We have safely arrived in Trinidad, but I’d like to report on Kourou, French Guyana.

1. The Authorities do not check on foreign yachts. I tried to do our official check in and was told by the port captain, the “Affaires Maritimes” (department handling maritime issues), and the yacht club manager, to not bother. We were anchored several days next to the customs boat, and nobody cared about our Q flag, so we took it down.

2. The best anchorages are:

– “Iles du Salut”, Baie des Cocotiers, in about 4m of water (try to stay as close to the island “Ile Royale” as possible to avoid the swell that passes between the islands).

– Next to buoy 17 up the river, right in front of the yacht club. Holding is good, but lots of chains is a good practice because of the strong currents. The only problem is the mud, and the current, which makes landing with the dinghy at the small jetty a bit messy.

3. The yacht club is extremely friendly, has a very nice restaurant operating on weekends (often with live music), and shower and laundry facilities are available as part of the package (20 euros/week), which also includes 100 litres of water free (they actually don’t charge below 1000 litres).

4. Yachting supplies are limited, but if you need assistance, and make friends with the yacht club manager (Marc), he’ll find technicians from the space centre to assist.

5. Other supplies are plentiful, albeit expensive. French wine and rum from Martinique (the best) are cheap however, and this is a good source before the expensive Caribbean.

6. Time your arrival to see a rocket launch: it’s AWESOME! There’s one almost every month, and it’s just amazing. Schedule can be found here

Cheers, Olivier

SY Mary Ann