Petite Anse

30^th May to 5^th June 2019

We decided to return here, with a decent amount of food, for a few days of peace and quiet in a lovely scenic bay. We were not disappointed – particularly as we were the only sailing boat in the anchorage throughout our stay (bar one French boat that only stayed for lunch).

There was a slight swell coming into the bay at times, but nothing uncomfortable – not even enough to make landing the dinghy on the beach difficult. One evening was decidedly windy, thankfully with the wind coming directly from the beach (funnelling down the valley). The forecast was 5 knots. It started to get a little windy just after dark and I popped on deck to tidy up, take down the cockpit cover, add a tie or two to the sail, etc.. And we had let out some more chain and bridle earlier in the day to reduce swinging, so had plenty of chain out and room to swing, as we were the only people there. As the night went on the wind was regularly 30 knots plus, with what felt like some significantly stronger gusts from 11 to 2 or so before it tapered off a little. No movement for us thanks to coincidental preparation.

A boat we know a couple of anchorages down the coast of Guadeloupe had dragged anchor that night, so it was obviously a widespread phenomenon on the island; and not reflected, at all, on any of the forecasts. Not even the predictwind 1km resolution forecasts which are normally pretty good.

There were an astounding number of fishes in the bay. The local fishermen were catching bait fish to use to try and catch larger fish offshore (after giving us a few ballyhoo to eat), and we were snorkelling among them and catching a few for dinner as well. Some of the best snorkelling we have had, actually. Watching the pelicans plummet into the sea for fish was amazing too, particularly when viewed from under the water when snorkelling.

Aside from watching and catching the fish, we just chilled. Beach games, boat games, a little work for me. The kids were hardly out of the water some days – Arthur can comfortably and safely swim around the boat now and plays a variety of bridle-related games as well as “fetch”. Theo on his noodle can and does swim for an hour at a time, very happily indeed. And with no other boats around we even let them out of their “swim zone” at times, so we were chasing them all over the bay. Theo likes to escape. Lots of fun.