Guadeloupe April 2011

Mary and I set sail for Iles des Saintes on 6 April. The islands are at the southern tip of Guadeloupe and only 20 mile s from Dominica. The anchorage is delightful and well protected from winds in almost any direction. It boasted the best baguette this side of Paris.

A small island known as the sugar loaf had an interesting rock formation which I assume was cooled to form a crystalline structure. The rock formed the end of a very nice little sandy beach where we snorkeled.
For some exercise we walked up a steep hill to a fort overlooking the anchorage. This formidable structure was built in the 1890s and houses a fine museum. One exhibit had model ships displaying the dispositions of the English fleet under Admiral Rodney and the French fleet which was roundly defeated. It must have been quite a set too.

The view of Dominica from the fort was spectacular.




From Iles des Saintes it was a 20nm sail north to St Pierre the main port for Guadeloupe. Here our holiday ended and Mary caught a fast ferry back to Martinique and a flight to London via Paris.

Martinique and Dominica March-April

I set off for Martinique on 1st March in good time for the Carnival and Mary's arrival on 16th. It took me 6 hours to sail the 37 miles to Fort de France. The anchorage is in the lee of Fort Louis but suffers a little from the constant movement of fast ferries plying the various small communities around the bay. Checking in is very simple and is done on a customs computer, in this case located in a chandlery.

The town is one of contrasts with renovated 19th century municipal buildings and some pretty rundown areas as well as some impressive new buildings. The island is a department of France and you can see the obvious advantages of the arrangement. There is a cruise ship dock which is visited frequently by ships from a variety of lines. The town copes with the influx of a couple of thousand visitors without too much trouble.

I made a separate entry for the Carnival. Mary's arrival was delayed a day due to fog and unserviceable aircraft. Air France looked after her well and paid a fair compensation for the inconvenience. We moved the next day to Les Trois Ilets which was a quite anchorage on the south side of the bay. We were the only cruising yacht there. The Empress Josephine was born in the nearby small village. A few days later we moved north with the intention of anchoring at Case Pilotes, a small fishing village halfway to St Pierre but there was too little space for PS so we enjoyed a fine broad reach up to St Pierre.

The town was obliterated in 1902 when the nearby volcano exploded killing 30,000 people. Two souls escaped, one of whom was a prisoner in a dungeon who was found 4 days later badly burned. We hired a car and drove near to the summit of the volcano and from this lofty perch it was possible to see both the Atlantic and the Caribbean with only a slight turn of the head. The island has excellent roads and is well cultivated with large plantations of bananas and sugar cane. Significant areas of rain forest remain. On this trip we managed to take in a banana museum, a rum distillery and a 15 kilometer drive along a track through the rain forest.

The crossing to Dominica was typical for the island chain with impressive seas and accelerated winds off the headlands. We picked up a buoy off Roseau and checked in. Not a great deal to say about the place except that it boasts a fine botanical garden and the most rolly anchorage I have experienced. A couple of days later we headed for Portsmouth which nestles in Prince Rupert Bay some 20 miles north of Roseau.

Just had to include this sign high up on a remote track.

Taking the advice of a local sage we engaged the services of a registered guide who goes by the name of Fire to take us up the Indian River. He was excellent giving us "extras" such as a walk through forest and small farms where avocardo, cinamon, grapefruit and other exotic trees were identified. A lot of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed up the river. His home, which we were invited to, is in the village where the oldest person in the world lived to be 128 years. On the walk we met an Amerindian who were the very first people to settle the island. He kindly allowed me to photograph him and the difference between him and the rest of the population is very obvious. The government allows them to have land free on the basis they were there first!

The crab rests his claw close to or in the water waiting for the unwary to pass by. If this fellow gets a grip of you, you are in deep trouble.

Only about 80,000 people live on Dominica and it is covered in pristine rain forest. We took a taxi to the Syndicate Estate high up in the hills and walked a mile or so through the rain forest to Milton falls. It was a wonderful experience.

Some of my favourite fruit in production.

Most of the ships beached in Prince Rupert Bay are of Venezualian origin and the government promises to come and remove the ships which were blown ashore by hurricanes. They don't seem to be in a hurry to complete the task.

We greatly enjoyed our stay on this beautiful island whose people were friendly and generous.

Martinique Carnival

The carnival lasted 4 days with different colour themes for each day. It was very well organised with lots of wonderful food stalls to keep people going. Thousands of people came to enjoy themselves and were very well behaved. I never saw a sign of a policeman. By morning the streets were all cleaned. Entering into the spirit I dressed Plane Song overall for the occasion. Hope you enjoy a sample of the pictures I took.

St Lucia February 2011

During my 3rd stay in this lovely part of the Caribbean I have used the opportunity to continue essential maintenance and enjoy the company of friends made along the way. Plane Song has plenty of exterior teak which I have chosen to keep varnished. It's not too arduous a task but it does require regular attention. Suprisingly, the cockpit coaming, companionway hatch and wash boards had their last coat in the UK more than 18 months ago and now only need freshing up.

This rather spindly calabash tree produces fruit nearly the size of a football but the fruit is of no use to man nor beast. The gourd on the other hand is made ino all sorts of useful utensils

When Mary was aboard last year we had supper at a marina side restaurant and both suffered severe food poisoning. We were offered a free meal after I complained but neither of us felt brave enough to take up the offer when we had revovered several days later. During my recent stay I got to know the owner and as he remembered the incident I had dinner with him at half price with a lot of good wine thrown in-I thought it fair to offer half the cost given the time since we were poisoned. We were joined by his cousin whom he described as the Richard Branson of St Lucia. He owned an estate and an exclusive resort on the east coast frequented by the very rich and famous. A small group provided music and of course the singer turned out to be good friends of them both. She was very good and reminded me of Cleo Lane-my opinion of her talent was highly valued as my wife is an opera singer! It was a memorable evening.

However, this little corner of paradise has for me begun to loose it's appeal. Ashore at the marina I was plagued by reggae music played at unbelievably loud volume opposite my berth by a local water taxi. If this wasn't enough a charter organisation flushed diesel tanks from a catamaran upwind, spreading fuel on the water and doing this three days on the trot. My complaints to the marina had no effect.

Much more significantly than this was the unruley behaviour at the anchorage. Rodney Bay is a large bay upwards of a mile wide with lovely sandy beaches. Unlike the rest of the Grenadines, jet skiis are not banned and flourish, hired out to holiday makers who drive them at top speed amongst the yachts at anchor. They pass close by unaware that yachts swing at anchor and that their occupants like to have a swim now and then. Add to this water taxies and other local craft travelling through the anchorage at high speed and you have an accident waiting to happen. The bay has lost its appeal as an anchorage and for me it will be a brief stop over in future if need be. Ideas are afoot to charge for anchoring and if carried out will certainly drive away the cruising community.

Bequia to St Lucia February 2011

During most of our stay in Admiralty Bay the wind had been strong especially at night and in rain squalls. The topography of the bay accelerated the normal trade winds and at times it was uncomfortable when a swell developed.

Just before leaving I took a ferry to Kingstown, the main city and principle port of St Vincent. The chief attraction was the botanical gardens, although not very large it boasts some fine specimen trees.

As it rained for most of my visit, I spent time looking round the cathedral and the newly restored Methodist church. Sadly the cathedral has suffered a severe attack by termites. Most of the buildings were poor examples of modern architecture but the Police HQ had some character about it. Looked to me like it was built London bricks not doubt originally brought over as ballast. There is a fine covered market with a wonderful choice of fruit, vegetables and spices. For the equivalent of £1-20 I purchased a bag of around 30 nutmegs. Most of the fresh produce in the Grenadines comes from St Vincent.

We made an early start for the passage north with the anchor up and stowed by 0515. The channels between Bequia and St Vincent and St Vincent and St Lucia are both noted in the local guide as potentially hazardous. With 2 channels to cross in one day, I decided to leave the decision to sail the windward or leeward coasts of St Vincent until I could see the conditions. Conditions were at best marginal but a threatening large rain squall made the lee side the obvious choice.

It was possible to sail most of the length of St Vincent enjoying spectacular views of a very green island. Within 5 miles of the northern tip the large volcano which dominates the end of the island started to accelerate the wind and build up the seas. This is the price for taking the lee coast. Conditions were very rough for the next 6 to 7 miles and then gradually eased as the influence of the land diminished. Once in the lee of St Lucia the last few miles sailed to the Pitons were a delight. With the help of half a dozen boat boys we picked up a buoy and secured a line ashore round a tree in the Shadow of Petit Piton.

Next morning we made a detour round the bay before heading north to see the extent of the damage from hurricane Tomas which from the sea didn't look much. However, we were told that 20 people had died in the mud slides and quite a few of them had not been recovered. The passage north to Rodney Bay was mostly fine on the wind with a NE swell.

I decided to berth in the marina so that I could complete a number of jobs best tackled alongside. In any case, it is always nice to have power and hot water and to be able to boil an electric kettle. Just some of life's simple pleasures we tent to take for granted. It also enabled me to watch the opening games of the 6 nations rugby!

Largely because I changed my plan to head for Panama and the San Blas islands, Geva my current crew decided to try to find a boat heading in that direction. Eventually, she decided to fly to Curacao where she thought her chances of finding a boat heading west were much better than here in St Lucia. I have also decided, provided I can find experienced crew, I will now head for the Azores, rather than see out the hurricane season in the ABC islands. So now I am actively seeking crew for the Atlantic crossing to join me after Mary's holiday which ends in April. It will be lovely for us to have PS to ourselves for a month to explore Martinique and Dominica.

In the meantime, I have enjoyed dinner aboard with friends and returning hospitality on PS. I'm using the time in St Lucia to spruce up the varnish work in what must be the best possible conditions.