Fallsmouth

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No, we did not go AWOL, we just haven't had time to write...We are in Fallsmouth, Antigua. Long story, but we got up at 0400 Monday morning to traverse the Riviere Salee, the salt water marshes that divide Guadaloupe in to 2 islands. There are 2 bridges, the North bridge opens at 0430 and 0530, that's it. The South bridge opens at 0500, with South bound traffic having right of way. There were 3 of us sitting there in close proximity. The 1st was a catamaran professionally Captain by a local. And then 2 of us cruisers, the other being a French one. At 0615 we gave up, bridge did not open. The Captain was really upset cause he was on a time frame.
We 1st thought to put dinghy down in Pointe Pitre, go into Bas du Fort, find out what was going on, the Port Control never came back to any of us 3 boats. We re-anchored close to Marina, cooked a leisurely breakfast, checked into Coconut Telegraph at 0800, to find out that Non Linear was on the way to Deshaies. We spoke to him on the SSB, made decision not to launch the dinghy and take off for Deshaies, as we had no guarantees the bridge would open next day.
It is a shame, we have been told it is a beautiful passage and most unusual. Oh well, like Dad said "no hay mal, que por bien no venga".
So 0830 sees us under way, about a 50 mile trip. We arrived in Deshaies very tired, had a growl that came up during the passage, turned out to be a loose motor mount. The winds were flukey, sometimes from the NW, so we ended up taking jib in. We did not have dinner till almost 2100. Pete wanted to check engine early on, we checked so many things...
Yesterday, we left Deshaies at 0636, put on full jib, and reef main. We averaged 7 knots, what a ride, could not use auto pilot due to waves, very confused. Mostly 5 to 6 footers, winds were 18 to 32 knots. I know of a person that would say we do not have a good auto pilot, but of the 35 boats that made trip from Deshaies, NOT a one was able to use auto pilot. All in all it was an exhilarating sail, even though we had to change helm person every hour. The grib files were definitely wrong yesterday!
We did customs around 1330 hours, about 3/4 mile walk. The formalities were long! The paper work was 6 copies, with carbon paper. The entry fees are high, quoted in US money. Here they charge anchoring fees, garbage disposal of $1 a day per person. Unreal, for us it was $32 US for 3 days anchoring rights. Needless to say we are not staying here. The cruising permit is good for 30 days including Barbuda, but for anchoring in English Harbor or Fallsmouth you have to pay big time. Our passports were stamped for a change. We have to check out of this port as well. No wonder so many cruisers skip this area. Very confusing.
The Antigua Yacht Club is full of mega yachts. some charters are based out of here, not moorings, privately own, 100 footer or better. It was a sight to behold as we were coming in, and last night all the sail boats with tall masts, had on their "red" clearance light and part of the masts illuminated. We understand this is a must even if at a dock. When they anchor, they still have to have their red clearance light. Some sailboats have the top 1/3 of mast painted bright red. The Antigua classic race is up coming April 17 through 24. You should see the amount of classics here...We will attempts to take some pictures this afternoon and post them on the web page.

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