The Yachting Year 2018

102 | THE YACHTING YEAR 2018

and French restaurants with the most amazing cakes, tarts

and quiches. We enjoyed a feast.

e following day we took a short, four-hour sail down

the coast of Guadeloupe to the capital, Basse Terre. e sea

state was calm and the breeze made for a relaxing sail with

plenty of time to sit back and sunbathe. ere is a marina

about a mile south of the town that can accommodate

visiting yachts – however it cannot take catamarans. Being

a Sunday we could not contact anyone in the marina and

so chose to anchor just north of the entrance where the

holding is good, but there is a steep drop o. We had to

dinghy into the marina to ll up on water and to take our

jerry cans to the local petrol station as the marina station

was closed.

With only two of us it was a relief that we were able to

take short hops between destinations. e sea state was

calm as we sailed down the western coastlines of the

islands as they provided protection from the rough seas of

the Atlantic. Due to this we were nally able to discard our

wet weather gear. With Papagayo being a race yacht she

oers little protection from the waves and sea spray that

other cruising yachts may oer. With a ush deck and no

bimini or spray hood, there is not a lot between you and

the elements.

FREE ANCHORAGE

From Basse Terre the 22nm sail took us to the huge,

sweeping Prince Rupert Bay in Portsmouth in the north of

Dominica. We were met by a small boat of one of the

members of the Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services

(PAYS). is organisation was set up in response to the

growing problem of security for yachts in the area. e

members can be identied by the logo on their boat. e

charge for their services is EC$30 (c£8) per night and this

includes the mooring. Yachts can also anchor in the area,

which is free, but the holding is variable as it is a mix of

sand and coral rubble. It was suggested to us that the best

place for security was in the north end of the bay as this is

where the PAYS monitors.

Aer checking in with immigration and customs, we

realised our arrival had coincided with the weekly PAYS

barbecue. We met up with some other cruisers that we had

seen on our voyage and caught up over a few beers and

some great BBQ chicken and sh. Music and

entertainment were put on and the rum punch owed.

e PAYS can also help organise trips inland. We took a

ABOVE: The bay at

Deshaies gives

access to

Guadeloupe’s

delights

DO IT YOURSELF

Fly to: Direct flights to Grenada, St Lucia and Antigua

with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic from £500

return. Onward island-hopping via LIAT

ba.com, virgin-atlantic.com, liat.com

When to travel: For tradewind sailing without

hurricane risk, December to May

bviholidays.com is the region’s specialist with a fleet

of monohulls and catamarans

Dream Yacht Charter has bases in the BVIs, Antigua,

St Martin, Guadeloupe, St Vincent and Grenada

dreamyachtcharter.com

Sunsail bases in the BVIs, Antigua, St Lucia and St

Martin, sunsail.com

The Moorings has bases in the BVIs, St Lucia, St Mar-

tin, Grenada and St Thomas, moorings.co.uk

The Globe Sailor has bases throughout the Caribbean

theglobesailor.com

Nautilus Yachting also covers all the main islands

nautilusyachting.com

About the author

Originally from Kent,

Vicky Page is

an RYA Coastal

Skipper who has

sailed through Asia,

the US, the Carib-

bean and Europe,

clocking up 13,000

miles. She now runs

a sailing school,

First 4 Sail (first4sail.

com), in Saint Lucia

with her partner Ben

trip up the Indian River as far as Rahjah’s Jungle Bar,

where we stopped for drink among hummingbirds, egrets

and barracudas swimming in the brackish waters. e

trees with their entangled routes gave a fairy tale feel and it

wasn’t dicult to see why the river had featured in one of

the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

We stayed a little longer than anticipated in Dominica as

it has so much to oer, including a long weekend carnival

or “the Real Mas” which is a celebration before Lent.

People come out into the streets to watch others dance by

in colourful costumes. is made provisioning for the

remaining leg of our sail dicult.

We set sail for the nal leg of our journey, through

Martinique and onto Saint Lucia. ere were many small

bays to choose from and as we were only staying one night

in Martinique we dropped anchor in the small bay of

L’Anse Dufour and hoisted our Q ag as we were not

within an area to check in. We watched some rock jumpers

as we sat drinking sundowners on the deck. Unlike most

sailors we travelled through the Leeward Islands in ten

days, a short length of time to get any real feel for the

islands. I guess that is just an excuse to go back again.

TYY4 Caribbean.indd 102 04/12/2017 17:05