Flamingos | Cement Donkeys

Decision Fatigue – Jolly Harbour, Antigua, February 23, 2024

We have been moving pretty quickly lately and you may be wondering why we are suddenly heading south again after all the talk of going to Brunswick, Georgia for the off season. Since our guest left, we have been spending a lot of time discussing our off season plan and what we are going to do for that 6 month period. After kicking around ideas we think we have made one of the necessary choices. We considered:

#1 – spending a month in each place we wanted to visit including Georgia, Ohio, and a couple of other states

#2 – Getting an apartment again in Ohio

#3 – Spending the off season in Georgia at a marina on the boat

#4 – Turning around, hauling out again on Grenada, and buying an RV to travel in for the next few years.

You can guess where we ended up since we have turned around. It turns out that when we consider insurance, haul out prices, storage prices for the boat, flights, and the time we have left, Grenada won out. It was cheaper there, we had flights with points, buying an RV was cheaper than rent, we could still travel (which we both wanted to do), we could easily see family more often, we only have 2 more months of sailing season, and lastly it was a La Nina year. This means hurricane season was supposed to be terrible and we didn’t want to chance leaving the boat in the water. We were only one-third of the way to Brunswick and realistically needed more time to choose the right weather to make it back to the states.

Whew! It was a lot of analyzing but we now officially have a plan and after taking the last available window to go east back to Antigua (for at least the next month), we are in a place to pull this off and set ourselves up to have some fun in the process. Neither of us loved the southern islands but we have decided to give them another try. We didn’t dislike everywhere but would be a bit more choosey about where we decided to stay and frankly slow down a bit in those better places.

We left St. John where the winds had clocked around to the south and it was so bad neither of us got any sleep but got up and left for Antigua anyway. It was the only day the weather would let us leave and we couldn’t miss it. Our weather service (Chris Parker) assured us there would not be another chance for potentially another month or more and there was no time to waste.

So, we start again in Jolly Harbor, where the best Mexican food is the southern Caribbean is! Not a bad place to be. After a few days of rest recovering from our last overnight sail this season we filled up on our required Mexican and made the small hop down to Guadeloupe and then Iles Des Saintes. We were very lucky on our sail down we saw a baby whale and he was about 5 feet from the boat! He was incredible!

Our first stop was Deshaies, Guadeloupe where they have the most beautiful botanical garden. It was home to the flamingos! We felt very lucky and have gotten to see some amazing things this week!

Guadeloupe – Deshaies, Guadeloupe, April 27, 2023

Our weather window was holding so after some good Mexican and snorkeling, we took the chance to make our hop over to Guadeloupe. It was a nice sail with a bit of rain at the end. The harbor itself was very crowded so we anchored in the bay next door and wanted to get ourselves checked in. This is one of only two places that have customs in Guadeloupe and it was one computer at the back of a gift shop. She never checked our passports, and it was all very informal unlike places like BVI. Deshaies is a gritty little town, and it was one of the first times we have felt a bit unsafe. The people here have not been as friendly as they have been in other places. I’m not sure if this is the French influence or they are just tired of all the tourists.

We took our chance early the next morning to go to the botanical garden and it was amazing! It was a one mile walk straight uphill buy hey – not so bad. They had flamingos that were so close to them I could have reached out and pet one. So cool! They also had goats, parrots, Koi fish, and flora and fauna from all over the world and it was 700 acres. It puts the Franklin Park Conservatory to shame in Columbus since it was 3 times the size and half the price. We saw everything from a banana tree to mango, avocado, banyan, you name it!

Since our anchorage was very rolly due to the unusual southwest winds, the next morning we decided to snorkel at Jacque Cousteau National Reserve before heading out to someplace calmer. It turned out to be one of our more interesting snorkeling trips. First off we saw the underwater statue which we have not seen since the Bahamas last year.

The water around the island had quite a bit of current so we thought we would swim halfway then just cut through the two small islands and head back to the boat. Well, it wasn’t two islands so we ended up climbing out over extremely slippery boulders and walking across the island to then swim to our boat. It was a bit sketchy but the coral was still pretty cool and I saw a puffer fish. It still doesn’t hold a candle to the Blue Tang Reef in Puerto Rico which was the best we have seen but still lovely.

As the day was young and our anchorage sucked, we popped anchor and headed south. The only place we would be able to find shelter from the west swell was going to be Terr-De-Haut, a small group of islands just south and still part of Guadeloupe. It was a short 4-hour sail to Le Saintes Harbor, and we were nicely settled into a calm anchorage by 2:30 which was so much better! It is a touristy little town much nicer than Guadeloupe proper. Lots of restaurants, shops, snorkeling, and hiking. It will be a fun few days discovering what is here.

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Tag Archives: Flamingos

Decision Fatigue – Jolly Harbour, Antigua, February 23, 2024

Guadeloupe – Deshaies, Guadeloupe, April 27, 2023