After a wonderful stay in Guyana, and a farewell meal at Hurakabra, the next leg was the 300nm sail to French Guiana and the Maroni river. This was going to be the real test! First up we motored down the river to the entrance, with the tide where we anchored off Roed-en-Rust. We managed to pick up some junk on the anchor which promptly went around the props - so once anchored properly, I had to duck-dive in the current to remove the material blind. Not what we needed!
Next morning, the fleet hauled anchored and motor-sailed towards the exit. There was some trepidation as the eastern entrance is notorious for the piles with nets between them so we were following our path-finder closely.
Once clear of the nets we unfurled the genoa and started sailing. How would the fleet cope with the upwind, up current conditions? We were rather pleased... Although we could not get as close to the wind as the others, our speed made up for it giving us a velocity-made-good which put us at the front of the fleet alongside Piano. We had a cracking 4 day sail to the Maroni river, crossing tacks with Piano many times and we were pretty much always in Radio contact. It meant we could warn each other about fishing nets and boats as well as discussing tactics.
We arrived in the Maroni river 4 days later, and chose to drop anchor in Creek Coswine, as the tides by Awala Yalimapo were very strong. However, we shuttled up and down as the Amerindians were providing a welcome for us there.
The rally programme has us remaining at the mouth for a long time - many days. It took the fleet quite a while to gather. Although Piano, N'Oubliez-Jamais, Eileen of Avoca and us arrived on the same day, with Ocean Rainbow there too (but waiting outside) the wait for the rest of the fleet dragged on.