French Guiana & Visa Trauma

We woke early and sweaty like we had been roasted in our sleep, due to our cabins being hot boxes, walked outside to be greeted by a beautiful anchorage.

Some gorgeous fresh sashimi for lunch, a swim in sparkling green water, no time, no rush, just a lazy day in a salty serenity best of all we do not need to think about next shift 🥰

We do have some new challenges as usual 🤪😳 Eric, myself and Makyla had visa issues in Brazil, now the coin flips and Lester and Angela have to deal with the visa bureaucratic stick, we have this mroning come to the realisation that they will not be allowed to clear into French Guiana nor will they be able to clear in to Surinam, without a visa obtained at the relevant consulate in South Africa. As you all know our plans are ever changing, due to the latest blocker, we will head straight to Trinidad, this is one of the few things in our life right now that is cast in stone now, we know South African passport holders can get in there with no issue.

After that we will head for the ABC Islands, specifically Curaçao, these are in the Caribbean Sea but out of the hurricane belt. We will certainly enjoy some amazing snorkelling and island life with some of the most amazing waters around, although only for a short wile, before heading to Colombia to haul Intle Breeze out of the water. It is time for her to get new anti-foul and a good shine up, in fact we are becoming a little stressed about the anti-foul as we are starting to see the white on her underbelly show through, once again this plan is literally held together by duct tape.

Who knows the next time I write we may be going somewhere completely different, I cannot even keep up with out plans, so not sure if you all can 😂

Just when we thought we had escaped the crazy fishing boats and had some order on the sea, a fishing boat appeared and threw his net so close to us that it drifted under our hull, while we are feeling very relaxed on anchor, of course we try to get him on the VHF no answer .... Not sure why i thought there would be an answer 😡

A little while later a very drunk French fisherman shows up on his ski boat, wanting to have a drink with us, so naturally in true sailor hospitality we welcome him on board, oh my word he was way too rummed up to be on any boat 🤣 although to be fair, he seemed more in control of his boat than himself 🤣

Eventually we try to have a very language broken conversation with him about this net that is now really worrying us, finally he understands and says "They have no VHF radios" 😳 REALLY!?

Lester says well come with me lets go to the fishing boat and we will chat to them "Noooo it is beer time now" says Captain Rum 😂🤣. Eventually after some serious convincing, Lester and Captain Rum hop on his ski boat and off they go to chat to the fisherman, who turned out to be really polite. A few hours later well after dark, they came and very carefully removed their nets with some guidance from Eric and Lester, no harm no foul.

Phew 😅 relieved because there was a sailor about a week ago, that got boarded quite aggressively, for cutting their nets off his boat. So, it goes to show it pays to be kind and considerate to the way others need to earn a living. 

Sunday morning, we made the decision, to lift anchor as we are now aware of having visa problems, next stop Trinidad, we have still not been to land or cleared in anywhere. At this stage we will reach Trinidad on 7 September, that makes this the longest period that we have travelled and not been on land! 15 days, bring it on! 

Off to face the next challenge.