And Peter's Point Was?

My diary reads, “Winds ENE (on the nose again!), small swell (no bucket necessary), able to get money (finally) and food (pizza!!!)". Clearly our previous anchorage had been a traumatic experience…..

Sunset over Pointe-à-Pitré

Pointe-a-Pitre is not necessarily on any cruiser’s list of idyllic locations. It’s a downtown dockyard for commercial shipping, inter-island ferries and large cruising liners. On the edge of town is a huge 1000 berth marina and it’s quite full, both locally owned and charter yachts. Charter companies here seem to offer mostly monohulls (or as the French say bateau monocoque) rather than catamarans - this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a sizeable fleet of them. We glide through many, many docks on Bruce looking at a distinctly French fleet of Jeanneau, Maramoo, Beneteau and an assortment of expensive aluminium hulled yachts. The Cap’n pointed out a couple of large, white Swans…..and yes, I was looking for birds! Well, the French are very stylish and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they didn’t have a few swans to add to the marina’s aquatic ambience!

Dockyard Graffiti

Our mooring is within metres of a red shipping channel marker, so if this post seems somewhat disjointed it’s because I pop up on deck whenever I hear the chug of an engine to see what is going on. Lots of medium sized container ships – no doubt full of French goodies; ferries full of people travelling between islands (our Cap’n did wonder why we needed a boat!) and smaller local barges transporting cargo of cows, tractors, cars and containers; fascinating. if not a bit swelly at times! Never-the-less we’ve been busy cleaning up WJ3 both inside and out, so she is looking and smelling sweet again.

The Missing Link

If you think that Pointe-a-Pitre sounds Dutch, that’s because it was named after a merchant who settled in Guadeloupe in 1654. Peter was a Dutch Jew who had been exiled from Brazil (he must have been quite a character?). He started a fish market beside the harbour, known as Peter’s Point.  This useful harbour was further developed during British occupation (1759-63) into a major trading port for English and North American markets. It is now very definitely French and Guadeloupe’s largest city and busiest port.

Our arrival here was timely. At last! A relieved Cap’n clutched his self-steering rudder. We could assemble and commission “Bert” for our next crossing. Meanwhile alarmingly, the generator chose to blow out fuses (and not charge WJ3’s batteries), so we had three long days without refrigeration. Easy enough to cope with food-wise; left-over’s were consigned over the side as fish food. But NO COLD BEER!!! A mutiny was only narrowly averted……

 

From: Bourge des Saintes Lat/Long: 15 52N  61 35W Date/Time: 16/8/08: 1130

To:  Pointe-a-Pitre  Lat/Long: 16 14N  61 32W  Date/Time: 16/8/08: 1730
Time Taken: 24nm (6hrs) Distance (this year): 397nm (87hrs)
Distance Total (since 2008): 397nm  (87hrs)   Fastest Speed: 5.5kt **
Weather: Fresh Trade Winds SW 12-15kts; 2-4ft swell; 0.5kt W current
(Slow going; engine assisted to achieve a sober 5-5.5kts)