanical garden here and a variety of hiking and snorkeling options. After our chores were done we decided to head out to snorkel. We were very surprised to find quite a vibrant reef with lots of fish and colorful corals. As we have shared previously, we have been sad to find in many places the coral is bleached out and not a lot of marine life but this was some of the best conditions we have seen yet. We saw our first spotted snake eel (that I quickly swam away from, but it was cool). We also have seen stingrays under the boat and multiple turtles. Seeing the quality of the reef here we decided our next stop should be Pigeon Island that is further south down the coast. Surrounding the Pigeon Islands, the Cousteau Reserve is a protected underwater reserve with vibrant coral reefs and gardens, a protected marine life, and several wrecks heavily covered with sponges. We wanted to head there on Saturday but we also have been watching Invest 95L and its progress as a storm so we opted to decide in the morning based on the updated storm tracking and weather reports.

We awoke Saturday to some increased wind in the anchorage and Invest 95L becoming a named storm, Beryl. After listening to the forecast, we decided to stay put in our anchorage in Deshaies. The current forecast calls for the storm to reach hurricane status by the time it hits land. With the current information, the greatest risk appears to be for St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and south Martinique. But this is subject to change depending on how fast the storm spins up. The projection for Martinique to Guadalupe is currently to have 20-45 knot sustained winds with potential gusts up to 70. We are at the northern end so we are hoping to be on the lower end of the projections with gusts up to 40-45 knots. But again time will tell as the storm continues to move.

So what do we need to do to prepare? We are feeling good about being anchored versus a mooring ball. “Rocky”, our trusty anchor has previously held us well with some gusty, squally conditions. We are working on securing items such as our sails, grill, our Starlink, and outboard motor for the dinghy. We will also need to secure the dinghy tomorrow as we get closer to the storm’s arrival. We actually are having some pretty gusty winds already today with some gusts up to 30. We will continue to monitor the storm’s path and conditions with Chris Parker and consult with Jamie Gifford on additional measures to take to stay safe. During the storm we will need to be closely monitoring not only Meraviglia and ensuring our anchor stays secure but also the boats around us. There are boats on mooring balls in front of the anchorage so the concern is always if a mooring ball lets loose or a boat on anchor drags and becomes a danger to others. We will continue to pray for all those who are directly in the path and hope the storm moves quickly and is less forceful than predicted. We have known this hurricane season would be challenging but we certainly were hoping for a later start to the season. I think in this case, we were blessed by our delays as we certainly could have been in Martinique or St. Lucia by now if we had left earlier in the season as originally planned. So we will hope and pray for continued safety from the storms and protection aboard our Meraviglia.